Camp Currahee

Camp Currahee was a UNSC military training camp created by the to serve as headquarters for the . Constructed on in the , a world entirely redacted from public record by ONI, Currahee provided a classified location for the illegal indoctrination and training of the program's child supersoldiers. The camp was furnished with many specialized training facilities, from classrooms and laboratories to firing ranges and assault courses, to suit the requirements of a training regime developed by LCDR to turn orphans of the ongoing into expendable commandos with capabilities approaching their predecessors.
Beginning operation with the arrival of Alpha Company's trainees on December 27th, 2532, Camp Currahee would see frequent rearrangement to provide fresh challenges for its cadets, replace specific facilities for different phases of training, and make room for additional structures as required. The camp would be in continuous use for the next two decades, successfully graduating three SPARTAN-III companies and be preparing for a fourth when triggered the onset of the . After a detachment of killed or scattered the majority of base staff, Camp Currahee was abandoned by Ambrose and the remaining survivors, leaving it empty when Onyx, revealed to be a , collapsed in on itself, destroying what remained of the largest SPARTAN training facility to date.
==History==
===Construction===
On October 24th, 2531, a meeting took place aboard the , ONI Section Three's wartime command vessel. Within its , , Colonel proposed a third generation of armored supersoldiers in response to the ongoing threat. The plan was accepted by Vice Admiral , initiating the and, consequently, creating a mandate for appropriate training facilities. Parangosky herself suggested Onyx host the clandestine program, as the planet's removal from UEG navigational databases would help prevent leaks in the program's security, but an exact site on the planet's surface remained undetermined for weeks. 
The delay was caused, in part, by protests from the ONI research team studying the ruins which had caused Onyx's classification in the first place. The researchers claimed concerns of potential interference, as unauthorized entrants might damage or otherwise disturb the archaeological finds still being excavated. Given most of these finds were structures made of solid black chalcedony, however, their true interest was likely fear of research theft by a political rival in ONI's hierarchy. By December of 2531, however, the main training facility's location would be finalized just south of the research site on a peninsula just north of Onyx's equator.Ghosts of Onyx, page 64. This was nominally to cut logistical costs by sharing access to the same spaceport facilities, but given the final site was chosen mostly at Ackerson's insistence, the excavation team's fears may have been justified.Ghosts of Onyx, page 68.
With funding for the program allocated from ONI by Rear Admiral , construction of the facility could begin. Equipment was on-site and at work by mid-December by personnel under strict confidentiality, not told so much as the name of the planet they were working on. Site clearance and basic infrastructure were the first tasks, as what specialized facilities the training program would call for had yet to be decided. Three hundred meters of jungle were cut back in all directions surrounding the camp's grounds using bulldozers, tractors, and walkers. A command center, generator, recruit barracks, mess hall, and staff living facilities were among the first projects to break ground. Network connections were also made with Onyx Transfer Station One, the basic spaceport carved out of by the initial planetary survey team. This allowed the Zone 67 facility's smart AI, , to devote a negotiated nine percent of its runtimes to assisting with Camp Currahee's operations without a direct connection which might violate the confidentiality of Zone 67's compiled data.
By the year's end, Ackerson's chosen project lead, Lieutenant , would arrive to take up the role of base commander. Prompted by the suggestion of one of the engineers, Ambrose dubbed the facility Camp Currahee after Currahee Mountain in the on , near which Camp Toccoa had trained several famed regiments of paratroopers for the United States Army in World War II. As Ambrose and the first among his hand-picked instructors began to draft a training regime for the upcoming program, Currahee's layout would go through several revisions—much to the Engineering Corps personnel's consternation—before settling on a horseshoe-shaped layout surrounding a gravel inspection yard on three sides.
With facilities in place, equipment and materiel were shipped in to supply the intended training courses, requisitioned by Captain under the authority of his top-secret wetworks division. These included examples of virtually every weapon in use throughout the UNSC armed services, vehicles ranging from to and even an , and large stockpiles of both live-fire and ammunition. Even select examples of Covenant technology were appropriated for the recruits' study. Some necessary supplies, however, could not be requisitioned, such as body armor suitable for the children the program intended to work with. As military body armor in such sizes would raise questions from parts of the normal production chains, Ambrose proposed and received approval to construct an on-site manufacturing facility which was dubbed Currahee Special Assembly Plant 1.
With the central training site in place, external facilities—the operation of which required removal from the main site—were begun in turn. In accordance with the training regimen developed by Lieutenant Ambrose, satellite facilities were placed in various regions across the planet with conditions suitable for the SPARTAN-IIIs' training requirements. Unknown to all but a few camp staff who'd participated in the SPARTAN-II program previously, many of these sites bore the names of Lieutenant Ambrose's former comrades; a foundation for Desert Operations Site Anton was laid near Onyx's equator, Amphibious Assault Course Randall was built on a coastline nearer to Currahee, Winter Warfare Site Cal near Onyx's northern pole, and a combined mountain and subterranean warfare training site dubbed Alpine Warfare Complex Samuel was dug out in the Midnight Mountains. A twenty-one square kilometer field was cleared to begin constructing a sprawling mock-city in one of the temperate zones, known as Infantry Engagement Simulation Grace, where urban warfare could be practiced under hot summer and snowy winter conditions alike in different times of the year. Finally, one of the largest expenses would be Orbital Station Li, which would be prepared for zero-gravity and boarding action training.
===SPARTAN-III Program===
====Alpha Company====
As Kurt made continual revisions to his training plans, even a year into construction, Camp Currahee was only declared completed on December 27th, 2532, the same day as the arrived carrying Alpha Company's prospective cadets. Following a commencement speech on the parade ground given by Lieutenant Ambrose—in his full MJOLNIR armor—the candidates faced an initial trial for selection. Lifting off in the Pelicans once again, the child candidates were issued parachute packs and charged with either completing a night drop from several hundred meters in the air or failing out of the program, losing their chance at revenge the recruiters had fed these orphans of the Human-Covenant War. Many failed to go through with the test, and were subsequently removed from Onyx following an amnestic treatment, though there were fortunately no casualties among those who did attempt it. These were formally accepted into the program, and Alpha Company's training was begun.
Overall, Currahee's preparations proved largely adequate for Ambrose and the young SPARTAN-IIIs' needs. After the first phase of physical fitness conditioning to bring the recruits' strength and endurance to necessary levels, subject-dedicated facilities such as the firing ranges and motor pool were used to teach theory and practice of myriad warfare disciplines. Classrooms within Currahee's command center also provided a basic, though sparse, education for the candidates. Given their chances of survival on the extreme-risk missions the SPARTAN-IIIs were intended for was low, Kurt had prioritized training with immediate military and survival applications. This would, in later years, leave surviving SPARTAN-IIIs with severe learning gaps compared to their SPARTAN-II predecessors and even civilian peer age group., page 84
Alpha Company would, however, bring some teething troubles to light. After lying dormant for the opening years of training, the first 'class field trip' to Winter Warfare Site Cal had to be delayed when drill instructors sent to activate the station found ice had crept in and disabled some of the monitoring equipment. In 2534, candidate Pierce-A492 drowned during an underwater exercise on Amphibious Assault Course Randall when his SCUBA gear lodged in the coral reef at the bottom of Obsidian Bay, for which two instructors found guilty of neglect were removed from the program by ONI. The following year, candidate Theodore-A399 had to be pulled from the company after a failed attempt at disarming a landmine cost him both arms. After some disagreement between instructors, concerns about candidate morale were set aside after Ambrose spoke with some of the fallen trainees' teammates and a small memorial wall was constructed, bearing the names of the dead recruits.
The largest change, however, would be the construction of when production of the was moved to Onyx and Plant 1 was found insufficient for the task. After its construction, ONI Logistics liaisons mentioned finding enough labor with sufficient clearance for the SPI production a challenge, to which Lieutenant Ambrose suggested making it part of Alpha Company's training. Many candidates accepted the offer of taking part in the production as an elective course, learning firsthand how UNSC armor production worked and building their own SPI from the ground up, helping them understand the functioning of their equipment before it was issued.
After Alpha Company's graduation in 2536, post-project debriefings and evaluations took place even as Currahee was resupplied and made ready for the upcoming second training company. Lieutenant Ambrose made a number of personnel changes; despite the graduated SPARTANs' excellence above and beyond expectations, Ambrose cut instructors whose charges ranked among the lowest in the company in an effort to push Beta's performance bell curve even higher. As results of genetic selection surveys for Beta Company came in, plans to expand Currahee's cadet dormitories were put on hold when the prospective recruit numbers fell far short of the projected one thousand, or even Alpha Company's near-five hundred total.
In July of 2537, nine months after Alpha Company's activation, Lieutenant Ambrose and SCPO Mendez attended a final debrief aboard the Point of No Return with Colonel Ackerson, Rear Admiral Rich, and Vice Admiral Parangosky. In reviewing the company's field performance, the program was praised as an evident success, and Ambrose was recommended for a promotion—though this wouldn't be confirmed for over a decade. It was then Ambrose learned of Alpha Company's complete destruction on during , a shock which Ambrose blamed himself for despite the impossibility of their assignment. Given an accelerated timetable for the next company, the Lieutenant began drafting a more rigorous training regimen in the short time before Beta Company's candidates arrived.
====Beta Company====
By the time Beta Company's recruits arrived in the same year, Camp Currahee had undergone a renovation to accommodate Lieutenant Ambrose's revised training plan. As with Alpha Company before them, the recruits were put through the same Falcon Wing night drop test after a commencement speech from Ambrose, though he did not this time don his MJOLNIR armor—electing to keep his identity as a SPARTAN-II secret from subsequent companiesGhosts of Onyx, page 140-141. Instead, one of the instructors demonstrated the Semi-Powered Infiltration armor the prospective SPARTAN-IIIs would one day wear themselves. With this goal to achieve dangled before them, the Beta Company cadets were subjected to a faster and more demanding physical conditioning phase than their predecessors had, with those who failed to measure up washing out.
Troubled by Alpha's loss of unit cohesion on K7-49, for which he attributed their deaths and—in turn—blamed on failures of his own training, Lieutenant Ambrose sought to strengthen Beta Company's interpersonal bonds by subjecting them to more hostile external conditions. Obstacle and assault courses were run under live-fire conditions to acclimate the recruits to something more closely simulating a battlefield environment. Washouts from Alpha Company, embittered by their failure to graduate and resentful toward the new and younger candidates, were employed as drill instruction staff who vindictively tormented the Beta cadets even outside of exercises when they could get away with it. After their assignment to finalized four-person teams, Ambrose announced only 300 augmentation slots were available to the 418 candidates, driving inter-team competition to a fever pitch.
The camp's northern boundary was further defined in 2539 after strayed beyond Currahee's northern border to attempt a surprise flanking attack during an exercise, crossing the Zone 67 border. Ordered to return to bounds, the team reported sighting a floating eye in the dark before all contact was lost, and the team was never found by Zone 67 or Camp Currahee personnel. To prevent further losses—or intrusions—the Zone 67 team allocated funding to erect razor wire barriers surveilled with cameras and motion sensors on the boundary with Currahee's training fields. The zone was formally declared off-limits to Spartan trainees thereafter, who would in time tell ghost stories about the place in attempts to scare one another.
Objections to the intensity and pace of Beta's training were raised by Deep Winter, the artificial intelligence program which had replaced Eternal Spring at the end of its operational lifespan in 2537. Not only were serious injuries a more frequent occurrence due to the severity of Ambrose's new exercises, but the vicious competition between teams for limited augmentation slots was liable to create lasting animosity between company members, theoretically running counter to Ambrose's goal of fostering unitary bonds. Beta Company repeatedly subverted this expectation, however, thanks to their greater animosity toward training staff and connection through shared grief at the loss of family and homes. In 2541, this was exemplified during a exercise when hijacked automated turrets on the course and used them to fortify the goal point. Adding incoming trainee teams to their defenses, the majority of the company joined to hold out together against five successive assaults before Lieutenant Ambrose himself stepped in to bring the trainees to heel.
Despite Parangosky's urging to accelerate the second class' training, Ambrose lobbied with support from Colonel Ackerson to nearly double Beta Company's time on Onyx from four to seven years before their graduation, allowing the candidates more time to grasp the myriad warfare doctines and theories presented to them. Where Alpha Company's rushed timetable had pushed some candidates to specialize in fields which their teammates might be unfamiliar with, Beta Company was given time to master a variety of topics, the grades for which factored into their assessments for making the final three-hundred-strong company. Classroom space use was expanded within Currahee's command center to accommodate these lessons, usurping several administrative spaces until alternate facilities could be built. With the benefit of this extended time to practice and hone their abilities, Beta Company graduated and were deployed to active service under Ackerson's chain of command in 2544.
In the lull between Beta's graduation and the arrival of Gamma's incoming candidates, Currahee again saw minor reconstruction, such as completion of the classroom renovations with for Deep Winter's benefit. Staff was reevaluated and expanded to incorporate many of Beta's washouts into the Drill Instruction staff. Experts in the limited insights made into Covenant xenobiology and society were scheduled to provide lectures, and other instructors were recruited to help take advantage of a training cycle promised to be as long as Beta's had been. With Beta still active in the field by the time Gamma's recruitment began, Ambrose believed himself finally satisfied with the overall state of the SPARTAN-III program and Camp Currahee's facilities.
====Gamma Company====
After a year of research and selection processes, the candidates of Gamma Company arrived at Camp Currahee on July 9th, 2545. With instructors demonstrating the Mark II SPI on Lieutenant Ambrose's behalf, the new company was again subjected to the night drop trial after which remained 343 candidates. But as their physical conditioning phase began, an abrupt shakeup was made to the instructor roster as the results of reached Ambrose in the same week. As Ambrose had suspected, TORPEDO proved an extinction event for Beta Company on par with PROMETHEUS for Alpha before them. Unlike the previous operation, however, two survivors of the operation had been recovered: and . Following their debriefing, Tom was almost pulled by Ackerson for private ops, while Lucy was considered for a discharge on medical grounds. Going over his superior's head directly to Parangosky, however, Ambrose managed to secure both as Currahee instructors, which he considered crucial to the success of Gamma and future companies.
The insights of two Spartans who'd experienced live combat would indeed prove invaluable, though their integration with the rest of the training staff had unexpected consequences. The washout Beta and, to a lesser degree, Alpha Company instructors found it difficult to set aside petty jealousy, with some actively trying to socially ostracize them. The distance this created with the candidates made incorporating their lived experience into the training exercises harder, to the point it became a matter of Ambrose's concern. The existing culture within Camp Currahee, however, made it difficult to root out the offenders, and was only resolved by the intervention of an outsider ODST drill NCO who'd only been brought on at Gamma's outset.
Further distressed by the coinciding deaths of Beta Company, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose pushed Gamma even harder than their predecessors, culminating in what were coined 'Trial by Fire' exercises. Once the company's five-man teams were assigned, multiple trainee teams were pitted against one another in open combat simulation zones, hunted by drill instructor teams in SPI and forced to deal with obstacles from simple covered pit traps to advanced automated turrets. These simulations could go on for days at a time, with the goal of creating an atmosphere of intense combat stress, inoculating Gamma to the fatigue which had cost Alpha Company its unit cohesion. Further, the exercises served to eliminate candidates unable to effectively cope with stress from potential leadership positions in teams and the company as a whole, preventing the misjudgement made by Beta Company's field commander during TORPEDO.
The toll these exercises took on the trainees, however, was immediately apparent, and multiple drill instructor staff added to Deep Winter's protests in lodging complaints. Dr. Agnes Schultz, Camp Currahee's head psychologist, prescribed a minimum week of trauma therapy for each candidate following their participation in the exercises, and threatened resignation when Ambrose outright ignored the recommendation as an unacceptable delay to the training schedule. Allowances were made for a minimum of care, but the candidates' drive for revenge against the Covenant prevented them in many cases from requesting or accepting the help they needed, resulting in multiple candidate washouts. Taking this as proof of the candidates' resilience, Ambrose continued to push the exercises ahead.
A breaking point was finally reached in September of 2548, when several candidates suffered near-breakdowns as result of the stress. Upset by the lack of concern shown for their friends, several teams conspired at the instigation of Team Machete to organize a mass breakout during the next exercise. After setting off an EMP device which knocked out armored instructors, automated defenses, and perimeter fencing meant to box in the company, more than half of Gamma Company fled into Onyx's woods, effectively going AWOL. For just over a week, the candidates were able to blow off steam as they liked without supervision between bouts of evading drill instructors, drones, and eventually their fellow candidates employed to bring in the escapees. Though several candidates sustained injuries during a storm which arrived late in the week, and several teams came concerningly close to the border with Zone 67, no severe injuries were reported. Recognizing the rebellion as a cry for help, Ambrose agreed to ease the pace of their training.
Ambrose's fears for Gamma's survival in the field persisted, however, while Ackerson continued urging him to expedite Gamma's augmentation and deployment. Word leaked to Ambrose through Deep Winter of the groundwork being laid for an Operation: HUMILITY to be carried out against a massive Covenant . Such a massive space-borne target, defended by an entire fleet of warships, would spell certain death for Gamma Company as their first engagement. Even as he stalled for more time to keep the Gammas in training, Ambrose would develop an illicit brain mutation which would help the young Spartans shake off even total systemic shock, at the cost of potential mental degradation over their lifetimes—a fear which, at the time, seemed unlikely to come to pass. Although the alteration to Gamma's augmentations was discovered by Deep Winter, the end of the AI's 14-year service lifespan prevented it from leaking this information to anyone but Ambrose himself, who promptly re-buried the find.
The plays for time would pay off, as the colony of Merken—the only remaining world distant enough to serve as a launch point—was glassed by the Covenant in 2551, scrapping plans for HUMILITY entirely. Gamma Company would remain on Onyx under Kurt's excuse of acclimating the young Spartans to their augmented bodies, though in truth the process was finished within the first few months. With nothing but routine training and scrimmage matches to run, Ambrose began the groundwork for Delta Company's recruitment, cycling out the lowest performing Drill Instructors and placing requisition orders for additional supplies. This state of affairs held until news arrived of the , and no more delays could be afforded. Deployment orders were issued in October of 2552, removing Gamma Company from Currahee save for teams , , and , the finalists in the company's Top Honors tournament. Their final contest would be underway when events half the galaxy away triggered mechanisms lying in wait deep beneath Onyx's surface.
===Battle of Onyx===
On , was nearly activated, sending standby activation signals to Forerunner installations galaxy-wide. Among these was the hidden under Onyx's surface, and UNSC observers in Zone 67 took notice. The activity greatly excited the research station, and jealously guarding the discoveries sure to result, advised Camp Currahee's staff to stay clear of the Zone as sensitive testing took place. Already engaged in the Top Honors tournament proceedings, the project leaders were more than happy to keep to themselves, but reiterated to the remaining graduated Gammas that the Zone was strictly off-limits. On October 31st, however, the the research team had watched so closely abruptly turned hostile.
Swarming up from both excavated chambers and newly-opened tunnels underground, the Sentinel constructs quickly overwhelmed the defenseless researchers and unprepared ONI security personnel. At the order of Endless Summer, the last defenders mounted a desperate final stand in defense of Zone 67's , buying the AI enough time to launch a message to on Earth before its destruction. The finale of this last-ditch fight was observed by members of Team Saber, engaged in the final round of their Top Honors tournament just south of the Zone 67/Currahee border. While the Gamma trainees were engaged by a few of the hovering constructs, a full squadron was dispatched to the other largest center of human habitation: Camp Currahee.
Upon entering Currahee's airspace, the drones began systematically eliminating the base's remaining on-site instructors. The base personnel, the vast majority of whom were trained special forces operators, attempted to mount an impromptu defense with resources taken from the base armory. The Onyx Sentinels' energy shielding, however, proved too resilient for the few UNSC armaments the defenders managed to secure. The Sentinels killed military and civilian instructors alike, though their precise left the camp's facilities relatively undamaged. In less than an hour, nearly all Camp Currahee's personnel were dead. A brief transmission from Team Saber, however, alerted the remainder to the reactive nature of the Onyx Sentinels' shielding, which allowed instructors Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091 to destroy some of their hunters and hide between the intact structures.
While the Sentinels at Currahee continued search-and-destroy patterns to root out their escaped targets, other drone squadrons were deployed to investigate the Camp's satellite facilities. As most were abandoned outside the training phases when they were in use, the Sentinels found little of interest and simply occupied the spaces. Orbital Station Li, however, required a skeleton crew to maintain, and was destroyed shortly after the orbiting UNSC Agincourt. Within the training grounds, Team Saber had found some success after discovering the weakness present in the Sentinels' energy shielding, but Team Gladius was subsequently wiped out, and Team Katana cut off and driven into Zone 67 without further contact. The Sentinels reorganized to employ two-unit hunter-killer teams to more effectively hunt down the statistically-outlying survivors.
At 0745 Hours, Military Time, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose and Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez returned to Camp Currahee to find it overrun. Making contact with Tom and Lucy, however, Ambrose resolved to mount a guerilla campaign, the first step of which would be commandeering Currahee's remaining supplies. Avoiding the Sentinels' search patterns, Ambrose and his team secured SPI armor and a considerable complement of ordnance along with rations and field equipment necessary for their ongoing survival. With no benefit to holding the Camp, Ambrose's team left to regroup with Team Saber at El Morro Point some kilometers away, leaving Camp Currahee occupied only by the dead and the machines.
Over the next three days, Ambrose would lead his Spartans and a handful of off-world reinforcements against the Sentinels' tireless pursuit. Some of the nearer satellite facilities would be useful points of resupply for the team, but Camp Currahee would remain abandoned throughout the remaining conflict. On November 4th, 2552, Currahee was rocked by Ambrose detonating two within a Forerunner at Onyx's core. The explosion would destabilize the entire artificial structure underlying Onyx's land masses, which were in fact a means of camouflaging the planet's true nature. The trillions of Sentinels making up these structures disengaged, causing the planet to disintegrate, and Camp Currahee with it. Any small pieces of its structures, materiel, and history were scattered as space debris across the Zeta Doradus system, never to be recovered.
==Layout==
Camp Currahee itself was situated at the base of a peninsula extending from the north coast of Onyx's unnamed southern continent, within the planet's tropical zone. Humid jungle covered the region where the camp was built, which was cut back 300 meters in every direction surrounding the camp's perimeter. The boundaries of the camp were marked with a three-meter high wall, which served more to keep trainees in than intruders out, as Onyx's secrecy negated concerns of intruders and the planet supported no wildlife large enough to threaten a human. Multiple gates in the wall allowed personnel and vehicle access to marching trails and driving routes to instructor observation posts over the exercise grounds. The main gate, however, opened north on the dirt road leading to Onyx Transfer Station One, and Zone 67's connecting road beyond.
Currahee's structures were laid out in a wide horseshoe shape surrounding the NCOs' inspection yard,Ghosts of Onyx, page 136 allowing clear lines of sight and direct travel between most points on-base. Many smaller structures, however, sat double on this curved line, creating myriad alleyways which could hide movement. Many of the hastily-built structures also stood on raised stilts instead of resting on a full foundation, which allowed delinquent trainees to move unseen on occasion. The buildings were purpose-built, assembled from the same materials commonly available in UNSC logistical chains as many prefabricated and UEG colonization support structures.
===Command Center===
In the center of the U-shaped layout, Currahee's command center was the tallest structure on-site with a six-story tower to overlook the entire camp. The center contained several to provide most of the base's power, outside of emergency backups. As Currahee's control site, the command center furnished its staff with offices, computer centers, primary and auxilliary communications suites, and classrooms for trainee instruction. Many rooms included their own holo-tanks for base AI to visualize candidate lectures and instructors to analyze performance data. Among those so equipped was a library on the fourth floor, where candidates could perform independent research into Currahee's local databases for assignments and submit requests for any information not present in databases on Onyx. After the protest of an instructor about its claim to being a library, a small amount of shelving was set up for the storage of a modest selection of physical books.
===Trainee Barracks===
On the west wing not far from the main gate, the SPARTAN-III candidate barracks were some of the most basic structures on-site. Raised on stilts, each long dormitory hall could house more than a hundred candidates, though after Alpha Company a few such dorms stood empty. The barracks were furnished sparingly, with simple cots and sheets produced for civilian relief missions. Each candidate was issued a trunk at the foot of their bed, containing spare fatigues marked with their SPARTAN tag. The trunks offered no privacy as they could not be locked, allowing drill instructors to inspect their contents for contraband at any time. Other amenities were sparse to nonexistent, such as a shared emergency wash sink and air conditioning which frequently broke down.
===NCOs' Quarters===
Directly beside the trainee barracks on the west wing lay accommodations for the training staff.Ghosts of Onyx, page 136. While still austere military housing, Camp Currahee's staff were granted some measure of amenity in exchange for the secrecy of their task and years in isolation from the rest of human society. Each cabin could house between two and four instructors, with room assignments given with considerations for duty schedule, gender, and classification level in mind. Civilian staff, such as camp psychologist Agnes Schultz, were generally bunked alone or in pairs. Each instructor was allotted a full bed, wardrobe, work desk, and space for a small fridge, coffee machine, or other appliances for preparing their own meals if desired.
===Infirmary===
Across the NCOs' inspection yard from staff housing sat the camp's infirmary.Ghosts of Onyx, page 136. Easily accessible by foot or ground vehicle in case of an emergency, Currahee's on-site hospital received one of the largest single shares of the SPARTAN-III program's budget. The two-story building featured a full ward and intensive care unit on par with the best Inner Colony private care facilities, with everything from to to treat accidents suffered by the trainees. Beyond its treatment facilities, the second story incorporated a research lab both for the benefit of trainees studying more than field medicine and ongoing research into the effects of 's augmentations to lower the augmentations' fatality rate.
The infirmary was overseen throughout its history by Doctor , a jovial but attentive physician who'd served as a Navy corpsman in conflicts with the Insurrection and Covenant alike. His tutelage would produce many highly skilled SPARTAN field phsyicians, with even students of his who washed out of SPARTAN-III, such as Aspen-B145, joining the roster of doctors and nurses working under him. Doctor also maintained her office on the second floor. A career physician specializing in military affairs, Doctor Shultz had previously been trusted by ONI with maintaining the confidentiality of SPARTAN-II psychiatric care. Though keenly aware of the mental harm the program inflicted on its subjects, Shultz maintained a clinical and utilitarian view on the program after her homeworld was glassed by the Covenant, and ensured the trainees were as healthy as could be while remaining focused on their training.
===Commandant's Residence===
White-washed regularly by candidates undergoing discipline, Commander Ambrose's residence was perhaps the most comfortable accommodation in Currahee, though far from luxurious. The small house enclosed an office, washroom, and bedroom, with a secret armory accessible by a biometric lock. Although bamboo blinds allowed him privacy as desired, Ambrose never kept the residence locked. In twenty years of occupying the post, Kurt acquired a few sentimental possessions, including an ancient Greek urn and numerous pictures released by ONI Section Two after the public declassification of the SPARTAN-IIs, depicting their victories over Covenant forces. Inside the armory, Kurt kept several floor-to-ceiling rifle racks and ammunition lockers containing UNSC and Covenant small arms, explosives including grenades and SPNKr rockets, and his own maintained suits of both and matte-grey Semi-Powered Infiltration armor.
===Mess Hall===
Attached to the command center on its east side, Currahee's mess hall was one of the only single rooms large enough to hold every SPARTAN-III trainee indoors at one time. Though many meals could be distributed by vending machine, accessed using facial recognition scanners to prevent candidates from swiping extra helpings, the SPARTAN-III program employed professional military cooks to ensure the trainees' dietary health. Meal plans were carefully tailored to provide the trainees the proper balance of nutritional and caloric intake to fortify their bodies for the coming augmentations, including growth hormones and drug compounds to artificially induce puberty ahead of the procedures. The mess hall incorporated one-way glass to disguise a balcony near the ceiling from which instructors in the command center could covertly observe the recruits, and one windowless wall which could be used as a massive projector screen, allowing the display of data or the occasional recreational movie night for the trainees and staff.
===Armory===
Further along the east wing, the camp's armory stores all the small arms and maintenance equipment necessary to the SPARTAN-IIIs' training. Examples of virtually every weapon in UNSC service were requisitioned to ensure the candidates' familiarity and excellence with whatever tools happened to be available in the field. The most common firearm contained therein was the , issued as the standard service rifle for each company. The cut-down MA5-series model was found better-suited to the stealth operations the graduated SPARTAN-IIIs would undertake with their SPI, while maintaining the rugged reputation of Misriah's premier rifle line. Examples of Covenant weaponry were also kept within the armory to provide firsthand knowledge of their enemy's capabilities, requisitioned at great pain for Colonel Ackerson. The lack of expertise and equipment to recharge their incorporated plasma batteries, however, meant working examples were few and needed steady replacement. To prevent incidents with the unruly trainees accessing live rounds, only ammunition was kept within the armory itself.Ghosts of Onyx, page 138
===Garage and Motor Pool===
East of the armory, Camp Currahee's garage may be dwarfed by the towering command center, but boasts the largest footprint of any building on-base. Barn and roll-up doors line the walls to allow access to dozens of specialized maintenance bays and a below-ground garage for prolonged storage in climate-controlled environs. The motor pool housed within contained dozens of terrestrial vehicles in UNSC service for the trainees to practice operation, maintenance, repair, and mechanized combat on. While every Spartan would graduate familiar with operating everything from to , those specializing in mechanics learned the differences between models within the same production lines, and learned how to field repair their complex inner workings to guarantee their teams would never go without working transport.
Beyond their responsibility for the candidates' technical training, Currahee's certified motor pool staff were responsible for the vehicles' upkeep for use in war games training. This included everything from asymmetrical infantry against armor engagements to tank on tank armored engagements, in climates from the arctic poles to equatorial deserts. The field refits required for operation in such drastically different climates meant Currahee's vehicles wore out their most vulnerable components at prodigious rates, making the garage's healthy stock of spare parts a top priority for keeping the training on schedule. Chief Petty Officer maintained the post of Motor Transport Operations Chief and was responsible for Currahee's vehicle fleet throughout the facility's history, and developed a reputation for a short temper and hard hearing after his experiences as a Scorpion operator during the Insurrection. His filing system for tracking the spare component inventory was a particular source of trainees and fellow instructors alike earning his ire.
===Currahee Special Assembly Plant 1===
Near the end of Currahee's eastern wing, Special Assembly Plant 1 was initially conceived as a manufacturing plant for material too difficult (or too damaging to project secrecy) to quickly requisition from off-world, but in time would also become a teaching space. Within the plant were dozens of , laser saws, lathes, and even a small, fusion coil-powered smelting furnace. In combination with the command center's arms database, Plant 1 could produce anything from spare trainee fatigues to a Pelican airframe on demand, though at greater expense than waiting for an off-world requisition. When specific tools or training aids were needed immediately, however, Plant 1 guaranteed no delays in the SPARTAN-III training timetable.
Late in Alpha Company's training, as candidates expressed curiosity over the workings of their equipment, Lieutenant Ambrose saw fit to incorporate lessons on the UNSC's procurement and manufacturing lines to better prepare the young Spartans. Plant 1 would be integral to demonstrating the fabrication processes which equipped the entire UNSC Defense Forces on a small scale, lending the trainees an appreciation for all the work necessary to preparing the tools they would use against the Covenant. These brief lectures were retained for the program's future classes, and many candidates had the opportunity to learn for themselves the use of the tools housed within, even developing equipment of their own in a few cases.
===Currahee Special Assembly Plant 2===
Near the end of Alpha Company's training in 2535, Ambrose found his plans for the first iteration of Semi-Powered Infiltration armor would require more specialized and expensive production equipment than Special Assembly Plant 1 could provide. The design's heavy incorporation of on all exterior surface while remaining durable enough to withstand combat called for complex manufacturing processes, not all of which were available at the time from a single military industrial partner. Thus, to maintain confidentiality of the SPI technology, and SPARTAN-III program by extension, Ambrose requested a dedicated facility be built at Camp Currahee for the task. Reluctantly approved by Ackerson, stretching even the budget allotted by ONI's support, on-site production began late that year.
Candidates were employed in the production at every step, conveniently saving on labor costs, but mainly to give candidates an appreciation for and understanding of the armor they would use. Every Spartan would thus be able to perform field repairs on their team's suits without resorting to outside support staff whose silence would need to be assured by ONI. In the long term, project evaluations would question the wisdom of this involvement, as it lent aid to STOLEN GAUNTLET elements years later who proved capable of maintaining their equipment outside of UNSC custody.
==Training Grounds==
For kilometers in every direction surrounding Currahee, the forests of Onyx were sectioned out as wilderness courses and mock combat zones for the candidates' use. Engineering crews were put to work moving tons of earth to create a network of dirt roads and hiking trails which allowed access to the various zones, stretching from Currahee all the way to the peninsula's coasts. The training fields were delineated by an alphanumeric grid reference system, with Currahee itself seated near the middle at M13.
The environments this grid encompassed were varied, from the humid jungles immediately surrounding Currahee through pine valleys to the coast where Amphibious Assault Course Randall lay. The northernmost row included the acacia-dotted savannahs on Zone 67's border—an intentional decision on Ambrose's part due to the interest he intuited Ackerson had in the site. Some environments were artificially created to provide desirable training conditions, such as diverting a tributary of the to create the kilometers-long Kolman Swamp northeast of the camp, named for one of the engineers. Other work included blasting a scalable cliff face from the hills in G6, and a clear-cut of the forests in S17 which left the undergrowth to spring up into thick brush.
===Grid References===
*A1: Starting in the furthest square northwest, Training Grid A1 fell entirely off-shore of the peninsula where Currahee resided, and was only occasionally used during the SPARTAN-IIIs' aquatic training.
*A15: As with many of the inland A-row grids, A15 encompassed many of the rocky mesas and valleys on the border with Zone 67. A long tunnel along one of the roads ran beneath one of the hills. This tunnel would be the site of a trap laid by Blue and Saber teams during the Battle of Onyx, allowing them to destroy a patrol of Onyx Sentinels shadowing them before they crossed into Zone 67.
*C2: Site of Amphibious Assault Course Randall in Obsidian Bay.
*G5: In the heart of a coastal hill range, part of G6's sharp slopes were blasted clear to create a series of cliffs, occasionally used by the training staff to incorporate vertical assaults in the candidates' more routine team exercises without venturing so far as Alpine Course Samuel. A soft sand floor was maintained at the foot of these cliffs, but more than one injury occurred when a candidate was so unlucky as to fall during an exercise.
*G7: Just east of the rolling coastal hills, G7 contained the northern tip of Kolman Swamp, where the Twin Forks River had been partially diverted to flood a valley between the foothills. The pine forests swiftly died off, leaving the swamp populated by desiccated white trunks covered in pale green moss.
*H7: The heart of the Kolman swamp lay within this grid, where the diverted water came to rest and became stale and brackish. The rot of old forests gave flourishing life to many aquatic plant species which had previously only grown in scattered forest ponds. Lily pad-like plants covering the brackish water in many places made the swamp an easy place to camouflage oneself, making training scrimmages within its bounds last hours beyond the usual match.
*M13: The site of Camp Currahee itself, many of the road systems converged here to allow quick travel to and from the camp.
*P4: In the southwest quadrant, directly north of the paved vehicle course, the jungle was clear-cut to create a field environment for driver training on open terrain. Often muddy after the seasonal rainstorms, the field was often used to practice mechanized warfare against simulated Covenant enemies. Replicas of Ghosts, Spectres, Wraiths, and other common Covenant ground vehicles were mocked up in skeletal steel alongside non-functional examples recovered from colonial battlefields. These served to let the trainees practice maneuvering around such opponents to target identified weak points in their armor, whether using real or TTR ammunition. The centerpiece of this battlefield was a steel recreation of a , a relatively common design observed in the few times Covenant troops engaged in longer ground campaigns instead of glassing planets from the outset.
*Q4: Southwest of Currahee, the jungle here was heavily cleared and graded to create a paved driver training course. Though incorporating longer straightaways and bends around its perimeter, part of the track's core was specifically shaped to create an exact-scale replica of the famed Nürburgring track on Earth which had served in automotive testing and racing for centuries.
*Q5: Site of Infantry Engagement Simulation Grace.
*S17: Southeast of Currahee, this grid was heavily logged during the camp's construction both to provide wood for many of the building projects, and to create a training zone thick with up-growing foliage previously limited by the scant light filtering through the forest canopy. The heavy brush could be easily scraped against by an unaware candidate, giving away their position even in SPI armor.
==Satellite Facilities==
===Desert Operations Site Anton===
Located just south of Onyx's equator, on a continent across the sea north of Camp Currahee's peninsula, DOS Anton would host the trainees for extended periods while they learned to cope with the barren, arid environs of its surrounding deserts. Named for the SPARTAN-IIs' best scout, Site Anton had only a few support structures beyond a small command center, as exposing the trainees to the harsh desert climate was core to its purpose. After some initial lessons in surviving desert conditions, teams or individual candidates would often be tasked with making their way from the base camp to particular markers dozens of kilometers away and returning.
Reaching these markers might require candidates to cross craggy canyons, avoiding the thorns of cacti-like vegetation growing in their shade, or traverse unbroken tracts of shifting sand dunes devoid of any landmark or resource. As training progressed, additional hazards including armed drill instructors were added, or teams were pitted against one another to reach and return first with a flag. Many candidates, especially those born on colonies with cooler climes, suffered heat exposure, and the risk of falls in the canyons or quicksand among the dunes required their constant surveillance by drone to ensure their safety in case of emergencies.
Resourceful trainees, however, would learn to find and harness the desert's power for their own benefit; moving near dawn and dusk would avoid the most extreme temperatures, weighing the risks of approaching the few oft-guarded wells to replenish water, or harvesting their own from the canyon cacti—though the cactus' reservoirs were known to contain mind hallucinogens which, if improperly filtered, could contribute to trainees failing their tests.
===Winter Warfare Site Cal===
In the heart of the glacier fields surrounding Onyx's south pole, Site Cal subjected trainees to the unforgiving challenges of warfighting in subzero temperatures. Survival training focused on retaining heat, preserving food and liquid water, and camouflaging one's own heat and trails in the endless, shifting crags of broken ice. After infantry maneuvers were practiced, trainees learned the difficulty of guiding vehicles over the treacherous terrain, compounded by the equipment's own tendencies to freeze up and break down. Trainees had to learn entirely new means of maintaining their equipment in the freezing conditions, developing skills which would prove useful on the many planets and moons mankind had explored in the vast cold of space.
Site Cal's headquarters consisted of a bunker drilled into the side of an ice sheet, from which instructors could monitor and contact both trainees in the training zone and Camp Currahee's command center. Though the equipment provided for Site Cal was hardened against the extreme weather by design, the blizzards of Onyx's deepest winter could be unpredictable and potentially cut off long and short-range communication. For emergencies, the bunker contained its own dedicated medical suite in case staff or trainees experienced the worst of cold weather exposure, and housed both aircraft and tracked to quickly reach and return with patients.
===Infantry Engagement Simulation Grace===
Several dozen kilometers southwest of Camp Currahee, within Grid Q5, Onyx's jungle was cut back to construct a sprawling mock city. Dubbed IES Grace, or Grace City, the site spanned twenty-one square kilometers of facades, paved highways, and prefabricated modules designed for colonial settlement. The site served as the program's urban warfare training ground, and was large enough to either be divided into sections for multiple simultaneous exercises, or to support company-wide simulated engagements. Each company spent months of their training within IES Grace, learning to apply their other lessons and later enhanced abilities to both open and covert combat, detecting and neutralizing targets or explosives, integrating mechanized elements, and more against the unique challenges city fighting presented.
Though many of the smaller structures were designed to be reconfigured, preventing trainees from counting on their existing knowledge of Grace City's layout across their years of training, a few structures were permanent by necessity. Among these were The Viaduct—an elevated freeway running through and out of the city west to the driving courses in Grid Q4—and The Belltower, a 70-storey high rise trainees could rappel and breach by vertical and aerial assault and the tallest man-made structure on Onyx.
Initially, most of the smaller buildings were constructed from standard designs used to quickly establish settlements on new colony worlds, which ONI logistics figured would closely match the architecture still present on a variety of Outer Colonies. Ambrose, however, had taken part in operations on many of the very Outer Colonies the analysts had in mind, and knew colonists rarely stuck to the cheap, clinical templates for long as they sought comfort and use of what their planet offered in resources. Thus, IES Grace soon expanded its architectural database to reflect many different documented Outer Colonial building styles. Whole districts of Grace City could be remodeled to reflect different sensibilities in layout and even material. These could respond differently to the force of explosives, impact of out-of-control vehicles, and even shifting weight from human movement, prompting trainees to account for and better be aware of their surroundings.
===Orbital Station Li===
The program's single most expensive training facility, Orbital Station Li would provide the SPARTAN-III trainees with a platform to train for EVA combat and conduct orbital deployments from . Although Ackerson had initially intended to use the UNSC Agincourt as a base for the SPARTAN-IIIs' zero-gravity training, Ambrose found the aging vessel inadequate for training purposes, and likely to be pulled away by Ackerson for other tasks. Though an early point of contention for the program's budget, Ambrose eventually won out. Named for their predecessors' greatest zero-gravity combat specialist, the station was constructed according to a modified design used for training.
In addition to a massive interior arena for safe spacewalk exercises and multiple SOEIV drop bays, Station Li contained top-notch tracking equipment to maintain observation of orbital drops. Orbital insertions remained extremely dangerous operations, and every precaution was taken to ensure the candidates' safety during these exercises. Dedicated communication arrays allowed the Onyx AI to maintain connections with Camp Currahee during use, and Pelican dropships were maintained aboard to rescue trainees who encountered problems while engaged in EVA. To offset the cost, Station Li also took over orbital traffic control duties from Onyx Transit Station One after its completion. Though overseen by Captain Rico Esquival, a long-serving officer in ONI's logistical corps, drop training was handled by Master Sergeant Cory Drubov, whose engagements with the Covenant had cost him an arm, leg, and eye after multiple tours against the Insurrection without injury.
===Amphibious Assault Course Randall===
After conducting numerous bathymetric scans of the sea floor east and west of Onyx's peninsula, the location for Currahee's amphibious assault training zone was chosen in Grid C2, in a place dubbed Obsidian Bay. Sheltered by natural jetties and met by a freshwater river, Amphibious Assault Course Randall would be where cadets learned everything from the basics of swimming up to covert infiltration and combat underwater. Taking its name from the SPARTAN-IIs' strongest swimmer, Site Randall became many candidates' favorite spot on Onyx thanks to its picturesque beaches and warm waters in summer.
One of the cheaper facilities on the program's checklist, the outpost's facilities mostly consisted of a control room, storage buildings for SCUBA equipment, and wooden docks extending into the bay to easily reach deeper water. Dense coral-like reefs covered the bay's floor, which candidates would have to work up to reaching without diving equipment. Training would push them even further, however, by pitting them against the stronger ocean currents outside the bay's reach. A few kilometers offshore, the seabed dropped off in a series of staggered shelves, replete with natural and artificial tunnels bored into the rock. It was here Pierce-A492 became trapped and drowned during exercises, and despite the obvious exaggeration laid on stories of his death retold throughout Camp Currahee, candidates continually reported strange experiences while diving in the caves.
===Alpine Warfare Complex Samuel===
Just over a hundred kilometers south of Camp Currahee, beyond the area covered by the Grid reference system, a site was chosen where the coastal hills grew into a true mountain range for the SPARTANs' alpine warfare training. Dubbed Site Samuel after the largest of Ambrose's former comrades, the facility was placed in the valley between two immense peaks: Ridge Blanc in the northwest and the slightly shorter Ridge Noir southeast. Just above the timberline, an underground complex was tunneled into the mountainside to meet the extensive natural caves beneath to also allow the practice of subterranean warfare. As the temperatures atop Site Samuel were slightly more hospitable than the polar regions, the course was used in advance of each company's introduction to Site Cal.
On the peaks and in the tundra between them, each company's trainees would learn to contend with cold, harsh winds, and unforgivingly steep terrain to accomplish their exercise goals. Falls were a frequent occurrence, especially early on, and with weather conditions making drone observation or VTOL medevac difficult, trainees were often shadowed by drill instructors in body armor to ensure their relative safety. The climbing skills learned on Grid G6's slopes would be tested and tempered in climbs to each summit, often in competition between teams. Final tests of flight training were also carried out on the mountain, conducting mock search-and-rescue and team extractions in the unpredictable eddies between the peaks.
The subterranean portions of Complex Samuel would pit trainees against opponents in total darkness, confined spaces, and with the constant danger of thousands of tons of rock collapsing in on them. Claustrophobic attacks led instructors to only assign training in the tunnels at short intervals for most trainees, though a handful in every company would grow fascinated with the myriad formations linked naturally or artificially throughout the courses. Dead lava tubes, limestone karst caverns, and underground lakes made for some spectacularly unique environments, with the largest, Starfield Grotto, worn naturally into a pocket of the onyx for which the planet was named. Most cadets, however, loathed their time training in the tunnels, and told stories of monsters encountered in the deepest dungeons and oldest caverns they delved to.
==Gallery==
DT-FOTM Apr2024 - Camp Currahee.png|Fanon of the Month (FOTM) Card earned in April 2024 for Camp Currahee by .
==Notes and References==
Category:Location