Chyler Silva

Template:Character Infobox

"As soon as I lose a bruise, another one appears. And that's the way it should be. They're like little purple merit badges that mean you're doing a good job. Because it shouldn't be easy to be a soldier. It should be difficult. And that's what makes it such a great job. That's what makes me proud to be training to do this. It's because it is hard. And that means that the end result is gonna be something to be proud of."

— Chyler Silva on her training at Corbulo Academy^[1]

Chyler Silva was an officer cadet of the UNSC Defense Force. She attended Corbulo Academy of Military Science during the early years of the Human-Covenant War as part of the class of 2529.

Biography

Early life and education

Chyler Silva grew up on Cygnus. Chyler and her family later moved to Mamore,^[2] a colony world where violence between Insurrectionists and UNSC supporters was a common occurrence.^[3] As a result, even civilians like herself were forced to learn how to protect themselves from a young age. For example, Chyler's mother taught her how to hold a rifle when she was ten years of age. In preparation for emergencies, her father would often race Chyler and her brother Grayson to a local bomb shelter and he would allow them to stay up half an hour past bedtime if they beat him. Her cousin's school became the target of a rebel bombing when she was around ten years of age, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of children.^[1] Both of her parents were UNSC military and eventually died in battle against rebels.^[4]

Developing a strong personal sense of duty to the UNSC, Silva intended to become a soldier like her parents and she attended Corbulo Academy as a freshman cadet of the class of 2529. Assigned to Hastati Squad under the leadership of Senior Cadet April Orenski, she took her education with particular enthusiasm, scoring top marks in training exercises. Although most other members of Hastati Squad berated Thomas Lasky for his poor performance in combat exercises and not taking his training seriously, Silva continuously attempted to encourage him to become a better soldier. As a result of her background, she was not convinced by Lasky's pacifism, maintaining that military action by the UNSC was the only way to end the war. Silva's efforts eventually paid off, with Lasky volunteering to lead the squad during a Capture the Flag exercise and devising an ingenious tactical maneuver which allowed Hastati Squad to catch Zuma Squad completely by surprise. While Hastati Squad was victorious, with Silva playing a major part in the assault on the opposing team's flag, Lasky passed out before the exercise was over.

Concerned for Lasky's condition, Silva later came to check on him. After a brief conversation between the two, Cadet Michael Sullivan called them over to view a classified recording displaying UNSC troops joining forces with insurrectionists to fight unknown hostiles. Silva was greatly bewildered by this revelation and she later retreated outside the academy to ponder on its implications. While there, she was joined by Thomas, who revealed that he had been offered the choice to be discharged from the academy on medical grounds. Visibly distraught, Silva told Lasky that she would miss him if he chose to leave and the two shared a kiss.

Covenant attack

Silva using a Covenant Carbine.

Main article: Fall of Circinius IV

When the Covenant invaded Corbulo Academy, Hastati Squad was to be evacuated via the Academy's space elevator. However, after the Covenant's destruction of the tether, the squad was caught in the battle between UNSC Marines and Covenant forces. The squad attempted to escape to the Academy's armory, which resulted in the deaths of cadets Junjie Chen and Walter Vickers at the hands of an active camouflaged Sangheili Zealot. However, the Zealot was killed by SPARTAN Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. John, who had arrived with SPARTAN-II Blue Team to assist in the evacuation of Corbulo Academy, revealed that the surviving members of Hastati Squad - Silva, Lasky, Orenski and Sullivan - were among the few surviving humans left on the entire planet.

As the Spartan led them to an evacuation point, Silva began to break down under the stress of combat. However, when the Master Chief asked who in the squad was the best marksman, Lasky recommended Silva. John-117 escorted them outside and ordered Silva and Orenski to cover Lasky as he commandeered General Black's Warthog to allow them to escape to the extraction zone. During the engagement, Silva ran out of ammunition and had to make use of a discarded Covenant Type-51 Carbine, and proved to be quite proficient with the weapon.^[5]

Death

The needle embedded in Silva's stomach.

"It's okay, Tom. I'm sorry."

— Silva's last words.

During the squad's escape from the Academy in Black's Warthog, Silva provided cover fire for the rest of the squad from the Warthog's side seat. Using short controlled bursts from her assault rifle, she killed two Kig-Yar. However, just as the Warthog had cleared the combat zone, they crashed into a lone Kig-Yar and were forced to stop. It was during this lull in the fighting that Silva realized she'd been hit in the stomach by a Needler shard (possibly when the vehicle crashed into the Kig-Yar, causing it to randomly discharge its Needler). The other cadets carried Silva to a small UNSC field depot in the forest while the Chief remained behind to fight a Hunter. Having spent the last of their biofoam on Sullivan's injury, they attempted to numb Silva's pain with the contents of a tactical training round. However, this proved ineffective and she succumbed to her wound shortly afterwards. Before dying, she removed her dog tags and gave them to Lasky. Lasky stayed beside her until another Hunter approached and the squad was forced to leave her corpse behind. Distraught over her death, Lasky volunteered to bait the Hunter, allowing the Chief to kill the creature. Lasky was strongly affected by her death and kept her dog tags with him for over thirty years afterwards.^[6]

Personality and traits

Silva reading news articles on her comm terminal.

A resolute and highly competent cadet, Chyler Silva maintained a modest, collected outlook and took a serious approach to her training. Both her upbringing and her firsthand experience of the harsh reality of the Insurrection had led her to becoming wholly loyal to the UNSC, whilst despising the Insurrectionists, who she maintained were the ones responsible for the ongoing violence and forced the UNSC to fight a war many considered morally questionable. Driven largely by the will to protect innocents, she considered the UNSC as the only hope for bringing peace; she stated that "It's not the kind of war that we should be fighting, but it's the kind of war they're forcing us to fight now."^[1] Frequent news reports of Insurrectionist attacks and the school's ubiquitous UNSC propaganda only served to further solidify her views.

In spite of having grown accustomed to constant violence since her childhood and having suffered tragedy on a very personal level, she appeared to be remarkably well-adjusted and was content with her military lifestyle. Suffering loss did not cause her to despair or lose her optimism in the UNSC's ability to bring an end to the violence; instead, it apparently served to further galvanize her resolve. Her reaction was largely opposite to that of Thomas Lasky losing his brother, which drove him to hopelessness and caused him to adopt a negative view of the UNSC whilst dwelling on his brother's death by replaying video comms surrounding the event. Upon viewing some of the videos, Silva expressed puzzlement as to why he kept "tormenting" himself with the incident.

Silva and Lasky moments before the Covenant invasion.

The legacy of her parents and her own commitment to the UNSC served as the basis for her motivation for being at Corbulo; she saw a career in the military as a natural choice for herself and fully embraced her education. She was active during lectures and her performance in training was exemplary; she was a proficient marksman and achieved record times among her squad in drills. This placed her in the favor of her superiors, including Hastati Squad leader April Orenski and the school's superintendent, General Black. Although she considered the academy's physical training demanding, she took pride in enduring the difficulty of it, stating that nothing less would make the end result something to be proud of.^[1] She typically remained calm under stress and even though she suffered from momentary shell-shock upon the chaotic situation of the Covenant attack on Corbulo Academy, she retained her proficiency and focus in combat during the following battle.

Despite her deeply-rooted belief in the UNSC's cause and her antipathy for the Insurrectionists, Silva denied that this was due to inherent aggression and maintained that her approach to soldiering was strictly professional.^[1] She remained friendly to fellow cadet Thomas Lasky despite his somewhat sympathetic view of the rebels and vocal condemnation of some of the UNSC's practices. The two had frequent conversations on the subject, with Silva continuously making an effort to have Lasky realize the importance of their training. Silva's and Lasky's dorm rooms at the academy were adjacent to one another; at night, they would often exchange knocks on the wall separating their beds. Despite their clashing views, Silva and Lasky grew fond of one another and their friendship turned into romance.

Production notes

Silva is portrayed by English actress Anna Popplewell in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Popplewell stated that she had virtually no prior knowledge of Halo and had little experience with video games in general before the project.^[7] In preparation for her role, she studied existing Halo fiction, in particular the novels Halo: Contact Harvest and Halo: The Fall of Reach due to their setting in the same time period as Forward Unto Dawn.^[8]