Baird distinctly remembered the first time he met Sam. It was shortly after the COG started its move to Vectes, after the sinking of Jacinto. Baird was in one of the garages working on a packhorse, as he was scouring his tool box looking for the right socket for his torque wrench; his com sprang to life startling the blond mechanic. "Damon baby, you alive?" It was Cole. Baird sighed, see this is why I can't get anything done. "Yeah Cole, what's going on?" "We've been looking all over for you baby, Hoffman needs us to assemble by the loading dock ASAP." Friggin terrific. "I'll head over, Baird out." Baird sighed again, it couldn't be anything good if Hoffman was looking for all of Delta. "Let's hope it's not the stranded again." Baird muttered to himself as he grabbed his lancer and headed for the loading dock. The COG wasn't even fully settled yet and they were already dealing with the stranded's bullshit. Shit blowing up on patrols, vehicles being stripped, supplies stolen, you name it.
The sun was just starting to rise over the island, a mixture of oranges, purples, and pinks reflected off the water. If it were a different time and place maybe Baird would of admired it, but not now. When Baird arrived at the loading dock, Dom, Marcus, Cole, Bernie, Hoffman, and even Anya were already there. Well it can't be the stranded if Anya is here. Marcus would never have allowed that. Marcus spotted him first, causing the rest of the group to turn and look at Baird. "There you are baby." Boomed Cole, "busy making love to another one of your bots? Haha!" Baird rolled his eyes and stood next to him, "What's so important that I had to be dragged away from my job of single handedly repairing every vehicle and machine on this friggin island?" Hoffman ignored him; "We have a squad flying in from Anvil Gate." Baird rolled his eyes; "And your point? We've had squads flying in for the past couple we-" Dom interrupted him; "If you would just listen to what he has to say maybe you wouldn't be so confused." "They're one of Reid's squads, his Ordinance Unit specifically." Hoffman continued; "with them is coming in a boat of supplies, vehicles, and ordinance of course, I need you guys to supervise and help unload the cargo." Anya slid a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear, "I had contact with them a few moments ago, the raven should be arriving soon." Hoffman nodded, "Got it Delta?" "Yes, sir." Dom said nodding his head. As Anya, Bernie, and Hoffman walked further down the dock Baird audibly groaned; "I have actual shit to get done and I'm stuck here babysitting. Great. Terrific. Just what I wante-" "We get it Baird." Said Marcus, "Now shut up."
Marcus looked up at the sky, the faint buffering of a raven could be heard in the distance." The com's in everyone's ears buzzed, a woman with a thick accent that Baird couldn't place came over the speaker; "Control, this is KR-84 we're twenty clicks out, over." Baird arched his brow confused; "How the hell did they get KR-84? Wasn't that the raven the helped evacuate Ilima?" Marcus faintly moved his shoulders in the form of a shrug; "We have a limited fleet left." Anya's voice broke in, Baird slightly jumped, now realizing that Anya, Bernie, and Hoffman were now standing right next to them. "KR-84 we see you, you're clear for landing on the port on the south west side of the island."
Within a few moments the raven was right on top of them, the raven came down gracefully and out of it popped four gears, three with helmets and another man without one on. He was taller than the other three, with slightly tan skin, dark brown, buzzed hair, and a scar across his lips. His eyes were dark and sunken like he had been punched in the face too many times. All four gears had their gear bags and a lancer on their backs. They saluted Hoffman as he approached, "State your names and rank." The un-helmeted guy spoke first; "Sergeant Flint sir." The other three were Privates Marshall, Ross, and Foster. Hoffman looked over at the raven; "I thought there was supposed to be five of you." Flint smirked and stifled a laugh; "Oh yeah, she's still on the raven, don't worry she's not that important." Hoffman and Bernie's face darkened;
Is that any way to talk about your squad mate Sergeant?" Bernie asked crossing her arms. While Baird thought women on the frontlines were a bad idea, they still deserved respect; they were risking their asses just like anyone else. And people say I'm the biggest asshole on Vectes.
As if on cue, the woman piloting the raven jumped down. She had dark skin, short brown hair with bangs covering half her face, and some tribal symbol tattooed on her arm. Across her back was a longshot, and in her hands she carried her gear bag and a lancer. Cole softly whistled; "Woo, she's a fine looking lady if I ever saw one, right Damon?" Baird had to admit, she was pretty, but he would never say it out loud, not even to Cole. "Cole, when you see ugly locust mugs all day everyday for fifteen years, almost anyone or anything looks prettier." Anya and Bernie shot him a look which shut him up. The woman stood away from the rest of her squad and saluted Hoffman. Flint laughed; "What took you so long? Had to make sure your eyeliner was perfect? You know it doesn't do anything for you." Everyone in Delta tensed up, one; that crossed the line and two; everyone was preparing to have to break up a fist fight. But the woman just stared at Flint, her eyes darkened and face hardened, she looked like she wanted to shoot him. She was wearing something black around her eyes, Baird wondered if it was charcoal or if she actually managed to find cosmetics this late in the war, but he didn't stare too long in case someone thought he gave a shit. Dom broke through the silence, "Dude, you can't just say that to her." Flint rolled his eyes. Hoffman stepped forward towards the woman, he spoke in a softer tone, "Name and rank please." The woman's face softened a bit, "Private Samantha Byrne, sir." Hoffman tensed up and adjusted his hat. Baird looked over towards the rest of Delta, they all noticed it too. To the average person it may seem casual and not out of the ordinary, but Baird knew from years of being around Hoffman that was a telltale sign that he was nervous. Why does that name sound familiar? Baird thought to himself. Bernie walked forward and discretely patted Hoffman on the back. Hoffman cleared his throat and spoke again, "How far along is the ship?" "Probably will be here in an hour or two." Sam said. "They're still not in radio range and going slow." Baird wrapped his brain trying to figure out her strange accent but still couldn't place it. Hoffman nodded; "Flint, take your squad to Prescott's office, Lieutenant Stroud will show you the way." Anya forced a smile and led the squad away, Sam trailing in the back.
Once they were out of sight Hoffman took his hat off and rubbed his face. Bernie once again patted him on the back; "It's okay Vic." Hoffman sighed and muttered under his breath, "She's named after her goddman father…" After a moment Hoffman placed his hat back on his head, "Delta, wait here for the ship, Reid's squad will come back and help you." With that Hoffman and Bernie walked off, whispering something to each other that Baird couldn't decipher.
"Well, what was that all about?" Baird asked. "He said she was named after her father, which can only mean her father was Samuel Byrne." Dom said. Marcus nodded, "I was thinking the same thing." Baird was confused, "Am I supposed to know who that is?" Dom laughed, "No one expects an asshole like you to know. Samuel Byrne was a war hero of the 26th Royal Tyran Infantry. Hoffman says he found his body still at his post, shot in the back." "Damn." Was all Baird and Cole had to say in response.
Baird wasn't sure how much time had actually passed while they stood there waiting for this ship, but all he was sure of is that it was taking too long. The sun was now in the sky so he knew at least an hour had gone by. I have shit to do, Prescott is already on my ass, all I needed was to waste my afternoon waiting around to eventually get some more trashed vehicles off a ship. Hoo fucking rah. Baird saw out of the corner of his eye Marcus turn and look behind him. Baird followed his gaze and saw Sam walking towards them. Cole popped up from sitting on the dock; "You're back baby!" Sam nervously giggled, "Yeah…." "I'm Augustus Cole aka the Cole Train baby, but you can just call me Cole." He stuck out his hand to Sam who seemed to be taken aback by Cole's friendly nature. She shook it can giggled; "Wow, you're quite chipper, compared to the rest of these guys." Dom laughed; "He's our cheerleader. Hi, I'm Dom." Sam smiled; Baird could have sworn he saw a faint pink rise in her cheeks. Dom pointed over at Marcus, "That's Marcus, he doesn't talk much." Marcus nodded, acknowledging her. Sam smirked; "I figured as much." She turned towards Baird, "And who's the blondie?" She stepped towards him and smiled. Baird stared at her for a second, avoiding eye contact, then spoke with his usual harshness; "The name's Baird. Don't call me blondie." Sam crossed her arms, "Whatever you say blondie bird." Cole burst out laughing and Baird shot him a dirty look. Secretly Baird was a bit amused by her comment; game on bitch. Marcus turned to Sam, "Where's the rest of your squad?" Sam's smile fell; "Eating in the mess. And apparently they're not my squad anymore. Hoffman removed me, I don't know where he's moving me to." "Well good riddance, they didn't treat you with respect anyway." Dom said. Sam once again smiled at Dom, making something in Baird's chest churn.
Suddenly the com's cracked and an older man talking in a different language came through. "What the fuck?" Cole said, "Is this someone fucking with us?" "Nonono he's talking to me." Sam said putting a finger to her ear; "that's Hector, he's the captain of the ship, he doesn't speak English very well so I talk to him in our native language to make it easier." She then proceeded to talk back and forth with Hector. Dom shrugged; "Well that was unexpected." "Yeah." Marcus replied. Off in the distance Baird could see a ship starting to come into view. "Well they're almost here." Sam said. "So Sam," Cole started, "tell us about yourself, how long have you been a gear?" Sam looked embarrassed, "Well, I enlisted about a year after E-Day and have been on the front lines ever since. I'm a trained sniper and ordinance expert as well. I'm originally from Anvil Gate….ummm…sorry I'm real bad at this. No one has really asked me about myself."
"It's okay baby, but is that why your accent is different? I've never heard anything like it."
"Tyran father, Kashkuri mother."
"That's cool."
Baird interjected; "Do you really care Cole?" Sam laughed; "So I take it blondie bird over here is the asshole of the group? The one who states his unwanted opinion all the time and thinks he's better than everyone?" Baird crossed his arms; "All true statements Byrne, I am the top 1%." Sam made an amused look; "More like the 1% that obviously hasn't got laid before." Cole and Dom broke out laughing, Marcus had as close to a smile as you would get on his face, just a raise of the corner of his mouth. Bitch. "Well aren't you fucking clever." Baird's response was cut short by Hoffman walking back over to them. He nervously looked down at Sam, "Byrne, I see you've gotten acquainted with Delta." Sam nodded; "Yes sir." "Well that's good." Hoffman turned to Marcus; "Fenix, welcome the new member of your squad." Sam's mouth dropped; "Wait, what?" Cole laughed; "Welcome to Delta baby." Inside, Baird was kind of glad that Sam would be around; it would be fun to have someone other than Cole and Bernie to tease. Game on Byrne.