Editing Operation: BLOWBACK

{{Status|Canon}}

{{Battle infobox

|prev=[[Raid on Verge]]

|conc=[[Fall of Reach]]

|next=[[Battle of Line Installation 1-4]]

|image=

|date=[[2552#August|August 2552]]{{Ref/Note|See [[Battle of Line Installation 1-4#Notes]]}}

|result=Failure

|side1=[[UNSC]], [[ONI]]

|side2=[[Covenant]]

|side3=[[Forerunner]]

|commanders1=Captain [[Moreland]]

|commanders2= [[Thon 'Talamee]]

'''Operation: BLOWBACK''' was a top-secret [[United Nations Space Command]] [[operation]] that was to take place in late [[2552]]. It was ordered by [[Admiral]] [[Roland Freemont]] in an [[United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 90872H-11|encrypted transmission]] sent to [[Vice Admiral]] [[Alexander Reaves]].<ref name="blood">'''[[Halo: Blood Line]]''', ''[[Halo: Blood Line Issue 1|Issue 1]]''</ref>

[[Office of Naval Intelligence|ONI Section III]] believed that the uninhabited and largely uncharted [[Sub-Sector 35]] of space was used by the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]] as a significant supply route. In Operation: BLOWBACK, [[SPARTAN-II Program|Spartan-II]] [[Team Black]] was to hide in [[cryo-chamber]]s amongst prospecting equipment in the civilian vessel {{UNSCShip|Long Time Coming}}, recommissioned by the ONI for the mission. The crew of the ship consisted of plainclothes ONI personnel with [[Captain (Navy)|Captain]] [[Moreland]] in command, and the shipboard [[Artificial Intelligence|AI]] [[Iona]]. The ship was to travel to Sub-Sector 35, and the crew and Team Black would allow themselves to be "captured" by and/or forcibly board any Covenant vessels encountered in the sector. Team Black was then to secure all priority intelligence assets and destroy the said vessels. Upon "capture", an auto-executing [[Viral Data Scavengers|viral scavenger]] countdown of 15 minutes would be activated by the AI to maintain the [[United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1|Cole Protocol]] in case of total mission failure.{{Ref/Reuse|blood}}

As the operation was supposed to commence and the ''Long Time Coming'' was preparing for a [[slipspace]] jump to Sub-Sector 35, the ship received a transmission of unknown origin, with a "Pi-constant baseline". The transmission contained a repeated binary message, which displayed various astronomical objects and their properties. The ship's co-pilot dismissed it as an echo from an educational broadcast, and Moreland ignored the transmission despite Iona's concerns and executed the jump. Just as the ship jumped, Iona realized that the message was a warning of significant [[astrogation]] hazards present in the sector. A moment later, the ship was hit by bursts of energy and dropped out of slipspace, crashing on a [[Unnamed Moon|desolate moon]], which was also the site of the [[Forerunner]] [[Line Installation 1-4]].{{Ref/Reuse|blood}}

The ONI crew was killed in the crash, and the ship was damaged beyond repair. Iona awakened Team Black, who moved on to explore the moon, with [[Black-Two]] staying behind to send a distress signal to [[Fleet Command]] through a [[Slipbeacon]]. Coincidentally, the Covenant [[Assault Carrier]] ''Clarity of Faith'' had also crashed on the moon under similar circumstances. This led to the [[Battle of Line Installation 1-4]] as [[686 Ebullient Prism]], the monitor of the installation, captured people from both sides, forcing Team Black and the Covenant forces to form an uneasy, and short-lived, alliance.{{Ref/Reuse|blood}}

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[[Category:Operations|BLOWBACK]]