Chapter (16) Home Sweet Home

September 16, 2525 

Castle base, Reach

(Daisy Pov)

"Daisy calm down," Josh said as he watched me knock out weighted pull-ups.

I snorted before hopping down having completed the final set of pull-ups, "I am calm Josh," I said barely out of breath. Josh just shot me a look that said, 'Are you about that?'.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the rack. I reached down to the chained plates dangling in the air and unhooked them. I felt Joshua's annoying eyes baring down at me as I placed the weights back haphazardly.

"Can you at least keep the rack organized?" He asked in a tone showing that he knew my answer.

"No, I'll be back for them," I said making my team leader shake his head like my mom did when I was younger.

He sighed and with an exasperated expression spoke quietly, "You always say that," resigned to his fate he walked over and put the weights back in their homes.

'Grace is once again proven right, Josh is 100% a neat freak,' I thought before glancing at the time on my watch. Just as I looked down to check the time the doors to the physical training room opened and my remaining two teammates walked in, side by side.

"That makes hour five!" Grace said with excitement before turning to Naomi, "Tomorrow, your muffin is mine!" referring to breakfast.

"I knew I should have betted on the over," Naomi whispered in despair.

I didn't pay attention to the pair's antics and instead began walking towards the treadmill. I held down the button, climbing up to 30 miles an hour {48.3 Kilometers per hour} and increasing the incline to simulate rolling hills.

"You really should take a break Dais {read daze/days}. You have been going on eight to ten hours of exercise every day this week," Grace pointed out while climbing onto a treadmill and placing it on a 25 miles per hour {40.3 Kilometers an hour}, "That's not even mentioning that the only other things you do are shooting and fighting with a little bit of eating and sleeping sprinkled on top,"

"I am fine," I growled out, not bothering to look at her.

"Sure doesn't sound like it," Naomi commented, stretching on a nearby rack, "Maybe it's because Blue team still isn't back from their mission," she said indirectly trying to tease me.

I ignored Naomi not commenting on what she said. I just looked forward and paid attention to the rhythm of my breath, "Hey! Maybe that is it!" my eyes snapped to the side hearing Grace's exasperation.

I once again decided to go to my happy place not saying anything to the two. All I needed was to finish this workout, and then I'll ambush Alpha. I'll jump up and latch onto him with a choke hold, he'll then fight it off before promptly throwing me off like usual. I would probably call him a nerd or dork or I may even switch it up and make fun of the book he is reading. He'll roll his eyes before shooting back about how short I am, or calling me something like "midget", "dwarf", or "elf".

Let's see then we'll make our way to the range where he would practice his marksmanship, and I would sit nearby talking to him to pass the time. I would also be looking at my datapad practicing my skills when it came to hacking, or I would be lying beside him practicing my aim as well.

"Reach to Daisy. Come in Sierra Zero-Two-Three. Have we lost you?" Grace's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, "What were you thinking about to have such a dumb smile, huh?" she said, analyzing my face. It seems I hadn't noticed a smile slowly creeping onto my face.

"Nothing," I quickly answered, shaking my head and dropping the curve on my lips. I did feel my face heat up a bit after being called out by Grace.

"Oh? You don't know Grace? There is only one thing, or should I say, a person that could make her smile like that," Naomi said, " I didn't like the gleam in her eye as her mouth morphed into a mischievous smile.

"Don't you fucking say it," I warned Naomi. The temperature of my face was rising with each passing moment.

Before Naomi could open her mouth again unleashing the worst beatdown she would ever experience in life Joshua called to attention a message he received, "Before Daisy kicks Naomi's ass, I just received confirmation that Blue team has landed. According to control the mission was a success all the way around," he said, double checking his datapad.

Before I could react Grace threw herself off of the still-running treadmill, "Sweet! Alpha said he'd bring me a souvenir," having said that she began sprinting for the exit. Both Naomi and I were behind her.

Just before the three of us reached the doorway I heard Joshua call out, "Hey! You guys didn't shut off your stuff!" he cried as we continued in stride.

"Last one out has to shut off the lights, remember Josh!" Grace said while running into the halls.

"You-!" he yelled angrily in response.

"Sorry Josh, but I don't wanna get stuck cleaning everything up," Naomi called out as we also followed through the doorway.

After putting some space between the gym and us we slowed our pace to a walk. I was still excited to see how Alpha and Blue team's mission went, but I still had an image to keep. The same could probably be said for both of my teammates.

We walked through the halls like we always did, and remained silent. The crew of the ship always stared at us like we were something they had never seen before….

'Actually, could it be possible they have never seen a woman before?' I thought to myself giving my own weird look back to the dweebs. They saw me looking down at them and quickly looked forward, keeping their eyes away from me, 'I'll ask Alpha later maybe he knows what these dipshits' problem is,' I concluded before reaching the entrance to the lower portion of the hanger.

The hanger was empty from what I could see. Though a pelican with Insurrectionist markings on it had become crowded with the other Spartans. The three of us from the Gold team greeted and were filled in that Blue team was going to exit the Pelican momentarily. Naomi and Grace began to talk to the others, while I took a look around, noting the people that I did not know in the crowd.

Besides the thirty or so Spartans there was a small team of Military Police fully kitted out preparing to take someone into custody, if I had to guess. They wore a more gray military uniform that was similar to the green camouflage that the 'green beans' wore. In the sea of gray, there was a white lab coat and Navy Officer dress clothing. That bitch Halsey was in the white, but I had no clue who the Navy man was, but it seemed the pair knew each other.

*shhhhht*

"I am simply that good," was the first thing I heard as Blue team began to walk down the cargo ramp of the dropship. The owner of the voice was the team's sniper Linda; she was the first walking down the ramp.

"And here I thought Linda had forgotten how to speak," there was that voice. That sarcastic, annoying, and smart-ass voice that I was relieved to hear. 

Beside Linda walked Alpha with his helmet already removed and tucked between his left arm and torso. He seemed fine. I expected nothing less from him. Not even a scratch could be seen on his black body armor or helmet. All seemed fine, and I couldn't wait to hear how the mission wen-

'Why is his arm bandaged?' I asked myself as my eyes widened seeing the maroon-colored bandage on his right forearm.

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(Alpha Pov)

"Castle Base this is Sierra Zero-One-Seven, are we clear for landing?" I asked sending a communication through the stolen Pelican's radio.

It had been somewhere between twelve and fifteen hours since our daring escape. From there it had been an extremely long and boring flight. Of course, when our adrenaline was still high immediately after I scraped us through the door, we were all dialed in and on guard. However once the high wore off we decided to play cards in the cockpit for… a long time.

"You are clear for landing on pad 9. Welcome home Blue team," a voice responded over the comms welcoming us back to Reach.

The card games we played ended about an hour ago when one of us- I glanced at Kelly angrily pouting in the co-pilot seat. Lost too much in their betting causing them to quit playing, "Such bull shit….dumb game…. Cheating bastard," I heard grumbling behind my head as I began closing in on the LZ.

Looking through the glass cockpit I could see a crowd had begun to form at our apparent landing pad. I smirked seeing as their heads all seemed to swivel as I wrangled in our approach. Keeping the craft steady I positioned the tail thrusters and wing thrusters to carefully center us before I extended the landing gear. Slowly we plopped down with the suspension bouncing as we made contact with the ground.

"That makes 32 hours for the mission right on the dot," Fred said as he checked the time once again.

I powered down the engines before turning and walking out of the cockpit I pressed the button beside the cargo bay door lowering the ramp, "Honestly, I am surprised that we were able to find that transponder so quickly," I said as the motors began whirring around us.

During the flight we had to track down any tracking devices the innies would have installed in their craft. I had been worrying we would have to fly around in circles for hours, but it only took two hours to find the transponder in the wiring and safely remove it. It was all thanks to Linda who found it, that we didn't run out of fuel and have to crash the ship.

"I am simply that good," Linda said as we all began walking down the Pelican's rear cargo door.

After Linda said that my head had peaked out of the shadow of our transport and was caught in the nearest sun's rays. My eyes adapted to the newfound source of light quicker than most, but I still raised my wounded arm to block the sun for a moment.

I soon lowered my arm only to see the entire crowd of people staring at us. In front of me was Linda, beside me was John, and Kelly along with Fred with the package were behind me. For a moment we all just stood there…..silently….awkwardly.

"Psst I think this is where you say something inspirational," I covertly whispered to John without taking my eyes off the crowd.

John whispered back immediately, "What should I say?" he asked

"How the fuck I should know, you're the team leader this is your schtick, not mine," I said in response as I began sweating due to all the attention we are getting.

John stood silent again, and just when I was about to say something stupid so that we could break the silence he spoke, "Package secured, Blue team ready for the next assignment," he spoke loud enough for the crowd to hear.

'Really? That's what you call inspirational,' I thought, already preparing myself to face-palm at John's lame-ass attempt, but suddenly everyone began clapping, 'Is this some type of plot power or some shit?' I asked internally as I thought back to some of the past stories I had read.

Soon our little celebration died down, and it was time to do the house cleaning issues. Our crate holding the venerable Colonel Watts was hauled away by the ONI officers to who knows where. The rest of our spartan classmates returned to their barracks, but I did see Daisy lingering around for a while. We made eye contact for a brief moment and shared a brief look. It seemed she was concerned with my injury but I conveyed that I would tell her later. She seemed satisfied with that and followed after Gold team.

I was preparing to head to the medical center when an old face popped up, "Who would have thought the street urchin I picked up nearly a decade ago would turn into this," the voice of my 'legal' father rang out. John who had been staying around also perked up hearing his voice.

"And who thought the father that 'abandoned' me for war would come back," I smiled turning to face him. Lieutenant Jacob Keyes looked great, it seemed he had not let the war turn his complexion into that of an insane asylum patient. Though he was nearing his thirties, he still had the Saturday morning hero look with black hair blue eyes, and the strong angular jaw that was his most predominant facial feature.

He laughed at my comment, "And how are you, John?" Keyes said asking the silent spartan.

John seemed uncertain when he answered, "Oh, uh-I am fine I guess," he said tripping over his words.

Keyes frowned at his disposition and seemed to look at him thinking for a moment. Before he could talk the sound of loud heals striking on the ground behind Jacob. Looking up I spotted Dr. Halsey in her signature white lab coat making her way over here.

The Lieutenant glanced over his shoulder before turning back to me, "Uh oh, someone is in trouble," he said making a strange expression. I looked at him confused, why would I be in trouble we all survived and the mission was completed, that's a win in my book. Jacob however pointed discretely to my arm and the realization came to me as Catherine arrived.

"Sierra Zero-One-Seven are you going to continue bleeding on my floors or are you going to go to the Medical treatment facility?" she asked in her scientific matter-of-fact tone.

I groaned knowing there was no point in arguing, "Aye Aye Captain," I said sarcastically before turning to Keyes, "I'll see you later Lieutenant," and with that, I marched with the harpy to my execution.

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Soooooo missed me part 323650029?

Yeah my upload schedule is abysmal sorry.....But I do have some excuses. I had finals, work picked up (working from 8-8 three days out of the week is not fun) and the holidays, and I am working on the new fic getting it off the ground plus brain storming elements. It all tied into me losing most of my time.

Anyway hopefully that will change soon if not.... We'll have to wait for the coming fall of 2024 then I should be freed up a good bit.

But this is the chapter, I am already working on the follow up so that should be out soon.... hopefully. It will be the last one before Mjolnir Mark IV and Alpha Chi Ceti.

So sorry for this but Merry late Christmas and I hope all of you have a great New Year from your main man MEMES!