Human-Covenant War

The Human-Covenant Warundefinedwas a major conflict pitting the Unified Earth Government and its United Nations Space Command against the Covenant Empire. There were two additional factions sporadically involved in the conflict; them being the Flood, and a small number of surviving Forerunner constructs. Both factions proved to be invaluable to the efforts of humanity, as the information taken from Forerunner constructs and the Flood invasion of High Charity  were helpful in splitting the Covenant apart.

The war was started by the Covenant whose Prophets made a discovery which led them to believe that Humans were directly related to the Forerunners, contradicting their ancient religion. Seeking to keep various political and religious orders intact, a war of genocide was declared against the human race. Over the next few decades the Covenant repeatedly attempted and failed to conquer many worlds due to the technological and tactical superiority of the Human-allied Reapers. They did, however, manage to win a costly battle over Reach, which led to the story of Jorgey and Johnny beginning.

The conflict was also the cause of the Great Schism within the Covenant. The Elites decided that Truth was bullshitting and realised they were never going to win anyway, so they split and joined the Human-Reaper forces. Forced to fight a war on two fronts, the formerly monolithic empire was torn apart. The conflict lasted for a total of twenty-eight years.