Linda-058

"Now I know what you have to do to get a couple of days' R-and-R in this outfit"

- Linda-058.

Petty Officer Second Class Linda-058 is a SPARTAN-II supersoldier. She is one of the closest friends to John-117 and one of the few known surviving Spartans. She is best known for her skill with the SRS99-S2 Sniper Rifle Systems, and once eliminated two targets so quickly that John-117 couldn't tell who she had targeted first.

Personality and Description
Linda is reputable for her remarkable abilities with the Sniper Rifle. John and Fred have noted on several occasions that she makes sniping seem almost like an "Art." She is known even for taking out a Banshee with one shot. She is notably the quietest member of Blue Team, excluding John, and is labeled as a "lone wolf" Spartan. Linda is unshakable and persistent, demonstrating time after time again that her abilities with a Sniper Rifle are far greater than any other Spartan in known combat. She is very pale, with sanguine-red hair and lucid green eyes. She is also a practitioner of Zen. She, like all SPARTAN-IIs, was trained by Chief Mendez on planet Reach. She also took part in the battle for Reach. John describes her as "the strongest" Spartan, as she does not rely on other members of her squad for advocating support on or off the battlefield.

Childhood
Linda-058 was conscripted into the SPARTAN-II program in 2517, at age of six, when she was singled out as a physically and intellectually superior child by Dr. Catherine Halsey. She was then abducted and replaced with a Flash Clone, as she was sent to Reach. Linda then trained there with the rest of the Spartans under the guidance of Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and Déjà. She was part of the Spartan missions at Military Reservation 01478-B, Military Wilderness Training Preserve and several in the Highland Mountains.

Early Career
Linda adapted successfully to her augmentations in 2525, and recovered quickly enough that she was chosen for the SPARTAN-IIs' first mission to Eridanus II, a mission where the Spartans had no armor. She, along with John-117, Frederic-104, Sam-034 and Kelly-087 boarded the Laden and traveled to Eridanus Secundus where they infiltrated the facility and captured Colonel Robert Watts, the then-leader of the Eridanus Rebels.

She was present at Jericho VII in 2535 though never specifically mentioned by name. It is thought that she was designated Blue-Two and was by John's side during the mission when, in actuality, Kelly was designated Blue-Two.

She was then at Sigma Octanus IV during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. She was designated as Green-One, leading a team of SPARTAN-IIs into the suburbs around Côte d'Azur. In the suburbs, her team found approximately 20 civilian survivors. She was able to successfully evacuate them before Blue Team detonated a HAVOK Nuclear Warhead in the heart of the city, destroying tens of thousands of Covenant forces stationed there. Linda and her team then dusted off in a Pelican which docked with the and returned to Reach for debriefing.

Reach
Linda was aboard the for a short time until the Battle of Reach began. She was designated as Blue-Two, part of John-117's team to Reach Station Gamma to destroy the unsecured NAV database of ONI's. During that mission, James was out of commission (and presumed KIA) so she and John were forced to enter the station which was filled with Elites and Jackal Rangers. She found the bay and assisted Staff Sergeant Johnson's squad in holding off the Covenant forces long enough to escape. However, as they jumped out of their Pelican to open the bay doors, she was hit by several overcharged bolts from Plasma Pistols and Plasma Rifles which penetrated her armor and flesh all the way to the carbonized bone. One of the globules of plasma hit her in the back of the skull. Linda was recovered by a horrified John, but her vitals flatlined, and she was presumed dead.

Alpha Halo
John-117, disheartened over the death of his close teammate, took her to the cryo facilities where they immediately froze Linda's body in a Cryo-chamber. The Pillar of Autumn then jumped to Installation 04. As the ship was shot down by Covenant forces most of the Cryo-chambers, including Linda's, were ejected as per standard UNSC procedure. She floated above the Halo for several days until after the destruction of the Installation. Linda was then detected by Cortana and John who were in a Longsword fighter. They picked her and two other cryo pods up, but both of the other occupants had died when their chambers failed. Linda was the only SPARTAN-II, other than John-117, who was near Installation 04 during the events of Halo: Combat Evolved.

When John-117, SSgt. Johnson, Cpl. Locklear, Lt. Haverson, and PO2 Shiela Polaski captured the Covenant Assault Carrier Ascendant Justice, Linda, still in her Cryo-chamber, was brought aboard. Due to the extent of her injuries she was left frozen until certified medical staff was available. She stayed on the Ascendant Justice until Dr. Halsey was rescued from Reach along with Frederic-104 and the survivors of his team. Dr. Halsey revived Linda aboard the, effectively resuscitating her.

OPERATION: FIRST STRIKE
Linda was then geared up and ready for battle but did not exhibit her exceptional skills until Operation: FIRST STRIKE. Linda was one of the Spartans who infiltrated the Unyielding Hierophant, providing cover for John-117, Fred-104, William-043 and Grace-093 with a Sniper Rifle. She made sure they made it to the vessel's fusion reactors and allowed them to overload the reactors.

As John, Will, and Fred evacuated, Linda, with some of her best and potent shooting skills, managed to shoot 5 Elite pilots right out of their airborne Banshee fliers one-handed and hanging upside-down from a cable. She refused to give up her position to make sure her three comrades got out alive, even at the expense of her own life, until John ordered her to let him rescue her over the COM. She then sent the Spartan-derived Oly Oly Oxen Free over the COM and uploaded a NAV marker with her location to John's HUD. It turns out that she was actually hiding in broad daylight, but angled so that the sun would not reflect off of her suit, thus providing an undetectable cover from which she eliminated the Banshees.

She then retreated in John's Banshee to the Gettysburg, upon which she returned to Earth.

First Battle of Earth
Following her return to Earth, Linda, as well as Fred and Will, were called upon to perform a number of operations during the First Battle of Earth up until November 3rd, 2552. These operations included numerous operations in orbit around Earth, such as stopping a Covenant invasion on Mount Erebus in Antarctica with a HAVOK tactical nuke, and destroying Covenant forces on the sea floor off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Following these operations, they were deployed to the Centennial Orbital Elevator (also known as Tallo Negro del Maiz) in Havana, Cuba to stop Covenant forces that had gathered there. Linda, along with the other Spartans, stopped the Covenant forces that had captured multiple nuclear warheads. The Spartans ascended the orbital elevator, destroyed one of the Covenant Capital Ships at the top, and captured another one; the Bloodied Spirit.

Onyx
"To absent friends."

- Linda, thinking of her fallen fellow Spartans aboard the Bloodied Spirit

Using the Bloodied Spirit, Linda and the other SPARTAN-IIs traveled to the planet Onyx at the request of Dr. Catherine Halsey. Linda arrived with Fred and Will in a crash landing on the surface. There, she met Kelly, Dr. Halsey, Lieutenant Commander Kurt Ambrose (a Spartan she had thought dead for almost 30 years) and many Spartan-III's; most notably Holly, Ash and Dante. There they were assaulted by multiple Onyx Sentinels. The sentinels attacked in groups of three, one watching and reporting Spartan tactics to the other sentinels at 3000 meters in the air, and the other two attacking at close range. Linda was able to shoot the over watch Sentinel out of the sky with aid from two SPNKr rocket launchers. The Spartans then used one of Bloodied Spirit's dropships to reach a massive city of Onyx underground. Upon arrival, they were teleported to a Sentinel Factory, which they sabotaged. Returning to the city, they found Spartan-III group Team Katana, who were trapped in what Dr. Halsey called an "unshielded Slipspace field", which rendered them immune to all damage. As such, the Spartans were unable to resuscitate them and fled to a control room, taking Katana with them. At this time, a Covenant Army arrived on Onyx, under command of Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree. They assaulted the small group of Spartan-II's and Spartan-III's. Linda was able to kill many Elites and Grunts, but they were overwhelmed. Holly was vaporized by a group of Hunters, Will was killed by a Fuel Rod Blast from another Hunter and Dante was already dead, from a plasma bolt to his left side and half a dozen Needler shards under his arm and across his chest. Kurt-051 was almost cut in half by a Hunter's shield and he ordered a retreat into the compressed space rift. Linda's final act during that battle was to shoot two elites out of their Banshees, before retreating through. Kurt stayed behind and destroyed the entire Covenant army and most of the world with two Fenris nuclear warheads. Linda is now shielded in a Micro Dyson Sphere in the heart of Onyx. She is one of the last known surviving Spartan-II's, along with Fred, Kelly and John.

Trivia

 * John-117 once mentioned that "If any one of the Spartans could be called a 'lone wolf,' it was Linda." He felt that this was one of the many ways that made her the strongest of Spartans.
 * In Halo: The Fall of Reach it's said that Linda equipped her Sniper Rifle with flash suppressors and silencers, and often switched configurations to best suit mission parameters.