Cyclone - AWOL

“Ready?”
One word. A simple, two syllable word. Yet the answer would define the rest of her life. Bailey-D130 looked up at the face of Daniel, wearing his olive-drab MJOLNIR armour, and that damn unremovable smirk he seemed to have.
“Yep.” Bailey’s simple response told Daniel all he needed to know, as he took his helmet and attached it to the rest of his Mk. VII armour. Bailey herself was already equipped, wearing her armour as a protective coat not only against the guards, but also the judgement of the rest of the world. The rest of the Deltas.
Daniel had asked her to write the note. He had long since declared her as the more eloquent of the two. Originally he had asked Harry, which was appropriate, but the older Delta had flat out refused, citing his terrible handwriting. So it was up to her. She looked over to her bunk, the last time she would ever see it, and took the piece of paper. Laying it on her side-desk, she stood up from her sturdy bedframe, and reach down to grab her Spartan pack. Filled with everything she could possibly need.
She followed Daniel outside into the hallway. The cameras had been disabled by Lara, as the rest of the team stood waiting in the hallway. Daniel, Dominik, Samuel, Harry and Lara. They had tried to convince Yvette, but she had refused. She was always the by-the-books member of Cyclone. Bailey was sorry to leave her behind, but ever since Farron-Nir, it almost felt as if she was talking to a different person. Not the quiet but funny, reserved yet friendly girl she had met on Argus V. No, she had become a shadow of her once acquainted self.
She nodded to the rest of the team, and they began to move down the hallway. They had locked the rest of the Deltas in their barracks rooms, as they were sure at least some of them would attempt to stop them. They had been forced to tie up Yvette, too. They both knew why, yet it still hurt Bailey to do it. Yvette had simply stared at them, a stern yet teary glare as she watched her brothers and sisters leave.
She had made her choice, Just like the rest of Fireteam Cyclone had.
The Spartans began to pick up the pace, with Dominik leading them forward. They halted at the doors to the compound outside, where they would have to cut through the fence to get to the launchpad. Daniel said Randolph was on-side, but she could only hope. Their escape would have to go off without a hitch, otherwise there would be no way out.
Throwing the door open, Dominik began the sprint to the chainlink fence. He reached it at the same time as Harry, as the both of them began to use their super-human strength to tear a hole in the steel wires keeping out the Laconian wildlife. As the hole widened and widened, Bailey went first. Her nimble frame, whilst bulked up by her MJOLNIR armour, was easily able to scoot through the gap, as she looked up towards the hangars positioned away from the main encampment. A small cluster of buildings, connected to a runway and a series of launch pads, one of which held a Condor dropship. Their getaway vehicle.
Bailey waited for Lara and Samuel to step through, then held open the gap for Dominik, and Harry. Daniel was the last to go through, as she dropped the fence back into place. The two followed the rest of the team, all of whom were carrying all sorts of equipment. Backpacks, weaponry, ammunition boxes, everything they may need. Stolen away earlier that day, by using Randolph’s capabilities to access the armoury.
The group began to sprint through the forest, dodging the low-hanging leaves and weaving though the spruce trees towards their destination. Bailey, always the fastest of Fireteam Cyclone, gradually gained a distance from Daniel, as she moved through the rest of the group to the front of the pack. The landing pad was rapidly approaching, as Bailey could see the individual bolts and welds onto the hull of the Condor.
The sharp forest gave way to a clearing, and the ground changed from lush, green grass to hardened, black concrete. There was no wall to scale here, rather a simple set of steps to climb up to the craft.
Bailey reached it first, stopping at the rear of the dropship to wait for the ramp to drop. She looked back, and saw the rest of the squad approaching, as Daniel moved to a small console to the right of the Condor. There, she saw a green figure materialise onto a holopad placed on top of the console, ordained in the simple coveralls of an ONI technician.
“Randolph, get us in.” commanded Daniel. The AI responded in his classic snarky tone. “It does pay to be polite,” he quipped, yet nevertheless the door to the Condor’s bay opened, and the Spartans began to load in their supplies. Daniel would place his hand over the console, as Randolph transferred his core from the Avery J. Johnson AMS databank, into the processing data core of Daniel’s MJOLNIR.
Daniel turned to the dropship, and as Bailey looked back towards him from the bay, she saw movement behind him. She was about to yell to Daniel, to let him know, but as soon as the words began to form in her throat, her squad leader turned, and raised a hand up.
His gauntlet was clenched around the wrist of a tan-armoured Spartan, holding an armour restraint. As the other would-be captor raised their free hand to Daniel’s chest, his other arm grabbed it with lightning-quick reflexes. Daniel now had his assailant in a hold, and his helmet stared directly into the blue faceplate of AJJAMS' Spartan commander: Agryna.
“Didn’t think you knew we were leaving,” he said. The older Spartan chuckled. “You weren’t exactly subtle with your little stunt in the Delta barracks.”
Daniel nodded his head. “What can I say? Lara’s out of practice.” He looked back towards the Condor, where he saw Bailey and the rest of the Delta Spartans standing in the open maw of the dropship’s hangar bay, watching the confrontation. He turned his head back to Agryna, and tilted his helmet slightly.
“You really think you can stop us on your own?” asked Daniel. His voice was tight, and Bailey immediately knew that he was on edge, struggling to hold Agryna in place.
Their commander shook her head. “No, but the rapid response teams a minute away can.” She responded. Daniel looked past her, to see a dozen distant lights rapidly approaching the airfield.
“Bailey, grab it.” He said. She needed no further explanation, as she strode purposefully towards the two Spartans, and ripped the armour restraint from Agryna’s hands.
“Sorry, ma’am,” she said, as she placed the lock onto her armour, as she immediately tensed up. Daniel let go of her arms, and she stayed in place, unable to move. Daniel nodded to Bailey, and they both began to walk to the Condor. Lara had vanished, and as the dropship’s engines began to warm up, they both knew she was beginning final preparations to get the squad off-planet.
“You won’t be able to get far, Spartans!” Agryna shouted, desperately trying to be heard over the ever-increasing roar of the Condor’s engines. Daniel stepped up onto the ramp, and turned to face her as he moved into the Condor.
“Cyclone’s going, and you can’t stop us. I may only be fifteen, but I’m still a Spartan. And I’m not coming back until every last traitor to Delta is rotting in the grave.” With that, Daniel strode to the cockpit, and nodded to Harry. With the single push of a button, the ramp of the dropship began to close, and Lara began to move the aircraft off the ground. Bailey simply watched, and stared as the other Spartans reached the launchpad, as they slowly grew smaller and smaller as the Condor rocketed up into the atmosphere.
They had done it, and there was no going back now. Fireteam Cyclone and Fireteam Serpent were alone, without support or aid, hunting down their former comrades that had abandoned them.
Dominik had sat down in the hangar bay, pulling off his helmet. His dark brown hair draped over his hazel eyes, as he stared at Bailey, who was still looking out the small window in the door of the Condor, as the dark blue of the night morphed into the black of space.
Bailey turned towards Dominik and Harry. “She let us go,” she said. Harry turned towards her, his blue eyes seeming to pierce through her gaze towards them. Samuel, who had just entered the bay from the cockpit, looked at her. “She let us what?” he said.
“She let us go,” repeated Bailey, this time more sure of herself. “She knew we were leaving as soon as we disabled the cameras in the Delta barracks. Callum would’ve known something was off, there’s no way he didn’t. It’s why Agryna met us alone on the launchpad, without any other fireteams. She knew she wouldn’t change our minds with force, so she went by herself one last time to see if she could.”
Samuel pondered the thought, and slowly began to nod. “Makes sense,” he conceded. “But why didn’t she send Callum? We know him better, and he’s our CO.” Dominik spoke up this time, saving Bailey from a response to the query. "She knew that Callum knows us better, but if it came through him from her it would feel detached. She wanted to show she cared, even if we’re black sheep.” Bailey nodded her head in agreement, as Harry stared at the floor, clearly conflicted.
“Harry, what’s wrong?” asked Samuel. “You’re too quiet, something’s not sitting well with you.” The Delta Spartan continued to stare at the floor. “They’ll send people after us,” he said. “There’s no way they won’t. Agryna gave us a headstart, but she’s confident that we can’t run. Even after everything that’s happened, what we just did, they can’t let us leave. Even if we’re not like the others.”
Bailey paused. Harry was right. They would be hunted by the rest of the UNSC. They didn’t leave because of any disloyalty, far from it. They left to punish the disloyal ones, to bring them back into the fold for trial.
They weren’t the traitors. No, they were hunting the traitors.
“Doesn’t matter that they don’t know that.” Everyone turned to see Daniel standing in the doorway, behind Samuel. He looked around at all of them, all teenagers. All supersoldiers. All his friends. “We’re out for blood, and we’ll take it. We don’t have a warrant, because we don’t need one. They wouldn’t give it to us. So let’s just keep doing the job we were originally meant for: taking down deserters. Got it?”
With that, their fate was sealed. Fireteam Magpie was insured, with a sole purpose and a single-minded goal: help the UNSC, hunt the traitors. A simple goal with a complex plan, just like all other Spartan missions.
Daniel then grinned. “It’ll be tough, but that’s never stopped us before, right?” Everyone smiled at that. Bailey found herself nodding, along with Dominik, whilst Harry let out a quiet chuckle and Samuel clapped Daniel on the shoulder.
“Forged in secret, boss.”