Phoenix Logs/Campaign Logs/Rise of Atriox III

ONI Section Zero Board//Surveillance transcription of internal communications between subjects 'D' and 'S', 05.06.2553 1702 hrs//Full transcript available on request//

['D']...what's the name of the ship? Something pronounceable, I hope. ['S'] 'The Enduring Conviction', sir. A CAS-class assault carrier. The Conviction and its Sangheili commander have been known to us for some time, we've lost quite a few ships to it over the last four years. According to our intel it's the largest ship Atriox controls now.

['D'] He's amassing quite a fleet. This must be the ninth raid in as many months. Still, he's never gone for something this large before. How did he raise enough troops to capture and then crew a CAS-class carrier?

['S'] We're piecing together what we can, sir. From what we understand, Atriox and a small group of his warlords were captured during a raid on a former Covenant air base and taken aboard the Enduring Conviction. Twelve hours later, Enduring Conviction broke formation and contact with the rest of the fleet it travelled with. The Conviction was hailed, warned, and then fired upon when it ignored orders. The Conviction performed evasive maneuvers, returned fire and escaped. It was an impressive move...and it's one we've seen before during a battle with the Conviction two years ago.

['D'] Are you implying the commander was still in control?

['S'] It's possible, sir. It's unclear who's giving orders to these Sangheili ships now and his crew was fiercely loyal. If we knew that, then Atriox would have. What if Atriox planned to be captured by the Conviction so he could get close to the commander and get him to defect? It may have even already been planned and this was just a cover.

['D'] An assault carrier and its crew. Atriox has just painted a very large target on his back, he's going to want to lay low for a while. Keep track of known Sangheili, let's see if this snowball turns into an avalanche.