Inka 'Saham

Inka 'Saham grew to notoriety during the Human-Covenant War for harassing United Nations Space Command supply lines and Unified Earth Government trade routes as the shipmaster of the Heresy's Sorrow, a Mutan Et-pattern storm cutter. After the Covenant collapsed in 2552, 'Saham struck a deal with War Chief Escharum, dedicating his ship and his crew to the Banished.

In 2559, a Spartan-IV headhunter was sent on a mission to assassinate Inka 'Saham, but they were unsuccessful. The Spartan was captured and tortured as a prisoner of war simply for 'Saham's enjoyment, rather than for the purpose of extracting intelligence on the UNSC. After this, 'Saham would be inducted into the Bloodstars.

'Saham participated in the Banished occupation of Installation 07 in 2560; he led a number of his troops to fight against the Forerunner Sentinels on the ring.

During the Battle for Zeta Halo, Inka 'Saham wore a maroon-colored Sangheili Warlord's harness. He carried a Meluth'qelos-pattern energy sword and a modified pulse carbine called the Rapidfire Pulse Carbine.

The pulse carbine is a directed-energy weapon hailing from the same line as other plasma weapons like the Okarda'phaa-pattern plasma rifle and Kelos'vaarda-pattern storm rifle. Unlike the more traditional plasma rifle, the pulse carbine shares more of a visual similarity with the storm rifle or the Nakata'vho-pattern plasma repeater, consisting of a fully-elongated rifle with a full stock and barrel. The pulse carbine is capable of fully-automatic] or burst fire, and is designed to quickly overwhelm targets with a barrage of superheated plasma bolts. The Rapidfire variant of the pulse carbine differs from the standard design pattern in one major way—as its name suggests, it has an increased rate-of-fire. The outer nanolaminate carapace has a silver-white coloration, as opposed to the purple of the standard pulse carbine.

The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) is the military, exploratory, and scientific agency of the Unified Earth Government (UEG) and has acted as the emergency governing body of the human race at large for a time.

The Battle for Zeta Halo was a large multi-faction battle that took place starting on December 12, 2559, prominently between the United Nations Space Command and the Banished on the Forerunner Halo Installation 07, otherwise known as "Zeta Halo", and continues as of around mid-2560. The earlier stages of battle ultimately led to the death of Cortana, the deactivations of her Guardians and the splintering of the Created in various fiefdoms and fledgling cells while simultaneously severely damaging Installation 07, making it a turning point of the Created uprising, although the conflict itself continued as of 2560.

The Banished are a multi-species confederation of pirates and raiding clans. Acting as mercenaries, the organization's goals have been described as attaining power in their raids across the Orion Arm, while their killers and mercenaries plunder treasure in the name of their own free will.

They were formed and led by the Jiralhanae warmaster Atriox after rebelling against the Covenant. The Banished are primarily composed of Jiralhanae and have incorporated Sangheili, humans, Mgalekgolo, Unggoy, Huragok, and Kig-Yar, as Atriox denounced vengeance between species as a petty restriction in the way of gaining rewards and treasures.

The Valorguards of the Chosen are a Sangheili mercenary clan within the Banished, with General Inka 'Saham as a prominent member.

Following the dissolution of the Covenant, the remnants of the Bloodstars were absorbed into the Banished. Atriox created a new iteration of the unit and tasked it with a new purpose of hunting and killing dangerous enemies; against the UNSC, this translated into killing Spartans.