UNSC Rubicon

The UNSC Rubicon was a vessel of the UNSC Navy assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence.

History
During a scouting mission to the ruins of Installation 00 following the Human-Covenant War, UNSC operatives were pinged by a Forerunner signal. In response, the Rubicon was deployed to the area from Luna, carrying specialist remote contact teams and ONI scientific personnel. Due to the damage dealt to the Ark's life support systems, the RCTs were forced to brave extremely hostile conditions on the surface in search of the signal's origin. Contact was lost with all teams after eight days; only RCT-06 returned with heavy casualties. However, they succeeded at recovering the beacon's source - the remains of 343 Guilty Spark himself.

The science team questioned the damaged monitor on his origins, who obliged the humans due to their authority as Reclaimers. Over the course of the interrogation, Spark breached the Rubicon's firewall several times, much to the team's dismay. Spark powered down after concluding his story and was subsequently ejected into space; unbeknownst to the crew, he had already transferred himself over to the shipboard computers. After subduing the onboard AI and taking control of the ship, he explained to the crew that he was going to resume his quest to find the Librarian and restore his old friends, Riser and Vinnevra, back to life. Asserting that the Librarian was still alive, he put the crew to sleep and had the Rubicon proceed to her location.

Search-and-rescue teams were sent to the area after contact with the Rubicon was lost, but they failed to find any trace of the ship.

Trivia

 * The ship is named after the Rubicon, a river in Italy known as the site where Julius Caesar uttered the famous phrase "alea iacta est" or "the die is cast" as he and his army crossed the river. Due to the historical significance of the event, "Rubicon" has become an idiom for a point of no return. Given this meaning, the name of the Rubicon may be a reference to another ONI vessel, the stealth cruiser.
 * According to Halo: Primordium, the ship—which goes unnamed in the novel—and its accompanying task force were involved in some form of fleet action toward the end of the interrogation of 343 Guilty Spark. The nature of this engagement is not elaborated upon in either the novel or the fourth Eleventh Hour report which further details the fictional context of the novel.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Primordium
 * Halo: Silentium