THE MILKY WAY

a short history of the post-Great War Orion Arm of the Milky Way

The Former Covenant Empire

2553-2585

In the 32 years since the end of the Human-Covenant War (known otherwise as the Great Galactic War in the civilian sectors of Humanity and the greater parts of the former Covenant Species), tumultuous shifts in long practiced forms of governance, military, and science were experienced amongst all the species that had participated in the conflict.

For the former Covenant species, many had deigned it necessary to separate themselves from the others, so as to present opportunities in economic and martial matters with Humanity, which from the end of the war proved to be in a better position to reclaim the power they once had prior to the conflict due to the technical and intellectual expertise they possessed in matters of producing goods, services, and resource mining and management; areas in which the former Covenant species would be lacking in due to the caste system the Covenant Empire had employed.

Species such as the Yanme'e and the Kig-Yar, and the many subspecies underneath these umbrella names, would go on to proclaim their independence following the end of the war.

Dealings with the Yanme'e Hive, as they are collectively known, depends upon the group of Yanme'es external governments engage in dialogue with, owing to the fact that the species revolve around a society dependent upon the particularities of eusocial existence, whereby a biologically enforced caste system exists. As such, like in the Feudal societies of ancient Earth, several Hives exist around Yanme'e space, but all ultimately answer to the beck and call of The Queen, who by herself represents the entirety of the Yanme'e Government, known as the Yanme'e Confederacy.

Though technologically not as advanced as some of the other races in the Galaxy, the Yanme'e are a formidable force, somewhat regarded as a pestilence by other species like the Jiralhanae, due to their natural intelligence, mechanical skill, and their capability in being able to reverse engineer technologies from the former Covenant Empire, and the new technologies created since its collapse. With the fourth largest fleet in the Milky Way, the Yanme'e are unable to credibly use its force to influence galactic politics, due to their martial needs to defend their shared borders with the Kig-Yar. The Yanme'e possess the third largest standing land army in the Galaxy.

As mentioned, the Kig-Yar themselves were the only other species of the Former Covenant Empire to declare themselves independent of them en masse. Founded on the Earth Standard Date of December 7th, 2555, The Kig-Yar Mek (Republic, in English) was established with some help from the Human UNSC prior to the latter's dissolution.

The establishment of what was seemingly a democratic, capitalist government was seen by many in Human and former Covenant space as wasteful, due to the nature of the Kig-Yar. It was less than a year after the establishment of this government that this criticism would prove to be true, when rampant crime waves all but proved that the system of government put in place by the UNSC and Kig-Yar nationalists was simply a formality at best, and an illusion at worst. Syndicalist movements rose to great prominence, until, eventually, the ochlocracy the Sangheili had warned of during the government's creation came to fruition, as the near radical beliefs of pragmatism and mercantilism broke apart what little control the Kig-Yar government had. As a result, the short lived Mek would shatter into numerous pieces as the Kig-Yar would form into groups focused on profit generating schemes – lawful or anything but.

This has resulted in privately owned organizations from Human space transferring their base of operations to wherever stable Kig-Yar groups were, culminating in nearly all of Kig-Yar space being a nest of corporate operations that lack the oversight of any government. Due to the nature of such fluctuations in power, some sectors of Kig-Yar space are more affluent than others, dependent on which private institution – or group of – run a specific sector. This disproportionate distribution of wealth has led to entire sectors of their space turning to piracy to earn their wealth, while others contract themselves out to other species for work.

Only one sector of Kig-Yar space existing on the far edge of it, sandwiched between the beginnings of Sangheili and Human Space, have been normalized enough for a small coalition government to take root. This government called the Second Mek (established in 2562), would be the only Kig-Yar government recognized by other governments in the Galaxy. The area it has dominion of is jointly patrolled and safeguarded by Human and Sangheili fleets, due to the nature of the Second Mek's capital world (Jur), acting as the central trade and commerce hub by all the species that traded with each other in the Milky Way.

The Kig-Yar have no standing army or navy of their own, apart from the independent pirate fleets that operate in the exclusion zone (areas outside of the Second Mek's control). Due to their numerous numbers, high capacity for fast and strenuous physical activities, as well as their general desire to see whichever organization they are part of succeeds, the Kig-Yar have made a name for themselves in the galaxy as a generally hard working species. They are the only species in the Milky Way allowed into Human, Jiralhanae, and Sangheili space for work, serving as technical operators aboard civilian vessels for human ships, merchants for Sangheili Marketeers (corporations), or low tier police forces on what Human and Sangheili worlds would accept them.

The Kig-Yar being the last of any Covenant species to declare themselves independent of it or of any neo-Covenant movements owes itself to the fact that the remaining species – the Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Mgalekgolo, and the Unggoys – would find themselves split between three major factions that the former Covenant Empire had broken up to.

The first of these, the Swords of Sanghelios led by the Arbiter Thel Vadam, championed an ideology of non-sectarian self-determination structured around an autocracy with Vadam at its head. Originally wanting to form a democracy, due to Vadam's exposure to Human theories on government, the Swords would eventually form around what could be best described by human analysts as a Constitutional Monarchy with whoever was Arbiter at the top, supported fundamentally by a parliamentary system formed through a feudalistic society. This system was adopted more as a necessity due to the lack of expertise by the Sangheili in areas of civilian domain. The various Kaidons around Sanghelios and other worlds made up the central parliament-like organization, called the Council, which oversaw the day to day affairs of the Swords of Sanghelios (renamed into the Sangyari Kel), while martial concerns were left up to the Arbiter.

Due to the long decades of existence under the Covenant, Sangheili society has been slow, and ultimately resistant, to change. This has resulted in a hierarchical form of existence for many citizens of the Sangyari, including the non-Sangheili members of their domain.

Species such as the Kig-Yar who had joined into the Sangyari, the Unggoys, and the Mgalekgolo, would find themselves in similar roles in Sangyari society as they did with the Covenant. Nonetheless, if any such individual for these species were to persist in pursuing an existence free from the strict roles given to them by the Sangyari government, they were more than encouraged to do so, as is the case of the Kig-Yar shipmaster Chur'R-Dak, who left the Sangyari Navy in pursuit of supporting his nationalist views, resulting in him becoming one of the focal leaders and founders of the Second Mek.

The second faction formed after the fall of the Covenant Empire is the Fohran Reh. Officially proclaimed in 2560, and unofficially during the height of the Covenant Schism in 2552, the Fohran Reh are composed purely of Sangheili, with their followers of non-Sangheili origin having died en masse during the short wars during the Covenant Resurgence (2553-2555), the Sangheili Civil War (2556-2558), and the Rhodan Incident (2560).

The Fohran Reh would claim sectors of the galaxy between the New Covenant Empire and the Sangyari Kel, their physical placement in the Milky Way often referred to by their followers as a Forerunner given symbol of their religious role as heralds of their faith in the galaxy.

Although they were once bitter enemies with the Sangyari Kel, the Fohran Reh have risen up to a status of dependence upon them, due to the radical beliefs of the New Covenant Empire conflicting with their otherwise conservative ideals. Nonetheless, clashes with the Sangyari Navy often occur, despite the Fohran Reh Navy being ranked as the fifth largest in the galaxy, compared to the Sangyari's first.

The Fohran Reh's government (known galactically as the Rohreh K'ieempo), is comprised of three religious orders that function much like the three branches of a democratic government, albeit a theocratically led and unified one. These orders, from executive, judiciary to legislative, are known as the Jj'embaree, Kohryapor, and the Sl'vmee. The Jj'embaree, being the executive part of their theocratic government, is led by a former Kaidon, theocratically elected into a post known only as the Ro'ahda.

The third group formed after the dissolution of the Covenant Empire was the New Covenant Empire. Unlike the Fohran Reh, the New Covenant Empire would hold on to their theocratic beliefs, primarily that the Halo Rings would lead to the Great Journey – up until the Rhodan Incident of 2560, where the revelation of the existence and good health of the Forerunner Didact would shift their beliefs to something more in line with that of the Fohran Reh, albeit with a more belligerent and violent take on it.

There are not many differences with the New Covenant Empire and that of the old one. The only significant change of note would be that of the Covenant's extreme need for resources to power their large fleets and territory. This has led to the New Covenant Empire openly trading with both the Kig-Yar pirate groups, and whatever human run corporations would deal with them, along with the valuable trade of resources it gets from the Fohran Reh.

They are primarily led by the Jiralhanae with some assistance from the remaining population of the San'Shyuum, where together they enforce their will upon the fanatic believers of the old Covenant religion across all species (barring Humanity).

With the largest navy and land based army in the galaxy, despite their aging technology, the Covenant are a considerably dangerous foe, although it is regarded as a force unable to win any war that was not defensive in nature due to the numerical contention of the Sangyari Navy, and the technological prowess of Humanity, both backed up by the economical might of the Mek and the shifty allegiances of the Fohran Reh. Their only true allies, in the smallest sense of the word, would be that of the many Kig-Yar pirates that harass Sangyari and Human borders. Technology gleamed from the Humans, coupled with ludicrous amounts of goods produced by the Sangyari to feed their rebuilding society, allow the New Covenant Empire to remain in contention with the rest of the species for galactic dominance. It is believed that, should the Yanme'e once again be swayed to the side of the New Covenant, ruin on a galactic scale barring the firing of any Halo Ring would be brought to fruition.

As it is, at the time of writing (2585), there is a quiet peace that has fallen over the many species of the once mighty Covenant Empire. Whether such a peace will last remains entirely dependent on several factors, one of them being the decisions Humanity makes, how the rampant piracy in the Kig-Yar Exclusion Zone is dealt with, and whether or not the Fohran Reh would finally side with the New Covenant due to their now close beliefs.

The United Nations Space Command
and the Human Systems Alliance

It was once thought that the years after the Great War would be years of peace and harmony for the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command, alongside its ancillary bodies in the colonies; the Colonial Administrative Authority and the Colonial Military Administration. Many experts, both self-proclaimed and those recognized by the UNSC, the UEG, and the Office of Naval Intelligence, postulated that a wave of near euphoric nationalism enforced by xenophobia as a product of the Great War would surge the popularity of all four institutions, which would ensure the functional legitimacy and supremacy of the UEG, and by extension the CAA, as the de facto and de jure government that all humans on all worlds would subscribe to.

While it seemed that such would be the case in the first few years since the end of the Great War, it became rapidly clear that the grievances humans held against the UEG as a whole prior to 2525 during the Insurrectionist Era, had spilled over into the post-Great War galaxy, with large, popular movements now demanding either change or independence in the colonies.

2553 was ultimately a peaceful year, with the UNSC formally returning government powers to the UEG that had once been taken in the interest of preserving humanity by the UNSC during the twilight years of the Great War.

Upon coming back into power, the UEG was thrust into a galaxy it was now unfamiliar with, but nonetheless existed in. Politicians from the UEG president down to the very last congressman introduced and passed laws that divided the population in matters of opinion.

One such policy was barring the trade of goods and raw resources with the Kig-Yar, who despite having had no government to represent them in 2553, were willing to trade with humanity as they had done so on Insurrection controlled worlds. Many in the civilian populace saw this as a bad decision on the UEGs part, while the UEG saw open trading with the Kig-Yar to alleviate some of the societal and economic pressures within their territory could be used by the resurgent Covenant Empire to strike an economic blow to humanity due to the undoubted dependence humanity would have on the Kig-Yar, along with the doubted naval security that could be offered by both the UNSC and the representative Kig-Yar groups they dealt with for territories where a majority of the traded goods would come from. Both of these salient situations, coupled with the fact that any one of the Kig-Yar groups that the UEG dealt with could shift allegiances, as even ONI was unsure of where Kig-Yar loyalties lay, ultimately forced the UEGs hand in barring all trade.

Another unpopular move was the re-introduction of both the CAA and the CMA on the outer fringes of the Inner Colonies.

While the CAA and the CMA were largely effective in the prosperous Inner Colonies and their citizens, many refugees from the barren wastes of the Outer Colonies carried over into the refugee camps their distaste – and sometimes outright hatred – for the CAA whom they have always viewed as corrupt. These beliefs would soon be shared by the original Inner Colony citizens, when in the waning months of 2553, the UEG would enact the Voigt Plan, which would cause these dissatisfied views of the CAA, the UEG and UNSC to settle at an all time high.

Known as the Planetary Aid Act, or the Voigt Plan after its principal author, the late Senator Alfred Voigt, it was an economic plan adopted by the UEG in November of 2553, as a means to 'redevelop' the colonies affected by the Great War either because of the rise of refugees from fallen worlds, or because a substantial loss in economic performance due to the loss of trade value and potential certain colonies had with their fallen counterparts.

Under the plan, resources produced by colonies would be siphoned off to rebuild planets the UEG deemed were necessary to revitalize the dying UEG economy, whether it was through a planet by planet plan, or entire systems, depending on the quantitative size of each world and what trade potential they could bring in to the UEGs capitalist markets.

While theoretically sound and viable, the Voigt Plan in practice was ultimately a failure due to the nature of the UEGs decision making process in determining which worlds or systems were to be prioritized in the allocation of the little valuable resources humanity had left, due to said process being bereft of any unbiased individuals unaffected by the pressure groups that range from radicalistic xenophobes, to pro-Earth centralists.

The full extent and effects of the backlash against the Voigt Plan would not be felt until February of 2554, but it was clear early on during the announcements the UEG made in support of the plan during the intervening time since the plan's introduction that Earth, Mars, and the already affluent planets within the Inner Colonies would be prioritized above all others, angering many former residents of the fallen worlds in the Outer Colonies.

Variances in peoples' opinions could be traced down to the fact that many humans believed that the remaining Outer Colonies, who for years had sustained the recessional economy of the UEG pre-war, should be the first worlds to be developed, while a great many others believed that humanity clinging on to the nostalgia of the Solar System was a regressive way of thinking, and would stifle the territorial and economic potential of humanity that lay further and away from Earth and into the fringes of space that the Covenant had abandoned. The greater contention against the plan lay in the belief that success in the Outer Colonies would eventually spread to the devastated colonies during the war, and even in the Inner Colonies – a belief that stemmed from self-proclaimed and influential economic experts touting the principles of the trickle-down effect.

Although not reaching the same heights of violent barbarism displayed during the Insurrectionist Era, terror attacks would become common between 2554 and 2555, with the first wave of such attacks simply being protests turning violent against local police garrisons, before eventually morphing into well planned kidnappings of politically connected individuals or significant corporate individuals, and finally into random bombings in public spaces purportedly supported by Insurrectionist groups that believed that the UEG would continue to pose an existential threat to their freedom should they be left unchecked.

Things were only made worse when whistleblowers from ONI who lived as asylum seekers in former UEG colonies that had declared their independence post-war, revealed that many of the resources acquired under the Voigt Plan throughout 2554 were being siphoned off to support the Sangyari Kel and the Fohran Reh in their campaign to effectively isolate the New Covenant Empire within the remaining territories they possessed, during what was called the Covenant Resurgence (2553-2555).

The public backlash would result into major rioting across all UEG worlds including Earth, with all protests demanding that ONI and its head, Margaret Parangosky, be immediately relieved from their duties, and tried as traitors due to their misappropriation of what were considered as public funds and resources. The violence that usually followed these protests finally forced the UEG to begin the process of disbanding entire sections of ONI, namely Section 3 and 2, while Section 1 was reorganized into a more passive existence at the beck and call of the Admiralty Board of the UNSC Navy. The usually overlooked UNAI, or the UN Army Intelligence, would be uplifted to oversee the roles Section 3 and 2 once possessed.

Nonetheless, despite acceding to protests, many had grown unsympathetic to the UEG, especially after Parangosky was held in limited detention after she and a majority of her command staff had asked for clemency due to health reasons, which the UEG and UNSC ultimately accepted, resulting in the lack of any trails for her (some of her staff had been given trials) up until her death during the events of the Rhodan Incident in 2560.

These events would cause the UEG to lose public confidence, resulting into more mass riots that demanded either a complete overhaul of the UEG and the dissolution of the CAA and the CMA, to protests on major Inner Colony worlds that demanded independence from the UEG throughout the remainder of 2554 through to 2556.

One other revelation of the ONI whistleblowing was revealed to be a secret plan by the UNSC to stabilize the Kig-Yar, in the hopes that they could be turned into a viable trading partner (in direct contradiction to the standing policy of the UEG to block all trade with former Covenant species). The backlash from this would also contradict the opinions of a majority of the civilian population, who in the year prior had looked unfavorably at the UEG policy of closed borders and economy to any and all former Covenant species.

Many have attributed this shift in attitude to the Humanity First sentiment that had risen due to the revelation of ONI's siphoning of resources in support of the Sangyari Kel.

Due to the backlash, coupled with the protests, the UNSC and what parts of ONI that still functioned prior to the deactivation of Section 2 and 3 pulled back their support for Kig-Yar nationalists, which ultimately caused the rushed unveiling of the Kig-Yar's First Mek in 2555, which ultimately failed a year later.

It was ultimately the bombings in the Inner Colony of Selamat that forced the UEG to finally respond politically to the protests, a 180 degree turn from their long standing policy of non-negotiation or concession with secessionist and reformist groups.

On November 5, 2556, the UEG would hold special elections from the presidency all the way down the lowest Colonial Administrator. Rumors ran rampant that ONI, at the behest of the UNSC, would try and rig elections so as to promote an image of pro-UEG sentiments across all of humanity, but unconfirmed reports told a story that the UN Army Intelligence, in a new position of power as the dominant intelligence agency in the UEG, and an organization which was more in-line with colonial mindsets due to their localized colonial operations, would run unsanctioned counter operations against ONI in squashing any attempts at rigging the elections.

This rumor would only be seen by many as the truth, when the UEG ran purges in the UNAI just days short of the elections. Nonetheless, the elections showed the true sentiment held by many in human space, while also portraying just how divided opinions really were, particularly in the post-Great War Humanity.

35 Senatorial seats were claimed by pro-reform/secessionist politicians, while the remaining 41 would be held by pro-UEG individuals, while the Congress itself was majority taken by pro-reform/secessionist groups.

The election for the presidency itself was one mired in controversy, due to the various delays in electoral data taken from the Outer Colonies. What would have been a landslide victory for pro-reform/secessionist presidential leader Amanda Clement, was instead turned into a close-picket fight with her pro-UEG rival, Alfred Scotts. Winning by just two thousand votes more, despite electoral simulations ran prior to the elections showing her winning by billions, a large number of the populace was left dissatisfied and cried for foul play on ONI – and by extension the UNSCs – parts.

The victory by the pro-reform/secessionist side was all but guaranteed when Julia Whitcomb, the daughter of an Admiral in the UNSC, was elected as the Senate Leader two weeks after the elections. Immediately, the new president would ask for emergency powers to be given to her, with the riots, food shortage, and resource deficiencies rampant in Human space being her major qualifying reason for asking for such powers.

The Senate, and by extension the Congress, would agree to it, and on December 30, 2556, President Amanda Clement would call for a temporary cessation of hostilities between the active secessionist groups fighting against UNSC forces, while also strictly enacting Martial Law on every Human world. In support of this, the UNSC were ordered, in secret, to supply their ship-grade smart AIs to major population centers and cities on human worlds, so as to expedite the process of capturing known terrorists, where UNSC 'Dumb' AIs failed in doing so.

The late former President would be well regarded even by pro-UEG individuals, due to her willingness to reach a deal with radical groups, while also not turning a blind eye to the crimes these groups had conducted within the former UEG territories.

Finally, on January 25, 2557, the President, the Senate Leader, the Congress Selected Representative, various department heads, UNSC Army Generals, and UNSC Navy Admirals, would meet face to face with elected representatives of the major factions of the Secessionist/Reformist movement to discuss the future of mankind.

It was during this time that a great many external factors would expedite the process of negotiations, ultimately with the UEG conceding to a great many things to reformist and secessionist demands.

One of these was the opportunistic attempts by the New Covenant Empire to take advantage of the situation and try to deepen the scars earned in battle between the warring sects of humanity by conducting hit-and-run operations on vital UEG controlled resource depots, or Insurrectionist held population centers. This was due to the fact that under the agreements made in the Cessation of Hostilities, UNSC and Insurrectionist Fleets were bound to protect the assets of each other in the case of external attacks. Both sides saw such cases as opportune moments in time where the other side could be weakened.

However, the strict oversight of the UEG President and the elected representatives of the various groups running against the UEG would make the fleets of both sides follow the agreement to the letter. For President Clement, it was simply to ensure that the pro-reform/secessionist side could not gain an upper hand in negotiations, and for the representatives of said groups, it was because of a chance to finally be legally accepted by the UEG as either independent factions of their own, or to gain a new and better government.

The prior leadership purges in the UNAI did nothing to prevent the lower ranks from completely disregarding orders, or as was often the case, justifying the change in direction of missions to positively affect the outcome of UEG-Secessionist/Reformist negotiations. Thus, although unconfirmed, rumors of the great 'Secret Wars' would be born, as fantastical tales of great undercover battles of wit, espionage, and silent assassinations between the pro-UEG UNSC/ONI, and the pro-reform UN Army Corps/UN Army Intelligence.

Included in these 'Secret Wars' were unsanctioned operations conducted by the UNAI and ONI to affect the outcome in some way of the ongoing Sangheili Civil War at the time.

Unconfirmed reports, despite being alluded to by unnamed Shipmasters in the Sangyari Kel, would go on to say that the UNAI would help the Sangheili in running counter operations against ONI that sought to create enough devastation and destruction in Sangheili space, to ensure the species' inability to pose a threat to humanity ever again.

The penultimate, but costly, victory of the Sangyari Kel is often looked upon by analysts of these rumors as evidence that points towards both the success and failure of the UNAI against ONI, the UNSC, and the UEG.

Said Sangyari victory, attained in May of 2558, would be the final external push that the negotiations needed to finally see a harmonious peace, albeit a doubted one, in human space.

On July 3, 2558, UEG President Amanda Clement would officially announce the end of roundtable discussions between all the major factions. September 30, 2558, was chosen as the target date for the official signing of the Systems Alliance Charter, whereby the UEG, the UNSC, and the various reformist and secessionist groups would cease to function, and put any and all resources into the complete establishment and success of the transitory government, which would lead to the full implementation and creation of the Human Systems Alliance and all its subsidiary departments and sects.

It was feared that ONI would grow rebellious, despite the Admiralty Board controlling it of the UNSC conceding to the UEG decision. As history would attest, no untoward incident would occur.

And so, as September 30 went and passed, video recordings uploaded via courier ships on local SlipNets showed the momentous occasion, when more than 80 delegates representing the various worlds or sectors of human space that had banded together, along with the UEG President and her cabinet, signed the Human Systems Alliance into existence.

Under the agreement, revealed in its entirety at last to the general public, the concessions and demands of all three parties attracted both criticism and praise.

The full details of the agreement were:

1. The Systems Alliance would adopt a parliamentary style government backed up by a constitutional democracy. Made of three primary functions – the legislative, executive, and judiciary bodies – the new system drew the criticism of resembling the old structure of the UEG, albeit held back by the strict stipulations held within the Constitution.

2. The Executive branch, headed by a figurehead voted into power through direct democratic voting called the Chancellor, described by many as being a simple popularity contest due to the lack of any real powers apart from the exercising of key foreign policies when it comes to relations with other species' governments, and the conduct of ceremonial duties such as serving as the face of humanity, or the declarations of war should there be any. Nonetheless, the role was seen by many as having been created to support the mindset of showing a unified humanity through the election of the most positively popular human being – which at the time of the Alliance's creation served to be either Fleet Admiral Lord Hood, or the UEG's former President Clement, who despite being figureheads of organizations reviled by many, were considered as exemplary characters that upheld the freedom and survival of humanity.

The Chancellor's powers were only dwarfed by the functions of the Prime Minister, a role considered as the more powerful executive role, due to its wider responsibilities in matters of running the government – and by extension humanity – as they wished with the backing of the remaining two branches. A Prime Minister would only be voted in by the legislative body, who themselves were elected via direct democratic voting.

3. The Legislative body would be responsible for the creation of laws that followed the strict regulations of the constitution. Ministers within this body were divided into two separate houses, called the Upper and Lower Chambers, the distinction between the two only seen in the key functions they served. The Upper Chamber of the body could create laws for all of Alliance territory, while the Lower Chamber could only create laws and regulations for localized purposes defined by the specific sectors. Trade agreements between sectors are thus defined here, as was the case in the Sol – Epsilon Eridani Free Trade Agreement, which itself served as a supportive measure of the wider Alliance Trade Act created by the Upper Chamber.

Ministers of the Legislative body would be voted in via local democratic elections for the Lower Chamber, while the Upper Chamber would be voted in via Alliance-wide elections conducted every five years.

4. The Judiciary branch of government was the simplest out of all the bodies of government created in the Systems Alliance Charter, but was also seen as the most critical body of government by citizens due to a large contingent of complaints from the human populace being traced to the application and implementation of the laws the Legislative body makes, and the Executive body authorizes. This was due to the rampant corruption and ineffectiveness of the Colonial Administrative Authority in properly managing the colonies in the former UEG territories.

Nonetheless, Ministers from this body were elected via an electoral process from a pool of public practitioners of law. One of their primary functions in the new government lay in its ability to trigger votes of confidence for or against the current parliamentary government, which would, in the case of a vote of no confidence granted by both the Judiciary and Legislative body, cause a tidal wave of re-elections for a majority in government.

The new form of government, along with the strict regulations established to fight corruption and manipulation of politicians included numerous other new laws that established regulations on sectoral and trans-sectoral corporations, to prevent the rise of monopolies, as was the case for the Misriah Armories which held a quantitative monopoly-like hold on all small-arms weapons in use by the UNSC. This was meant to prevent the vice-like hold most corporations in the Inner Colonies from being able to outperform those in the Outer Colonies, allowing medium enterprises from the Outer Colonies to become large, publicly shared corporations.

This new provision would go on to allow several colonies on the fringes of human space, such as the colonies of Selamat, Ferris Fields, and Amaterasu, to become financial hubs due in part to their close proximity to sectors in both the Inner and Outer Colonies which had become manufacturing, mining, and technological hubs in Alliance territory.

Coupled with tax reforms, adjustments to the Universal Basic Income, and the restructuring of sectoral minimum wage as well as the complete abolition of the wage gap between Inner and Outer Colonies, has led to more strategic relocation of several corporations deep within Alliance territory, many of which moving to fringe worlds thus promoting faster development of colonies and migration of citizens.

All of these reforms paled in comparison, however, to the complete restructuring of the administrative powers an Earth-based government (as was the case, demand, and ultimately decision for where the Alliance government would be by the UEG) had over the colonies.

Known collectively as the Sectoral Management clause, constitutionally enshrined policies supported by the Sector Act and enforced in part by the newly established Colonial Guard and the Autonomous Sector Regions of Alliance Space, the stipulations of how power was both shared and exercised between the Sol System and the rest of Human space were defined as follows:

1. All colonies within Alliance territory would be grouped with other colonies based on distance, the collective of which would be known as Administrative Sectors (this new provision would not include the entirety of the Sol System – now known as the Sol Sector – due to its unique economic, political, and historic standing).

2. As per the demands of several Insurrectionist groups during the roundtable discussions, colonies would have the option to opt out of becoming part of an Administrative Sector, as was the case for the new colony of Noveria which had quickly fallen into the sphere of influence of Insurrectionist early since its founding in 2554. Independent Colonies – as they are known – were still bound to the corporate laws made on Earth, but were free to build their own standing army (known as Defense Forces) and trade with whomever they wished to without reprisal from the Alliance, and were generally not bound to treaties made by the Alliance with other governments or Independent Colonies.

3. Sectors were generally large enough to have their own superlative trade agreements between the colonies within its sector boundaries, but could not in any circumstance dictate the free flowing trade between it and all other sectors; this unique capability was given to sectors that met the requirements of it, such as being devastated by wars or natural calamities, by the Sectoral Administrative Bureau, the replacement for the Colonial Administrative Authority. This was to allow heavily devastated sectors in Alliance space (such as the Sol Sector) devastated by the Great War to capitalize on their own industrial capabilities and potential to focus development on rebuilding the worlds within its own immediate authority without putting the burden of rebuilding on other, flourishing sectors. Upon the achievement of several key economic indicators, sectors would be stripped of this power, resulting in their authority on trade to be reduced to the simplistic renditions afforded to other sectors.

Although believed to be lacking, this new form of administration of the colonies left many satisfied. The dynamism introduced by the new sectoral and economic reforms, has led to a shift in wealth creation and distribution within Alliance territories, including Independent Colonies. As the years would pass by, the industrial and financial might of the Inner Colonies would spread out, often to sectors rebuilding themselves from the effects of the Great War. Sectors that saw themselves burdened more with this rebuilding effort, as they still had to play their part via taxes, would go on to be well known donor sectors, until the economy of the Alliance petered out sometime in 2570, causing many to call the period between the Alliance's creation in 2558 up to 2570 as the great 'Economic Miracle,' with many analysts describing the Alliance economy as the greatest economy within the known galaxy, ahead even of the old Covenant Empire by some financial experts from the Sangyari Kel.

While the abolition of the UEG, the CAA, and the CMA produced mostly positive outcomes by the year 2585, including record breaking public trust in the surveys conducted in each intervening year, the same could not be said about the new Alliance Armed Forces.

Politicians from Insurrectionist Groups, Reformists, and the UEG largely held amicable relations with each other, even during the Insurrectionist Era despite acts of terror directed at said officials by the armed wings of each side, many fighters that survived to the creation of the AAF would find difficulty in now having to officially operate alongside what were once considered as their sworn enemies. Although not as friction producing as operations alongside former Covenant species, infighting within the AAF during training sessions, strategy meetings, or shore leaves and weekend passes, are well known throughout Alliance space. The UNSC, which was once the preeminent armed forces of the UEG and of humanity, found itself cannibalized to serve the needs of the new Alliance government.

The UN Army Corps and its aerial component the UN Army Air Corps, along with the dedicated UN Air Force, ceased to exist with the creation of the more streamlined Alliance Guard Corps., known by civilians as the Colonial Guards, whose abilities and manpower were dictated by the economic performance, quality, or in some cases potential of the specific colony they were serving on. Sectoral Quick Reaction Forces, the naval component of the Alliance Guard Corps and whose duties were once reserved entirely to the UNSC Navy's Colonial QRF, now found itself in the unique position of operating advanced vessels and equipment largely meant for service in the old UNSC Navy, serving their purpose as a first-response, delaying force. This fit in with the Alliance Navy's doctrine of locking down contested Sectors, until a fleet of great force or quantitative numbers could be mustered by the Navy for sector-wide operations against belligerent forces.

Although the cannibalization of fleets were seen by many as weakening the navy that had once protected to the very last man any colony invaded by the Covenant, the vast resources and economic power the Alliance would eventually have ultimately led to a greater and more powerful replacement to the UNSC Navy – the Alliance Navy.

Where they once possessed little ships after the Great War, the intervening years between 2553 and the creation of the Alliance in 2558 allowed the UNSC Navy to once again prosper despite the near economic meltdown post-war experienced by the UEG. Many vessels created during this time would eventually be taken to form the various Sectoral QRFs within Alliance Space, turning the legitimate Alliance Navy into nothing more than a few hundred vessels – barely two fleets – to protect all of Alliance Space. Nonetheless, by 2565, the Alliance Navy would become the third largest in the known galaxy, superseded only by the Sangyari Navy and the New Covenant Empire. However, should the number grow to include the ships held by the Sectoral Quick Reaction Forces, the Alliance Navy would go on to be the second largest in the known galaxy by only a few hundred vessels, as of the time of this writing (2585).

However, in 2560, the Rhodan Incident would serve to be the first test of everything the Alliance stood for and represented.

The Alliance Survey Vessel (ASV) Rhodan, under a contractual obligation to the Sangyari government to explore habitable worlds or resource rich planets for mining, responded to a distress call made by an old UNSC vessel called the Forward Unto Dawn lightyears away from the closest Sangyari colony. It was here that the discovery of the Forerunner Shield world named Requiem was made, where unknown technologies on the internal terranean surface of the structure would cause the Rhodan to make a crash landing, supposedly followed closely by the wreckage of the Forward Unto Dawn.

It would be months later, after their expected return date to the port of Sanghelios expired, that the Sangyari Kel would officially petition the Alliance government to jointly search for the vessel in fear that the New Covenant Empire had a hand in the ship's disappearance, while all other survey vessels of human and Sangheili origin would be recalled.

On June 5, 2560, the Alliance's Fifth Fleet, dwarfed by comparison to the Sangheili's Fleet of Repentance, would discover Requiem, and where the test of the Alliance lay in wait.

The Fifth Fleet's leading vessel, the SSV Infinity, would crash land itself on the sub-surface terrain of Requiem, where Spartan IV operators within the vessel would find the remains of both the Rhodan and the Forward Unto Dawn during the defense of the ship when new enemy contacts (known as Prometheans) assaulted the ship.

Classified events would transpire on the structure, leading to a tri-pronged assault on the most populous human worlds by what was later unveiled to be the Forerunner Didact: Earth, Horizon, and New Havana, where the Sectoral Quick Reaction Forces of each planet were unable to effectively deal with the Composer-ships sent by the Didact to each world.

Due to the cannibalization of the UNSC Navy, leading to a smaller pool of ships to operate by the Alliance Navy, the Fifth and Fourth Alliance Fleet were the only forces available at the time to intervene in the crisis. The test for the Alliance would ultimately come from the Navy's decision to prioritize Earth during the event, where the Fifth Fleet exerted extreme damage to the Didact's composer, along with the now recovered Master Chief being able to assassinate the Forerunner.

The Fourth Fleet did the exact same thing to the composer above Horizon, while New Havana's composer was thankfully destroyed due to help arriving from the Sangyari Navy.

Despite the lack of major loss of human life, along with the full recovery of the Rhodan's crew, many once again criticized the Navy's seemingly persistent desire to protect Earth above all the other colonies, leading to renewed discussions of total independence in some sectors.

Ultimately, a major crisis was prevented from occurring when the Alliance would go on to allow space-borne stations, such as Orbital Defense Platforms (minus its MAC, the creation of which was reserved still to the Alliance), to be manufactured and operated by the various Sectoral QRFs, abating the renewed vigor of Insurrectionist ideals, along with the re-branching of some Spartan IV assets into the Alliance Guard Corps, effectively removing the notion of Spartans only being used in specialized roles for special occasions, due to the nature of the Alliance Guard Corps being seen by many as simply 'patrolling' effectively unimportant colonies.

The Alliance Navy unsurprisingly protested this course of action, as even ex-Insurrectionists in the Navy would go on to publicly state their opinions against the move.

To satisfy the Navy, the Alliance would go on to create the Interplanetary Combatives Training, whose main facility was located in Rio de Janeiro on Earth, to create the next line of special forces operators for the Alliance Armed Forces. Graduates of the ICT school, depending upon their terms of service, school scores, and specializations, would be inducted either into the Spartan Program, or become the next iteration of superhuman soldiers:

The N-Program.