Reth

"When we hand over the humans, we will be honored. The Prophets will look kindly on us in the final journey."

- Reth to Thel 'Vadamee

Reth was one of the Kig-yar rebels who settled on the Rubble with human refugees. He was the leader of the Kig-yar forces at the Rubble, and bred an army of Unggoy on the surface of a planet in the same system, Metisette.

Description
When the ship he had been serving on happened upon the Rubble, Reth received a communication from Peter Bonifacio to engage in trade. Keeping this a secret from his Shipmistress, Reth took the recording to High Charity, where he presented it to the High Prophet of Truth. Realizing they could use this to map the human population, Truth authorized Reth to begin trading Covenant weapons with the humans, promising that the Kig-yar could keep the Rubble, which would be ideal for Kig-yar nests. Reth then returned and offered to trade weapons modified for humans in exchange for slipspace drives. Bonifacio then began selling the weapons to Insurrectionists back in the Inner Colonies, which allowed the Covenant to track them. As part of his plan for gaining control of the Rubble, Reth began bringing Unggoy to Metisette, which had methane in the atmosphere, and bred an army in a place called the Redoubt. The institution of the Cole Protocol made taking such weapons back to the Colonies a capital offense, which hindered their use, but Reth soon began conspiring with Bonifacio to gain the stellar coordinates for Earth.

However, some of the modified weapons made their way back to Kig-yar black markets in High Charity, and gained the attention of the High Prophet of Regret. Unaware of Truth's role in their creation, Regret dispatched Thel Vadamee to hunt down those responsible. 'Vadamee's ship, the Retribution's Thunder, was attacked by the Kig-Yar ship, A Psalm Every Day, when the Jiralhanae onboard overthrew the Kig-Yar shipmistress, they suddenly attacked with boarding craft, and the ship left through a slipstream vortex. Thel scuttled the ship, when Jackal forces were onboard, and he and four of his bridge crew survived the explosion. They were captured by the Kig-yar, and managed to escape. When Reth was believed to be a rebel, 'Vadamee, Zhar, Saal, and Veer kidnapped him from The Redoubt for information. Saal then tortured him, refusing to believe that he was following the orders of the Hierarchs since they were under conflicting orders.

Reth escaped imprisonment by fooling his Unggoy guards into releasing him. Knowing that the Jiralhanae would return to High Charity soon, Reth decided to begin the invasion to show that he was a loyal follower. Unfortunately, the Spartan-II Gray Team was in the Rubble, and stole the data from Bonifacio, and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes used the asteroids of the Rubble to destroy the Redoubt. Reth was killed while trying to escape as the Rubble crashed into the Redoubt on Metisette.

Trivia

 * Given his high status, Reth may have been a Jackal Zealot, making him the second known Jackal Zealot (the other being the Kig-yar Zhar), though it's not specifically noted in the book.
 * Reth's hoard consisted of dozens of pieces of art from all over the Covenant, the most prized possession being a Sangheili practice helmet.