Fero 'Guraza

Fero 'Guraza (Oracle Code:SC58-T2342-211) is a Sangheili born in 2504 on a remote Sangheili colony that bordered to held territory. Growing up on such a remote planet gave him a special view on standard Sangheili traditions due to being raised alongside many Lekgolo colonies that didn't really share the Covenant's religious fanaticism as the rest of the species. Fero eventually turned out to be a capable warrior and leader and left his home behind and traveled to , the homeworld of the Sangheili race, to train further and to prove his worth to join the Covenant military. Fero's first military campaign became the and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the Lights of Sanghelios. He briefly joined the Swords of Sangheilios after the war and the betrayal of the and before he left them with a large force of other Sangheili and formed the Black Hands mercenaries.
 
==Biography==
===Early years===
Fero 'Guraza grew up on a remote Sangheili colony near the border to Lekogolo controlled space. A planet that often received Lekgolo merchants and visitors but was otherwise left to itself. Fero was raised with a rather open and carefree childhood compared to that of other Sangheili on the more important Sangheili worlds. Due to this and the influence from the Lokgolo colonies he spent most of his free time with, he became less fanatic than most Sangheili his age. He did, however, grow bored of the tiny colony and wished for a more exciting life where he could travel around the stars. To fulfill his dream, he trained hard and long into the nights to become a strong and capable warrior. Many years of hard training later he felt that he was ready to leave his home and travel to Sanghelios where he would train further and join the Covenant military. 
 
When he arrived to Sanghelios he was lucky to be able to enter a military academy after he proved his strength and combat capabilities against other initiatives that wanted to train there too. Fero proved very capable even when he had at first been laughed at by the others from coming from such a backwater world. He bested most of them and managed to come in as the eighth best initiatives. Fero trained there for the next two years. The training was tougher than anything he had ever done back at home but forced himself to endure it even when their "drill sergeant" pushed them far over the limits of normal regulations and standards. He more often than not went to sleep beaten, drained, and hungry just to wake up for another day of the same hard treatment as the last one. In , the last year of his training, news of a holy war arrived at the academy. The , and by extension the , had declared war on for being heretics. Though Fero thought little of the heretical part compared to his trainee comrades he was very excited for the coming war and the honor and fame he could earn in it. Fero pushed himself even harder than he normally did with great eagerness, much to his drill sergeant's dismay and annoyance. "You're going to get yourself and the rest of your lance killed before you even get to kill one of those ." his drill sergeant often yelled at him before he forced him to double his training drills if Fero still had so much energy to spare.
===The first battle===
Fero received the rank of Minor in the closing days of 2525 and was shipped off with the other new recruits. They were to take part in the . While the Covenant fleet tore through the pitiful defenses were Fero and other Covenant land forces quickly dropped from orbit to battle against the human ground forces. Fero threw himself into the fray with great excitement, a mistake he learned all too well not to repeat. While the battles were short, they were still intense for the small force of young Sangheili warriors who were all to fired up in the heat of battle. Fero, however, came to his senses and realized that despite the technological gap between them, the humans could still hurt them. Fero could only watch as his brothers-in-arms threw themselves into hails of bullets that tore through their shields and armor, slaughtering many of them before they ever got close to the human line. Fero himself received two flesh wounds on his right arm when concentrated fire from three human soldiers dropped his energy shield before he could find cover. Eventually, he managed to sneak up to the human line of defense and take out a couple of LMGs that had suppressed the Covenant forces. With the LMGs destroyed the Covenant troops gained the upper hand and quickly overwhelmed the humans' position. Shortly after they had pushed the humans out of their entrenchment came the order to withdraw from the planet so that the victorious Covenant fleet in orbit could glass the planet.
 
After the battle and the glassing of the planet were honors and awards handed out. Fero was promoted to Major for his outstanding abilities to break the human defenses while many of his gravely wounded comrades committed ritual suicide to keep their honor.
===The Human-Covenant War===
Fero partook in a few minor skirmishes against the humans that haven't been worth of note up until where he was part of the ground assault forces to take . The assault on the human colony proved, at first, too overwhelming for the UNSC forces but as the battle dragged out the UNSC defenders sudden received unexpected reinforcements in the form of the local . The human rebels managed to not only to stall the Covenant onslaught but also evacuate thousands of civilians and get them off the doomed planet. To Fero, this mattered little, he had managed to kill dozens of armed humans, UNSC and insurrectionists alike, and dozens more civilians during the battle. He had led his lance, which was now composed of a few Unggoy and a few Sangheili Minor. He managed to lead his lance into many skirmishes that resulted in a great deal of honor for the Sangheili under his command which in turn allowed them to advance to the rank Major themselves. Fero himself received great praise for his deeds during the battle but remained a Major as well for now.
 
Fero would then go on and participate in the near the end of the year 2528. He and his lance were some of the first to make it to the surface of Hat Yai and quickly engaged the human defense forces. As more Covenant forces arrived from orbit, the planet's defenses eventually crumbled and most of its civilian population was slaughtered. Fero then helped organize the Covenant forces in the construction of a military base. The UNSC, however, was quick to respond the attack and send a destroyer to deploy a hundred to take out the base. Although only 88 ODST made it to the surface alive, they were enough, and with the element of surprise, to take the base without any casualties. The commanding officers of Covenant base were killed in the initial assault by the ODSTs. This threw the remaining Covenant forces into disarray but Fero, thinking fast, took command and reorganized the remaining forces and ordered them to fall back for now. Fero received word that Covenant reinforcements had arrived and quickly canceled the order to retreat and instead ordered an assault to retake the base. Unfortunately he wasn't informed of the humans retreat and the incoming nuclear warhead from the human destroyer in orbit. Fero could only watch as his men were wiped out from far away, clear of the nuclear explosion and the shortwave that followed. Fero cursed the humans for their pitiful victory and called a transport to him and his remaining forces off the planet. Though Fero was scolded for the losses of most of the Covenant forces to the nuclear strike, he was also praised for his quick thinking and abilities to take command over such a large force in the heat of battle with no commanding officer to lean on. Much to a few higher ranked officers dismay he was promoted to the rank of Ultra for deeds during both the initial assault on Hat Yai and then the defense of the military base.
 
Fero gladly took the rank of Ultra and the small force that he would command into battle. Over the next four years traveled Fero from battle to battle against the Humans in minor battles up until the in the year where he personally fought with . The two clashed inside a shopping mall early on in the invasion. Randall-037 and unit of marines and local militias were covering civilians to safe zones when Fero and his men attacked. Randall and Fero fought in melee on the 4th floor. Randall managed to pin Fero to the floor and wound the Sangheili with his combat knife but in return received a powerful kick to his midsection that sent him flying a few feet back. Fero got hold of his energy sword again and was about to impale Randall when a rocket fired from a rocket launcher hit the floor next to Fero, almost knocking him out. Randall took the opportunity to escape, believing that Fero was killed in the explosion, and fell back with the surviving marines as more Covenant forces moved into the shopping mall to take from the humans. Fero never saw Randall again for the rest of the battle of Vodin. Near the end of the battle the Covenant was forced to abandon it due to another, more important battle requiring their immediate aid.
 
There would again go many years before the UNSC saw anything significant of Fero but in he reappeared during the . During this battle he commanded a small task force to sabotage human defenses. Fero and his small force were successful in neutralizing long-range communication facilities, power plants and anti-air guns. Fero's and his men's efforts secured many victories throughout the battles on the planet and also kept the casualties at minimum. The San'Shyuum leading the forces on Kholo, the was very pleased with Fero abilities in both terms of combat skills and his abilities to lead his forces to victory. Conviction requested Fero to become an Honor Guard where his skills could be used to keep the San'shyuum safe from harm. Request was accepted back on , the Covenant's holy, mobile capital. After receiving words of his promotion left Fero his forces behind and traveled to High Charity where he was appointed to guard a in the . Although he was far away from the war against the humans he didn't suffer from any lack of battle excitement as the vice minister he was assigned to traveled far and wide in search for relics. Fero and his fellow guardsmen had to fight their way out of many dangers due to the reckless actions of the Vice Minister and indifference towards the lives of his guards. It was during these years of service that Fero was promoted to Light of Sanghelios. Now standing at the peak of his military career he was instead charged with guarding the council chamber where the Covenant dictates the political movements of the Covenant.
===The infection of High Charity===
Fero was greatly angered by the decision to change the guard from the Sangheili to the Jiralhanae. He nonetheless gave up his armor to the Jiralhanae and was given the rank of Field Master. He stayed on High Charity when the San'Shyuum ordered the extinction of the Sangheili race. Fero and a few of his former Lights of Sangheilios comrades were attacked by a Jiralhanae surprise attack but managed to eliminate their hated foes when they engaged them in melee. Arming themselves with the weapons of their dead foes they made their way back to the barracks dedicated to the Honor Guard to rearm themselves with their old and rightful armor and weaponry. On the way to the barracks, however, a infected UNSC , the UNSC , exited slipspace inside the city and crashed into one of the towers above the city. The Flood quickly spread from the crash site and Fero and his fellow ex-Honor Guards had to fight through not only loyalists but also the corpses of their fallen friends and foes. Though Fero lost a few comrades on the way to High Charity's hangers he himself managed to get there with only a few scratches to his armor and a wound to his upper right arm from a crystal shard. In the hangers he helped evacuate wounded or grounded Sangheili to Phantoms while he himself took a to provide what little air support he could give them. When waves of Flood Combat Forms swarmed the streets towards the hangers was he able to kill or slow them enough for the troops on the ground to deal with those that got through his hails of energy fire. He kept this up for a few minutes until a flood form was able to blow off one of his Banshee's wings with a , making him lose control over the craft and crash into a building near the hanger area. Fero was knocked out cold from the impact but had otherwise gotten out of the deal on top. Fero would stay unconscious like this for around ten minutes before he regained consciousness. Dazed and suffering from a concussion. Trying to shake off the concussion and focusing on getting off High Charity he made his way through the building and down on the street. Using all the stealth and sneaky moves he had up his sleeves he managed to evade Flood and loyalist groups. On his way back to the hangers to find anything that could still fly he spotted a downed Phantom. Entering it he found the dead bodies of both Flood forms and Jiralhanae. A dying Jiralhanae sat in the driver's seat but Fero killed him in cold blood and disposed of the bodies before flying the craft out of High Charity. In space, he was almost shot down in the crossfire between the Sangheili and Jiralhanae led vessels but managed to evade a plasma torpedo just before it would have impacted with his Phantom. Hailing a nearby Sangheili vessel he was allowed to land on the ship. Fero was then treated for his concussion but didn't participate in the battle for the time being. He would eventually be forced to return to active service to take command of a ship in the Sangheili blockade of High Charity to keep the Flood contained and prevent it from spreading.
===The Great Schism===
Fero joined the newly formed Swords of Sanghelios as a Field and Fleet Master and led many assaults on Jiralhanae worlds. , the and current leader of the Swords eventually wished to end the hostilities against the Jiralhanae and ordered Fero to stops his attacks on the Jiralhanae. Fero felt that the Jiralhanae hadn't paid enough for their betrayal and ignored the Arbiter's orders. Thel was in the end forced to send other commanders to take control of Fero's forces. Fero refused to stand down and cut his allegiances to the Swords, taking those who was still loyal to him with him deep into uncontrolled space. The Swords tried to locate Fero's small renegade fleet for months but had to give up when war with Jul' Mdama's reformed Covenant grew in size. Left alone by his pressures his once again launched attacks on Jiralhanae worlds, though at a much smaller scale and with much more caution now that his fleet and force only numbered around a fifth of what they had before leaving the Swords.
===Founding of the Black Hands===
It didn't take long for Fero and his small fleet to anger the Jiralhanae enough to send a large fleet of their own after him. Fero managed to evade the Jiralhanae fleet for a few months but he was eventually caught in a nasty trap where his small fleet was pinned between an asteroid field and the hostile fleet pushing their back against the deadly rocks. Quickly realizing that there was no way for him to win this battle he instead ordered his forces through the asteroid field, hoping that at least some of them would make it to the other side and that the Jiralhanae wouldn't dare to pursue. The push through the asteroid field turned out to pay off but at the cost of many ships in Fero's fleet but a few brave Jiralhanae ships tried to pursue but were destroyed either by Fero's ships or the asteroids. Fero's CAS-class Assault Carrier and five other allied ships managed to get relatively intact through the field and with Jiralhanae on the other side. Feeling that he had no chance with fighting his hated enemy anymore he commanded the sorry remains of his fleet to retreat back to . When he got there he began recruiting new troops and paying for the repairs for his small fleet. Unfortunately The repairs cost more than he could pay, forcing his force to stay on Qikost for the time being. Fero, however, was soon contacted by someone who wanted to hire him and his forces for an impressive amount of money. Fero met with this contact, who was no other than Huna 'Chavam. Fero was a bit split with the offer. On one hand he wanted to take her money but he wasn't too happy with binding himself to her services. On the other hand he had no money and his forces would break apart soon if he didn't get them off world soon. Seeing no other short sighted solution he accepted her offer to act as her personal army. Huna. happy that Fero agreed, transferred an outstanding amount of money to his account, more than enough to fix up the fleet and buy high grade military gear for everyone in the army. Humans also recommend that Fero named his army-now-turned-mercenaries. Fero, agreeing, named his newly formed mercenary army the Black Hands. In the 
===In Huna's service===
Fero and his Black Hands didn't waste time sitting around. Huna was quick with finding the Black Hands work. This ranged from attacking other remnant factions, raid storages and retrieve Forerunner artifacts. Under Fero's command and with their high grade equipment the Black Hands proved to be a fearful opponent and they quickly made a name for themselves.
 
==Skills and traits==
*Master swordsman:Over the years, Fero was trained in how to handle an Energy Sword as he rose through the ranks. He never stopped training and polishing his swordsmanship, always pushing the limits of his abilities with the weapon.
*Master spear man:Many of his fellow Lights of Sanghelios thought of the Energy stave to be a clumsy and a very impractical weapon that should only be used in ceremonies or other important occasions. This was not the case with Fero who actually took a liking to the ceremonial weapons and trained intensely with it in the Lights’ train ground on High Charity. Fero eventually developed a style for the Energy Stave that allowed him to fight on almost equal grounds against other opponents wielding Energy Swords or Gravity Hammers that didn't have the range of the stave. When Fero formed the Black Hands he left the Energy Stave behind in favor of the Energy Lance. Though this weapon was much different from the Energy Stave He eventually got a hang of how to handle the weapon as well and once more trained hard to master it. He eventually made the weapon his primary melee weapon and carried it into battle.
*Expert rifleman: Fero was also known for his great skills with many ranged weapons though he prefered mid-to-long range weapons since he rather wanted to go into melee with either his Energy Sword or Lance.
*Skilled strategist:Fero has, in his long military career, been able to improve his tactical and strategic skills. Fero is capable of leading everything from a small lance unit to massive all out war battlefields both on the ground and in space. Fero's skills have often allowed him not only survive the early days in the Human-Covenant War but also played an important factor in securing Covenant ground battles with targeting communication, supply lines and other crucial logistic factors, slowly weakening his enemy before finishing them off. 
 
==Personality==
Category:Sangheili