The first thing Linda noticed was the light. There was a patch where the light simply bended around a vaguely man-shaped piece of air. It was very hard to detect on her HUD which had been upgraded during her sleep, which had actually been several months. Now she realized that she was camouflaged like a chameleon.
In her days at Reach she realized that this did not only camouflage her but also transmitted radio waves She was an expert at these kind of things and immediately realized that she and the Master Chief (who was the dominating figure in their little party by a factor of 1/3) were sharing an AI.
"Cortana, to be precise," informed a voice inside her mind. "I do hope you are more friendly than this guy over here."
A beacon flashed in her HUD labeled "I MEAN THIS ONE-"
Well, at least someone here had a sense of humor.
"Where are we?" inquired a Marine, which was labeled as PVT. THOMPSON.
The Master Chief knew this one easily. It was where he had landed six months ago, only to lose half his squad to an army of Covenant.
"We are on our own little slice of death. And if you survive, you will be honored by the entire UNSC army. Unfortunately, you probably will not. If you live long enough to meet the Flood, you will wish you hadn't."
"The Flood, sir?"
"An enemy twice the size of the Covenant. Easily. They like to infect humans and Covenant alike. And the worst part is having to eradicate them. Use a shotgun, if you can. If you can't, a grenade. If you don't blow them to pieces they make hosts out of you until you die or they mature. Either way you get out the easy way. The hard way is better."
""So they will make me explode when they are big enough to live on their own?"
"Usually you won't live that long. Anyway, hopefully you won't become tools for the other side. If we meet any enemies, any at all, most likely we won't get of Halo in a couple weeks. We'll get out in a couple pieces if we are on here for any longer."
The ship exploded a dozen meters away.