Even if it WASN'T only one spartan had to die to save the pillar of autumn (not counting the rest of noble team of course) why have both die? Master Chief clearly saved a good chunk of those people on Halo by holding off the covenant it seems smart to me. 
 
But thanks Callumrides for clearing that up I still haven't picked up the books quite yet even though I own them I just forgot!

" @Callumrides said:

" if you read the 1st book he is fighting on a space station orbiting reach and is not picked up by the Pillar till there in orbit "

So you're saying that's not Master Chief in the pod? "

" if you read the 1st book he is fighting on a space station orbiting reach and is not picked up by the Pillar till there in orbit "

if you read the 1st book he is fighting on a space station orbiting reach and is not picked up by the Pillar till there in orbit

I'm sorry, but that Master Chief easter egg actually portrayed him to be a real loser. A coward, even. Here we have all the rest of the Spartans fighting on Reach, still risking life and limb in the middle of this global catastrophe... and he's already given up and gone to sleep in the cryo pod. Why is he already in dreamland? The planet's under attack, the Pillar of Autumn isn't even off the ground! Is going into cryostasis really that important when the ship hasn't even lifted off of its docking port? Who does this guy think he is? I'm Noble Six out there busting my ass, taking down Elites and firing MAC guns, while he apparently decided that all was well, nobody needed his combat expertise, and sealed himself up.

It's as if they're portraying Master Chief as this guy who's always been gestating in a cryo pod until his emergence in Halo 1, like a chick in an egg that has to be protected before it hatches. But this isn't true, Master Chief's gone on hundreds of missions before Reach, there's plenty of novels and comics and whatnot out there explaining his various exploits. He was apparently just in orbit around Reach fighting it out on a Covenant ship, right? So after that, he deliberately decides to come back down to Reach, go inside the Pillar of Autumn, and just go into cryo sleep while the fighting rages on? What is so goddamn urgent about getting his cryo rest? Is aging in real time really that much of a concern to him right then? At this point, the very survival of the Pillar of Autumn hasn't even been decided yet. That Covenant ship could've toasted it in its dock if Noble Six had failed with the MAC gun. Yet Master Chief, he doesn't care, he just hops right in and goes into suspended animation. Pays it no heed. Not something for this hero to worry about, no siree.