Corbulo Academy of Military Science: Difference between revisions

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"Axios!"

— Corbulo Academy motto (Greek for "I am worthy.")

Academy insignia

Corbulo Academy of Military Science (CAMS) was an officer training school of the United Nations Space Command located on the colony of Circinius IV; its superintendent was General Black.^[1] Active during the height of the Insurrection, Corbulo Academy trained the children of high-ranking officials within the government and military to become commissioned officers of the UNSC Defense Force; despite this, many of the cadets came from colonial backgrounds. The academy was named after the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, who was said to represent the values of honor, valor and allegiance expected of the cadets.^[2]

Description

A general view of Corbulo Academy.

Corbulo Academy of Military Science stood atop a mountain within a wooded region on Circinius IV; the surroundings of the school were used as training grounds. The main complex of the academy followed the UNSC's characteristic design aesthetic, closely reminiscent of the 20th-century style known as Brutalist architecture, being composed of angular, low-rise concrete structures, walkways and spacious plazas with minimalist decoration in form of pools of water and carefully managed greenery. The academy's central building rested on a series of support pillars and enclosed a quadrangle containing a park with a decorative pool. The academy campus was dominated by a space elevator that stood in the middle of the buildings and was used for ferrying personnel and cargo from surface to orbit. The facility also contained several massive communications dishes and a number of large vertical-axis wind turbines for power generation. Playing fields and other open training areas were located just outside the main complex of buildings.

The cadets bunked in two-person rooms, whose interior decoration followed the minimalist design of the rest of the school. These rooms were equipped with holographic data terminals which were commonly used for accessing messages from relatives or browsing news reports, among other activities. Many walls within the academy were adorned with the academy's insignia as well as other UNSC symbols or propaganda posters. Corbulo Academy made heavy use of the poem "Forward Unto Dawn" for propaganda purposes; the line "From Earth, For Earth" was displayed as a slogan in UNSC banners across the academy and the poem itself was inscribed over the cadets' beds in the school's dormitories. A somewhat anachronistic statue of the school's namesake wielding an MA5 series assault rifle was located next to the pool within the academy's central courtyard.

History

Attacked

An outdoor walkway strewn with debris and bodies after the attack.

Main article: Battle at Corbulo Academy

During the opening days of the Human-Covenant War circa 2526, ONI Section II kept the Covenant invasion secret from a large portion of the general population; this included Corbulo Academy's cadets and most of the school's personnel, although General Black was informed. As preparation for a possible attack, Black discreetly increased the readiness of the UNSC Marine garrison posted in the academy and authorized limited communications blackouts under the guise of routine maintenance procedures.

Not long after, the school came under attack by the Covenant, with at least three heavy corvettes descending over the campus and one of them destroying the academy's space elevator, halting the ongoing evacuation effort. Teams of Marine Orbital Drop Shock Troopers dropped in to the academy grounds to reinforce the locally stationed Marines, with the Spartan supersoldiers John-117, Kelly-087, Frederic-104 later arriving to support the academy's defense. Corbulo's officer cadets and the local Marine guard were caught off-guard by this attack, which resulted in the deaths of virtually all the students and personnel stationed at the academy, save for three survivors rescued by Blue Team. The Academy itself was completely destroyed when the planet was glassed after the attack.^[3]

Customs

Uniforms and grooming standards

Three cadets in the white service uniform.

For "everyday" occasions such as classes and personal time, the cadets at Corbulo Academy wear a white service uniform featuring a similar cut to the Navy's officer service dress. It is a relatively simple uniform compared to the advanced uniforms seen in use by the active-duty forces, though incorporates a professional appearance and a moderate aspect of utility for field use. As with many uniforms throughout the UNSC military, there are no distinctions between the uniforms worn by male and female cadets. The uniform is a form-fitting ensemble and does not include any known headdress. The tunic's main feature, a large carbon gray section, runs the length of the uniform and attaches to the seem, with two brass-colored zippers on each side. Positioned on the hips and attached at the abdomen is a large adjustable belt with two buckles on each side of the tunic. Cadet rank insignia consisting of small black lozenges (diamond-shapes) are placed on the right side of a low-profile "standing collar;" the lozenges represent each year of the four-year education the future officer receives. A simplified black insignia of Corbulo Academy is placed on the left breast while a patch featuring the individual cadet's last name is positioned parallel with the top edge of the academy insignia. The trousers for the white service dress, featuring large black sections within the insides of the legs, have no visible utility function like the tunic. Polished black combat boots are the assigned footwear for the service uniform.

For combat training exercises, a pale khaki brown version of the uniform is worn, replacing the dark carbon grey section on the tunic and utilizing another pair of trousers in the lighter color. A training variant of the standard body armor can be worn over this uniform. Somewhat smaller, lighter, and providing less coverage than the standard armor, the training armor carries the Academy's emblem on the chest plate, and features a Pouch Attachment Ladder System on the stomach and back sections of the armor. It provides torso and upper and lower limb protection, and featured shoulder pauldrons similar to the later-introduced M52B body armor.^[4]

Two shirts can be worn underneath the white service uniform. Most cadets wear a dark olive green t-shirt with a white academy insignia on the left breast and "CAMS," the academy's formal name abbreviation, written on the back; senior cadets wear a light azure blue variant while juniors and sophomores wear a medium/dark scarlet variant. This shirt can be worn separate of the tunic as personal wear and presumably for physical training and other rigorous activities. For stays in cryostasis, a skin-tight carbon black suit featuring the cadet's last name on the collar is available, featuring a similar diagonal line pattern as the removable tunic panel and fits snug onto the body. For personal time in the dorms, cadets wear black trousers emblazoned with the "CAMS" initials on the upper left thigh. A black sports bra with white piping underneath the bust is issued to female cadets.

Hair is worn in a conservative manner as is custom in most UNSC units. Males are seen with a traditional "military cut," with the hair evenly cut from the base to the top only exceeding a centimeter at the most. Sideburns are kept neatly trimmed, un-flared, and the base is a clean, horizontal line not exceeding the bottom of the earlobes. Males are not permitted to accrue excessive amounts of facial hair and are expected to be clean shaven. Though they may retain longer hair, while in uniform, females are required to maintain a hair style that does not exceed the top edge of the collar with most opting to wear their hair in braids or cornrows.

Personnel

Freshmen cadets in the dormitory.
From left to right: Lasky, Chen, Silva, Sullivan, Vickers, Tchakova, two unidentified cadets, and Shere.

Staff

General Black — Superintendent/headmaster
Colonel K. L. Mehaffey — Professor
Lieutenant Hughes — Doctor
Beamish — Janitor
Orlin — Artificial intelligence

Cadets

Class of 2526

The Senior, fourth year, class of Corbulo Academy in the 2525-2526 year

April Orenski — Squad leader, Hastati Squad

Class of 2527

The Junior, third year, class of Corbulo Academy in the 2525-2526 year

Class of 2529

The Freshman, first year, class of Corbulo Academy in the 2525-2526 year

Junjie Chen — Hastati Squad
Kaye — Hastati Squad
Thomas Lasky — Hastati Squad
Shere — Hastati Squad
Chyler Silva — Hastati Squad
Michael Sullivan — Hastati Squad
Dimah Tchakova — Hastati Squad
Walter Vickers — Hastati Squad
Dyer
Fraser
Schultz
Taylor

Class unknown

Verrelli — Zuma Squad
Moulder — Zuma Squad
Newton — Zuma Squad
Foster

Production notes

While a fictional setting within the Halo universe, Corbulo Academy was filmed on-location at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[5] SFU is a popular filming location for many notable science fiction series such as Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Galactica and served as a principal location for production of Forward Unto Dawn.

Gallery

Black and white uniform patch insignia.
The statue of General Corbulo in the academy's courtyard.
The school complex seen from a distance.
Hastati Squad runs through the CAMS courtyard during an exercise. The statue of the school's namesake can be seen on the foreground.
Cadet Thomas Lasky salutes to Gen Black's passing Warthog outside the school. A team of Marines stand guard nearby.
Cadet Thomas Lasky brooding near the space elevator of the complex.
A group of cadets gathered around a holo-table during a lecture on tactics.
Hastati Squad members in training.
The school's mess hall.
An overhead view of the academy complex.
A stairway within the academy.
Cadets Lasky and Silva walking along a walkway within the academy complex.
A view of the central complex.
The structures of the academy as seen from the slopes of the mountain the complex stands on.
An SDV-class heavy corvette destroying the school's space elevator.
Corbulo Academy is glassed by the Covenant in the aftermath of the battle.