The Relationship Between Locke and Arbiter

Community Halo Universe
1

From the Halo 5 E3 Cinematic trailer:

Jameson Locke: “I’m a Spartan now, sir.”
Thel 'Vadam: “I know who you are…yet now you hunt another Spartan.”

With both “now’s”, the dialogue here suggests they had some sort of previous relationship, as if the Arbiter knew of Locke when he was still an ONI agent. And when the Arbiter says “yet now you hunt…”, it suggests that he knew Locke had a previous mission to hunt someone down, probably a non-Spartan.

Is there any fiction to back this up?? Other than Locke filing a report on the Arbiter in September 2552, presumably unbeknownst to the Arbiter, I couldn’t find anything else (you’ll have to forgive me, I’m probing this information to justify a fanfic-spec-script I’m developing).

2

I highly doubt it implies any kind of previous relationship. It’s not difficult to ascertain that Locke is/was affiliated with ONI seeing as he has their emblem on his armor.

In the Sprint episodes released back in June there was a scene showing the Arbiter saying to Locke “ONI out from the shadows” or something along those lines. Locke’s “I’m a Spartan now sir” is likely his reply to that statement.