Inquisition Data Packet =][=: Ordo of origin: Ordos Hereticus...Subject: Children of the Mantle/Flood ...Authorization Alpha: Access Allowed

Ordo Hereticus Analysis: Golden Age of Man, Part 2-The Age of the Covenant

This document has been made to assist our agents understand the new rising issues in the Imperium, one that is changing the very core of our grand Imperium. I speak of cause about the Flood introduced Precursor History.

This is a continuation of our last section on the Flood observations on Human history during the period we commonly call the Golden Age, even if scholars as of late wish to diversify the age into several smaller ages to diversify and give a better initial understanding of the long period and often simplified portion of history. However for the sake of brevity, the document will simply call itself a Analysis of the Golden Age.

To continue where we left off humanity had just finished a on going civil war that had lasted two hundred years and would soon notice a number of cargo transports going missing the the next to decades. These small number of disappearances would have lasting implications as time went on, with scholars debating whether or not the Age of Mankind ended when the major events started, or when it ended.

The Human-Covenant war had begun.

The war began officially after the small agri-world of Harvest had lost contact with the rest of human space, during this time although investigations were on going for the missing ships the then official human military, the UNSC had believed that these disappearances had been caused by pirates or by in-hiding Insurrectionists. Originally believing that Harvest had been attacked by either pirates or desperate surviving Insurrectionist fleet trying to re-establish their power, out of these fears the UNSC would send a small fleet to liberate and support the colony.

What they found however changed human history.

The few surviving ships that retreated back to their ports told of stories. That of xenos races fighting one another in ships larger and more advanced than ours, that of even though they were fighting each other they were conquering Harvest and attempting to bring the people of Harvest under their control, inducting them into 'The Covenant'.

For you see, Humanity had given them a gift they had wanted for so long. And they wished to award us for it, and they would not take no for a answer.

Section 1- Instruments of the Gods

To understand why the Covenant had invaded Humanity we must understand the Covenants culture and issues at the time. And those issues always came back to a culture of religious piety and Byzantium politics, ironic given our current culture. You see the Covenant, or a least the leaders of the Covenant worshiped a long dead race that they believed ascended into godhood. One that attempted to destroy all of the galaxy evils, this becomes a awful joke when we learnt the name of the supposed race they believed became gods.

The San'shyuum, the leaders of the Covenant, believed that Necrons were the ones that once tried to save the galaxy.

This is not without reason however.

The San'shyuum reportedly had lived originally in a portion of the galaxy littered with the graves and abandoned weapons of the War in Heaven, with their home world reportedly destroyed by either a automated Old One war machine or a Ork Waaargh. The San'shyuum eventual found some remains of the Necron and their weapons and studied them to protect themselves from the harshness of the galaxy and began to worship the Necron's as their deities. Soon they began to mistake corrupt and incomplete Necron data packets as facts and holy scripture. The most egregious of this misinformation is that of the belief that the C'tan were Necrons and that the Necron 'automatons' were built protect the Necron as they became C'tan.

Factually wrong yes but there were as far as we know, no active Necrons to argue history with the Old San'shyuum.

As time went on however the race struggled thanks to the fact that they had no FTL, travel between the stars could take decades, if not centuries before arriving at their destination. So they did what was considered heretical at the time and studied Old One or Ork tech. Or to be more specific their Warp Drives.

What these early San'shyuum would use there early warp drives out of desperation, even if horrified by what laid in its accursed currents. They perceived to create a empire that would destroy all that the Old One created, and seek their path to 'ascension' like attempt to become something akin to the C'tan. This zealous plan would spark the beginnings of the Covenant as they found other Xenos races.

The species of the Covenant would join through time, be it through honorable diplomacy like the Sangheili or through war and enslavement like with the Unggoy. Dozens of species brought together and willingly or unwillingly forced to worship the Necrons and the San'shyuum's beliefs.

But this wasn't without issue.

As time went on though the links that held the Covenant together would chaff.

Just before the Human-Covenant War began, the Covenant entered one of many civil war it had had though out its existence. The Jiralhanae forced to join the Covenant out fear of a two-sided war against the Orks and the Covenant if they didn't join pushed for a stronger voice in the politics in the Covenant. this however angered the Sanghelili as the primary way the Jiralhanae had planed to do this was though supporting the military and military leadership, in the Sangheili's eyes a insulting action as they had been the primary military force of the Covenant for millennia at this point.

The war unlike the other wars before had threatened to tear apart the Covenant as their Fleets were forced to fight one another whilst dealing with aggressive xenos and Ork incursions. However in the Covenants capital of High Charity, things were a different story as politicians bickered and vied for support from the other races. Even threatening to burn down the worlds they were once sworn to protect if neither side got what they wanted.

The Covenant seem poised to destroy itself, but a chance discovery had given the San'shyuum something that they so desperately needed.

A Kig'yar 'privateer' had found a artificial satellite on the outskirts of a minor mining system. A at the time highly advanced UEG designed, slipspace capable survey probe. At first it was a curiosity, that was until the Covenant found out that the device didn't use Warp travel to get around. It had then became a race to find out more. You see the Covenant found the Warp as repulsive as the Necron's of today do, and finding a true alternative to Warp travel, They obsessed. Slowly they found more and more of our automated Slipspace transports and cargo ships, learning more about slipspace and us in the process. To most they saw hope of getting away from the horror's of the Warp, but to the leaders of the Covenant, they saw a threat to their seat of power.

But the San'shyuum leader were shrewd, seeing a opportunity and a threat to their power, they devised a plan. To unite the Covenant they would issue the Sangheili and Jiralhanae a order, bring Humanity into the Covenant fold by force. Using the excuse of our two hundred year civil war as a excuse as to not go diplomatically. With the prize of the one who conquered humanity the rank of Supreme Commander, the highest position in the Covenant army.

And thus begun the fifty year war that was the Human-Covenant war. And the death throw of the First Covenant with it.

Section 2- The Long Fall, The Great Rise

The Human-Covenant war is a long study, one with its own dedicated documentation. So this document with primarily use the cliff-notes, the war lasted about fifty four years where humanity was on the losing side for about thirty fives years of the conflict as we developed technologies to counter the Covenants significant technological advantage over ours. As far as we know, energy shield technology and mankind's first Titan-class and similar vehicles where made during this time, along with weapons specifically made to deal with enemies close to par with a Astartes level of strength and protection.

However the turning point of the war began as more of the Covenant elites and citizenry became more and more unhappy with the war, this would soon develop into the schism. A event where two of the most influential leaders of the Covenant military would either join humanity or leave the Covenant and become some-what allied with the UNSC, these were the Xeno's known as Thel 'Vadam and Atreiox.

The War would end in a desperate assault by the remaining Covenant forces on the Sol system itself. Although at first believed to be a full on assault at first on Holy Terra itself, it was revealed to be a attack primarily on Holy Mars. As to why the attack was to conquer Mars during this time is strange as Terra was the capital of the UNSC and UEG we have learnt through the Flood and the Mantle is that because Mars had found and locked away a significant Necron artifact during this time. What this artifact is however is only known to the highest of ranked Inquisitors, Mechanicus and Lord Guilliman and his most trusted. What we do know is that it was so significant that the Emperor himself may of became involved to prevent the artifact from being unlocked and used.

The Battle of Sol ended in victory for humanity, but the war had caused significant damage to our sector of the Galaxy. Worlds had become abandoned or had become pirate havens, Ork ran amuck through both the former Covenant and our space and finally many petty warlords would conquer abandoned or weakened worlds for their own gains, be them Xeno's or Human. At the start of the war, Humanity had over eight hundred systems to its empire. After the War, we barely had three hundred.

For about a twenty years the UEG and UNSC would rebuild during the period called 'the age of Banishment'. Bringing back multiple systems into its fold, but soon it would not be enough as warlord, pirates and Orks pushed back. As this happened the UEG would notice a number of former Covenant worlds and species dealing with the same issues as them and would begin a new political venture.

This venture would wield results in the form of the Harvest treaties, where Humanity, the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae would sign a treaty forming a military, technological and economic alliance. Although believed at solely a alliance at first, the treaty would slowly expand in terms of members and reach and form what we call today the Second Covenant. A multi species government that would primarily be ran by human culture and laws that would prosper until the fifth millennium where it would give way to the age of the Forerunner.

Section 3- worrying implications

This section won't deal solely with history but the issues it has brought up. Primary of which is technology and Xeno's policy.

First is technology, the Mantle is not shy in telling us that many of our technology may have Xeno's root's in origin. Be it in plasma weapons, artificial gravity, our many forms of energy shielding and many, many more. This has cause schisms in the Mechanicus as adepts try to figure out what is and what isn't not Xeno's influenced or made, worse still is the debate whether or not it matters as a number of the upper echelon have pointed out that enforcing such strict measure may neuter the Imperium. Especially given that some technologies that were once thought to be purely human like the Bolter may have been xeno technology that was learnt in one of the wars the Second Covenant had, primarily that of the Covenant-Cabal War.

The other issue is that of Xeno's or primarily that of how to treat the Covenant races. As the Flood has brought them back from extinction from the time of the Dark Age of Technology, many of these races if not all wish to honor their ancestor treaties with humanity and to destroy Chaos. The primary force that is believed to of brought them to extinction. This has made many in the Imperium confused as many deal with righteous religious dogma that tells us to never deal with the foul xeno's, or the practicality of having excess forces and access to a form of FTL not reliant on the Warp as the terrors of the Warp become more and more common. This has lead to a number of civil wars on some planets.

The Implications of the Age of the Covenant is that of a challenging of our own beliefs and codes, if true should we throw away most of our tech out of fear of it being Xenos in origin? Or that we should reject the hand of Xenos as Chaos chips away at our Imperium? This one does not know nor does he wish to. All that this Inquisitor knows is that either choice is heresy.

End of Golden age study 2- Age of the Covenant

The Age of the Covenant is a age that many of the Cult consider heretical, however the study of it is important as more and more encounters with the Flood and the Paths continue. Be it for solely understanding the enemy or for political purposes. However it is also of import as we learn more about what happened in the Dark Age of Technology through echos and the War against the Men of Iron as we learn of the horror afflicted thanks to the 'Bitter Whisper' as the next age, the Age of the Forerunner deals with the beginning of the Dark Age.

End log

Log end...Please insert new Data pack: God-Emperor be with you =][=

AN: Well this was a long one, didn't exactly mean for it to be this long but kind of needed. And as promised there are more 40k elements that have been added, also I want peoples opinions of the Necron worship. I had first though of Old One worship with the war against humanity being a war of extinction because we used Slipspace instead of Warp but went against that in the end because it would tread too much of the same grounds as Halo. So a war of Conquest instead.

I also added destiny elements. And no, no light, darkness or traveler just the Cabal and maybe the Fallen if people think they'll work as after the final part I may do stories instead of analysis shorts.