The Thursday War Spoilers Ahead! Turn back now if you intend to read it!
So, The Thursday War was packed full of juicy Halo 4 information. I might compile a list of relevent info later for those who arent going to be able, or simply arent going to read the book. For now however, id like to simply clarify the Storm Covenenant , as i know a lot of people are wondering why we are fighting them etc.
Until now, most of us have assumed they are a rebel faction, as in Glasslands there was an uprising on Sanghelios (the Elite home planet), instigated by ONI (no surprise), and caused by many Elites hatred towards the Arbiter and his peace treaty towards Humans. One of the Elites leading this was one Jul 'Mdama. In Glasslands, he was captured by ONI and sent to Trevalyan (The shield world previously known as Onyx) for interegation of sorts, as a prisoner.
Jul is many things, but stupid isnt one of them. HE is very crafty, and hates humans like theres no tomorrow. While on Trevalyan, he is allowed to wander around freely (monitered of course), escorted by an Engineer (who are now working alongside humans, hence the forerunner upgrades to our tech, especially infinity), and wearing an explosive vest, same as the ones Engineers have worn in the past.
Over the weeks/months Jul is on Trevalyan he slowly and sneakily gathers information about the forerunners, and in particular, the Didact, who he finds out waged war on the Humans 100,000 years ago, and hated them himself. He also finds out that the librarian has hidden him on Requiem, and has left warnings over all forerunner sites as it would seem, that no matter what, do not awaken him. Lastly, he learns of portals to other forerunner sites, most of which are malfunctional, as they wer not maintained on the other end.
Tricking his Engineer escort, who will override human orders to protect forerunner artifacts, he manages to escape through ne of these portals, destination unknown. Where it takes him however, is a colonised Elite planet, cut of from Sanghelios and the war (they didnt even know the human-covenant war had ended). These Elites left Sanghelios a long time ago, and are all very very religious still. Jul exploits this, and makes contact with his home planet, only to find out his wife and best friend have been killed, indirectly by humans.
Engraged and distraught, he now seeks vengeance, and using these Elites translated co-ordinates to figure out where Requiem is, he is now foolishly on his way there to awaken the Didact, and set him loose on Humans.
This explains why the Elites armor is so different, and one can assume t here were grunts etc on the planet as well working for/with the elites, so it could potentially explain thier appearance aswell. It also gives us a reason as to why they are at Requiem, and also why we are fighting.
TLDR; The Covenant we have seen in Halo 4 is presumably an entirely different colony, from a different planet, essentially cut off from the outside world, led by a vengeful Elite, who seeks to wake up the Didact, who is confirmed now to be on Requiem.
Hopefully this clears it up for a few of you. Sorry for all the typos etc, but it was a bit rushed and im tired lol. Feel free to ask any questions, to which ill answer to the best of my ability ol