Sev 'Ikavowattinrzo

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Sev 'Ikavowattinrzo (Oracle Code: S2-T2339-84) was a renowned who was a skilled warrior and politician in the . An introverted individual who placed a significant focus on leading by example, Sev was best-known as a master strategist and warrior that could hold his own even against the respected .
Joining the Covenant military as soon as he came of age, Sev would participate in a number of missions against rebellious entities, although he would remain a measly when the began. He would participate in dozens of battles, fighting from to the war's conclusion on . Despite Sev's record proving he served in prestigious units culminating in the , his record was littered with heavy casualties, difficult ground campaigns and acts of shame. This heavy fighting, among other things, would see him emerge from the war with a pronounced variation of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Working to redeem himself, Sev would be one of the commanders who rallied around Xytan 'Jar Wattinree. Unfortunately, the accidental destruction of most of Xytan's fleet would see him desperately holding on to his remaining territories. Forced to fleet as his efforts came to nought, Sev would join various smaller factions, becoming loosely affiliated with the . Unfortunately, his inability to co-exist with humanity saw him being targeted for assassination. Barely surviving the encounter, Sev would be kidnapped to become an involuntary agent of the NECROMANCY Program, an project responsible for creating disposable alien spies and assassins for politically-risky missions. His unspeakable actions committed during this period and contamination of his body through cybernetics would forever shame him in the eyes of his people, leaving him a shadow of despair which would haunt him for the remainder of his days.
== Biography ==
=== Early Life ===
While his name suggests he was born in the State of Wattinr in the tropical Borinam Archipelago, Sev was actually born on Suban, a harsh but vital moon of . The mineral wealth of the moon might have meant his biological father knew he needed a strong set of offspring to defend the keep. Whatever the case, the offspring were raised for a short while until, when considered old enough, were put in a survival arena where food was scarce and only the strongest, most intelligent youngsters would survive. Somehow, one of the youngsters escaped this fate, and by a miracle made it down to Sanghelios, where he survived on mere food scraps and pests. Eventually caught after attempting to stealing some crop, the family accepted him into their care, and raised him like their own. As he got older, he lost memory of this time, and thus was raised like any other youngster was; being trained in combat by his harsh uncle Jael 'Khal Wattinree, with his teacher (unknown to be his foster-father) teaching him basic mechanical skills.
However, Sev wasn't the only child in this family, and had an early rivalry with his step-brother, Bul. Due to the pressures of Sangheili culture, both step-brothers grew to be extremely competitive against each other, and throughout their lives they found, to their continuous surprise, that they were very evenly matched. Though generations of warriors and weapon-smithing would give rise to Bul's larger-than-average build and physical attributes, Sev's resourceful independence, intelligence and will to survive meant that he was able to match him. Both grew to respect the other's abilities, though they never admit it openly. Unfortunately for their trainer uncle Jael, he would have a lot of trouble training them when tensions grow against the two brothers, but in later training noticed that the two grew to be a formidable partnership.
Both their unknown father and their uncle encouraged them to participate in the combat championships which took part every now and then in the Beach City of Ardamet, and the brothers saw it as one of the few pastimes which were notable enough to do. Though he enjoyed these fights, they were infrequent enough that the oncoming boredom was still setting in. The increasing frequency of the weapon-smithing classes only made it worse, and he regularly offered his opinion on many occasions to Bul. They broke free several times from their uncle's strict rules to venture in the isolated streets, and usually they came home well after dark with cuts and bruises, followed by a stern argument from Jael and occasionally other uncles in the household. There were a number of reasons why these fights broke out - almost in all cases it was because of Sev's early temper and mischievous attitude. It was around this time he found allies in a tag-team of adolescences named Fal, an aristocrat's son, and Zule, the only child from a poor family in the city centre. Though it was far from a friendship, it did afford a degree of protection and security when the brothers were exploring the city they lived in - something which became rarer and rarer as Uncle Jael cracked down on the escape attempts.
One fateful day, however, Bul and Sev's combat abilities attracted the attention of a military university official. At the time, any ventures into the city resulted in more and more violence that displayed their fighting prowess, enough for the official to become impressed and overcome his fear of their lack of discipline to offer them places at the university. However, despite the fact he offered greatly discounted the prices for enrolment, the family still didn't have enough money to send both of them and couldn't decide which one to send. The University 'tested' both of them, and despite their different fighting styles both did amazingly well. In the end, Bul impressed the judges far more than Sev did, giving the family the excuse to send him off. Displeased and envious of his brother's success, Sev immediately joined the Covenant military.
=== Military Life ===
=== Cleansing of Infinity's Divinity ===
Almost immediately after enlisting and passing the strict physical requirements, Sev was assigned to the Wat'Vir Legion to participate in a quick operation to eliminate heretics who opposed the Covenant's military. As per normal operations, one of the more experienced Majors led him to his squad of five Unggoy soldiers. At first, he figured it was a blessing that he wasn't assigned to an all-Sangheili lance, but the squabbling and screams of Unggoy soldiers nearly drove him insane. After no action was caused from the veteran to be put into another squad, he went even further, going so far as to demand it from the Legion's leader, Vito 'Matamee. Such a large amount of whining over what seemed like a small issue led to him being beaten by Vito in an attempt to put him in his place.
He was deployed in the vanguard, and immediately came under heavy plasma fire from the local heretics as soon as he landed. The enemy shades gunned down hundreds of individuals in minutes, so Sev, gripped with an all-too-familiar fear, led his squad of panicking Unggoy to take cover behind a crashed Spirit hull - more of an instinct, really. With the shades quickly decimating men, to the disappointment of their leader Vito, he formulated a plan to eliminate them. After flipping the shades with their plasma grenades, they all charged forward into the complex, taking heavy fire from the defenders. During the chaos, one of his Unggoy began to flee, prompting one of the senior majors to gun the individual down, to promote the price for retreating in combat.
The tight space filled with so many inexperienced youths meant that cover was a rarity, and their experienced foes didn't even have to aim to hit something. Being the last to arrive, Sev's lance were lucky with his peers taking the shots meant for him. Vito angrily ordered his fearful subordinates to push up - the only sensible option. Sev disobeyed orders, however, and stayed back to fire more accurate bursts from behind. Each dying minor impacted his concentration greatly, and when he was shot from above he threw a grenade randomly which ignited a surprisingly-large explosion. Vito personally yanked Sev forward, and then ordered the legion to throw every plasma grenade they had. The resulting explosion burnt Sev, but it also blinded the commanding Sangheili, giving the legion the opportunity to kill their leaders. The lower-ranking heretic soldiers quickly surrendered, but not the last remaining general who emerged from the back. He attacked Vito, and in desperation to save his superior officer he fired - and so did his lance. The overwhelming firepower brought down the general's shields, allowing Vito to assassinate him. Sev would later wish he let him die there when their relationship continued to sour.
Faced with his first real experience in live-fire against real enemies left Sev very fearful and cautious, but he also found out that even the Unggoy were capable of extreme bravery. In private, he thanked his team, apologising for his comments earlier. Vito soon went to see him about his careful 'cowardly' fighting style. Although Vito's aggression and size intimidated Sev, he remained firm about his habits despite the punishments he received.
==== The Cartel Hunt ====
Right after the casualties were counted and the heretic weapons were recovered, the remnants of the legion were picked up by spirits. Unknown to the new recruits such as Sev, who were still reeling in from the horror of their first live-fire experience, the legion were going to continue the cleansing by attacking a well-known criminal cartel. After analysing data gleaned from both the base and the weapons, 'Vadnowee managed to deduce the cartel's location near the western end of the nearby Nurgwah river.
The spirits deployed about one kilometre from the river's edge because the dense foliage and the rocky terrain meant that ideal landing spots were rare. Though the legion asked for additional men to replace those lost, the sudden nature of the operation meant the request wasn't answered in time. The legion began a sweep of the area, looking for small suburban structures or scattered antennae. In Sev's case, his lance patrolled the edge of the river - something which got annoying very quickly when coupled with 5 angry, screaming Unggoy. Conditions eventually turned into a violet storm and forced the lance to take shelter in a cave behind the Nurgwah Waterfall. By a sheer miracle, his Unggoy accidentally found the hideout while they noisily attempted to run away from their. Using charges, he blew the cave up, burying the munitions.
For some reason, Sev couldn't back in contact with his legion for a while. It wasn't until he saw the smoke rising up from the forest did he realise something was up. The path he took to get up to the combat site also allowed him to accidentally flank the criminals. With their hideout destroyed and being surrounded on both sides, the criminals surrendered; they knew had better chances with the Covenant justice system than the remaining lances. While being rounded up to be captured, they were suddenly executed by the remaining survivors of his legion with Vito's approval. The resulting argument between them quickly escalated into a short fight, ending with Sev being knocked out by his superior.
Despite this, when Sev awoke he was pleasantly surprised to find himself elevated to the rank of Major on Vito's orders, to repay him for his efforts in the last campaign. Perhaps because of the horrors of his first combat experience against the heretics, or perhaps the luck it had when it took many shots meant for him, he felt a strange connection to the rifle. He broke major laws when he chose to learn how to rebuild, and added several modifications to it, mainly hatches so he can replace components later. This gave another reason for his surviving peers to mock him, stealing it and even attempting to throw it out, but this did nothing to reduce the 'blessing' the weapon granted him.
=== Insurrection at ===
The next major conflict came years later in 2520, with a attack in their home system. The legion was there for some manual labour in order to further condition those under Vito's command. As such, they merely loaded the refined ores from the onto the merchant transports. This lack of combat had led several Majors, including Sev, begin to plan on ousting their commander. His clear aggression and inexperience towards the other majors, however, meant only he attacked Vito, and as punishment Sev received a bad scar, no rations and extended time in the nearby wilderness, while his lance 'only' received beatings and reduced rations. He came back more clear-headed, resourceful and, to Vito's satisfaction, obedient.
When a large number of heretics attacked only days later, the legion was both surprised at the foolish attack and eager because the legion outnumbered the heretics 2:1. However, they never knew that the heretics were well-prepared - they spent several weeks recruiting the native Lekgolo worms to their cause. As a result, the seemingly-allied Lekgolo worms betrayed their assigned squads early on in the battle. Sev got some close experience to this, when an allied Mgalekgolo wiped out his original Unggoy lance - they were avenged when Sev blew the traitor sky-high. The chaos forced the Covenant defenders to remain near the main warehouse, where Sev recognised a weakness in their opponent's plan, and moved to kill the exposed general. Using his lance as a distraction, he assassinated the heretic general at the cost of both his recruited even more Covenant soldiers. The battle raged for hours, with both sides losing hundreds of soldiers. In a desperate attempt to save his comrades, he distracted his foes long enough to allow the surviving troops to retreat into the warehouse. Ultimately, he became badly injured because of these actions in actions which would never be remembered.
It got to the point where Sev doubted victory was possible with the current troops they had. He ordered the surviving Sangheili to block the doors and entrances while he reported back to Vito about the status. As normal, an argument ensured, until Sev discovered Vito wasn't being cowardly after all - he was trying to weaponise a civilian spirit and reluctantly told him the hard truth: without an experienced weaponsmith, their only hope of victory was done for. Faced with little choice, Vito and the remaining legion held off the heretics long enough for the Spirit to be crudely armed with numerous plasma turrets and seat harnesses. Sev would later use one of the turrets to great effect against their foes, fighting until even the heretic Sangheili began to retreat, finally achieving victory for the Covenant.
The crushing victory on Rantu was highly publicised by the Covenant Empire, manipulating details so it appeared as if the military quickly crushed a far-larger rebel force. Heretic attacks dropped to an recent low. This was lucky for Sev and the remaining survivors, as their injuries were so grave that most were still present six months later. While he recovered, he met a young Minor named Khal 'Devnumee, also wounded. Sev learnt his actions during the battle inadvertently saved both his and most of his lance's lives, and Khal created neutral terms between Sev and his lance; he got on better with Guru 'Kusovee than the others though. When Sev sufficiently recovered, he politely (as close as any Sangheili Officer could) requested that, due to his lance being wiped out, that he would become part of Khal's lance; a request that was accepted.
This battle also proved to be the last before the Human-Covenant War, with very little objectives demanding the deployment of an entire Legion, and even strike missions were in short supply. More commonly, they were mostly deployed in wilderness training and remote survival. This was just as well, since it unexpectedly prepared them for the biggest war of their generation, even ranking up in one of the biggest wars in the Covenant's history.
=== The Human-Covenant War ===
Like most in the Covenant, Sev knew little of the world called '', only the rumours surrounding it that it contained uncountable amount of relics. For this reason alone, the entire Covenant was excited with either religious fever, or the potential (and price) the relics presented. As a result, the Wat'Vir Legion headed to High Charity to compete for a spot in the reclamation force. When they arrived, they found out the Hierarchs sent one of the few Jiralhanae ships instead, to the Sangheili distaste. The entire Sangheili population almost overthrew the High Council because of this decision, forcing the reassignment of the Sangheili-controlled Vanguard of Rapture to orbital superiority operations, but the Hierarchs maintained that an invasion force was a near-impossibility now.
Due to this reason, a majority of Sangheili armies which migrated to High Charity soon left after this. The Wat'Vir Legion was among the last to leave, however. Because of this, Sev was one of the first individuals to learn that Osaamsacri was already inhabited and destroyed the Vanguard of Rapture in a massive retaliation fleet, so their new foes openly declared war on the Covenant. He also learnt of its actual name: Harvest. To put down their arrogant foes, the Wat'Vir Legion and the stationed Fleet of Adamant Miracles were sent to Harvest to defend the Covenant against their new enemies.
==== The Battle of Harvest ====
===== The Initial Strike =====
Sev was stationed aboard the Triumphant Emergence, a whose goal was to deploy the main invasion forces. When the fleet arrived, they discovered the main heretic fleet escaped, with only a small force stationed there to defend Harvest. The Emergence briefly engaged in ship-to-ship combat, the resulting explosions pleasing the on-board troops, before it descended into atmosphere. The ship was suddenly split in half by an and crashed onto the surface. It was the second-ever ship destroyed by the humans.
The Emergence crashed only 4km from a small town, but more than 245km from its intended destination, , the planet's capital. Sev was flung out of the warship and onto the glass below when it crashed. Remarkably, he survived, though he was among the most badly wounded warriors. He was relieved to see that his lance was in much better-condition, with only one casualty. Ordering his lance to move out, they were lucky when the Emergence's power core destabilised and exploded, killing a fraction of the remaining survivors. The remnants were ordered to advance on the closest village, where they would rest before pushing on. Like most of his peers, Sev was surprised how different the architecture was when compared to the Covenant. Vito made sure he didn't admire the structures for too long, and Sev was quickly called to repair the legion's malfunctioning equipment and ; with the assistance of only small group of Unggoy as labor, and Khan being trained in repair work at the same time. Only a few hours later, the legion came across the foes they will lock horns with for the next twenty-five years - the (UNSC).
The attack came at dusk, when the first shelling sending the legion scrambling for cover. Sev's lance was tasked to engage on the edge of the village, trying to stop additional reinforcements from entering and overrunning the Legion. This placement was no accident - the bad blood between him and his commander Vito meant he still wanted Sev dead. They fought desperately and bravely, fully knowing if they died then their legion would follow suite. To his bitterness, he had to remain stationary throughout the engagement, coordinating his friends and warning of enemy vehicle passes, and providing covering fire where needed. Thanks to his efforts, the lance were ultimately successful; the UNSC still couldn't kill the 'elites' guarding the western entrances, starving the internal troops of reinforcements. Despite his undoubted effectiveness in this role, he still let some UNSC forces through, giving Vito the leverage to blame him and his lance for the legion's casualties. In this regard, he took the total night-watch to redeem himself failure, unaware of the hell he had willingly walked into.
===== Turning point =====
For the next few weeks, the legion continued to make ground, taking small villages and settlements that housed no more than a squad of Army Soldiers, and as such the Legion took almost-no casualties. Sev's wounds had healed up on the way, and he was no longer as much as a liability as he once was, even personally leading several reconnaissance missions. The 'easy' combat led to the Sangheili underestimating their foes, and pushed on remarkably quickly. That all changed once they reached Skidr River.
With total assurance that his forces would crush their foes, Vito allowed his entire legion to roam at will, pushing back the UNSC foes. However, their incredible persistence was their undoing, when several squads of Army Soldiers made it up to a fortified position at the top of a cliff and opened fire. Here, Sev witnessed his first real friend die, when Vic 'Salumee was killed by a headshot, demoralising the team. Before they could pay revenge for him by wiping out the Army Trooper squads, they were attacked by a larger force from behind, and the Legion began to take far heavier casualties than ever before. Knowing full well that they will die if no attempt for escape was made, he took time to reactivate a downed Wraith, saving (in the case of Guru, forcefully) his remaining lance of Khan, Guru 'Kusovee and Xui 'Xybulee and escaped. Khan swapped places to safely drive the tank and Sev to keep Guru held down, leaving Xui to fight off the smaller infantry threats. Some kilometres from the battle-site, they had to abandon the tank and meet up with a forward base.
Though they expected to be congratulated for surviving a total-unit massacre, they were instead beaten and mocked for retreating instead of staying there and fighting 'to the death'. They were then assimilated into the Chri-Boras'Musa Combined Legion stationed nearby. To Sev's happy surprise, he met up with his childhood friends Fal and Zule, who were operating in the same lance. It was just as well, considering Sev's belief in possible victory was almost diminished. It wasn't long before they were redeployed at Utgard, with the intent of seizing the territory.
===== Hell in Utgard =====
During the first part of the campaign, things were going well. Sev, Fal, Khan and Zule were all assigned to the very front of the vanguard. They pushed on remarkably quickly, with the UNSC army soldiers quickly taking heavy casualties and falling back, with each of the Sangheili getting a number of kills. Fal had to idea of stopping their retreat by 'shepherding' them into the other part of the lance. Sev agreed, and he and Zule pushed their foes back until they reached the ambush point, though Fal wasn't there. Very quickly, they were the ones under attacked, and were almost overwhelmed when Khan aggressively charged into the distracted troops. Due to the effectiveness of this tactic, they repeated it several times, helping to push the Covenant forces into the centre of the city.
The tide turned, however, when a massive shot down a destroyer that was providing fire support, and quickly began deploying ground troops. During the chaos, the lance were quickly being overwhelmed, and were forced to retreat. Unfortunately for them, a collapsed building stopped any hope of retreat. At this stage, Fal again suggested that, if they could cause enough trouble, maybe their foes could blast the obstacle apart for them. With no other alternative, the lance (though each of them was shivering with fear) quickly engaged in luring tactics for over three hours. In one instance, Khan lured a Scorpion tank into the area, where both Sev and Zule ambushed and killed the drivers. They then used it against their foes.
Eventually, it got to the point where the friends all began to doubt if the plan would work. They were running low on plasma ammunition and were reluctant to use the alien weapons, and were becoming badly wounded. All they had were a small number of plasma grenades. Even worse, the human had failed to notice them, let alone the collapsed tower. As a result, Sev suggested a difficult, if rash, attack - directly bombing a few of the command encampments nearby. Fal and Zule volunteered for the operation, mostly because Khan was almost too badly wounded to survive the engagement, and Sev's shields were dead. The two left, with Sev praying that the operation would succeed.
Luckily, it kicked the hornets' nest. The plasma bombing immediately sent a pelican after the two, and killed the UNSC platoon soon after they landed. Vengeful, the UNSC immediately dispatched a Shortsword bomber flight - a controversial action, given that it was only a handful of soldiers. While Zule made it to cover, Fal was caught in the carpet-bombing line, destroying the building but also killing his friend. They hesitated for a moment to contemplate what happened, before desperately fighting out of the shattered city. They became one of the very few soldiers to survive the battle. With the majority of the Covenant force destroyed during the Battle of Utgard, the remaining Covenant Forces were deployed in defensive actions around the forward bases. Luckily for the survivors, the new Covenant commander of the operation began replacing the wounded veterans with newer, inexperienced forces. On the ride out, just about all the veterans mourned the passing of their friends in the battle, with some (including Sev) wondering why the god's allowed them to survive and let their better-skilled friends die pointlessly.
==== ====
Soon after his retreat from Harvest, Sev participated in another engagement; the glassing of Biko. He and Khan were permanently assigned to Zule's lance now, along with some new recruits, and they fought in the engagement to take Georgia City from the traitorous aliens - a plot which succeeded. With most of the UNSC's forces fighting in the nearby Harvest campaign, Biko was left wholly undefended, and the small Covenant battlegroup quickly gained orbital control.
The battles of Harvest and Biko were very different to each other. After seeing what happened on Harvest, the lance were expecting another massacre. They were partially, with the battle quickly turning into a rout for the UNSC forces, with Sev's lance operating in vehicles to wipe out the undertrained colonial militia. Just following the organised roads led them to one of the few spaceports on the planet, and in a highly-publicised event was when he led a small group of Ghosts and Spectres wiped out the much larger evacuation transports at the Offworld Trade Centre. On this occasion, he drove straight into one of the transport's cargo bays and ran over hundreds of helpless civilians, using his personal plasma rifle as a weapon. Those same civilians did over turn his vehicle, but in any case couldn't break through the energy shields utilised by the superior forces. As such, none escaped the massacre there.
Perhaps because of this battle, Sev began doubting why the Covenant didn't just bring them into the fold. Even in the face of certain death, a number of civilians attacked with scrap metal and even bare hands. Zule aggressively rebutted that; those individuals who showed honour were only a handful of the overall population, though the quieter tone meant even Zule wasn't so convinced. Nevertheless, the trio kept their doubts hidden from all others, and proudly continued military service.
==== Assault of the Surplus Asteroid Belt ====
Yet another small conflict, this conflict marked where Sev was promoted to an Ultra, allowing him to specialise into other areas. However, for the UNSC this battle was significant because it revealed the existence of a unique 'rank' that has been rarely documented by ONI. Before the battle, Sev and his lance were taken for a training tour in , a sub-division in the . A side effect of his recent loss of faith and depression meant that Sev was less aggressive in combat, ironically making him well-suited to the role of a special investigator. He was promoted for this battle only by the , receiving a stern warning about what it means.
In this role, Sev was given a unique objective to watch a suspected general who was believed to have heretical ties. However, he was also given a sub-objective to capture and search the human databanks for their colony worlds and, hopefully, their homeworld. Deciding that the latter was more important, he pushed on through the hallways by the distraction offered by his peers, being undetected the whole way spare a struggling soldier who he had to violently, yet quietly, assassinate. He didn't go straight to the primary terminal, instead collecting the physical hard-drives, as well as an 'unclean' reader which allowed him to decrypt the data. Though he hated using the tiny heretical 'stick', it worked to the very least. Unsurprisingly, the humans had already deleted the navigation data to other worlds, but fortunately it still held the locations for the backups and other colony asteroids in the field.
He made it back to the vessel and dropped off the data packs, as well as the crude reader required to access it. For the rest of the battle, he watched the general in question from a distance, recording his movements and remarks. He began to doubt that he had any ties of the sort until he sounded a 'preaching' in the middle of combat - a morale booster definitely, but it confirmed his doubts about the Journey. Inadvertently, he also condemned a number of other younger officers to their deaths, as the Minor Prophet wished to silence any who knew the real truth.
Right after delivering his report, Sev stowed away on a Spirit which happened to be carrying a boarding party for an outlying outpost built inside an asteroid called Fractus Minus. While heading to the main cargo hangar of the asteroid, it 'collided' with the side of the Asteroid, breaching the interior and allowing Sev to covertly be inserted into the station. Though many died, he felt no remorse for their sacrifices. To his bitterness, reports on the Covenant Battlenet reported that there were no military personnel inside the asteroids, reportedly only cowards who did not wish to fight. Despite the little risk in deactivating his active camouflage, he still felt that the civilians may impede his progress with the memories of Biko still fresh in his mind, and decided against it. After an hour of roaming through the maze of reinforced tunnels, Sev finally navigated his way to the navigation database, including the crewmen desperately trying to delete its contents and unaware of the devil in their mist. The sudden appearance of an armoured 'elite' didn't allow them to scream - they were simply cut down by a series of plasma bursts before they could make a sound. For an odd reason, he was told to deactivate his camouflage - his superiors were worried it may delete the navigation data. For his actions, Sev was immediately promoted to an Ultra, getting the job done and clearing the way for his next engagement.
==== Silence of August II ====
A world largely without military support, August II was rebel hotbed which was on the verge of achieving complete independence. It had a widespread territory maintained by its own outposts, with a number of them located in the Surplus Asteroids. Because of this, August II was ill-equipped to deal with an invading Covenant fleet.
Unluckily for them, the Covenant were under the perception that the colony was a major fortress-world. Because of this, they embarked on a number of sabotage missions to launch an all-out surprise attack. Sev wasn't part of these Spec-Ops missions; he was instead ordered to lead a drop squadron of Heavy Weapons Unggoy into the city's government building to damage the defender's cohesion and morale. Being dropped in from orbit just before the major assault force attacked, he pushed up from the Central Park of Arhmane, navigating his squad to perform ambushes against the ill-prepared defenders. Before long, Sev made it to the central hill where the city hall, where he infiltrated and slaughtered the colony's political members and their defenders with ease. Zule then ordered Sev to meet up with the rest of the lance, and he fought through the ill-equipped defenders to reach them.
Both took many hours to meet up with each other, as they were deployed in opposite end of the city. Upon meeting up, Sev could already tell something was wrong. Numbering three less, Zule explained that Khan and a second member had failed to report in some hours ago, while a third died by his side. Not only that, but they also came across another dead Covenant soldier who was killed with an unknown weapon which left no entry marks. Agreeing to search in groups of two, Guru and Zule left to the left suburban property while Sev and Khan moved to the back alleys. An hour of repeated failures, dead ends and moving in circles followed, making them both fearful not just for themselves, but for Khan as well. Sev could almost swear he saw a movement, when after a slight movement to investigate some suspected footprints the cans behind him made a strange loud sound. Still, the cause of it could not be found. They eventually split up at a fork, believing that they were safe.
Upon moving down the cramped drain he took, he took a heavy hit in the stomach from a weapon which left no mark. Immediately, he was engaged by a dark silhouette - visibly a human. The human attacked him in multiple places, never staying in one place for more than a second. When Sev's flailing and random punches failed to land a hit, he resorted to using his last plasma rounds to light up the area. After one of these attempts, he managed to grab him and finish him with his energy dagger when the hands of the human electrified his arms. Escaping once again, he switched to knife fighting, hitting Sev behind his defences and into his flesh. Under the instinct to survive, Sev ended the fight by charging to a random direction, his body missing the human but his arm collecting and knocking him over. Intending not to make the same mistake, Sev gained mount on him, brought his energy dagger down and...
Suddenly, a bright flash appeared out of no-where, and the assassin escaped. He did leave his weapon, however. Certain he will come back for it, while travelling through the city he laid a few hastily-setup traps to lure him in. On one of these occasions, he came across Fal's apparently lifeless body. He did report in and drag khan back, and it turned out khan was only knocked out. They were forced to leave the colony without the other lanceman, however. While his rest of his lance were concerned with grieving for him, Sev was too concerned over the mysterious human who rivalled his own combat skills to care.
==== Naval Training ====
After seeing action in the Battle of August II, Sev signed up to naval training in his fleet, and was assigned to be trained under the watchful eye of Vul 'Galwonxiee, one of the most esteemed in the fleet. Unlike many others, who only taught how to navigate and use the controls used on a particular station, Vul's training regime focused on just about all areas of starship operation, from crew discipline to engineering and of course navigation and sensor operation. The point of the training was to make the captain-to-be more understanding of the hard work impacted on his crew, and to stop him from making rash decisions and impossible demands.
After Vul's year-long training, Sev was passed into a standarised training group, where he was specially trained in the sensor field. He learnt how to identify a given object's size, design and even their capabilities based on their readings given in both slip- and real-space sensor maps. While his role also included monitoring internal sensors and isolating potential intruders from the rest of the on-board personnel, he was only given very basic training in an attempt to cut down the training length significantly - all he learnt was how to isolate physical influences such as radiation from the personnel. After that, he graduated from the naval training and posted on the Missionary's Resolve.
It was clear that, after a number of shakedown cruises in the Missionary's Resolve that the crew didn't get along with Sev. Unlike Sev, who had fought in numerous battles and conflicts for years before the War even began and was hampered by the old ways of ranking because of that, the crew that made up the Resolve was composed of youths who saw little groundside combat. They saw Sev as something of a failure; a wounded veteran who failed to rise up to the rank of anything higher than themselves, and regularly mocked him. During the ship's early shakedown cruises, the Resolve gained a reputation for its unusually undisciplined crew, with even the senior Sev and Shipmaster Ahulu 'Vadamee lacking it.
==== Skirmish of the Rein Nebula ====
The Resolve was given its first mission in 2541, when it was assigned to a battlegroup to find a rumoured world called Rein inside a vast intersystem nebula. Jumping from system-to-system, for over four weeks the battlegroup, consisting of itself, the Amended Beads and the flagship, the heavy destroyer Redemption and Salvation, searched systems of interest to find the rumoured planet. Over and over, signals that were thought to be from communications arrays turned out to be mere ghosts, and as repeated failures began to rise the crews became increasingly bored and tense. The 'new guys' of the Resolve were the first to crack, where Sev's reports displeased gave them an excuse to mock his abilities. To bypass time with his crew, Sev often took a Seraph over to the Redemption to meet with his former lance. Finally, Sev's Slipspace sensors picked up the distinctive signature of an oncoming UNSC fleet. Under these conditions, however, it could easily be radiation interference from the cloud and proto-stars, so Sev didn't report it to avoid harassment and the daily fights. This single error of judgement would be the only warning they would ever have.
 
The captain and subsequently the fleet were only aware after seven MAC slugs hit the ships of the fleet, roughly ten minutes after their arrival. The ship shakes as the battlegroup's shields do down, scaring Sev instantly. Throughout the engagement, which lasted roughly over two hours, all Sev was concerned with was reporting the sensor readings to the crew to evade unguided Archer Missile strikes and the occasional MAC shots fired from several kilometres away. Such a feat was almost impossible to accurately do in this environment, as the magnetic signatures, gas clumps, radiation spikes and even venting plasma from the hull all helped hide their foes in the dark of space, thus he focused mainly on reporting hull breaches. For the first time, Sev couldn't feel anything but fear, knowing he had no control of the situation, unlike on the ground. The battle panned out like a cat and mouse game; both sides attempted to use the cover of the nebula to hide and ambush their foes.
Though the crew of the Resolve managed to take out three frigates, usually by accidentally running into them rather than using sensors to find them, much of the fleet remained in an undetectable loose formation. The Redemption ran into this core group in the battle's waning minutes, calling for help to the rest of its fleet. Sev's fellow crewmen were locked in a discussion on what to do, with the navigators suggesting not to do anything due to their distance, while Sev sided with the gunners to try and save the vessel. Shipmaster Ahulu fell in favour of the navigators, something which turned violent when Sev and the gunners fought to attempt and forcefully gain control of the ship's navigation systems. No weapons were used in the short fight, but in the end the gunners won after Sev managed to activate the Slipspace drive to land them right in the middle of the battle. Despite the bad tense, both parties knew that infighting would lead to their deaths in a few seconds, and rushed to man the remaining weapons.
Sev's input was anything but accurate, and dropped them six kilometres away from the battle sight - enough for the battle to be in visual range. The sudden appearance of a weakly-shielded frigate did cause the two to pull off and engage the new attackers, leaving the enemy flagship continue pounding the badly-damaged Redemption. Though odds at surviving were slightly better due to the Archers tracking systems jammed by the nebula, it still didn't take long for the shields to fall and their critical systems to be picked off one by one. Even after their MACs were successfully brought offline, the ship was too badly breached and damaged to do anything more than taunt them, and the destroyers turned their guns to the Redemption. Despite the crew's attempts, the venting atmosphere began to slowly lower them into sleep, and then comas. Only Sev and his supervisor Gress 'Vadamee managed to equipped the Ranger harnesses to survive the death that unfolded due to their repair work on the exterior hull. When they finished, they returned to the horror inside.
For over sixteen hours, Sev attempted to repair the atmospheric pressurisers and filters before moving onto the engines, while Gress moved the rest of the crew near the reactor and looked after them. At times, the tension resulted in arguments and fights, though both managed to maintain their distance from each other. However, Sev's rushing of repairs was his undoing. He tipped the Oxygen content of the atmosphere to the far end in an effort to accelerate the crew's healing process. When he attempted to fire the engines moments later, an undetected leak ignited a massive explosion in the reactor, killing everyone but Sev, albeit with a damaged suit. Though he held on long enough to activate the ship's distress signal, he would fall into a coma moments later, blaming himself for the massacre that unfolded.
==== Fall of Kingston ====
Sev would wake up in an engine line leading to the main reactor - a Sangheili 'funeral pyre' where they burn the bodies of the dead to allow them to achieve transcendence. Sev pulled back along the line, making enough noise for some to notice that someone was alive in there. Once pulled out, he was contained in a small cabin, where he resided until his friends Guru, Khan and Zule arrived to fill him in. He discovered that the battle was a victory, if it could be called that. The Amended Beads was lost with all hands and he was the sole survivor of the Missionary's Resolve. Despite attempts to prevent regret, such as saying his actions allowed the survivors of the Redemption to route the attackers, Sev could feel nothing but guilt thinking he was responsible for the ambush and consequently the casualties sustained. He would attempt suicide at least on one occasion, placing him under arrest while being transferred over with the rest of the Chri-Boras'Musa Legion to the Fleet of Minor Divergence, unknown that the next battle was around the corner.
==== Battle of New Holland ====
==== Retirement from the Military ====
===== Tracing his origins =====
Despite his success on several major campaigns, Sev's conscience demanded he leave the military to prevent anymore unnecessary deaths. The heavy casualties he took on Kingston would support this claim, but also received a cryptic message that a senior individual knew what Sev's lineage was. He retired as a military official on June 4th, 2542, at the astonishingly-young age of 44 years. He would meet up with the veteran on Sanghelios, a Kaidon called Damn 'Grandovee. He learnt that the first pieces to unravel his origin was present on , the Merchants Moon.
Using the savings he saved from his time in the military, Sev spent the better part of two years travelling from planet-to-planet. On Quikost, he followed the breadcrumbs which eventually led across Covenant space, gathering intel and evidence which he thought was getting closer to his real keep and home. However, his journey would end in an unexpected way on Qualar I, a moon used extensively for mining. Here, upon returning to his ship, he would run into a thief named Falia 'Jul Quivrodi, who was lost on the moon after pirates crashed her ship. She revealed to Sev that the ship 'Grandovee loaned was rigged with secret compartments, some of which carried stolen military weaponry. Swearing revenge, Falia pleaded with Sev to take her with him to Sanghelios, something he reluctantly obliged to do.
Upon returning to Sanghelios, Falia went a separate way to attempt to make a detour to see her family in High Charity after Sev refused to take her there. Meanwhile, he travelled back to 'Grandovee's Keep to assassinate him for his deception. Equipped with some of the stolen weapons, Sev set up a meeting to 'thank' him for his cooperation. However, he severely underestimated 'Grandovee. Equipped with an energy shield and flanked by his personal guards, Sev was left badly wounded, but was spared if only to make an example.
===== The Quiet Years =====
Faced with a major setback, Sev was determined to succeed in his personal goal, but to do that, he knew he needed Gekz. Sev returned to his keep after many decades to work as the next generation's weaponsmither, taking over from his uncle, Jael 'Khal Wattinree. Of particular importance to him, he also learnt that his foster-father died years ago from a natural fever, and that the ashes were stored in a basement below the building. When he was presented with the blueprints he was supposed to follow to build the weapons, he saw areas to improve the designs to make them more efficient and otherwise better-performing. He worked more-or-less alone, selling his designs to the occasional locals who passed by.
What Sev wasn't expecting was the demand which was to come. Many of his customers noticed his cheaper weapons were actually as good if not better than the more expensive options on the market. Unfortunately, his inexperience with organising and running a business meant his simple priority list frequently overtaxed the young retiree, and rejected the option of seeking employees because he believed it showed how desperate he was. He tried using the older members who worked before, but they rarely noticed Sev's modifications to the designs, resulting in a great variation of quality in his designs which frustrated customers. The stress caused, when coupled with his PTSD he suffered from the war, was what pushed him away from his family - his experiences by being betrayed by those he thought were on his own side made him suspicious of everyone and everything, always expecting trouble. Despite training and the 'hobby' he worked on, his stress continued to climb, inflicting damage on his business's reputation after a number of malfunctions from his products.
Sev's salvation came from an unlikely source. Falia arrived to the establishment several months after it was first taken over, in October 28th, 2543. Mistaking her for another customer, he was immediately surprised when she offered to be an employee to earn enough money to pay for a single-flight to High Charity - something which Sev reluctantly agreed to. Here, she revealed that she not only had a knack with machinery, but also had skills in running a business. She taught Sev a number of organisational skills, and though she attempted to help with building the weapons Sev was adamant to work on them by himself. Finally, after witnessing Sev's interaction with customers turned violent on a few occasions, she agreed to take that over for him. This saved the establishment's reputation, though other customers continued to spread rumours of its products and its owner, so it never reached the same popularity it did before.
Eventually, Sev let Falia in on his personal missions and goals, such as assassinating 'Grandovee because of his deception and locating his origins. To Sev's surprise, she assisted him in the former, and was also happy to work on everything in the shop while he was away. Using her distraction at the gates of the hostile keep, Sev successfully infiltrated and assassinated the Kaidon in the keep's hall, and though he wished he could eliminate 'Grandovee through other means, he was happy he was gone. At times, he caught contact with his former lance, and had to leave to assist their families across the planet. And then of course, was the usually ill-fated missions to get in touch with his original keep. Through this all, Sev believed he owned Falia more than he could repay. He found to his surprise he enjoyed working and training with Falia, but it was only at the end when he realised how much he trusted her. In the end, they married and left to setup a home near Falia's family on High Charity. The only regret Sev had was that he was never able to trace his origins back, and despite attempts afterwards, never found out where he came from.
==== Ascension to the ====
Emerging one year after the birth of his son in 2545, Chal, Sev rose up to the challenge of Public Office. Numerous reasons dictated this career, including he needed another job after his weaponsmithing business proved to be ill-sustainable, while at the same time he knew he couldn't handle what additional military life could throw at him. Because of this, he decided to try his hand in the less violent yet equally hard to survive politics of the Covenant. Representing the Quivrodi Sector of the massive space station, his success quickly ensured he rose up to become a High Councillor in the High Council of the Covenant.
When he first arrived to the amphitheater, Sev was approached by a councillor. Sev was beginning to think he was going crazy; the councillor acted like he knew him. He was shocked when the Councillor introduced himself: the High Councillor of the Sangheili, Fal 'Ikawattinree, Sev's supposedly-dead childhood friend. Eager to make up for lost time, the two exchanged their personal history, with Sev surprised that he was aware that Khan and Xui perished during the Fall of Kingston. It wasn't long after that Fal asked Sev to become his ally in the Council, after recognising his ability to keep a secret and hard to crack under pressure.
Fal attempted to teach Sev High Council Politics, teaching him the value of manipulation, how to correctly debate, who to trust and what to share - the former was hard to learn due to his sense of honour. Occasionally, Sev learnt other skills by himself - for example, he learnt how to earn a 'honour-debt' after saving a councillor from a Jiralhanae attack. While hard to trust, he assisted Fal's quest to search for supporters; under Fal's guidance, he organised secret meetings and performed various jobs to ensure their loyalty, not that they trusted him completely. Eventually, Fal gained enough supporters created a very potent voting bloc revolving around him, rivalling that the maintained before. Of course, these bold political movements did not always gain benefits. During his time, Sev was almost assassinated at least four times during his career, usually hired by the San'Shyuum but also by councillors who thought he was becoming too powerful too quickly. In most cases, he easily defeated those assassins, but on one occasion had to defend his family who became a target. This attack distracted his duties as Fal's most loyal supporter, as he ensured to watch his family for any more attacks.
==== Enlistment to the Honour Guards ====
The voting bloc, however, wasn't destined to last. With the Hierarchs and attempting to maintain their power, an unexpected grace came from the Sangheili-supported Regret. Regret knew of Sev's military past, witnessed him plan and execute the Battle of New Holland. This, coupled with the reputation Sev gained as being 'unkillable' among the politicians, gave Regret the perfect excuse to recruit him in his Honour Guardsmen. The militarily-minded Sangheili, with some pushing from his friend Fal, enthusiastically joined Regret's guard, leaving the High Council and inadvertently keeping the San-Shyuum staying in power.
From there, Sev received additional training, becoming embarrassingly the oldest recruit of Regret's Honour Guard. Though mocked by leader of Regret's Guardsmen, Honour Guardsmen General Aile 'Voxyanhulee, Sev learnt and proved his skills quickly, despite his age. He learnt how to properly stand guard, as well as improving his persistence and patience. He also took even more close-quarter training to make him even more deadly, with a touch of religious conditioning to ensure his utmost loyalty. It was this religious conditioning which would make Sev the religious zealot he was in the years after the splinter of the Covenant. Despite not having the same skill level as some others in the guard, he was still a significant foe due to the additional training, and a keen mind to use those skills appropriately. After four months of harsh training and hours, Sev emerged as a fully-fledged honour guard mid-2549, adding the honorific 'vo' to his surname, becoming 'Ikavowattinrzoee, the long name granting great respect even among the elite Lights of Sanghelios.
==== Third High Council Rebellion ====
Unfortunately, one of Sev's first missions was also noted as his hardest. Regret was scheduled to participate in a debate on a new military law which was greatly opposed by the Sangheili voting bloc and Fal in particular. As such, Sev expected nothing more than a simple changing of yelling voices, so vowed to remain quiet no matter the urge to join in. So when Regret hovered up the elevator, nobody expected what came next.
The first few minutes were what he expected, with the other councillors shifting uncomfortably every now and then. Seemingly unprovoked, however, a large group of councillors stood up, sounded war cries and attacked the other councillors. A large gang specifically attacked Regret in particular, so Sev, who was now more comfortable fighting strangers or other species, was having trouble defending himself and Regret from his former allies. It was only when Regret was directly lunged upon did Sev execute his first fallen ally, and he descended into a blood rage, attacking anyone who attacked him first. He never realised some of these individuals were trying to calm him down. It was only when he almost killed his friend Fal, who dropped down to assist the Honour Guards, did he begin to calm down. By then, the rebels were either dead or surrendered, with the guardsmen rounding the dissenters.
Fal told Sev that the voting bloc's cohesion broke down almost immediately after Sev accepted the offer of the Honour Guard, with those who had an honour debt to him causing the most tension. Thus, the party became internally divided, with some declaring that it was a scandal to remove Sangheili influence, while others grew tired of the tension and left the party. Though Fal failed to unite the blockage, up until then he did manage to keep it at a 'civil' level - small-scaled fighting was the worst. His career and reputation ruined, he blamed Sev for the cause. The former friends left each other in frustration, with neither knowing it was going to be for the last time.
==== Siege of Paris IV ====
==== Second Battle of ====
Despite his links to the rebellion, Sev quickly squashed any issues regarding his loyalty, quickly showing he was the most devoted of the honour guard and gaining the trust of Regret himself. So when rumours from Chi Ceti IV late in the war spoke of a suspected forerunner facility, Sev was deployed to the planet in early 2552 to locate and activate the said installation without any doubts. He took the , along with elements from the Devnum'Plat Combined Legion, which was now led by his good friend and former squadmate Khan 'Devnumee, who granted his request.
After two and a half weeks of searching, the search teams discovered the source of the luminary disturbances - a massive subterranean forerunner facility. The Pious Inquisitor excavated the facility, and Sev's army entered the facility. Though a forerunner site, the surroundings were different compared to those of other facilities - smashed sentinels laid around, fallen bridges, holes which looked like a massive blast created them - created a scene of horror for the Covenant forces. In fact, this was perhaps a warning to stay away.
Per normal operations, Sev ordered the forerunner facility to be stripped of everything which is valuable - if it can be picked up and carried, it goes straight to the Inquisitor. After more searches with the company, he came across a large armoured door. He ordered the to unlock the door without defiling the terminal. However, rather than a simple cache of weapons, inside laid a series of terminals and a hologram in the centre - a bridge. Now knowing why it was so small for an installation, he ordered the Inquisitor to move into orbit, and brought in the Huragok to activate the facility. It was only an hour later did everyone realise the mistake he made.
Unknown to Sev, teams started to go missing soon after the activation of the warship. It was only after a scream was heard down the hall, along with weapon shots, did the crew team notice the anomaly and prompted him to investigate. What he saw was a number of Unggoy ripped apart... and a large spawn of . Opening fire immediately, he ordered everyone to evacuate the warship, with the Inquisitor to destroy the dreadnought. Within seconds, his squad was decimated. As he accepted his fate and as the alien collective lunged at him, a pair of Covenant Mgalekgolo appeared, and the collective hesitated long enough for Sev and the Mgalekgolo to burn and kill several of the collective's worms, but it retreated before it could be killed. Retreating to the hangar, they ignored the other attacking mutants. Backed at the hangar and waiting for Phantoms, they fought the mutants off... for a while. His team was flanked just as the phantom arrived, and he watched his loyal Mgalekgolo get absorbed into their foe's collective. The ship (and its 'cargo') met its fate moments later, when the Pious Inquisitor destroyed the holy vessel.
Afterwards, the combat experience, as well as the toll of so many lives lost, led to Sev passing out. When he awoke, he ordered the memory banks of the incident to be wiped, the relics abandoned and the ship searched - the creatures couldn't have the opportunity to attack the Hierarchs. When Sev returned he reluctantly lied about the event - simply told them there was no such forerunner artifact.
==== Battle of Circumstance ====
After a few other similar missions raising him to the rank of Honour Guard Ultra, Sev was to face his most famous moment of the war - the destruction of the Human world known as Circumstance. With a combined Covenant Fleet engaged at , the Human Fortress World, Regret sort to demoralise the remaining humans by leading another invasion in the same system. As such, Sev and the other Guardsmen had to escort Regret in combat.
To better protect the Hierarchs, Sev commanded the Regret from Mercy, and was flying in escort formation for Regret's carrier, the . They quickly realised the stations, however. While Regret ordered indiscriminate attack orders, Sev attempted a more subtle approach; he activated the ship's cloaking abilities and moved to position himself behind the line. As the cruiser brushed past the stations, a squadron launched from a ODP - and crashed into the invisible obstacle in front of them. The Regret's shields fluctuated and revealed its location to the enemy. In desperation once again, Sev ordered all power to be redirected from engines and shields to weapon systems, and in an instant the three closest stations and their defending squadrons were obliterated by masses of Plasma Torpedoes, Pulse Lasers and even energy projectors, with further ODPs damaged but not destroyed. One such station was able to fire a slug at the Regret, almost cutting it in half. The station was quickly destroyed by the remaining covenant ships.
===== Ground Action =====
The Regret from Mercy was rendered almost irreparable by the attack, but Sev's work was not done, however, as Regret sort to lead the ground invasion himself; a risky, but hugely honourable action for a San'Shyuum. With a path cleared, the Penance positioned itself right over the planet's capital city, New London. Using the strategy Sev and the Aile developed, Regret landed directly on one of the largest and important structures in the system; the Inner Colonies High Court of Civil Justice. The guardsmen quickly cleared out the security forces, and while Aile locked down the building, Sev himself captured the high-ranking politicians in the lower tower, assassinating the military commander. He brought them to Regret himself, and Regret interrogated them for any information they had. When Sev confirmed the structure had been secured, the Penance began deploying reinforcements
The plan was for three attack groups to be formed, with Attack Group A, led by Aile, directly engaging the main UNSC Forces and keeping them occupied, while two other groups attempted a pincer manoeuvre around it, taking seemingly random directions so it becomes almost impossible for the UNSC to pinpoint its destination. The heavy anti-aircraft fire meant that only and other rare troop carriers had to be used - in fact, Attack Group C's only troop transport was an unarmed variant of a scarab.
Sev led Attack Group C, the smaller of the two teams, if only to ensure the group followed. At targets of high value, for example the nearby hospital, he led a small team to cause concern for the UNSC. In the case of the hospital, he bombed the entire thing, killing hundreds of defenceless human refugees. The UNSC followed soon after, arriving too late to save anyone from the massacre. A similar thing happened to the local school they brushed past, except that the convoy commander disobeyed his orders and participated in the attack as well. The UNSC retaliated immediately, dispatching a number of warthogs and Marines. Though they were able to execute the defenders, Sev knew he had to make an example to instil order. He cut the commander's left arm off to show him the punishment of disobeying orders, but spared him. Years later, he would wish that he killed the commander when he had the chance.
When Attack Group C arrived, the other Attack Group never arrived, leaving the Combined Legion starving of reinforcements. Worryingly, the UNSC assault force was winning as well, and the Combined Legion was almost decimated. Despite his best ideas, he believed that the only way to prevent the unit's destruction was to charge straight towards the group. He ordered the Scarab to deploy the lances, and he led his army right into the enemy formation. The sudden assault from behind put the UNSC forces on the back foot, though the distance was enough to kill multiple Covenant lances before the battle was fully joined. The appearance of another scarab in Attack Group B was enough to break the concentration of the marines. Sev engaged the ODSTs, his swift combat skills and close-combat specialties quickly killing member after member, even taking out a scorpion with some assistance. The UNSC troops were thinning out and being displaced, and victory was almost assured. However, running through the balconies and over the defence wall were a small group of human soldiers. Worrying about his Hierarch, he moved to deal with the intruders, stealing a ghost and following the intruders.
The soldiers set camp on the detention tower, before all except one leaving and running into the destroyed entrance to the building, where inside Regret was about to lead his forces. Just as the soldiers engaged Regret's Honour Guardsmen, Sev climbed to the top of the tower, where he realised it wasn't any old soldier - it was a sniper, Dominic-B147. Dominic only realised the guardsmen was there when Sev cut his rifle in half. He was unexpectedly thrown a spare energy sword, and was challenged to a duel.
The combat styles could not have been more different. Because both of Dominic's helmet and specialty as a sniper, he had a very forceful, heavy-handed stance and attack. Sev, meanwhile, was both swift and strong, choosing quick and deliberate strikes, and used quick footwork as well. Thus, Dominic was slowly losing, until a forced strike gave Sev an opening and stabbed his sides, and cut his hand off to stop him from grabbing his pistol. As he used prepared to kill Domanic, saying a silent prayer, he was almost tackled by yet another demon; Gary-B341. He tackled again, and quickly pushed him to the ground and gained mount. Now knowing this new opponent was a master at close combat, Sev grabbed the God's Word and blasted him with numerous plasma bolts, blinding him for a second and getting off. Gary changed tactics, and began using knife fighting to get close, before stabbing the Sangheili's hand and dropping his rifle in pain. Resisting the pain, Sev grabbed the opponent's arm and broke it. The demon wasn't done yet, and tackled Sev back to the ground and keeping him there for Dominic to kill him. At the last second, 'Bright-Eyes' used his superior strength and rolled Gary into Dominic. Gary recovered quickly, and did a number of successful stabbings until, on the verge of victory, he spun Sev around and showed him that Regret has been captured. Predicting his opponent would thrash around randomly, he was surprised when Sev yet again blinded him with the Plasma Rifle. Sev wasted no time, and used the Word's dual energy daggers to aggressively kill the experienced foe. He then threw the badly-injured Dominic off the balcony, killing him.
Despite his grave wounds, Sev's devotion to Regret allowed him to proceed to gather all the remaining troops, and charged to save Regret. Sev was fully aware that the Demons would attempt to kill Regret at any time, so he was surprised when the Spartan leader didn't even attempt the action despite his claims. While all the other Sangheili forces hesitated, Sev did not, and desperately tackled him. The other Demons threw him off, but before Sev could die the rest of the Covenant opened fire on them, driving them off. For his efforts for saving Regret, he offered Sev a unique reward; he could use the Penance to glass both the major population centres and the glyph for 'Faith' onto the planet. Before the Great Schism, Sev considered this his proudest moment in his entire life.
==== Cleansing of Tau Ceti ====
The destruction of Humanity's fortress worlds at Epsilon Eridiani was immediately followed by a stepped up military operation to locate and destroy their remaining nearby colony worlds. This operation was endorsed and promoted by none other than Regret, having believed that their homeworld was at Reach. Though escorted by a skeletal fleet designed to breach the orbital defences that characterised UNSC fortress worlds, Sev's military fleet would find none of that at Tau Ceti III; only a small population of independent rebels under the impression that the Covenant was a myth.
The Regret from Mercy led the charge on the single unidentified freighter-type vessel which stood between the fleet and planetary control. Before any shots were fired, a young recruit at the communications station warned him that intercepted communications came back confirmed of a human name - Furmirole. The knowledge that the ship was jumping to a fallen colony meant it was one of two things: that the captain already knew it was glassed and was jumping at a rally point for a major counter-attack, or that he was violating the Cole Protocol and was unaware of its fate. Either way, the answers could only be retrieved from its databanks, so Sev ordered carefully-aimed Energy Projector strikes on its engines. Though the initial strike only destroyed the starboard aft propulsion array, it nevertheless slowed it down sufficiently for the spirits to keep pace and eventually disembark its contents at key points on the hull. Sev led a strike force from the primary hangar to shut down its remaining engines and disconnect its FTL drive. Against undisciplined crewmen and underpowered rifles, it was a massacre, so much that all it took was a minute from leaving the Spirit that he already severed the AI core and disable the fuel lines to the engines. Within five minutes, they left, having already acquired its navigation and backup data banks.
Before he could return, the standing-in Fleetmaster had informed Sev that a concentration of humans in the upper hemisphere, so Sev ordered the strike teams still heading towards the fleet to change course to the human population. An overhead sweep quickly revealed that though the walls were thin, they were extremely tall and composed of starship plating, making them invulnerable to small arms fire. While waiting for a small vehicle squad to arrive, the deployed ranger teams including his collected and tested the defences of the wall. Using the intel gathered, Sev reluctantly volunteered his group to use the Revenants and a single wraith to fire on the heavily fortified gate to distract the humans from the other infantry teams from the North and North East. Strangely, the honour guardsmen did not choose to drive the wraith into combat, instead using a Revenant to strafe and counter the defender's motives. When the assault proved to have no effect, he boosted up a small cliff which the base was built into to jump the walls; something only he succeeded in doing, with his wingman picked off by Gauss fire. In support of the highly mobile rangers, he quickly eliminated the heavy weaponry installed to help clear the skies and secure victory.
If the easy victories were supposed to boost his resolve, then he was disappointed to hear that the freighter's navigation data proved to be a fluke; there was nothing on it the Covenant did not already know. The only way it would prove to be of any value was its communication encryption codes, rendered useless due to the fact the war was officially over. What Sev or his command staff did not know was that the data was indeed useful, as it held the other set of coordinates to Humanity's real homeworld, except it was stolen away by a commander who sort favour with the High Prophet of Truth}} and would pave the way for an invasion fleet that was created for that purpose. Feeling as though the entire mission was a failure, he instantly executed the commander who told him this and glassed the base off the face of the planet.
==== ====
Not long after the battle, Sev was recalled in secret to retrain the Solemn Penance's weapon crews - a cover in which he was to secure an artifact unlike any other which have been discovered before, though no-one else expanded on that. During those preparations, Regret gave Sev his blessing for challenging Aile 'Voxyanhulee for the mantle of leadership in a traditional Sword Duel. In the early minutes, Sev's largely offensive movement was countered by the heavy hitting defensive tactics of Aile, forcing him to change to a more ranged attack pattern. However, Aile's age and desperation proved to be his undoing, and Sev decapitated his late superior and took the even more elaborate helmet of his foe. Before he could fully carry out his duties as "Pinnacle of the Dreadnaught", or Honour Guardsmen Commander, he took part in the Invasion of Mombasa before discovering the jewel of the entire Covenant religion - , only tainted by humans when one of their ships tailed the Penance to the Halo.
Sev planned the occupation of the Ring. To better defend Regret, during the Battle of Delta Halo he lead a majority of Covenant forces to utterly crush the main human advance. Intercepted communications told him that the UNSC planned to create two strike teams, one of which consisted of heavy ordnance and artillery. He determined to lead his forces against the larger, better-armoured UNSC strike force at a beach which, if captured, gave them significant control of the overall battle. Against shipmaster's advice, he did not include huge numbers of Wraiths and Spectres in his complement, instead either putting them in the line of the other strike force or other locations which are optimal for even smaller teams. Instead, he included mostly-infantry advance to stop them, using the heavy overgrowth, cliffs and narrow entrance to the most.
The initial UNSC assault was a scouting platoon of Marines, who were decimated by a solitary wraith. They were then followed by three to take it out and clear the way. Instead of springing his trap, Sev order his Spec-Ops specialists to sabotage the scorpions while he, a small lance and the wraith distracted them. The infantry hid in the singular trench, who were (mostly) safe from Scorpion rounds. The scorpions were quickly destroyed and formed a barricade which prevented anything larger than Warthogs from entering. The UNSC chose to attack en masse, sending several warthogs and supporting Marines. All but two Warthogs jumped the scorpions and the trench, and Sev was left to deal with the large Marine attack. Before he could call in the ambush, they themselves were flanked by Marines who sort to use the same advantage. Here, Sev and his lance had to fight in and around the lance against overwhelming odds and began to take significant casualties. Though a priority target for the Marines, Sev proved to be a difficult target and wiped out entire squads in his bid to survive.
It was around when Marine forces were on the edge of being exhausted that a single tank that Sev never encountered before - an aging Cobra. It blew through the Scorpion barricade and moved on, ignoring the lone badly-injured Sangheili which remained. He boarded it and, after realising none of his weapons could breach its armour, destroyed the turret's targeting periscope to blind the gunners, leaving it vulnerable to the Wraiths on the edge of the beach. Well aware the remaining survivors were on the verge of being overrun or killed off, Sev made the seemingly ill-considered order for the remaining troops to charge on UNSC positions and strike at their source - the UNSC staging area at the .
Had Sev enacted on this desperate gamble, it would have surely killed all Covenant forces. By a stroke of luck, Sev was informed that the other strike team had reached the temple Regret used as his base of operations. As soon as he learnt the , even worse than the ones he fought on Circumstance, was in the other force, he ordered all forces to fall back to Regret's location. While all other forces ignored his command due to the Solemn Penance's Shipmaster overriding them with a retreat order, Sev tried to return as quickly as he could. The closest he got was just over a hundred metres from the temple, where the pilots pulled off to evade the incoming orbital fire for the temple.
==== Punishment and Escape ====
For his failure to protect both the holy temple and Regret, Sev was branded a traitor without trial, stripped of his rank and status name, and sentenced to die. He awaited execution and public branding. He was allowed to keep his personal rifle in the cell, reduced to only two shots to allow him to kill himself from the grief - a final act of cowardice. After a few days, and becoming convinced that there was no way to redeem his honour, his Jiralhanae captors were overwhelmed by a small band of Sangheili led by his wife Falia and Zule. Sev was taken by the so-called 'honour sickness', where he believed the only way to redeem himself was to commit suicide in battle and be deleted from all records. He rebelled against his friends during this madness, attempting to mow through Zule's unresisting lance until his friend was able to sedate him.
He woke up a day later in the cell of the Immolation to mocking yet serious Kig-Yar guards. Curbing his aggressive tendencies through Visionclearer drugs, they kept him detained until Zule arrived to inform him of the day's prior events. The Covenant was now locked in a , kicked off by the High Prophet of Truth ordering the and a Sangheili genocide to be conducted by the Jiralhanae. Shockingly, his wife had perished during the rescue attempt when she was separated from the rest of the lance, and his daughter was nowhere to be seen.
=== Legacy ===
While many discredit his efforts during his last battle and blamed him for the severe losses in the battle, others who participated in the battle argue that if he didn't do what he did then the Supercarrier would have acted as a continuing rallying point for disillusioned soldiers and potential allies - at the time, Rtas' fleet was still engaging the escorts. Despite his questionable past and motives, his efforts for the Sangheili government after the Great War inadvertently laid the foundations for the Orion Alliance - the governing body for the species in the Orion Arm. For his contributions, long history and service, the State of Wattinr added a statue of him to the Hall of Legends - an ancient Sangheili building which honoured all Sangheili who revolutionised their race.
== Physical Aspects ==
=== Appearance ===
Among the Sangheili, Sev can only be described as distinctive. A member of the rarely-observed Suban subspecies of Sangheili, he has light-grey skin which gradually darkened as he got older, with white spots along his arms. His larger and thicker scales, an evolutionary trait to help them isolate against the cold, are slightly tougher, though its not an advantage unless he fights in hand-to-hand combat. Overall, he is shorter and quite stocky for a Sangheili, though he is no less weaker than an average member of his species. Nevertheless, some of his peers did use these differences to harass and bully Sev. The most mesmerising characteristic of his appearance is, of course, his bright light blue eyes, a recessive genetic trait carried by only a handful of related individuals. Being a Sangheili, he shows a number of scars and missing tissue from his service, particularly around his upper-left shoulder area. He refused to repair it with cybernetics, as he refused medical treatment and utterly hated the fact of being 'part-machine'.
Unfortunately, the injuries he suffered at Urgetheon during ONI's Operation: EMERGENT GIANTS were so grave that it was a miracle he survived. Unfortunately for him, he was captured rebuilt by ONI to operate as a deep-space mercenary under the Necromancy Program, where he performs operations deemed too politically disruptive for conventional agents to undertake. The remaining sections of both his legs and his left arm were severed and replaced with thick cybernetic limbs, his 'body armour' was in actuality his chest, and his right arm and spine was supported with technology used by . Unlike the organic nature of his previous combat harnesses, the design cue had far more in common with the angular and boxy appearance of ONI prowlers (and in part with ) and the 'ribbed' appearance of GEN2 armour systems. Some armoured slots are available to pull out damaged components and organs quickly and easily, making replacements cheap for such an expensive project. Such extensive modifications were considered disgraceful by his species, and after his escape from ONI he remained a permanently low-ranking individual until his death during the Battle of the Ancient Sacrifice.
=== Personality ===
From his earliest days causing mischief in the back alleys of Ardamet to his last moments on the Infinity's Sacrifice, Sev was judged and harassed by his peers and superiors. The continued cruelty displayed by the his military peers forced him to be openly tough and violent, aggressively attacking anyone who implied racism in even the most remote sense. The continued harassment, however, led to him being withdrawn and unsociable in the military life, but in later it pushed him to achieve his impossible talent in patience, willpower and his well-known bitterness. The simple fact, however, that the harassment would not stop until the day he died, slowly made him more tolerant and less aggressive among his peers, though he occasionally snapped to those who repeatedly annoyed him.
As a soldier, Sev was well-known for having a single goal to complete the mission, however though he openly did not care how many will perish so long as victory is achieved, each death that was somehow related to his plans, tactics and actions would all eventually weigh heavily on his conscience. As he grew close to his lance, he often put his life on the line to give them the opportunity to survive and push on. However, it was when his few friends died did it impact his actions and judgement, and its no coincidence that after their deaths he attempted suicide or another way to relieve the tension inside himself. Such actions to find peace for him often made him highly religious, and he attacked anyone who spread blasphemy about the religion he supported. Ironically, despite his previous attempts at suicide, Sev had surprisingly strong willpower that allowed him to continue fighting where all others would have given up. As a commander, he was effective and strategic, attempting to make the most of the forces he had.
During the Human-Covenant war, Sev suffered trust and social issues, losing a sense of humour in the process. He only trusted individuals after he worked with them for years, and until then saw them merely as enemies waiting to turn on him in one way or another. No-one should be offended by this, as it was his way to cope with the inevitable casualties which will be inflicted upon his unit. By the time he first retired in 2542, he suffered enough to display symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which impacted on, amongst other things, his ability to socialise, his sleeping schedule and made him prone to random outbursts which may lead to violence. To keep it locked tight, he attempted to keep himself buried in his work as much as possible to avoid remembering a traumatic event, something which his wife taught to him. When he was hit with a sudden wave of revelation from the Prophet's lies and the death of both his wife and one of his oldest friends, he was then thought to be officially diagnosed with depression. It was after this that he inflicted the first acts of self-harm against himself not intended to be a quick suicide, after battles and tough debates. However, the only time he committed to suicide was after he learnt that his son not only survived, but became a pirate and heretic, and signed up for the suicide mission that took place aboard the Infinity's Sacrifice.
=== Skills ===
==== Combat ====
As with all other survivors of the Human-Covenant War, Sev displayed a number of distinctive strengths which is impossible to deny. His most prominent is his hand-to-hand combat dominance, where he adopts a low squared stance close to his opponent to reduce the power of individual strikes. Despite what this means, Sev was actually quite nimble in a fight and was willing to move out of that location to deliver more powerful punches or simply to give himself a better advantage. Even those kicks which he was unable to dodge, he held his arms close to his body in order to catch or at least deflect them away from himself - something which he abandoned as he experimented with faster bursts of offensive punches. As he got older and extensively practiced with more different forms, such as the long-reached weapon-dependent combat style favoured by honour guardsmen, he would subtly shift his actions to change into another if his normal skills were outmatched. While blindingly effective against larger enemies such as Jiralhanae and Mgalekgolo, all his styles were at the mercy of the smaller augmented Spartan Super-Commandoes, where their enhanced reflexes and strength could intercept his movements and forced him to defend himself - ironically, he would receive similar if less-advanced implants after being captured by ONI.
His long service record and varied postings did reveal some other strengths, however. Chief of these was his skill with automatic weapons, where he could maintain a steady stream of fire over ranges where precision weapons were preferred. He was also a brilliant if cruel strategist. On the positive, he knew the value of intimidation and distraction, pushing them forcefully to hide the usual multi-force attacks he specialised in. He was no stranger of putting himself in danger if it meant the majority of his assets could escape or flank the enemy. On the polar side, he barely tolerated those who disobeyed or questioned his orders, killing them on the spot should they do such a thing. These 'examples' were frequent enough to keep his subordinates in line... most of the time, but these tales came back to bite him when he became part of the Sangheili Council, where it gave his fellow High Councillors the excuse to not trust him at all.
Like all warriors, these skills must come at a cost. Despite his skills in close quarters, if he takes too many hits he will withdraw and adopt a more defensive stance that he isn't eager to leave unless given a sizable opening. Moreover, in an attempt to break such a circumstance he will reach for his ranged weapon, usually his Plasma Rifle, dropping his guard and breaking his concentration long enough to land a barrage of strikes. In ranged engagements, he had difficulty aiming with sniper rifles and adjusting explosive weapons' arcs to be remotely accurate over long distances. Lastly, he is more likely to run low on ammo in prolonged sieges, as he has a firm mental block of using foreign weapons, especially those composed of human and Jiralhanae technologies.
==== Civilian Skills ====
One of his more criticised talents he exhibited was his weaponsmithing skills. As he was raised by a family of weaponsmithers, he learnt a great deal about how Covenant machinery worked, and he continuously tinkered and repaired equipment and equipment he used after the Human-Covenant war. Despite suffering consequences about 'violating' 'holy' weapons such as isolation and being beaten, he continuously and stubbornly ignored protocols anyway, enough that most of his future superiors assigned him as the legion's unofficial 'munition and equipment status overseer' - something which his early lack of organisational skills made this position quite frustrating for both himself and everyone in his unit.
What surprised most is that despite his openly anti-social persona, he was excellent at political skills. Most of his talent was owed to his ability to quickly analyse and deconstruct an opposing argument as were the skills his late friend Fal 'Ikawattinree taught him. While he wasn't above manipulating others to assist his agenda, he was determined to lead by example by building up a reputation as an honest and trustworthy individual. Unfortunately for his 'allies', Sev was hard to sway and it wasn't uncommon for him to completely change his stance on a subject should something unexpected conflict with his values, such as a joint operation between the Sangheili's armed forces and the UNSC's branches.
=== Equipment ===
There was only one true piece of equipment Sev was always willing to use for any combat operations - his personalised . While a single glance would show its a simple cobbling-together of and , both which had extremely tough systems, though a more observant soldier could easily pick out that other influences were at work, as well as some custom additions. His torso was obvious example of that fact: it was unquestionably influenced by due to its reinforced design, but also bore slots and bags which could house an impressive amount of ammunition. Despite its long service, it was still as smooth and shiny as any newly minted minor armour, if only to not appear like a slob when debating in the Council. The only other major upgrade was removing the magnetic weapon holders under the elaborate patterned metal on his thighs, instead hollowing them out for additional storage space.
The reason Sev required all that storage space was because his favourite hobby - weaponsmithing - required specialised equipment and spare components for on-the-fly repairs. Very few Sangheili could point out what each were, much less what they did. The largest and most frequently used, the Directed Cutter, resembled the handle of an to give the user extreme control of its three directed-lasers to cut through metal of all sizes. The Energy Shaper was a similar tool, but this bulky tool used even hotter plasma than those used by weapons to melt down even the most resistant metal and reform it into a desired shape with ease. The last one, the Avuro'Minra or better known as a Shield Shocker, was so called because it deactivated all systems and energy signatures in its magnetic, electrical and sometimes energy shields to better protect the operator. This ensured that explosions were unlikely and even if they did occur, it would not affect the the technology being worked on. The only other things to note beside the various screwdrivers and tongs for hand work, the only other thing to note was Sev's multimeter of human origin, designed to measure electrical resistance, voltage, and flow strength.
==== Firearms ====
==== Vehicles ====
== Promotions ==
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*Commander of the Guard - 
== List of Appearances ==
*Light at the End 
*A Scent of Blasphemy
*RP:Light of the Abyss
*Survival of the Fittest 
**Season Six
**Season Seven
Category:Sangheili
Category:Males
Category:Survivors of the Human-Covenant War
Category:Human-Covenant War
Category:Vadumverse Protagonists
Category:ZOD Characters