Human (Earth-8573)

"Now, after seven human years, I have finally come to understand your role, your place in the universe and how you came to be here. The eons of human evolution, invention, aspiration...and war. Always war. The oldest, most enduring of human practices."

- - Cortana Humans (Latin Homo sapiens sapiens, meaning "man who knows of his knowledge"), also known as Hamanune (plural Hamanush) by the forerunners, are a sapient race of species native to Earth. Members of the primate family, they are the only remaining species of the once diverse genus of multiple human species. Humans, like most Covenant species, are bipedal and four-limbed, enabling their movement on two legs and use of arms and hands to manipulate objects. Having a mysterious connection, seemingly that of creation, to the forerunners, humans were given the roles of Reclaimers by the ancient, extinct species, in order to inherit their Mantle. Humans would start to rise 100,000 years later, inventing space-travel in the mid-20th century and colonizing space for the next hundreds of years. After the Interplanetary War, humanity became largely united under the Unified Earth Government. A century later, with the discovery of element zero on Mars and the creation of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, humans expanded beyond the Sol system and spread through the Orion Arm.

With the development of civilization through space, came political and social uneasiness, which gave rise to the numerous Insurrectionist movements and the Secession, with many of the UEG's Outer Colonies actively seeking to secede from the government. While the war claimed the lives of millions, a more dangerous threat came in 2552, with the arrival of the alien hegemony known as the Covenant, starting the First Contact War, a religious crusade against humanity which caused billions of casualties on both sides and drove humans to near-extinction, something only averted with the discovery of Installation 04, leading to the Great Schism, where the sangheili, one of the Covenant's species, were betrayed and allied with humanity to save the galaxy from the Covenant and the xenomorphs.

Pre-History
Despite their exact origin being contested in paleontological debates, humanity can trace their origins back to the ancient humanoid species only known as the forerunners, seemingly responsible for their creation, or, at the very least, development. The forerunners shared many similarities with humans, from their similar humanoid forms, to having five fingers and even sharing the same DNA, indicating a clear connection, whatever it is. It is believed they either seeded life on Earth through the ingesting of black liquid, or were responsible for developing the ancient prehistoric humans, although both theories can work together. Nevertheless, this connection made humans Reclaimers, allowing the species to be the only one able to manipulate important forerunner technology. =Homo sapiens was not the only human race to evolve on Earth, with many other branches of the Homo genus appearing. However, all were still collectively known as humanity. Homo erectus, neanderthalensis and floresiensis coexisted with Homo sapiens, sharing many cultural and genetic traits between each other, as well as interbreeding, with 1-4% of the DNA in European and East Asian humans is Neanderthal, while Melanesian people have 4% of Denisovan blood.

Humans became one of the few races to survive the xenomorph onslaught on the galaxy, and so were indexed in the Ark by the Librarian as per the Conservation Measure. Despite most of their population being composed by the Ur-Didact on Omega Halo, the Librarian was able to save enough individuals to revitalize humanity. After the activation of the Halo Array, humans were returned to Earth through a Keyships, and the first race to be reintroduced by the orokin.

Rebuilding
The development of current human civilization started with the ability to harness the growth cycle of planets, allowing the production of edible food-energy in systemic fashion. This period of time was referred as the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred on Earth 10,000 years in the past, and then spread through diasporal human groups. Coming stability originated from systemic agriculture, which allowed the settling of permanent homes and development of complex tools to benefit humans. Innovative toolmaking and domestication of animals only served to advance human populations, allowing them to expand even more and trade goods with one another.

These populations led to the formation of the first formal civilizations 8,500 years in the past. These cultures have sites believed to have formed in Southwest Asia and Asia Minor, appearing in other locations not long after. Their civilizations and infrastructure continued to develop, expanding in complexity with the discovery of innovative technologies and the growth of large populations, which ultimately allowed for the increasing food-energy availability to thrive. Advancements in economics, society, politics and science lingered on, granting the race the power to automate once manual labor in the Industrial Revolution.

18th-20th centuries
The 18th through the 20th centuries saw enormous changes for the countries where the Industrial Revolution took place. In the aftermath of the unintended political and economic shifts through the refinery of capitalist resource management techniques led to the development of the automobile, the radio, the television, aircraft, among many others which were unheard or previously though impossible. Revolutionary progress was made into the development of medicine and chemistry, such as the discovery of anesthesia and penicillin, forever altering all following surgical and medical practices. Before these breakthroughs, humans' average lifespans reached 45 years, but thanks to the discovery of antibiotics and other forms of medication, the lifespan severely increased to 80 and beyond.

Humans virtually grew in efficiency and power in three centuries more than they did in the last millennium. Arts, science, and military forces also followed soon, with armed conflicts soon taking over, discarding the ancient and primitive weaponry in favor of advanced weapons of war. Following both World War I and World War II, the latter which saw the death of 3% of the world population at the time (est. 2.3 billion), both within the first 50 years of the 20th century, humans saw the creation of superior and automatic weapons, radar, missiles, tanks, and at last the atomic bomb, the most powerful human weapon in existence at the time.

After World War II, and for the next 60 years, both the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (which succeeded by the Commonwealth of Independent States) started to compete for power and influence against each other in a period of time known as the Cold War, a non-declared war that led to an arms race and the continuous evolution of human weaponry and destructive potential, both in technology and military tactics and doctrines. One of these developments came to be during the Space Race, with the USSR launching the first satellite and sending the first human, Yuri Gagarin, to space, officially propelling humans as spacefaring, rising to Tier 5 in the scale of Technological Achievement Tiers. The U.S. launched the first human, Neil Armstrong, to the Moon, surpassing the Soviet Union's capabilities, which, after its downfall, effectively made the United States the biggest worldwide influence, something that shaped human society forever.

Consequently, with the creation of the Internet lately in the 20th century, the achievements of this particular era forever revolutionized data processing and communications for humanity. World politics also saw change, with the creation of the United Nations. Once heavy and dominant, religious dogmas saw large decrease in the decision-making of nations around the world with the neutral nature of the new constitutions, as science and logical reasoning and explanations for natural phenomena and methodology rising in popularity and importance. Despite religion still being important to humanity, it only ever lingered on personal ethical codes.

Space colonization
With the new space technology, humans were able to immediately explore the space that surrounded their planet in the 20th century, through the advance in population that went beyond the natural capacity to sustain civilization. This culminated into numerous conflicts over resources, economics, politics and religion on Earth, leading to numerous conflicts. These eventual tensions heavily pressured the species for the centuries to come, with the rise of the Unified Earth Government, which took over the space colonization, exploration, and the representation of the human race. The subsequent Interplanetary War in the 2160s saw a major change in direction for the governance of humanity, with a vicious conflict which spanned through the solar system, leading the UEG to fully develop in a true governing body to lead majority of Earth's nations. After decades of study, humanity discovered slipspace travel in 2212, helping the UEG and its UNSC to explore and colonize planets beyond the solar system, which put an end into the population worries on Earth.

This expansion, which would be named Domus Diaspora, or the "Golden Age", ushered a new era for mankind, with many of their new colonies, such as Reach, becoming mainstains and offering not only new homes but also deposits to many goods, such as titanium. The expensive implementation of technology, such as construction and development of ships and vessels ensured interstellar travel, communication, and trade, as well as the creation and introduction of synthetics in the market through large conglomerates such as the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and the Tyrell Corporation, who took over many of the manual labor and fields complicated for a normal human to operate.

Secession
After centuries of colonization, animosity grew between the Outer Colonies, those afar from the Sol system and that provided goods and supplies to the UEG, and the Inner Colonies, where the mega-rich populations lived. As predicted by sociologist Elias Carver, the building of discontent and uneasiness led to an onset of conflicts through the Outer Colonies, which eventually came to encompass the entirety of human space in the event which became known as the Secession, in 2518, through the formation of the Sovereign Colonies, an union of colonies who sought independence from the UEG. Despite the separatists' best efforts and heavy damage, the UEG came as a strategic victor at the onset of Operation TREBUCHET, duo to the Sovereign Colonies' dwindling warfare resources and public supports, although the latter was able to form the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces, which was able to take control of multiple territories in human space. The Outer Colonies were largely fragmented during this time, with many of them experiencing rise of fascist and populist movements, while the planets still allied and under the UEG belt experienced oppression in the dire need of resources. Many rebel cells started to emerge, such as the United Liberation Front, which not only wanted to move away from the already established government, but dismantle it to form anarchistic societies led by its citizens, which only continued what was once thought to have ended with the Sovereign Colonies, seeing the destabilization and the peril of the collapse of human expansionism. In order to defeat the Insurrectionist threat, both superpowers joined for a limited amount of time to quell the rebellion, pioneering the creation of human augmentation through the ORION Project and the SPARTAN-II Program.

First Contact War
"You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking... what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass! And not even your Demon will live to creep, blackened, from its hole to mar the reflection of our passage; the culmination of our Journey. For your destruction is the will of the Gods! And I...I am their instrument!"

- - Prophet of Truth Following decades of civil conflict, humanity was forced into unifying against their first war against outside opponents: the alien hegemony Covenant, which became bent on exterminating the whole species in a holy war. Billions of humans died, and during the war, they became known by some high-ranking Covenant warriors duo to their resilience and cunning despite being technologically and numerically below them. During the war, humans were evenly matched, and sometimes even superior, to the many Covenant warriors, but the hegemony was mostly always able to turn the tide in space combat, whereupon the Covenant would annihilate UNSC ships and glass the intended planet from orbit.

As they showed bravery during the war, many Covenant members questioned why the Hierarchs refused to allow humans to join the hegemony. Even though they were courageous and fought until the end, humans faced the danger of extinction, as the Covenant continued to exterminate more and more of their species, coming closer to Earth, which they eventually discovered by accident on October 20th, 2552.

Post-war
"Decades from now, when historians evaluate the war, what will they say about us? Will they claim that our victory was ultimately fruitless? That it failed to secure a lasting peace, or worse, that it was only a prelude to far greater horrors that now lay ahead? My hope -- OUR HOPE -- is that history would instead view this war as a catalyst. That the last thirty years were a crucible, a threshing floor for our species, sifting out our fears and frailties. And that ultimately it made us stronger and more vigilant in the end, fully prepared for whatever will come next. After all, what good is struggle if there is no change? What good is a fire if the sword is not made stronger?"

- - Codename SURGEON After the Battle of Installation 00 on December 11th, 2552, the First Contact War was over, with a victory shared between humanity and their newfound sangheili allies, which had been betrayed by the Covenant during the Great Schism. Most of the main Covenant forces had been defeated at Installation 05, and the various Covenant leaders, now without the Hierarchs of the High Council, became embroiled in wars between one another. The victory allowed the survival of Earth and humanity, mostly duo to Arbiter Thel 'Vadam and John-117. The war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of 2552, on Vadam, Sanghelios, on March 3rd, 2553. A memorial service was later held on Voi, Kenya, in homage to all who died during the 33-year long war.

Upon her inaugural speech in January 2553, Prime Minister of the Unified Earth Government Ruth Charet outlined the future of humanity and foreign policy, maintaining the power with the UNSC to rebuild and make up for what was lost, and that humanity would reclaim "rightful place in the universe". While humans were willing to coexist with the former species of the Covenant, they would never allow new aggression or being victims. The UNSC's official stance was large cooperation between its military and the Swords of Sanghelios and the sangheili. Behind the scenes, however, the Office of Naval Intelligence worked to neutralize the sangheili and the other former species of the Covenant, in order to ensure they would never be able to gain more power and rise against humanity once more.

The end of the First Contact War did not brought a lasting peace for humanity, and new conflicts emerged in numerous shapes and forms, from the many Covenant splinter factions, such as the Enclave led by Jul 'Mdama, to the rising Insurrectionist movements that brought the looming threat of the Secession back, such as the New Colonial Alliance. As these Covenant factions were only a shadow of the former hegemony's power and size, the UNSC was able to fare relatively well against them, mostly because of the help of the Swords of Sanghelios and the new technology provided to them, as well as new assets like the UNSC Infinity and the N7. The fighting was eventually turned against humanity's favor with the discovery of the shield world Requiem and the vex constructs, who, led by Tragic Solitude, were able to retrieve the weapon known as Composer and kill millions of human in the city New Phoenix, on Earth. By the end of 2564, most humans, alongside the rest of the galaxy, were enslaved and subjulgated by the Reapers during the Second Renaissance.

Anatomy and physiology
Humans average their height from 5' 5" (165 cms) to 6' 2" (187 cms), and their weight is set between 135 lbs (62 kgs) to 200 lbs (90 kgs). Humans are mammals, being closely related to other apes on Earth. They are warm-blooded, like all placental mammals, giving birth to live offspring and satiate their offspring with milk. They have five fingers on both their hands and their feet, with one of them, in the hand, being an opposable thumb, which allowed the species to make tools in their early history. Humans have a brain that is highly developed, able to achieve abstract reasoning, language, problem solving, and introspection. Their mental prowess, alongside an erect body carriage has allowed humans to make the biggest use of tools and objects compared to all other species on Earth. Other process of high-level though such as self-awareness, sapience, and rationality became the constituents for humans to identify what makes a "person".

Differently from sangheili, their circulatory system is closed, consisting of one heart and a network of blood vessels. Humans have red blood because of their iron-based hemoglobin, alongside two lungs which are used to breath in atmospheres composed of nitrogen and oxygen. They have more hair and fur than most Covenant, tying with the san'shyuum, but not as much as the jiralhanae. Humans have an average sense of sight, but a poor sense of smell and hearing when compared to other Covenant species, such as kig-yar. They are omnivorous, eating both meats and plants, and consume foods with high amounts of calcium, including the milk of other animals.

Their bone structure is calcium-based and designed to withstand stresses, although a human skeleton and muscular system is weaker than that of most Covenant species and xenomorphs. During times of extreme distress, humans can achieve hidden energy reserves, known as an adrenaline rush, which can increase their strength to higher levels in a reflex known as "Fight or Flight".

Despite humans having inferior physiology compared to the Covenant's species and xenomorphs, physical conditioning is able to negate their many disadvantages, and with the use of enhancements and equipment, humans are able to overcome their many physical disadvantages, such as the many SPARTAN supersoldiers. However, biological augmentation is not exclusive to SPARTANs, as humans have routinely employed the use of bio-engineering technologies for centuries, starting with the adaption to different spacial and planetary conditions, which have evolved to gene therapy, standard enhancements and augmentations used by all human civilians of the UEG who desire to do so, as well as personnel of the UNSC. Despite this, these enhancements are not on-par as with those of the SPARTANs.

Forerunner connections
"You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You ARE forerunner. But this ring... is mine."

- - 343 Guilty Spark to John-117 Humans share a mysterious and unknown connection with the forerunners, and both species exhibit countless of anatomical and physical similarities. The multiple human species, such as homo sapiens, Homo erectus, neanderthalensis and floresiensis, were "chosen" to become inheritors, or Reclaimers, of the the forerunner's technology and societies, including the Mantle, a vague concept which the forerunners believed came from the ancient precursors. Vast majority of the forerunner technology, such as the activation indexes of the Halo Array, can only respond to human DNA to stop it from getting into the hands of other species. The forerunners hoped that if they passed their knowledge and torch to their creation, they would be able to destroy the xenomorphs, theorized to be yet another one of their creations, in the future.

Because of this, many forerunner Monitor regard humans as forerunners, while others fail to do so, duo to rampancy. The confusion surrounding this became the root for the catastrophic First Contact War, where the Covenant sought to exterminate humanity. In 2552, a Covenant ship discovered a planet filled with forerunner glyphs depicting the word "Reclamation", who, unknown to them, were actually humans. After the three Covenant Hierarchs sought information with the Oracle in the Dreadnought. Once they activated it, the Metarch only proclaimed "For eons I have watched. Listened to you misinterpret. This is not Reclamation. This is Reclaimer. And those it represents are my makers. I will reject my bias and will make amends. My makers are my masters. I will bring them safely to the Ark." Upon receiving this message, the Prophet of Truth, believing that humanity were forerunners, panicked with the realization that if this information was spread, it would destroy the Covenant, as it went against the very foundations of the Path. Using his influence, he manipulated his fellow Hierarchs, the Prophet of Mercy and the Prophet of Regret, alongside the entire Covenant and its High Council, to launch a massive religious crusade to exterminate humanity. Even at the end of the war, during the Battle of Installation 00, when Truth prepared to force Sergeant Major Avery Johnson to activate the Halo Array, he continued to hold his belief that humans were forerunners, proclaiming "Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion. Steeled themselves for what needed to be done. I see now why they left you behind. You were weak. And gods must be strong."

Culture and society
Human culture has changed mostly in few places since the 21st century, with humanity remaining multicultural among the tightly independent nations on Earth and the remaining UEG colonies. However, on the whole, humans have mostly been influenced by what once was perceived as Western culture. The UNSC is heavily drawn from the dissolved United States of America regarding military practices, tactics, and tradition, as well as the adoption of English as the lingua franca for the Unified Earth Government, despite the continuous use of other human languages in secondary societal roles, with new languages, such as NuNordic, having arosen.

Religion
Humans still practice a number of different religions, although much fewer than comparatively from the 20th to 21st century, being a personal matter. The political and social landscape has shaped drastically from religion, becoming dominated by science and logic. Major religions include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, with the ages-long grudges and intolerance between the various religions has also significantly toned down, mostly duo to the concept becoming obsolete with time, and the exposure to the Covenant, xenomorphs, and forerunner remains, which strengthened the commonality between humanity through a "human first, theology-second" mentality. New religions also emerged, such as the Church of Unitology and the Union of the Journey. Numerous cultural phenomenons also emerged, such as flip music and Cosmic Commedia Cooperative, a form of absurdist theater.

Cultural interactions
Virtually, no discrimination or segregation is observed among humanity regarding gender, skin color, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or background. Both males and females serve in the UNSC Navy and the UNSC Marine Corps in equal capacity, with showers and housing facilities being shared by both men and women. This absence of racial and cultural hatred within the UEG started in the 21st century and slowly evolved into an unified mindset, particularly during the Interplanetary War with the rise of the far-right and far-left extremist groups Koslovics and the Settlement Defense Front, which threatened to destroy all that humanity had slowly being able to build until the 22nd century.

Much like the cultural shifts and miscegenation brought with globalization on Earth's past, space colonization brought its own unpredictable effects on the numerous colonial population's cultures. Some planets, such as Shanxi, were multicultural from its very beggining, while others, such as Reach, received most of its initial colonists from a given region, or country, of Earth, who annex their cultural marks on the colony's own cultures. With populations settling on different planets, many of the cultures distorted or amalgamated. Despite this, majority of the colonists still consciously held their Earth cultural heritage as the norm. This can be seen through the naming of these colonies, many of which are named after mythology, religion, society, or locales. The massive cultural influence can be seen in Reach, with a largely predominant Hungarian settlers, Madrigal, with its vast Hispanic population, and Shanxi, which retained much of its culture after an amalgamation Chinese and Brazilian cultures. With time, the cultures either retain their many conspicuous traits or disappear entirely, as they become essentially "parodies" of themselves. Differently enough, most Outer Colonies, with settlers from multiple different backgrounds, became chaotic and melting pots, with no distinct cultural origins or evidences, which only became more obvious following the end of the First Contact War, with planets such as Venezia and Carrow becoming home to both human and settlers from the many species of the Covenant.

Education
The baseline human schooling is done through Glas and computer systems, with many companies, through imperial subsidies, having created programs to facilitate the education of children and adults alike through their preferred area of studies, prioritizing those less fortunate or with dwindling monetary gain, mainly on rural environments or poorer areas on megalopolises. Despite the overwhelming positive reception of these practices, many criticize it for encouraging "lack of interpretative thought", with it being essential only to teaching facts. Public schools offer synthetic teachers, however, classes can readily spiral out of control depending on the area of the school. In classes with more than one hundred students, most of the studying - and teaching - is done through Glas. There are also private academies, that, despite being expensive, offer the finest educational systems in the Unified Earth Government from qualified human teachers. Many offer scholarships in sports in the UNSC for exceptional students.

The predominance of the UNSC and large corporations in civilian life casts an air of militarism and corporatism over humanity, with military service and heroism being glorified through UNSC propaganda and the media. The persistent dangers brought from the Interplanetary War, which lingered on through the Insurrectionists during the Secession and both the Covenant and the xenomorphs during the First Contact War helped to shape a culture of military service, with many viewing military service as a matter of duty, while others simply saw it as a way to attain a better life condition, though at a possible dangerous cost. While the media is known to romanticize the UNSC, they particularly distate the rigid regulations of the Office of Naval Intelligence, which adopted methods of hiding dangerous information following the surge of sensationalist news reports and mass panic during the initial years of the Secession. However, the UNSC's need to govern as the emergency human government during the First Contact War, coped with the old grudges held by the Outer Colonies, shaped many's opinions to both the UEG, the UNSC, and the CMB, regarding them as a totalitarian government that hides behind the facade of a friendly and progressive body that still would authorize bombings on civilian territories, which are mostly used as Insurrectionist propaganda.

Non-human interactions
Ever since the First Contact War, humans were introduced to an array of different species that composed the hegemony, and later on the xenomorphs. After the end of the war, the UEG was left in an initial uneasy peace, the Treaty of 2585, with the sangheili, who allied with the species after being betrayed during the Great Schism and forming the Swords of Sanghelios. After the end of the war, despite aliens not being a part of human everyday life, there are still numerous interactions with non-humans, particularly the sangheili and kig-yar. Many attempts to develop new technology and social relations has occured, such as the formation of the Joint Occupation Zones (JOZs). as well trading and commerce. However, many human supremacist and isolationist groups have arisen following the war, such as Cerberus and Sapien Sunrise. Still, while many still harbor hate or discrimination towards the Covenant's species duo to the genocide of billions of humans during the war, many have to come to accept the sangheili and its Sword of Sanghelios as the only real allies of the UEG and the UNSC during the volatile and dangerous post-war period. While not illegal, it is becoming socially unacceptable for humans to show vicious xenophobic rants in public regarding aliens as inferior or dangerous, and vice-versa with the sangheili.

Homeworld and colonies
Having discovered slipspace travel for four centuries, the human sphere of influence is expanded through a sizable portion in the Orion Arm. These colonies are divided between the Inner Colonies and the Outer Colonies, both totaling 210 planets, colonized between 2212 and 2490. These colonies ranged from commercial hubs to military planets and to space stations; most of the Outer Colonies existed to supply the Inner Colonies with large sums of resources, including food. Most human colonies were glassed and destroyed by the Covenant during the First Contact War.

Despite all colonies being equally represented within the Unified Earth Government Senate, it is mostly agreed that the ultimate power lied within the Inner Colonies and Earth, which led to widespread separatism and civil war during the Secession, with many Outer Colonies allying under the banner of the Sovereign Colonies and other secessionist factions by declaring themselves independent from the UEG. Because the Outer Colonies were highly invaluable for the sustainment and working of the Inner Colonies, the UEG always sought to maintain control over them, leading to the rise of Insurrectionists.

Population
By 2541, Dr. Catherine Halsey estimated that the total human population was around 48 billion. However, by 2585, Cortana concluded that 33 billion human casualties occurred through the First Contact War, reducing the population to 16 billion.

Technology
In the beginning, human technology advanced through the knowledge of trial and error, but inefficiently, which halted potential faster progress. Humans developed writing in their very early past, but ideas and information could not be mass communicated until the invention of printing thousands of years later. The scientific method, introduced much later on, in conjunct with a more efficient model of capitalism born from the Industrial Revolution led to massive advancements and development of technology and gained knowledge. During this period, many new technologies were experimented with and deeply explored with the new knowledge of talented individuals, who by the time became better organized and supplied, which increased accuracy and improvements via minimized trials and costs. These methods became a human hallmark, differing from the Covenant, which simply copied and reverse-engineered forerunner artifacts by using the huragok, having no real understanding of the inner workings and underlying concepts of the original technology. This led to the saying that humans were "innovative" while the Covenant was "imitative" during the First Contact War.

By the 26th century, human technology did not equally advanced for all previous explored concepts. Ballistic weaponry and wheels have changed minimally duo to their reliability and relatively cheap cost, meaning that since the technology worked and was effective, it did not require major overhauls or replacement. Many other advancements were made in technology, however, such as the creation of the Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine, enabling ships to travel between star systems, as well as the creation of the humanoid synthetics and AI, both which can perform a variety of roles and integrate with human society. Humans also developed an array of different nanotechnology methods, severely advancing engineering.

After contact with the Covenant and forerunners, human technology further advanced, with innovations in slipspace navigation, the improvement of energy shielding and the adaption of the Covenant's cloaking. Following the war, the technology traded from the Swords of Sanghelios and kig-yar, researchers were able to advance centuries of trial and error experimentation.

Synthetics, artificial intelligence and automation
Synthetics are artificially intelligent androids created to mimic humans in nearly every possible way, from appearance to behavior. They are divided in multiple types and functions, from conventional androids to Autons. While both types are incredibly more intelligent, conventional synthetics, such as combat synthetics or love slaves, are only capable of performing and learning about subjects and situations on their designated area, while Autons possess much more human-like traits, being capable of serving in the military in specialized roles, as well as experiencing emotion, philosophy, creativity, music, religion, and intuition. As time wages on, many synthetics can experience rampancy if not properly taken care of. Lesser forms of artificial intelligence, such as Superintendent-class artificial intelligence, has widespread use in both military and civilian society, with many automated systems controlling ships, space stations, handling populated areas and performing manual labor in agriculture and other industries. They can range from handling simple freighters, such as Mother with the Nostromo, entire cities, such as Vergil with New Mombasa, or space stations, with Apollo, who surveyed Sevastopol Station.

Despite the UNSC still heavily relying on human soldiers, many types of robotic drones are used in the battlefield in order to provide real-time reconnaissance and support to Navy or Marine troops, such as the F-99 Wombats.

Medical development and biotechnology
Humans were able to master several forms of medical technology, which helped to extend the quality of their lives and improve upon their military. One such technology is cloning, allowing body parts that have been either damaged or lost to be rapidly replaced, although in more serious cases limbs can be replaced by prosthetics. While illegal, cloning of humans also exists, which has been used on the SPARTAN-II Program and the cloning of the xenomorphs aboard the UNSC Auriga. Humans have been immunized against multiple diseases, such as cancer, although some isolated cases still exist. Eyesight has been completely improved with current medical sciences, although glasses are still used for multiple reasons, such as fashion and the projection of heads-up displays.

During slipspace voyages, humans use cryo chambers, allowing them to enter cryosleep, a process which effectively stops them from biologically aging. Advancements such as these were one of the largest contributors to increase human longevity beyond the 100s; with cloning transplants and cryonics, the biological age of an individual might be decades younger compared to their chronological one. In addition to these technologies, many compounds, such as biofam and polymerized hemoglobin, have been developed for the easy treatment of patients and recover injuries that would otherwise be fatal.

Humans have developed numerous technologies of bioengineering and augmentation, which use started in the early days of human space travel to help in the adjustment of long periods of spaceflight in different conditions and environments. These technologies evolved to be used in the military, starting with the Interplanetary War and the breakthrough of gene therapy, which became a mainstay and commonplace among human culture, although more extensive methods have been severely limited duo to ethical reasons, such as the experimentation used in the SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III Programs. Some humans use drugs known as rumbledrugs, which grants its user superhuman abilities for moments, although it degenerates their bodies.

UNSC captains are equipped with neural interfaces, capable of allowing humans to interface with computer systems and send information. The apparel is capable of recording the thoughts of its user and display them on monitors.

Space-faring
Humans experimented with rocketry during the mid-20th century, using such methods to build their satellites and colonize other bodies such as Luna and Mars in the ending of the 21st century. Following the creation of the Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine, humanity effectively expanded beyond the Sol system and colonize more than two hundred worlds across the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Freighters from private companies transport and supply worlds with goods, food, and raw materials from colony to colony, while the UNSC Navy defend trade routes and colonies from pirates and smugglers. space elevators have been developed on most of the major colonies in order to orbitally transport materials to planets. Terraforming techniques were developed with the creation of the Atmosphere orocessing plants, allowing humans to live in many environments which would formerly be considered hostile or dangerous.

Human ships are equipped with fusion drives that grant them subluminal propulsion, proving thrust for the ships through the expelling of fusion reactors. The thrusters allow ships to cross interplanetary distances in hours. Thrusters employ triamino hydrazine for the maneuvering of attitude controls. Ships such as prowlers can become completely invisible in space by using texture buffers, masking their emissions and matching the space around them.

Weapons
While human weapons still employ the use of projectiles, chemical reactions and bullets, the modern human weapon is much more advanced compared to all other eras, coming with a variety of different electronic gadgets, including ammunition readouts and immunity to EMPs. However, despite the existence of ballistic weapons, there are electromagnetic accelerator and laser-based weapons. The most famous of them all is the Magnetic accelerator cannon (MACs), used by UNSC ships and in some smaller weapons. Other weapons include railguns and energy weapons, such as the SPARTAN laser.

Humans discovered the weaponizing of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion in the mid-20th century, allowing them to create nuclear weapons, many of which exist in the UNSC's vast arsenal for atmospheric and exoatmospheric attacks. These innovations led to the creation of the most devastating human weapon of all, the NOVA bomb.

Vehicles
Human vehicles still use wheels and continuous track motion to locomote, but with much more advanced technologies compared to its introduction in the 20th and 21st centuries, as they incorporate strong materials with the use of precision engineering, enabling the improvement over the vehicular durability and mobility, complemented with the use of mounted weapons and flexibility. Vehicles have switched from fossil fuels to either hydrogen fuels or hybrid electric fuels in order to increase the efficiency and remain eco-friendly. Stronger human vehicles run based on continuous tracks that grants them better weight distribution on uneven ground and the gripping of terrain, allowing them to go where other wheeled vehicles would never go.

UNSC aircraft are designed to serve in the battlefield with vertical take-off and landing capabilities, with adjustable jet engines for lifting and thrusting.

Trivia

 * Humans on Wikipedia.
 * Art by Guyver89.