: This is just a little tongue-in-cheek, but I don't really buy that strain of
: logic for two reasons: 1) The campaign doesn't even mention the name Jul
: M'dama anywhere. As far as Master Chief and Cortana know, this is just a
: group of Covenant scavengers who happened upon the FUD. Requiem is a holy
: land for them, and the Didact is obviously a figure of religious
: importance. The Chief and the UNSC Infinity have no right to be there.
: It's not until the Covies leave the planet and attack the science station
: at Halo that the Didact and the Covenant become the clear aggressors.

: 2) Why the heck do we go back to Requiem for Spatan Ops? What are we doing in
: the first Spartan Ops mission except dropping down and slaughtering Covies
: who are peacefully living in their new holy land? If I came out of Church
: and a squad of Super Soldiers started shooting at me and my friends, damn
: right I'd shoot back!

: The Didact's dead. When I start Spartan Ops, I've never even heard the name
: Jul M'dama. Why is ONI sending me to slaughter these people with whom we
: have a truce? Didn't we just finish fighting them in a war? Why does ONI
: want me to be a unquestioning cog in their new war machine?

: What right do we have to go back to Requiem and slaughter more Covenant six
: months after the events of Halo 4?

Scavengers aren't typically equipped with an assault carrier, battlecruisers, and light cruisers with thousands in their ground forces. The religious beliefs of Jul 'Mdama's forces go hand-in-hand with their aggressive and violent behavior with the rest of the galaxy. The Great Journey doesn't allow for pacifist belief. 'Mdama and his extremists would see "heretics" and the whole of humanity dead. As each ship should be considered sovereign territory of its operating government, the remnant are in clear violation of invasion - which they undertook with overwhelming force.

The Covenant's religion and its corruption necessitated the beginning of hostilities in the Great War and those beliefs spilled over into the Reclamation. UNSC forces have largely been reactive towards Sangheili and San 'Shyuum aggression in conventional manners. 'Mdama never signed any peace treaties with the United Earth Government or with Thel 'Vadam's government on Sangheili. Infinity's return deployment to Requiem was to eliminate a highly capable threat to human security.

Jul 'Mdama aligned himself with the UrDidact, a man who a hundred thousand years ago all but wiped out our ancient civilization on mistake, degrading their physiology and society. He later massacred thousands and turned them into digital, heartless machines to combat the Flood. He saw humanity as a technologically and mentally inferior enemy then, and despite our clearly evident advances, continues such beliefs into the 26th century. He's a bully. All the millennia he was sent into exile did not change him. The countless victims on Charum-Hakkor, the Halo Array, and at New Phoenix can attest to this.

Any person who is regarded as "The Didact's Hand" is someone who needs to be killed, as with anyone who follows them.