[video]

[kingtyrantranger]

[Oh, hey, seems like someone's finally figured out how to use the camera function on his omnicomm! He's just. Older. A lot older.]

For the record, I blame Gohan and Videl for this. We were just fine until they started jumping and skipping up and down the timeline.

It's pretty obvious what's going on, so let's not have a bunch of people freak out over someone being younger than they should be. Kids, don't do anything stupid. Adults, keep an eye out for the kids. Business as usual. We've been at this for over half a year now, no reason to fuck it up just because the status quo's been shaken a bit.

Comments

[steelandtemper]

Project Freelancer was a disgrace even by ONI standards.

[That's what he's talking about, right?]

Also, I'm not convinced it ever existed in my universe.

[kingtyrantranger]

I was thinking more the whole 'kidnap a bunch of helpless kids and turn them into killing machines' deal, but we can roll the idiots who attach scorecards to human lives up in there too, sure.

[steelandtemper]

Without the Spartans, every sapient being in the galaxy would be dead.

[She has her own doubts about the SPARTAN-II, but random outsiders from worlds that aren't in a state of total war are not allowed to shittalk it.]

[kingtyrantranger]

Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, but the evil aliens didn't show up until after your military stole seventy-five kids and experimented on them, right?

[steelandtemper]

Years before Harvest, the Insurrectionists detonated a high-yield nuclear weapon in the Haven arcology as part of a pattern of escalating terrorist attacks. It killed two million, injured over eight million more, and at least that many deaths occurred over the next decades as the result of radiation sickness and untreatable cancers caused by fallout, with a corresponding sharp spike in birth defects projected to last generations.

An Insurrectionist future would have repeated that pattern across a hundred worlds. SPARTAN-II was to prevent that future from happening. If you want to stand on the graves of millions and preach, fine, but I don't have to sit around and listen to it.

[She's not denying she's from a Crapsack World, she just objects to singling out the SPARTAN Project.

Well, SPARTAN-II. Trash SPARTAN-III all you want.]

[kingtyrantranger]

I can understand desperate times call for desperate measures. I've been through more alien invasions than just about anyone here, I can get that situation.

That doesn't make that 'necessary evil' any less evil.

[steelandtemper]

[She was serious about not sticking around to listen.

Of course she's still monitoring the thread because superpowered AI, but she's not engaging any further.]

[prettycoolguy]

Moot. It happened. We were necessary. We were trained. We were there when the Covenant came.

[ He's... very succinct. ]

video

[iamresponding]

I'll stand on the graves of millions and preach, whether you want to hear it or not.

The tech level in your universe didn't look that different from what we had in my universe during the Annihilation War. We were up against billions of omnicidal monsters and a weaponized Galactus.. We didn't use kidnapped child soldiers, and even though it was a close call, we still won.

So I'm calling bullshit.

What happened in your world was sick and it was wrong, and there were plenty of other things that could've been done.

Voice

[goddamngrenades]

All due respect: Could we not get on this particular roundtable again? And I'm saying this as someone that agrees with you here. People that can and will feel poorly about it? Do. People that can't or won't? Won't. Debating the point hasn't budged many minds here.

Voice

[iamresponding]

Fair enough.

Voice

[goddamngrenades]

Thanks. I'll buy you a beer or whatever your beverage of choice is later.

[prettycoolguy]

As one of those kidnapped child soldiers, I would do all of it again a thousand times before I'd risk humanity to the Covenant and the Flood.

[ John's voice does not rise, but he is extremely firm here. This is not your place, Nova Prime. ]

[goddamngrenades]

Chief- [ Shit. How to deescalate. ] It's moot, like you said. It happened. We're grateful for your service- shit, I'm grateful for what you and Cortana did.

[ But can they not? Please? ]

[prettycoolguy]

Not speaking to you, Locksmith.

[ ...But his tone lightens just slightly. He's not upset with York. ]

[goddamngrenades]

I know. I'm just- trying to nip this in the bud here? We've had variations on this argument for a few months now and the lines are pretty much carved in stone here. People might hop over it depending on how they feel but-

Minds aren't really changing, and that's okay. Shit happened. Shit will continue to happen. No one world or universe or dimension or whatever is, yanno. Without it's cockups or justifications or whatever but digging in on either side and 'debating' isn't really helping anyone at this point.

[ Shit, what else, what else-

He switches the comm to private for a moment. ]

Want me to get Wash? [ Support networks, they are a thing. ]

[prettycoolguy]

It's not an argument yet. I'm preventing it.

[ He's just telling Nova Prime why he's wrong. See? It's fine. ]

[ The rest is locked to York: ]

Why?

Private

[goddamngrenades]

Engaging doesn't always prevent discussions like this. Neither does stonewalling. Cortana had the right idea, ollying out. It's like she's smart or something.

[ Mostly smart. ]

He's your friend? This is- it's all sensitive shit. Under everything, the training, the stoic warrior- you're a guy. You've got a support network that's- well. Cortana and Wash predominantly. Cortana's with you and just as upset. I don't think Wash can help with her but- he can help you.

Permalock

[prettycoolguy]

There's no need for concern. I don't need supported right now.

[ Everyone needs to stop worrying about him. He's functional, therefore everything is completely fine, right? That was the UNSC's standard. The only standard that mattered. ]

5ever

[goddamngrenades]

...dude having someone to talk to or to sit there in comfortable silence while manfully not talking about shit is okay. There's more to living than being 'fine'.

[prettycoolguy]

It's not necessary for me to spread a problem when I can manage it.
Especially when there isn't one.

[ He's a little firmer here in the face of the insistence. ]

[goddamngrenades]

I'm gonna be a dick for half a second and mention that Spartans were most effective in teams.

And then I'm gonna stop being a dick and drop it. You say you're good-

okay. You're good.

[prettycoolguy]

None of you are Spartans.

[ He's quieter, the edge has backed off a bit. This is not an accusation, but an explanation, perhaps a regret. He may have friends in the Legion, he may be close to Wash in particular, but they're not Spartans and there are some things it's unlikely they're going to be able to understand. So many of them have had horrible things happen to them, but their experiences are still so different from his that their sympathy somehow makes him feel broken.

John has known his team for all of his life that matters, and hasn't seen any of them since the attack on Earth. For a moment, he misses them more bitterly than ever. At least Cortana is here, he can feel the sharp and frosty edge of her anger somewhere in his neural interface. She's not a Spartan either, but they also don't need to speak to be united in frustration here. ]

[iamresponding]

[Rich works his jaw and lets out a long exhale.]

During the war, I saw my fair share of, y'know, schools and -- I was there there when the nursery creches of Xinti --

[He just stops. It isn't that his train of thought stops before it leaves the station -- it derails and leaves no survivors. ]

[He'd already been protective of kids to start with, when the war started.]

I think stuff like this hits automatic rage buttons for a lot of us. And we all have our different ways of thinking because of all of our respective absolutely terrible experiences. And mine's not...

I wasn't rank and file. Mine is what it is because it was my call. It was always my call. And I felt a lot differently about my men than -- you know.

[...than all these absolute monsters he keeps hearing about.]

Sorry. I respect that you have your reasons to feel the way you do, even if I still disagree. And what's done is done. I'd be pissed if people were digging into my past bullshit too.

I'll stop the soldier trauma train here.

[prettycoolguy]

Good.

[ He appreciates that Rich is trying to do... something. Something that might be more meaningful if he were better at reading people, if he had a better socialized history to draw on. They've both seen the horrors of war. It smooths his feathers a little, but he still wants things to be very clear and very over. ]

If anyone's allowed to be angry about my past, it's me. I'm not. We're done here.

[ The Chief doesn't think of himself as traumatized, he's just... done what he had to. Moved past things that were in the way. Ignored pain of all kinds to keep fighting. And he's far from interested in talking it out here. ]