Chapter 5
For all that it was worth, North mentally punched himself for failing to recognize the clear sounds of an unfair fight coming from the direction that he and York were hurrying in. There were muffled yells, clear sounds of distress, hissing, and the like coming from one of the unused rooms in the hallway that they had started coming down.
So, when North opened the door to see several of the (surprise) maintenance crew kicking and punching at somebody with dark hair barely moving on the ground, he made up for his first mistake by slamming into two of the assailants without a moment's hesitation. They crumpled as his combined body and armor weight sent them flying across the empty room. Sounds of breaking bone and cries of pain told him that York had also joined the fray.
"Stand down!" North shouted, and a few of the men backed off immediately at the dangerous tone of the Freelancer's voice. Some of them, however, were more reluctant to stay away. "Now," he growled, and they slid away from their victim quickly. North rushed over and carefully inspected the person for injuries, while an amber glow flickered worriedly and disappeared randomly.
Delaware looked an absolute mess. The skin that was visible was darkening with black and purple bruises, and tiny cuts created red dashes across the multi-colored golden-brown. One eye was swollen shut, and she had a cut lip. Del gave a groan as she tried to sit up, and she hissed while placing a badly damaged hand against her side, where something was sticking out a leaking blood sluggishly. "Don't…bother," she wheezed, trying to sit up again while avoiding putting excess pressure on the piece of metal sticking in her side. "I've had worse."
"You've been stabbed in the side," North spoke bluntly.
"…Just a flesh wound."
"Oh man," he groaned at her stubbornness as he laid her flat on the floor and alerted the med bay of the situation. York had all of the assailants lined up against the wall and was shouting at the leader with red hair, Kilt, about how personal grudges could be solved other ways than ganging up on someone and beating them to a pulp. "Theta, any recommendations for how to stop some of this bleeding?"
The purple and blue AI appeared next to where he knelt. "You could try to wipe off some of the cuts to keep them from being infected," the AI suggested in an unsure manner.
"There are some cleaning cloths in Agent Delaware's pocket that you may borrow," Chi suggested, and North pulled them out to start cleaning Delaware's wounds. She put a hand on his forearm quickly, her breathing slightly hyperventilated.
"Magnet…over there," she indicated with her head. "Hurts…my head."
North reached over and pulled a magnet into his field of vision, but dropped it suddenly as a painful shock ran through his body, and Theta game a cry of pain. He reflexively kicked the magnet out of reach, and the pain died suddenly. Del relaxed greatly as her breathing became less forced and deeper. He continued to wipe off the blood while York forced all of the maintenance people in the room into a close group in a corner, warning them not to move until someone else came to handle the situation. Del blinked slowly and gave a small half-smile to North for his efforts.
The door opened with a bang as several medics came running in with a stretcher, followed by some ODSTs that shoved the offenders from the room to be dealt with elsewhere. Some of them started asking York questions, but North didn't pay attention to that. He was helping support Del's head as a man in a white suit with a salt- and- pepper moustache and longer hair inspected the metal in Delaware's side.
"You sure got yourself in a fix, lass," he grumbled as he put pressure on the wound and gave a sharp tug, pulling out a piece of metal that looked broken off from something. Delaware didn't notice though, from the painkillers being injected into her bloodstream.
"I don't want to hear it now, Julius, please," she whispered tiredly as she was carefully lifted up into the stretcher. "They broke my sword."
"We'll worry about that when you're more awake, kid. Now, let's get you to surgery," the MO said gently to his charge. He nodded to North, who backed up so that they could start carting Delaware out. She squeezed his hand once before letting it fall to her side limply, and the woman fell unconscious.
"Get her to surgery, stat," the medic, Julius, ordered the two others as they ran Delaware out of the empty room, making to follow them. "You," he turned to North and York, "Don't get in the way for now. Just take her stuff down to her room and wait for us to be done. I'll let you know what happens."
"Understood," they answered respectfully as the grey-haired man left quickly.
"I can't believe that this happened," York hissed as he hit the wall with a clenched fist.
"We couldn't really stop them from jumping her, York. We're lucky that we got there when we did, and she's gonna live," North tried to appease his friend.
"That's not good enough, and you know it, North!" York shouted, whipping around and glaring with his one good eye, but his anger was not directed at his friend.
"So we take what happened and learn from it so that we don't let it happen again," North replied as he picked up the box that Delaware had been carrying. "Come on, let's get this to her room." He paused for a second. "Hey, Theta? Where are Delaware's quarters?" he asked with slight embarrassment at not knowing the fact.
"Umm, it looks like she was just moving from some storage hangar to a room on the 5th Deck aft of the ship," the child-like AI reported to his host. "They just finished repairs and she was going back to that place when she was attacked."
"Thanks a lot, Theta," North said kindly, readjusting the box so that it was better situated in his arms. "Come on. We might as well get going before we miss something else important," he said to York, who let out a loud breath and followed his friend down the hallway, where they were joined by Washington.
"Hey! I just heard what happened. Is Delaware gonna be alright?" the grey-armored agent addressed the other Freelancers.
"Yeah, she'll make it. She's just up in surgery now, so we're taking her stuff back to her quarters," North explained as Wash took larger steps to keep up with the older agents.
"Great. How are we gonna get in?" Wash asked, and North nearly face palmed at not asking about Delaware's key code to get into her room.
"Hello? Infiltration specialist, right here!" York said indignantly for being ignored, and they all laughed.
Three hallways, two elevators, and five questions about directions later, the three of them stood outside of a non-descript door in the middle of a hallway reserved for ODST quarters, marked only with the Freelancer insignia and a small plaque spelling out "DELAWARE".
"Well, I guess we just need to drop off the stuff and leave," North said with uncertainty.
"I've got the room unlocked. We might as well put it in a place that she can see it when she gets back," York added, starting to pull the slightly resistant door that would not slide automatically open. Though their intentions were good, the three Agents were driven by a curiosity that they could not explain. Something about Delaware positively attracted them, and they needed to find out what was peaking some unconscious interest in the mysterious female Agent. So, they would drop off the box and leave…after getting a quick look as to just WHO Delaware really was.
The door opened.
Delta and Theta appeared, readily waiting with their hosts.
And nobody would have expected what they found in there.
COMPLETING DATA COMPILATION…COMPILATION COMPLETE…
IAOC CASE FILE 090243Z7. RESPONSE TO OPERATOR CODE: RED STALLION
Suggestion: In response to the appearance of the unidentified vessel and the destruction of the UNSC Frigate DOGS OF WAR, military action must be taken to secure the IAOC territory. Redirect IAOC Frigates ANTIETAM and CORAL SEA to provide above-atmosphere protection to JANUS-2 and surrounding satellite colonies NYCRO and BELTAINE-14. Investigate the existence of a slip space trail within the region of the unidentified star cruiser. Contact Sangheilli correspondents about possible Covenant activity within the Outer Colony region. Requesting immediate implementation and response.
SENDER: OPERATOR CODE: BLACK PHOENIX
ADDITIONAL RECIPIENTS: OPERATORS CODE: BLUE ANDROMEDA, WHITE DRAGON, GREEN SOLITUDE
Origin of message: location data will undergo automatic deletion…
28% complete…68% complete…100% complete.
ORIGIN DATA SUCCESSFULLY DELETED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEND THIS MESSAGE? Y/N
YES
SENDING MESSAGE.
MESSAGE SENT TO ALL CONTACTS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO DELETE THIS MESSAGE FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE? Y/N
YES
DELETION COMPLETE.
Well, the plot thickens! Agent Delaware is in surgery and out of action, North has conflicting feelings, York feels failure for not being able to protect a teammate (that he didn't really know existed), and Wash is still being slightly naive. What wonders are held within Delaware's room in regards to who she is and where she came from? And who is the IAOC and these mysterious Operators? Well, I'll be telling you...very soon.
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Sincerely,
anna1795