OMGWTF Read the whole damn thread before you post, I'm seeing A LOT of unnecessary posts here, that are very wrong. Fastforward has everything right. ALSO, Halopedia
Think how many Halo fans there are that haven't read the books- There are FAR more than those that have. If they printed in the manual, you'd get all these people asking the same questions. The manual is a rough guide, and can easily be incorrect, unless the manual was written by someone like the dude writing the Halo Encyclopedia. --EDIT: Making spartans is an incredibly strenuous project, which costs alot, and has a high chance (early stages) of a loss of life... Then they touched up the system so less were killed during augmentation, however they were no where near as efficent as the originals, but it still takes many years.
That, and LOOK AT THE LAST POST DATE! This thread's last post before being brought back was November '08 The topic was covered (by me, thanks for the acknowledgment, don't get it much). To answer the only question worth answering in the recent post... The creation of Spartans requires very specific DNA markers in young kids. Of those very few, there is a very high "failure" rate by which I mean death by the enhancement process used to make the kids already heightened reflexes and strength nearly super human. It's a VERY high risk for a high reward. That and it costs a lot for the UNSC to produce everything required to make the very difficult enhancements used in the process.
They want to give the player the role of being the known last spartan. They want you to become the charicter so that your game experiance can be enhanced. It is like Bungie's version of Viagra
You need the right kind of people to turn into spartans. Each one of them have to perfectly fit the genetic requirements to go through training and augmentation. During the augmentation process, the chance a spartan 2 had to survive was 44%, which is why the program started off with 75 canidates and after augmentations finished up with 33.
So... I take they aren't genetically engineered, but more-so augmented. Perhaps the fates of the other SPARTANS will be revealed in ODST? And what planet that was at the end of the Legendary campaign, could it be Onyx? Halopedia says otherwise...
First, no, the fate of the rest of the Spartan won't be revealed in ODST. ODST will be strictly focusing on the ODST Rookie and that squad. It isn't a space opera like Halo 1-3 is. Second, no one knows what the planet in the Legendary ending is. We all have ideas but nothing certain. Though you are right, Scobra, to a point, the fate past entering the Dyson Sphere is unknown which is what I think Battle was eluding to.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think SPARTANs Kelly-087, Linda-058, and Fredric-104 are still alive, currently on the shield world of Onyx with Dr. Hasley. There are a number of SPARTAN IIIs with them, but I'm not sure of their names, it could be possible that they're brought into the next Halo game is 343 Industries decides to make one, but we'll have to wait and see. If you want to find out more about the SPARTAN II soldiers go to this link... SPARTAN-II Program - Halopedia, the Halo Wiki - Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, and more close to the bottom there is a list of the SPARTANs that survived the augmentations during their training. Remember Reach
Gray team, The Spartan team on Harvest, and Blue Team, are all active Spartan-lls in cannon. Spartan-llls, the entirety of Gamma group is unknown, however, 3 of the S3s are with Blue team, with a few more in cryostasis. The most accurate argument I have heard is "Master Chief is the last Spartan able to fight at 'x'" as two of the above S-ll groups are on shield worlds, and the others no one knows the location of. It isn't like "Oh, hai covyz, can you wait a few weeks while we recall some Spartans? No? Well, OK glass our planet than!"
Nobody knows exactly what happened to the Spartans on Reach, most died but few got off. Like I said, we will have to wait and see...
I've read only a couple of the books but from what I can gather even just from the games, the spartans in halo wars (although not particularly "in line" with the halo series") are surely alive, but stuck in space, drifting slowly back to earth in cryosleep, after giving up the FTL drive from the SOF, right? And Jun escapes reach, but is probably killed defending halsey? Hell even Six could still be alive, you never actually see him DIE as such. And as has been said like a bazillion times, yes the other spartan groupings from the groups who are stranded. But does anyone has any info on the Halo Wars/Jun theories??