Ara M'lee

Ara M'lee (also known as Emily) is a T'vaoan military officer and one of the few known Covenant individuals to have raised a family with a human. Like Carl-702, she fought on Reach in 2552, where the two would ultimately meet.

Appearance
Like most T'vaoan, Emily's skin is grey and her eyes are yellow with slitted pupils. Her forearm feathers and feather mane are both a greyed red. Like her feathers, her armour was coloured red, though it was a brighter colour than her feathers.

Early Life
Emily was born on the T'vaoan homeworld of T'vao, a few decades before the Human-Covenant War. Her childhood was typical of T'vaoan children, though she recalls her father working for long periods of time before returning home.

Upon becoming old enough, she wanted to join the Covenant's military, though was unable to the first time round since the Covenant military forces were made up of mostly males. To work around this she grew her mane longer, then found a T'vaoan male who was roughly the same height as her, before effectively stealing his identity. This ruse apparently worked against the Sangheili, Unggoy and San'shyuum who could not tell that she was indeed, female. She did not have such lucky against her fellow Kig-Yar, who were able to figure her out almost instantly. Since there was a higher chance of surviving with a larger unit, the Kig-Yar unanimously decided not to say anything.

Pre-Reach
Some time before 2552, she attained the rank of Commando and subsequently became a squad leader.

During Reach
During the Covenant's Reach campaign, her unit were sent on numerous recon missions, often against UNSC structures in remote regions in the Viery Territory. All but 2 of these missions were successful in taking out strategic UNSC installations, further hindering the UNSC's ability to defend the planet. Towards the end of the campaign her success quickly plummeted as the remaining UNSC forces fought with more ferocity than previous encounters.

Emily's units' first failed mission resulted in the deaths of 17 of the 32 troops under her command. Whilst distraught by her losses, the remaining unit members trudged on until their final moments at a construction site in Asźod. It was there she met Carl, who was attempting to find transport off-world. Captivated by the SPARTAN's willingness to aid a Covenant species, she and her surviving troops went along with him to escape the planet.

Post-Reach
Having barely survived the Fall of Reach, Emily, her remaining squadmates and Carl left the planet on a hijacked Covenant Dropship. Rather than return to the service of the Covenant, the T'vaoan on-board instead opted to return to their homeworld after losing so many of their people during the Fall of Reach. The trip from Reach to T'vao took just over a full Earth year to complete, during which Emily and Carl started and developed their relationship. Upon arriving on T'vao's surface, the dropships' occupants disembarked, though Emily only remained on the planet for a few days before leaving for Human territory, taking up another full Earth year.

Post-War
In 2554 Emily and Carl arrived back at Earth where they were interrogated by ONI before being released (and for Emily, pardoned) and departing from Earth shortly after. They settled on a Earth-sized planet 15 light years from Earth where their son, Regj, was born.

One evening in 2563