Hekabe

"Our enemies gather overhead. We have sacrificed much to be where we stand right now. But I promise you, it will be the beginning of a new age for our people-for the Jiralhanae. An age where we are finally restored to our proper might!"

- Hekabe inspiring his packs.

Hekabe of Maardoth was a Jiralhanae chieftain who attempted to seize power in the years following the implosion of the Covenant using the Sharquoi.

Covenant Service
Hekabe served the Covenant loyally during its war with humanity. When the Great Schism broke out in late 2552, he was counted among a list of major chieftains that could be relied upon by the Prophet of Truth. He commanded an, Gathering of Praise, at this time. Hekabe took the Gathering of Praise to Earth, where it participated in the battle raging there. When the Excession was activated by the union of it and the Covenant's Forerunner keyship, he trailed Truth through the portal to Installation 00. Upon arrival at the Ark, a handful of ships were under Hekabe's command. The Sangheili Fleet of Retribution surrounded these ships and destroyed them, along with close to the entirety of Hekabe's familial clan, many members of which were aboard at the time. During the battle at the Ark, he broke away from the rest of the Covenant forces and landed on its surface. Prior knowledge he had gained of the existence of a fabled artifact which he believed could be found on the installation had provided Hekabe's true motivation for embarking on the desperate extragalactic journey. Hekabe's faith was rewarded that day, as he managed to retrieve the device he sought, the vertex. His prize secured, he abandoned the other Covenant forces and began the long voyage back to the Milky Way. In the following years, rumors spread of Hekabe and the powerful object he had supposedly come into possession of at the Ark. By 2557, the leader of the Spartan-IV Fireteam Apollo recommended that his risk level be upgraded and that an investigation into his activities be conducted.

Seizing an Opportunity
At some point between 2553 and 2558, Hekabe killed his great-uncle, Remarus, by sneaking up on him and slicing his throat. Hekabe had thought Remarus, the chieftain of their clan at the time, was going to be the death of them all. He had been forcing them to become mired in internecine conflicts and raids. Hekabe's vision of the future was much grander, and so he took matters into his own hands and made himself chieftain by virtue of the murder. From there, Hekabe set his sights on the planet Carrow in the Joint-Occupation Zone. There he would find the Sharquoi, which the Vertex would allow him to control. Hekabe did not share this information freely, of course. When he ostensibly allied with the Sangheili, Thars 'Sarov, to aid him in a revolt against Thars' cousin, Rojka 'Kasaan, there were many Jiralhanae that thought he was mad. They saw him of weak character, and he was forced to kill or outmaneuver multiple political opponents on Doisac in order to rally those who he led and get them to Carrow to assist Thars' uprising. One of the Brutes Hekabe killed at some point was Odanostos, a chieftain that fought for the Banished. Hekabe pried Odanostos' weapon, a gravity hammer called Oath of Fury, from his grasp and killed him with it, making the implement his own. Hekabe's true plans on Carrow, of course, were to ultimately betray Thars and seize power on the planet for himself.

When Hekabe's fleet first arrived above the planet, fighting had already broke out between the Sangheili. The addition of the Jiralhanae quickly turned the tide of battle in Thars' favor. Two s that were protecting Rojka's flagship, the Unwavering Discipline, were obliterated and each of his s were ambushed and summarily set ablaze. Were it not for the arrival of Hekabe and his ships, Rojka might have been able to destroy Thars' four frigates and his s. Hekabe purposefully put his ships in the line of fire but in doing so divided Rojka's fleet. At this time, he also took Gathering of Praise, by this point renamed Foebane, down to the surface and set it down just outside the humans' city of Suraka. After believing Thars had discovered the truth, Hekabe turned his ships on Thars, disabling or destroying Thars' fleet, but losing all but Foebane in the process.

Defeat
With Thars' ships controlled by Hekabe's Sharquoi, Gray Team, Rojka 'Kasaan, Governor Ellis Gass and a small militia unit launched a desperate effort to stop Hekabe. Armed with a makeshift EMP cannon created using an M68 Gauss cannon and the core of a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon, the team stormed the hive and managed to hit Hekabe with an EMP that disrupted his control of the vertex and through it the Sharquoi. With the vertex deactivated, it stopped holding Hekabe together and his wounds from being shot by Adriana-111 began to return. Taking advantage of that, Ellis ripped the vertex from Hekabe's head and took it for herself. In a blind rage, Hekabe attempted to kill Ellis with his gravity hammer, but was stopped by two of her controlled Sharquoi. Enraged that Hekabe was responsible for her son's death, Ellis had the Sharquoi mortally wound him with their claws before Hekabe was tossed into molten lava, incinerating him. Ellis then had the Sharquoi on Hekabe's captured ships destroy them, foiling Hekabe's plot completely.

An echo of Hekabe's mind survived inside the vertex like all of the previous users of the device before him and fought to keep Ellis from detonating a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon to destroy the hive and the Sharquoi. However, Ellis detonated the device manually when it became apparent that she couldn't hold onto control for the entire ten minute countdown. The nuclear blast destroyed the hive, the Sharquoi, part of the city, Ellis and the vertex. The echo of Hekabe's consciousness that survived within the vertex was destroyed along with the device.

Legacy
In 2559, Hekabe, alongside Lydus, Palaemon and Caius, was considered by Castor to be one of the few remaining Jiralhanae leaders capable of rallying the still-pious ex-Covenant Jiralhanae. This likely means that Castor was unaware of Hekabe's death the year prior.

Personality
Hekabe was an opportunist, he favored manipulation and backstabbing to achieve power.

Equipment
In battle, Hekabe armored himself in large and rugged black-crimson powered armor, masked with ornate linework. His helm was that of a Chieftain from the Covenant, and thus characteristically evoked the features of a degaeorth from Doisac. His gravity hammer, Oath of Fury, was a massive weapon.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Envoy
 * Halo: Divine Wind