"Respect must be earned, yes. But they will obey and serve all the same because they are Spartans.” They had both had the displeasure of serving under superior officers who were only entitled to contempt at best, he suspected. But they still performed their duties because that was what it was to be Spartan.

“However, I doubt it will take you long to earn their respect.” Kurt wanted to tell him about Mendez also being on Onyx but he didn’t want to reveal too many details until he knew there was no chance of things going sideways. He’d already broken opsec enough to turn this into a clusterfuck but he didn’t want to count his chickens before they hatched so to speak.

“Heh, what can I say? I’m competitive and the last thing I wanted was to see John and Blue Team end up with Top Honors.” They were all competitive, it had been bred into them part of the conditioning and indoctrination. Even now, that determination to win had far-reaching effects on all of the Spartan-II graduates.