Bloodstars

The Bloodstars were a Special Operations unit, employed in the Covenant empire's reign and later the Banished. Within the Covenant, the Bloodstars comprised of a single Kai'd, composed of Jiralhanae Stalkers, Special Operations Sangheili, and select Kig-Yar. In early 2526, they were commanded by First Blade Tel 'Szatulai of the Silent Shadow. It is because of this, that the Bloodstars know highly classified Silent Shadow intelligence and tasking. During their missions to gather intelligence on the United Nations Space Command and later to hunt down the Spartans, the Bloodstars were organized into their own flotilla of intrusion corvettes.

Following the dissolution of the Covenant, the remnants of the Bloodstars were absorbed into the Banished, who created a new iteration of the unit and tasked it with a new purpose: hunting UNSC Spartans.

Meeting with traitors
While First Blade Tel 'Szatulai and his squad were scouting the human colony of Amasa in early 2526, they were given a device by a human insurrectionist containing a message from General Harper Garvin of the United Rebel Front. He wished to meet with representatives of the Covenant in an ice quarry of Biko's moon of Seoba. His hope was that they could strike a deal for the survival of insurrectionist-controlled worlds in exchange for information on the United Nations Space Command. Taking this message to Fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee of the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience, 'Szatulai was ordered to meet with the insurgents on Seoba, but to only appease them until their immediate usefulness ran out. The First Blade gathered the Bloodstar Flotilla and left for the Kolaqoa system aboard the Sacred Whisper.

When the flotilla arrived near Seoba on March 19, 2526, 'Szatulai witnessed human stealth craft rising into space to meet them, despite the corvette's instruments being unable to see these vessels. Unbeknownst to him, these were s of the UNSC's Task Force Yama, which had recently captured both the quarry and the rebel leaders that 'Szatulai was on his way to meet. Disturbed that the humans had stealth systems that were seemingly more advanced than the Covenant's own cloaking technology, he ordered the flotilla to fire on the quarry, hoping to take down one of the vessels so that it could be studied.

One of the plasma blasts happened to strike the, the flagship of Captain Halima Ascot. It crashed into the quarry, leading 'Szatulai to order the flotilla to converge on and secure the vessel. The intrusion corvette Worthy Silence reached the crash site before the others, deploying a team of EVA-equipped Bloodstars onto the downed prowler via gravity lift. Before they could gain access, a team of twelve Spartan-IIs arrived in search of survivors. They were set upon by Bloodstar-operated Ghosts and the looming corvette began firing on them, forcing the supersoldiers to cause an avalanche that would sweep away the Starry Night and delay the Bloodstars. By the time some of the Spartans had recovered, at least three more corvettes had arrived to support their infantry, as well as to deploy more armored vehicles. However, a small team of Spartans managed to board the prowler before the Bloodstars could make a second attempt. While most of the supersoldiers were occupied fending off the ground vehicles or freeing themselves from the ice flow, a Bloodstar strike team of two Sangheili, four Jiralhanae, and four Kig-Yar approached the vessel. Two Kig-Yar entered first to scout it out, then the two Sangheili and four Jiralhanae entered, leaving the last two Kig-Yar on top of the fuselage to act as a rear guard. Meanwhile, Task Force Yama shot down two of the flotilla's corvettes in a strafing run. Shortly after boarding, the eight Bloodstars were attacked by Frederic-104's team. Most of them died in an explosion, but the two Sangheili escaped to be confronted by John-117. The Spartan killed one of them with his M6D magnum and folded the other onto his own energy sword. Before he could recover from the encounter, the two Kig-Yar atop the prowler began firing at him from behind their shields, with one landing a hit that compromised his armor's seal. Two more Spartans arrived to assist, but the Worthy Silence began lifting the Starry Night into its cargo hold. The team inside the prowler armed its nuclear self-destruct and fled in an escape pod, while the other Spartans sprinted out of the nuke's blast radius. Thirty seconds later, the nuke detonated, destroying both the prowler and the Worthy Silence.

However, the Sacred Whisper and another Bloodstar corvette survived due to Lieutenant Commander Hector Nyeto purposefully holding off his attack in an attempt to get the Spartans killed by the Covenant. After the wreckage of the Worthy Silence crashed to the quarry floor and the rest of the Bloodstar flotilla was pushed back, some of the Spartans combed through the corvette's shattered bridge. They found the Worthy Silence's intact kelguid, carefully cutting it free of the floor panels and taking it back to their logistics vessel to study. At some point during this engagement or the subsequent Battle of Biko, the Bloodstars captured a squad of ODSTs and interrogated them for three days, learning of the rumor that the SPARTAN-II program had abducted children to use as their subjects.

Mighty Abundance
During Task Force Yama's assault on the Covenant's holy colony of Zhoist, 'Szatulai led his Bloodstars onto the Ring of Mighty Abundance after realizing that the Spartans were boarding it. However, 'Szatulai discovered too late that the Spartans had managed to sneak past them, resulting in a confrontation with them in one of the fabrication barns for the partially-construction supercarrier Hammer of Faith. As John-117 and Kelly-087 prepared to use the barn's gravity lifts to throw a pair of activated HAVOK tactical nuclear weapons onto the supercarrier, the Bloodstars' Sangheili forces began emerging from the lifts in pairs, ignoring the HAVOKs in favor of attacking Blue Team. Frederic-104 was able to kill several with an M41 SPNKR while Linda-058 took out more with an M99 Stanchion. As the battle raged between Blue Team and the Bloodstars, 'Szatulai attacked John in close quarters combat and nearly bested him. John eventually managed to overpower 'Szatulai and he was killed when Kelly blew off 'Szatulai's head with John's M90 shotgun.

Though the Sangheili Bloodstar forces on the Ring of Mighty Abundance were killed, Castor and Orsun didn't emerge from the gravity lifts until after everyone else was dead. Rather than engaging the fleeing Spartans, the two Jiralhanae fled in Banshees before the HAVOKs destroyed the Hammer of Faith. Castor and Orsun were able to reach a stable orbit around Zhoist before the detonation and were picked up by the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience where they reported the death of 'Szatulai and the failure to kill any of the Spartans.

Battle on Zeta Halo
Following the end of the Covenant War, what remained of the Bloodstars order was reappropriated by the Banished, who formed their own iteration of the unit. The Bloodstars' ranks were replenished with veterans of the Covenant War, mercenaries, and some of the Banished's best warriors, including Zeruel Sraak, Pluto Sraak, and Rognok Sraak. The Bloodstars—both Sangheili and Jiralhanae alike—would be equipped with energy shielding and powerful weaponry. The unit was trained into a ruthless force dedicated to hunting and killing Spartans. Some members of the Bloodstars who were involved in the Battle for Zeta Halo hoped to secure a promotion to the Hand of Atriox by killing John-117.

Equipment
Like the Silent Shadow, all members of the Bloodstars wore dark red armor. Sangheili Bloodstars utilized bloodblades, a kind of blood-red energy sword.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Silent Storm
 * Halo: Oblivion
 * Halo Infinite