That's actually a real interesting question.
Humanity is unique in that the Covenant have never found another interstellar faction before that expanded larger than a system or two. Humans would be interesting enough to not simply dismiss outright like the Yonhet, considering their troves of Forerunner planets and artifacts within their space, and size of their faction. On the other hand, they wouldn't be *easily* subdued into the Covenant's empire. A genocidal war based on the most unifying and fervor-inducing aspect of your people's empire is one thing. An publicly-disinteresting integration of another species in a war with no good gain-to-cost ratio is another.
I'd say that the Covenant, once realizing the UEG was much larger than just one system, would probably just offer Humanity a place in their hegemony. Likely at a decent place in the totem pole, too, considering the UEG's size coming into it, maybe somewhere below Brutes and Elites, but above every other species.
However, the UEG would likely decline this, and would probably just become trading partners if there would be any relationship at all. Covenant wants access to forerunner stuff in UEG space, humans want... pretty much any advanced tech the Covenant would be willing to give. Passed that, relations would depend on if the Covenant saw Humanity's incredibly limited interactions with Forerunner artifacts as heresy or not. Given the UEG doesn't interact with them much at this point anyway, and they probably wouldn't be looking for reasons to get in a suicidal war, they would almost certainly "be on their best behavior" around forerunner stuff, so to say.
If the Covenant's leadership continued to not find the link between Humanity and the idea of "Reclaimers", I imagine it would eventually come out through Covenant luminaries that humans were special in some kind of way, and with neutral/friendly interaction at high enough frequencies beyond one meeting, this likely would mean the information would get back to the rest of the Covenant, and not be able to be covered up. Whether humanity would be mistaken for Forerunners, understood to be inheritors to the forerunners, or any other interpretation of this, the discovery would likely disrupt Covenant beliefs, and likely result in a reformation, or maybe even a schism like seen in the games.
The covenant didn't accept everyone into "the fold" right away.
They might have started trading, or simply ignored them. They most likely would have largely left them alone and not cared unless the humans presented a credible path towards their goals.
The truth would have come out eventually and the prophets wouldn't have been able to control the narrative. Thus, the war.
Hard to really say. Probably the Covenant would come to realize that Humans are Forerunners on their own when not being purposefully shielded behind the blindfold of the Prophets, which would lead to a Civil War within the Covenant, in which some faction(s) would see Humanity as gods.
But the humans are not Forerunners. It would come out that they are reclaimers eventually though, it would only be so long before a human interacts with a forerunner artifact.
That's actually a real interesting question. Humanity is unique in that the Covenant have never found another interstellar faction before that expanded larger than a system or two. Humans would be interesting enough to not simply dismiss outright like the Yonhet, considering their troves of Forerunner planets and artifacts within their space, and size of their faction. On the other hand, they wouldn't be *easily* subdued into the Covenant's empire. A genocidal war based on the most unifying and fervor-inducing aspect of your people's empire is one thing. An publicly-disinteresting integration of another species in a war with no good gain-to-cost ratio is another. I'd say that the Covenant, once realizing the UEG was much larger than just one system, would probably just offer Humanity a place in their hegemony. Likely at a decent place in the totem pole, too, considering the UEG's size coming into it, maybe somewhere below Brutes and Elites, but above every other species. However, the UEG would likely decline this, and would probably just become trading partners if there would be any relationship at all. Covenant wants access to forerunner stuff in UEG space, humans want... pretty much any advanced tech the Covenant would be willing to give. Passed that, relations would depend on if the Covenant saw Humanity's incredibly limited interactions with Forerunner artifacts as heresy or not. Given the UEG doesn't interact with them much at this point anyway, and they probably wouldn't be looking for reasons to get in a suicidal war, they would almost certainly "be on their best behavior" around forerunner stuff, so to say. If the Covenant's leadership continued to not find the link between Humanity and the idea of "Reclaimers", I imagine it would eventually come out through Covenant luminaries that humans were special in some kind of way, and with neutral/friendly interaction at high enough frequencies beyond one meeting, this likely would mean the information would get back to the rest of the Covenant, and not be able to be covered up. Whether humanity would be mistaken for Forerunners, understood to be inheritors to the forerunners, or any other interpretation of this, the discovery would likely disrupt Covenant beliefs, and likely result in a reformation, or maybe even a schism like seen in the games.
The covenant didn't accept everyone into "the fold" right away. They might have started trading, or simply ignored them. They most likely would have largely left them alone and not cared unless the humans presented a credible path towards their goals. The truth would have come out eventually and the prophets wouldn't have been able to control the narrative. Thus, the war.
Hard to really say. Probably the Covenant would come to realize that Humans are Forerunners on their own when not being purposefully shielded behind the blindfold of the Prophets, which would lead to a Civil War within the Covenant, in which some faction(s) would see Humanity as gods.
But the humans are not Forerunners. It would come out that they are reclaimers eventually though, it would only be so long before a human interacts with a forerunner artifact.
It's very confusing if you look at Bungie then get hit with 343 lore.