Cyclone - Seven Marks

Daniel stepped up to the front door of the large, bland building. it was a simple concrete structure, a rectangular grey block alongside a sea of the differentially similar buildings. The standard, metal door slid open upon detecting his presence, and his ID number. D076. A scheduled appointment. They were waiting for him. 
He walked through as the door gave way, entering a quiet, sparse foyer. Several chairs were arrayed to the left, occupied by several UNSC technicians in what looked to be their day off. He couldn't help but envy them. They must have been at the AJJ for several months now, if not years. Daniel had only just arrived a few days before, in the tattered remnants of his old Mk. V(B) MJOLNIR armour aboard a captured Lich. His team hadn't been much better off. Fireteam Cyclone as a whole had suffered lots of damage on Farron-Nir. Bailey was missing her entire armour's left arm plating, Samuel had his helmet blown off, Yvette and Dominik's energy shielding had failed and his own was on the verge of overloading. 
So that's why he had entered the building. He was the first of his team to be reequipped with the armour that made them Spartans, after handing off the tattered remnants of his first set. He had to admit, he would miss it. His COMMANDO-class served him well, but now it was time to replace it with a new set. One that was the new standard for the UNSC's Spartans, produced in a post-Created world. Daniel found it impressive that these huge leaps in capability could be made in such a short time, with a severe lack of outside support. Considering no contact had been made with any of the UNSC's main colonies since Cortana's rise, he knew that any help from them would arrive in blockade runners hired by ONI, or escapees from the Created's rule, often including Spartans.
He knew that most of Avery J. Johnson's contingent were Spartan-IVs, some taken from the marine contingent on the base, but most augmented supersoldiers from before the rise of the Created. Several more were the older Spartan-IIIs, some part of their own teams, others integrated into the Spartan-IV contingents. And finally, there were the Deltas. Under the command of Callum-B042, they had slowly been growing as a company once again. There had been many happy faces when Cyclone had shown up. Even if during training they had been viewed upon with disdain by the other fireteams, a Delta Spartan at Avery was one more brother or sister that had survived.
He was pulled out of his thought bubble by a clerk in a plain, dark blue uniform, with the shoulder insignia of an eagle with arrows and a lightning bolt clutched in its talons. The symbol of Spartan Branch.
"Spartan D076, pleasure to have you," the main said, with an air of calm affability that immediately eased Daniel. He hadn't noticed that he had tensed up as he entered, thinking of the other Spartans, of the other Deltas. "Please, follow me. I'm Technician Harrison, and I'll be your armour tech." The man stretched out his hand, which Daniel took. It felt unnatural to shake his hand without the enclosed gauntlets of his MJOLNIR armour. Daniel, like most Spartans, preferred to be inside the armour than outside of it. He felt vulnerable, unprotected. His armour skinsuit would have to do. His hands were covered in bruises and scars, courtesy of his campaign on Farron-Nir. Contrasted to the dirty yet firm, undamaged hands of Technician Harrison, there was quite a difference.
After finishing the shake, Harrison turned on his heel and marched towards the far side of the foyer, towards another hardened metal door, painted in light green livery. The words on the door simply stated in bold white letters "SPARTAN FITTING". Halting at the door, Harrison turned towards a small keypad next to the frame, and typed in a simple digit code. That surprised Daniel, to use such a conventional method for security.
The door opened, and Harrison turned to Daniel and gestured him to follow. The Spartan walked through the door, the frame almost reaching down to his head, as if attempting to punish Daniel for being so tall. Entering the room, he looked around to see the clean, white metallic walls of the fitting room. The room shined brightly, with a large amount of benches, lockers and doorways scattered across the area. It was almost as large as the foyer they had left, with the far wall lined with five separate armour fitting consoles. Several technicians were already in the room, analysing tacpads or conducting some sort of repairs and refits to pieces of MJOLNIR armour. One of the armour consoles was occupied, with a tall, handsome woman occupying the slot as she was fitted with a set of Mk. VII armour. Daniel recognised her as another Delta, Lara-D075. 
She looked over and saw Daniel, and gave him a curt smile. Daniel nodded in return, then turned back to Technician Harrison, who was busy at a console in the middle of the room, typing in commands at a lightning pace. Daniel simply watched, and when he had stopped typing, he asked him a question.
"What's with the number pad on the door outside?" he asked. Harrison looked up at him. "Simple password rotation. Spartan IDs can be spoofed by Created AI, and other Spartans who arrive may not be as loyal as they seem," he stated with that same affable charm he had when he greeted Daniel. The Spartan thought about it for a second, then nodded. It made sense to use as much precaution as possible, to resort to more archaic methods of security to avoid an over-reliance on AI. 
At that moment, a slot in the floor opened, revealing a circular hole. A cylindrical object began to rise up out of the floor, with a titanium plate covering the plexiglass cylinder. Inside the capsule was a suit of MJOLNIR. And with the Spartan tag etched onto the upper part of his chest plate, he knew it was his. The MJOLNIR Mk. VII GEN3 suit of Daniel-D076.
The capsule halted, with the full extension of the pod into the room. The plexiglass then began to drop away, leaving the titanium plate hovering above the armour. 'Repulsor technology,' thought Daniel. Harrison walked up to his side.
"We use the plexiglass just to make sure nothing gets too close to the armour. The stasis tech we ripped off the Covenant is used to make sure the armour doesn't get adversely affected by the transportation and build process." 
Daniel stared at the suit. A standard Mk. VII suit, complete with helmet and his classic sage-green paint scheme. The added comms bracket on the right side of his helmet had been added, as per his request, to give him better communications abilities. So too was the up-armoured shoulder pauldrons, the extra ammunition cases on the thigh armour, and the bracer on his right wrist. All of his preferences had been fulfilled.
"When do I get to try it on?" he said, barely containing his excitement. He may be a Spartan, but he had just been given a brand new toy, and damned if he didn't want to play with it. Harrison simply chuckled. 
"Right now, Spartan," he grinned. "You and Cyclone are scheduled in for an exercise against Fireteam Hearthguard. They're Fours, so they've got a chip on their shoulder and think they can beat the shit out of you guys." Daniel's head turned to the tech, who looked up at the young, yet battle-hardened Spartan. 
"Is that so?" he questioned. Harrison nodded. Daniel looked towards the MJOLNIR suit, now being moved to an armour station by several technicians, who were readying the machine. He watched as the gears whirred and the system's arms came to life, beginning to deconstruct the armour, piece by piece, readying it for fitting to its user. He then began to walk towards the station, a small smile on his face.
"Let's get rolling."