#the birthday of the dagger detachment from one desk before everything else

[pollyna]

Iceman asks for the best, six or seven of them, not much more. He doesn't need much more. In moments like this, he hates himself more than he hates the job he's doing but he knows that giving them to Maverick will mean they'll get back. He doesn't trust anybody else to take the kids home, because he knows nobody would care as much.

He asks for a small group and what he gets back is twelve names and COs praying for him to take them away from them because they are the best of the best but they're expendable. Halo and Omaha's CO write these pilots are likes fungus in October, if you lose a patch you can be sure you'll find the next in a couple of steps. The murderous feelings are all bubbling in his chest and he would like to punch the fucker in the face and ruin his career but he can already feel his throat closing on itself, he needs to breathe because the work to do is a lot and he doesn't have the time to wallow. But he will take the matter into his hands, once he sorted everything out.

He adds a name after another, six becoming eight and then twelve. Bradley is there too and that makes his eyes wet to the point he has to open a window because he can barely think now. He puts Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell on the top of the list and sends out the mail to Cain and Hondo. Then he sits and stares at twelve photos and twelve people so different and so young and expendable. 

Two hours later Hondo is calling because Maverick did it again and Iceman has to take a moment to remember himself Mav is surely okay because it's what he does and who he is, prints an eight-page long debrief and signs it. Its title is The North Island detachment.