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}
{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}