Chapter 187

Axel was sitting in his office, when Omni interrupted him, "Sir, I am getting live signals from other Ascendency ships within the Galaxy. They appear to be searching for us."

A moment of relief ran across Axel's face as his eyes darted to the projected screen where a series of blips indicated the incoming Ascendency fleet. Omni continued to feed him more information, confirming that it was 100% Ascendency ships and not a trick by the Precursors.

"Omni, contact the fleet and transmit our coordinates once you speak to whoever is in charge." Axel ordered.

"Finally, this will just be a few minutes," replied Omni as he disappeared from Axel's desk.

On the Eclipse Ascendant, Admiral Konrad was sitting in his command chair watching over the massive influx of data that the ship's onboard AI, Parallax was sorting through. Parallax was the Contender-class ancilla created for this new fleet and was tasked with assisting the fleet in all scenarios.

Unlike Cortana, Parallax had a floating body similar to other ancilla which he could use to teleport between the ships within the fleet.

As Parallax was sorting through all the data, he received a communication from the AI called Omni, which he immediately turned to Admiral Konrad to report. "Sir, I am in communication with the Emperor's personal AI right now, I'll put him through."

Admiral Konrad nodded while in front of him Parallax projected Omni's image. "Admiral Konrad, this is Omni, Emperor Axel's personal AI," Omni's voice echoed in the room. "I have good news. The Emperor is safe and unharmed."

Konrad felt relief wash over him upon hearing the good news. He turned to Catherine, and saw she had the same reaction. The joy that Axel was alive spread across her face before she started to ask his whereabouts. "Omni, Where is he?" she demanded. Her voice was clear for all to hear as she was the most affected by his disappearance.

"He's onboard his ship within a distant system from here," Omni answered. "Transmitting coordinates now."

The data immediately fed into Parallax who projected the new holographic map of their current galaxy with a pinpoint showing Axel's current location. It was a little far from their current position, but since they were only performing a slipspace jump to somewhere within the same galaxy, there weren't many dangers or necessary prerequisites needed.

Omni had not only given them the location, but also a safe place to slipspace jump to. Admiral Konrad ordered the fleet to move out and for preparation to welcome the emperor back.

Parallax transmitted the coordinates simultaneously to fleet within seconds. As soon as they emerged from slipspace, the first thing they noticed was the defensive emplacements around the planet in front of them and the ones they could detect within the system.

"All ships, maintain positions," Admiral Konrad ordered as what he recognized as the emperor's ship was ascending from the surface of the planet. Once the ship was in front of the fleet, a transport could be seen leaving and heading for the Eclipse Ascendant.

"Ma'am, the emperor is on his way, shall we meet him in the hanger." asked Parallax.

"Of course," Catherine replied, tension releasing from her shoulders. "Let's go." With that, she and Admiral Konrad made their way to the hangar, escorted by Honor guards.

A few minutes later, within the hanger, thousands of soldiers could be seen lined up in tight formations all facing forwards towards where the transport was about to land. Standing behind the formation of soldiers were Catherine and Admiral Konrad as they began walking through the center of the soldiers to the front.

Once Axel's transport landed and the ramp extended, the Commander in charge started shouting orders.

"Attention!" Everybody snapped to attention at his words.

"Right Face!" each formation of soldier pivoted on their left foot turning to face the path splitting the formations onto two sides, where Axel was going to walk.

After the ramp reached the ground, Axel began walking down the ramp which prompted all soldiers to salute in unison while shouting, "Welcome back Sir!" the sound of thousands of soldiers all shouting was loud, but not as loud as when Axel assembled Billions of soldiers on Requiem to fight back the Reapers.

Before Axel could say anything, Catherine ran up practically tackled him as she jumped into his arms and hugged him tightly. Axel tightened his own grip as he held her for a few seconds in his arm, before setting her down.

"I've missed you," Catherine whispered, tears of relief running down her cheeks as she clung to his arm.

"I've missed you too, Cat," Axel responded, squeezing her hand before turning his attention back to the soldiers. "At ease," he commanded, and the formations immediately relaxed their positions.

He addressed Admiral Konrad next, giving him a firm handshake. "How's everything been Admiral?"

"Well, with you gone things were relatively stable and nothing major have changed besides a growing division between Senators." Konrad explained. Besides what he said, everything was normal.

"Division, huh." There had always been division as getting hundreds of people to agree on something was a challenge. But he figured that Konrad must be bringing it up because he has his own suspicions.

And based off the recent events that have happened, he could see that the Precursors who were desperate to kill him for some reason as behind this.

"It's true, there is something odd about their disagreements so far," she stated. In the beginning everybody agreed that they needed to find Axel, however for some reason over the course of a few months, numerous senators all of a suddenly changed their minds.

"I have an idea about what could be going on, but I don't know for sure, and I won't explain it here." Catherine and Admiral Konrad nodded as they left the hanger to go to a more secure room.

———

Meanwhile on Installation 00, Sergeant Major Forge John Forge was commanding the 22nd Infantry Division in the defense of the Ascendency Capital. He was currently taking cover behind a destroyed Warthog, shouting orders into his comm-link as energy and kinetic rounds flying overhead.

The battlefield was a maelstrom of chaos. Precursor soldiers and towering machines charged forward in relentless waves. Each step the massive machines took sent shockwaves rippling through the ground, disorienting the soldiers and throwing vehicles off balance.

"Hold the line!" Forge shouted. "Focus fire on those big ass machines! Bring them down before they breach the perimeter!"

Around him, Ascendency forces rallied, their advanced weaponry cutting through the swarms of smaller Precursor constructs. Modular autocannons mounted on fortifications spewed tons of rounds, while soldiers equipped with plasma railguns targeted the weak points of the towering warforms.

The Precursors used a combination of soldiers and machine constructs to try and overwhelm the defenses of the Ascendency.

The 22nd Infantry Division was spread thin across the city's defense grid, a blend of human and other Covenant units fighting shoulder to shoulder. Overhead, squadrons of Strike craft strafed the Precursor lines, launching missile barrages that lit up the battlefield in fiery explosions. But for every warform they destroyed, more surged forward, their ranks seemingly endless.

"Sergeant Major, we've got incoming!" shouted Private Nolan, pointing skyward. A cluster of glowing orbs was descending rapidly, Precursor orbital insertion pods.

Forge grit his teeth. "Corporal, get me a firing solution on those pods! We can't let them reinforce!"

The Corporal's voice came through the comms with "Artillery units are locked on, but the pods are deploying an interference field. I recommend manual targeting."

"Figures," Forge muttered. "Alright, Hammer teams, take those pods down before they hit the ground!"

From the rear lines, towering artillery walkers known as Juggernauts adjusted their aim, massive cannons shots flying toward the descending pods. The massive cannons from the Juggernauts intercepted some of the pod's mid-air, but a few managed to break through, slamming into the city's outer defenses with seismic force.

The ground shuddered as the pods split open, releasing hulking Precursor Enforcers, eight-legged behemoths armed with energy lances that carved through buildings and vehicles.

Forge cursed under his breath. "What the fuck are those!" the monstrous creatures had started tearing through the battlefield as soon as they were released, throwing the bodies of Ascendency soldiers into defensive positions.

Above the Installation the Ascendency fleet was locked in a brutal orbital battle. Admiral Joseph stood on the bridge of his flagship Relentless Dawn, his hands gripping the railing as the ship's massive cannons fired. Precursor dreadnoughts, sleek and alien in design, traded devastating salvos with the Ascendency's fleet. The space was filled debris, mainly ships from the Ascendency fleet as the sheer number of Precursor ships were too many.

"Admiral, the planetary defenses are holding, but barely," reported the ground coordination officer. "Ground forces are requesting orbital bombardment on key enemy positions."

Joseph nodded. "Redirect the MAC cannon to sector eight. Ensure the targeting arrays are precise, we can't afford collateral damage on our own troops."

The MAC cannon on several of the ships began to charge. A few moments later, a massive barrage hit the dense formation of Precursor warforms reducing them to rubble.

Cheers erupted across the comms, but the victory was short-lived as a Precursor superweapon emerged from slipspace. It shot out a massive beam that completely wiped out the entirety of the Ascendency's left flank. Now that the left flank had fell, the Precursor's rushed to flank the remaining ships in the fleet.

Facing a tough situation, Admiral Joseph had no choice but to order a retreat. The enemy forces were too much, and right now, Ascendency forces were spread too thin.

Ground forces would have to continue the fight without the Ascendency fleet for now.