The Human-Covenant War, also known as The Great War, was a major
interstellar conflict pitting the Unified Earth Government and
its United Nations Space Command against the Covenant Empire
during the mid-26th century between February 11, 2525 and March
3, 2553. There were two additional factions of the conflict; The
Flood and a small number of surviving Forerunner constructs.
Both additional factions proved to be invaluable to the efforts
of humanity, as the information taken from Forerunner constructs
and the Flood invasion of High Charity were helpful in splitting
the Covenant apart in the October of 2552. The war was
instigated by the Covenant, whose Prophets discovered that
humans were directly related to the Forerunners. In order to
keep the Covenant intact, war was declared against humanity.
Over the next few decades, the Covenant, with superior
firepower, numbers and technology, overpowered humanity on
hundreds of worlds, including heavily defended strongholds such
as Reach. The Humans would only win s