Kestrel (freighter)

Were you looking for the Kestrel, a deleted UNSC aircraft?

The Kestrel was an independent freighter used by Rubble councilmember Peter Bonifacio.

History
The Kestrel had smuggled Sweet William Cigars from the UNSC colony world Charybdis IX, and also smuggled altered Covenant weapons to Insurrectionists on Charybdis IX.

Eventually, the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence discovered the Covenant weapons smuggling, which was a huge breach of the Cole Protocol. In response, an operation tasked with discovering the source of the Covenant weapons and halting the riots on Charybdis IX was authorized. A number of undercover ONI agents were sent in to spy on the rioters, Corinthia Hansen being one of them, and the UNSC Light Frigate  was dispatched shortly after. The ONI spies had discovered that the leader of the rioters, Jason Kincaide, had gotten the Covenant weapons from the Kestrel. After the riots were broken up, the Covenant arrived, following the smuggled weapons, and attacked Charybdis IX.

During the battle, the Kestrel fled through slipspace. After escaping, the Kestrel made several more slipspace jumps, but the Midsummer Night had secretly followed it from Charybdis IX. When the Kestrel arrived at the Rubble, it inadvertently revealed the presence of the Rubble to the Midsummer Night. Shortly after its arrival, the Kestrel docked in the Rubble. Later, its navigational data and all of its electronics were disabled by an EMP blast used by the Spartan Gray Team, although the actual hull and superstructure remained undamaged. It was presumably destroyed with the rest of the Rubble (save for Habitat Exodus) during the Battle of the Rubble.