Chapter 4 – Challenge

Del and Tessa soon bid each other good night and crashed out. Del changed into something to sleep in, an old t-shirt that he'd had since his training, it had his training platoon name on the back; "Minden Platoon.". He slept deeply; surprising considering he'd had quite a bashing, but he was used to worse.

He woke up the next day later than he had hoped and the galley was shut, so he did what he did best; improvise. He grabbed himself a boil in the bag ration pack form his kitbag and went back to the galley and one of the kettles and shoved the pack in and set it to boil, jamming the switch in the on position to make sure it kept boiling and cooked the pack fully. He kept a close eye on it as it boiled the silver inside, didn't want to risk melting the kettle. He fished the pack out the kettle, scalding his fingers a little. Del found the tear points and opened the pack; it was burger and beans. Not that the burgers tasted like burgers or the beans like beans. He added some chilli powder to make it taste of something and used the boiling water to make a cup of tea. Del plonked himself down on a chair and allowed to let his mind wander as he shovelled the warm chilli flavoured burger like whatever the hell it contained. The odd Mithril operative came in and out; some NCOs and some officers who shot him looks when he didn't stand up when they entered. Bollocks to them, he thought, I salute no one other than The Boss and now Tessa. Del took another gulp of tea and let the sugar hit his system. 'I'm getting too old for this shit man.' Del thought he mumbled to himself.

'Shut up your only 19, how do you think I feel? I'm 40 odd.' Mardukas groaned from behind him.

'Had-away and shite. That means you're ancient you dozy old git.' Del grumbled back; slurping more of his tea.

'What's in your rat-pack then?' Mardukas asked throwing it a suspicious look.

'Chilli flavoured re-claimed cow arse with rotten hernias and a blood sauce.' Del replied a dead pan expression on his face as he shovelled another spoon full into his mouth, 'mmmm yummy!'

'Can you ever be serious for more than a second at a time?' Mardukas complained, Del shrugged and slurped more tea. 'Come on, time for your tour of this place. Might as well, let it fill time up before we dock back at Merida Island.'

'Fair enough. Can I bring my brew and food?'

'No. Down it. Now.' Mardukas ordered. Del grumbled and cursed as he gulped the sorry excuse for food and his mug of tea down as fast as he could. This resulted in a loud burp surfacing from his gut. It reverberated around the galley. Del was surprised with his product, it showed on his face. Mardukas shook his head in disgust Army; all the same; no class, no polish and so unsophisticated.

Mardukas soon dumped Del into someone else's hands who took him on the tour of the 'de Danaan. He was shown the engine rooms, the command centre where he had first met Tessa the night before, she was there again but he could see that she was busy so he didn't disturb her, she gave him a quick smile and a small wave, he did the same and let her get back to work. He then went to visit the missile silos and then into the main hangar.

'You remember much of you arrival in here?' The sergeant asked.

'Apart from that floor is very hard and hurts, not much really.' Del answered.

'Well this is the main hangar. We keep all our aircraft and AS's here. Mixture of normal helicopters tweaked to suit Mithril's needs, like cargo bays big enough to take an AS and then drop them without landing or deactivating the ECS system.'

'What is this "ECS" I keep hearing about?' Del asked.

'Electronic Cloaking System, it means we can operate with ultimate discretion and secrecy. Half the time no one would even know we were there until it's too late or even not at all.'

'Is that what caused the 'de Danaan to appear out of nowhere in front of me when I dropped in last night?' Del asked feeling the bruises he was able to add to his collection.

'Yeah, we had been sitting on the surface for 5 minutes or so before you jumped. When you were about to miss us we dropped the ECS so you could land.' The sergeant explained.

'And are all of Mithril's craft fitted with the ECS?' Del asked.

The sergeant nodded, 'pretty much yes.'

'That'll explain why I couldn't see the plane I jumped out of as I was falling.' Del said aloud to himself.

'Yeah that is pretty freaky when that happens to you. Well that finishes the tour. I've got things to do before the 'de Danaan RTB.' The sergeant asked him.

'Aye, nee bother, get yasell squared away sergeant.' Del said, the sergeant thanked him and was about to crack him a salute up but Del stopped him, 'I'm not an officer don't crack one off to me now go on, piss off to your work' he finished with a smile. The sergeant left the hanger to go about his duties. Del turned and looked at the towering AS's in front of him.

'Baka!' echoed a cry from further down the line of AS's. He turned to look at some soldiers working on an AS. A woman with short black hair was clearly pissed off at some bloke with long blonde hair, she threw a lethal left hook, it was a hell of a connection, and the bloke went flying across the hanger floor. 'Kruz you're a pervert you know that!'

Del burst out laughing, he couldn't help himself.

'What are you laughing at?' asked the angry woman.

'A woman who clearly knows what she doing, US Army I guess, judging by your accent.' Del explained.

'You're good. United States Marine Corp. And going by your accent and that beret I'd say, British and SAS on top of that.'

'Close but no cigar. I'm Del and you are...?'

'Sergeant Major Melisa Mao. That baka half out cold on the floor is Sergeant Kruz, resident hentai! So you must be the new bodyguard for Tessa. Delaney right?' Del nodded in reply. 'People say your some big shot, but I've asked around and no one has heard of you.'

'Then I've been doing my job properly then.' Was Del's curt reply.

'Well you'd better be as good as your rumoured to be. Tessa is well loved by all the crew and Mithril staff. You fuck up, there will be nowhere in the world you can hide.' Melisa said, her eyes locked onto his.

'Then it's good that I am as good as people say; probably even better.' Del smirked.

'Big words, little man.' Del spun round to see a tall dark skinned man standing behind him. 'Let's see if you can live up to them.'

'And who the hell are you? Before we go any further?' Del retorted.

'Captain Belfangan Clouseau. SRT Commander and if you're as good as you say. When we get back to base, why don't you prove it?'

Del smiled, 'Ok. You're on; once we get back you can set up a series of tests for me.'