Glyke

"Have you forgotten the strong rivers and thundering winds of the world that we were born to? And all the Sangheili that burned with it?"

- Thars 'Sarov to Rojka 'Kaasan

Glyke, called Sphere of Praise by the Prophets, was a Sangheili colony world that was destroyed by the Spartan-IIs of Gray Team only days after the formalizing of the treaty between the Unified Earth Government and the Fleet of Retribution.

Topography and ecology
Glyke was home to strong rivers, thundering winds, and sandy keeps.

Known residents

 * Rojka 'Kaasan
 * Thars 'Sarov

Human-Covenant war
In the last year of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence learned of Glyke. Operation: SUNSPEAR was conceived of as a retaliatory strike to ensure the Covenant knew its planets could be annihilated as well. Once Reach was glassed by the Covenant, ONI made plans to enact vengeance for not just Reach, but all the worlds that had been lost to decades of genocide. When the Covenant finally reached the Sol system, an emergency order was relayed to Gray Team: Condition Endgame. Seeing as Sanghelios was too well-protected, Gray Team was dispatched immediately to Glyke aboard a prowler, the, to await further instruction. Months passed without any word from the chain of command. Finally, the three Spartans voted amongst themselves to destroy the planet, which was accomplished by covertly landing on its surface and priming a NOVA bomb. The entire planet was ripped to pieces by the nuclear weapon, killing every being on it instantly. Gray Team's prowler just managed to escape the blast so that the Spartans were unharmed, but it was severely damaged and they were forced to evacuate in a Class-5 Bumblebee lifeboat. Aboard, they entered cryostasis.

Thars witnessed the destruction of his home. He would later rebuke Rojka for being away at the time. Residents of the planet who were off-world at the time of its obliteration found themselves without a place to call home, and with the permission of the Arbiter and the UEG, they went with a fleet taken over by Rojka to the planet Carrow.

Post-war
Fleetmaster Rojka 'Kaasan left probes in Glyke's system amidst the debris for nearly six years, until in 2558, one of them picked up a signal emanating from the Spartans' lifeboat. Rojka seized the vessel and brought the three of them aboard his ship in secret. Only a very select few people know the truth about what happened to Glyke. Some are Sangheili allies of the UEG. Many assumed that Jiralhanae were to blame or that the destruction was even wrought as a result of clan disputes on the planet.

Rojka used Gray Team, known to the Sangheili as the Demons Three as a negotiating tool in his peace talks with the UEG and the people of the city Suraka on Carrow, but adamantly refused to release them. When Thars openly rebelled against Rojka, UEG peace envoy Melody Azikiwe, acting under the orders of ONI, managed to release Gray Team from their cryo chambers and they escaped the Unwavering Discipline to Carrow, chased by Rojka with the intention of gaining revenge. Gray Team eventually admitted what they had done to Melody, horrified to learn that Glyke's destruction was after the war's end. During the following battle, Gray Team and Rojka worked together to defeat the common enemy of Thras, the Jiralhanae Chieftain Hekabe and his controlled Sharquoi, causing Rojka to let go of his revenge.

Despite worrying that they could be tried as war criminals for Glyke's destruction, Gray Team was offered a deal by ONI where they would join an interspecies strike force operating in the Joint Occupation Zones and in return, they would be formally pardoned by Thel 'Vadam, the leader of the Swords of Sanghelios. After adding some demands of their own, Gray Team agreed to the deal and were pardoned.

Government and society
Glyke was home to billions of Sangheili residents, both civilians and military. It was a major shipbuilding location for the Covenant, which made it a prized target of the United Nations Space Command when its existence was discovered.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Envoy