Argent Moon

Argent Moon was a research and development station in service with the UNSC Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence. Rooker served as the station's shipboard artificial intelligence in 2557.

Early history
Commissioned on May 7, 2553, Argent Moon served as a top-secret research and development station for the Office of Naval Intelligence. The station's existence was known to only a handful of individuals, with ONI personnel experimenting with a variety of highly classified and experimental projects, as well as weapons testing. ONI crew aboard Argent Moon also experimented with technology retrieved from the Halo Array.

In 2557, some personnel aboard the station were experimenting with the creation of unsanctioned biological weaponry that remain dormant and asymptomatic as it spread through a population before it was activated by otherwise harmless aerosol dispersal; all test formulas were tested on live Kig-Yar subjects. In March 2557, an accident caused a particularly aggressive form of the biological agent to vaporize and spread throughout the station via its air systems, killing nearly all aboard. Those closer to the accident were killed instantly and, depending on distance from the accident, the rest of the vessel's personnel began suffering symptoms from the chemical minutes or hours later. Although shipboard smart AI Rooker attempted to enforce quarantine protocols, they "massively" failed and all personnel aboard Argent Moon were dead by March 17, 2557. As a result, ONI lost contact with Argent Moon and Rooker sent a message that warned any ONI personnel who board the station of the situation. Rooker then took further actions to quarantine the vessel; he put Argent Moon on a course that kept it away from all inhabited systems and jettisoned what remains he could into open space. On September 12, 2557, Rooker was now suffering from rampancy due to being six months past his "expiration date". Feeling he could no longer manage the vessel, he initiated his own destruction.

Raid on Argent Moon
In October 2558, nineteen months after it went missing, Argent Moon was discovered by Kig-Yar scavengers, who sold it to Jul 'Mdama's people. One week later, Spartan-II Blue Team was tasked with securing the vessel and its intel, encountering Covenant scavengers aboard the vessel. Unable to secure the Argent Moon, Blue Team was forced to overheat the station's reactor, destroying it along with several nearby Covenant vessels.

Due to the station's obscurity, UNSC investigators who examined the remains of Argent Moon were unaware of the station's role. The investigators searched the debris for clues, and eventually discovered that the station's crew were manufacturing bioweapons.

Specifications
The design of Argent Moon loosely resembled that of some deep survey craft designs of the 22nd century. The station is equipped with maneuvering propulsion systems at the aft that allow Argent Moon to travel through space, though Argent Moon is still classified as a a large-scale production plant rather than a ship. With propulsion systems at its aft and navigation and operation controls at the fore, production and experiments on Argent Moon occur in the center of the station, within a massive, city-sized superstructure. Argent Moon was an ONI research and development vehicle that went missing. In addition to its secretive nature, the station's hangar bays housed at least one prowler and a stealth corvette.

List of appearances

 * Halo 5: Guardians