Covenant (Halo)

The Covenant is a fictional militaristic and theocratic alliance of alien races who serve as the main antagonist body of the Halo science-fiction video game series. They are composed of a variety of diverse species united under the religious worship of the Forerunners and their belief that the Halos will provide salvation for their doomed existence. Seen as technically superior to Humans, they are fighting a war of attrition with the human United Nations Space Command for the Hierarchs declared humanity an affront to the Forerunners and wished them all destruction.

The Covenant were first introduced in Halo: Combat Evolved as the protagonist Master Chief and the AI Cortana were escaping from the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn in orbit over Halo; the Covenant had disabled the ship and were boarding it via landing craft. On Halo, the player encounters the Covenant in force all over the ring, and they are the primary enemies until the Covenant release the Flood from stasis. The player later encounters new Covenant races and plays as a Covenant character, the Arbiter, during the events of Halo 2.