Unfortunately, with the nest of vipers he worked with, such things were not unheard of. Especially since Ackerson had never particularly cared for the Spartan-II program and Kurt wasn’t one hundred percent certain the man even cared about the III’s despite his insistence on spearheading the project. How else could the man sacrifice three hundred brave souls at a time without so much as blinking an eye or questioning the price of their sacrifice? Or the amount of time and resources put into training them for entire classes of Spartan-III’s to be used and discarded like pawns on a chess board.
Kurt tried to avoid thinking about those things because they felt borderline treasonous in his mind but they nibbled at the back of his head at night when he lay in his bunk staring up at the ceiling. Those were the questions that plagued him and robbed him of his sleep at night; questions that drove him to do the most immoral of things in the name of the greater good.
There wasn’t so much as a flicker of recognition on the other II’s face when Maine admitted his callsign. Kurt had never heard of Project Freelancer. But why should he? He spent most of his time sequestered on Onyx, cut off from the war and news of any new magic bullet projects that had been thought up in hopes of ending the war now that Catherine Halsey’s Spartans were nearly spent in numbers.
“That sounds like it should be easy enough to remember. I’m Kurt Ambrose now, the rank is genuine and no, John has no idea a member of Green Team technically outranks him. And sadly, he will never know because I am for all intents and purposes, missing in action.” He trusted that Maine would be able to read between the lines. The new name, the faked death and the fact that he was on this remote, half-emptied med station practically screamed ONI and all manner of gag orders he couldn’t discuss.
“Jeromi runs the finest medical operation I’ve seen in the entire war, you’re definitely in the best of hands. And I’m glad they were able to able to save your voice, Maine.” They both knew that sort of injury could have been career ending otherwise. But what did you do with an ex-Spartan who had been injured so much they could no longer fight on the line? Kurt had heard rumors some of the wash-outs had ended up in ONI as data analysts and strategists.
But he didn't think that was the kind of life Matt would want. Not after he'd had a taste of the real action. Kurt knew that from first-hand experience.
no subject
Kurt tried to avoid thinking about those things because they felt borderline treasonous in his mind but they nibbled at the back of his head at night when he lay in his bunk staring up at the ceiling. Those were the questions that plagued him and robbed him of his sleep at night; questions that drove him to do the most immoral of things in the name of the greater good.
There wasn’t so much as a flicker of recognition on the other II’s face when Maine admitted his callsign. Kurt had never heard of Project Freelancer. But why should he? He spent most of his time sequestered on Onyx, cut off from the war and news of any new magic bullet projects that had been thought up in hopes of ending the war now that Catherine Halsey’s Spartans were nearly spent in numbers.
“That sounds like it should be easy enough to remember. I’m Kurt Ambrose now, the rank is genuine and no, John has no idea a member of Green Team technically outranks him. And sadly, he will never know because I am for all intents and purposes, missing in action.” He trusted that Maine would be able to read between the lines. The new name, the faked death and the fact that he was on this remote, half-emptied med station practically screamed ONI and all manner of gag orders he couldn’t discuss.
“Jeromi runs the finest medical operation I’ve seen in the entire war, you’re definitely in the best of hands. And I’m glad they were able to able to save your voice, Maine.” They both knew that sort of injury could have been career ending otherwise. But what did you do with an ex-Spartan who had been injured so much they could no longer fight on the line? Kurt had heard rumors some of the wash-outs had ended up in ONI as data analysts and strategists.
But he didn't think that was the kind of life Matt would want. Not after he'd had a taste of the real action. Kurt knew that from first-hand experience.