Halo First Strike Games, User Manual

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
0455 hours, September 23,2552 (Military Calendar) \ Captured
Covenant flagship, in Slipspace, location unknown.
John brushed off the frost buildup that clouded the top half of
the cryotube, and revealed the green-armored figure sprawled
behind the plastasteel shell.
SPARTAN-058. Linda.
She'd been mortally wounded during the raid on Gamma Sta-
tion, just before Reach fell. He'd dragged her burned, limp body
back to the
Pillar of Autumn,
and the medics had placed her in
deep cryostasis just before the jump.
When the
Autumn
crashed on Halo, Keyes must have jetti-
soned the active cryotubes—standard operating procedure.
They had frozen her while she'd still been in her suit. That was
for the best, considering the extent of her injuries ... but he
would have given anything to see her face one last time.
Linda had been unique among the Spartans with her bloodred
hair and dark emerald eyes, but her appearance was not what set
her apart. She was the unit's best sniper-scout and could hit tar-
gets the rest of them couldn't. While the other Spartans pre-
ferred to operate as a team, Linda was content to separate, hide
and post in some remote location, and wait for days for the single,
critical shot that could turn the tide of battle. Although snipers
in the UNSC were always trained to function in pairs, a shooter
and a spotter, Linda was the exception to that rule—she had
proven time and again that she was most effective on her own.
If any one of the Spartans could be called a "lone wolf," it was
Linda. In many ways that made her the strongest of them.
To see her like this ...