Editing The Mona Lisa

{{Status|RealWorld}}

[[File:Evo MonaLisa Kubota.jpg|150px|thumb|The cover of ''The Mona Lisa'' by Jami Kubota]]

'''''The Mona Lisa''''' is the seventh and longest short story in ''[[Halo: Evolutions]]''. It follows the crew of the {{UNSCShip|Red Horse}} as they are sent to investigate the fate of the [[prison ship]] ''[[Mona Lisa]]'', which has mysteriously come to rest near the destroyed [[Installation 04]]. After boarding the ship, a team of [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marines]] stumbles upon a [[Flood|parasitic nightmare]], and begin a desperate struggle for survival against the parasite. ''The Mona Lisa'' was written by Tessa Kum and [[Wikipedia:Jeff VanderMeer|Jeff VanderMeer]].

Burgundy sees Cranker and Maller outside, badly wounded but apparently still alive, and opens the Pelican for them to get in. Up close, Burgundy realizes that the Marines are in fact [[Flood combat form|dead and deformed]], yet are still walking, and attempts to stop them from getting to her. She is overpowered and dragged away. Meanwhile, Benti's group makes its way into the bilges of the ship but is soon engaged by a group of the [[Flood]]. As the Marines make their escape, [[Orlav]] is wounded, expires and later wakes up to bite another Marine, [[Gersten]]. Lopez loses another man, [[Rakesh]], to the Flood, and eventually finds that Smith is actually an [[Office of Naval Intelligence|ONI]] operative. It’s revealed that the major had been using the Mona Lisa as a testing bed to weaponize the Flood, using human and Covenant prisoners alike. Killing [[Mahmoud]] with a concealed knife, Smith breaks free from Lopez and makes it back to the ''Red Horse'' in the Marines' Pelican. Benti finds a human survivor, a prisoner named [[Patrick Rimmer]], and a befriended Sangheili armed with a cricket bat Rimmer has dubbed "[[Henry]]".

Rimmer points out that one of Benti's party is infected. The infected Marine, Gersten, is promptly shot in the head by Clarence, reanimates and is shot again. During an engagement with an infected Sangheili, Lopez's group loses two more Marines, [[Raj Singh|Singh]] and [[Percy]], leaving only herself and MacCraw. On the bridge of the ''Mona Lisa'', Lopez makes contact with the ''Red Horse'' one last time, and she is informed that Smith had stolen their Pelican and Foucault will destroy the ''Mona Lisa'' to ensure that the Flood do not escape. Benti's team, now only consisting of herself, Clarence, Rimmer and "Henry", finally reaches the engine room and witnesses Burgundy being dragged to [[Proto-Gravemind|a huge growth]] on the engine. Realizing that the Flood are trying to "hot wire" the slipspace drive to work, Benti throws her last grenades at the Flood growth to destroy it, and begins to fall back to the escape pods.

As they race to meet up with Lopez and MacCraw, Benti is gravely injured by an infected Marine, but "Henry" picks her up and carries her the rest of the way to the pods. When Lopez sees "Henry" and Rimmer, Clarence shoots Rimmer in the head and the others deduce that he is an ONI agent. Clarence reveals that there were never meant to be any civilian or Covenant survivors from the Mona Lisa. As the survivors standoff, MacCraw takes one of the two remaining escape pods and abandons them. The wounded Benti sacrifices herself to give Lopez and Henry a chance to survive and manages to grapple with Clarence ensuring the army of Flood overtake the both of them. Lopez and "Henry" hold off the Flood long enough to enter the airlock, but then realize that there is only enough room for one in the remaining escape pod. Lopez tries to shoot "Henry", but realizes she is out of ammunition. The two begin fighting for the last pod as the countdown timer to Foucault's attack reaches thirty seconds.

**{{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} {{c|Wreckage only}}

Several elements present in the short story have been omitted from the motion comic adaptation, including a number of secondary characters (Ayad, Maller, Percy, Rakesh, Simmons and Sydney). A recurring motif in the story, with the characters making frequent references to ice cream, is not present either, being replaced by "shore leave". In addition, Rebecca only appears in her "warrior" avatar while in the original story, she alternates between two avatars.

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