Terms of War
Unbeknownst to all but a few humans, the Covenant and Humans had met just before the Battle of Harvest. This meeting would set the terms for how the war between the Covenant and Humans would both be fought, and how the war would be written about.
It was the Covenant who sought out this meeting. Why? For a few decades before the War, the Covenant had been watching Mankind. They first found out about us, through radio wave transmissions, which had traveled light years beyond Earth. Later, the Covenant sent scouts to travel to Earth and its colonies, to gather what knowledge they could of Mankind. Was Mankind a threat, or potential allies? They saw how intelligent we were, and our proclivity for war. They then grew afraid of Mankind, especially after hearing what a Monitor on the Forerunner ship at the heart of High Charity had told them. The Monitor told them of the Forerunners saying that Mankind was the descendants of the Forerunners. That Mankind were Reclaimers. The Prophets had also recently come across time travel technology, developed by the Forerunners. They were thus able to see the results of the war between the Covenant and Humans. They saw the weapons that were used, and also read the stories that were written about this war. They could not allow the Humans to defeat the Covenant at any cost. This knowledge greatly influenced the Terms of War that were created, to battle the humans.
Even with all of the weapons they'd created from Forerunner technology, the Prophets feared that Mankind just might be able to beat the Covenant. That with their intelligence and knowledge of war and weapons, that if Humans were to somehow get a hold of Forerunner technology, that the Covenant might be defeated. So the Prophets made a gamble. In their study of Mankind, they felt that they might be able to use certain traits of the humans against the humans themselves. The Prophets knew a lot about politics, and turning one group against another, even when it was against that groups' own self interest. The Prophets were masters at this. The Prophets decided that they'd have a meeting with a select group of the Humans, and lay down terms of what they knew would be an upcoming war between the Covenant and Mankind. Recent events had already made this clear.
The Prophets sent a secret envoy to the UNSC leadership on Earth, and invited them to send a representative or representatives to hear the terms of war. The Prophets used all sorts of platitudes, turning the proclivity for greed, arrogance, and the scramble for personal gain, against the humans. The UNSC leadership saw this as a chance to get access to greatly advanced technology, and leaped at this chance. The UNSC leadership decided that they didn't need to send multiple representatives to meet with the Covenant Prophets. Just one person would do. They had the perfect person in mind for this extremely important mission. A mission that would affect all of Mankind, for now and decades to come. The perfect person to ensure that humans wouldn't be eliminated from the universe in a genocidal purge by the Covenant. The UNSC leadership selected their envoy. His name was Admiral Duffous. Well, that was his name. What did you expect? He'd risen to his rank just through blind luck, happen stance, and just plain stupidity on the part of certain members of UNSC Command. And yes, at times desperation on the part of the UNSC in their fight against the Insurrectionists.
Admiral Duffous prepared for his journey to meet the Prophets. He was brought to High Charity. Once there, he was wined and dined. The Prophets showed him various kinds of Covenant and Forerunner technology. The Prophets told Admiral Duffous of how highly they thought of Humans, and how intelligent they believed them to be. They also implored upon Admiral Duffous to use the Human quality of "fairness" when making his decision. They told him that they believed their "Terms of War" to be very fair. Admiral Duffous accepted their words. Now came the time to announce the Terms of War. And here are the terms:
1) Humans cannot not make use of weapons, such as cruise missiles, fire and forget missile systems, MLRS (multiple launch rocket system), artillery, mortars, napalm, clamors, mines, trip wires, fuel-air bombs, or any similar technology. Fire and Forget missile systems, utilizing advanced computer imaging, would allow for easy kills of Covenant vehicles, such as Ghosts, Wraiths, Spectres, Phantom Dropships, and similar vehicles. Coordinated use of artillery and mortars would allow human soldiers to more easily defend and defeat massed Covenant troop attacks. MLRS, Clamor mines and other anti-personnel mines would allow for this as well. Trip wires would more easily notify human defenders of infiltration attempts by Covenant forces. Cruise missiles would also allow human military forces to more easily attack Covent bases, and Covenant vehicles such as Scarabs. The use of remotely piloted vehicles, aka drones, is allowed, but only if they are aerial, and only if they are no smaller than a small plane in size. While the use of drones of various sizes is extensively used throughout various human military forces, the Covenant has no such technology, and thus this puts Covenant forces at a distinct disadvantage.
2) Human military installations cannot use audio, thermal, or pressure sensors, to protect against infiltration by outside forces. This will allow teams of Elites to more easily enter Human military installations and bases, and kill the humans they find. Video cameras are allowed, but only outside of these installations.
3) The .50 caliber sniper rifle would be limited to a 4 round clip, instead of the standard 5 or 10 round clips. This is especially important, because the shields used by the Elites can withstand possibly 3 rounds from a .50 caliber sniper rifle. This was especially so for Elite officers which have more powerful shields. So by reducing the clip capacity from 5/10 rounds down to 4 rounds, this will allow the Elite officers to better survive attacks by human snipers using the .50 caliber sniper rifle.
4) Human soldiers would be limited to carrying at the most 2 grenades, and 2 or 3 clips of ammunition for their rifles, at all times. 60 to 90 rounds of ammunition should be more than enough. This will allow them to be more easily overwhelmed by Covenant forces. On average, the typical Marine carries 6 or 7 clips of ammunition with them. Each clip holding 30 rounds of ammunition, this giving the Marine about 180 to 210 rounds.
5) Requirements for stealth operations. When in the field of battle, all orders between human officers to their subordinate members must be shouted. A hushed voice to allow for stealth cannot be used. All human soldiers must talk loudly when on the field of battle, especially when they are close to Covenant troops, most especially Marines. Marines are to shout "oorah", at all times when on the battlefield, especially on stealth missions, when acknowledging orders.
6) All high level Naval officers must wear their dress white uniforms at all times.
7) The development and use of "Super Soldiers", or Spartans, is allowed. But their armor is not allowed to be painted in such a way as to allow for stealth. This means that the armor must be painted in loud, bright colors that will not allow the Spartans to blend into their surroundings.
8) Human soldiers, including Spartans, are required to remove their helmets while on the field of battle, whenever they take breaks. This is to allow them to be killed easier by Covenant snipers.
9) Human officers are to wear all of their medals while on the battle field, to allow Covenant snipers to see that they are officers, and as a result to kill them.
10) Human soldiers, most especially Spartans, must be allowed to carry on personal displays of affection (PDA) while on the battle field. They are especially encouraged to do this when on missions that require lots of stealth. This will facilitate the soldiers being distracted, their mission compromised, and increase the chance of their wounding or death at the hands of Covenant forces.
11) All HEV vehicles, and their variants, must be redesigned in such a way, as to cause their occupants to black out or become unconscious on landing. This will render their occupants "Combat Ineffective", and allow Covenant forces to easily kill them. All HEV vehicles, and their variants, currently deployed must be modified to adhere to this policy as well.
12) All Pelican airships, and their variants, must be redesigned in such a way, as to not allow their pilots to eject from the vehicle. This is to ensure that in almost any crash, regardless of the speed or altitude of said Pelican, that the human pilot or pilots will be killed in said crash. All Pelican airships currently deployed must be modified to adhere to this policy as well.
13) Human soldiers must wear their rifles, including sniper rifles, on their backs when riding in Warthogs and other such vehicles in a seated position. Even though this would be extremely difficult to do in practice, and could damage the rifles, as well as be extremely uncomfortable for the human soldiers.
14) Human soldiers, when jumping from a height to the ground, must roll on landing, when wearing a rifle or other weapon on their back. This is especially critical for Spartan personnel to follow. Even though a Spartan II is wearing half a ton of armor, and in making a landing by rolling with a rifle on his or her back would break or otherwise damage this rifle, rendering it unusable. Even a non-Spartan soldier, when doing this could damage, or otherwise render the weapon unusable. No soldier in his or her right mind would ever consider doing such a thing. And landing while rolling with something like a rifle on one's back will probably injure this person, with the exception of a Spartan due to their armor.
15) No chemical weapons of any sort maybe developed or used by Human forces. Chemical weapons, such as tear gas, maybe very effective against Covenant forces, and so cannot be used.
16) Female human soldiers should be encouraged have long hair, at least to their waist. This will have the effect it making it difficult for them put on a helmet, and to keep said helmet in place on their head. Improperly worn helmets will make it difficult the female soldier to fulfill their duties.
17) The consumption of alcohol by officers, both before and during battles, is to be allowed and encouraged.
It was explained to Admiral Duffous, that each of these terms had been developed after thorough research into the historical and current standard battlefield practices of human military forces. Each of these terms was relayed to Admiral Duffous. Admiral Duffous repeated each term, including its reasoning, to show that he had both heard and understood them. On behalf of all Human military forces, he agreed to each of them, one by one. The Prophets looked at each other, surprised at how readily Admiral Duffous accepted the terms. Using mental telepathy, one of the Prophets said to the others "what a duffous". The other Prophets laughed at this, having researched Admiral Duffous's name and learning what duffous means.
Next came the terms for how Communications was to be handled by human military forces.
1) The use of spell checking technology is not to be allowed, for written communications. For example: Master Chief should be spelled master cheif. They're, as in they are, should be used instead of there, when one is, for example, trying to communicate "that the enemy is over there". Under the new rule, one would write "that the enemy is over they're". "Their" can also be used in this example, to replace "They're".
2) All nouns should be written in lowercase, as opposed to the standard rule of writing nouns in uppercase. For example, the Planet Reach should now be spelled reach. Also, in this example, the word "Planet" should also be excluded from the example sentence. So instead of saying "the Planet Reach", one would write "reach". Master Chief should be spelled "master cheif".
3) All current military records must be updated to apply to these terms. All future military records must apply to these terms as well. Any and all historical records must follow these rules as well.
4) Run-on sentences are highly recommended. For example: Suddenly an Elite appeared, so suddenly the marine aimed his rifle at the Elite, and suddenly he pulled the trigger, and suddenly a hole appeared in the Elite's head, and suddenly the Elite fell to the ground dead.
In developing these "Terms of Communications", it was well understood that following them would cause mass confusion, and the delay in military personnel following orders as a result of them trying to understand what they're reading. And a delay in following orders in a battle can be catastrophic.
After this was explained to Major Duffous, he again repeated each term, including its reasoning, to show that he both heard and understood them. Again, on behalf of all Human military forces, he agreed to each of them, one by one.
The Prophets also explained to Admiral Duffous, that as intelligent as human beings were, they believed that few if any human soldiers would follow these instructions. So the Covenant had developed a serum, which was to be distributed as part of a "vaccination" program by the humans, to lower the overall intelligence of humans. This was especially critical for use on Spartans, given that their genetic closeness to Forerunners. After hearing this explanation, Major Duffous also agreed to this.
After the meeting to receive and accept the "Terms of War" from the Covenant, Admiral Duffous left to immediately inform UNCS Command of the "Terms of War", and his acceptance of them on behalf of all Humans. True to the meaning of his last name, Admiral Duffous happily and enthusiastically followed the communication requirement, in communicating with the UNCS Command. He of course left out certain details, such as the Covenant reasoning for these terms. He included his understanding of Covenant and Forerunner technology, and what he believed was the Human's high chance of getting this technology by defeating the Covenant, even with following the Covenant's "Terms of War". He also included the formula for the "vaccination", to be immediately used on all humans. UNSC Command also enthusiastically agreed to the "Terms of War".
And so began the Covenant war against Mankind.