Matt-038 (Halo Fanfiction)

Chapter 63: Arrival at Reach

Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

--- --- --- --- ---

Chapter 63: Arrival at Reach

Location: Captured Covenant flagship, in Slipspace, Location Unknown

September 23, 2552

0455 hours

Matt 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 Station, 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 jettisoned 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 blood red hair and dark emerald eyes, but her appearance was not what set her apart. Besides himself, she was the unit's best sniper-scout and could hit targets the rest of them couldn't.

While the other Spartans preferred 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, he and Linda were the exception to that rule—both had proven time and again that they were most effective on their own.

If any one of the Spartans could be called a "lone wolf," it was he and Linda. In many ways that made the two the strongest of them. To see Linda like this...

Matt wiped away the condensation that formed over her helmeted head. She was neither dead nor alive. She was in some twilight place in between.

That uncertainty was worse than seeing her broken and burned body on Gamma Station. It felt like an open wound in Matt's chest.

Linda's prognosis was good. The occupants of the other two cryopods hadn't made it. Some kind of energy discharge had deactivated the units, and the occupants had died cold bleak deaths.

Matt felt an armored land on his shoulder. He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw John sanding slightly behind him.

"You care about her don't you?" John said.

"I don't think we should talk about this right now, John," Matt answered. "Don't go there."

"No I think we should about this right now," John replied. "We never got a chance to have our talk back on the Autumn."

Matt sighed. "Ok fine... let's talk. What do you want to talk about?"

"You care about her don't you?" John asked again.

"How'd you know?"

"That Spartan smile gesture you put over her faceplate after her vitals flatlined told me a lot," John said. "That and over the years I've seen you looking at her when you think no one is watching."