War Progression

2 years later

Burning worlds cast shadows so deep the stars themselves seemed dimmed. The Precursor advance was merciless; their weapons were unlike anything seen before, bio-mechanical barrages that turned landscapes into alien wastelands. The Ascendency had withdrawn some of its forces from the Mass Effect Galaxy to stem the tide, but Axel left enough behind for them to fight their own war and stay alive.

Now, Catherine joined him at the frontlines, taking risks once deemed reckless, delivering blows that took not just Precursor lives but also every soldier that knew him wanted to be on board his ship and follow his orders. His strategy was like nothing they've ever encountered. Shields were overclocked to withstand whatever the Precursors threw at them.

Since these soldiers didn't have families or many duties they fought with less caution, some with downright disregard for their own survival. The morale in the galaxy surged, desperation turned into hope and determination fueling them all. The Precursors had awakened something they couldn't comprehend.

In a massive command chamber within his flagship, Axel stood surrounded by holographic projections of a dozen battlefronts. Around him, high-ranking officers relayed information. "Losses are within projected parameters," Omni reported. "Our counteroffensive is exceeding expectations." Axel didn't reply immediately, his gaze sweeping over the digital carnage that unfolded around him. "Show me Installation 00," he said.

The display shifted to reveal the Installation capital world. The Precursor fleet still held its ground even against millions of Ascendency soldiers and thousands of AI-controlled ships locked in brutal conflict above and below the massive ring world.

Though their progress was slow, the Precursor invasion had started to weaken as Ascendency forces took full advantage of the new weapons and tactics developed over the past two years. "Orders?"

"Push them," Axel said. "Deploy the Custodes to their rear flank. Then deploy all eight of our Metarch fleets. I want them broken by days' end."

"Understood," Omni replied. In a sequence of movements, Axel issued commands that dispatched hundreds of new warships directly from manufacturing systems. The AI-led Custodes fleets, unconstrained by organic limitations, moved with a precision that even the ancient directive minds could not have anticipated. The battle became a slaughter as the eight Metarch fleets arrived in time to cut off any retreat attempts by the Precursor fleet.

They were now trapped between advancing Ascendency ships and the powerful AI-controlled fleets. A few hours were all it took for this battle to be over with as the last of the Precursor ships exploded in space. On the surface of Installation 00, Ascendency troops had routed the remaining Precursor forces as waves after waves of MCU controlled soldiers continued to flood onto their positions.

With Installation 00 secured, Fleet Admiral Joseph led efforts to re-take key sections of the galaxy that were lost within the first few weeks of invasion.

———

Over in the Mass Effect galaxy, they weren't having nearly as much success as Axel expected them to initially have. Even with Ascendency technology given to them by Axel allowing a massive level up in their ships, they didn't have much experience compared to an empire that conquered an entire galaxy.

With Axel's limited presence, the Precursors pushed deeper into the galaxy, causing alliance worlds to fall. As the war dragged on, the other races began to despair. But as they started losing hope, Axel, Miranda and the majority of their forces returned to the Mass Effect galaxy with a fleet that was rebuilt and stronger than ever.

Instead of taking command, Axel gave Miranda the final Authority until he returned. He left to go help Catherine in their home galaxy who was holding her own against a remnant force led by several rogue MCUs who had been corrupted by a virus from the Precursors. A counter to this virus was discovered within days, but not before several hundred MCU controlled ships went rogue.

It was hard to get her to leave his side and go handle the matter as they were the top 2 people who knew more about the MCUs than anybody else did. After a lot of convincing, she eventually agreed.

The time away from his largest force allowed him to concentrate efforts on eliminating them completely without the time-consuming task of micro-managing everything. With the final interceptor fleets which were designed specifically to counteract Ascendency technology destroyed, he had completed everything he needed to do in their home galaxy and returned back to where he sent Miranda and his forces.

It took another year for them to win once he returned with Catherine at his side, but with his strategic genius and having built a new slipspace deployed orbital weapon that essentially caused stars to go supernova obliterating anything within a system sized reach, they were able to finally beat them back.

With over 10 billion lives lost in this new galaxy wide war, they have lost a lot more than previous wars combined but they gained stability over two galaxies for years and decades to come and have ushered another re-construction era that includes all species and races working together under one galactic system. They finally were able to do what the Forerunners doubted would be able to do.

However, everything was not all sunshine and rainbows. The threat of the Precursors still existed in the Galaxy that Axel was trapped in. They already had the momentum, and the people were not happy with the Precursors still being alive, so he decided to take the Ascendency into the other galaxy to wipe out the Precursors.

Arriving within the galaxy at one of the systems that they had already established full control over, Axel started to draft a plan for how he wanted to go about taking over this galaxy.

The first would be to obviously gather intel to see what the Precursors had been doing since he left. For that he could ask the Intelligence team he left here to continue monitoring the movements of every interstellar species in the galaxy.

After gaining intel on what had happened, he would move to start liberating the galaxy from the Precursors control. This would be another long-fought-out war as they were on the Precursors home territory this time.

—2 Months later—

They were only two months into the new invasion, and several races that once feared and worshipped the Precursors started to rebel against them. In a surprise attack led by Axel, the Ascendency liberated over 120 planets within the first few months, forming new alliances with countless new species. It was like nothing he'd seen before as more and more races joined up under the umbrella of the Ascendency.

Even with all these new species joining, it still wasn't enough to push back against the Precursors who were far more entrenched than at first thought. Seeing as they weren't winning as easily as past wars, this caused some people within their home galaxy to doubt if they would win this time around. To keep moral high within their home galaxies and ensure that no resistance or uprisings could take hold, he would have to rely on propaganda as well.

Unlike past wars where he could micromanage every last bit of detail due to everything being in one galaxy, he had to establish war councils in each galaxy and let them run the war from there. Since there were so many moving pieces in this new campaign, he didn't have time or resources to manage each little thing.

However, even without Axel's involvement they were able to start making progress after a few setbacks as their caution paid off when they finally started capturing planets that were strategically important. Though Axel was no longer involved directly in trying to capture these planets, he left detailed plans behind for how things were meant to go should anything happen like this before. The Precursors were relentless but uncreative; their advanced technologies were offset by their inability to adapt beyond established parameters.

In response, the Precursors sent out one of their most powerful leaders.

On the hidden Precursor homeworld of Eidolon, a sprawling planet-sized labyrinth of spires and engineering masterpieces, brimmed with activity. Frameworks were in motion, readying for the large-scale assault they anticipated from Axel's forces. The Council of Directive Minds, AI constructs designed by the Precursors over millions of years, interfaced in their central hub. Waves of quantum light cascaded through their cores as they pondered their next move.

"The Ancillary beings resist with unforeseen resilience," one Directive Mind communicated. "The entity Axel has introduced variables that continue to destabilize our projections."

"Yes," another responded, "His methodologies are unpredictable, leveraging organic adaptability against us. Our hold on this region is tenuous unless we eliminate him rapidly."

A third Directive Mind interjected, its glow pulsating erratically. "Reports indicate his forces converge on critical sectors at an accelerated pace. Genetic subtleties amongst client species suggest growing disloyalty." There was a pause as the Minds started calculating trillions of possibilities in mere seconds.

"We must contain Axel without catastrophic exposure to our core operations," declared an elder Directive Mind. "Our sustained presence in this galaxy hinges on terminating his influence efficiently."

"What do you propose?" another queried.

The elder Mind's light flared violently before settling into a seamless pattern. "Consolidate mobile platforms around Eidolon," it decreed. "Harness temporal dissonance fields to disrupt his forces' technological advances. Reclaim control by leveraging new compliant agents spawned from his new allies."

"Such measures might work," acknowledged another Mind. "But we must accelerate. The error of leaving him unchecked is unacceptable, given his historical impact."

"Then we proceed at once," the elder Mind finalized, and the entire network shifted their focus to this emergent strategy.