Zuka 'Zamamee

Zuka 'Zamamee was a Sangheili Special Operations Officer who served in the armed forces of the Covenant during the final months of the Human-Covenant War. He was assigned to the Fleet of Particular Justice during the Battle of Installation 04, and played an instrumental role in that campaign as a part of numerous unsuccessful assassination attempts on the SPARTAN-II supersoldier John-117.

Battle of Installation 04
In mid-late 2552, Zuka 'Zamamee served in the Fleet of Particular Justice as part of Covenant Special Operations. He was presumably present in the fleet at the Fall of Reach on August 30, 2552 prior to its slipspace jump to pursue the fleeing. As such, he was one of the many Covenant personnel in the fleet to arrive in the Soell system in September of that year and discover Installation 04, in orbit around the gas giant Threshold. On September 19, 'Zamamee was tasked with joining the Covenant boarding action on Pillar of Autumn, and engaged in combat with the ship's internal Marine Corps security complement. During the battle, 'Zamamee led a small group of Unggoy troops until he eventually encountered John-117, who was able to use an MA5B assault rifle to deplete Zuka's energy shielding and wound him. Zuka fell to the floor in pain, prompting the Unggoy following him to flee in belief that their commander had been killed - in which time they were promptly killed by the Spartan themselves (including 'Zamamee's assistant). Some time following his apparent "death", the site of Zuka's encounter with John-117 was stumbled upon by a group of Unggoy troops led by Yayap, who initially mistook the scene as the site of a massacre and would have moved on were it not for 'Zamamee's groaning. After some discussion on whether the Sangheili was worth saving, the group elected to carry 'Zamamee back to their Leech boarding craft for exfiltration and medical attention - something which would ensure the Unggoy themselves would be able to avoid seeing further combat aboard Pillar of Autumn.

After recovering from his injuries, 'Zamamee was impressed to learn of the Unggoy's initiative in saving a commanding officer and elected to visit the placeholder Unggoy barracks on the ringworld's surface. Rather than punish Yayap for cowardice, as had been feared by the Unggoy, he deigned to show his appreciation by transferring Yayap out of the regular infantry and into the ranks of Covenant Special Operations to serve as his replacement assistant. After instructing Yayap to pack his belongings and make his farewells with his brethren, he informed the Unggoy of his worries about the danger of the Spartan who had wounded him and his plans to kill him. Later that day, he attended a meeting with the Council of Masters aboard Truth and Reconciliation (a which had been damaged in the space battle landed on the ringworld for repairs) where he pitched this plan to Soha 'Rolamee and the Minor Prophet of Stewardship (among other unnamed Sangheili staff). Ultimately, the request to take leave of his unit and conduct a special mission was denied with the Prophet claiming 'Zamamee's reports on the danger posed by John-117 to be "combat-induced hysteria".

'Zamamee was later recalled by the Council of Masters late in the evening of September 19 following a raid on Truth and Reconciliation led by John-117, in which he had been able to personally inflict six-score casualties on the Covenant defenders and rescue a prisoner of war, Captain Jacob Keyes, from the ship's brig. After seeing the potential damage that a SPARTAN-II was capable of inflicting first-hand and confirming this with reports from other engagements with Spartans from the Fall of Reach, the Council of Masters reversed their prior decision and granted 'Zamamee leave to take any resources he required and eliminate John-117 at any cost.

Hunting down the Master Chief
After being given permission to take on his mission of hunting down the Spartan, 'Zamamee proceeded to study the security recordings from Truth and Reconciliation, and used this to try and determine where he may strike next. Believing the Covenant battle network to be compromised, 'Zamamee carefully seeded a number of references to the installation's map room, or Cartographer, with the hopes that these references would be picked up by Cortana and used to guide John-117's next target. This led 'Zamamee to establishing a trap inside the security centre of the Cartographer consisting of two Mgalekgolo and a lance of Unggoy led by Yayap. As the Master Chief emerged into the room, the trap was sprung and the two Mgalekgolo proceeded to engage - with the second knocking 'Zamamee to the floor in the process. A misfire from Linglin then resulted in the death of one of the Mgalekgolo and a general confusion among the Covenant troops in the room, resulting in 'Zamamee retreating to hide inside one of the supply cases and pulling Yayap in with him - hoping to go unnoticed while John-117 finished off the remaining Covenant left in the open.

'Zamamee later escaped the Cartographer island ultimately unscathed and was able to return to Truth and Reconciliation to report his failures to the Council of Masters only to be greeted with the now-decapitated head of Soha 'Rolamee - who had been executed by the Minor Prophet of Stewardship for his failures to contain the recent outbreak of the Flood on the ringworld and displayed to Zuka as a warning of the consequences for repeated incompetency. With the warning sufficiently administered, Stewardship demanded 'Zamamee explain his future steps in assassinating John-117 - with the added note that 'Zamamee would only leave the room alive if his answer sufficiently convinced the Prophet that it may work. Against these odds, 'Zamamee was successful in this endeavour and went on to proceed with his second assassination attempt on the Master Chief. Unlike before, he no longer held visions of glory but reminders of 'Rolamee's severed head staring at him.

The second plan attempted by 'Zamamee was to involve an attack on Alpha Base - the primary centre of operations for the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper battalion deployed from Pillar of Autumn and a critical location that had been taken from the Covenant during the initial landings on the ringworld. In the early hours of September 21, a deception was built in the wilderness of Installation 04 depicted a Ghost which had crashed and been destroyed, with (an enthusiastically beaten-up) Yayap placed among the debris to lie in wait and pretend that he had been ejected from the vehicle. This was done to allow the humans to eventually stumble upon the scene and take Yayap prisoner, at which point he would serve as a spy within Alpha Base and alert Zuka to the presence of John-117 when he returned from his mission.

When Yayap did eventually see the Master Chief inside the base and activate his alert, it was another six units before 'Zamamee was able to finally begin his attack. Using a D77-TC Pelican that had been captured during the earlier battle, 'Zamamee was able to intimidate the prisoner pilot Rick Hale into faking a transmission to Alpha Base requesting clearance to land, while a number of Special Operations Sangheili troops in the troop bay of the dropship were prepared to deploy. Once satisfied with Hale's communications, he executed the pilot with an energy garrote and then instructed one of the Sangheili to take his place and guide the dropship in for landing. The moment the dropship touched down, the Special Operations troops disembarked and began an attack on the base's landing pads with the aim of holding them long enough to allow a flight of Spirit dropships to land with reinforcements. While the wider objective of the attack was to retake Alpha Base for the Covenant, 'Zamamee and his file of five other Spec Ops commandos instead had a different mission - to stealthily infiltrate the base while the defenders were distracted by the main battle above and finally hunt down John-117. While they moved from room to room and slaughtered any human they came across, they did not find the Spartan due to his having left the base some time prior to the attack.

'Zamamee eventually found Yayap's cell deep inside Alpha Base and used a to breach the cell and recover the Unggoy - though only so he could lead the team to the Spartan. Fearing for his life, Yayap instead lied to 'Zamamee and informed him that Master Chief had been assigned to guard a number of captured Banshees, and that the commando team should head there to find him. In reality, the Spartan was presently occupied with dealing with the Flood outbreak elsewhere on the ring. 'Zamamee's team encountered several more Marines on their way to the Banshee pads, resulting in the deaths of all but 'Zamamee and Yayap, while listening to the communications of the larger battle. As such, 'Zamamee knew that Field Master Noga 'Putumee's assault had been repelled and was now realising he needed to find a way to escape the facility. Once he arrived at the Banshee landing pads, 'Zamamee realised that this effort had too been a failure and that he had been lied to by Yayap. The Unggoy proceeded to draw his plasma pistol and aim it at 'Zamamee, reasoning that the deception was necessary due to 'Zamamee's knowledge of how to fly a Banshee - something which could be used to flee the base. While 'Zamamee threatened the Unggoy for the treachery, he did submit due to his position, and proceeded to fly the two away from the battle.

Exile and death
While unwilling to be threatened by Yayap, 'Zamamee did concede that the Unggoy was right, and that he had no plans for what to do now that he had failed in his task yet again and would be punished should he return to Covenant command. As such, he decided to listen to Yayap's advice and travel to the crash site of Pillar of Autumn - electing not to simply kill Yayap due to his genuine fear of what punishment the Council of Masters may inflict on him. Yayap's plan was relatively simple; 'Zamamee would take on the alias of Huki 'Umamee (a commando who had been killed in the Alpha Base raid) and present himself to the Autumn's security complement as a prisoner who had managed to flee human captivity in the raid. Yayap reasoned that the overstretched Covenant troops on the downed cruiser would be unlikely to question 'Zamamee too much, as having a Special Operations Officer on hand was a great boon - and a DNA scan would likely result in such an asset being reassigned by Covenant high command.

As suspected, the commander of the security detachment 'Ontomee was grateful for the presence of a Spec Ops asset among his charge and elected not to press the issue - quickly assigning 'Zamamee (under the guide of 'Umamee) a charge of twenty Kig-Yar with Yayap serving as the commander immediately below him. While working aboard Pillar of Autumn, 'Zamamee lived in fear that he would be found out by a soldier who had either known 'Zamamee or 'Umamee and question the deception, and as such he chose to lie low and delegate most leadership responsibilities to Yayap. 'Zamamee proceeded to play the role of a lethargic security officer for the next day, until the news was broke by 'Ontomee on September 22 that the Master Chief had infiltrated Pillar of Autumn and was on some kind of mission. 'Zamamee was eager to volunteer for the task of hunting down the Spartan once again, and the duty was gratefully assigned to him by the other Sangheili in the command post - believing the task to be the perfect fit for a Special Operations commando. 'Zamamee immediately departed for the task at the meeting's conclusion, and as such missed out on being complimented on his initiative by 'Kasamee. As he prepared to finally face Master Chief, 'Zamamee placed Yayap in the makeshift ops centre set up by the Covenant security force and instructed him to listen to incoming radio traffic and inform 'Zamamee of where to take his combat team - adding that Yayap was the only one he trusted to conduct this task.

After John-117 detonated Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors and began to plan an escape, Yayap was able to accurately deduce the Spartan's planned escape route and feed it to 'Zamamee - informing the Sangheili that he would be able to encounter the Spartan in an elevator leading to the Class Seven service corridor running along the ship's spine. 'Zamamee mounted a inside the elevator and finally met the Spartan in combat - firing a number of plasma bolts at him through the corridor he was heading down. The bolts narrowly missed the Spartan, leading to Cortana remotely disabling the elevator and causing it to hurtle towards the bottom of the shaft. John-117 then threw two M9 fragmentation grenades down the shaft, killing the Unggoy troops aboard and throwing 'Zamamee out of the turret. The elevator's impact at the bottom of the shaft proceeded to heavily injure 'Zamamee by breaking his back and forcing him to look back up at the Master Chief - now in defeat. His final moments were spent waiting for a glimpse of paradise beyond death - which eventually came minutes later with the detonation of Pillar of Autumn and the destruction of Installation 04 as a whole.

Personality and traits
"Beyond this Demon lies my key to the Great Journey. I will find him. I shall be your will."

- 'Zuka Zamamee's notes on his mission to hunt down John-117, as recorded in his journal.

When dealing with his inferiors, such as Unggoy, 'Zamamee displayed arrogant and narcissistic attributes - with Yayap often careful to embellish 'Zamamee's traits when conversing with him. When explaining his plan to join Pillar of Autumn's security complement, 'Zamamee noted Yayap's choice to describe him as a "highly capable warrior" as sounding particularly good to hear, with his restored arrogance also demanding that Yayap carry his equipment for him on the walk. While stationed aboard Truth and Reconciliation, 'Zamamee kept a private journal which detailed many of his inner thoughts and feelings on the situation at hand - oftentimes much more verbiose than the language he used in conversation with his peers. In this journal, 'Zamamee did express some doubts after his initial failures - wondering if his repeated use of Unggoy troops for entertainment or his choice to ignore select tenets of the Covenant religion was responsible for his "punishment" of failure.

In general, 'Zamamee expressed much greater reverence and obsession for the religion he fought under in his journal than in the open, alongside a deep obsession with John-117. Following his encounter with the Master Chief in the boarding of Pillar of Autumn, 'Zamamee purported in his journal that the Spartan haunted his dreams and believed it was his destiny to meet him in combat - seeing the Spartan as a "gift" presented by the Forerunners to test 'Zamamee's resolve and nurture his spirit. This obsession repeatedly manifested itself in 'Zamamee's work - even later on in the Alpha Halo campaign when he volunteered to hunt down John-117 without hesitation despite having the opportunity to back down and hide.

While working, 'Zamamee repeatedly expressed a great enthusiasm for his task - cheerfully humming battle hymns while preparing his ambush in the Silent Cartographer and excitedly encouraging Yayap when initially recruiting him and later tasking him with radio communications.

Production notes
Zuka 'Zamamee is a character predominantly introduced and featured in the novel Halo: The Flood as one of several point-of-view characters used to flesh out the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. In the novel, 'Zamamee is depicted as involved in several events depicted in-game: 'Zamamee's trap inside the Silent Cartographer security room is the combat encounter featured in the structure in the level The Silent Cartographer. 'Zamamee is later depicted as facing off against Master Chief in the game's final level The Maw. In the novel, 'Zamamee is accompanied by a handful of Unggoy and a Shade turret, while in-game there is no Shade and (depending on difficulty) 'Zamamee may be accompanied by several other Sangheili. This article assumes the novel's depiction of events as canon.

Due to his appearance in-game, 'Zamamee has a different look to him in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. In the original game, 'Zamamee is a Spec Ops Elite wearing a black combat harness, while in Anniversary, 'Zamamee shares his appearance with the other remastered Spec Ops troops and employs an infiltration harness design introduced in Halo: Reach. Despite this, Zuka 'Zamamee is generally considered to be canonically reminiscent of his original 2001 appearance. In a Canon Fodder article published in September 2022, an image of 'Zamamee was deliberately featured by Alex Wakeford depicting him in the game's 2001 graphics as opposed to the remaster.

Excerpts of Zuka 'Zamamee's journal were featured in the Adjunct section of the 2010 reissue of Halo: The Flood. In the journal, 'Zamamee displays a religious fervor somewhat at odds with his considerably more worldly characterization in the novel proper.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary