Disclaimer: I don't own Halo
chapter 1: silent type
December 9, 2520
location: Beta Antares system, emerald cove
9 year old John-117 surveyed his team of 74 other nine year olds, scattered around the beach on the island they were hiding out on. He was sitting around a fire with his two best friends, Kelly-087 and Sam-034. They had come to this island after ditching Chief Mendez, they were originally on an underwater training mission, but the Chief had sabotaged half their air tanks. In return the Spartans had taken his tanks and they swam out to this island. Fred had gathered some clams from the bottom of the ocean and some fish he killed using an improvised combat knife he made from one of the air tanks.
"When was the last time we relaxed like this?" Kelly asked as she pried open her clam.
"I think this is the first" said Sam.
"Lets hope it isn't the last" said John. He took another look around at his fellow Spartans, most were gathered around other fires, but then John noticed someone sitting near the palm trees, alone. John recognized it was Linda by her close cropped, blood-red hair, she always stood out in front of the others because of this feature. She was cradling in her arms a SRS99C-S2 that she swiped from one of the crates at the Chief's staging area.
"Why is Linda all by herself?" John asked Sam.
"She's been like that for a couple of weeks, ever since the last capture the flag exercise" Sam replied.
"I'm going to talk to her" said John.
"Don't" said Kelly, "I herd that Will went to talk to her once, and she got so mad she hit him".
John dismissed the rumors and promptly stood up and left the fire. Out of all the Spartans, Linda was the one he knew the least. He always hung around Sam and Kelly. As he approached her John realized he didn't know what to say so he started with something simple.
"What do you have there?" he asked.
"What does it look like?" Linda replied without even looking up at him.
"You know you can barely hold that thing" said John as he sat down next to her, "and I bet its so waterlogged it won't even fire".
"The scope is fried" said Linda, "but the rest it perfectly air tight, it can still fire provided I had any ammo for it".
"So I was wondering... why are you all by yourself?" John asked.
"I like being by myself" she replied. John knew she had to be hiding something.
"I herd you've been by yourself since the capture the flag game" said John. "Did something happen?"
"No" she replied in a harsh tone.
"Just tell me" he said
"no"
"please?"
"uhggg, fine" she said as she set the rifle down in front of her. "During the game Fhajad and I were on the same team. Me and him slipped past the line and Kelly saw us, you know how fast she is. She was about to get me so I pushed Fhajad into her and I manged to grab the flag. Later when I was alone Fhajad confronted me, it got into a fight real fast and he ended up pushing me into the side of one of the bunks, and that's how I got this". She pointed to a fresh scar on her left jaw line. "As soon as I got cut he suddenly started playing nice, but I smacked him in the stomach and ran off. I started crying and Doctor Halsey found me and stitched me up".
John had noticed she started to cry a little so he went to put an arm around her shoulder but Linda shoved him away.
"I don't need your pity" she said. "Deja said we should put out feelings aside, how am I supposed to be a Spartan if I cry like this?"
"Its just normal" John replied. "so what if you cry a little, it shows that you're a person".
Linda finally met John's gaze and she smiled. "Thanks" she whispered.
"I'll look after you and make sure Fhajad or anyone else doesn't bother you" John said.
"Promise?" Linda asked.
"Promise" John replied.
September 13, 2552
location: tau ceti system, UNSC frigate Gettysburg
"Cortana, get us out of here" John said to her avatar displayed on the bridge's holotank. They had just watched the destruction of the Covenant battlestation unyielding heirophant, but it had cost them one of their fellow Spartans as well as two of the finest naval officers the Master Chief ever served under.
"Plotting randomized vector" Cortana reported, "with the new slipspace engine we should make it to Earth in thirty-eight hours".
"Why can't we just go directly?" Linda asked from the NAV station adjacent to the holotank. "The Covenant already know Earth's location so its not a violation of the Cole protocol".
"It still applies" said Cortana, "we cant take the risk of having the surviving Covenant ships follow us".
"Just get us out of here" John said again, he was getting a bit nervous that the Covenant might find them in their concealed location behind a moon. Cortana complied and the familiar pinpricks of light formed around their battered frigate and they gently glided into slipspace thanks in part to the borrowed Covenant slipspace drive they affixed on the Gettysburg.
"Chief, request permission to go below" Linda asked.
"Granted" he replied.
Linda gave him a nod then left the bridge and rode the lift down to the machine shop which was designated at the Spartan's temporary barracks. She pried her helmet off and inspected it, some of the components were new, salvaged by red team on Reach. Mostly the ones in the back where she was shot and killed by a jackal's plasma pistol.
Killed, that word stuck in her head, she actually died. Linda had made a few remarks about it after she was revived by Doctor Halsey, but those were mostly jokes. Now that she had some down time, strange feelings started to pop into her head, she just didn't feel the same anymore. Linda sat down on the floor, crossleged and closed her eyes, although she never adopted the religion she was a practicer of several Zen meditation techniques that helped hone her skills with the sniper rifle. After a few minutes of controlled breathing she found her mind adrift in the Zen no-thought state. She was however interrupted from her meditations as someone else entered the machine shop, John. He glanced at her briefly before walking over to the other end of the room and standing before a metal table, he began to disconnect his armor. Linda watched him from the corner of her eye and pretended to still be meditating. John removed the upper portions of his armor and striped of the top part of his undersuit reveling the pasty white skin of his body, but around parts of his neck were nasty looking bruises. She couldn't see his chest but she could make out the edge of another bruise on his side. Without even thinking about it she got up and walked over to him.
"Chief, are you alright?" she asked.
"I'm fine" he replied.
"Like hell" said Linda as she grabbed the Chief's arm and spun him around to face her. "Chief!" she cried when she saw the extent of the injury, the bruise covered most of his lower right side and it had a nasty gash in the middle.
"I was going to use some biofoam" he said.
"Chief, this is serious" she said, "you've defiantly got a fractured rib, what if it was forced back and punctured your heart?"
"It wasn't" said John, "you don't need to worry".
"Like hell" Linda said again as she crossed over to the wall and removed a heavy duty first aid kit from one of the lockers, then went back to the Chief.
"You better just let me do this" said John.
"Like hell, Chief" Linda once again said. She removed her armor gauntlets and delicately began touching the bruise to find the exact rib that was fractured. "Just tell me where it hurts the most". As she was doing this Linda started to get this weird feeling in her chest, like it was becoming lighter.
"There" John said which brought Linda out of her daze.
Linda removed the biofoam and stuck it into the spot John had specified, in seconds the foam had hardened around the rib. Linda removed a dressing and began wrapping around the Chief's body. When she was finished she urned her attention to the smaller bruises on his neck, unfortunately they would have to heal on their own.
"How did you get all these?" Linda asked.
"In a tangle with something called a brute" John explained, "they're more like big hairy apes". John remembered that Linda was posted in an impossible position outside the temple where the brutes were. He risked everything to save her, all in his mind because of the promise he made to her when they were nine. He looked over at her face, specifically the old scar she had on her jawline, just one of many she now had due to the risky operation to save her life. In a way, John blamed himself for letting Linda die the first time. This was just one patch of guilt in a never ending list.
"I think the rest of you is fine" said Linda.
"Glad to hear it" said John. "How are you doing?"
"I'm green, Chief" she replied.
"That's not what I mean" he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm trying to ask how you're handling the whole 'coming back from the dead' thing".
"I'm fine, it was nothing" she replied as she left the Chief and went back to her corner of the room. Standing there in front of John half naked made the strange feeling in her gut get worse, but the strangest thing for Linda was... she liked it.
September 14, 2552
location: Sol system, UNSC frigate Gettysburg
Their frigate emerged from slipspace in record time and they were immediately surrounded by squadrons of longswords, due to the fact the Gettysburg was presumed lost at Reach. Cortana was able to give them the proper authentication codes and the frigate was ushered to McKinley station. When informed of the Covenant engineers on board the UNSC had the ship put under quarantine until ONI med teams could come aboard. When they did they had the Spartans and Sergeant Johnson disembark the ship and into a sterilized section of the station. But they were separated from Johnson.
"Where are you taking him?" John asked.
"He's being sent to med station M25L as are you, but you'll be taking separate transports" said a Doctor in a hazmat suit.
"Don't worry, Chief" said Johnson, "I've been through worse".
John nodded and they were ushered off to waiting pelicans and flown out to the med station. Once there they entered yet another sterilized area and the Spartans were placed on a conveyor and their armor was hosed down by chemical agents. Then they passed through another chamber and bathed in ultraviolet radiation to make sure all microorganisms on their armor were dead. They entered a clean room and had to wait for ten minutes until another Doctor appeared in a clean room suit.
"We'll need you to be inspected and decontaminated separately" said The Doctor, "that's why we separated you from the Sergeant. We need to reduce the risk of contamination if you contracted something from those Covenant engineers".
"I'm sure we didn't" said Linda.
"Never the less, we can't be sure" said The Doctor. "Now follow me".
He took the Spartans into the hall and one by one they were pulled into separate rooms by orderlies. Linda glanced at John as she was ushered into the prep room and asked to remove her armor. She complied and after a half hour she was in her undersuit, which was in no better condition than her armor. It had a few large holes from where the plasma burned through the MJOLNIR armor and all the way through her to the bone. She was told to remove that too and after some blood was drawn she then passed through a chemical shower and then into an examination room, she was given a black bra and underwear to put on, then told to wait. Linda sat on the bed for ten more minutes before another Doctor, not in a hazmat suit came in.
"I'm Doctor Patterson" he said as he began writing something down on his data pad. "Sorry about not getting you some proper attire but I need to examine the extent of your injuries, which I can see are quite extensive".
Linda looked down at her pail body. Wearing only underwear, all of her scars from the operation were visible.
"According to your blood test you recently had a massive transfusion" said Patterson, "and judging from your scars you must have had a flash cloned organ transplant".
"I did" said Linda, "I was wounded at Reach and declared clinically dead. I was in cryo until medical personnel were able to revive me".
The Doctor's eyes shot open when she that that and he began writing more stuff down on his data pad. "Have you experienced any problems physically, loss of motor control, spasms?" he asked
"no"
"what about mentally, dizziness, lapses in judgment or memory?" Patterson asked.
"No" Linda replied.
"so you're saying you're fine?"
"yes"
"ok, well I think that does it, we still need to keep you here overnight for observation but according to your blood work you don't have any immediate infections, try and get some rest".
"Thanks, Doctor" said Linda as he left. When Patterson was in the hall he went over his notes and forwarded them into his report, along with another message at the bottom.
/Recommend SPARTAN-058 undergo psychological evaluation for possible KIA syndrome/
/END FILE/
