Editing Setting:Halo/Covenant (section)

==The Covenant and its Children==

Covenant technology has progressed since antiquity. Just as the bolter far surpasses the puny slug-weapons of M2, so do Needlers, Fuel Rod Guns and Plasma Rifles far exceed their obsolete historical counterparts. Covenant warp-drives skim the edge of the immaterium, making short hops from place to place and avoiding most of the danger. However, their drives rapidly recharge, allowing for a succession of quick hops across vast spans of lightyears. Their ships pose a danger even to Imperial warcraft, although naval admirals have often argued they should be considered slightly inferior on account of armaments and shielding.

Unlike Mankind, none of the Covenant species display any psychic ability, so those few who would bend the knee to the Ruinous Powers must travel to places like the Eye of Terror or collect warp artifacts. 'Yagaron's Dark Disciples, a Sangheili cabal, have laid their energy swords at the feet of Huron Blackheart and he has set them to lead one of his many armies of human cultists. The Unggoy have also been known to form secret rites based on the worship of chaos, on occasion even summoning daemons to 'deliver' them.

As a tiny Empire, the Tau have made no contact with the Covenant. However, the Tau hired a roving band of Kig-Yar mercenaries during their 3rd Sphere Expansion and incorporated them into the Sept of Ksi'm'yen. The reptilian xenos accepted the greater good and flourished for several decades. When a Genestealer cult broke out in Sept, the Kig-Yar abandoned their oath, disobeyed the Ethereal's orders to suppress the rebellion and fought their way through both sides to the spaceport, where they commandeered a ship and escaped from the planet. They resumed their old thieving ways and have been a scourge to Tau shipping routes ever since.

Many of the Covenant species have established independent enclaves across the galaxy. The Hateful Haven is based in Ultima Segmentum around the accretion disk of a young star. A motley assemblage of Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, Tarellian Dog-Soldiers and Kroot band together to conduct raids and harass shipping. They are feared in five sectors. Recently, Genestealers have infected numerous asteroids in the system and piratic attacks on shipping have decreased as the Hateful Haven seeks to cleanse itself of the infestation.

The Imperium is unsure of the extent of the Covenant. Official Departmento Munitorum documents indicate that they may have only a few dozen worlds remaining. Inquisitor Czevak of the Ordo Xenos believes this entirely wrong and states the xenos still possess a few thousand planets. The possibility remains also that a great amount of their strength may be fleet-based and they do turn up in unexpected places. Macharius stumbled upon a Covenant pocket empire in the course of his crusade. When the Covenant do attack, they do so in force, with armies comparable in size to the Imperial Guard, although they lack the corresponding ability to reinforce.