Most important prize
Shar watched foxtrot as they moved slowly forward through the forest. She wondered if she should warn them that the instructors had set a trap ahead. After all she wasn't technically against them in this mission. Maybe helping them would also get her some brownie points toward the other Spartan IIIs not being so harsh when she gets back to the barracks. Then again, maybe dealing with foxtrot would give her enough of a distraction to complete her mission.
Shar finally made a decision and jumped down quietly from her perch in the tree. She ran across the forest floor, keeping as low as she could while still moving quickly. She'd just spotted foxtrot when the strap was sprung. A soldier moved out and the butt of the instructor's gun slammed into the side of Min's head. Shar took action, deciding she'd have to use whoever was closest. Her hand smacked into Tom's shoulder, sending him falling out of the way before she tackled Lucy to the ground. The female member of foxtrot tried to speak but Shar put up her finger over where her mouth would be, telling the other girl to be silent.
There was some shouting about how they only had three but there should be four. Shar let out a breath when another said that they'd seen the fourth run away through the forest. She waited until she heard them drag off the rest of Foxtrot before she let Lucy up. "I'm not against you." She didn't know if the other girl would believe her.
Lucy jumped at Shar but she stepped out of the way. The other girl started to throw punches but Shar took a defensive stance and started to block back. "Not against us? You just pushed Tom toward the enemy. You could have beaten up the instructors rather than hiding." Lucy took a step back, breathing hard but still at the ready to fight. "Why'd you do that?"
Shar pulled out a small device and let Lucy see the screen. There was a small dot slowly moving across the screen. "I put a tracker on Tom. This way we can find their base."
Lucy looked at the screen and frowned. "Where did you get a tracking device?" She eyed Shar suspiciously.
Shar just looked at her for a moment. "I have a sniper rifle, a DMR, ODST armor, and you're asking me where I got the tracking device." Shar shook her head. "I stole it before the exercise started and we were restricted to particular areas."
Lucy shrugged. Was it really that normal and accepted for her to steal things? She supposed it would just make things easier. "So, what do you get out of this?"
Shar knew it would come to that. Lucy wasn't foolish enough to think that she was doing this purely to try to help foxtrot. She was never given the exactly same task as the other teams. "Well, you need their flag. I need something else. Something a bit smaller that I have to get. All I want from you and foxtrot is to make a diversion while I get what I need."
"And why would I help you do that?" Shar thought it was one of the dumbest questions she'd ever heard Lucy ask.
"Maybe because if you don't then I'm just going to use this tracker to find their base, steal my item on my own, and leave your team to the instructors to do what they want to with them. Oh, and I don't think they are too happy with your team after you attacked them during that one test. Bet they won't be too nice to your friends." She hated to be forcing Lucy's hand like this, because threatening other soldiers with being left to be hurt wasn't her usual style, but Shar was willing to do what she had to for her mission.
Lucy sighed and nodded. "Fine, I'm in. What do we do?" Shar smiled behind her visor and explained the plan.
The two soldiers lay in the foliage around the base. The instructors had hidden it by covering the buildings in foliage and keeping out of sight. Still, high above it hung a bright red flag, foxtrot's target. "All right, you know what to do?" Lucy nodded and Shar moved.
She kept to the shadows, edging closer to the base. She ducked behind a bush as a pair of soldiers rounded one of the buildings, talking to each other. They were talking too low but what little she caught it seemed like they were having a rather trivial conversation. She let them pass before she moved again.
Shar came to a stop beside the only building with guards. It had to be the one that they were keeping foxtrot in, because there'd be no other reason to be guarding it. Shar glanced around the corner and could see Lucy on the other side. She nodded and they both moved. Shar moved forward, slamming her fist into the first guard's chest. He fell back and his head smacked back against the second guard's. The first fell to the ground and the second joined him when Lucy hit him in the stomach and followed it with a downward strike to the back of the guard's head.
Shar moved to the door and Lucy took the other side. She knocked on the door and waited for an answer. There was a voice that spoke through the door but Shar didn't respond. Finally, wanting to know what was wrong, the soldier inside opened the door. As soon as he did Shar moved into the doorway.
Her fist hit the man's nee and the second slammed into his throat, causing him to choke in an effort to breathe. Shar hit him one more time in the side of the head and he crumpled to the ground. Shar looked up just in time to see the three other guards in the room raise their weapons. "Shar dove forward and the shots soared over her head. She grabbed her DMR and took aim. Three shots, all to the leg, land the guards fell to the ground, not out but hurt.
Lucy moved into the room moving to the closest guard. She kicked his hand, sending the rifle flying. She quickly grabbed the pistol from his side and, hoping that he had stun rounds, fired at his arm. The shot burst on contact so she put the second shot into his chest and he fell, paralyzed. Shar grabbed the SMG from the second guard and yanked it out of his hand. She could hear the bone break but that wasn't her concern. She aimed the gun and shot a quick burst into the chest of the third man. She then brought the gun down on the second guard's head, knocking him out.
Shar looked over to see Lucy already releasing her teammates. Shar turned her attention to the door to make sure that no one came in. She was focused, so she didn't see the fist as it slammed into the back of her helmet. Shar instinctively tucked and rolled away, looking back at the threat. It was Tom. He charged forward and Shar blocked his first hit. Her fist hit his stomach and he doubled over. Her knee then came up to hit his shoulder, causing him to fall to the ground.
"Tom, stop it," Lucy growled at her team leader. "She's on our side. She helped me get you guys." She moved over and stood between Shar and Tom, trying to stop the fight.
"She's just using you. She's got some other motive. She's probably going to turn on us. She's a traitor." Tom got to his feet but he wasn't as steady as he was before. Shar knew that he wasn't really a threat to her any more. She'd done enough damage to make it so that Tom wouldn't be able to fight her back properly. If she hadn't had a helmet on she would have had her on trouble but there was a reason why she wore armor.
"Tom, we need to get the flag. We're running out of time." Good, Lucy was trying to get him focused again.
"Fine, we aren't going to fail our mission. Let's move foxtrot." Tom lead the team outside and Shar had a bad feeling. He gave up on that too quickly.
She didn't have the time to worry about that. She needed to act while foxtrot was grabbing the flag. She moved out of the building and headed away from the flag. She'd tagged which building it was that she needed to get to. She could hear gunfire across the base and knew that foxtrot was fighting their way to the flag. She moved across the base with ease, finding the building.
Shar forced her way inside finding very little actual resistance. She made her way into the office of the man in charge of the instructors and moved to his desk. She looked through the drawers, finally finding the single packet of small cards that was her target. She looked to the desk and spotted the small wooden box that she was familiar with. It was the wooden box that Chief Mendez kept his cigars in.
The door to the room such and she found the man standing there, frowning at her. Shar clenched her fist. If it had been Kurt she would have had trouble raising a fist to him. He was the one that had given her the chance to be a Spartan, who trained them. Though, since it was Mendez, the man who had come up with all the tormenting exercises and ideas that he could to use against them, Shar didn't hesitate.
She jumped over the desk, closing the distance quickly. She blocked the Chief's first hit and tried to strike back but he moved out of the way. It went like that for a few seconds before Shar suddenly moved back. She decided to completely change up her tactics if she was going to win and get out. She moved back and around the desk and Mendez carefully followed her, keeping her in a way that he could attack.
Shar made her move, grabbing the chair and pushing it toward him. Mendez pushed it out of the way before it hit him but the diversion had worked enough. Shar's knee hit Mendez's side, and she followed it up with an open handed slap to the side of his face. He fell to the side, stunned. It was enough for Shar. She needed to get away.
She didn't want to miss this chance to beat up the man that made her life hell at every chance, so she did the next best thing. As she moved around the desk she grabbed the wooden box of cigars. Shar moved to the door and opened it, slipping outside and then crashing her fist into the controls. Hopefully it would at least slow him down. Shar turned and moved out of the building.
She stopped when she got outside, as she found herself surrounded by five soldiers. Seems that foxtrot hadn't done all that good of a job of distracting them. Shar looked around at them and made her decision. She moved to the left and charged the closest soldier. Right before he shot she ducked rolling to his feet. As she stood up she struck out with the wooden box. It smacked into the side of his head with a loud thud and the soldier fell.
Shar didn't look back. She took off at a full run, zigging and sagging in order to keep from being hit. She ducked behind a building and quickly climbed up to the roof. She watched from above as the soldiers ran past the building, thinking they were still following her.
She waited until they were a distance away before she jumped down and ran off in the other direction. She spotted Mendez moving through the base and increased her speed. She heard him open fire on her but the pistol was inaccurate at that distance and he missed. She slipped into the foliage and away from the base. She made a note to get back at Tom and foxtrot later for having failed her.
Shar stood in the command center, looking at the two men. Mendez's cheek was already starting to booze from where she'd slapped him and she was sure there was a bruise on his side. "What'd you do with my box?"
Shar didn't answer and she couldn't help but notice the smile that tugged at the Lieutenant's lips as he looked over the small cards. "Did you look at these?" He held up the cards.
Shar shook her head. "No sir, that was not a part of the mission. I was only to retrieve them." She kept an eye on Mendez. She didn't know what he'd do to try to get back the box she'd stolen. Not that he would. She'd buried it in the woods where he'd never find it, and there was no way they'd get the location out of her.
Kurt put them back in the envelope and stood from his chair. He moved over to Shar and handed it over to her. "It's yours to keep, soldier. Your prize for having won." Shar took the envelope. "And it's an important prize. One you should always remember."
Shar opened the envelope and looked at the cards. She realized they weren't cards but rather pictures. She slid the pictures back in and then stood tall. "Sir, thank you, sir!"
"You are dismissed, trainee." Shar moved out of the room and Kurt turned to Mendez. "Did you have a back up box?" Mendez shook his head. Kurt smiled just a little bit.
Shar sat on the roof. She wasn't sure what to do with foxtrot yet, so she didn't want them to know that she'd come out of the fight without a problem. She sat on the cold roof, staring over the pictures. She recognize each and every face, and she understood what the Lieutenant had meant.
The envelope had held pictures of her family members, all their service pictures. She sat just staring at the uniformed faces of those that had come before her. It was her heritage, her legacy, and she was carrying on the tradition of being military. She looked at the causal photo of her mother and father, sitting with a four-year-old version of her on her mother's lap. She wondered where the Lieutenant had gotten it but she supposed it didn't matter. She could still remember her mother's body lying there, dead beside her as she tried to wake her up.
To her the Lieutenant giving her these pictures was a sign that he wanted her to remember, to never forget why it is she is fighting, what those before her gave up for her to be there. She curled up on the roof and lay the put the pictures into the envelope. She clutched them to her chest and closed her eyes. She drifted off, dreaming of her family, and for the first time in a while, the three Spartans that had saved her.