Sarah-184

"I've been a SPARTAN-II, an ODST, and a SPARTAN-IV. During that time I've either been working alone, in stealth operations, or both. Do you really think I'd reject the offer?""

- Sarah-184, in regards to the offer to work with ONI as a lone wolf stealth operative. Spartan Sarah-184, is a SPARTAN-IV supersoldier, former Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and former SPARTAN-II Class II trainee, having washed out of the program due to augmentation complications. However, she rejoined the program later on for a short while during 2552. Specializing in recon and assault, she is often sent on lone wolf stealth missions by ONI Section III's Delta-6 Division. Due to the upper hand she had as an ODST from her half-successful SPARTAN-II augmentations, she survived through the Human-Covenant War and fought in many of the battles from 2547 onward, including the Fall of Reach and the Battle of Earth. Following the end of the war, she volunteered for the SPARTAN-IV program and received small amounts of additional augmentations before entering the program. As a SPARTAN-IV, she served in many post-war campaigns, up to and including the Second Battle of Requiem. However, having noticed her skills at recon and assault, she was conscripted into the ONI Section III Delta-6 Division to act as a lone wolf stealth operative. Since then, she has been tasked with ONI missions rather than standard SPARTAN-IV missions, and remains in active service for the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Early Life
Born Sarah Trease on Jericho VII on April 9, 2531 to two members of the local militia, Sarah was an extraordinary child. Quickly picking up all three languages spoken in the house, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and English, and making quite a few friends, Sarah was quickly marked as a candidate for the SPARTAN-III program and the potential SPARTAN-II Class II program. However, her peaceful life quickly changed when the planet was attacked by the Covenant in 2535. While her father was killed, she managed to escape with her mother, who then later died of her injuries on the way to Reach. Landing on Reach, Sarah was transferred to an orphanage where she spent the next two years of her life, until being approached by an ONI agent in 2537 and taken to be part of the SPARTAN-III Beta company. However, realizing her genetic and mental markers met the requirements, she was instead taken back to Reach to train as part of the SPARTAN-II program's Class II. With no parents to send a clone back to, Sarah was not replaced by one, and so the orphanage simply thought she had run away, and a search was opened for her, though yielded no results.

SPARTAN-II Class II Training
Arriving at the same facilities that the first class of SPARTAN-II's had trained in, Sarah met up with the rest of her fellow trainees, numbering at only about 60 rather than the 75 of the original class. Receiving her briefing, she was then shaved, showered, given her gear, stitched with her new name "Sarah-184", and sent to the bunks. The next morning, she woke up first, having often gotten up early in the morning while she was at the orphanage, and was dressed and ready for training before the instructors even showed up, though she was still hit with the stun baton for leaving her bunk to early.

Moving to physical training, she, along with the other trainees, were pushed as hard as any other potential soldier, quickly developing into strong, miniature soldiers. Faced with similar physical training to the first class of SPARTAN-II's, and split into similar teams, each fire team developed a bond within the group. However, Sarah was, when not training, friendly with the other teams as well.

Mentally, they were trained in military strategy, science, mathematics, and other scholastic pursuits. In her free time, though very scarce, Sarah taught herself additional languages to the three she already knew, learning German and French by the time of her graduation. Due to every hour of her day being filled with physical training, schooling, and self-tutoring, Sarah often snuck out at night, developing stealth abilities and using them to get past guards and read, tutor herself, or just fool around with other trainees who showed a similar skill in remaining hidden.

By the time that the instructors found out about her actions, mostly due to her tiredness the following mornings, they were shocked by how long she and a few of her friends had been going unnoticed, and, rather than punishing them, put them together to form Brown Team, a team specifically designed to be trained reconnaissance and surprise assaults, rather than simply powering through her enemies, and taught to be self-sufficient in the field.

For the remainder of her time training on Reach, Sarah and Brown team built a reputation for often winning at simulated battles by simply going undetected the entire time, once winning a game of capture the flag without firing a shot. Towards the end of their training, they even rated better than instructors in SPI armor at stealth operations, passing through the tests more quickly than the instructors and remaining hidden just as well.

After eight years of this training, in early 2545, Brown Team's self-sufficiency was put to the test, with Sarah and her four teammates being dropped 150 kilometers out from the camp without any food, weapons, or gear beyond their simple PT clothing and a map and compass and told to make it back in the next five days or they will wash out. This test was distinct to brown team, with other teams getting their own final tests, and required them to march at least 30 kilometers a day while gathering the materials needed to survive the winter of Reach, including food, water, fire, and shelter. Managing to complete the trek with no causalities, Brown Team made it back to the camp with four hours to spare, and was immediately grouped up with the other 40 trainees, or eight teams, who had completed their tasks in time. The 45 SPARTAN-II trainees, including Brown Team, were then shipped off to a UNSC medical facility to receive their augmentations. Of the 15 trainees, or three teams, that failed to make it back on time, one team died attempting their mission, and the other two were rotated to the Office of Naval Intelligence to work as analysts and later operatives once they were old enough to not raise concerns among the others.

Augmentation and Washing Out
Upon arrival at the UNSC medical ship in orbit of Reach, the 45 remaining SPARTAN-II Class II trainees were each sent to their respective medical bays and prepared for the augmentation procedures. Being shuffled into her room and sedated, Sarah underwent the standard augmentation procedures of the SPARTAN-II program, including Carbide Ceramic Ossification, Muscular Enhancement Injections, Catalytic Thyroid Implant, Occipital Capillary Reversal, and Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites, designed to increase her speed, strength, agility, reflexes, bone endurance, memory recollection and vision. Waking up several times throughout the procedure due to the pain of the augmentations, Sarah's procedures took an additional half hour longer than the rest of Class II. By the time they were finished, it was discovered that Sarah's augmentations had only been three-quarters as effective as they should have been, and her left arm and leg bones had been completely pulverized, requiring the amputation of both limbs in order to keep her alive. Her injuries and less effective augmentation results ended with her washing out of the program and entering rehab to hopefully be able to fight again. She was one of ten washouts, with thirteen additional trainees dying from the process, leaving only 22 Class II SPARTAN-II's active in a combat role.

Rehab
While offered the chance to serve in the Office of Naval Intelligence as an analyst, Sarah adamantly refused and demanded to undergo the rehab to allow herself to fight again. Agreeing, she remained on the medical vessel in orbit of Reach for the next two years. The first step of the rehab program during this time was the amputation of both of the pulverized limbs and subsequent replacement of them with cybernetic limbs, made to appear realistic despite their metallic frame.

From 2545 to 2547, Sarah underwent significant rehab programs, adapting to get used to her cybernetic limbs and recovering from the after-effects of the augmentation, which hit her much harder than the rest of the SPARTAN-II Class-II survivors. As such, she often was in excruciating pain from headaches, aching bones, burning muscles, nosebleeds, and even bleeding from the eyes. It took her over a year and a half to get used to the augmentations, even at their three-quarters effectiveness, and the remaining half year to develop her skills to the level she had been at before her forced lapse from training. This last half year was spent undergoing the same training programs she had underwent as a trainee, though this time alone, which contributed to her agreement to choose to be a lone-wolf agent later in her life as a SPARTAN-IV.

After the two years of rehab and re-training, Sarah was diagnosed again. Seeing that her augmentations were still underpowered in comparison to the rest of the SPARTAN-II's, ONI refused to allow her to serve with her fellow Class II graduates. While they originally wished for her to serve as an ONI analyst or agent, Sarah demanded a combat role and, after several heated discussions, ONI agreed and allowed her to enlist as an ODST, pulling some strings to allow her into the training program despite having never served as a Marine before.

ODST Recruitment
In early 2547, with the assistance of ONI's recommendations and her skills from her SPARTAN-II training, Sarah, now known by the alias Sarah Carpenter, enlisted with the ODSTs. As the instructors set her through her training, she aced every trial they gave her, doing particularly well at the stealth, recon, and assault training courses. With ONI keeping the trainees from asking questions, Sarah quickly made her way through training, far faster than most ODST candidates ever due, and was given the rank of Private, awarded the Basic Training Honor Graduate Ribbon, and assigned to the ODST fireteam Bravo-8, an assault team, and placed onboard the UNSC Chares with the team, serving under Colonel Felicia Sanderson.

Battle of Skopje
Shortly after being assigned to the Chares, in September of the same year, the ship was stationed around Skopje, an UEG Inner Colony, when the Covenant attacked. Deploying through her first Orbital Insertion, Sarah, along with the rest of Bravo-8, landed to reinforce a shipbuilding facility on the surface along with ODSTs from the UNSC Clearidas, told to hold the perimeter at all costs. Equipped with an MA5K Carbine, M6C/SOCOM Pistol, and several grenades of various types, Private Carpenter fought valiantly against the waves of Unggoy that made up the original assault on the compound, easily holding them off, despite their numbers. When the Covenant started sending Kig-Yar snipers and picking of the ODST's one by one, Sarah volunteered to move to take them out, using her proficiency at remaining undetected to get behind them and kill them. However, the victory was short lived when the Covenant landed Jiralhanae and Sangheili troops. Still managing to remain hidden for a good while after they landed, and cut off from her team and other fellow ODST's, Sarah took out several of the troops before finally being detected. Breaking into a sprint back to her group, she was cut off by an Elite before making it.

Using the last of her ammo against the Elite, to no avail due to the shields and armor and low amount that she had left, she slung her carbine and drew her combat knife, engaging the Elite in hand to hand combat. While augmented, the lesser degree to which her procedure succeeded led to her being able to hold her ground against the minor Elite, something not even an ODST could normally do, but not overpower the Sangheili. Managing to get a few stabs and slashes to land, she was finally pinned by the Elite, who cracked her helmet with its rifle and was about to kill her, when a SPARTAN-II killed the elite, saving her and escorting the surviving ODSTs to the nearby stone castle.

Reconvening with the rest of the marines and ODSTs from the ships in orbit, including Colonel Sanderson, Sarah and the ODSTs from the shipyard were restocked and hunkered down in the castle. Using the inability of the Covenant's plasma weaponry to vaporize the stone walls, the marines held their position, seeming to be winning. However, this was only the case on the ground, as the battle in orbit was going less fortunately for the UNSC. Pulling the marines out after evacuations had been completed, the Clares fled the system, leaving it to be glassed by the Covenant, just like so many colonies before it.

Shortly following the battle, Sarah was promoted to Private First Class for the bravery and skill she showed during the Battle of Skopje, and given a new set of armor. Additionally, due to injuries she sustained while fighting the Sangheili, she was awarded the UNSC Purple Heart. With several members of her original team dead after the mission, Sarah was grief-stricken for a few days, but quickly recovered. Due to her shown proficiency at recon and stealth assault, Bravo-8 was rebuilt around Sarah to be a recon team. Each member of their team had their ODST armor installed with RADAR jammers and painted black, reducing their visibility further. Additionally, the ODSTs of the new Bravo-8 were given a thermal gel undersuit rather than the standard undersuit, allowing them to mask their thermal signatures as well as visibility.

Battle of Verent
For the next few months, the UNSC Chares jumped around, patrolling various inner and outer colony worlds for Covenant activity. The chance finally came in the middle of the year in 2548. Refueling in orbit of the world of Verent, the Chares detected several small Covenant vessels entering the system. Undocking from the refueling station, the cruiser moved to defend the colony and begin evacuations. However, only small ships entered the system at first, the larger vessels falling behind due to a anomaly in the slipspace drives of one of the vessels, delaying the major part of the assault.

Shooting a large number of the small craft down, the UNSC Chares managed to reduce the invading force to about half its size before they made landfall and began attacking a major city on the planet, believing a Forerunner artifact to be present. Using the lapse in space combat to their advantage, the ODSTs stationed on the Chares deployed in their SOEIVs to the planet to assist in evacuations by Pelican and defense of the city from invading Covenant forces, with Sarah and Beta-8 separating from the main group to sneak into the forerunner structure that the Covenant were unearthing and prevent them from acquiring the artifacts inside, hoping to slow down the progress to prolong the amount of time that was available to evacuate the population.

Landing relatively close to each other, Beta-8 regrouped and approached the now unearthed structure just outside the city, a small bunker. Silently taking out the group of Unggoy and one Sangheili that was guarding the entrance, the group of ODSTs infiltrated the bunker to delay the Covenant forces. Making their way down, level by level, they managed to stealthily kill several Elites and Grunts. While they made their way to the lowest level of the underground structure, they discovered the structure's monitor, 624 Shameful Compression. Being recognized as reclaimers, the ODSTs managed to work with the monitor to shut down the computers and deny the Covenant forces access to the technology, inserting a datachip to retrieve the data for themselves.

However, as the data was downloading to the datachip, the remainder of the Covenant fleet arrived, engaging the UNSC Chares, severely damaging it, before it managed to limp its way around the planet, buying the ODSTs twenty minutes to evacuate and get locked down on the ship. Taking the datachip with the data only partially damaged, Beta-8 made their way out of the facility. Despite the group's desire to take the Monitor with them, the ancilla stubbornly refused to leave his installation, and an overzealous wraith driver shot the mortar at the group, despite their proximity to the facility, forcing them to run and leave the Monitor behind. Double timing it to their Pelican, they were cut off by a Sangheili Ultra. Managing to injure the Elite with their firearms, they quickly ran out of ammo. Sarah charged the Ultra to buy the rest of her team time to make it past, and engaged in as short bout of close quarters fighting, finally managing to force the weakened Sangheili to impale itself with its own energy sword, grazing herself in the process. Sprinting to the Pelican, Sarah made it onboard just before it took off without her. The last ones to leave the planet, Beta-8's Pelican dropped a nuclear missile to take out the Covenant ground forces as they fled into orbit. Managing to dock with the Chares just two minutes before the Covenant fleet rounded the planet and achieved line of sight on the vessel, the ODSTs locked down in the Pelican as the cruiser entered slipspace on its random trajectory jumps to escape the Covenant.

Arriving back at Earth a couple of months later, slowed down due to the random jumps and the damages to the vessel, the vessel docked for repairs. Sarah and several other members of the ODST unit watched videos of the Covenant glassing the planet, before turning over the datachip they acquired. Due to her actions, Sarah was promoted to Lance Corporal and awarded the UNSC Bronze Star and a cluster for her Purple Heart in a private ceremony on the Chares as it was docked for repairs. Spending several months on Earth, some for shore leave, some for training, while the Chares was being repaired, Sarah finally shipped out again when the vessel completed its repairs in 2549, heading to reinforce the UEG colony of Paris IV.

Siege of Paris IV
As the Chares entered the Paris IV system, they dropped out of slipspace in the middle of a battle between the Covenant and the UNSC defense group in orbit of the planet. Joining up with the defense group, the Chares deployed its ODSTs to the surface of the planet through SOEIVs and proceeded to aid in the defense of the planet from orbit.

Landing with Beta-8 on the planet, Sarah, now second and command of the team, worked her way to join up with the rest of the ODSTs just outside of the capital city. After the group gathered and supplied themselves, Beta-8 was sent ahead to recon the area, with the remainder of the ODSTs following close behind to provide fire support should it be needed. Making their way to the nearby city, the group of ODSTs flanked an attacking Covenant force, quickly taking them out, and grouped up with the Marines stationed there.

Following the marines to their field command post, an old museum in the center of the city, made of stone just like the castle of Skopje, the ODSTs were briefed on the situation. Apparently, the force had yet to simply be glassed as the museum contained artifacts, which the Covenant seemed keen to avoid damaging. Setting up a defensive perimeter, the ODSTs and the Marines were once again attacked by a Covenant force. As the force attacked, they received word that the UNSC ships in orbit were being quickly overrun, and force to flee the system. This opened the floodgate in the Covenant ground support, with only the stone walls of the castle keeping the marines safe from the repeated waves of the assault.

Holding out in the museum, the marines were in a constant state of combat, but running low on ammo. As such, Beta-8 was sent out on a mission to take out the Sangheili Field Master and capture as many weapons as possible for use. Making their way out of the museum stealthily, the fireteam advanced through the streets of the capital city and towards the Covenant command post, taking out many Jackals, Grunts, and Elites along the way. Picking up the dropped weapons and equipment of the group continued once they were loaded down with weaponry. Making their way to the command post, they opened fire on the Field Master, but were quickly discovered. Managing to lock themselves in the command post with the elite, they killed his support and began fighting him.

While the team outnumbered the Sangheili five to one, his experience and energy sword proved deadly in close combat. With her squad leader killed by the Sangheili's first attack. Sarah jumped the elite, tackling him to the ground in a loose pin, buying the rest of her team time to escape out of the command post under her orders. Continuing to wrestle with the Elite, Sarah was severely injured by the energy sword as it swiped across her body several times, but she finally managed to kill it when she stuck his back with a plasma grenade and tackled the Elite, softening the blow. Luckily, the EMP fried the weapons of the Covenant force that had now amassed outside the building, and Sarah could sprint away and back to the marine command post in the museum, before collapsing and being taken to the medic.

Covered with cuts from grazing wounds from the energy sword and having lost a lot of blood, Sarah is sedated and filled with biofoam to stabilize her. The medics then work on her in the field hospital, managing to return her to fighting condition without relying on biofoam after a few days, partially due to her SPARTAN-II augmentations and her overall fit shape. Following her treatment, Sarah is given a battlefield promotion to the rank of Corporal, and placed in charge of Beta-8.

Over the next several weeks, the ODSTs and marines continue to hold their own in the museum, losing relatively few men due to the safety of the structure compared to the large losses the Covenant continued to sustain. Beta-8 continued to gather weapons off of dead Covenant soldiers, and after several days, the defenders relied solely on the alien technology, having run out of ammo for their own weapons. As the Covenant began to glass the planet everywhere but the city and with the marines running low on food, Sarah proposed that Beta-8 scout the city for a slipspace capable vessel to evacuate the marines and escape the closing Covenant forces. Approved, Sarah and the rest of Beta-8 left the museum and used their armor and recon skills to make their way through the city relatively undetected, picking off troops along the way and looking for a way to access the city's network.

Finally, the fireteam arrived at a university. Detecting an AI signal, and seeing Covenant filling the building, Sarah commanded Beta-8 to infiltrate the structure, recover the AI to prevent it from falling into Covenant hands, and use the AI to access the city's network and look for any mention of slipspace capable ships. Splitting her team in half, two of the members went in through the back entrance, while she and the other member climbed the walls of the university and entered through the roof, both teams moving to converge on the AI's location. Managing to sneak up on an Elite on the roof, Sarah killed the Sangheili with her combat knife and took his energy sword, the failsafe of which hadn't been activated as it had not been drawn by the Elite. Proceeding to easily take out the Kig-Yar and Unggoy which had been supporting the Sangheili, Sarah and her partner continued into the building.

Upon descending to the top level, the fourth floor, of the building, Sarah's other teammates, the one on the lower levels, managed to disable the building's lights. Activating their VISR systems, the ODSTs made the most use of the darkness to stay hidden, Sarah drew the energy sword and activated it, using the light contrasting against the darkness to play hell with the night vision of any Covenant they ran into. Making their way down to the location of the AI, easily dispatching the forces encountered along the way, the four man ODST team reconvened and extracted the AI onto a datachip, evacuating the building and making their way back to the museum command post.

After arriving back at the command post, Sarah reported to the senior leadership of the marine force and presented the AI retrieved, plugging it into the computer. The AI, a prototype Smart AI being researched at the facility, introduced itself as Axel, accessed the network from the city and informed the group of several D81-LRT Condors in a hangar in the center of the city. Mobilizing the marines on this information, and extracting the AI, the group launched a massive assault out of the museum, during which Sergeant Avery Johnson utilized an entire crate of captured Covenant plasma grenades, and pushed to the Condors. Losing approximately a third of the marines in the assault, the marines piled into the transports, those with pilot specialties first to allow them to take off, and the ODSTs boarding last, and closed the doors, cramming inside the crowded cabins. The three Condors, along with several other small craft in the hangar piloted remotely by Axel, took off and quickly climbed into orbit, making a break for a gap in the Covenant forces. Using the remotely piloted craft as shields, the evacuating marines reached a far enough distance to safely jump to slipspace and exited on random vectors. Luckily, the Covenant forces in the system didn't follow, instead they remained behind to evacuate their troops and the artifacts they were after and finish glassing the planet.

After spending an extended period of time in slipspace in the crowded ships without the ability to enter cryosleep, the marines made their way back to Earth to report on the siege, receive medical treatment, rest, and be reassigned. Sarah, now the unofficial leader of Bravo-8, was debriefed on the fireteam's actions during the siege. Following the debrief and testaments from other marines and ODSTs who were on the surface and saw her actions, Sarah was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, assigned permanent leadership over Beta-8, awarded the Silver Star for her actions, and received an additional cluster for her Purple Heart. Following the ceremony, she and her team were awarded extended medical leave on the surface of Earth.

Battle of Ballast
Following their leave on Earth, a good half a year into 2550 due to the extent of the teams injuries and the additional time they were given to recover, Beta-8 was reassigned to UNSC Leviathan, Admiral Stanforth's personal flagship, to serve as part of the ODST Compliment on the ship. Getting settled in, the team spent the next year with relatively little action, often jumping to planets that reported attacks by Covenant, but arriving too late to do anything to help defend the colonies. Finally, after more than a year of jumping around in such a manner, the Leviathan and its fleet settled around Ballast for a refueling stop and, just as the fleet was about to leave the system, Covenant ships entered the system and landed troops, hoping to take out the orbital defense batteries of the colony, and began to assault the ships. Required to quickly deploy troops to defend the planet-side generators for the MACs, the Leviathan deployed the ODSTs it had onboard through SOEIVs to set up a defensive perimeter and hold it while the larger marine force arrived.

Separated from the rest of the ODSTs on the way to the surface of the planet due to being knocked off course by an exploding Seraph fighter, Sarah's SOEIV landed over three kilometers from the rest of the ODSTs. After a hard landing, the shock of which had destroyed her comms equipment and shook loose over half of her ammo, Sarah navigated towards the generators through the use of landmarks, beginning the long march to get to the perimeter, the Covenant forces in between her and her goal. After a half hour of marching, Sarah came across a group of Jackal scouts and proceeded to eliminate them, grabbing a beam rifle from one of them. Familiarizing herself with the weapon, a relatively newly discovered weapon, Sarah made her way into the woods that the Covenant was slowly advancing through, strapping an additional beam rifle onto her back for later use, unsure of how much charge each battery held. Climbing a tree, Sarah made her way from branch to branch, picking off Covenant forces that she met along the way with her M9C/SOCOM, and made her way to just behind the Covenant encampment, just outside the ODSTs' hastily put together defensive perimeter, and scoped the forces through the beam rifle.

As the Covenant pounded on the ODST line, Pelicans unable to land due to the heavy anti-air fire from three separate AA guns. Managing to use the twenty-five shots she had in both of the beam rifles combined, Sarah picked off several high-ranking Sangheili, using the distraction created, her skills in stealth, and her camouflaged armor to plant explosive charges on each AA gun, before commandeering a Ghost, activating her IFF to make sure the ODSTs wouldn't shoot her, and charging for her own lines, weaving to avoid getting hit. Managing to avoid a large amount of the damage, with only a single plasma pistol shot near miss burning her neck and right shoulder, Sarah dived off the Ghost behind the defensive perimeter and detonated the charges, allowing the Pelicans to land and deploy their troops. Setting up the Ghost along the perimeter to act as a defensive gun, and resupplied and reinforced by the marines, the UNSC forces managed to repel the Covenant attackers, allowing the orbital guns to stay active and the space-based Covenant forces to all be repelled, winning the battle for the UNSC in late-2551.

Upon returning to orbit and receiving a cluster on her Purple Heart and Bronze Star for her injury and actions, respectively, Sarah received notice that she had been called to Chi Ceti IV by orders of the Office of Naval Intelligence.

Testing the Mark V MJOLNIR
Arriving at the colony, Sarah reported to the Damascus Testing Facility in Vhalkem. Having been a SPARTAN-II trainee, and having a good portion of the augmentations successfully done to her, Sarah had been chosen to test the MJOLNIR Mark V[B] armor in secret from Doctor Halsey in order to determine if it was ready to be deployed to the SPARTAN-III supersoldiers, as the doctor wasn't informed of their existence. Seeing Doctor Halsey on the site, Sarah made a mental note of her appearance, having heard rumors of her involvement with starting the SPARTAN-II and MJOLNIR programs, but not knowing anything with certainty due to being part of the Class II SPARTAN-II program, with which Halsey had no involvement.

Arriving at the testing ground, Sarah donned a prepared set of the armor, with the help of several technicians, and ran through basic adjustment exercises to get used to the enhancements the armor offered. Moving from the storage site to a testing ground following the exercises, Sarah was faced with a typical marine training course in front of her, a kilometer long track run, a dynamic target range, an obstacle course, and a live fire barbed-wire crawl. Adjusting the energy shielding below her feet to allow herself traction and on her hands to allow herself grip, Sarah grabbed a rifle and sprinted through the run, quickly completing it and arriving at the target range. Using the linked optics of the HUD, she accurately hit each target at ranges she hadn't before thought possible, and knew when each target was coming before it did due to the motion tracker in the suit.

After the target range, she came to the obstacle course, quickly climbing over the first wall. However, after the first wall, she experimented with jumping and easily cleared several more obstacles by a simple leap, completing the entire course quickly. Finally coming to the barbed wire crawl, she ran forward, dived under the wire and slid a good half of the distance due to the reduced friction of the shields. However, the contact with the wire reduced them by a quarter of their strength, and she stood still to allow them to recharge. Continuing on, she advanced slowly to allow her shields to keep up and, for the last quarter of the crawl, stood up and let the bullets ping off the shields and armor, not taking any damage from the small arms fire.

Completing the course, she reported back to the storage facility, removed the armor, and was debriefed by an ONI agent. Following the debrief, she signed a non-disclosure agreement stating that the experience she just contributed to must remain a secret, with breaches of the agreement being punishable by death. Remaining on the site to advise the Spartans receiving the armor on tricks and tips for wearing the armor to make it easier to handle. Having seen her skill and capabilities in the MJOLNIR armor, and with the UNSC losing the war, ONI had used this time to decide that Sarah would be reinstated into the SPARTAN-II program. Slipping her transfer documents through to the Marine Corps, ONI transferred Sarah to the Navy with the rank of Petty Officer Second Class. Equipping her with the MJOLNIR Mark V[B] armor, along with upgraded pieces of her ODST gear, including the helmet, in December of 2551. Retaking her Spartan tag of Sarah-184, and receiving an ONI dress uniform, Sarah was told to report for orders the next day. Showing up in the conference room at 0600 hours the next morning, in her new uniform, Sarah was reunited with Brown Team. After a brief moment of catching up, Sarah was reinstated as the team's commander, replacing her former replacement, who had died shortly before, and the SPARTAN-II's sat down to receive their new orders. During this briefing, the team of SPARTAN-II's was once again assigned to work in stealth operations. However, rather than fighting on the front lines, they were assigned to do what they must to capture a Covenant vessel and bring it to a neutral location so that UNSC scientist could study the technology. In essence, the plan was a precursor to Operation: RED FLAG, though they were not planned by the same people, simply at similar times. To assist with this task, Sarah was given a datachip containing Axel, the AI she had rescued on Paris IV, who had been based on the brain of a leading UNSC scientist who had specialized in the Covenant. Following the briefing, Brown Team was assigned to the ONI Prowler Poltergeist and departed the system in early January of 2552.

Operation: FIRESIDE
The first chance Brown Team got to attempt to capture a Covenant vessel was during the Covenant's assault on Ariel. While the UNSC received a distress signal and sent a detachment of ODSTs to handle the engagement on the ground, the Poltergeist also reported to the system. However, rather than sending the SPARTAN-IIs to the surface, the fireteam took a stealth Pelican to board the vessel. As a dropship left the hangar, the Pelican landed onboard the Covenant vessel and the team disembarked and cleared the hangar bay of technicians and any remaining pilots, securing the location to get their bearings for the mission. Uploading Axel to the computer system of the vessel from his datachip, the AI managed to hook to the team's comms and guide them through the ship.

Working their way through their ship towards the bridge, the SPARTAN-II fireteam managed to easily clear any resistance they met while also keeping a low profile, due to their proficiency in recon and stealth. However, as they got closer to the center of the ship, Axel informed them that a large team of Elites was headed their way, having discovered the bodies of their killed crewmates and following the trail towards the SPARTAN-IIs. Double timing it to the bridge, Brown Team was cut off when the Shipmaster locked down the section of the ship they were in, forcing them back from the bride, hoping to find another way into the Covenant command center. Unfortunately, on their way back, the team made contact with the large group of Sangheili. While the team managed to overpower the Elites with an ambush they hastily setup, the ODSTs on the ground had managed to deny the Covenant access to the Forerunner artifacts beneath the surface.

Axel informed the group that the Covenant ship was making ready to jump, giving Brown Team approximately five minutes until they recalled all of the Covenant troops and made the transition. Unable to stop the jump from the console in the hangar bay as the bridge had been locked down, Axel suggested that the team pull him from the system and retreated. Knowing they wouldn't be able to make it to the reactor of bridge in time, especially with the lockdown, Sarah ordered Brown Team to return to the hangar and escape the vessel. Making their way back to their Pelican, the Spartans found the vessel surrounded by the returning troops from the surface of Ariel. Splitting into two groups of two, Brown Team made their way around the edge of the hangar and ambushed the Covenant troops, clearing a way to the Pelican and making a break for it. As Sarah reached the Pelican first, she manned the turret on the back of the dropship and provided covering fire for her other Spartans as they boarded the vessel. Once the other three SPARTAN-IIs were onboard, Sarah-184 closed the gangplank and plugged Axel into the ship's systems, telling him to leave the ship right when it entered slipspace, as to prevent the Covenant from shooting down the Pelican before the SPARTAN-II team could escape. Using the dropship's weapons to hold off the advancing Covenant troops, the Pelican launched just before the end of the countdown and cleared the Covenant vessel's shields just before it made the jump, escaping and making their way back to the Poltergeist, not in command of a Covenant ship, but with the data that Axel had managed to gather on the Covenant. Reporting back to ONI, Axel, Sarah, and Brown Team delivered this data, allowing ONI to make more effective translation subroutines and to start researching Covenant technology from the limited data that they had. Following a day of maintenance, the Poltergeist left the system and continued its mission.

Battle of Fumirole
The next chance that Brown Team managed to get to achieve their objective was during the Battle of Fumirole. Arriving in the system shortly after the Covenant attack on the system began, Sarah led Brown Team on their modified Pelican to land on a Covenant Battlecruiser that was descending to deploy troops to the system. Getting into the hangar bay in much the same manner as they had in the previous ship, Brown Team disembarked from the Pelican and cleared the hangar. However, the situation quickly turned for the worse, forecasting the fate of the mission as a whole, when a Hunter bond pair entered the hangar, engaging the team. Peppering the Mgalekgolo with Assault Weapon fire and grenades, the SPARTAN-IIs made little progress against the large opponents. Additionally, the fuel rod cannons mounted on the creatures arms managed to destroy their Pelican and remove one of Brown Team's members from battle. The SPARTAN-IIs continued to fight more carefully, avoiding getting hit, proving evenly matched for the Hunters, not getting hurt but not giving any hurt either. Quickly running out of ammo and explosives, and with no progress made on defeating the beasts, the members of Brown Team attempted to charge the opponents and take them on in hand to hand combat. However, as the closest member of Brown Team charged, the beast swung its massive shield and, breaking through the SPARTAN-II's shields, managed to cleanly decapitate the Spartan with the sharpened Covenant alloy. Now evenly numbered and losing, the remaining two SPARTAN-IIs of Brown Team, Sarah and her second in command, were forced into a retreating fight, unable to attack the Hunters, unable to escape the hangar, and unable to withstand the assault of the beasts.

Managing to pull the battle past a console on the ship, Sarah quickly plugged Axel in and set him on the task of removing the lockdown to the hangar bay, so the SPARTAN-IIs could escape, and finding some way to defeat the Mgalekgolo. While the first task proved relatively easy, the second was not so straightforward, due to the extremely low amounts of information that the UNSC had on Hunters, with most personnel not even knowing of their existence. Continuing to drag out the fight while Axel worked on opening the door, Sarah and her remaining teammate continuously dodged blows by the Hunters, both from their shields and their plasma cannons. Finally, the AI managed to open the door. However, on the other side, a party of Grunts, including one with a fuel rod gun, was waiting. Startled by the fight, the Grunts opened fire on the Spartans. However, the two members of Brown Team managed to avoid the barrage of fire with Axel's warning and hid behind some crates. The Hunters, who had been focused on the SPARTAN-IIs, however, did not, and were hit by the barrage of plasma, finally killing them.

Now left with only Elites and Grunts left to deal with rather than the Hunters, Sarah and her remaining teammate used their stealth abilities to sneak around the edge of the hangar, retrieve the weapons of their fallen comrades, and ambush the attack party from behind, quickly killing the Grunts, and leaving the Elites without shields and wounder, before the pair moved in and killed the Sangheili in hand to hand combat. Finally taking a moment to regain their breath, the two moved the fallen Spartans to a relatively safe location on the ship and activated the failsafes on their armor, denying the Covenant access to the technology. However, once again the mission faced a snag as Axel informed the Spartan pair that the ground forces on Fumirole were assaulting the battlecruiser in an attempt to board the vessel with a nuke. Linking with the UNSC battlenet, Axel linked the timer on the nuke to Sarah's HUD, showing less than five minutes, and Sarah made the decision to evacuate the ship rather than fight their way to the bridge and potentially be taken down with the Covenant. After marking a waypoint for the two remaining Spartans to guide them to the gravlift, Axel was pulled from the system and taken by Sarah in her hardcase. Double timing it to the gravlift, fighting through relatively small amounts of Covenant due to the gathering of the forces, Sarah and her remaining partner made it to the gravlift exit just after Thom had made it in. Jumping, they cleared the battlecruiser's shields, landed, and made a break for it just as the nuke went off, destroying the battlecruiser above their heads.

Sarah had landed first and managed to make it clear of the explosion's worst effects, surviving due to the armor and shields of the Covenant vessel, the building she had made it into, and her own armor and shields. However, her teammate had been held back by an Elite and hadn't made it to the grav lift in time, and was directly under the battlecruiser when it detonated, instantly being killed by the debris from the Covenant ship. While unconscious for several minutes under debris, Sarah-184 awoke later on and cleared away the rubble trapping her, making her way outside. Protected from the residual radiation by her armor, her alerts nevertheless flared. As she made her way outside, she was greeted by the debris of a fight that had ended a short time before, and wandered, searching for her teammate. Finally picking up his IFF, Sarah discovered his body within rubble from beneath the Covenant ship, and, seeing his vitals flatlined, activated his failsafe and destroyed his MJOLNIR armor. Once again without her team, Sarah wandered for several dozen minutes towards the nearest sign of fighting, eventually being picked up by a Pelican from the Poltergeist before she could make it there. Returning to the Prowler, she was debriefed, awarded a cluster for her purple heart due to the injuries she sustained, and sent to recover in the medical bay.

Following her recovery in the medical bay, Sarah-184's mission to capture a Covenant vessel was scrapped. In the following months, the Poltergeist was to make its way back towards Earth slowly, hopping planet to planet to reconnoiter each colony and gather the data to return to ONI when they return to Earth. During this time, Sarah-184 was held on standby in case "the cavalry" was required for a mission. Spending most of the time on limited duty, Sarah spent her time socializing with the crew, Axel, and the small group of ODSTs that the Poltergeist had picked up to reinforce Sarah should combat be necessary. Sarah was often seen not wearing her helmet, and occasionally out of her armor entirely, but always ready to jump back into gear to fight.

Personality
When outside of combat, Sarah is, surprisingly, quite carefree and cheerful, unlike most SPARTAN-II's or hardened veterans. She strives to keep a positive outlook on life, seeing the best in anything and moving on from trauma easily, though such trauma does hit her quite hard for the short period of time after whatever incident, such as the death of a teammate or friend, caused it. A secondary effect of her cheerful attitude is her friendliness. Sarah often wants to make friends with anyone she meets, as long as they're on her side, and is quite good at it. Generally, she is the morale booster of those around her, with her happy demeanor rubbing of on others.

However, in combat, she can put this aside to focus on the mission at hand. While not cold in combat, she is quiet, often even silent, and typically just uses visual signals, such as hand motions or HUD lights, to communicate, even when everyone else is using their comm units. She is known to remain calm under fire and very efficient at completing the task at hand, not letting any distraction get in the way, though she does often celebrate once the battle is won. Losses don't hit her particularly hard, as she often is either too busy with the combat and sees it as a distraction to be worried about later, or simply takes the "we'll win next time" approach.

Unlike a lot of SPARTAN-II's, she spends a lot of time outside of her armor, even more so than most SPARTAN-IV's. Not really feeling at home with either set of Spartans, or even the Spartan III's, she is most often seen with the marines, especially ODSTs when available, wherever she is stationed, rather than other Spartans. This is most likely due to her spending most of her life as and ODST rather than a Spartan and a fair portion of her time as a SPARTAN-IV, even before working with Delta-6, was spent on lone wolf operations. Sarah is also known to be more compassionate towards non-Spartans, and even civilians, than most Spartans, even vocally acknowledging their worth and effectiveness at times. This leads to her seeming less full of herself and her abilities than other Spartans can seem.

Being of Scottish decent, she speaks with a mixed outer colonial-Scottish accent which she held onto through her training. Additionally, she speaks Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and English from before her training, as well as many other languages she learned while she was being trained and serving in the military.

Equipment
The ODST battle armor, or Battle Dress Uniform (BDU for short) is a suit of combat armor worn exclusively by the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the special-operatives of the UNSC Marine Corps. While originally in the standard suit of armor, Sarah's unit had their armor equipped with RADAR jammers and painted black, based off of the type found on the SPI armor, to reduce visibility once they began undertaking stealth and recon missions rather than assault missions. Additionally, they were upgraded with a thermal gel layer to allow for the thermal signatures of the occupant to be reduced to background levels, further increasing their stealth. In late 2551, after demonstrating that she could survive in the MJOLNIR Mark V[B] armor despite her weakened augmentations, Sarah-184 was reinstated as a SPARTAN-II. As such, she was issued a variant of the Mark V[B] armor that integrated several upgraded pieces of her former ODST gear. She wore this until her induction into the SPARTAN-IV program following the end of the war, though took it off far more often than most SPARTAN-II's. Additionally, the armor had the same stealth upgrades as her ODST gear had, allowing her to remain hidden just as easily as she had before. A UNSC "Smart" AI developed in 2549 by a lead UNSC Scientist on the Covenant, Axel was designed to combat the Covenant, translate their languages, and even work their technology. As a 5th generation of the AI, he was more stable than previous "Smart" AIs and managed to survive past the 7 years expected lifespan of AI, but had started showing signs of rampancy into his 9th year of life. However, by this point, Cortana had accessed the Domain. As such, Axel betrayed the UNSC and joined Cortana, hoping to extend his lifespan. Axel takes the appearance of a middle aged scientist in a lab coat with glasses and a datapad in his hand. Occasionally, he can also be seen with a datapad stylus. The most basic Gen2 MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, the recruit variant is given to all new recruits. Due to her advanced training from the SPARTAN-II Class II, Sarah spent very little time in this set of armor, quickly moving on to full membership in the SPARTAN-IV program and the ability to chose her own armor.
 * ODST Battle Armor
 * MJOLNIR Mark V ODST Armor
 * Axel (5th Generation Smart AI)
 * MJOLNIR Gen2 Recruit Armor

The MJOLNIR Mark VI is the third upgrade to the MJOLNIR system, the Mark VI once again introduces several technical improvements while refining advanced technologies introduced in the previous system. The first improvement made to the system is a faster recharge time on the suits' energy shield system so that the Spartan super soldier does not have to remain in cover for an extended period of time. The second is improved synchronization between the suit and user, this allows the Spartan to jump higher, run faster, and hit harder than a Spartan could previously. In addition, this equipment made medical kits obsolete for the Spartan because of the integration of devices that administer medical care of the armor. Sarah chose this type of MJOLNIR armor, despite it being a downgrade from her Gen2 armor, due to her heritage as a Class II SPARTAN-II trainee. Regardless of the downgrade in armor, her enhanced augmentations compared to that of the standard SPARTAN-IV's led her to be on par with them while they are both in armor. As such, when encountered, this armor combined by her use of the Sarah-184 callsign rather than a name, people often mistook her to be a SPARTAN-II, rather than the SPARTAN-IV that she is.
 * MJOLNIR Mk. VI Armor

The MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/S variant, more commonly known as Scout Armor, or simply as Scout, is a type of United Nations Space Command body armor. A variant of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, the Scout Armor uses advanced materials to give it stealth properties, such as thermal blending and reduced visibility, Even more increased for Sarah's armor by using a photo-reactive coating similar to that found on the SPI armor. Due to her working with ONI, Sarah's armor was upgraded with several systems commonly found in the Mk. VII MJOLNIR armor, such as the nanotechnology and exo-atmospheric insertion capabilities.
 * MJOLNIR Gen2 Scout Armor

The jetpack, also known as the Series 12 Single Operator Lift Apparatus (SOLA) is a Lethbridge Industrial manufactured, user-operated jet engine mounted on the back, solely used and operated by the UNSC's SPARTANs and particular commando units such as ODSTs and the SPARTAN-IV Delta-6 division. Unlike the Thruster pack, which is a maneuvering unit used on deep-space missions, the jetpack is used for atmospheric flight. Depending on the mission she is on, Sarah will occasionally be seen, or rather not seen, using the Series 12 SOLA.
 * Jetpack

The Type-27 Responsive Holographic Form Emulator, also known as the Holographic Decoy or Hologram, is a piece of equipment, often seen in use by SPARTAN-III's and IV's, specifically the SPARTAN-IV's of the Delta-6 Division. It generates a holographic copy of the user's physical form and moves in a direction or to a point specified by the user. Being one such Delta-6 SPARTAN-IV, Sarah has this piece of equipment attached to her Scout Variant Gen2 MJOLNIR armor for use on her missions.
 * Hologram

Weaponry

 * Combat Knife
 * M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade
 * Concussion Grenade
 * Flashbang Grenade
 * Napalm Grenade
 * M6C/SOCOM (M6S)
 * MA5K Carbine
 * M6G Personal Defense Weapon System
 * MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System
 * M6H Personal Defense Weapon System
 * MA5D Individual Combat Weapon System
 * BR85 Heavy Barrel Service Rifle
 * BR85N Service Rifle

Skills and Abilities
Having been a SPARTAN-II Class II trainee, an ODST, and a SPARTAN-IV Stealth Operative, Sarah has received extraordinary amounts of training for her young age. As such, she is quite effective in combat, reconnaissance, and wilderness survival. Primarily focusing on stealth and recon, assault, and close quarters combat, her skills reflect these specializations.

Her first set of abilities is related to the stealth and recon part of her specializations. Both naturally more light on her feet, observant, and with better eyesight and hearing than others, her training and experience in the fields and augmentations increased these abilities even more. Before the augmentations, she was the stealthiest and best recon soldier of her class, and, following her rehab after her augmentation incident, she was even better than she had been before. Continuing on to an ODST squad that later became a recon unit. From that point on, she gained field experience with her skills, becoming even more effective than from her simple training. Once again her skills were upgraded, though only at a very minor scale, with her minute SPARTAN-IV augmentations, and she continued to serve in a recon capacity for her Spartan fireteam, and eventually became a lone wolf recon agent with the Delta-6 division of ONI Section III. Finally, her armor allows her to remain hidden very easily.

The next area of her skills revolve around assault and close quarters combat. Intelligent, her military tactical training, augmentations, and experience focused this intelligence into tactical knowledge. As such, she is quite effective at organizing assaults and fighting in an effective manner, being able to quickly determine the best options when it comes to fighting. Her stealth allows her to get close to her target, and, from there, her strength and agility allow her to dodge their attacks, fire back, and close the distance to engage in close quarters combat. Training in CQC and her augmentations allow her to easily dispatch of several enemies at the same time in a fight with her combat knife. Additionally, this is aided by her armor, which reduces her visibility to confuse enemies at close range.

Finally, the potential of her to be cut off from support due to her assignments as a recon officer, she received extended training in wilderness survival. Experience only strengthened this skill, giving her knowledge of several hundred edible plants and animals, as well as the ability to create effective fire and shelter from her surroundings. Additionally, she can use her military knowledge to hunt, and her intellect in physics and mathematics to determine how to create makeshift weaponry should that issued to her run out of ammo. Overall, should she be separated from support and stranded in the wilderness, she would be able to easily survive and keep herself healthy and fit.

Appearance
Sarah, like most Spartans, is extraordinarily tall for her age, though slightly less so than other SPARTAN-II's, due to her augmentations only being approximately three quarters as effective due to failures in the augmentations process. As such, she only reaches about 206 centimeters, less than 6' 9", with standard Spartans being up to and over 7 feet tall. Additionally, she is also extraordinarily well built, though once again to a lesser degree than other SPARTAN-II supersoldiers. Her muscular build and reinforced bones bring her up to about 115 kilograms, or around 254 pounds, while unarmored.

While most SPARTAN-II's are paler than most humans, Sarah is affected by this less so, as she washed out and spent a large amount of her time out of armor, during her time as an ODST. In general, she is paler than most humans, but darker skinned than most Spartans. Her hair is a ginger color, with a silver streak running down the back of her head and neck, freckles, and pale green eyes. The silver streak showed up following her partially-successful augmentations as a result of the process.

Finally, Sarah is missing both her left leg and left arm, with both having overgrown due to the augmentations and having to be removed, which led to her being washed out of the program. However, these two limbs were replaced with cybernetic limbs, both of which are more realistic than standard models. While they are covered, they are impossible to distinguish from standard human limbs, and while uncovered, they are rather difficult to distinguish. Additionally, at the base of her neck she has a Spartan Neural Interface, capable of everything a standard neural interface is, as well as connecting to her MJOLNIR armor and an AI, though she has not yet done the latter.

Trivia

 * Sarah-184 was given the option to access the files of her life before her conscription and her real name, but refused. This is what led to her SPARTAN-II designation being used for her SPARTAN-IV designation, rather than the standard last name.