War of Vengeance

The War of Vengeance is a term used by historians to refer to the period of almost continuous conflict lasting from 2553 to 2360 between the Covenant Remnant Factions, and the alliance of the United Earth Government and the Sangheili. The war lasted seven years and cost the lives of approximately 160 million beings, but due to the relative technological parity between the two sides, the war was considerably less costly in terms of life than the Human-Covenant War.

The war saw the improvement and extensive use of various technologies prototyped in the Human-Covenant War, such as nuclear shaped-charge missiles, anti-plasma countermissiles, fragmentation warheads, and the first arsenal ships, all of which were instrumental in reducing the UEG's vast numerical and technological disadvantage at the start of the war.

It remains a topic of considerable debate among historians as to whether the War of Vengeance can be considered to be a separate war or simply another period in the far more destructive Human-Covenant War. However, the Official Histories of the UNSC Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy (J.R. Michaels, Luna Publishers, 2561, 2562, and 2564 respectively) consider it to be a separate conflict, and so that reckoning is used in this article to avoid confusion.