Linda-058

Petty Officer, First Class Linda-058 is a human female SPARTAN-II supersoldier. She is one of the few known surviving Spartan-IIs, and is best known for her skill with the sniper rifle. Linda often served as the primary sniper and scout of Blue Team. By 2558, she had engaged in a total of 189 military operations (of which 174 were full campaigns), most of them during the Great War. As of October 2558, Linda continues to serve alongside Blue Team in highly classified operations against the Insurrection.
== Biography ==
=== Childhood and conscription ===
Linda Pravdin was born on March 19, 2511 on the outer colony world of Verent. As a child, Linda engineered her own intelligence network at school to spy on the teachers. She was the very first child identified as a candidate for the SPARTAN-II program. Ultimately, she was numbered the fifty-eighth of one-hundred and fifty children of similar age that had been selected based on specific genetic markers for inclusion in the Spartan-II program, which only had facilities and funding for half that number. She was screened by members of Lieutenent Catherine Halsey's team at some point between July and September of 2517 and by September 23 of that year she had been abducted by an ONI retrieval team, rushed through slipspace to Reach. She was stolen from her bed while she had been sleeping and a flash clone was used to take her place.
=== Training ===
At around 0530 hours on September 24, 2517 Linda and the other children were roused awake by Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and dozens of other drill instructors. Mendez addressed them all, saying they were to shower at the barracks aft and then return to their cots to dress. Linda stripped down and joined the other children on a conveyor to be washed in lukewarm soapy water and then rinsed in an icy cold spray. A trunk at the foot of her cot held underwear, thick socks, combat boots, and a matching set of gray sweats with "LINDA-058" stenciled on the chest. Once everyone was clothed, Mendez marched them outside and had them form five rows of fifteen children each. From there, they were ordered through a series of calisthenics which included one-hundred each of jumping jacks, sit-ups, deep squats, knee bends, and leg lifts. After the leg lifts the kids were finally given a respite in the form of water. Following the short break, Mendez ordered them to join him on a run. They jogged through the military compound, past more barracks, along a river, and over a bridge, finally coming to a stop in the courtyard of a naval officers' academy. There Linda and the others met Déjà, a so-called "dumb" A.I. who had been given the job of continuing the trainees' formal education. Within the building, Linda and the others were served crackers and milk and treated to a history lesson concerning the Battle of Thermopylae. After the lesson the trainees were told they were heading for the playground, but this turned into a two-mile run to a forest of twenty-meter-tall wooden poles, rope cargo nets and bridges, knotted climbing ropes, pulleys, and baskets. Mendez had them form three lines and declared that each row of three would be a team. Chief Mendez explained that they would be playing a game called "Ring the Bell" in which the objective was for every member of each team to ring a brass bell that hung from a slide pole next to the tallest wooden pole. Linda's team managed to avoid finishing last, and so she avoided being penalized with missing out on that night's dinner.
The second day of training, September 25, began just like the first. The trainees spent the morning doing calisthenics and in the afternoon reported to Déjà to learn. This day, she taught them about the hunting strategies of wolves and emphasized the importance of the pack over the individual in accomplishing a challenge, such as taking down a moose. When it came time for the "playground" again, Mendez declared that they were to keep the same teams they had the prior day. The teams had a brief moment to strategize, as the course had been made more complicated as compared to before. Three days later, on September 28, all the trainees were given haircuts. On May 24, 2518, the children were forced at 0920 hours to run through a course while being shot at with stun rounds. Each trainee that was hit was made to do an exorbitant amount of push-ups. During the first few years of training, Déjà taught Linda and the others algebra, trigonometry, and the history of numerous battles and the rulers they happened at the direction of. By mid-2519, Linda and the other Spartans had been taught how to string a trip line, fire a rifle, and treat a chest wound. Much of the Spartans' early training took place at Military Reservation 01478-B, known as "Painland" to the soldiers made to endure exercises there.
Category:Daisy-023