Winter Legion

The Winter Legion is a multiracial faction formed from multiple Covenant Sangheili remnants and several members of the Swords of Sangheilios in the aftermath of the Human-Covenant War. The Winter Legion, much like its far more violent counterpart, the Banished, does not discriminate against race but instead values the life, devotion, and skill of its members, allowing any individual to join. The mission of the Winter Legion is to work to preserve the fragile peace in the post-war period by fighting against the enemies that jeopardize it. This often puts them in conflict with groups such as the Banished, Created, Jiralhanae, various human Insurrectionist movements, Covenant remnants, and the Flood. On certain occasions, the Winter Legion will work the United Nations Space Command to achieve their objectives, but they are recognized as a group operating independently of any other faction.
== History ==
=== Background ===
==== Fall of High Charity ====
As Humanity was being brought down at their homeworld of Earth, the Covenant capital of High Charity was facing a number of rising issues at Installation 05. The Prophets' betrayal of the Sangheili shook Covenant fleetmaster Von' Redonas's faith in the Covenant to his core, but he would have no time to ponder this, as High Charity was soon overcome in fighting between Sangheili, whom the Prophets had ordered genocide on, and the Jiralhanae, who the Prophets were using to carry out said act.
The battle was not contained on High Charity, as in the space around it, the colossal vessel's defense fleet erupted in battle as Sangheili and Jiralhanae-controlled ships fought each other. The entire Fleet of Sworn Allegiance was brought to bear against the Jiralhanae vessels, but all ships in the fleet, including the Ancestor's Judgement, would be destroyed, leaving Von devastated at the loss of his fleet and flagship.
Von managed to flee the station aboard a stolen Covenant vessel with any Sangheili willing to follow him and escaped before the Flood outbreak on High Charity that would see the millions that resided aboard it either killed or infected by the parasites as they spread across the city in the cover of darkness. The former home of the Covenant quickly became the largest hive of Flood ever seen, even coming to host the Gravemind aboard.
==== Battle of Installation 00 ====
After another series of events on Earth, the last of the rapidly crumbling Covenant fled to the Ark, a massive station that was responsible for construction the Halo Array, in the Prophet of Truth's final play to fire the rings and effectively eradicate all life in the galaxy once again. Von and his followers linked up with a coalition of UNSC and the Swords of Sangheilios that planned on assaulting the Covenant remnants to prevent galactic annihilation and end the war for good. Joining the coalition briefly, they began their assault.
The battle in orbit saw the fight rapidly turning in favor of the coalition, with ships of the Prophet of Truth's fleet continuing to fall out of the sky at the hands of the Sangheili Fleet of Retribution, the Sangheili beating the Jiralhanae in knowledge of effective naval warfare.
After an extensive ground campaign, Truth's forces had fled to the Ark's Citadel to make their final stand against the coalition's forces while Truth retreated deep into the facility to fire the Halo Array. The Fleet of Retribution's flagship, Shadow of Intent, advanced towards the Citadel, but the attack was interrupted by the arrival of the Flood-infested High Charity, which arrived via slipspace. High Charity launched debris that crippled the carrier and its weapons systems, forcing the Shadow of Intent to retreat. It also launched Flood dispersal pods and began spreading Flood across the Ark. UNSC commander Miranda Keyes insisted that the Flood's arrival would only pressure Truth into activating the rings, and ordered the remaining ground forces to attack the Citadel.
The final stand of the Covenant was made with a force of hundreds of Covenant soldiers and whatever vehicles they could bring to bear, including two Scarab walkers. A massive battle erupted as Gauss Warthogs clashed with Ghosts and Prowlers around the basin while Hornets and Pelican dropships traded fire with a unit of Banshees and the Scarabs targeted both ground and aerial UNSC forces. With the loss of the two Scarabs, the Covenant lost their hold on the valley and the stragglers were mopped up in short order. With the basin now clear, and little time to waste, John-117, SoS leader Thel 'Vadam, and a team of Sangheili made their way into the interior of the citadel.
The Flood, having arrived at the citadel now and too busy worrying about the danger of the Halo Array, made a brief truce with the coalition to work as the combined force to break the last of Truth's forces in the citadel and stop the end of life in the galaxy. With their combined might, Truth's forces quickly fell and Truth himself was killed by Thel 'Vadam, preventing the Array from being activated again. The battle would continue for several days, seeing mass destruction spread across the Ark while the coalition fought to eliminate the threat of the Flood. This was majorly successful, with the complete destruction of the Gravemind, High Charity being destroyed, and the galaxy saved. Von and his followers were present for most of the battle on the ground, but due to their small size, were overshadowed by the UNSC and Sangheilios forces on the Ark.
==== Formation ====
In the aftermath of the battle, following the Treaty of 2552 being ratified on Earth in February of 2553, Von 'Redonas was offered a position in the Swords of Sangheilios, but turned it down, believing that he needed a lot of time to find who he was. Being one of the most devoutly loyal to the Covenant and the Prophets, the weight of information he had learned in the last few days, about the truth of the Covenant religion and that the ones he fought for had discarded him without a second thought, had heavily impacted his perspective on his existence. His followers, though now extremely diminished in number, followed Von away from humanity and the Swords.
On the 7th of July, 2553, Von believed that if humans were meant to inherit the Mantle of Responsibiliy, that he should work to protect them, and eventually created with his followers the Winter Legion, a small group working to preserve the fragile peace in the post-war period by fighting against the enemies that jeopardize it. This often put them in conflict with groups such as the Banished, Created, Jiralhanae, various human Insurrectionist movements, Covenant remnants, and the Flood. In the hopes of preventing mass-devastation like seen in the Human-Covenant War, the Winter Legion's mission drew in warriors from across countless different races to help contain and control threats before they grew to devastating size.
Though most of the work fighting these factions would be done by the UNSC and the Swords of Sangheilios, the Winter Legion contributed a substantial amount to fighting them as well, severely weakening many of these factions in military and leadership power.
== Military assets ==
The Winter Legion has a wide range of former Covenant and human weaponry at their disposal, including mortars, Beam Rifles, Needlers, Plasma Rifles, and Energy Swords. Their manpower consists of warriors of largely Sangheili species, but warriors from any race are allowed to join. They are also known to use various kinds of armor, painted white and red, for the colors of the Winter Legion, however, leaders of the faction such as Von 'Redonas wear silver armor to denote their status. The Winter Legion uses a mix of both Covenant and UNSC ranks to organize, determining which has power, priority, and what roles they take.
=== Personnel ===
Sangheili
* Von 'Redonas
=== Starships ===
Category:Organizations
Category:Groups
Category:Gamestrider1
Category:Sangheili
Category:Winter Legion