The team of Spartan IIIs never even saw the flash bangs. The explosives went off, taking out the sight and hearing of the three trainees. Shar was sure they didn't see her fists and feet contacting with them. The solders lay on the ground and she placed flags and attached them to the soldiers. The flags indicated that they were officially 'dead' and out of the mission. Now she only had to worry about fireteam Foxtrot.

She wasn't very worried. Shar wouldn't let her guard down, but she had already taken out team X-ray and Zulu. Foxtrot was the only threat left. She'd dealt with them in the past, sometimes helping them without them knowing it or fighting against them, making their missions harder. She'd noticed that Tom was their obvious leader, but that he had a close connection to Lucy. He tended to give her second-in-command power.

Shar slipped back into the shadows, moving off to set up her trap.

#

"Where did she get that armor?" Mendez frowned at the still shot of the event. They'd been watching carefully, but even then it was hard to keep track of one Spartan. What was worse was Spartan-B312 had left her armor in a cave in the exercise area. From the image before him though, she'd found new armor.

Somehow she'd found a suit of black ODST armor. The issue was that Mendez didn't know where she'd gotten the armor from. He was sure that she hadn't left the training area, and there weren't any ODST suits in the inventory. Mendez glanced over at Kurt. He remembered the Spartan II having found and stolen black body armor after their augmentations. He still had no idea where they had gotten the armor then.

"I don't know, but this isn't the first time she's used it rather than the SPI armor." Kurt moved over to a screen and brought up the footage from a test a few days prior. It showed B312, lying on the top of a building in the camp, taking aim with a sniper rifle. She wore the ODST armor again. "Did one of the DIs bring the suit with them?"

Mendez pulled up the list of supplies and items that had been brought along with all of the DIs when they arrived. He shook his head. "None reported bringing it."

Kurt turned his attention back to the screen. He tapped some controls and an aerial view of the training area appeared. The four indicators of team Foxtrot appeared, moving through the forest. He made a note to have Mendez confront B312 about the armor. No, he decided, he'd talk to her about it himself.

Kurt had pushed B312 harder than most of the teams. When she graduated, became a Spartan, she wouldn't have a team to have her back. He'd pit her against instructors, the trainees who had washed out of Alpha Company, and even the other members of Beta Company. She'd crossed each obstacle as they came to her and had even helped him to find some of the betters in Beta Company. She'd nearly lost an exercise against another team after a member had come up with the outlandish idea of dropping their armor and placing it so it looked like they were in sniper positions. Shar had almost fallen for it, and almost been taken out by the fire of the team, but in the end she'd won out; though with the damage she'd taken she likely would have barely survived the encounter if they'd been using live rounds. He'd already marked B320 for a special assignment as soon as he had enough members for the new team.

"Try to keep track of her. Have a DI go and pick up her SPI armor." Mendez nodded and moved over to the radio to contact the instructors. Kurt scanned the screen, wondering where B312 would strike.

#

Shar lay on the branch, high above the ground in an old tree. She stared down at the ground, waiting for her moment to strike. Foxtrot had been making their way through the forest, so she'd moved ahead of them. She spotted the first signs of cloaked SPI armor moving through the forest. The figures came to a stop and she knew that she had them where she wanted them. She'd set up the SPI helmets from Team Zulu on sticks. Shar raised her rifle, being sure to take aim. She'd stolen the sniper rifle off of a DI who had wandered into the training area while going to pick up Team X-ray.

She took aim and fired off four shots. The stun rounds struck two of the soldiers and they fell to the ground. The remaining two darted into the foliage for cover. Shar slid down the branch and climbed down the tree with ease. She slipped into the shadows, confident that the black of her armor would hide her well enough. She'd tried to fit a camouflage unit to the suit, but they weren't as compatible as she had hoped.

She slipped through the forest, looking for any sign of her targets. She finally spotted one—Lucy. She was sure it was her as, even in her armor, she was smaller than others. Shar moved up behind her. The girl was distracted, likely talking to her remaining teammate over their COMs. Shar slipped her arm around the other girl's neck and heard her shout. Lucy struggled against her, but Shar held on tight.

There was a rustle nearby. Shar turned them so that Lucy was between her and the movement. The figure didn't shoot right away, just stayed still. "Put your weapon down and deactivate your camouflage." Shar tugged Lucy's neck up a bit.

Tom hesitated, trying to decide what to do. His camouflage deactivated and he slowly placed down his rifle. Tom put up his hands, each move careful. Shar's hand moved to her back, pulling out her knife. She slammed the butt of her blade into the back of Lucy's head hard enough to knock her out.

Tom knelt down, to pick up his rifle. He wasn't quick enough. Shar's knee made contact with his face, sending him flying back into a tree. She pinned him against the tree, knife at his neck. "You're dead."

Tom slumped a bit, defeated. Shar moved through the team, placing the indicator flags on them. She then moved back through the forest, toward her cave. She'd been using it for a while to hide her ODST armor and store her SPI armor. A DI had smuggled the armor to the camp for nostalgic reasons, and Shar had stolen it. She'd liked it, and seeing as she wasn't in a team like the other Spartans, she didn't want to wear the same armor as them. She was often fought against the other Spartans and something seemed cruel about making the enemy look like them.

There was a problem when she reached the cave. Her SPI armor was gone. Shar clenched her fists and ignored the instinct to smack herself. She hadn't deactivated the locator equipment in the suit. They must have found it and taken her armor. There was no way they couldn't know that she was using different armor. Shar took a deep breath and calmed herself. She turned and left the cave, making her way back to Camp.

#

Kurt stared at the ODST-armored trainee on the other side of the room. B312 stood at full attention, waiting for Kurt to address her. He picked up an object and tossed it at her. The trainee caught it and stared at the helmet. "Can you tell me what that is?"

"Sir, it's an SPI helmet, sir." Shar stared down at the golden reflective face plate.

"Not just the helmet of an SPI suit, it's the helmet of your SPI armor." Kurt studied the trainee. She didn't seem to react at all to the news. "I want you to tell me why it is that you aren't wearing this armor."

Shar shrugged. "I just don't like it." She paused for a moment. "You don't give me missions like the others, so I don't feel like the others. I like this armor." Shar motioned to the ODST armor.

Kurt felt a bit of guilt. He had alienated the Spartan from the others, meaning her dislike for the SPI armor was partially his fault. He nodded and moved over to the trainee. He took the helmet from her and turned around, walking back to the screens on the other side of the room. "You are dismissed." Kurt could almost feel Shar's relief in the air. She'd been afraid that he was going to take her armor away. Kurt turned around, but B312 was already gone, likely not wanting to risk him changing his mind. Kurt let himself smile as he stood alone.