0455 hours, September 23,2552 (Military Calendar) Captured Covenant flagship, inSlipspace, location unknown.

John brushed off the frost buildup that clouded the top half of the cryotube, and revealedthe 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 hadplaced 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, consideringthe 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 emeraldeyes, but her appearance was not what set her apart. She was the unit's best sniper-scoutand could hit tar.gets the rest of them couldn't. While the other Spartans pre.ferred tooperate as a team, Linda was content to  separate, hide and post in some remote location,and wait for days for the sin.gle, critical shot that could turn the tide of battle. Althoughsnipers 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 mosteffective 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 ...

ERIC NYLUND 151John wiped away the condensation that formed over her hel-meted 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 John's chest.

Linda's prognosis was good. The occupants of the other two cryopods hadn't made it.Some kind of energy discharge had de.activated the units, and those inside had died coldbleak deaths.

There was a gentle knock on the hull of the Pelican, and Sergeant Johnson pulled himselfinside. "Master Chief," he said. "You got the air scrubbers? The remote COM? Polaski says she's ready to call it a day with that  Covenant dropship. We need to get on board and work."The Master Chief stood and nodded to the aft hatch, where he had stripped the airscrubbers and COM from the Pelican.

The Sergeant picked up the gear, and then he and the Chief crawled out of the Pelican.The Chief hesitated and looked back atthecryotube.

"Don't you worry about her," Johnson said. "Hell, I been hit worse and she's three times the soldier I am. She'll pull through."The Chief sealed the hatch without comment. He had heard the same hollow promises a hundred times before with critically wounded men. Why was it that soldiers would face their own deaths without blinking an eye...  but when faced with the death of a squadmate,they turned away and lied to themselves?

They silently marched across the hangar. It had been cleared of debris and bodies, andWarrant Officer Polaski had, for the last six hours, been practicing inside the space withthe intact Covenant dropship. She spun the  odd U-shaped craft around on its center axis,shimmied to port, rose, and then floated down for a landing.

Johnson squinted his dark eyes at her performance and nod.ded approvingly. "She says that she's figured out the weapon controls, too. No way to test them in here, of course.""Understood," the Master Chief replied. "And the rest of the team's progress?""I've got the doors from here to the bridge and to the engine room welded shut," Sergeant Johnson told him. "If those tran152HALO: FIRST STRIKEsient sensor contacts that Cortana keeps picking up are anything, they'll have to cutthrough to get to us.

"Locklear's grabbing some sack time. He needed it." The Sergeant shrugged. "He'll be fine,though; ODSTs are tough as nails. Lieutenant Haverson slept some then got up, had a long conversation with Cortana, and  started reading through some of the Covenant database.Everyone seems to be fine, considering what we've been through.""Understood," the Chief said. "Cortana? Ship status?""ETA to Reach in twenty minutes," she said.

The Chief checked his mission clock. "You said thirteen hours' total travel time. By my count, we have approximately two hours to go.""I had determined it would be thirteen hours based on the spec.ifications of theCovenant Slipspace drive, but there's ..." Her voice trailed off and faded.

"Cortana?""Sorry. There's a curious time-dilation effect at these Slip-space velocities. Although,technically, velocity, acceleration, and for that matter even time have no meaning in thefolds of Slipspace. I thought I told you all this,"  she said. Irritation crept into her voice.

The Chief looked to the Sergeant, who shook his head and shrugged.

Cortana sounded more than distracted—and she didn't just "forget" things. It was a badsign. They depended on her to fly this ship, and if she started falling apart they were inreal trouble.

The Master Chief opened a COM channel. "Change of plans, team. Reach ETA is nineteen minutes. I'll explain later—just grab your gear and meet on the bridge ASAP."There was a pause, then Lieutenant Haverson replied, "Roger, Master Chief. Locklear and I are already up here."The hatch of the Covenant dropship opened, and Polaski jogged out. The three of them proceeded at a brisk pace to the bridge.

The Master Chief opened a private COM channel to Cortana. "Anything else I shouldknow?"The channel was silent for a full ten seconds. "I have the Covenant magnetic plasma-shaping system figured out," sheERIC NYLUND 153replied. "We'll have a limited offensive capacity when we get to Reach, if we need it. Ithink.""And the rest of this ship is still functional?""Yes," she replied. "I'm sorry, Chief ... these calculations are... tricky."The COM went dead.

Cortana's behavior worried the Chief, but he resigned himself to trust her. What otheroption was there?

He, the Sergeant, and Polaski halted outside the bridge; the thick blast doors were sealed.

"Lieutenant?" he said. "We're outside."The doors pulled apart. Locklear and the Lieutenant stood with their assault rifles aimeddown the hall. They relaxed their stance when they identified them as friendlies.

Lieutenant Haverson slung his rifle and said, "Sorry for the warm welcome. Cortana'sbeen picking up transient contacts all over the ship. We're going to have to deal withthem sooner or later—preferably before they deal with us.""Agreed," the Chief said.

Polaski approached the Lieutenant, saluted, and gave her report on her efforts to masterthe Covenant dropship's controls.

Locklear edged closer to the Chi............