Quote Originally Posted by Pooky View Post
If I recall correctly, at the time of Halo 1 the Covenant still had a lot to learn about humanity, and the military in particular. It's possible that they just wanted prisoners for interrogation. Isn't that why people usually take prisoners?
In the book "the flood" it was claimed the covenant didn't take prisoners as they felt it was beneath them to learn about what they saw as lower than " the infection" aka the flood.
the Elite zealots actually considered hunting the humans almost as sport and got competitive over first kills and most kills.