: From a storytelling perspective, you can also go the other way. You can
: easily say that some of the augments require the puberty process to take.
: So, if you're going to turn adults into supersoldiers, you need to go with
: fewer or less effective augments.

: That, to me, would make for a more powerful discussion. In the coming wars,
: is our need for an edge so great that we can justify kidnapping children?

I like that suggestion!

: Said background led to defection and imprisonment in both Orion and the
: Spartan IV program.

The Twos also faced their fair share of unwilling candidates and bad apples: Daisy, Ralph, and Soren being three such examples.

: Two things: One, assuming that the genetic requirements still hold, you'll be
: working with a smaller candidate pool. You're no longer searching the
: general population for individuals with the physiology to survive
: augmentation, you're searching the Special Operations community for
: individuals with these rare genes. Good luck building a battalion.

What I meant by candidate pool reflected the thought that such narrow demands for candidacy have been either discarded or have been made absolute by advanced practices.

: And yes, I know that the Spartan III program had looser genetic tolerances.
: They were suicide troops. Being able to live for five years after the
: augments probably wasn't in the search criteria.

Noble managed to maintain their health long after their respective companies perished. I'm not sure Parangosky would have Gamma and other remaining threes join Spartan Branch if their augmentations would lead to severe complication.

: Two, while spending years as a meatsack on the front lines does bring about
: useful skills, there's got to be advantages to being trained for combat
: during your most formative years.

Absolutely! In my experience alone, I don't believe I would have been such an adept hunter or marksman had my father not taught me and my siblings at such a young age. However, my advantage, and those of the Fours, is that they weren't strictly trained just to kill.

Augmented troops of Spartan Branch presumably come from a variety of backgrounds throughout the military. Many might have been in Army cavalry and provide Spartan Branch with a basis to form mobile scouting units. Others are signals intelligence experts, show amazing prowess with a Warthog or Pelican engine and a wrench, or could infiltrate a rebel organization without the aid of armor remaining undetected. That's not even considering the experience these individuals faced in their childhood and adolescence. I'm sure you can go up to any infantryman or special operations trooper today and you'll find few who can only contribute to the battle with a rifle, bayonet, and grenades.

: Economies of scale do not automatically make something affordable. If
: equipping the Spartan IIs with their MJOLNIR was on par with building a
: carrier group, building that same armor for five hundred Spartans does not
: make it any cheaper.

Please pardon my lack of basic economical facts. :)

I would figure that the manufacturing processes for the second generation of MJOLNIR has been refined to allow for ease of assembly, especially when private industry is contracted by a government more than willing to fund more Spartan programs.