The Royal Allegiance

The Royal Allegiance was a race of humans which controlled a conglomeration of over 1,400 worlds. Their technological superiority outmatched even The Covenant but was far inferior to the Forerunners.

The Allegiance's origins lie in a coincidence. Three ships were dispatched from the Ark, bound for Earth. One, a Keyship, one, a ship containing humans of The Order, a group of enhanced humans charged to protect the galaxy in the stead of the Forerunners, and another ship. Of the three ships, the keyship was lost, the ship of the Order drifted and crashed on Thera, and the third ship arrived at Earth. The humans of the Order became the descendents for the Allegiance, who spread out across the planet.

Discovery
Since about 2150, Earth had detected several stray radio signals which seemed suspiciously like communications. However they were largely ignored as humanity had more pressing concerns closer to home, the brutal conflicts that spanned from 2160 to 2200. When the Human-Covenant War began in 2525, it seemed that the source of the transmissions had been found- The Covenant.

In 2550 an the ONI Prowler UNSC Lynx (Prowler) on a routine patrol came across a corvette of unknown design drifting in space. It was certainly not Covenant, or Forerunner, so the ship was boarded by a squad of marines. The boarding party revealed that the ship was deserted. A sample of the ship's hull was dated to 5,000 years old- too young to be Forerunner. The ship's log was salvaged and, although partially damaged, revealed that the ship was native to the Perseus Arm of the Galaxy, far from the Covenant's reach. As the Lynx prepared to tow the ship to the nearest colony on orders from HIGHCOM, a Covenant CCS-class Battlecruiser slipped in and opened fire on the outgunned prowler. The faster vessel was able to escape but the ancient corvette, mistaken by the Covenant to be an unmanned human vessel, was destroyed.

Leadership and Government
''“Good,” said the queen. She was a tall, elegant woman, the rare type of person with an aura of power which filled a room. Standing on the central pedestal of the bridge, wearing a long, elegant but simple dress with a backed collar, a small tear rolled down her cheek as she saw her planet’s sunset. It would be the last one she ever saw and she knew it.'' -The Queen of the Royal Allegiance

The Royal Allegiance, as the name suggests, was a monarchy ruled by a queen, although the de facto leaders were the Council of Five. Each council member was appointed from one of the five sectors of Allegiance space, and the Council voted on laws and make decisions. Each of the five sectors effectively counted as a political party, with a senate for each sector. Every 6 years the overall population voted on which sector should gain control, and the Council member for that sector was appointed Chancellor, who had the most power of all, including the ability to overrule a maximum of two other councillors when it came to voting. In addition, the ruling Monarch had the power to overrule the Chancellor but not the other council members.

When the UNSC went before the Council and the Queen to convince the Allegiance to go to war, the council was split. The Queen could not make up her mind, wanting to protect her people from another war but fearing the consequences of the rings firing. Two council members, including the Chancellor, wanted to keep out of the war, citing the fact that the general population would not find going to war again for no discernable reason acceptable (the Allegiance had only just recovered from a devastating civil war forty years previously. Finally the Queen stepped in and decided to aid the UNSC, and Gray team were appointed her personal protectors. This slow and tedious political process frustrated the UNSC's ambassadors, months of deliberation and argument among the council before the descision to help the rebuilding and the destruction of the Covenant.

Physical Traits
Remarkably, the humans of the Allegiance looked very similar to their Earth brothers. However, for some reason, they were slightly stronger and more intelligent. They were once described by a UNSC marine as 'a race of SPARTANs' after seeing them in battle- but this statement was erroneous. Their physical superiority over humans was such that they could accomplish athletic feats and strength slightly beyond the normal perameters for humans, but they were nowhere near the stength of SPARTAN supersoldiers. A more accurate comparison would be to SPARTANs without their assault armour, and without the enhanced and stronger bones. One reason for their higher intelligence was the fact that their race has been surrounded with Forerunner technology for over 70,000 years, thus ingraining a natural superiority into their minds.

In terms of appearance, Allegiance citizens differed in the fact that long hair was deemed socially standard- anyone without long hair, especially females, was considered to be an outsider. This has led to social arguments when it came to Allegiance soldiers, male and female, who had to keep their hair short so they could wear the battle armour of the Allegiance. This led to an isolation of the already socially shunned Allegiance Armed Forces, who were wrongly seen as the symbols of the bloodshed within the Allegiance and related to war in general.

In addition, the people of the Allegiance had notably different facial expressions. They were more subtle and less noticeable, so much so that, to the untrained eyes of the UNSC, they were often be mistaken as indifferent. The emotional feelings of the people were much the same as normal, but their portrayal of these emotions was markedly less pronounced.

Also, the Allegiance race of people had little or no body hair aside from their face and head. This was possible attributed to the slightly warmer climate of Thera. Allegiance citizens had a slight average height increase on Earth humans, normally for men this was not noticeable, they just appear slightly taller. However, with the women, they were almost as tall as the men, making an Allegiance woman unmistakeable. Both male and female, were more slender than their Earth brethren, being thinner, more agile and more wiry. This could be attributed to their higher muscle density.

The demonym for Allegiance citizens was dependant on their planet of origin- a person from Avalon would be referred to as Avalonian, while someone from Thera would be called a Theran. Some Allegiance people, most likely the more sympathetic to the Royal leadership, might have considered themselves Theran no matter what their planet of origin was.

The people of the Allegiance are descended from the earliest members of The Order, a secretive race of humans created by the Forerunners to guard the galaxy. They were genetically enhanced by the Forerunners to be the perfect warriors, both physically and mentally. This would seem to explain the Allegiance's superiority over the UNSC, and their similarity to the Order.

Religion
The religon for the Royal Allegiance was one similar to that of Ancient Greece. The reason for this was unknown, seeing as 'Ancient Greece' evolved on Earth, thousands of light years away, thousands of years after the two human races became separated. There was speculation that a mysterious race of near-humans spread this religion to both the Allegiance and Earth, but the evidence for this is non-existant. This religion evolved on Thera, it was unknown when but it was at least 65,000BC. This meant that the religion existed in the Allegiance before it did on Earth.

Military
The Royal Allegiance military was split up into three groups; the Navy, the Army and the Marine Corps.

Navy
The Navy was the oldest of the three and the largest also. It was responsible for the defense of the Allegiance in space, and transporting the other forces to deployment locations or planets. They also patrolled Allegiance territory and kept it safe- they were the first and main line of defense. They were equipped with various types of warships for different purposes. The Allegiance Navy was the largest and most advanced in the galaxy until the arrival of the Deva, a more advanced Tier 1 race, in.

The structure of the Navy was as follows:


 * 1 Battlegroup made up of 5-30 ships (numbered according to how many in Fleet, e.g Battlegroup 254)


 * 1 Taskforce Made up of 32 Battlegroups (named numerically in greek letters e.g Taskforce Beta)


 * 1 Fleet made up of 20 Taskforces (named numerically according to how many in Sector fleet e.g 12th Fleet) (640 Battlegroups in a Fleet)


 * 1 Sector Fleet made up of 24 Fleets (e.g 5th Sector Fleet) (15,360 Battlegroups in a Sector Fleet)


 * Navy made up of 5 Sector Fleets (76,800 Battlegroups in the Navy)

The Army
The Army had the responsibility of all land operations, both offensive and defensive. They were equipped with large numbers of infantry, armoured vehicles, and aircraft. The traditional role of Air Force was filled by the Army Air Corps. They mounted attacks with the assistance of the Navy and provided a versatile defense on the ground.

Marine Corps
The Marine Corps provided the shipboard defense for the Navy, repelling boarding parties and operatiing primarily in space. Unlike most other marine corps, most notably the UNSC Marine Corps, the Allegiance marines rarely engaged in ground combat, only doing so when there were no army unit present. They were trained mainly in CQB tactics and weaponry, giving them an advantage over most general troops.

The Allegiance armed forces benefited from a wide range of technological advancements which enabled them to remain the most efficient in the galaxy. The close relationship between the Elites and the Allegiance meant this technology was passed on to them.

Technology
As the Royal Allegiance is much older than the UNSC, their technological superiority is greater. Examples of this include powerful shields on their cruisers, devastating energy weapons called Particle Cannons, and massive energy sources utilising Zero-Point energy. As a result the Royal Allegiance Navy and Army are better equipped than the UNSC to deal with the Covenant threat. It has been speculated that because the Allegiance sees Forerunner machinery and objects as technology to be incorporated and used, rather than objects to be worshipped, they were able to advance quicker than the Covenant. As such, they are able to dismantle, reverse-engineer, modify and mass-produce anything that might be of benefit to the Allegiance. Within the Covenant such things would be seen as desecrating sacred objects so advancement would be much slower.

Royal Allegiance Ship classes
Main article: Category:Naval Ships of the Royal Allegiance

Triton-class Heavy Destroyer

Apollo-class Frigate

AL-56 Flashfighter

Ares-class Battleship

Artemis-class Patrol Ship

Athena-class Cruiser



Wars and Conflicts
In the past, The Allegiance has seen its share of wars. The Reformation Wars, fought at around 2420, were a series of bitter conflicts between The Allegiance Loyalists and a splinter-faction called The Axis. The war was narrow but the Allegiance prevailed, although losing up to 70% of their naval force.

The Allegiance had been aware of another race of humans existing in the galaxy called The Order. Not much was known about them, they were very secretive and kept to themselves. However, some speculate that they are the overseers of what the Forerunners left behind, as their history is longer than that of the Allegiance's.

In late 2553, a few months after the Battle of Installation 00, an Allegiance task force of fifteen cruisers, frigates, destroyers and carriers slipped into the Sol System. The still-rebuilding Home Fleet, fearing the worst, scrambled all available ships- including a Sanghelli battlegroup garrisoned at Earth. The resulting armed stand-off was only averted by Gray Team broadcasting the Allegiance fleet's purpose- to aid in the fight against the now dissolved Covenant. After a difficult first contact, the races of the UNSC, the Allegiance and the Sanghelli all found each other close allies- and over the decades that followed, a new era of peace and prosperity began. Trade routes established, multi-species colonisation began, and Earth's human race flourished under their older cousin's wing. The Allegiance, along with the Sanghelli, gave vital support, resources and logistics to begin rebuilding the human race. The Allegiance, the more advanced of the two different human civilisations, found themselves embarrassed and humbled by how the lesser of the two saved the entire galaxy from death at the hands of the Rings and the Flood, neither of which the Allegiance had encountered.

Before the end of the year the Sangeili and the Allegiance launched massive attacks on the disarrayed Covenant Empire. The singular honour of subjugating Doisac fell to the Elites, but the Allegiance commited one of its five Sector Fleets to diversionary invasions and secondary objectives, totalling thousands of warships. The Hunters joined the Sanghieli at once after the death of Truth, which stirred up old allegiances between them. The Brutes refused to surrender, and vowed to fight until every one was dead- something which the Sanghieli were all to happy to do. Once the Brutes on their homeworld had been virtually wiped out, the Jackals withdrew their services from the Covenant and had all their armed warships conviscated by the Allegiance. Seeing a stronger overlord, they offered their services to the Allegiance for a price- the Allegiance responded with this bargain; never fight again, or face the consequences from the Elites. The Unggoy defected to the Elites also, and the Prophets vanished without trace. Some say they commited mass suicide rather than see their empire fall into the hands of the Heretics. As the Allegiance and the Sanghieli destroyed the last remaining Brute footholds and pockets, they built up a respect for each other that can only be obtained by fighting alongside one another. The two races both saw how much they had in common. For the next few centuries, as the UNSC was helped to rebuild, rearm and re-colonise, and a new era of exploration, trade, commerce and peace began.

Aftermath: New Contact

However, this peace was not to last. The Swarm War (2733-2878) changed the face of the Galaxy permanently and resulted in the near-destruction of the Royal Allegiance.