Tuka 'Refum

Tuka 'Refum was a who served in ’s Covenant splinter group. As a child Tuka survived his clan's purge following ’s heretical rebellion. In the turbulent years following the he was raised by Shinsu 'Refum, his brother and sole surviving family member. Tuka later separated from his brother and was conscripted into Jul ‘Mdama’s growing Covenant. Tuka fought as a loyal warrior in ‘Mdama’s ranks until a fateful encounter with the fugitive Spartans Simon-G294 and Cassandra-G006 led him on a spiritual pilgrimage to discern the gods’ true intentions for the Sangheili. Tuka questioned Jul ‘Mdama’s true intentions and was condemned to the Kru'desh Legion, a penal unit of disgraced warriors frequently dispatched on suicide missions. Tuka’s alliance and unlikely friendship with Simon-G294 helped the treacherous Spartan win Jul ‘Mdama’s good graces. Tuka helped “Stray” reform the Kru’desh into a formidable raiding legion and later fought with distinction during the . He perished during the Battle of Archangel's Rest, killed defending the human who had become both his commander and best friend.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Tuka was born on Sanghelios during the at the height of the Covenant's against humanity. Tuka's clan was the venerable and impoverished House of Refum, a vassal to the powerful in the province of . As the clan's youngest hatchling Tuka received little attention in his youth. His mother, Fayta, was charged with managing the dilapidated Refum keep and had no time to spare on Tuka's education. Most of the male members of the Refum bloodline―including their kaidon, Sesa―worked away from the keep as hired laborers or as low-ranking warriors in the Covenant's . From a young age Tuka was pressed into service as a servant in his own keep. With Refum's ever-dwindling fortunes most of the family assumed that Tuka and later generations could only hope for a future as indentured laborers in Vadam's many estates and plantations. One member of the family who rejected such a future was Tuka's elder brother Shinsu. A skilled warrior with a keen mind and ambitious temperment, Shinsu resented his clan's subservience to House Vadam. Shinsu had little patience for the precocious Tuka but insisted on tutoring him whenever he returned home from service in the . Tuka adored his brother and strove to emulate Shinsu by immersing himself in martial drills whenever he had time away from household chores. Much of Sangheili culture revolved around celebration of the ; like many children from impoverished families, Tuka received basic education at -sponsored missionary schools. Immersed in the sacraments and rhetoric of -worship, Tuka dutifully worshipped the Covenant's gods but struggled to reach a deeper spiritual connection with his faith. The youth wisely kept such doubts secret from his family and teachers, though he frequently feared for the state of his soul.
House Refum's fortunes seemed to shift when a string of good news reached the keep. Sesa was appointed head of an article retrieval detachment assigned to the famed —a relatively minor posting for a warrior of his social status but a huge achievement for a clan of lower pedigree. Meanwhile, Shinsu was accepted into the elite ranks of the Covenant's . Tuka and the rest of his family on Sanghelios were enthralled by these achievements. Fayta, emboldened by her mate and son's twin advancements, finally made plans to further Tuka's training and education. But the family's joy proved short lived. inexplicably mutinied, apostatizing from the Covenant religion and publicly declaring that the faith preached by the Prophets across the millennia was false. The Covenant's ruling responded swiftly and brutally. A strike team led by the recently disgraced killed Sesa and all of his followers. The House of Vadam, eager to regain face in light of their kaidon's public humiliation, marked the entire Refum bloodline for extermination. Vadam warriors and agents of the Ministry of Inquisition descended upon the unsuspecting keep and slaughtered everyone present. Fayta gave her life to allow Tuka to escape the massacre. Grieving and terrified, Tuka survived in the wilderness for several days until he was captured by a Vadam patrol. Tuka was saved by the arrival of Shinsu, who had escaped his own execution order and smuggled himself back onto Sanghelios. Shinsu killed the Vadam warriors and freed Tuka, vowing a solemn vendetta upon House Vadam. Shinsu and Tuka sought sanctuary in the neighboring state of . They were taken in by Zurn 'Kotaree, Shinsu's longtime friend and schoolfellow. In order to conceal his identity, Tuka entered service as a page to the Lady Cena 'Kotar, Zurn's sister and heir to the Kotar keep.
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The compounding tragedies that consumed House Refum left Tuka shaken and traumatized. Shinsu had no time or space to comfort his younger brother as he nursed his own grievances and concocted futile revenge schemes against the Vadam. The knowledge that his family had been executed for heresy plunged Tuka into a spiritual crisis. He was forbidden from speaking to the local priests near the Kotar Keep for fear that he might expose his identity. Tuka instead found solace in furtive shrines to the ancestral gods of Sanghelios maintained throughout the keep. These shrines—hearkening to a time before the formation of the Covenant—fascinated Tuka. Cena, who was already engaged in a clandestine affair with Shinsu, took a liking to her new page and saw to it that Tuka was trained alongside House Kotar's prospective warrior-youths. Tuka was eager to impress both his mistress and his brother and applied himself well in training, matching against some of his most capable fellow trainees.
Galactic events moved quickly after the purge of House Refum. Sesa's heresy compounded with the Great Schism that plunged the Covenant into a bloody civil war. Soon the Hierarchs were dead, the Covenant's religion was exposed as a deadly farce, and a chastened Thel 'Vadam returned to Sanghelios to unite his wounded people. Tuka understood very few of these events. Although Thel elevated Sesa as a hero of the Sangheili people and reversed the deadly censure of House Refum, Shinsu resented the continued power of House Vadam all the more and insisted that he and Tuka remain in hiding. The Arbiter's program of reform did not sit well with Sangheili traditionalists still reeling from the Covenant's collapse. Many powerful kaidons accused Thel of using his reforms as a pretext for accruing even more power to House Vadam. Political tensions boiled over and Sanghelios was swiftly embroiled in yet another civil war, this time between the rival great houses. Sheltered in the Kotar keep, Tuka knew little of the wider stratagems and knew only that Shinsu refused to end his vendetta against the Vadam. Eager for revenge, Shinsu joined the ongoing war and helped to found a conservative militia called the Sons of the Preserving Blade. Tuka followed his brother's battlefield exploits with awe; Shinsu's prowess in battle soon earned him the moniker "Black Knight of Sanghelios."
As the raged on, Shinsu rescued an orphaned peasant named Pula and brought her back to the Kotar keep to serve as one of Cena's handmaidens. Tuka befriended Pula while Shinsu, increasingly influential in the diverse coalition arrayed against the Vadams, rallied more warriors to to the ranks of the Preserving Blade. Shinsu insisted that Tuka continue to train as a warrior; a curious Pula joined the training as well and proved herself a capable fighter. The Sons of the Preserving Blade waged a brutally effective guerilla war against the Vadam. Their battlefield success made them a key target for the . Back at the keep Tuka was horrified to learn from Cena that Shinsu and the rest of the Preserving Blade had been crushed in battle with the Swords. Unbeknownst to Tuka, Cena herself had orchestrated her own lover's defeat to save House Kotar from the wrath of Vadam agents. Although his warriors were massacred Shinsu himself survived the catastrophe and learned of Cena's treachery. He rallied his remaining followers and descended upon the Kotar keep in a black fury. Tuka once again found himself at the center of a bloody keep massacre. He found Shinsu standing over Cena's body with a drawn blade. As his warriors sacked the keep Shinsu coldly justified his actions as necessary retribution for Cena's betrayal. Tuka denounced his brother in disgust and tried to flee the scene with Pula, but his friend instead pledged herself to Shinsu's service. Tuka fled alone into the wilderness as Shinsu's followers razed the keep and brought House Kotar to a bloody end.
Tuka once again found himself a wanderer in Sanghelios's unforgiving wilderness. Aimless and hopeless, he fell in with a group of refugees displaced by the ongoing civil war. The war-torn landscape was full of bandits and mercenaries preying upon opportunities for plunder. When one such group attacked the refugees Tuka took up arms to help defend his companions. His bearing in combat unmasked him as "keep-trained" nobility and Tuka became a valuable commodity in the eyes of the refugees. Their leader invoked warrior-offering traditions, pledging Tuka's services as a warrior to a gang of vagabond militia led by a disgraced warrior named Roni 'Visag. Tuka now found himself a full-fledged warrior fighting alongside Roni and his mercenaries. His time among the refugees and Roni's warriors exposed him to the hopelessness and spiritual malaise gnawing away at Sangheili society in the wake of the Covenant's collapse. The destruction of the old religious traditions unleashed a deadly cynicism upon the Sangheili people. Serving under the skilled but morally bankrupt Roni made Tuka realize that the Sangheili had become aimless, hollow shells of their old ancestral glory. Although Roni frequently mocked Tuka's youthful philosophizing he took a liking to the young exile and took him under his wing, training Tuka in the more practical elements of soldiering. The militia's travels brought them to an abandoned temple; there, Roni scorned the religions pretensions of the old Covenant and led his warriors in defiling the once sacred ground. Tuka was overcome with emotion at the sight of the profaned temple. In that moment he experienced a deep religious epiphany. He emerged from the experience more convinced than ever that the old gods of Sanghelios desperately desired to restore the dignity of their mortal children.
Before Tuka could make anything of this newfound spiritual conviction, the militia and refugees were set upon by heavily armed warriors in the service of a warlord named . 'Mdama had risen to power by styling himself as "the Didact's Hand" and forging a reborn Covenant in opposition to both the Swords of Sanghelios and its human allies. 'Mdama's Covenant sought to return the Sangheili to galactic dominance through amassing powerful Forerunner weapons and artifacts. The opportunistic Roni signed his warriors' lives over to the Covenant in exchange for a lucrative mercenary contract. Tuka and his fellow warriors found themselves pressed into service and shipped offworld to crew warships in 'Mdama's growing fleet. Tuka would never again return to his homeworld.
===Warrior of the ===
The Covenant spirited their "recruits" away to the mobile training vessel Postulancy's Chorus. Here Tuka underwent rigorous training at the hands of veteran warriors. Jul 'Mdama's Covenant was a volatile mix of imperial veterans, mercenaries, naïve recruits, and unwilling conscripts like Tuka. The Didact's Hand cared little for the lives of Unggoy plasma fodder or Kig-Yar auxiliaries but did seek to hone his Sangheili followers into deadly warriors once more capable of taking the galaxy by storm. Despite the grueling training Tuka was soon accustomed to his strange new surroundings and even grew to enjoy shipboard life. The camaraderie and community of holy warriors enthralled a youth so long devoid of such purpose. But Tuka's excitement proved short-lived. The sacred ideals of the Covenant's religious order was overshadowed by its ruthless pursuit of aggressive conflict. The Covenant's ranks were full of Great War veterans eager to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. The older warriors were contemptuous of their junior counterparts; through their leadership Tuka learned the true horrific nature of the Covenant's warfighting. Tuka's instructors and superiors bragged incessantly of the carnage they had wrought across human worlds and of their intent to carry this crusade on against even their Sangheili enemies.
In addition to his drilling as a frontline warrior, Tuka was drilled in the operation of and other space assault craft. Jul 'Mdama's efforts to secure strongholds and safe harbors for his forces made space engagements key to the burgeoning Covenant's survival. Tuka's first taste of real warfare was as the pilot of a aboard the raiding vessel Absolving Light. Tuka and other greenhorn warriors were assigned the dangerous role of operating the space-capable Elsedda Banshees. These lightly-armored fighter craft were often the first ships sent into battle, usually as screening forces to overwhelm enemy defenses. With no onboard ejection system, a single direct hit against an Elsedda fighter was a death sentence for the pilot. Casualty rates among Elsedda pilots were immense; nearly all of Tuka's friends and creche-mates from the Postulancy's Chorus were killed during the Absolving Light's first rotation raiding human supply routes across the galactic frontier. Only luck and some small skill at the helm of his fighter kept Tuka alive. The young warrior was deeply shaken by the intensity of combat but hid his anguish, knowing that any sign of weakness would invite harsh punishment. After surviving ten harrowing sorties Tuka was assigned as the pilot of a in a raiding lance under the command of a warrior named Huld 'Goran.
The Absolving Light ranged deep into enemy-held space and often dispatched its jump-capable gunboats on long-range raids against human colonies. Huld 'Goran was a ruthless veteran of previous crusades who had committed his life to the renewed Covenant. Tuka flew many sorties under Huld's ruthless command, disabling target ships with the R'shwupa's heavy weaponry before Huld led his boarding party aboard to finish off the crews and loot their cargo. Tuka's skill as a pilot made him invaluable to Huld and his lance, but with the respect of his fellow warriors came horrifying exposure to the Covenant's ruthless tactics. Huld's warriors butchered any humans they found aboard captured vessels that often carried unarmed refugee families. Tuka felt little affinity for his human enemies but the sights of such slaughter reminded him of his own family's massacre and Shinsu's own brutal actions at the Kotar keep. Huld's callousness—common among Covenant officers—repulsed Tuka.
The Absolving Light's raiding vector brought her to the edge of settled space. During a routine patrol Huld's lance investigated a Slispapce pulse and discovered a drifting human transport vessel. The ship offered no resistance but Huld suspected UNSC activity and ordered Tuka to engage the R'swhupa in a routine boarding maneuver. But this time instead of poorly trained security troops and terrified civilians Huld and his team instead encountered two : Cassandra-G006 and Simon-G294. With the help of the Diana, Cassandra and Simon killed Huld and the entire boarding party. The Spartans counter-boarded the Phantom and swiftly overpowered Tuka as he emerged from the cockpit. Tuka's captors debated what to do with the Covenant force's lone survivor. Cassandra favored a swift execution but Simon insisted that Tuka was more valuable alive. Diana interfaced with the R'shwupa and acted as a translator for Simon to interrogate Tuka over his mission, mothership, and the state of the galaxy. During the interrogation Tuka discerned that Cassandra and Simon were themselves renegades and deserters from the human military. On the run with no means of sanctuary and supply, the Spartans desperately needed a means of transportation to a neutral colony.
The Spartans and their captive linked the transport and the R'swhupa's impulse drive systems and fled before the Absolving Light could marshal reinforcements. Behind Tuka's reluctant compliance with his human captors lay a desire to shake free from the Covenant's brutality and seek the will of his gods elsewhere. The Spartans sought sanctuary on the colony of , a melting pot of independent human settlements and Covenant refugees displaced by the Schism. Tuka recommended the planet to the wary Spartans as a place to seek refuge but was also curious of reports of Covenant activity on the planet. During the voyage to Venezia, Tuka worked to better understand his human captors. Cassandra hated Sangheili and rarely spoke to Tuka, but Simon was fascinated with the Sangheili prisoner. The Spartan established a tentative rapport with Tuka, who in turn wished to learn more about humans. The mercy Simon had shown him flew in the face of everything he had once assumed about his enemies. Tuka was also keenly aware that no such mercy would have been shown had his position been reversed.
===The Bombing of Philadelphia===
The arrival of two Spartans and a Sangheili warrior on Venezia's principle settlement of went entirely unnoticed within the bustle of daily activity across the spaceport city. In New Tyne Tuka was plunged into a way of life he could never have dreamed of. He was at once repulsed and fascinated by the enterprise and materialism displayed by New Tyne's lawless inhabitants. The young warrior hired himself out as a day laborer, scraping together enough wages to keep himself fed. Simon and Cassandra went to ground; unable to conceal themselves and guard a prisoner they were forced to let Tuka alone, though Simon maintained sparse contact. Tuka probed New Tyne's Sangheili diaspora for some news of Covenant activity but his questions only won him hostility from refugees who hated Jul 'Mdama and his followers. Tuka wisely concealed his own past. He struggled to build a new life in New Tyne but his earnestness made him an outsider even among his own people. Tuka's efforts were interrupted when Jul 'Mdama's agents finally revealed themselves in a bid to smuggler Forerunner artifacts off-world. At the same time a UNSC strike team descended upon Venezia to apprehend Simon and Cassandra. Tuka barely survived the firefight that erupted when the UNSC and Covenant forces crossed paths. The UNSC emerged victorious from the fighting, capturing both Cassandra and a powerful Forerunner artifact. Tuka helped Simon kill his former teammate Ralph-G299 while the UNSC spirited its prize back to the human homeworld .
Simon was determined to brave any danger in order to rescue his friend. Tuka felt honor bound to aid the Spartan who had spared his life and agreed to help. With Diana's help, Simon and Tuka joined forces with a band of human rebels led by and a smuggling captain named Gavin Dunn. The motley band launched a raid on an ONI blacksite in the Earth metropolis of Philadelphia. The raid was a disaster. Most of the rebels were killed during the fighting; Tuka himself survived to rescue Cassandra, but watched in horror as she destroyed the Forerunner artifact to prevent its use by ONI. The artifact's destruction unleashed a cataclysm that intensified when Diana hijacked a UNSC frigate and rained deadly fire down on the city to cover the surviving renegades' escape. Thousands of humans died in the ensuing firestorm.
The carnage wrought upon the human homeworld left Tuka deeply troubled. He parted ways with Simon—henceforth known as the "Butcher of Philadelphia"—and returned to the Sangheili enclave on Venezia. Tuka now knew that he could not make a life for himself on this planet, even among his own people. He instead entrusted his fate to the gods and surrendered himself to Covenant agents within the enclave. The undercover agents spirited him back to Jul 'Mdama's flotilla where Tuka fully expected to face execution for desertion. But rather than condemnation for his shameful capture, Tuka was instead feted as a hero for his role in the bombing of Philadelphia. The Covenant desperately needed heroes following a slew of defeats at the hands of the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios. Tuka was promoted to the rank of and inducted into the order of the . Though Tuka hated the glory heaped upon him for such a horrifying disaster―a disaster in which he had played only a secondary role―he wisely kept the truth of the matter to himself.
===The Condemned===
As Tuka re-integrated into the Covenant, he was shocked to learn that Shinsu had become a high-ranking warrior in Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. His brother had won a prestigious position within the Didact's Hand's inner circle and now served as 'Mdama's special operations commander. Shinsu tried to draw Tuka into his web of plots but Tuka refused any contact with his elder brother. The extent to which Shinsu had manipulated his position to his own ends only strengthened Tuka's conviction that Jul 'Mdama's Covenant was a hollow shell devoid of any true aspiration to the divine. Tuka's own celebrity within the Covenant proved short lived. During the Battle of Draco III he found himself ordered to advance his lance to destroy a convoy of human refugees. Tuka was panged by conscience and instead pretended to misinterpret the order as a command to hold his position. The lances who obeyed the order were subsequently destroyed by a Spartan-led counterattack. Tuka's actions won him the gratitude of his subordinates but invited the ire of his commander. Inquisitorial inspectors soon spied on Tuka and uncovered evidence of his unorthodox religious beliefs. Tuka was arrested on charges of heresy and dragged before a field tribunal. The tribunal's elders disliked the persecution of a proven warrior and were sympathetic to Tuka, but the young warrior clumsily affirmed his beliefs in the traditional Sangheili divinities and squandered the chance to exonerate himself. The tribunal convicted Tuka of "categorical heresy"; only Shinsu's quiet intervention saved the younger 'Refum from execution. Tuka was instead stripped of his rank and field offices and assigned to the Kru'desh Legion (literally "condemned" legion). The Krud'esh were a disorganized mob of criminals and malcontents often used as disposable troops on dangerous missions. Based out of the run-down battlecruiser Soul Ascension and commanded by a vicious pirate named Kul 'Vellun, the Kru'desh Legion barely functioned as a military unit. Its condemned prisoner-warriors listlessly performed the barest of duties as they awaited death in the next suicidal battle.
The bleak, futureless existence of the Kru'desh Legion battered Tuka's spirit. He began hoping for death on the battlefield, yearning for the apotheosis denied by the corrupt Covenant. He was saved from his ennui-induced recklessness by his friend and comrade Ier 'Barun, who encouraged him to keep faith with his fellow warrior-prisoners. Tuka was also aided by the arrival of his old militia commander Roni 'Visag, who now went by the mocking human pseudonym "Ro'nin." Ro'nin sought plunder and profit through the Kru'desh but recognized Tuka's potential and elevated him to an officer's position. Though such formalities meant little among the Kru'desh the new responsibilities bolstered Tuka. He resumed his duties and sought to keep as many of his subordinates alive as possible.
Tuka's life took another sharp turn when Ro'nin and Ier drew him into a conspiracy within the Kru'desh officer corps. An ambitious warrior named Riq 'Ellash schemed to assassinate Kul 'Vellun and seize control of the legion. Tuka balked at this treachery but was swayed by his friendship with Ier and 'Ellash's promise to reform the Kru'desh into something more than hopeless plasma fodder. He reluctantly joined the coup plotters and during the ensuing uprising 'Vellun and his followers were killed so abruptly and efficiently that Jul 'Mdama hardly noticed the penal legion's change in leadership. True to his word, Riq 'Ellash re-organized the Kru'desh into a more organized fighting force. Tuka was rewarded for his part in the conspiracy with a promotion to the rank of . He mournfully reflected that even he could not escape the mercenary power plays consuming his people's souls.
Under Shipmaster 'Ellash the Kru'desh continued to serve as a punishment detachment, but 'Ellash's greed helped the legion avoid the worst assignments. 'Ellash frequently turned the Soul Ascension away from its assigned course to attack and plunder trade routes along the galactic frontier. The spoils from these raids kept Ro'nin and the other officers loyal. Tuka and his fellow warriors were trained in advanced raiding maneuvers and boarding assaults. Tuka proved his worth in the battles that followed and slew dozens of UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios troops despite his disillusionment with the Covenant's empty cause. During one raiding assault Tuka's lance uncovered a Forerunner signal transmitting from a human merchant ship. The signal led them to the ship's hold, where Tuka made a fateful discovery: a Forerunner "" hidden among other smuggled artifacts. The Oracle claimed to be a messenger of the gods.
At first the encounter with a divine messenger overwhelmed Tuka with religious awe. His veneration swiftly turned to suspicion when upon returning to the Soul Ascension Riq 'Ellash immediately seized possession of the artifact and refused to let it address the legion. A watchful Tuka soon noticed a change in his shipmaster. 'Ellash began spending countless time alone in private "consultation" with the Oracle. The Oracle's guidance led the Kru'desh to even greater discoveries of Forerunner relics—discoveries that 'Ellash used to enrich himself and his officers with trade on the frontier's black markets. 'Ellash's command style grew harsher and he alienated much of the legion by seeking out riskier assignments to raise his standing in the Covenant inner circle. After one particularly bloody engagement resulted in the loss of half Tuka's lance, the young warrior's grief swiftly turned to anger. He and Ier began seeking ways to undermine 'Ellash's leadership. Tuka also discovered that Ro'nin had begun secretly contacting the Oracle without 'Ellash's knowledge.
After the Covenant's disastrous defeat at Fell Justice the Kru'desh performed rearguard salvage duties in the battlespace. Acting on the Oracle's strict instructions, Ro'nin and a team of handpicked mercenaries boarded a ruined . Ro'nin returned to report that nothing of value had been salvaged, then promptly sealed off a secluded sub-deck. Tuka's efforts to investigate the anomaly were thwarted by the Oracle, who now wielded a great deal of authority over the Kru'desh. 'Ellash was increasingly paranoid and refused to listen to Tuka's concerns over Ro'nin's behavior. Tuka's "amateur spying" did not go unnoticed. He was seized by Ro'nin's mercenaries but spared after Ier intervened on his behalf. Ro'nin inducted the confused Tuka into a conspiracy against Riq 'Ellash. Ro'nin then revealed two truths that changed the course of Tuka's life. The Oracle was indeed false; the construct inhabiting the Forerunner shell was none other than Diana, the AI Tuka had met during the assault on Philadelphia. The second truth was even more shocking: Ro'nin had recovered Tuka's human friend Simon-G294 from the ruined carrier and was now nursing him back to health in the bowels of the Soul Ascension.
===In A Demon's Service===
Tuka now had no choice but to enter into the conspiracy fermenting aboard the Soul Ascension. He did not trust Ro'nin or Diana, but to betray them was to betray Simon. Drawn deeper into the planning, Tuka learned too late that Diana was in contact with Shinsu's agents and that Simon's survival was yet another strand in his brother's web of plots. Simon himself had been brutally changed by his near death experience and torture at Ro'nin's hands. Though he welcomed Tuka's company, "Stray" was determined to follow through with Diana's scheme to install him as the commander of the Kru'desh Legion. When the time came to put the conspiracy into action Stray played his part ruthlessly. Tuka joined the other conspirators in slaughtering 'Ellash's friends while Stray himself assassinated the unsuspecting shipmaster. Ro'nin used promises of more riches and heightened odds of survival to bring the Kru'desh rank and file into line behind their human commander―a phenomenon that was more novelty than blasphemy for the jaded criminals―while Diana continued to play the role of "Oracle" and swayed more reluctant warriors by proclaiming Stray the chosen instrument of the gods. After a tense negotiation with Jul 'Mdama, aided and abeted by Shinsu 'Refum, Stray assumed his place as the first human shipmaster accepted by the Covenant. Tuka feared for the webs Shinsu and Diana wove around his friend but faithfully assumed his place as one of "Lord Stray"'s foremost warriors.
Shinsu maneuvered the Kru'desh under his own command sphere and personally trained Stray in the finer points of commanding a legion and battlecruiser. Tuka, Ro'nin, and the surviving Kru'desh officers received training of their own from Shinsu's agents. Tuka's brother hoped to transform the legion from a motley pirate gang into a sleek fighting force worthy of the old Covenant's special operations forces. During this training Tuka came face to face with his childhood friend Pula; Shinsu had honed the former handmaiden into one of his best operatives. Tuka confronted Pula over her loyalty to Shinsu only to be humiliated during a training duel by Pula's superior bladework. Tuka began to understand the depth of his brother's ambitions, which stretched far beyond his influence in Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. The Cleansing Blade's agenda was nothing less than to steer the fate of galactic Sangheili civilization.
Reformed and retrained, the Kru'desh returned to the front lines and launched a bloody raiding campaign against the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios. Stray proved himself a cunning, aggressive commander and the Kru'desh wrought havoc upon enemy supply lines and isolated outposts. With Diana's tactical support and their new training, Tuka and his fellow warriors swiftly triumphed in battles that would once have become protracted meat grinders. With each victory Diana used her voice as "Oracle" to preach that divine will guided Stray on his path to glory; with each proclamation Tuka grew more uneasy with the role he played in this blasphemous farce. But loyalty to Stray and his comrades, who now enjoyed far greater odds of survival, held Tuka in line.
The Kru'desh took on greater importance as part of Shinsu's "Tranquility expedition," an initiative to seek out and recover Forerunner artifacts. Stray entrusted Tuka with the command of these many expeditions (perhaps believing that Ro'nin and his associates might simply steal and sell artifacts on the black market); during lulls in the Soul Ascension's raiding campaigns Tuka oversaw many excavations on the edges of known space. Upon entering one particular excavated chamber Tuka came into contact with the mystical and experienced a vision that restored his faith in the god's will. Though he knew Diana to be a false prophet Tuka came to believe in Stray as a true instrument of divine favor. A divine will guided Stray to shape the future of outcasts and dispossessed, and Tuka believed the gods had charged him to save Stray from the malignant influences around him. But Tuka's efforts to influence his friend encountered a new obstacle when the Kru'desh rescued another rogue Spartan, Amber-G330 from her prison on Forsaken Solitude. Stray raised his former comrade up as a warrior in the Kru'desh and the violently ambitious Amber soon carved a place for herself in the legion. Tuka feared that Amber would only amplify the forces holding the Kru'desh down as a gang of paid killers rather than a band of noble brothers.
The Soul Ascension blazed a trail of fire across the galactic frontier. During negotiations with the mercenary fleet Tuka and Ro'nin helped Stray secure vital trade contracts for weapons and materiel. Tuka and Stray also purchased and freed several from a Banished slave market; at Tuka's urging, Stray used funds procured from the legion's looting to free hundreds of Sangheili imprisoned in the slave pens. One of the freed slaves, a young female named Mihka, joined the Kru'desh as a pilot. Mihka befriended Tuka and often ferried his lance aboard her dropship. Tuka worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the warriors under his command as mercenaries and outcast warriors swelled the Kru'desh ranks. By now Tuka believed the only path to salvation was to shake free of the Covenant and from Shinsu's influence, but he refused to escape alone: his fate was bound to the Kru'desh, the Soul Ascension, and their human commander.
===The Imperial War===
In 2558 the Kru'desh Legion traveled to the Imperium of Clarity to aid warlord Toru 'Makhan against a massive assault by UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios fleets. During a pitched battle on Montak, Tuka's Phantom was shot down and he rallied Kru'desh survivors as the enemy closed in around them. Tuka withstood the UNSC assault―including a brief encounter with the Spartan Merlin-D032―until Stray arrived with reinforcements. The bloody fighting on Montak led to further troubles for the Kru'desh when a UNSC AI infiltrated and crippled the Soul Ascension. Tuka helped repel Spartan boarders and defended the ship's Huragok from Diana when she blamed them for the catastrophe. Stray took Tuka's side and unwittingly fermented a rift between himself and Diana. The Imperium of Clarity was ultimately defeated; the Kru'desh used Toru 'Makhan's last stand as a chance to raid the Imperium's arsenal of Forerunner artifacts. The information recovered from the Imperium led the Kru'desh to a remote outworld where Tuka's excavation teams unearthed a powerful . Diana triumphantly seized control of the Guardian and Tuka feared the power this false prophet now wielded.
In the aftermath of the Imperial War Tuka grew more confident in using his influence within the legion's ranks. He and Ier rallied younger warriors to stand up to Ro'nin's mercenary cabal. Inspired by practices he had witnessed in Toru 'Makhan's forces, Tuka also organized the Soul Ascension's Unggoy crew and worked to ensure better working conditions for the downtrodden "Grunts." Tuka fully believed in the legion's divine purpose to forge a new, better path for themselves. But disaster loomed on the horizon for both the Kru'desh and the entire galaxy.
===Two Mutinies===
Shortly after the Imperial War, Tuka followed intelligence from Diana to raid an research facility. There his forces recovered Juno, Diana's "sister-AI," and imprisoned her aboard the Soul Ascension. The Kru'desh gathered more strength even as the Covenant suffered repeated setbacks on the battlefield, but Stray manifested symptoms of a deadly disease with no discernable cause or cure. He and Tuka's search for a cure led them to a laboratory on the independent colony . While Ro'nin and Amber led the Kru'desh in an assault on a frontier colony Tuka and Stray led a small strike team to Talitsa. The raid ended in disaster when Stay found himself confronted and defeated by Cassandra-G006. Tuka saved his badly wounded commander and they retreated to the Soul Ascension. But dire news awaited upon their return: Jul 'Mdama had and the Covenant was swiftly disintegrating into warring factions. Amber used Stray's defeat to incite a mutiny against his command; Ro'nin and his mercenaries backed her power play, betraying Stray as easily as they had betrayed their previous shipmasters. Tuka was helpless to defend his friend, but Juno's intervention allowed her and Stray to flee the ambush. Diana now abandoned all divine pretenses; she and Amber consolidated their power, rallying Covenant survivors and assembling a flotilla centered around Diana's Guardian. As the plunged the galaxy into chaos the mutineers established the Free Domain and declared themselves free of all rulers and constraints.
Tuka refused to let his dream for the Kru'desh die. He rallied Ier, Mihka, and much of the Soul Ascension's crew. With the help of the Huragok, the Kru'desh loyalists wrested control of the ship from Diana and fled the Free Domain. Now the Kru'desh faced a crossroads: Ier wanted the newly liberated legion to strike out on its own but Tuka insisted that they remain loyal to their defeated commander. But with no means of tracking Stray and desperately low on supplies, Tuka was forced to swallow his pride and turn to the only person who could help. The Soul Ascension rendezvoused with the Fleet of Cleansing Fire, a massive armada under Shinsu 'Refum's command. With the Covenant defeated Shinsu had brought the Cleansing Blade out of the shadows to oppose the Created and rallied hundreds of ships to his cause. Tuka humbled himself and submitted to his brother in exchange for succor for his beleaguered legion. The Fleet of Cleansing Fire sailed to Talitsa, which now labored under the authoritarian protection of the Created. While Shinsu's fleet engaged the Created, Tuka and the Kru'desh descended to the planet to recover Stray. Their shipmaster had once again re-invented himself as "Simon Venter" in order to rally human rebels. The Kru'desh rescued the commander, Juno, and rebel survivors before retreating alongside the Fleet of Cleansing Fire. Tuka once more pledged allegiance to Stray―now Venter―as the Kru'desh welcomed human recruits into their ranks. As the Kru'desh took refuge within Shinsu's fleet, Tuka and Mihka acknowledged long-simmering passions and became lovers.
Though Tuka resented his brother's ill-gained pre-eminence he believed more than ever that the hand of the gods moved behind Simon's actions. The miraculous nature of the Spartan's survival and return to power was proof of divine favor. Tuka faithfully accompanied his friend to the Gilgamesh system, where the Kru'desh fermented infighting among the ranks of human rebels. Simon's manufactured civil war brought many disaffected Insurrectionists under Shinsu's command. As more humans swelled the Kru'desh ranks Tuka worked to reform the legion into a modern, integrated fighting force. Simon's quest for the Silent Garden brought the Kru'desh to the Created-aligned colony of Le Havre. After a protracted siege the legion again emerged victorious and Tuka accompanied Simon to a Silent Garden access node beneath the colony. There the commander received a vision of a great battle on the Sangheili holy world of Archangel's Rest. Now even Simon began to share in Tuka's unshakable faith that a divine will pre-ordained Kru'desh victory.
===The Battle of Archangel's Rest===
The Soul Ascension joined a Cleansing Blade task force dispatched to invade Archangel's Rest and seize its Forerunner temples from the Created. During preparations for the assault Tuka was mortified to learn that Ier and several long-serving Kru'desh officers now doubted Simon's leadership. Tuka talked his friends down from drastic action. Overburdened by his responsibilities, Tuka finally dropped his guard and consummated his feelings for Mihka during the voyage to Archangel's Rest. The encounter left Tuka conflicted but more determined than ever to win a future where his loved ones could live free.
The expedition to Archangel's Rest arrived only to be ambushed by the Created-controlled dreadnaught Eternity. Much of the strike force was destroyed; while the Soul Ascension scored a crippling hit on the Eternity she was badly damaged and forced into a crash-landing on the icy surface below. Tuka rallied the legion to save the grounded vessel as a furious blizzard raked the planet's upper hemisphere. Trapped by Sangheili and Jiralhanae armies loyal to the Created, Simon elected to launch a desperate ground assault on the Baran Keep, ancient home of Archangel's Rest's ancestral stewards. The commander ordered Tuka to remain behind with a small force to hold and repair the Soul Ascension. Tuka was dismayed by the order but loyally held back with Juno while the rest of the legion disappeared into the driving blizzard. Tuka led his repair crews on long, sleepless shifts to restore their armored sanctuary. He prayed desperately for the gods' aid and deliverance as the situation grew grimmer with each passing day. Messengers from the main Kru'desh force arrived with grim news: the legion was bogged down and outnumbered by Created forces. Worse still, Ier 'Barun had attempted a mutiny and been executed. The news of his friend's death nearly drove Tuka to despair. But new hope emerged when the blizzard began to lift and gave the Kru'desh a chance to raise the Soul Ascension from her icy prison.
Tuka agreed to let Juno attempt a risky engine-flair to raise the ship. Against all odds the maneuver succeeded and the Soul Ascension sped to the aid of the embattled Kru'desh. Tuka brought the battlecruiser to bear against House Baran, shattering the Created armies and relieving the beleaguered Kru'desh positions. Tuka took to the field and discovered that Simon was hard-pressed by surviving Created forces. He raced to his friend's side in a sacred forest outside the Baran Keep. Together they faced the renegade Spartans of Fireteam Gravity. In the desperate battle that followed Tuka killed Citlali-D151 but was mortally wounded by Loic-D066, who was in turn killed by Simon. Tuka died in the shadows of the sacred trees, content that he had remained true to himself to the very end.
===Legacy===
In the battle's aftermath, Tuka and the rest of the Kru'desh dead were buried with honors in the sacred grove. Simon was deeply wounded by his friend's death and later blamed his own reckless tactics for Tuka's demise. Nonetheless, Simon later schemed to use Tuka's children by Mihka as political tools. This course of action brought the Kru'desh into conflict with both Shinsu 'Refum and with "legitimized" survivors of House Refum aligned with the Swords of Sanghelios. Simon later attributed Tuka's death to his decision to relinquish command of the Kru'desh Legion.
Though he died prior to the Kru'desh Legion's greatest victories and their establishment of an independent enclave on Furthest Point, Tuka became a central figure to the historiography and mythmaking that developed around the legion. Several important sites around the enclave were named in his honor, as was the Tuka's Faith. Most historians agree that Tuka's actions were essential to the Kru'desh Legion's survival. Sangheili historian Edam the Elder wrote: "Without the stalwart faith of the younger 'Refum, Simon Venter would have perished in ignominy and the Kru'desh would have been nothing more than another gang of pirates and thieves. The Kru'desh and the countless lives saved by its actions owe an incalculable debt to Tuka 'Refum."
Historians favoring Shinsu 'Refum's Cleansing Blade reform movement and those aligned with the Swords of Sanghelios were more critical of Tuka's endeavors. The former faulted him for failing to show proper deference to his elder brother and kaidon while the latter saw him as merely one more free-thinking revolutionary who complicated efforts for Sangheili unification under the House of Vadam. Many were also critical of Tuka's unwavering faith in Simon Venter, a man whose opportunistic maneuvering wrought destruction upon many venerable Sangheili families and institutions. These critics were apt to characterize Tuka's faith as naïve at best and opportunistic at worst. Shinsu 'Refum himself rarely spoke of his younger brother, but stories circulated that the supreme commander of the Cleansing Blade was deeply moved by his brother's death. The once-secular Shinsu come to understand his brother's death in deeply spiritual terms, believing that Tuka had died in his place. Historians attribute this conversion to the moderation of Shinsu's more hardline positions in his later career.
Despite their noble pedigree Tuka's children largely shunned the political spotlight. His son Adin founded a monastic community on Archangel's Rest not far from the sacred grove where Tuka was buried. The warrior-monks who congregated there sought to honor Tuka's memory by healing the deep wounds generations of warfare had left on the Sangheili people. Edam the Elder concluded: "Tuka 'Refum stands foremost among the Lost Generation of Sangheili ill-fated to come of age during the Blooding Years. These youths were held of little account by their elders, their lives offered as kindling upon the flames of ambition. But Tuka 'Refum never succumbed to bitterness or despair. He sought a better way. He pledged his life to his comrades; he served his gods and his conscience even when doing so cost him dearly. He carried his burdens and strove for justice with no expectation of reward or glory. Tuka 'Refum represented a better Sangheili, one that lived before—and, thanks to warriors like him, after―the dark age of the Covenant and the long night of Schism."
==Personality and Traits==
Throughout his life Tuka was known as a friendly and amiable man faced with the heavy burden of House Refum's conflicted legacy and the high expectations for any aspiring Sangheili warrior. Despite—or perhaps because of—the hardships he endured, Tuka never lost his vibrant loyalty and passionate desire to live a righteous, virtuous life. He deeply admired the nobility of ancient Sangheili heroes and firmly rejected the deep cynicism that pervaded Sangheili culture during the Blooding Years. This cynicism manifested in the realpolitik machinations of Tuka's brother Shinsu and led Tuka to reject the cold ideals of the elder brother he had once admired. Drawn to the ideals of duty, loyalty, and piety found in old pre-Covenant legends, Tuka devoted himself to a deeply personal spiritual journey bent on discerning the will of the gods in an age marred by secular doubts. This journey led to Tuka's unlikely friendship with Simon-G294, himself an outcast isolated from his own people. Though Tuka's life was largely outside of his own control he nonetheless remained faithful to his own understanding of the gods' desires.
Though Tuka proved himself an able warrior, he was troubled by the act of killing and rarely shared in the battle-thrill celebrated in many Sangheili military circles. Tuka was a capable leader and it was largely thanks to his diligence that the Kru'desh Legion survived Amber-G330's mutiny. Tuka's administrative skills allowed the legion to rebuild and re-arm as well as to evolve its institutional culture to accommodate the influx of human legionaries during the Created Crisis. Tuka's stewardship of Yearns to Soar and the rest of Soul Ascension's Huragok allowed the enigmatic creatures to flourish and gave the Kru'desh an edge that lasted long after his death.
Though remembered and well regarded for his humble and generous nature, Tuka possessed a stubborn impetuousness that often clouded his judgement. His dalliance with the commoner Mihka was one such slip, and his faithful devotion to Simon-G294 remained a mystery to all but Tuka's closest friends. Tuka knew full well that the renegade human was a charlatan but even so he remained convinced that the gods had chosen Simon for a divine purpose. Personal loyalty overcame the strongest mores of Sangheili society and drove Tuka to sacrifice everything—honor, prestige, and his very life—in the name of friendship and the convictions of a higher calling. Simon himself honored Tuka's memory by ensuring that many spaces around the Kru'desh enclave on Furthest Point were named in honor of his fallen friend. Even more significantly, decades after Tuka's death the sacred colony world Archangel's Rest became known, first in local parlance and then through official decree, as "Tuka's Rest."
==Equipment==
During the Blooding Years Tuka survived combat wearing the paltry scavenged war gear typical of hapless militia conscripts. After his elevation within Jul 'Mdama's Covenant and forced assignment to the Kru'desh Legion he wore the traditional . He continued to wear this harness even after rising through the legion's ranks as a show of solidarity with his fallen comrades (and due to supply shortages within the Kru'desh armories). Tuka often sallied into battle wielding a and . The towering reputation of Shinsu 'Refum as a nigh-peerless blademaster often led others to assume that Tuka shared his brother's prowess, but the younger 'Refum possessed only a passing skill with the blade. Tuka also carried a traditional , forged during his boyhood on Sanghelios. Tuka was buried with this weapon, which was eventually exhumed by Tuka's son Adin during his first pilgrimage to Archangel's Rest and became an heirloom for the order of warrior-monks who strove to honor Tuka's legacy.
==Trivia==
DT FOTM July2024 - Tuka Refum.png|Fanon of the Month (FOTM) Card earned in July 2024 for Tuka 'Refum by .
==Literary Appearances==