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Delta Team: Midnight Sakura Chapter 06 — Description

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Delta Team’s Temporary Townhosue

Karakura Town, The Greater Ark (Installation Zero)

Alan Willmore heard a knock at the door right before it opened. Alan, who was sitting on the couch watching the vid screen leaned over and gave a shout, “Bacon, is that you?”

“Yeah, its me,” responded Roy, “Lau is with me too.”

“Oh hey Lau,” said Alan with a cheerful greeting, “Are you still staying at that fancy hotel in the downtown area?”

“Yeah, family is already there,” responded Lau.

“Do you have plans on how to get back,” asked Alan, “Emily didn’t make arrangements for a vehicle for us.”

“There is a local public transit line here,” answered Lau, “Our local TranSys passes should work on it.”

“Ah, never thought of that,” said Alan as he rolled his eyes on his oversight, “Guess I have been space side too long.”

“Or on duty too long,” said Hamm, “We are one of the most active units out there.”

“True, which is why this R&R and is going to be so nice,” said Alan as he leaned backed against the couch.

“I got some bad news on that,” said Roy as he looked around for his other two teammates.

“Jack and Ava are at the gym,” answered Alan knowing why Roy was looking around, “and what’s this bad news Bacon?”

“Talked with Buck,” said Roy looking for a place to put his stuff down.

“Buck, as in Gunny Buck,” asked Alan for clarification.

“Yes, Councilman Edward Buck,” said Roy as he sat down on the couch.

“Tea is on the kettle in the kitchen,” said Alan noticing that Lau was walking into the kitchen. Alan then turned his attention back to Roy, “So Buck said he had a mission for us, didn’t he?”

“Several actually, one that will keep us busy for some time too, but that won’t be for a little while.”

“Okay, does he have something for us now,” asked Alan.

“Yes, they moved that Portal Device to one of the facilities here,” said Roy.

“You mean that Stargate looking thing?”

“Yep, that one. They are going to be sending expeditions through it to explore more of the galaxy. We are number one pick for it and they are going to pay handsomely for it.”

“Well handsomely with MRCs,” said Lau joining the conversation with a cup of Oolong Tea.

“MRCs,” asked Alan not knowing what the acronym stood for.

“Mission Resource Credits,” filled in Lau, “We can use it exclusively to purchase supplies and equipment from Republic, both UNSC and allied alien species like the Swords of Sanghelios.”

“Anything else we have to buy with normal credits or trade with normal supplies like any other independent trader,” added Roy.

“Interesting,” said Alan as his face got slightly concerned, “Bacon not wanting to spoil it all, but…”

“Yeah, I have the same fear of how this could lead to corruption,” finished Roy, “But apparently Brass and leaders of our society believe the current safe guards are good enough.”

“Still..,” said Alan not entirely convinced.

‘You’re preaching to the choir,” said Roy as he pulled out his small computer to check his messages.

“Honestly from a moralistic standpoint, it's better that Delta-Team is part of the Guardian program,” said Lau, “If one of the Guardian Team’s goes rogue, we can take them out.”

“Don’t think I like the sound of that anymore,” said Alan staring out into space, as he thought of the scenario, “Don’t like the idea of taking out other Spartans or allied Sangheili outside of the holotank.”

“Me neither,” said Hamm as he looked at this messages. One message from HIGH COM caught his attention. A please looked fell upon the Commander’s face, “Good we got him.”

“Paul,” asked Lau.

“Yes, he is back with Delta,” said Roy.

Alan gave Roy a confused look, “But isn’t Paul the commander of the..?”

“Unfortunately, the project was going too well, and they want a Sangheili Shipmaster to lead the Master of Olympus.”

“That sucks,” answered Alan, “So he is going to be serving as Serenity’s Shipmaster?”

As soon as Alan asked the question, which both Roy and Lau gave each other significant glances at each other with uneasy smile, a priority message came through Alan’s personal communication device. The message came from Flight Lieutenant Sanders, which simply read: What the HELL IS GOING ON?!?

“Ah,” said Alan, “I got a strange text from Sanders.”

Alan’s communication device began to ring and buzz, as Sander’s was trying to get a direct line of communication to him.

“Transfer to the link to vid screen there,” said Roy, “I best be the one to answer this.”

“What’s going on Bacon,” said Alan as he transferred to the vid call to the screen located in the room.

“LC, oh good Commander you are here,” said Sanders who was obviously furious, “How was your meeting with the higher ups?”

“It could have been better,” said Hamm dreading on how the conversation was going to play out.

“I bet it could have been, who did you piss off,” asked Sanders.

“No one,” said Alan who was still not aware that Serenity was transferred to another unit, “Our team made Guardian status, so the whole crew should be part of the Guardian teams too.”

“He is right,” said Hamm, “Unfortunately we don’t have a ship.”

Stunned by the delivery of the news Alan looked at Roy, “What?”

“Navy believes that the ship should go to a research unit, due to its history of damage,” answered Roy trying not to make eye contact with either Sanders or Alan.

“We are getting another ship though,” said Lau trying to save the situation.

Thankfully for the Commander, Jacqueline O’Connor and Ava Cephon walked into the room to break the tension. Roy quickly ended the transmission with Sanders to greet his two Spartans.

“Hey Commander, what’s up,” said Jack in a cheerful and relaxed mood, which was very uncharacteristic of most Spartans. Yet it was this uncharacteristic nature of the Delta Team Spartans that made them different from other units, better or for worst.

“Bacon lost Serenity,” dropped Alan.

“What? How,” asked Jacqueline confused what was going on.

“Did you crash it trying to pilot it out of space dock,” joked Ava.

“The ship is fine,” said Roy who was getting annoyed, “She was just reassigned to a scientific team.”

“So how are we going to get around,” asked Alan curious about the future of the team.

“Well, Paul and I are going to figure things out,” reassured Roy, “Besides our next series of missions aren’t going require us to have one.”

“Excuse me Hamm,” interrupted Jacqueline, “Aren’t we suppose to be standby for ONI with Cortana being here?”

“Yes, which is why the team is going to be split between those two missions,” answered Roy, “At least two of us will be stay in Karakura on security detail, while at least two others members will be lead expeditions through the portal that was recently brought here.”

“How long are the portal expeditions suppose to last,” asked Alan curious how long the duty shifts would be.

“Four to six hours,” said Roy as he handed out several data pads to his teammates with more details, “of course sometimes those missions could last longer.”

“Damn,” cursed Jacqueline over a small detail in the mission orders, “duty days we are required to wear training BDUs regardless of deployment.”

“They originally wanted us to wear full BDUs or our undersuits,” said Roy, “but I convinced the operational commander to relax the requirement with us being slightly on R&R.”

“Are they shipping our armor to us,” asked Ava, “Or are we operating light?”

Roy checked his communication device, “They are suppose to be shipping them to us, but we can expect to go light if need be.”

“Suppose to be shipping,” asked Alan who was concern tone in his voice.

Lau quickly grabbed his communication device to see what the hold up was, “Armor was suppose to depart an hour ago and arrive later this evening with Liyet.”

Suddenly several wave message came through to all the Spartans, upon reading it Roy let out a sigh, “Well that explains the hold up on our armor.”

“I just got a wave from Liyet,” said Lau, “Odd, there seems to be some sort of communication black out, we are just now getting our messages in.”

“That's odd,” said Alan as he looked more carefully at his messages, “wonder what cause that.”

“Commander, have you read message about our armor,” said Jacqueline as she looked at Roy and then at Ava, “Didn’t you get the message?”

“No, what does it say,” asked Ava. Jacqueline handed her, her communication device to read the message:

Dear Spartan Participants,

Thanks you for your participation in the Mark VII testing program. As you know the MVII was the most advance GEN1 MJOLNIR system in the UNSC Inventory. Even with its high maintenance and cost, the lessons learned from your use and testing of the armor has helped bring huge leaps in developmental technology. We hope you found the armor to be highly effective, but unfortunately we will have repossess your armor for final evaluations and later decommissioned. As our way of saying thank you, we will be rewarding all Spartans with the opportunity to acquire the GEN2.8 MJOLNIR armor undern suits, which are; stronger, faster, more protective, and slightly lighter then both GEN2 and MKVII.

Again thank you for your participation in the program,

-Rob

“Well that is unfortunate,” said Ava, “I didn’t get the message cause I have GEN2.5.”

“Well aren’t you special,” snapped Alan who was greatly frustrated how the team’s situation was deteriorating, “When are we suppose to get fitted for our new armor.”

“They are sending a team to us in two weeks,” said Lau, “So pretty much when our time here is done, I’ll make some contacts to see if we can speed this up.”

“Thanks Lau,” said Roy, “I am getting a call from Karakura’s base commander.”

Roy placed the call on the video screen in the room, just like he did with Flight Lieutenant Sander's call. Two high level officers appeared on the screen, Commander Hamm and the rest of Delta Team straighten up their posture to loosely resemble military appearance in their mix of civilian attire and military uniforms. Roy then greeted the two officers “Commander Hamm here, as well as some of Delta Team.”

“Commander Hamm, I am Major Lang of the UNSC Karakura base and this is Captain Henderson of the UNSC Navy’s expedition forces.”

“I hear your armor is slightly delayed for the time being Commander,” said Captain Henderson, “Will your Spartans be ready for the missions through the portal?”

“Aye, sir,” responded Commander Hamm, “It’s the person, not the armor that makes a Spartan. We can operate effectively without our MJOLNIR armor.”

“Good Commander,” said Captain Henderson, “Major Lang has some armor that should be able to fit your Spartans for the missions.”

“Thank You, Major,” thanked Roy.

“You can thank me Commander by helping me out with something,” said Major Lang.

“Just say the word,” said Commander Roy.

Captain Henderson gave Major Lang a nod of approval to use the Spartan team that was assigned to him and walked off the screen.

“If you hadn’t notice, we experience a communication blackout for a few hours,” said Major Lang, “We believe that it was intentionally caused.”

“By who,” asked Alan.

“It appears to have been caused by some sort of jamming signal, we are still sorting through the data to figure out who it might be, but we are thinking it might be the Covenant.”

“Well that could be anyone,” said Alan as he looked around the room to see his teammates reaction, “Pirates, splinter groups from the Covenant, mercenaries…”

“Or worst the Covenant Empire,” said Roy.

“Not really their style,” said Ava, “Is it Commander?”

“Well we are on Forerunner installation,” replied Commander Hamm, “It’s not uncommon for Zealot teams to be deployed on scouting missions to find Forerunner artifacts, and then signal an assault force later.”

“Just like Reach,” added Alan.

“Our team can be ready in ten minutes,” reported Roy,”just need a pickup.”

“No need to rush Commander, we have no idea where to deploy you,” said Major Lang, “Just get a two man team together, ready to go by four hundred hours.”

“Roger that, you can expect Lieutenant O’Connor and Cephon to report to you at four hundred hours,” replied Roy.

“Thank you Commander, we really appreciate it,” said Major Lang as he ended the transmission.

“Yeah thank you Commander,” said Jacqueline with some annoyance, “four hours asleep before an unknown duty duration, maybe we need to contact someone with standard Type-A augmentations, they can operate with a few hours of sleep per forty-eight hours.”

“Four hours is double what you need per twenty four hours,” replied Roy. The Type-D augmentations that most of Delta Team had, required more sleep compared to other augmentations. Advantageously the Type-D augmentations was accompanied by less stringent medical oversight and physical training to maintain proper health. Many considered the Type-D augmentations to be too much of a sacrifice while others believed it was the superior of the augmentations, as Spartans got almost all the positive benefits with minimal amount of negative side effects and maintenance. It’s lack of popularity was due to that not all Spartan IV candidates were genetically eligible and its high cost, but the number of individuals that have Type-D augmentations had been increasing steadily.

“Plus I need you two to do it,” further explained Roy, “Alan and I are going to report to Cortana’s caretaker in the morning to brief with her, and then I need Lau to start making contacts to see if we can get a new ship.”

“Gotcha Commander, but you owe us both,” said Jacqueline accepting the orders.

“Thanks Jack,” said Roy, “okay everyone, we should all hit the sacks we all need to start to settle down for the night.”

“A bit early, isn’t it Bacon,” asked Alan.

“We all have been working hard for these last few months, we all could benefit from some extra sleep,” said Roy, “Apparently we still are working part time on our R&R.”

“It seems so,” said Jacqueline as she followed Ava upstairs to prepare for her rest, “But I guess we get out of STO 11.6 since we are deployed.”

“I doubt it,” yelled Roy from below, “You’re probably not going to be deployed long enough.”

“I hate you Commander,” yelled Jacqueline like a teenager.

“Kids,” joked Hamm as placed his tablet on a crate that was a makeshift coffee table.

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