spartan051 | (no subject)

Whereas Kurt had never been a big fan of sweets and preferred crunchy or salty and savory snacks. Once they'd fetched their food, he and Matt wandered over to sit across from Mendez who was still slowly puffing away at his cigar.

When they'd been children, Mendez had been a fierce and merciless trainer who meted out verbal abuse and occasionally a swift kick in the ass. Normally, this was what a drill instructor was expected to do but they'd been six year old children. It had been strange to be reunited with the man only to himself on a more equal footing with the man who'd made their childhood hell. More than that, Kurt had technically outranked the Chief but thankfully for the both of them, he'd never harbored any resentment towards the man.

After all...he'd taught them how to survive and crafted them into the best soldiers humanity had ever seen. And over the years, a friendship had grown between them and he offered the older man a warm smile as he sat down. "Evening, Chief."

"Kurt," he squinted at Matt for a moment as though taking in his black eye and bruised status. "Bite off more than you can chew, Matt?"

While Kurt had years to adjust to the new relationship with Mendez, Matt hadn't. At all. There was still a bit of flinch that came with the other man talking to him, still a bit of that kid used to obeying when the DI shouted that he should jump to it. Their interactions here had helped with that some, but not enough for him to not want to apologize as a knee jerk reaction when Mendez asked him that.

Good thing he'd gotten used to giving COs a moment of silence before he spoke. And that he'd gotten used to avoiding talking too much to anyone but Kurt. Even the training SPARTANs got rather curt comments.

"No. They're lacking. Communication issues."

Mendez for his part seemed to realize that and had treated Matt thus far with a polite sort of patience like he was just a new recruit and new DI rather than a kid he'd once known. The soldier man seemed to mull that over for a moment and chewed on his cigar thoughtfully.

"There's a world of difference between the training grounds and the front." Mendez put in gruffly.

"Matt is thinking we shake things up and swap out members of the fire teams so they learn to work with people outside of their familiar squads."

Mendez grunted and continued to chew on that poor cigar. "Could work. It's a bit late in the game to be playing footsie though, ain't it?"

"We might be able to push graduation back a few weeks, buy ourselves some time."

"Ackerson ain't the patient type, Kurt."

"I know, Chief. But I want to give them the best chance they have." Kurt said heavily and poked at his food briefly before taking a rather sullen bite.

"Want them to survive."

It could be a question, it could be a statement, it could just be the intention of the change that Matt was proposing. He'd gotten good at saying a lot, perhaps all three of those things, with a single statement. Apparently Kurt was pretty lucky to get as much out of Matt as he did.

"Three sessions. Hand to hand with me. By first they'll get it. By third they'll win."

Of that he has faith. They need something. Not much more, but they need more.

"Not like my class," Matt said at last. "Not unified. Lacking something."

Something he hoped to make sure of next pass. They needed a center. They needed a John. Or a Kurt. Either worked.

"Son, we all want them to survive. We all know it ain't right what ONI is doing to these kids. It's a god-awful waste of talent and time spent training these Spartans only to toss them into the meat-grinder like they're regular infantry." Some of that familiar fire could be seen in Mendez now, a sharpness both men were all too familiar with.

"We'll make the time. Beta's team cohesion was better than Alpha's but in the end they still got wiped out. We need to do better this time."

The unspoken 'I need to do better' seemed to resonate in the air for a moment and Mendez was now scowling fiercely and it was obvious the older man wanted to say something but he kept his peace for now.

"Been infantry," Matt answers. He knows what it's like to be in that grinder. How important communication is. He doubts Mendez knows that. Knows Kurt would from what parts of his files that his brother would have been cleared for. "Teamwork survives."

Still, Kurt's words get Matt's attention. He's so lucky they are in public where he can't smack Kurt upside the head for being too hard on himself. He does kick Kurt under the table. Nope. No self-pity. Drive to do better is more useful for everyone.

"Use designation 'III' here?" he asks.

He knows from what he's been read in that it's official. But he's curious as to whether it's something the kids themselves have heard.

That earned him a curious look from the Chief. "Really? That where you ended up then?" It was probably the first personal question Mendez had ever asked him. When Kurt had shown up with Matt and the brazen idea he was going to voluntarily kidnap him into their little black bag operation, the old soldier hadn't been without his reservations.

But he recognized that having another set of experienced hands, especially Spartan wasn't without it's merits. Sure, Matt had washed out of the program because of his body's inability to handle the augmentation procedures but Mendez had known he would be at the very least, a capable soldier.

Of course, not ever soldier had what it took to teach.

Kurt winced a little at the sharp kick against his ankle from underneath the table but doggedly continued to chew on his piece of Salisbury steak. "We just call them Spartans. ONI's the ones who worry about numbers." He said after he swallowed his bite and reached for the mug of coffee he'd poured for himself.

"Every class has their own internal designations. This time around, we're using various weapons for fire teams. Betas were military phonetics. So you've got your Fire Team Katana, Fire Team Saber and the like." Mendez explained. "I'm sure you've noticed the fact that all the kids are G designations before their Spartan tag. Just like Tom and Lucy are Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091 respectively. That's just more ONI bullcrap book-keeping. Cause they knew we might have repeats of first names throughout the various classes."

Good, Matt didn't need to have that whole concept that these kids weren't as good. They were just different. So he nods his approval at that comment.

"For a while," he confirms to Mendez. Which of course says there is plenty of time that didn't get accounted for like that. "Punched a Sangheili head off once."

Kurt and Mendez both would have had something to say to anyone who tried to say the Spartan-III's weren't as good as their predecessors.

"Hn, good." Was all the grizzled old soldier had to say on that apparently.

Kurt was steadily making his way through his entree and had moved onto the reconstituted freeze-dried mashed potatoes. While Matt and the Chief continued to talk he moved the pudding cup off of his tray and slid it over towards Matt's tray instead. "Are you thinking of just randomizing the order or are you thinking of experimenting with different types of personalities and specialties?"

He asked his brother in between bites of those truly mediocre, gritty potatoes.

More pudding? Matt spares a smile for Mendez. Yeah, good way to bribe him, thanks.

"Randomize. Make them think on their feet. Communicate. No one from same team though. AI could manage. When done, back to their fireteams."

He isn't breaking them up. He's teaching them to talk, like he had to learn with Freelancer.

"Very well, I'll have Endless Summer draw up a randomized training program. I'm sure he'll be thrilled." The sarcasm in Kurt's voice wasn't lost on Mendez who scoffed to himself.

Onyx's newest smart AI was nothing like hie predecessors and was generally a pain in the ass to deal with. But it had been installed on Onyx to help them train the Gammas and so help him, the AI would do its duty. Even if there was a part of Kurt that regretted the fact that Deep Winter had been retired from service if only because he had been much easier to deal with and seemed to actually care about the fate of the III's.

"Ponce," Matt declares the AI. FILSS was better, and he knew she wasn't Smart AI. Which made him wonder why the whole mess was what it was. Ship AI, he'd heard a bit of. Had theories there.

"But sooner better."

Give them a few days to think about their failure before the second.

"That might be too generous but he is necessary for the day to day running of the camp and our training program." Kurt jerked one shoulder up in a shrug and finished the last few bites of food left on his tray.

"I agree, tomorrow though we'll gather the troops and we can explain to them why they failed so miserably in attacking you and how important communication is within a team."

Mendez grunted quietly and looked vaguely grumpy about the whole thing.

Really, Mendez? Matt raises his hand to his throat, touches the scars.

"Communication issues," he says. This is why you do it, this is why it's important. "Almost died. Got here, good. But otherwise? Bad."

Gets people killed, and you need to deal with that.

Mendez was just a cantankerous old goat though it wasn't their suggestion that he necessarily disagreed with but rather the amount of finagling they had to do to in order to finish out the Gamma's training before Ackerson came down on Kurt like a bag of bricks.

"I got that, son, and don't necessarily disagree with you. It's just we're already making heavy weather trying to get these kids trained by the deadline ONI has graced us with."

"We'll make it up somehow, Chief. Hopefully, this won't take more than a week or so to iron out the wrinkles in their team composition."

"You're the boss."

Matt himself was working though his food a bit slower, until he had himself down just to the three things of pudding. He rushes through two of those, and takes the last one as a slow final touch to his meal. Probably not good for him, but he didn't care. It was worth it.

"Should have faith in you both," Matt counters, hardly amused at the idea. "Not mindless tools."

Kurt and Mendez both shared a frown that spoke whole volumes of unstated commentary.

"Ackerson is..."

"He's a right son of a bitch. ONI to the fucking core and he might be behind the Spartan-III program but I don't rightly know why since he obviously doesn't value their lives." Mendez put in roughly, not one to mince words.

"In his eyes, it's the cost of war, of the survival of humanity." Kurt added softly. "He doesn't like the fact we've been expanding our training a year more with each class. But it's obvious they need that training."

Well now Matt was raising an eyebrow at that. That was very straight-forward. Not something he was used to before this. Still, he nods and listens.

"Sounds like old CO," he observes softly. But he won't say more on that.

"War needs to end. Faith in John."

Mendez had just gotten more blunt in the ensuing years and thankfully for him, Kurt seemed to accept and welcome that plain-spoken manner.

"There's too many CO's like that in this war." Kurt said with a dark look on his face. The mention of John seemed to lighten his mood a little bit thought.

"I have faith in John and the rest of our brothers and sisters out there. Especially Linda." Of course he had faith in her, she had been Green team first after all.

"Green team to end the war," Matt mumbled, raising his water in a quiet salute to Linda.

Not that Kurt wasn't bleeding for that same purpose, just in a different way. At least Linda hadn't turned up MIA yet. That... that would probably kill Matt from pain alone. It had been hard enough to lose Kurt.

"Always, can't let Blue Team win when it really counts." Kurt agreed and shot Matt a conspiratorial smirk because they might be forty years old but some things just never got old. And inter-team rivalry was one of them.

Mendez just rolled his eyes heavenward in exasperation. "You two are gonna set a bad example for the Gammas with talk like that."

"Nonsense, a little competitive spirit is healthy." Right a little competitive spirit indeed. If it was one thing that seemed to breed true in all Spartans was they were competitive as hell.

"I don't see them here," Matt counters. But Mendez isn't wrong. See, the thing is that these SPARTANS will be working in mass, rather than as units. So it's important that they work together. Competitive spirit isn't as good here.

"So, it's possible to do it? The fight I want?"

"I know, I know, I just forgot how ridiculously competitive you II's could be." The old solider snorted and shook his head but there might have been a subtle softening to those dark eyes.

"Absolutely. Kurt, I'll deal with Endless Summer, why don't you make sure Matt there gets his wounds looked at. Another thing I remember is the propensity for II's to try and downplay their injuries." This was said with an arch look as the chief climbed to his feet.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Chief. But I appreciate you taking point on this." Kurt said with a completely straight face.

"You made us that," Matt shrugged off Mendez's comment.

Really? His eyes roll. How does Matt even begin to explain that he's perfectly fine. What would be the point of downplaying injuries? He's learned a lot over the years about how an injury can do you in. A black eye is nothing.

"Thanks," he says, because all he cares about is getting the new SPARTANs ready.

"Bah," Mendez scoffed as he climbed to his feet so he could get starred with drawing up the list they would implement.

"His bark is worse than his bite." Kurt said with both humor and affection in his voice. "A realization I only came to after I was an adult, mind you. And one I hope our Gammas dob't figure out any time soon."