Operation Hendrix - Peter Song
Named after the classical musician operation Hendrix was the Front's Psy Operation campaign against the Covenant during the Covenant human war. The operation spearheaded by the legendary quartermaster-general Mark Monk involved over a hundred thousand people. Anthropologists, historians, psychologists, toxicologists and genetic engineers and many others, all worked tirelessly on the project.
One of the early results was synth weed, a variation of pot that could be smoked or ingested by Grunt troops and had the same effect that regular pot did while also capable of growing in a methane environment. Seeded by agents onto Harvest it proved to be popular but had little impact on the enemy's war capabilities. In fact Operation Smoker backfired, in many aspects, as the weed helped many Grunts deal with their anxiety and fear issues by creating a calming sensation.
What was more successful was the Radioman program: human music and radio equipment were smuggled into the hands of Grunt Anti-war activists, which sparked a cultural revolution amongst the Grunt race. This started the Grunt Rockerboy movement, which prompted the creation of project Elvis.
Musical instruments were smuggled into Grunt space, along with equipment to make more. Guitars and picks, drums, a variety of other musical instruments found their way into the hands of Grunt musicians. The movement quickly became adopted by the Grunt population, inspiring draft-dodging acts of non-violent protests and the occasional riot. The Grunts had already started ambivalent toward the war, seeing it as a conflict that didn't really concern them. As people died public opinion turned more and more against the war and the Rockerboy and Radioman movements became the voice of a disaffected population.
One major reason for the success of the movement was the Covenant's complete destruction of the Grunt culture. Providing the Grunt artists the ability to make their own culture, something they felt was theirs, was thus very successful. An already resentful population was soon eager to support their musicians and radiomen, often hiding them away or helping them escape.
The elites were the second group primed for revolution. Despite founding the Covenant they were sidelined and replaced enmass by the more compliant Brutes. Project Hendrix helped fund voices that complained bitterly about this treatment and helped to publicize the abuses heaped by Brute commanders on Elite troops. The Elites were a slow boil but their resentment was real and growing.
The Jackals, or Kig-Yar, was a notable failure. The Jackal's hate of the Grunts meant that they would choose the opposite side of any conflict, out of spite. Given a choice of who to subvert Project Hendrix decided to choose the more numerous Grunts.
The Drones were not receptive to rebellion against the Covenant but were receptive to the peace movement. Most Drones, while capable of being good fighters, preferred to work with machines or on infrastructure. Being an inherently more peaceful race many of them deeply resented being ripped away from their families and sent to war, something that Project Hendrix encouraged. Acts of civil disobedience became more and more common with time.
The last group targeted was the Engineers, or Huragok. Their loyalty to the Covenant was completely absolute, until it very much wasn't...