Delta Chronicles ch.3
John had passed away due to a ruptured lung and the teams' morale was low. Clarice was confined to her quarters sobbing that John had died. Jack had changed the nameplate on the door, so now it read WINTER. Jack wondered who this new recruit was, and what he was like. He was due to arrive from deployment in Afghanistan as a sniper and be re-routed to the 1st SFOD-D (Special Forces Operational Division-Delta). He also wondered what species he was. Human or canine or feline?
"God knows we don't need another human." Dylan said from behind Jack."JJ is enough insanity for the whole team, and if the new guy is like that..." Dylan shuddered at the thought. Jack was happy that at least one of the team members had a sense of humor. He himself had never been good with jokes, every time he made one it came out sounding like a threat. A new face appeared behind them both.
"BOO!" the recruit yelled at the top of his lungs. Jack swung around, nearly jumping out of his skin as he did so. There was a German Shepard on the ground laughing so hard he looked like he was in agony. He considered Curb Stomping the recruit then and there, and ending him. "At attention." the recruit got up as fast as he could and saluted Jack, standing still as a statue. Jack looked over the new face and decided that he had to be the new recruit. "At ease." Jack said and the recruit slouched the smallest bit. "What's your name soldier?"
"Joseph M. Winter, Sir." the recruit said.
"It alright if I call you Joe?" Jack asked.
"Your call Sir." the recruit said.
"Fine, I now dub you..." Jack said laying his hand on the recruits shoulder, but instead of finishing his sentence, he popped the recruit on the side of his head.
"What the fuck was that for?" the recruit said surprised
"For fun." Jack said laughing at his petty revenge. "In any case, your new name is Joe." Jack said as he opened up the door to Joe's new quarters. "And you might as well burn those fatigues; we wear either civilian clothes or fatigues with no names." Jack said as he walked out. Joe got settled in his new room. He saw very bleak grey walls with scratch marks indicating that they had been scraped of paint shortly before he arrived, which in turn indicated that he could customize his room. Joe felt tired from his flight from Afghanistan, which had refueled at Bagram F.O.B., which is where he had realized that he wasn't headed home. At Bagram he had endured a six week Counter Terrorism course, (He had been pulled off his duty for this.) and been told that he was now eligible for Delta status. He and about 15 other recruits were sent on an 8 mile all night hike through a mountain range about 50 miles north of Bagram. He had been the first to finish within the time limit and had been able to catch a little sleep before being shipped out to here. He took out a picture of his family, Mom, Dad, Sis, and Bro. He had a girlfriend, but she had broken up with him shortly before he shipped out to Afghanistan. He knew the names of three of his team mates, Jack, JJ, Dylan, but he had been informed that this was a five man team. So who was the fifth man, he wondered. He barely had time to ponder this before Jet lag overtook him and he fell asleep. Joe woke in the morning refreshed and calm, but he still wondered who the fifth man was. He walked to the break room where the rest of his team had assembles for a breakfast of cold, 3 day old, pizza. He began to dig in to the slices of pizza when he saw the fifth man, or woman should he say. She was a beautiful panther, matte black, with the figure of a supermodel. He knew she liked to run because her calves were as big as his fist, and he had big fists. She had a good size rack on her too, but it looked like she had been crying all night long. She's definitely a looker he thought to himself as he nonchalantly moved closer. She seemed to sense his movement. And she said
"I'm going to the weapons locker and then the range."
"OK." Jack said. Jack walked over to Joe. "Don't even think about it man, the squad mate that died was her boyfriend." Jack said.
"Even more for me to unravel." He said to himself. The siren wailed and everyone bolted for the door. Joe had no idea where he was going, but he followed the rest of his team, and soon enough ended up in a briefing room. A screen lit up and a man in a dress uniform appeared "We have a situation soldiers, one of our AC-130's went down near Fallujah and the local Insurgency has the crew and sensitive cargo in their possession, and are threatening to kill the crew if we don't back off, but that crew has valuable information, and the cargo happens to be a regiment of Ranger's."
"Well, Sir if their Ranger's then why do we need to do anything for them, I mean we're always covering their asses, it's just idiotic."
"I know but just do this, suit up we'll have a night stalker Blackhawk there at 0600."
Joe looked at his watch, 0500, one hour to suit up and get his weapons. Joe walked to his room and changed into his nameless desert fatigues and donned his Kevlar. Out of his bag he pulled a personal pair of Glock 18c's that he had been allowed to take. He also strapped on a black web belt with 2 holsters for his Glocks and numerous extended magazines, of 17 rounds each, after he had gotten these he went to the weapons locker and picked out a Barret M107 SASR (Special Application Scoped Rifle). He also took about ten magazines and quite a few boxes of .50 BMG ammunition, and met his team on the runway. He finally had the chance to ask the panther her name "Hey, What's your name he asked."
"Clarice." She replied.
Cliffhanger for shadowdemon...