บท 24: Chapter 24

A/N: Check out the official Discord with the posted Link down below. And don't hesitate to post suggestions for characters, ships, weapons, and anything else so that I can potentially add it to the story.

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Current date, January 22nd, 2521. Axel was now entering the final 6 Months of his deployment and would soon return back to his position as the Head of ONI Section Three. So far he has achieved quite a lot in the outer colonies. Thousands of insurrectionists from various groups were captured and transported back to the inner colonies to be trialed and numerous groups were either destroyed or too weak to cause any more major problems.

Groups such as the United Rebel Front and the Freedom and Liberation party had lost it's central leadership causing the group to basically be disbanded until someone tries and unite them again. Some groups were already destroyed by the UNSC before Axel was deployed to the outer colonies such as the Secessionist Union.

The Secessionist Union ,also referred to as the People's Occupation Government, was disbanded in 2502 after it's leader, Jerald Mulkey Ander was assassinated by Corporal Avery Johnson during operation KALEIDOSCOPE.

Members of the Colonial Military Administration(CMA) were also found and arrested for working with the insurrectionists. This was already something that FLEETCOM had suspected from the CMA as the insurrectionists always found ways to get weapons, coordinate attacks on UNSC bases, and avoid the UNSC at times.

This was also something that Axel utilized in his attacks on the insurrectionists. He would tell the CMA that he was planning an operation in one place to draw out the traitors from within the CMA and confuse the insurrectionists when the planned attack did not happen.

Axel was not just a brute force of military power; he was a strategist, a chess player in the grand game of interstellar politics and warfare. And for the remaining 6 Months Axel would spend most of it patrolling the outer colonies systems and ensuring stability across each planet.

The two frigates which he had disabled during a skirmish with insurrection forces in his first year had been completely repaired and crewed with some new recruits who had finished their training. The Frigates were stationed at Algolis because of their lack of Warp Drives. But after they were equipped with them they had joined up with the battlegroup over 4 months ago.

Within the battlegroups formation the two frigates were placed on each side of the Leviathan with the Cruiser in the front and the two Destroyers in front of the Cruisers. In a normal battle the two destroyers would be the first ones to engage the enemy ships with the Cruiser behind the for long range support. The Carrier is the command ship and should naturally be protected so it would remain behind the frontline ships and launch fighters to combat the enemy fighters and bombers to combat the enemy ships.

The two frigates would serve as a sort of protective cover in case an ambush happens and the enemy try to go after the carrier. They would also take on a skirmish role and harass enemy ships while they are distracted by the frontline ships.

This military intelligence and strategic positioning were crucial to Axel's success in destabilizing the insurrectionist forces. He is a firm believer in the proverb, "know thy enemy", and attributed much of his victories to understanding the insurrectionist's tactics and countering them effectively.

Axel was well aware that his strategy might need to change swiftly as the situation evolved.

Of course they did not always fly in a battlegroup, sometimes the two frigates acted as an extension of his eyes and ears in space, frequently dispatched to patrol areas that may be vulnerable or to pursue leads on insurrectionist activities.

These six months won't be just about patrolling and ensuring stability across each planet; Axel planned to cut off any chances of insurrectionist resurgence at its roots. He intended on focusing his attention on identifying potential sources of future threats – sympathizer networks within the colonies, discrepancies in supply chains which might indicate smuggling activities supporting the remaining rebels, anything that could lead him closer to comprehensively eliminating this threat to the UNSC.

Meanwhile Hammer who is in charge of the 1st Robotic Battalion had been working within the inner colonies dealing with the small insurrectionists groups which were present there.

The 1st Robotic Battalion was already a well known Battalion and had even been on the news showcasing the most recent human inventions. But there was also another group gaining popularity as well.

Misriah Armory who had recently created it's own version of the MCU was gaining popularity. They had created cheaper version of the MCUs which could be massed produced. The only problem was the fact that they were in no way superior to that of the MCUs.

While they had the advantage because they were robotic units they still stood no chance against Axels MCUs. Against the insurrectionists sure they would be able to overwhelm them thanks to the AI programming which the Misriah Armory added to them but they were not on the same level as the AI for the MCUs.

But they had proved that they can fight the against the insurrectionists and as such had gain a contract from the UNSC to mass produce them in the thousands to gain better control of the outer colonies with them.

The move had been met with a flurry of protests from smaller defense firms, who saw it as the establishment tightening its monopoly on the armaments sector, yet it was unavoidable. Misriah Armory had captured the spirit of the moment and was riding a wave of popularity and success.

This wasn't something that Axel needed to worry about since it would only be adding to the list of the UNSC worst decisions when it came to armaments. Politically he may have been affected a little since in the future he knew that his MCUs would probably stop receiving funding, but it was nothing that would cause long term damage.

In fact the political damage was probably insignificant. The contract was probably orchestrated by those High ranking Officers who want to limit his success and political influence not knowing that in the long run they would only be hurting the UNSC.

In the meantime, the Leviathan continued its vigilant patrol in the outer colonies for the remaining 6 Months until it was time for Axel to return back to Algolis and where he would resume supervising the spartan program.