"I know," Tycho agrees quietly. "I know." Tycho was deeply familiar with missing people who were missing, gone and presumed dead. It wasn't any easier the second time around, but at least he had an already tested and ready strategy for dealing with it- burying himself in work.

"Marksmanship. Hand to hand. Stealth. Explosives." He was noting all these things down on the data pad he had pulled out again. "Ask Luke for names, look up Master Chief ..."

What? You could take the man out of the XO position, but you couldn't take the XO out of the man.