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The Covenant is a religious alliance of alien races from the Xbox video game franchise Halo.
Society
The Covenant, governed by the Prophets in a theocratic manner, are extremely religious, worshipping the Forerunners, an unknown ancient race who have left behind many artifacts of technologies. There is speculation that several races of the Covenant are actually descended from the Forerunners, but this is entirely unsubstantiated. It is believed that the Covenant conquer alien races and force them into the alliance, adding to their ranks.
Their society uses a caste system with the following races (names are rough translations by the UNSC).
- Judging by what we know so far about the Covenant, Prophets are the highest level race, with near-divine status. They are depicted sitting on hovering seats.
- Elites are the generals of the Covenant military. They stand 8' tall and wear armor, with the color indicating rank, and use a shielding system similar to that of the MJOLNIR armor used by the Master Chief. They are both physically strong and capable of coordinating their units with brilliant battle tactics.
- Brutes are considered the personal bodyguards of the Prophets according to the third book. As of this writing, they are known to be very strong, quoted of being capable of tearing apart a Hunter. They have a hairy gorilla-like appearance.
- Hunters are like walking tanks, with their massive size (8' in their normal contracted stance and 12' full sized), near impenetrable armor, and hand mounted cannons. They are known to operate in pairs. In the game, they have an exposed region in their back that can allow a quick and easy kill via one pistol shot.
- Jackals are the scouts of the Covenant, with their superior senses. They are 5'8" tall and carry a weak energy shield. Their appearance is bird-like.
- Engineers are the engineers of the Covenant. They float via air sacs and manipulate machinery with their many tentacles. Engineers are capable of quickly learning the functionality of new technology.
- Grunts are the work horse of the Covenant, as the name implies. Despite their obvious cowardice and stupidity, they are extremely large in number. They breathe a methane mixture and thus must wear a large tank on their backs. They are 5' tall.
Technology
The Covenant are imitative rather than innovative like their human enemies. Their technology is largely stolen from leftover Forerunner artifacts. In the game, their weaponry is largely energy based and their vehicles are capable of hovering. All of the Covenant's hand-held weapons (except the needler) use magnetic coils to direct the usually unstable plasma energy.
Weaponry
The Covenant boast a large arsenal of plasma-projectile weapons. Most of the Covenant's weaponry uses a form of magnetic channeling that the human race has only learned to apply in the MAC gun aboard starships.
Plasma-based weaponry very effective against energy shielding. The amount of shots that can be fired tends to be very high, but power cannot be recharged and firing many shots in a short duration can cause the weapon to recharge, which reduces energy use efficiency as well as forcing a temporary cooling period in which the weapon cannot be fired.
- Plasma Pistol: This weapon is normally used by lower level units. The weapon is a single fire weapon. However, the trigger can be held, charging the weapon so it can fire a powerful semi-homing burst of plasma, which is more effective against energy shielding, normally bringing it down completely. The pistol must be cooled after releasing a charged shot or firing several normal shots.
- Plasma Rifle: This weapon is normally only used by the Elites due to its fairly large size. The plasma rifle can fire single bolts or the trigger can be held to fire the gun on fully automatic, which drastically reduces accuracy. Like all plasma weapons, it will overheat after several shots are fired in succession.
- Needler: Uses a small, football-shaped crystal that seems to function as the "clip." This "clip" can be seen in the level where you first learn of The Flood. The needler fires semi-homing crystal shards that explodes about two seconds after they come in contact with an organism or about ten seconds after it is launched. While one explosion is fairly light in damage, several crystals exploding in succession can multiply the damage to fatal amounts. The needler may be a Forerunner weapon built specifically for the Flood. The nature of the needler may change in the sequel of the first game.
- Fuel Rod Gun: This unique weapon is used by both the strongest and the weakest of the Covenant castes. The fuel rod gun is carried on the shoulders of many black armored elite grunts and is also the weapon directly implemented onto the Hunters' arm. The FRG fires a powerful blast of plasma that's fired in an arc and capable of exploding like a mortar. In the Xbox version, the FRG is restricted to Covenant the single player campaign, who fire the weapon with a delay between shots. Grunt FRGs will explode once its wielder is incapacitated. In the PC version, the FRG remains unusuable in the single player campaign, but usable in multiplayer. Unlike the Covenant, the player is capable of firing the weapon several times in succession before it overheats. It also retains the large but unchargable battery capacity evident in other plasma weapons. Because of this, many online gamers see the weapon as seriously unbalanced, calling it the New to the Game cannon.
- Plasma Grenade: The Covenant plasma grenade is one of the more clever weapons in the game. The plasma grenade has the ability to distinguish between organisms and scenery. A plasma grenade will stick to organisms and explode three seconds after contact with that organism. It is also able to stick onto vehicles. The plasma grenade will also explode five seconds after touching any scenery and three seconds after coming to rest. Unlike the human fragmentation grenade, it cannot effectively bounce off walls. In the third book of the three book Halo series, the plasma grenade is noted to produce a small electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effect. It also lacks the destructive power of a frag grenade, but it's ability to stick can be well utilized by skillful players.
Vehicles
One of Halo's selling points is its implement of vehicles with realistic physics. Land based Covenant vehicles, unlike humans', are capable of hovering and are less prone to uneven terrain. All Covenant vehicles have a signature purple sheen.
- Ghosts are one passenger reconnaissance and rapid attack vehicles.
- Banshees are one passenger aerial ground assault vehicles with its ability to fly, high manueverabilty, and fair speed.
- Wraiths are one passenger hover tanks, which make them surprisingly manueverable and fast for their size. Their sole weapon is a powerful mortar gun that fires in an arc similar to the Fuel Rod Gun. Other than this, they are fairly vulnerable to very close enemies. They are never usable in the single player campaign.
- Shades are not quite vehicles but rather a stationary gun turret, but they can be entered like a vehicle and be thrown around like one. They consist of a stand and a floating mobile turret like seating with control systems to its gun. The gun fires three fairly slow, high powered bolts of energy.
- Phantoms are a dropship-like aircraft similar to the human Pelican dropship. They appear to have a powerful cannon. Details are still vague as of this writing and were first introduced in Halo 2.
- There is also a troop transport vehicle that is currently unnamed. Like the Ghost and Banshee, it hovers. The vehicle also has a Shade turret mounted on top. Introduced in Halo 2.
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