Minas

Minas is a Jiralhanae chieftain who formerly served within the Covenant military. He was assigned with tracking down Atriox and his Banished during the Human-Covenant War. However, Minas would instead join the renegade faction. In midst of a conflict on the Ark in the summer of 2559, Minas was sent to lead a mission to the Anodyne Spirit, the Forerunner Keyship that had once served as the centerpiece of High Charity.

The hunt for Atriox
Sometime after Atriox first rebelled from the Covenant, Chieftain Minas had been tasked by the High Council with hunting down and destroying the Banished, and bringing the rogue Jiralhanae to justice. Despite failing to see the wisdom in wasting time and resources searching for such an insignificant rebelling faction, Minas followed the orders of the councilors without question. He would lead a legion in a protracted campaign, chasing the Banished as they raided world after world. Eventually, Minas came face-to-face with Atriox and had a brief opportunity to strike a fatal blow to both the warmaster himself and the rebellion that he led.

However, as Minas prepared to deliver the death blow, Atriox told him that everyone must die for something. It is a cost that no one can escape, so someone might as well die for something that they truly believe in—something that they are willing to give their life for. At that moment, Minas decided that he could no longer endure the lies and hypocrisy that he sensed from the Prophets and the High Council. He resolved to die on his own terms. And so, Minas enlisted with the very faction he was sent to destroy.

The Banished
Chieftain Minas served the Banished even after the Covenant's war with the humans came to a close. At some point after the Great Schism, he made his way to Warial, one of the moons of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac. Here he found Choros in the brimstone-dockyards of Ividar Rux, repairing damaged warships. Minas learned that the younger Jiralhanae had worked closely with the Prophets aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought until their lies were revealed for all to see. Recruiting Choros into the Banished, the two of them would serve together for years to come, even being selected by Atriox to accompany him to the Ark in 2558.

While the Banished continued to battle the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire for control of the installation, Atriox decided that he must return to the galaxy to deal with an unknown situation. To do so, he would need a Forerunner slipspace flake to open a portal to a facility rumored to be hidden on Reach, a human colony that had been glassed by the Covenant nearly seven years earlier. Thankfully, the Anodyne Spirit—the keyship that the Prophet of Truth had used to reach the Ark—had been found in an uncontested region that the Banished had dubbed Mahsko. Like all Forerunner starships, its slipspace drive was powered by one of these crystals. And so, Atriox assembled a strike force to infiltrate the Keyship and retrieve the crystal. Minas was assigned to lead the expedition.

The raid on Anodyne Spirit
In June or July 2559, three Phantoms approached the Keyship. It stood among a Forerunner city atop a massive basalt column that rose out of the sea. Minas rode in one dropship with Choros and a third of the strike force while Blademaster Okro 'Vagaduun and Captain Zeretus rode in the other two with their own teams. As the leader of this mission, Minas had each Phantom approach the vessel from a different angle to eliminate the possibility that they could all be destroyed in a single blast, assuming the Keyship's defenses were still active. When its weapons were deemed inactive, he had his Phantom's pilot—Bomarus—approach the vessel's central crux and tell other two dropships to do the same. The pilots stayed with their ships as the three strike teams regrouped at the designated access port. Minas set the Kig-Yar Itka to work opening the port. The weaponsmith had an unusual talent for hacking Forerunner devices.

As the Kig-Yar weaponsmith worked his magic, Minas thought about the previous occasions when a team of armed warriors had forced their way into the Anodyne Spirit. The first time had been during the conflict between the San'Shyuum Reformists and Stoics. The former had broken into the Keyship and used it to escape their homeworld. The second time had been toward the end of the violent war between the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili that ultimately resulted in the formation of the Covenant. Desperate to find a way to combat the seemingly unbeatable Keyship, a team of Sangheili managed to infiltrate the vessel and slaughter a sizable portion of its crew. This event was partly responsible for the eventual truce between the two species. Minas considered the possibility that he might be staring at the very same access point used in both pivotal events.

Itka informed the Chieftain that he was encountering both old and new security measures similar to those used by the Covenant. However, the Kig-Yar bypassed these easily and the access port rumbled open to reveal a dark interior. The strike force cautiously entered the Keyship, finding themselves in a long, empty corridor that went on for over a kilometer. As they trudged on through the darkness, they came to the conclusion that the ship was indeed abandoned. However, 'Vagaduun warned that they should not become too comfortable; the vessel still held many secrets, many of them likely very dangerous. Minas noted that while there may not be any living being aboard, the Forerunners were the masters of autonomous machines. Choros, who had served the Prophets for some time aboard this very vessel, led them deeper in the darkness until they came upon a wall with several doorways. The young Captain led them through the fourth doorway from the left. The force followed a small, dimly-lit corridor into an expansive chamber that held vaulting walkways, all meeting at a lift in the center of the room. Hundreds of transport cylinders sat waiting at the lift to be used to launch personnel up toward the bow of the vessel. Minas found a cylinder that could accommodate all three strike teams. Using a special code from records recently found amidst the debris field of High Charity, Itka activated the lift and the strike force soared upward.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Shadows of Reach
 * Sacrifice