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The Marines

A rugged and diverse assortment of soldiers, the

Marines on the

Pillar of

Autumn are fighting a losing battle against the Covenant’s superior weaponry and numbers. Under the leadership of Captain Keyes they continue to wage a furious struggle against the Covenant, even as their numbers dwindle. They’re the best of the best—but they’re only human.

Cortana

Cortana is the highly advanced AI at the heart of the Pillar of Autumn. Her design allows her to be uploaded into an appropriately configured battle suit for increased mobility.

She is capable of hacking into alien computer systems, and has used this skill to intercept

Covenant communications during combat.

She interprets this data to provide her caretakers with directional waypoints and the best available information about troop movement and strategy.

The Covenant

The Covenant forces have spent more than thirty years trying to wipe out humankind. Because their efforts have been so successful, and because few Covenant troops have ever been captured alive, little is definitively known about their origins, society, or motivations. Intercepted communications and battlefield reports indicate a religious underpinning to their genocidal campaign. What follows are brief descriptions of the alien races known to belong to the Covenant collective, gathered mostly from encounters on the battlefield.

The Grunts

Approximately 5’ tall and relatively weak,

Grunts tend to travel in packs and stick close to more powerful allies. Individually they are easy to defeat, but in groups they can overwhelm careless Marines. Their armor seems to house some sort of lifesupport mechanism. They are known to use a variety of weapons including the plasma pistol, plasma rifle and plasma grenades.

The Jackals

With superior senses of sight, hearing and smell, Jackals serve as scouts and assassins for the Covenant forces. They use plasma pistols and carry a strong energy shield to compensate for their physical weakness; a well-positioned Jackal can hold his own against several Marines, though grenades are effective against them. They stand approximately 5’ 8” tall.

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