UNSC Taurokado

UNSC Taurokado was a Prowler in the UNSC Navy, operated by the Office of Naval Intelligence. In 2557, it investigated the remains of Shield World 0459.

History
In 2557, the Taurokado was dispatched by the Office of Naval Intelligence to search for evidence of the, with Spartan Fireteam Apollo embarked. At 0221 hours (MST) on June 8th, it arrived in the Korinth Prior system. There, it encountered a debris field in orbit around a K-type dwarf star. Taurokado conducted scans which showed that this debris field was composed of 94% naturally-occurring materials and 4% Forerunner materials, with 2% untraceable, and that of detritus size, 9% neared the scale of small lunar satellites while 84% were the size of the ship or smaller. Taurokado ' s sensors also revealed that low-level shielding sporadically surrounded structures of Forerunner origins.

At 0924 hours (MST), Taurokado commenced site surveys of identified Forerunner structures. Fireteam Apollo was deployed to investigate a number of these structures. At one, designated "Site 012", Apollo uncovered configurations matching the Sarcophagus at Onyx. At "Site 042" they confirmed that the debris had formerly been a shield world. Apollo also found evidence of Sojourner-class Forerunner dreadnoughts and a Flood infestation at "Site 029" and "Site 021", respectively. At "Site 037", Apollo recovered identifiable human materials. Analysis confirmed that these had belonged to the Spirit of Fire, including war materiel and Titanium-A battleplating. However, no evidence of survivors was detected by either Apollo or Taurokado.

At 1642 hours (MST), Taurokado made contact with a hostile Covenant battle group. Fireteam Apollo was distaptched in F-41 Broadsword fighters to intercept the enemy. After dispatching two waves of Seraph fighters, Apollo fell back to the Taurokado. At 1714 hours (MST), the Taurokado released sensor buoy "B89-7" and slipped from the system, in accordance with protocol.

On June 21, 2557, AI Turkish submitted an after action report of Taurokado ' s mission (AAR Q74S295-LR) to Hugo Barton, the director of ONI Research Facility Trevelyan. Based on this report, it was concluded that there was a 99 per cent chance that the Spirit of Fire had visited the Korinth Prior system but a 12 per cent chance that it had escaped destruction there.