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Niner wondered if Atin ever talked about anything but gear. His squad must have been a miserable bunch, with a miserable instructor. Clones might have looked utterly standardized to outsiders, but every squad was altered slightly by the cumulative effects of its experiences, including the influences of the individual trainers. Every commando battalion had its own nonclone instructor, and seemed to take on some of his—or her—unique characteristics and vocabulary.
Every squad developed its own dynamics, as well. It was part of their hardwired human biology. Put four men in a group, and soon you’d have a pecking order defined by the roles and foibles that accompanied them. Niner knew his, and he thought he knew Fi’s, and he was pretty sure he knew where Darman was heading. But Atin wasn’t sliding into place just yet.
More of Niner's POV about the commando training. I think we see here a small glimpse that Niner thinks fondly of his sergeant, especially when comparing himself to Atin and Atin's own sergeant.
Also this word of "pecking order" grabbed my attention, so I looked up in what context this is used:
::: The term of pecking order is used in relation of birds, but more commonly among social animals. Basically it is estabilishing an informal hierarchy among the group, where the birds with higher status can peck the lower one without retaliation, and lower birds has to submit themselves to pecking of the higher ones without question.
::: In human relation: think about professional workplace relationships where you are share workspace with LOTS of people and on paper these people are on the same rank as you, because they are your colleagues but not your bosses. But eventually you start to notice that there IS an unofficial hierarchy among the group. Now most people - especially nowadays - will deny that humans have any kind of relation to animals or having animalistic behavior. But if you ever get into a open conflict with an older co-worker/co-worker with more experience/co-worker who has bigger social circle, you will clearly see your place in that non-existent hierarchy.
::: In the prologue chapter, I mentioned my observation that Darman's Theta squad had a very loose hierarchy among them, so I assume that the rest of the Skirata squads are similiar?
::: Fi and Niner started out bad.
::: Darman feels reassured by Niner so far.
::: So far Fi and Atin also incompatible.
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Niner already knew he would have his work cut out with Atin and wondered if anything would trigger his natural urge to be one of the squad. He also wondered about his apparent negativity. He’ll shake down, sooner or later. He’ll have to.
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You know what I realized? That in the narrative, you can notice that humans (not just aliens) are compared to animals A LOT. Very high functioning social animals. It's just an interesting observation.
