Cody-B042

"Ferocioris sententiae usque ad finem"

- Latin for "Defiant until the end"

Cody B042 also known as Codename:SOLACE was a  who served in the Human-Covenant War. Acquiring a reputation for survivability among ONI officials after enduring through the botched Operation: CARTWHEEL and the tragedy of Operation: TORPEDO. This reputation would have him pulled into Section III’s Beta-5 division. Fighting throughout the war, Cody served alongside numerous Spartan Teams, filling slots left open by fallen Spartans. After the war he would be pulled by Section 0 to operate alongside SPARTAN-G144 as a two man strike team for several years. After this, he and G144 would be inducted into the EPHIALTES program, eventually rising to become the top agents for hunting down rogue Spartans.

Pre-Spartan III
Born in early 2533, Cody was the first of three children born to ONI officer, Commander Jonathan Smith and Nurse Anna Smith on the world of Filo XI. The world was rural with sparse cities and one military facility; ONI Specter Base. A young Cody Smith became close friends with Jay Purcell, and for most of their respective childhoods that they had, they spent causing trouble and evading repercussion.

However, in September of 2538, the Covenant struck. In the scramble to evacuate the planet, Cody’s father took charge of the planet’s ground defense while his mother rushed him and his younger brother towards an evacuation site. En route, banshee’s struck the traffic jammed highway they were on, and a stray plasma bolt tore a hole through his mother.

Shocked, devastated, and horrified, a teary eyed Cody managed to pull his infant brother from the vehicle and rushed towards the site. On foot he would’ve never made it, but the timely arrival of the Purcell family got the two boys, along with Jay and his own baby brother to the evac. But they were late, and space was limited. Without a second thought, the Purcells put their adopted sons, and the sons of their family friends aboard.

Confused and in tears, Cody and Jay took their younger siblings with them and tried to calm themselves, with Cody reassuring himself his father would survive. When he saw the Covenant begin to glass the world, he cried out in sheer agony, knowing his father would fall.

Eventually, Cody and Jay would end up in an orphanage on New Constantinople. Their younger brothers, being babies were quickly adopted while they were left with only each other. As with most orphanages out in the colonies, the one the two resided in was over crowded, and the two boys were forced to steal on a regular basis. Every night the young Christian boys prayed to be adopted and taken away from the miserable existence they resided in. Their wish would be granted to a degree.

Training
"She was asking for it..."

- Cody defending his action of tripping Lacy as she exited the Pelican onto Onyx

One day, a man would come, and would speak to both Cody and Jay individually, and made them both the same offer of revenge, one they both accepted. Taken aboard a ship and placed in cryosleep, when the two awoke they were given clothes with the letter ‘B’ and seemingly random numbers on it, then loaded onto pelicans by shouting men completely unaware of what was going on. Cody sat beside his closest friend in silence, minding his own business when a girl with fiery red hair began to pick on the boy.

Though it was just teasing about the size of his head, Cody took the remarks to heart, remaining completely silent as he awaited their landing. As they landed and began to unload, Jay urged Cody to take action against the girl, and he did. As she walked down the ramp, quick swipe of the leg from Cody tripped the girl and lead to her falling face first. The girl, whose name was Lacy, would arise from the ground fuming with anger and moved to assault Cody, but was stopped in her tracks by a burly man in military gear. This man yanked Cody aside and began screaming at him angrily, only becoming more agitated when Cody informed him that his name was in fact Cody, not “Candidate 042”.

Shoved into formation, Cody stood and looked on in awe at the sight of a titanic green armored warrior promised them the chance of a lifetime, a chance to be like him, to slaughter the Covenant in droves like they’d done them. After the speech he was forced back into the dropships and handed a parachute as all the others were. Cody and some others deduced why they were given the packs, but unlike said others who were horrified, Cody who’d dreamt of being in the ODSTs, was excited. Pushing his way towards the rear of the dropship, the eager boy stumbled into the same girl from before. Unlike before she was not mean, she was too afraid of what was being asked of them. Determined not to let the girl pass up such a chance he did his best to motivate her, but when she was up to jump fear still had her. So he pushed her out, and jumped after her.

When both of them landed, instantly she slugged the laughing Cody in the face. Doing his best Cody tried and somewhat and succeeded in explaining his reasoning, getting the girl to stop hitting him before the DIs arrived to lead them away. From this moment on a rivalry was born. Shuttled off to the mess hall the children were fed, then shown to their dorms. Cody would desperately search for Jay, eventually finding his friend and trying to bunk with him. However big men with batons came in and forced the children into groups, which resulted in Cody being stuck with none other than Lacy, and two other children. Cursing his bad luck, Cody made his best effort to stick with the other boy in the team, Kevin, while Lacy stayed close to Sarah, the other girl.

For years to come the group known as fire team Bravo, would eat, sleep, train, and learn together. Though relations were initially rough between Lacy-B121 and Cody-B042, the efforts made by Sarah-B222 and Kevin-B398 would smooth things out to allow for the team to work together smoothly. With a combination of enthusiasm and determination, Cody rose to team leader, securing the position after his actions in one of the “ring the bell” exercises. With his team pinned down by a combination of automated turrets and Alpha Company washout DIs, Cody took control of the situation by voluntarily drawing fire to get his team into position. Despite taking multiple hits, Cody still led his team out of the trap and to the objective before collapsing. B042’s complete willingness to sacrifice himself in order to achieve success won him the respect of his subordinates.



Throughout training Cody showed exceptional talent in close quarters, besting numerous members of the company. Eventually he and the leader of fire team Whiskey, none other than Jay-B031 would square off in a grueling close quarters duel, fighting to a draw. It was then the two were pitted against one trainee, SPARTAN-B312, and despite putting up a ferocious fight, the two 11 year olds were both beaten. Angered and humiliated, the two friends made it a point to ambush B312 with MA5Ks loaded with TTR. Despite the disciplinary actions taken, both remained in the program, and took their respective teams to the UNSC ‘’Hopeful’’ in orbit for augmentations.

In the weeks following, Cody, Bravo, and the rest of Beta Company were given their respective suits of SPI Mark II, and adapted to their recent augmentations. Then when the time came, the newly christened Spartans of Beta Company shipped out.

Operation:CARTWHEEL
"You bastards set this up, all of it…"

- HEADHUNTER Operative Jonah upon discovering the true purpose of the Covenant presence on the moon

In early 2545 eight fire teams out of Beta, including Bravo, were pulled by ONI Section III to assist in the operation simply dubbed, CARTWHEEL. With two teams of the elite HEADHUNTERs were sent in ahead of the team to clear the outlying Covenant camps surrounding a dig site of extreme importance to ONI.

When the HEADHUNTER teams failed to report in, the decision to send in the remaining Spartans was made, and the teams went in. Upon landing the forces of Beta rallied up and began their push into the supposed dig site. Cutting down the oddly light Covenant defenses, Beta found themselves at a dead end, with a detachment of a new kind of Spec-Ops elite at their backs.

Backed against the wall, the detachment of Beta did what any good soldiers would do; they fought like rabid dogs. While the HEADHUNTER teams were undoubtedly more skilled, the combined fire of a fully armed SIII platoon managed to hold their own.

Bravo would fight ferociously, reminding the Covenant why they’d set a trap for the rage filled children in the first place. At one point, one of the elites manages to get close enough to injure B121, slicing a gash into her abdominal region before Cody intervened personally. Hitting the elite twice with buckshot from his M45 tactical shotgun to daze it, he proceeded to engage the beast in hand to hand. Despite being scathed by the energy sword, B042 would bury his blade in the elite’s eye, then snap its neck with brutality unseen before.



Rallying under and fire team Foxtrot, the Beta’s pushed their way out of the trap. Finding themselves out of the trap with numerous injured, the able bodied SIIIs formed a perimeter while the more medically inclined SIIIs did their best to stabilize the injured. Cody personally oversaw B121s treatment, and failed to leave her side at any point until they were back on board the ‘’All Under Heaven’’.

This behavior was noted by the other members of the company, and became a small joke to a degree. Over the course of training the once bitter rivals had become extremely close, even sparking rumors of a possible romantic relationship. To a degree, they were correct, as B042 and B121 shared a mutual affection for each other. But, besides Cody holding her hand whilst she was injured, there was no solid evidence to prove to presence of such feelings.

Operation:TORPEDO
"They said all of us wouldn’t make it out, truth is none of us did. Even those of us that survived, had a part of ourselves die there, and we all felt the rest of us should have. I still wonder every night if it was worth it. I still see their faces in my sleep, hear their voices in my mind."

- Cody when questioned about TORPEDO



Later on in 2545, Cody and all others of his company were called together and briefed on their next assignment, a daring raid on the Covenant shipbuilding yards on Pegasi Delta. The mission was to overload the reactors and destroy the shipyards. As the company split off for their individual fire team assignments, Bravo found themselves as one of the several teams tasked with placing the EMP charges on the reactor. B042 knew good and well the assignment was one of the most dangerous ones included in the mission, and that when they were told there would be casualties, it was the cold truth. Aboard the ‘’All Under Heaven’’ Cody isolated himself to the firing range, for hours on end he would expend numerous magazines for his MA5K in an attempt to calm his mind. Already he had seen his brothers and sisters come close to death, and now he would seem some meet their end. They were Spartans, they were supposed to be unstoppable, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose had promised them they’d be unstoppable, yet there he stood with death’s shadow looming over.

When deployment time came, Cody met up with Bravo and loaded in to their specialized drop pods alongside them. Then, for six hours he like all the other children would be confined to the pod with nothing but their own thoughts as they neared their target, Operation: TORPEDO had officially begun. As they exited the slipspace rupture and entered the atmosphere the Covenant opened up with anti-aircraft fire. Amidst the fiery inferno of scorching plasma, Cody could only watch in horror as Sarah-B199’s pod was struck by the AA, careening into another pod and bursting into a ball of fire. He hadn’t even hit the ground and he’d already lost one of his own.

Upon landing conflict instantly found B042, who was only able to blow off the door to his pod before coming under fire. Taking cover, Cody would utilize the Semi-Powered Infiltration armor’s camouflage systems to flank the patrol of jackals and grunts and execute them with startling efficiency. Rallying up with Bravo and the rest of Beta Company, Cody charged the facility. With seraph fighters screamed overhead once again Cody watched helplessly as more of his comrades’ fell. As the tide of Spartans slammed into the facility, Bravo took up position alongside team Kilo. With ruthless efficiency Cody mowed down Covenant forces. For a time the battle was in their favor, but when Covenant reinforcements appeared.

Within second the Omega order followed, and retreat was ordered. With the enemy surrounding them, choices were made. Bravo, Foxtrot, and Whiskey entered the facility to destroy the generators. As the teams rushed in, Whiskey and Bravo would move together. Though initially successful, as they neared their target, the facility’s overseer, a Field Marshall would confront them with two other Zealots. In the ensuing all out brawl the Spartans managed two kill the escorts and beat back the Covenant leader, but at a cost. Jack-B001, Mary-B176, Alexis-B089, and Kevin-B398 were all killed, and Lacy was horridly injured.



Carrying the last surviving member of his team in his arms with his best friend as his side, the Spartans made a mad dash for the sea. But the battle was not over, still alive, the Field Marshal rushed out and engaged the Spartans. Like his parents before him, Jay-B031 sacrificed himself, shoving Cody and Lacy into the sea and charging the elite. In a brief scuffle, the veteran elite beat the Spartan to his knees and wretched the helmet from his head. The warrior would live only long enough to see that it had been children that had decimated his facility and slaughtered his warriors, then he, a smiling Jay, and anyone not under water were atomized as the facility exploded.

Swimming to the evacuation point, an exhausted Cody detached most of his and the now unconscious Lacy’s armor and hobbled into the CALYPSO exfiltration craft that awaited them. Once aboard, the battered and traumatized SPARTAN-III initiated the craft’s liftoff and turned to treating B121. Though he’d passed his first aid courses, Cody was by no means a medic. He did his best to stabilize his friend, stopping the bleeding and preforming assisted field surgery, with some help from the medical functions of the CALYPSO, but she would still never fight again. With a portion of her spinal cord severed, B121 would become paralyzed from the waist down. Exhausted and traumatized, Cody would collapse beside his friend and slip into a dreamless sleep.

Rehabilitation, Reassignment, Rearmament
"Train more kids do be sent to their death or work to prevent the need of them? Not much of a question."

- Cody when asked if he wished to return to Onyx to train Gamma Company, or begin working in the field.

Awakening onboard the ONI Cruiser ‘’I Am Your Father’’ B042 was almost immediately subjected to a detailed debriefing and a psychological assessment. Throughout the assessment Cody remained silent and void of emotion, fearing that like was to traumatized to speak, ONI prepared to take similar action. Only then would Cody speak, first agreeing to work as a field agent, then questioning the whereabouts of B121. The shrink would not answer his question, and merely assured Cody that she was alive and that his superiors would be tremendously pleased with his decision.

Three weeks of physical rehabilitation later, Cody was lead off to Reach and run through an intensive training program over the span of three months. The program would acclimate B042 to life as a lone operator and promoted self-sufficiency over team based tactics. For the better half of the first month B042 was battered bruised, and beaten by instructors, constantly caught off guard as he was used to a teammate having his back. However this all changed when one DI, formerly of the SPARTAN-II program attempted to beat Cody with a shock baton. The man had made the grave error of thinking Cody was still a harmless child, and failed to note that the SIII held rank on him. In the ensuing scuffle, B042 killed the instructor and plead self-defense and cited the man’s crime of assaulting a superior.

After the incident Cody began to improve as what could be speculated as being paranoia set in. For two months his skills grew and grew until ONI deemed him ready for action. At this stage, he and two other Beta Company SIIIs were cast into the forests of Reach and ordered to hunt down and subdue each other. Outfitted with the SPI Mark III, a variant issued to HEADHUNTER teams