Halo 3: ODST Pre-mission Evaluation/Mickey

Mickey Interview
{Mickey enters the room}

Buck: Private, grab a seat.

{Mickey sits}

Buck: Under the table is a marker. Apply it to your right temple please.

Buck: Now, we're gonna think of a base line image, a river.

{Mickey's thoughts: A large river in the middle of a forest.}

Buck: That'll work.

{Mickey's thoughts: A blue ball bouncing on a floor and a toy robot.}

Mickey tries to adjust the marker.

Buck: State your name and rank. Private don't, don't touch the marker.

Buck: Son? Name and rank?

Mickey: My name's Mick- Michael Crespo; Private First Class.

Buck: Why are you here?

Mickey: Well sir, you've got something that needs flying or you need somebody to do some topside zero-g operations. I've done 3 HEV drops - nothing in the "big black". I aced EVA training - top nineteenth percentile of my class and before that I was a Crew Chief on a Pelican. So I have-

Buck interrupts

Buck: That's fine. But that's not exactly what I meant.

Buck: Your file says that you were a mandatory enlistment at 18 years old. Why mandatory?

{Mickey's thoughts: A locker room, all the lockers are marked with Roman Numerals, than focuses on locker #120.}

Mickey: When I turned 18, mandatory military service was a condition of release from foster care.

{Mickey's thoughts: A person putting down a lunch tray.}

Buck: What happened to your parents?

Mickey: They died when I was pretty young.

Buck: What happened to them?

Mickey: They died in an explosion, sir. They were trying to wire a bomb to a government building.

{Mickey's thoughts: A woman in a kitchen, she disappears, than the inside of a bomb.}

Buck: Your parents were Insurrectionists? Traitors?

Mickey: Yes sir, they were traitors. That's what I was told. No, I don't remember them. I was very young.

{Mickey's thoughts: Mickey running towards his parents.}

Buck: Now, after your two years of mandatory service, you could have gotten a job flyin' civi shuttles, earn good money, but you reenlisted? And then you put in for ODST? Why?

{Mickey's thoughts: A group of ODSTs putting on their gear.}

Mickey: I don't need much, sir. The corps takes pretty good care of me. If I'm gonna be fighting anyway, I want to be fighting with guys I know can cover my six. ODST is home.

{Classified Clip}

Buck: You ever been to Earth?

Mickey: I saw it through a window, on a training mission, sir.

Buck: Well you're about to see a little more of it.

Mickey: Covenant ship.

Buck: That's right. Now, how would you handle a covert extraction?

Mickey: Well, from a demo POV, I could probably be supplying the entrance or exit. Using a shaped charge perhaps, away from venting ducts, you know it echoes. Unless it's a ship then you'd use a plasma torch, but you’d have to watch out for decompression. I can work for you, but I guess it really depends on whether this is just a grab and run, sure.

Buck: Now what about precision demolition. You know, the kind they use in archaeological digs.

Mickey: Sir, why would we be using arc' demo on the Covenant?

{Classified Clip ends}

Buck: You've been the new guy with most of the squads you've operated with.

Mickey: Yes sir.

{Mickey's thoughts: Two men, one hits Mickey.}

Buck: Last pod in the drop's going to be a Rookie. Someone who's seen action, but I need somebody to keep an eye on him.

Mickey: Sir.

Buck: That's not a promotion. But you're not the new kid in school anymore.

Mickey: Sir.

Buck: In your file, you've got the standard personality indicators for a pilot your age: high creativity, risk-taker, daredevil pathology.

{Mickey's thoughts: A bomb which is quickly disarmed.}

Mickey: Yes, sir. I mean, I haven't seen my file, but I'd agree with all that.

Buck: That you all the way through?

Mickey: I run the missions, sir. As ordered.

Buck: That's good, private. That's very good. But, we need a little of that creativity before we're done.

Mickey: Yes sir, of course. Whatever you need.

Buck: Thank you, private. Are you educated, private?

{Mickey's thoughts: An empty classroom.}

Mickey: Yes, sir. There were courses at the facility.

Buck: What kind?

Mickey: Everything, sir. Work productivity tech. UNSC History.

Buck: What philosophers did you study?

Mickey: Sir?

Buck: Philosophers. Thinkers.

Mickey: There were speeches. Recordings from famous leaders.

Buck: Have these leaders ever talk about what comes after?

Mickey: Sir? After?

{Mickey's thoughts: An open door with a man behind it, as the door is approached the man shuts it.}

Buck: Private, can I assume that, were you put in the position to save the lives of every human being drawing breath today, you would do so?

{Mickey's thoughts: His mother in the kitchen again, speaking to him.}

Mickey: Yes, sir. Of course. Who wouldn't do that?

Buck: Dismissed. Take off the marker.

{Mickey takes the marker off his temple, gets up, and leaves the room}