Project JAVELIN (Ultrakat66)

"These children have no choice other than war. They'll be treated as assets, expendable. I cannot partake in thi--"
"You will, Dugan, and you'll do it without question. If we had the resources, the time, then I would gladly offer another choice. But we don't have any more options, and the war with the Covenant needs everything that humanity can spare. I'm sorry, 001."
-An exchange between ONI agent Yuri Petrenko, and Dugan-001Project JAVELIN was an attempt by the Office of Naval Intelligence to create enhanced human individuals to assist the UNSC war effort. The brainchild of Lieutenant Commander Yuri Petrenko, who viewed the previous SPARTAN-II and III programs as insufficient, JAVELIN was unique in that it did not use naturally born, physically augmented humans, but genetically engineered, artificially created children as its operatives. While JAVELIN was technically a success, thanks to the cost of the program, no new JAVELINS were produced past the first six.
The program was headed by Petrenko himself, Marie Srona acted as geneticist, and SPARTAN-II Dugan-001, who served served as the trainer. The trio eventually came to view the trainees as their children, with Dugan being especially protective of them. This protectiveness later led Dugan to resent ONI for what they had done to him and the JAVELINS, and later conspired against the UNSC as revenge for their disregard of the lives of him and his children.
== History ==
=== Genesis ===
The idea for Project JAVELIN was conceived in 2537, by Lieutenant Commander Yuri Petrenko of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Petrenko had observed the impacts of both the SPARTAN-II and III programs, viewing them as great successes. At the same time, however, Petrenko felt that the SPARTANs had a major flaw: They were human. They remembered a life before the military, and, as loyal as they were, SPARTANs were not infallible. Additionally, Petrenko felt as though six years of age, while young, was not the ideal age to start training. By his logic, a soldier could be far more effective if they were trained from birth, essentially raised as a piece of military hardware. While most within ONI would not advocate going that far, Petrenko's idea was of interest to Admiral Margaret Parangosky, who was ultimately the one who approved the project. Parangosky was of the view that any advantage, even the most minute, could be of enormous value to the UNSC, no matter what the cost.
=== Inception ===
Work on Project JAVELIN officially commenced on March 17th, 2538, though the preparation for the project had been ongoing for some months beforehand. Petrenko was assigned a small team, consisting of the geneticist Marie Srona, and the somewhat aloof SPARTAN-II Dugan-001. Assigned as a lab station, and home, for the time being, was a Razor-class Prowler, the UNSC Endless Whispers. The crew of Whispers were drafted from low-ranking Naval Intelligence officers, all of whom had been moved from menial desk jobs, and were effectively considered expendable. Only a small unit of 9 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were assigned as ship security, and the Whispers had effectively been removed from all records.
With all of this accomplished, the project began. Srona began looking over hundreds of granted genetic samples, all of which had been taken from members of the UNSC military that ONI had deemed ideal. With the assistance of a "Dumb" AI specifically designed for lab work, Srona selected 12 ideal samples, all of which were then altered in order to bring out the best aspects of all of their donors, as well as removing any genetic diseases. These samples were then used to create 6 embryos, which were embedded into devices that would effectively act as artificial wombs. Once the embryos were embedded, Srona added a mixture of hormones to the embryotic fluid in order to influence further development within the growing cells. After completion of this task, Srona merely proceeded to wait, ordering the AI to look over the fetuses, and inform her of any further development.
=== Birth and Training ===
On December 23rd, 2538, the JAVELIN fetuses grew to full development, and were removed from their artificial wombs. They were placed in oxygenation tanks, each of which contained an aerosolised cocktail of hormones in order to influence the development of their newborn brains.