Minas

Minas is a Jiralhanae chieftain who formerly served within the Covenant military. He was assigned with tracking down Atriox and his Banished during the Human-Covenant War. However, Minas would instead join the renegade faction. In midst of a conflict on the Ark in the summer of 2559, Minas was sent to lead a mission to the Anodyne Spirit, the Forerunner Keyship that had once served as the centerpiece of High Charity.

The hunt for Atriox
Sometime after Atriox first rebelled from the Covenant, Chieftain Minas had been tasked by the High Council with hunting down and destroying the Banished, and bringing the rogue Jiralhanae to justice. Despite failing to see the wisdom in wasting time and resources searching for such an insignificant rebelling faction, Minas followed the orders of the councilors without question. He would lead a legion in a protracted campaign, chasing the Banished as they raided world after world. Eventually, Minas came face-to-face with Atriox and had a brief opportunity to strike a fatal blow to both the warmaster himself and the rebellion that he led.

However, as Minas prepared to deliver the death blow, Atriox told him that everyone must die for something. It is a cost that no one can escape, so someone might as well die for something that they truly believe in—something that they are willing to give their life for. At that moment, Minas decided that he could no longer endure the lies and hypocrisy that he sensed from the Prophets and the High Council. He resolved to die on his own terms. And so, Minas enlisted with the very faction he was sent to destroy.

The Banished
Chieftain Minas served the Banished even after the Covenant's war with the humans came to a close. At some point after the Great Schism, he made his way to Warial, one of the moons of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac. Here he found Choros in the brimstone-dockyards of Ividar Rux, repairing damaged warships. Minas learned that the younger Jiralhanae had worked closely with the Prophets aboard the Forerunner Dreadnought until their lies were revealed for all to see. Recruiting Choros into the Banished, the two of them would serve together for years to come, even being selected by Atriox to accompany him to the Ark in 2558.

While the Banished continued to battle the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire for control of the installation, Atriox decided that he must return to the galaxy to deal with an unknown situation. To do so, he would need a Forerunner slipspace flake to open a portal to a facility rumored to be hidden on Reach, a human colony that had been glassed by the Covenant nearly seven years earlier. Thankfully, the Anodyne Spirit—the keyship that the Prophet of Truth had used to reach the Ark—had been found in an uncontested region that the Banished had dubbed Mahsko. Like all Forerunner starships, its slipspace drive was powered by one of these crystals. And so, Atriox assembled a strike force to infiltrate the Keyship and retrieve the crystal. Minas was assigned to lead the expedition.

The raid on Anodyne Spirit
In June or July 2559, three Phantoms approached the Keyship. It stood among a Forerunner city atop a massive basalt column that rose out of the sea. Minas rode in one dropship with Choros and a third of the strike force while Blademaster Okro 'Vagaduun and Captain Zeretus rode in the other two with their own teams. As the leader of this mission, Minas had each Phantom approach the vessel from a different angle to eliminate the possibility that they could all be destroyed in a single blast, assuming the Keyship's defenses were still active. When its weapons were deemed inactive, he had his Phantom's pilot—Bomarus—approach the vessel's central crux and tell other two dropships to do the same. The pilots stayed with their ships as the three strike teams regrouped at the designated access port. Minas set the Kig-Yar Itka to work opening the port. The weaponsmith had an unusual talent for hacking Forerunner devices.

As the Kig-Yar weaponsmith worked his magic, Minas thought about the previous occasions when a team of armed warriors had forced their way into the Anodyne Spirit. The first time had been during the conflict between the San'Shyuum Reformists and Stoics. The former had broken into the Keyship and used it to escape their homeworld. The second time had been toward the end of the violent war between the San'Shyuum and the Sangheili that ultimately resulted in the formation of the Covenant. Desperate to find a way to combat the seemingly unbeatable Keyship, a team of Sangheili managed to infiltrate the vessel and slaughter a sizable portion of its crew. This event was partly responsible for the eventual truce between the two species. Minas considered the possibility that he might be staring at the very same access point used in both pivotal events.

Itka informed the Chieftain that he was encountering both old and new security measures similar to those used by the Covenant. However, the Kig-Yar bypassed these easily and the access port rumbled open to reveal a dark interior. The strike force cautiously entered the Keyship, finding themselves in a long, empty corridor that went on for over a kilometer. As they trudged on through the darkness, they came to the conclusion that the ship was indeed abandoned. However, 'Vagaduun warned that they should not become too comfortable; the vessel still held many secrets, many of them likely very dangerous. Minas noted that while there may not be any living being aboard, the Forerunners were the masters of autonomous machines. Choros, who had served the Prophets for some time aboard this very vessel, led them deeper in the darkness until they came upon a wall with several doorways. The young Captain led them through the fourth doorway from the left. The force followed a small, dimly-lit corridor into an expansive chamber that held vaulting walkways, all meeting at a lift in the center of the room. Hundreds of transport cylinders sat waiting at the lift to be used to launch personnel up toward the bow of the vessel. Minas found a cylinder that could accommodate all three strike teams. Using a special code from records recently found amidst the debris field of High Charity, Itka activated the lift and the strike force soared upward.

The lift stopped suddenly and the door opened to reveal a vast arcade filled with overgrown flora. Various catwalks arched through the air, connecting delicate platforms and once-opulent common spaces. Flocks of exotic birds could be seen flying among the dense, unchecked foliage that climbed all the way up to the chamber's distant ceilings. Minas led the strike force off of the lift as Choros explained the purpose of the chamber to 'Vagaduun.

Just then, the young Captain was knocked to the floor by a plasma blast, his armor taking the brunt of the damage. Everyone else dove for the nearest cover and Minas dragged the stunned Choros behind a nearby stone barrier while under fire by plasma bolts and carbine rounds. The Chieftain realized that they were under assault by distinctly Covenant weapons; Sentinels were not the ones attacking them. Rousing Choros and ordering him to follow, Minas dashed for the veritable jungle ahead of them. As they moved, he glimpsed a trio of silhouettes firing on them from a rafter high above. Choros raised his weapon to return fire and Minas did the same with his pulse carbine, forcing their attackers to seek cover. He could hear Zeretus yelling in the distance, followed by the crash of his gravity hammer and the surprisingly Jiralhanae-like cry of Zeretus' victim. Choros finished off their three attackers with a shot from his skewer and the two of them pushed deeper into the arcade. The neared a doorway through which they could see a group of Covenant Jiralhanae who launched a salvo of plasma right back at them. Taking cover on either side of the portico, Choros and Minas shared their disbelief that members of the Covenant were still occupying the Keyship after all this time. Putting their shock aside, the two experienced warriors silently signaled to each other their next move. Simultaneously, they wheeled around their cover, unleashing a torrent of plasma at their assailants. Only two Jiralhanae survived and tried to flee out of the overgrown portico. Okro 'Vagaduun emerged from the shadows to decapitate one Jiralhanae and drive his sword into the back of the other in a single elegant motion.

Noticing that the weapons fire had ceased throughout the arcade, the remaining Banished troops regrouped to discuss what had happened. Minas asked Choros and 'Vagaduun what they thought. The Jiralhane Captain theorized that these Covenant had been ordered by the High Prophet to stay behind and protect the ship from intruders. They must have never given up their duty, living off of the vast stores of supplies the ship held. Zeretus joined them, the face of his hammer filled with bits of armor and flesh. After discussing the situation a bit further, Minas refocused them on the task at hand and had Choros continue to lead the group to where the crystal was held—the Adytum.

As they continued on, Minas contacted Bomarus back at the Phantoms, informing him to be wary as they now knew there were enemies aboard and telling him to prepare for a swift extraction. Fifteen Banished warriors had been lost in the firefight, mostly Kig-Yar and Unggoy. Leaving the arcade, the group came to a walkway that ended in three doorways. Choros led them through the rightmost door into a narrow transparent hallway suspended within the largest interior chamber yet. As they filed through the dimly-lit corridor, Minas could make out innumerable receptacles sitting in the gloomy depths below. They held specimens that would have been used to reseed worlds with life after the Halo Array's activation.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Shadows of Reach
 * Sacrifice