Outbreak onboard Mona Lisa
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Mona Lisa, Soell system, Installation 04 debris field[2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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UNSC victory
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An outbreak onboard Mona Lisa occurred in the Soell system within Installation 04's debris field aboard the ONI-commissioned civilian prisoner transport Mona Lisa on October 25, 2552.[1] Having suffered a catastrophic Flood outbreak as a result of the actions of the ONI operative John Smith, the ship was later boarded by an ill-fated Marine unit and destroyed only hours afterward.[2]
The ONI operations codenamed RED CLOUD and WHITE SAND were linked with the engagement.[3]
Prelude[edit]
Following the return of the survivors from the Battle of Installation 04 in September 2552, the Office of Naval Intelligence learned about the Flood parasite. In order to study the possibility of controlling the Flood and turning it into a weapon, a science team headed by Major John Smith was authorized to take command of the civilian prison vessel Mona Lisa. After bringing a group of Covenant prisoners aboard, they would jump into the Soell system, where they recovered living samples of the Flood from Installation 04's debris field.[2]
The Flood outbreak[edit]
Smith began to conduct tests on both Covenant and human prisoners; he may or may not have exceeded his operational parameters when doing so. However, sufficient security measures were not taken and the parasite escaped containment. Though the specifics of the outbreak are unclear, prisoner Patrick Rimmer suspected that the Covenant attempted to escape and the Flood broke out in the chaos. Some of the Covenant would also let human prisoners out of their cells in order to enlist their aid in combating the common threat of the Flood. One of the Covenant sympathetic to the human prisoners was a Sangheili who Patrick Rimmer called "Henry".
The Flood would soon overwhelm the ship, with prisoners and guards desperately attempting to hinder the parasite's progress by building makeshift barricades. Meanwhile, Smith launched most of the ship's escape pods to prevent the Flood from escaping, and subsequently locked himself in a sealed safe room. Eventually, the Flood would claim most of the people aboard the ship, with only a handful of uninfected survivors remaining. Shortly after breaking out, the Flood would begin to accumulate biomass to form a proto-Gravemind around its slipspace drive in the engine room, with the intent of absorbing a sufficient amount of knowledge to allow them to escape the system.[2]
UNSC investigation[edit]
Shortly later, the Office of Naval Intelligence dispatched a prowler, the UNSC Red Horse, to the Soell system, with the apparent mission to "jump to coordinates classified higher than top secret, retrieve samples of an alien artifact for study, conduct basic recon, expect Covenant trouble." However, none of the crew, including the ship's CO Commander Tobias Foucault, were informed of the Flood. ONI also had the ship's old AI, Chauncey, removed and replaced by the secretive ONI AI Rebecca.
By the time the Red Horse arrived, the Covenant fleet that had been present in the system had left in pursuit of what UNSC intelligence assumed was a "higher value target". After sifting through Installation 04's debris field for three days, occasionally conducting reconnaissance missions via Pelicans, the crew of the Red Horse discovered an escape pod launched six hours earlier from the Mona Lisa. In the pod they discovered a fatally-wounded human prisoner who indicated that something horrific has occurred aboard the Mona Lisa, something that led to the deaths of its entire complement of crew and passengers and left himself gravely mutilated. Rebecca then revealed Foucault the "extended" mission parameters; they were to assess the status of the Mona Lisa, with the orders to destroy the ship if it had been "compromised beyond retrieval".[2]
Reconnaissance mission[edit]
Boarding the Mona Lisa[edit]
A detachment of 18 Marines led by Sergeant Zhao Heng Lopez was then sent on the Mona Lisa, accompanied by a covert ONI Section 3 operative, Clarence, whose orders were to leave none of the original occupants of the ship alive. Around this time, the Red Horse detected a single Covenant assault carrier in the system, leaving the Marines on their own as the Red Horse was forced to limit its maneuvering and communications to a minimum out of risk of being detected.
Boarding the ship via a cargo bay, Lopez's squad was first engaged by a small group of Sangheili, all lacking armor or weapons, and dispatched them with ease. During the skirmish, one of the Marines, Rabbit, went missing. Lopez ordered four Marines; Cranker, Maller, Simmons and Sydney, to guard the Pelican while she took the others to find Rabbit, who was soon found dead. Meanwhile, the Marines left in the cargo bay were attacked by Pod infectors and dropped out of contact.
Lopez then contacted the Red Horse, now receiving new orders to enact the Cole Protocol by purging the Mona Lisa's two navigation databases. The Marines formed two parties; a team led by Lopez consisting of MacCraw, Mahmoud, Percy, Rakesh and Singh, and another one led by Corpsman Ngoc Benti with Clarence, Gersten, Orlav and Tsardikos. Lopez's group would head to the primary NAV database located on th