Editing Daisy-023

On [[2526#March|March 8, 2526]], the UNSC initiated [[Operation: SILENT STORM]], a mission that would have the Spartans and the [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers|ODST]]s of the [[21st Space Assault Battalion]] attempt to board Covenant warships with the intent of detonating them from the inside. During the [[slipspace]] journey to their [[Biko|first destination]], Daisy and the other Spartans participated in training exercises with these ODSTs in the {{UNSCShip|Vanishing Point}}'s mission preparation hold. The Spartans made short work of the veteran marines in each exercise until [[Staff Sergeant]] [[Avery Johnson]] taught them some unorthodox strategies that proved to be much more effective against the supersoldiers. After four days of this, [[Colonel]] [[Marmon Crowther]] had the Black Daggers and the Spartans gather so he could explain the plan that he came up with. His plan would have split up the Spartans, with each of the twelve carrying a [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]] for a single platoon. This way they could destroy many targets at once, but it severely diminished the effectiveness of the Spartans. John-117 expressed his disagreement with Crowther, who brought up his suspicions that they were "just kids" and therefore less reliable than his experienced marines. Daisy broke formation and angled herself at Crowther in a challenging manner. In response, he marched up to her and requested that she tell him her age. John told her to stand down, but she stood her ground and proclaimed that their age did not matter; it was their training that made them superior. Crowther replied saying that combat experience matters more.{{Ref/Reuse|HSS5}}

As the Spartans neared the provided waypoint, the fog had lowered to shoulder-height, allowing them to discover that the ''Starry Night'' was indeed seemingly intact, but sat atop a large avalanche about seven hundred meters up the quarry wall. [[Frederic-104]] spotted a Covenant intrusion corvette sliding over the rim of the quarry and descending over the prowler. Kelly-087 theorized that they may be trying to recover the ''Starry Night'' themselves. Realizing the danger, John declared to his teammates that the mission was no longer a rescue mission. Their primary objective was now to deny the Covenant from recovering the prowler and the data stored within. Opening the command channel again, he relayed this information to Crowther, who echoed John's concerns and insisted that they could not let the Covenant take possession of the ''Starry Night''. The vessel's [[navigation computer]] and other onboard data devices could reveal the locations of UNSC outposts, entire force deployments, or worse. Crowther asked Nyeto if there was any way that the prowler's nuclear [[self-destruct]] system could be remotely activated, to which the lieutenant commander responded in the affirmative. However, there were only three positions that had access to that ability. The first two were the flight commander and wing commander, both of which were roles held by Captain Ascot, who was either dead or unable to be reached aboard the ''Starry Night''. The final person with the ability to remotely detonate the prowler was the captain of the ''Vanishing Point'', which was holding station two planetary orbits out from Seoba. At that distance, it would take nearly an hour for the request to be sent to the cruiser and for the return signal to arrive. By then, the Covenant might already have retrieved sensitive data from the wrecked prowler. Crowther began to reluctantly order the Spartans to prevent the ''Starry Night''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s capture, but John cut him off, assuring him that they would not fail. The Spartan requested that Task Force Yama assist them by keeping the assaulting corvettes off their backs. Nyeto began to say that their prowlers were not designed for ship-to-ship combat when Crowther interrupted him, promising that they would find a way. Crowther started to tell John to standby for instructions on how to manually activate the prowler's self-destruct, but he reassured the colonel that his Spartans already knew how to activate a [[Nuclear weapon|nuke]].{{Ref/Reuse|HSS14}}

Six of the Spartans were buried under the ice flow, with Daisy's teammate, [[Naomi-010]], becoming completely incapacitated. John-117 was also buried, but not totally immobilized. While he worked on freeing himself, John gave Fred command of the mission to board and destroy the ''Starry Night''. Fred and [[Linda-058|two]] [[Malcolm-059|other]] Spartans boarded the prowler as the available members of Gold and Green Teams coordinated attacks on the seemingly endless stream of enemy ground vehicles, supported by at least three Covenant corvettes. John freed himself from the ice flow and began helping repel would-be boarders while Fred's team prepared the vessel's [[Fury tactical nuclear weapon]]. Meanwhile, Nyeto's support finally arrived the form of strafing runs that destroyed two of the intrusion corvettes assaulting Gold and Green Teams. Just as the nuke was finished arming, the looming Covenant corvette finally made its move and began slowly levitating the ''Starry Night'' up and into its hold using a [[gravity lift]]. John ordered Fred's team to activate the nuke and flee from the prowler with the surviving crew, which they did via escape pod. He also warned the others that the nuke would detonate in thirty seconds, urging them to escape the blast radius immediately. Each of the Spartans made it to safety, including Daisy. Colonel Crowther extracted them after the resulting [[electromagnetic pulse]] had dissipated.{{Ref/Novel|Id=HSS15|HSS|Chapter=15}} The blast also destroyed the intrusion corvette, and some of the Spartans assisted in the recovery of a [[Kelguid|starholo]] from its wreckage. They and the starholo were transported back to the ''Vanishing Point''.{{Ref/Novel|Id=HSS16|HSS|Chapter=16}}

On [[2526#March|March 20]], the six Spartans that had not been confined to the infirmary attended a funeral service for the two-hundred-and-three men and women who lost their lives at Seoba. Held in the command hangar of the ''Vanishing Point'' as it sat in a high parabolic orbit around Biko, the ceremony included an honor company of a hundred-and-one enlisted personnel in their dress blues, including the six Spartans and Avery Johnson. After the service, Lieutenant Commander Nyeto—now the de facto commander of Task Force Yama after Ascot's death—approached John-117, who asked if he'd reconsider sidelining them. Nyeto promised that the Spartans would be seeing all the action they could handle for the rest of the operation. However, Crowther again contested this on the basis of them being too young, forcing the lieutenant commander to back down by threatening him with a report to a UNSC board of inquiry. The Black Daggers would board the [[Fleet of Inexorable Obedience|incoming fleet]] alone. As everyone left the hangar, Crowther revealed to Johnson that he did not trust Nyeto. He believed that the Spartans were combat-ready, and he was instead sending them on a mission to disrupt Covenant supply lines at [[Etalan]].{{Ref/Reuse|HSS16}}