Chyler Silva (Earth-4001)

"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.

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

History
The history of Chyler Silva is the same as her mainstream counterpart.

Personality
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." 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.

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. 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. 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.