Project FREELANCER (AAO)

Project FREELANCER was an offshoot of the SPARTAN-II Program which utilized the melding of biological augmentation and powered exoskeleton technology to create elite soldiers. Managed by the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence, FREELANCER incorporated methods used in the SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III Programs and was one of many side projects intended to refine those methods for future endeavors. Though the program fell apart following the exposure of Director Leonard Church's ulterior motives, it yielded valuable results which aided in the development of the SPARTAN-IV Program. Following the end of the Human-Covenant War, most of the operatives generated by the program were dead or in UNSC custody, though several remained unaccounted for.