Disclaimer: I don't own Halo. I think Microsoft does.
A/N: A lot of this chapter is taken straight out of The Fall of Reach, so the exact moment the Reaper decided not to tangle with Linda should be fairly obvious. That or he was still getting the shit beaten out of him by Kat over her death.
A future made, event by event, link by link, a living chain of action, reaction . . . and change.
Alter one event, and a new future comes to be.
Splinter a link, and a new chain is formed.
-STAR WARS Infinities A New Hope
0637 HOURS, AUGUST 30, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)/EPSILON ERIDANI SYSTEM, REACH STATION GAMMA
"There's a manual release by the outer door." The SPARTAN headed towards the Pelican's rear hatch. "I'll get this one sir. It's my turn. Cover me."
"Roger Blue-One. Keep your head down. I'll draw their fire." Was the response from her superior.
Linda-058 jumped from the dropship's hatch, landed on the deck, and began to make her way to the manual release as the Pelican ascended to the second level to strafe any Covenant troops that had decided to take up residence. She reached it without incident and had to crouch down to activate the mechanism. The doors parted, revealing the void of outer space.
"You're clear for exit, Master Chief. We're home free—"A red dot appeared on her motion tracker; in one smooth motion, she spun around, bought her rifle to bear, and pulled the trigger. The round struck her would be assassin—an Elite—in the chest, causing its shields to fail and throwing it backwards. A second round turned most of the alien's chest into a purple smear on the bulkhead behind it.
She turned and saw the Pelican maneuvering for her to board, and as there was still a small army of Covenant onboard the station, she made haste for the transport's access ramp and the four marines ready to provide cover fire. As soon as she was through, the hatch closed and the dropship rocketed out of the station towards the rendezvous point.
"Master Chief, come in." Captain Keyes voice sounded over the COM channel. "The Pillar of Autumn will be in rendezvous position in one minute."
"We're ready Captain," was his only response.
The Petty Officer joined her commanding officer in the transport's cockpit, taking the copilot's seat. In silence, she watched the debris as they passed it. The remains of fighters, some mostly intact, others so small and close they required the fading effects of SPARTAN time to discern their craft of origin; the forward end of a Covenant cruiser, torn off by a MAC round; the glittering droplets of Titanium-A that had once been a human ship; an inert Orbital Defense Platform. Turning forward, she beheld the Autumn, docking bay open, her crew no doubt wishing to get out system as soon as possible.
Predictably, the moment after they had docked, Linda could feel the old cruiser accelerate.
Both SPARTANs moved to the elevator that would take them to the bridge. They had to report to the Captain. As they went, they felt the ship performing evasive maneuvers—accelerating first to port, then starboard.
Upon arriving at the bridge, the doors opened, and in unison—or so close to unison that only another SPARTAN or an AI would be able to tell who had acted first—strode out and saluted.
"Reporting for debriefing, sir," again, in unison.
To Linda, the Captain appeared surprised. The expression could have come from how their armor looked as though they had taken a detour through an alien's horror movie, or because Pelicans tended to be slow, lightly armed targets for Seraph fighter/bombers
Keyes returned their salutes.
"The NAV database was destroyed?" he asked, though more to the Master Chief than Linda.
"Sir, we would not have left if our mission was incomplete."
"Of course, Master Chief. Very good."
"Sir, may I ask that you scan for active FOF tags in the region?" The Chief glanced at the main viewscreen, but so subtle was the movement that Linda thought she was the only one who noticed. "I lost a man on the station. He may be floating out there . . . somewhere."
"Lieutenant Hall?" Keyes asked.
"Scanning," was all the officer said. She shook her head moment later.
"I see," Linda knew what he was thinking: if and when a SPARTAN went down, they wanted to take as many of the enemy with them as possible. Asphyxiation denied them this.
"Sir," Sierra-117 asked, "when will the Pillar of Autumn rendezvous with my planetside team?"
Keyes turned away from them and stared into space. "We won't be picking them up. They were overrun by Covenant forces. They never made orbit. We've lost contact with them."
Linda stiffened, absorbing the ramifications of the Captain's words. She wanted to join John in requesting a retrieval mission, but deep down, she knew it would be futile: the Autumn would not last long enough, nor would the retrieval team. She and John might be the only SPARTANs left. As quickly as the thought arose, she forced it back down. She could not replace it with hope; she had seen the Covenant's orbital bombardment far too many times for that. Instead, Linda fell back on one of last certainties she had: her duty. They had to complete Doctor Halsey's mission. It might be the only way to turn the tide of the war and avenge their teammates.
Linda felt a hand on her shoulder and returned to the present. She turned her head, saw the Master Chief tilt his head in the direction of the elevator, and nodded. They could do nothing at the moment except get in the way of the crew, it was better to head to Cryo so that they would be ready when they were needed.
Later, as the technicians set the cryopods, she took a final look at the last person she could truly call a friend, suppressing the mixture of rage and grief over why it was so, she saw him nod. It was an unspoken agreement: the next time they clashed with the Covenant, humanity's attackers would have to create a whole new word for fear.
A/N: I remembered I had the first part of this and wrote the rest this evening (easy, since it was pretty much copy and paste). I won't update this again until I finish Non Sequitur at least, but when I start something, I intend to finish it. It won't strictly follow The Flood (I haven't played Halo: CE—I know, I'm a heretic, so sue me), but it's an AU, so I can do that.