Deryck-D096

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"Well, about time that we start getting treated properly, like actual Spartans"

- Deryck, talking about Delta Company's shut-down.

Deryck-D096, born as Deryck J. Baxter and also known as Accretion Three was a SPARTAN-III of Delta Company who participated in battles during the post-war era. Born on January 24, 2545, he was conscripted into the program in 2552, when he was around seven years old for the highly-secretive program.

Deryck, along with many other recruits, was taken to the planet of Argus V, and was trained for five years, under other Spartans like Kyle-B115 and Ren-172, as part of Team Accretion. Delta Company became active in 2557. Delta Company was unlike any other SPARTAN Program before it; it was used as a unit for carrying out black operations and assassination targets, as well as personal bodyguards for ONI agents affiliated with Beta-5 Division and also for hunting down rogue targets. After graduation, the members of Team Accretion, who were considered to be valuable, were issued with the MJOLNIR Mark VI armor, unlike most of the other Spartans who received the inferior MJOLNIR Mark V armor. However, the Mark VI was just a placeholder suit until their real suits arrived in May 2558; the MJOLNIR Mark VII. Deryck had participated in a variety of missions, even before the deactivation of Delta Company. He's most notable for his involvement in the infamous 'Hunt for SPARTAN-A077'.

Early life
Deryck was born on January 24, 2545, as Deryck J. Baxter, to parents James and Alice Baxter. Born on the outer colony world of Emerald Cove, Deryck knew nothing of his life other than watching vids, going to school and playing with friends. Living in the small town of Jade, Deryck was known to almost all of the kids of the town, due to its small area and less population. He was ranked in the top 5 students in his school, always bagging medals and prizes. Interested in spaceships and outer space, Deryck always wished to once get on a spaceship, fighting the Covenant, about whom was known little to Deryck, only that they were aliens fighting the humans. However, Deryck faced a huge loss when his mother died at an early age, in an accident with a. Following this, Deryck's father remarried and moved to a different state, leaving him and his younger brother Jerry alone in Jade, homeless.

With no other option, Deryck and Jerry had to steal from other people, in order to live. Every day, they used to go to the hills near which Jade was situated, and used to take fruits from the trees growing there. Whenever they felt bored, they used to explore the hills and find new things to discover. Jerry used to occasionally steal money from the rich and used it for food and a variety of other things.

However, since the town was small, it didn't take long for the people to figure out. While Jerry stayed away and didn't argue with the people, Deryck however, often became angry and tried to fight the people in order to gain money. After one such incident when he was seriously injured, the brothers had to leave the town and move to other towns nearby in order to continue their life. Unknown to the duo, Deryck was secretly on the candidate list of Delta Company, a top-secret program started by ONI's Beta-5 Division.

In 2552, at the age of seven, Deryck was greeted by a couple of people who claimed that they were working for the government. They asked Deryck a variety of questions about his part; mildly irritating him, but nonetheless getting answers for all the questions. After the interrogation, the two men quietly left the place, leaving Deryck wondering. Unbeknown to him, the two men were actually ONI agents, who came in order to test him whether to enlist him or not for the top-secret Delta Company program. He had successfully passed the interrogation test to check his psychological condition, now all that was left was his abduction into the program to start his life of a soldier and later into a mercenary.

"Both of them, quiet as a cat, secret as a shadow. Just came and asked me a few questions, and then left secretly. At then, I wondered who were they and with what purpose did they come to me. I didn't understand, that this was only the beginning..."

- Deryck, recalls his encounter with the two men.

About a month later, Deryck was wandering in the hills when two unknown men approached and attacked them. Deryck tried to fight back and managed to land a blow on one man's face with his knee, but he soon lost his consciousness when the other man struggled but managed to inject a sedative into Deryck. Many days later, he regained consciousness, noticing that he was in a metal room. After getting up and taking a look around the room, he figured it out that he was on a spaceship. Filled with joy that he was finally able to get onto a spaceship, Deryck soon forgot about his encounter with the two unknown men and tried to explore the ship.

His joy was short-lived when he saw more children on the ship, who he never knew of. Then, some men in uniforms entered the big hall where the children were gathered. One of them stood up and said that they were conscripted as per the DELTA Initiative, under which they all would be trained as members of the SPARTAN-III Delta Company, fighting for the UNSC. However, the man announced that not all of the recruits would be taken, as they didn't need too many recruits in the program. As soon as they heard these words, some of the recruits lost interest, although Deryck was particularly interested. Although he wished for his brother to be with him, Deryck happily volunteered for the program, feeling that his hard life on Emerald Cove would be over.

Recruitment
Deryck and the group of recruits were brought to Argus V, via the same ship which he later identified as the UNSC freighter Give Me More. Upon reaching, they were consulted by Major Ren-172 and Commander Kyle-B115, both apparent SPARTAN-II super-soldiers. Deryck was especially fascinated by Ren-172, seeing him in the MJOLNIR Mark VI armor, only increased Deryck's interest in Spartans and in the program. This mysterious figure then opened his helmet, who Deryck recognized to be the same man he had seen earlier, on the ship, who had informed them of the project. He now said that the recruits would be taken to high-altitude and be given the, which they received instructions on how to use, and they would have to jump out of the ship. As soon as he finished this, the recruits were again loaded onto Pelicans and taken to high-altitude and given the parafoils, just as the Major had said. A few recruits hesitated and quit, but Deryck was so interested, he didn't even think twice before jumping out of the Pelican.

In this excitement, he forgot the instructions the drill instructors had given to him about the parafoil. With his excitement turned to shock and confusion, Deryck tried pulling the handles on the parachutes in a hurried manner, fortunately resulting in one of them opening the foil. He was the second to land on the ground, the other one being Amanda-D396. He never saw the ones who got scared again after the jump, as they were separated from the rest of the recruits. The children, roughly 300 in total were greeted by the trainers, saying that they had done an excellent job before they were sent to bed, with the word of having training from tomorrow.

Training
The next day, Deryck and the trainees were waked up early in the morning, and those who refused were jolted with electric batons or poured water over, depending on age. They were brought out onto the field and quickly done some running practice, through the grasslands nearby, after which there was rigorous physical exercise such as sit-ups, jumping jacks, etc. This was followed by a small water break, to relax a bit. Then, they were assembled in lines such that each row of five members would become a team, not unlike to the procedure followed in the SPARTAN-II program. Leaders would be selected after two weeks, after judging over each individual's performance and their leadership abilities. Deryck's team consisted of him, Tor-D121, Joyce-D264, Amanda-D396, and Michelle-D354. Their team was named 'Team Accretion', as with Delta Company's naming system of teams related to astrophysics terms; The name 'Accretion' referred to the Accretion event, and more to the accretion disc formed around a black hole.

After which, there was a small competition of fetching water from a deep well. One member from each team would fetch water from the well using a bucket, and then pass it on to three other members to the final one, who'd pour into their team's large water container. The team who had the most amount of water in their water tank would win. This would be slightly encouraging teamworking skills, although its main focus was speed while staying stable, such as to not pour over too much water onto the ground while passing the bucket. While they hadn't come first, coming seventh instead, Major Ren-172 seemed particularly interested in Team Accretion, as they had spilled little to no water, and their cooperation in the game was pretty solid.

After the competition was a lunch break, where students marched back into their facility, into the meals area. Everyone was given the same food; no one was given any special preference, except for the staff. Immediately after this, was mathematics class. Sorting the recruits based on age again, they were taught a variety of topics ranging from simple algebraic expressions to trigonometric ratios. This was followed by Physics, which was the same for all the recruits. Deryck seemed interested in Physics, and later on would become his favorite and top-scoring subject. Continuing this was more training and competitions, including Ring the Bell and unusually, a relay race. End of the day, the recruits were fed stomach-fully, in order to compensate for the continuous work since morning.

Over the years, there were a lot of newer competitions and challenges, and as the bond between Deryck and his teammates grew, so did their performance in the competitions. From being a nobody's team, Accretion went into being a team in the top five. Harsh challenges and painful training exercises did nothing to break their confidence, boosting it instead. Results were more than satisfactory for the trainers and the staff, making ONI's brass happy. Although Team Accretion was rough in the beginning with their 'sister-team' Team Neutron, throughout the exercises they both developed competition and challenge spirit and regularly competed to beat each other. But all in all, Deryck was very content with the team, the trainers and the other recruits who were friends with him; they were like family to him.

Trivia

 * Deryck is actually the tallest Spartan in Delta Company, standing almost a head taller than most of the other recruits.