章 52: Chapter 51

2531 March 1st, Axel was currently above Algolis, onboard his brand-new Capital ship, the UNSC 'Emperor of War'. It was in reference to Axel's long track record of victories during the war and his popularity amongst the people. The 2nd Fleet had been split up into various Battlegroups led by their respective Commanders, while Axel remained in charge of Battlegroup Tango which had added 6 more ships to the Battlegroup.

One of them was his new Capital ship which was the Punic-class Supercarrier, two of them were the Marathon-class heavy cruiser, another two were the Phoenix-class colonial support vessel, and the last one was a Hillsborough-class heavy destroyer.

Axel's new Capital ship, the Punic-class Supercarrier was retrofitted with Large Autocannons, a twin Core which offered more power to the energy shielding, a pair of a CR-01D series 6 Super MACs, Archer Missile pods, Howler Missile pods, and Point defense guns to defend against enemy fighters. It's also capable of mounting frigates or small destroyers in its ventral sub-vessel hanger bays.

The Hanger was upgraded to carry 190 drop ships of multiple variety, 2 airwings (60 Fighters Each), and 4 sub-level deployment bays.

The Marathon-class heavy cruiser is nearly 1.2 kilometers long, heavily armored, and equipped with two MACs and the missiles were replaced with Autocannons to significantly improve firepower. They could also be deployed as a light carrier configuration if needed. Additionally, the Heavy Cruiser also had a complement of Marines, ODST, Spartans, Longswords, and Dropships. Multiple Combatant commands worked together onboard the Cruiser to ensure ground and space operations were successful.

Next was the Phoenix-class colonial support vessel. It was originally a Colony ship used to bring colonists to newly settled worlds and create prefabricated colony starter units, hydroponics and other facilities. Now it was retrofitted to carry vehicles, troops, and supplies as support for ground operations. In addition, it now carried the resources to set up firebases to establish a strong base on planetary surfaces. It was equipped with 3 MACs, Autocannons, and Point defenses.

Lastly was the Hillsborough-class heavy destroyer. Unlike the frigates, the Hillsborough does not split up the hull booms, but instead has them connected to form one large blocky structure, coated in two meters of Titanium-A battle plate. The Hillsborough also lacks the "wings" characteristic of the frigate lines and has a less extreme horizontal profile as a result. It had a single MAC, Autocannons, Ares Missiles, and point defense weapons.

So in total he had 12 ships in his Battlegroup including the original 6 which consisted of one Halcyon-light cruiser, two Frigates, two Gorgon-class heavy destroyer, and the Axels former Capital ship the Epoch-class heavy carrier.

Onboard the Emperor of War, a section of the ship was turned into Axel's personal lab where he could continue to develop new designs for various military vehicles and equipment such as the Pelican, Warthog, Falcon, Longsword, etc.

At the same time his previous creations, the new Infantry armor, ODST armor, the Knightfall Multipurpose rifle, and the Orbital defense platform. The UNSC security Council had voted on its production following the increase in number of lives lost in the war against the Covenant.

But because it was Axel's technology, they had to get his permission to give production contracts to other contracted companies to produce them. Not only would the way the technology was created be shared but the resources used to make it and its abilities.

It was not something that Axel really cared about, especially if they tried to create something better than Axel's armor since the Energy shielding technology was a military exclusive technology that could only be produced by the UNSC.

The Contracted companies were only in charge of creating the armor, while the Energy shielding would be installed by the UNSC itself once they receive the armor. This way it won't fall into the wrong hands, nor would it be replicated by another company.

Outer Colonies that had not been evacuated or glassed yet had an Orbital Defense Station built in orbit of the planet to defense against Covenant attacks.

A single Defense station was strong enough to take out a Covenant Cruiser with two shots, and a Covenant Corvette with a single shot. Anything larger than a cruiser had not yet been tested in a live battle but through simulations it was predicted to take at least 5 shots for Covenant carriers, and 4 for Covenant destroyers.

The Survival rate of ODSTs had also improved dramatically thanks to their new armor making quick deployments more effective, and special operations more successful.

His creations had been saving lives on the battlefield and making the fight even with the Covenant. Still though, the Covenant was a tough opponent on the ground and in space. As of now if the Covenant utilized a massive fleet to attack colony after colony, then they wouldn't be able to do anything about it besides slow them down.

They were only winning now because of how spread out the Covenant forces were and whenever they fought the Covenant, they usually outnumbered them and had equal fire power.

Speaking of the Covenant, Axel had managed to acquire an intact Covenant Corvette but utilizing his Spartans to take control of the ship. It was a tough battle for the Spartans as they had to fight through the entire ship to get to the bridge. They couldn't even take prisoners as the Covenant fought them till the end and those that managed to stay alive had utilize escape pods and retreated to another Covenant ship.

Researchers from Section Three had begun studying the Covenant ship trying to figure out the difference in their technology and engineering.

Axel had studied the Covenants Energy Shielding technology and had gotten new insights to make a new Energy Shield, and he also studied their Pinch fusion reactors which he found out replicated the conditions inside the core of a star to generate enormous amounts of Plasma and power.

To create his own would take time, but it was doable, and it would become a new source of power for UNSC ships and humans.

At the same time, Miranda had grown to the age of 6. She had occasionally spent time with Catherine at the secret Research lab while he was in battles. And he would return every few days or so to spend some time with her and teach her as the years passed.

She had shown signs of high intelligence at an early age and enjoyed spending time with him more than her mother. She enjoyed her mother and didn't dislike being with her, but she enjoyed her time spent with Axel as she had the most fun and learned a lot of things.

But now she was attending school on earth away from both her parents. They would occasionally visit her every week when they were free to spend some quality family time, but Miranda wished she could see them every day.