Diamond Initiative

The Diamond Initiative was a ONI Section 3 project directed by Darren Cohen. The Initiative had two particular objectives with differing goals. The first was to create a battalion size, combined force of both standard UNSC soldiers and operatives, with Spartan soldiers acting as officers and specialists. The second, was to use this force to capture and study non-standard alien/xeno-technology.

The Initiative, though approved and funded by ONI, had trouble meeting it's initial goal due to Cohen's lack of access to Spartan soldiers, and thus stalled for five years before meeting Ackerson. The Initiative, in many ways, was a sub-project of Colonel Ackerson's SPARTAN-III program, and is seldom referenced after the creation DIAMOND Team in 2545, the Initiatives subsequent augmentation. The Diamond Initiative as it had been planned was virtually over after Operation: RAUCOUS SOLITUDE, due to major loss of Spartan personnel.

Manifestation
The Office of Naval Intelligence had given the Diamond Initiative a green light as early as 2531, but it's creation precedes that. The project was coined and created by ONI Officer Darren Cohen at least by 2529 after his ascension to the rank of Rear Admiral, an oddly high rank for an individual at the age of of 19.

Early in his Naval enlistment, Cohen was injured in the line of duty and became an ONI operative. Along with developing weak muscles in his legs, Cohen's muscles in his diaphragm were completely paralyzed and one of his lungs had to be replaced. Cohen felt slighted at his injuries, and turned his frustration in focus on his new position within the intelligence agency. Mere years into his tenure, ONI saw fit to continually promote Cohen until in 2529 he reached Rear Admiral, making him a leading element in ONI Section 3.

Cohen had always had a vested interest in the Spartan Program, but also recognized the tremendous cost in training them. Drawing from his own time as a soldier, he devised his first major directive code-named "Carbon". It was during planning stages that "Carbon" was given it's second objective by Admiral Margaret Parangosky: xeno-technological recovery and discovery. Once funded in 2531, Cohen coined the project as the Diamond Initiative, and began gathering together personnel and planning targets for his strike-force.

Review and Subsequent Stalling
Though given a green light, Cohen would be denied access to SPARTAN-II Class I operatives, stalling the program. ONI review boards had been lobbied by none-other than Dr.Catherine Halsey, and it was decided in review that Cohen's project must wait for a second class of SPARTAN-II's. It's assumed that, at least stemming from this event, Cohen then-on perceived an adversarial relation with Halsey.

Halsey had argued against spreading the existing Spartan teams thin, and made a point that the tremendous work they had already accomplished. She made a point most of their success was found as teams, and splitting them up may reduce their effectiveness. She also cited the plan to increase Spartan ranks, which would allow for more specialized projects in the future.

Due to his lack of access to Spartan soldiers, Cohen's project funding was reduced for years and remained strictly in concept phases. It was only later when Cohen learned of the SPARTAN-III program that he would meet with Colonel Ackerson to revitalize his plans.

Revitalization and AI Fluellen
After Ned Rich introduced Cohen and Ackerson in 2537, the Diamond Initiative was revitalized. Ackerson had set parameters for Spartan use, allowing for 20-40 to be reassigned after they had "completed" their training. The time frame for the program slated for these Spartans to come from Beta Company. Officially, only 300 Beta Company initiates would be augmented, but this number was raised so that the Diamond Initiative operatives would not offset the final desired company numbers by Kurt Ambrose. ONI records do not account for the increase in Spartan augmentations, but it's suspected Cohen had spent a majority of the Diamond Initiative's budget to access to these super soldiers, and thus it was likely an off the books arrangement.

By 2542 Cohen and his staff had reduced their potential choices from Beta Company to fifty Spartans. Early that same year, Cohen decided to invest another large portion of the project's funds in the creation of a state-of-the-art Third Generation "Smart" AI. Cohen and staff would spend the rest of 2542 searching for UNSC Retirees who would be willing to use their brain as a basis for the AI. Ultimately, five individuals—all much older, former UNSC officers—allowed to have instances of their brain copied for use in the creation of the AI. Cohen's ambition and direction culminated in the concept of having all these individual instances melded into one Riemann matrix. After a tremendous amount of work from a team of ONI specialists, AI Fluellen was created on April 23, 2543.

Fluellen would immediately be isolated from all but select staff of the project, and would not meet or learn of Darren Cohen for years. Fluellen was designated to reach a final desired list of operatives, and then see that they were directed in a manner such as to maintain their desired skills. He would ultimately decide on the final list of 32 Spartans. Interestingly, he changed the manner of selection from an individual basis to one emphasizing teamwork. Of the original list of 50 individuals Cohen had selected, Fluellen had selected only seven and maintained that Teams November, Golf, and Oscar be assigned to the Initiative. Cohen would adopt this plan in late 2544.

In January of 2545 the three Spartan teams were officially reassigned to ONI and briefed on the intention of the Diamond Initiative. From January to March of 2545 Cohen worked closely with other ONI officials to devise targets to strike. It was decided that the first mission would be an exclusive Spartan mission before ONI would search for five-hundred operatives to build the strike force for deployment in the following year.

Operation: RAUCOUS SOLITUDE
With a Spartan contingent readily available, Cohen decided to put the teams on the ground as they were initially trained. ONI had yet to gather the requested five-hundred soldiers to man the strike force, and Cohen refused to have Spartans sit by while the war continued to rage. He and staff worked to devise a mission which would precede another Spartan SpecOp the following month. The target, though, would be to recover data on specific alien technology.

Based off sparse data collected from the ONI signal corps and Section One data, Cohen's chosen target was a "Slip-Space communications relay". The Area of Operations was in the distant Billar Pavonis system on a moon designated Billar Pavonis 4A. The technology on 4A was deemed an extremely valuable target and was likely a part of a larger Covenant communications relay.

Though the parameters of the Operation would be met and completed with the recovery of data from the Forerunner artifact "Guiding Light", the completion came at a cost of most all of the Spartan Operatives.