: It's interesting there's no hunting of the truth about it either. I mean, the
: Chief is the star so going into his background is the point, and the
: Spartan IIIs don't have the whole doomed clone angle and they weren't
: taken away from anyone and the threat was much bigger, but seemingly all
: of the other nefarious stuff that went into the S-IIs went into the
: S-IIIs. On top of that they were considered somewhat expendable and
: fittingly had less training, lower-quality gear, a higher rate of mental
: (and physical?) issues, and very high casualties-- in some ways it was a
: more immoral program than Spartan II. Also depending on how it was
: explained and what was leaked you could get people asking about a
: "Spartan I" or "just plain Spartan" program, which
: could lead to information on the Orion program.

For all they know it could just be random numbering. Special operations forces often times won't be established with sequential numbers to make it appear as if there are more units than what can be substantiated by records and surveillance. Maybe ONI hides behind that as cover for the Spartans. There are a few other simple covers too. Like the first and third generations being experimental, prototype, or test phases in Spartan development that didn't lead to fully operational combat forces.