Joyous Exultation

Joyous Exultation was a Covenant colony. It was located in the fringe of the massive Covenant Empire in the Salia System and had a small moon, Malhiem.

During the Civil War of the Covenant, the planet was a rally point for the seceding Elites, under the leadership of Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree. The Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose met here, along with several ships from the Second Fleet of Homogeneous Clarity as well as many other Sangheili-controlled vessels. They planned to set up a meeting with the Covenant Loyalists on this planet, where they would massacre the Brute and Prophet leadership.

Unfortunately, the plan failed when a NOVA Bomb taken from Reach by the Supercarrier Sublime Transcendence (the Covenant flagship) was activated by some Engineers (despite attempts by the Grunt Kwassass to stop them) detonated, vaporizing a quarter of the world, shattering the planet's moon, and destroying much of the Covenant Separatists's fleet gathered there. However, due to the large size of the fleets, about a quarter of the vessels on the other side of the planet escaped. The bomb also caused massive shock waves that leveled many cities on other parts of the planet. In addition, the explosion resulted in 300 mph winds that wrecked many of the remaining cities, and created massive tidal waves that destroyed much of the coastline. Needless to say, few of the planet's inhabitants survived the blast itself or the very severe conditions caused by the after-effects of the weapon (climate change, fallout etc.).

The current allegiance of the planet and the state of its inhabitants is still unknown, although it is most likely that they were all killed by the blast or after-effects. Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree was atomized by the blast. .