"Don't need to, I know how cold that water is." He'd had to dive in to rescue one of the Alphas because apparently he'd grown up at the edge of a desert and hadn't known how to swim very well.
It was probably one of Matt's better ideas because Kurt could fight downright dirty if the situation called for it, something Matt had figured out first hand during training.
Still... After a few more lengths Matt starts to slow. Slows to consider the water flowing beside them. And finally he comes to a stop.
"I haven't seen a river since we were young. Or anything on the scale. Trees haven't been for a while too. I've had nearly only urban engagements. All of this..."
He shakes his head. "I could see it. All those books people write about nature? I can see the appeal I think."
Kurt slowed to a halt as well and stood next to Matt on the riverbank.
He listened without comment when his brother spoke of what he'd seen in the last twenty years, how he'd been stuck pretty much doing mainly urban environmental combat and the like.
"I love this planet. Sure, the climate can be pretty hot and muggy but who can complain about views like this?" He asked, gesturing to the river and the shadow of trees across the bank. "Come on, I want to show you my favorite place on the planet." He indicated for Matt to follow him as he melted back under the canopy of trees. This time, Kurt lead him deeper into the jungle but eventually, they found themselves on a dirt road that had been obviously pounded flat by countless boots over the years.
Eventually, they reached the Tree House which was perched ridiculously high up in the air, nestled among the gargantuan limbs of a huge banyan tree. "We call it the Tree House. Gives us an uninterrupted three hundred and sixty degree view for more than forty clicks."
Kurt had honestly forgotten about Matt's unease with heights.
"Oh. Well, I would never kick you off a 100 floor building. Well, without a parachute or a jet pack." He corrected himself with a smile and an affectionate clap to his brother's shoulder.
"But hey, if you're too chicken, I'm not going to force you." Oh yes, he went there. Kurt was smirking as he walked away from his brother and headed towards the stairs that was built into the very tree leading upwards towards the platform.
"I had a rope attached to a window washing unit," Maine muses, but that isn't nearly enough. "Had to do some ODST style-insertion before too."
Yeah, that's not cool for him. As for being called a chicken, he shrugs it off. And waves Kurt on. Go get your great view. There is no value to the height for him right now.
"As you can see, there are no window washing machines here so that will not be a problem." Kurt said lightly but didn't so much as blink an eye at the latter because he'd had to endure some pretty hairy jumps himself and didn't even consider that outside the norm.
"You do realize you will have to climb this tower eventually in the course of your duties, right? We use it to observe the trainees during their training exercises." Kurt called down to him as he paused in climbing the stairs. "And you'd best pray Mendez doesn't find out. He hasn't softened up that much with old age." No, the man was still harder than men half his age and just as cantankerous as Matt probably remembered.
"Uh huh, just know I'm totally judging you right now." Kurt said with a hefty dose of amusement in his voice.
Still, it seemed rather pointless for him to continue on by himself. Sure, he'd like Matt to see the fantastic lightshow Onyx often put on thanks to it's unusually heavy magnetic field that made for some truly spectacular aurora borealis.
After a moment, he started back down the stairs to rejoin his brother on the ground.
"Judge as you will," Matt shrugs off. He'll see it sooner or later. Sure, he feels bad for letting his brother down in this, but his life lately has not been big on heights. Let him have what peace he can get.
Still, after a moment he feels bad, and with a sigh he moves forward. Which is just as Kurt is coming down.
"Up," he grumbles, shaking his head. "But I'm not getting close to edges."
"I am, don't you worry." He said, shooting a grin down at Matt. In the shadows of this towering Banyan tree, it was hard to see Kurt but Matt could still see the flash of pale teeth when Kurt grinned at him.
Thanks to their augmentations, their night vision was better than the average human and thus he didn't miss the fact that Matt had moved to join him on the stairs.
"Heh, I promise, I'm not going to kick you off the edge. Or force you to use the zip line to get down." He said, chuckling quietly.
"Was kicked off the building less than an hour before my injury."
So yeah, recent enough history. He does follow Kurt up, silent the rest of the way as he refuses to let his brain process the height. He can do the calculations in his sleep.
"That won't happen here, I promise." Kurt reassured him with a clap on the shoulder before he turned to ascend the stairs. It took a few minutes for them to reach the top mainly because it was a hundred meters tall.
And as Kurt had promised, it was one hell of a view. They could see Currahee in the distance, a bright shining break in the near black forest tops. And further out north were the faint, blinking lights that indicated the parameter fence of Zone 67.
And overhead, the auroras were in full view, spinning all manner of colors above their heads. "You see those lights about thirty clicks out? That's Zone 67. Real ONI spook stuff going on there, we're not allowed anywhere near it."
The auroras get Maine standing there in awe, his eyes cast heavenward, his mouth slightly slack as he considers it. Stunning. Too bad Kurt draws his attention elsewhere. And there he gets to see the implication of secrets.
Kurt noticed Matt's momentary fascination with the auroras and he couldn't blame the man. They were part of the reason he enjoyed it out here. Sure, he could see them back at the camp but there was always some kind of light pollution unlike the Tree House which was far enough away from any sign of the Spartan camp that there wasn't much in the way of lights to distract from the view.
"Pretty spectacular, right? Onyx has an unusually strong magnetic field. It can play merry havoc with adequately shielded electronics but you can't beat the view." He said, sparing a look to the sky. Kurt would much rather talk about the auroras than whatever shady business was going down in Area 67.
"I'll be honest, I have no idea. Thirteen years ago, we lost a fire team in there and then ONI sweeps in and makes the whole area off-limits." He admitted with an unhappy look. "We never found X-Ray and ONI is about as forthcoming as you would expect."
And that had grated on him harshly, especially with the sense of failure he'd been wrangling with thanks to Alpha's failure.
"You sure they're dead and not dragged into ONI messes?" Maine asks.
After all, Kurt was dead. It sort of fit the operational parameters that made sense to him. At this point, Matt had trouble with the idea of anything ONI told them.
Kurt’s expression tightened into a grimace. “I sincerely hope not. But why would ONI bother to kidnap some soldiers from the black bag program they already have full control over? They could just transfer them out.”
But Matt had a point. After all, ONI was also behind the Spartan-II program yet Kurt had been shanghaied right out from under theirs and Catherine Halsey’s noses as well. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility they’d done the same here.
“I do sense there’s something strange going on out there. That’s the reason we have a smart AI. It deigns to share some of its operating capacity to help us out with our needs but mostly, it’s doing something over there. Either way? I don’t want any of our III’s poking their noses in there so be sure to give it a wide berth.”
Of course you couldn't trust ONI. Matt knew it better than some, but clearly not as much as Matt. And having their AI be shared with that definitely wasn't a good thing, right? Makes him frown as he looks out toward the place they aren't allowed.
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It was probably one of Matt's better ideas because Kurt could fight downright dirty if the situation called for it, something Matt had figured out first hand during training.
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"I haven't seen a river since we were young. Or anything on the scale. Trees haven't been for a while too. I've had nearly only urban engagements. All of this..."
He shakes his head. "I could see it. All those books people write about nature? I can see the appeal I think."
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He listened without comment when his brother spoke of what he'd seen in the last twenty years, how he'd been stuck pretty much doing mainly urban environmental combat and the like.
"I love this planet. Sure, the climate can be pretty hot and muggy but who can complain about views like this?" He asked, gesturing to the river and the shadow of trees across the bank. "Come on, I want to show you my favorite place on the planet." He indicated for Matt to follow him as he melted back under the canopy of trees. This time, Kurt lead him deeper into the jungle but eventually, they found themselves on a dirt road that had been obviously pounded flat by countless boots over the years.
Eventually, they reached the Tree House which was perched ridiculously high up in the air, nestled among the gargantuan limbs of a huge banyan tree. "We call it the Tree House. Gives us an uninterrupted three hundred and sixty degree view for more than forty clicks."
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"Still hate heights," he informs Kurt nervously as he considers the thing. "Got kicked off a 100 floor building, fuck, a month or so ago?"
Was it really so little time? Was it even that much?
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"Oh. Well, I would never kick you off a 100 floor building. Well, without a parachute or a jet pack." He corrected himself with a smile and an affectionate clap to his brother's shoulder.
"But hey, if you're too chicken, I'm not going to force you." Oh yes, he went there. Kurt was smirking as he walked away from his brother and headed towards the stairs that was built into the very tree leading upwards towards the platform.
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Yeah, that's not cool for him. As for being called a chicken, he shrugs it off. And waves Kurt on. Go get your great view. There is no value to the height for him right now.
"I like the look from here."
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"You do realize you will have to climb this tower eventually in the course of your duties, right? We use it to observe the trainees during their training exercises." Kurt called down to him as he paused in climbing the stairs. "And you'd best pray Mendez doesn't find out. He hasn't softened up that much with old age." No, the man was still harder than men half his age and just as cantankerous as Matt probably remembered.
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Because if he has orders, Matt will definitely climb for him. For now, though, he isn't quite willing to go up unless he has to.
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Still, it seemed rather pointless for him to continue on by himself. Sure, he'd like Matt to see the fantastic lightshow Onyx often put on thanks to it's unusually heavy magnetic field that made for some truly spectacular aurora borealis.
After a moment, he started back down the stairs to rejoin his brother on the ground.
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Still, after a moment he feels bad, and with a sigh he moves forward. Which is just as Kurt is coming down.
"Up," he grumbles, shaking his head. "But I'm not getting close to edges."
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Thanks to their augmentations, their night vision was better than the average human and thus he didn't miss the fact that Matt had moved to join him on the stairs.
"Heh, I promise, I'm not going to kick you off the edge. Or force you to use the zip line to get down." He said, chuckling quietly.
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So yeah, recent enough history. He does follow Kurt up, silent the rest of the way as he refuses to let his brain process the height. He can do the calculations in his sleep.
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And as Kurt had promised, it was one hell of a view. They could see Currahee in the distance, a bright shining break in the near black forest tops. And further out north were the faint, blinking lights that indicated the parameter fence of Zone 67.
And overhead, the auroras were in full view, spinning all manner of colors above their heads. "You see those lights about thirty clicks out? That's Zone 67. Real ONI spook stuff going on there, we're not allowed anywhere near it."
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"Are they allowed near us?"
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"Pretty spectacular, right? Onyx has an unusually strong magnetic field. It can play merry havoc with adequately shielded electronics but you can't beat the view." He said, sparing a look to the sky. Kurt would much rather talk about the auroras than whatever shady business was going down in Area 67.
"I'll be honest, I have no idea. Thirteen years ago, we lost a fire team in there and then ONI sweeps in and makes the whole area off-limits." He admitted with an unhappy look. "We never found X-Ray and ONI is about as forthcoming as you would expect."
And that had grated on him harshly, especially with the sense of failure he'd been wrangling with thanks to Alpha's failure.
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After all, Kurt was dead. It sort of fit the operational parameters that made sense to him. At this point, Matt had trouble with the idea of anything ONI told them.
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But Matt had a point. After all, ONI was also behind the Spartan-II program yet Kurt had been shanghaied right out from under theirs and Catherine Halsey’s noses as well. It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility they’d done the same here.
“I do sense there’s something strange going on out there. That’s the reason we have a smart AI. It deigns to share some of its operating capacity to help us out with our needs but mostly, it’s doing something over there. Either way? I don’t want any of our III’s poking their noses in there so be sure to give it a wide berth.”
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"That's going to bite us in the ass."