Axel and Catherine went back to his flagship, while Admiral Konrad remained onboard the Eclipse Ascendant. Leaving behind just the MCU divisions, Axel was finally able to return home after years of being lost in this galaxy.
The new slipspace drive took a day to install due to Ascendency engineers already preparing ahead of time for such an eventuality. Once the process was complete, they made the jump.
Upon arriving in their home galaxy, Omni had re-established connection with the Ascendency network and was immediately swarmed with all types of chaotic reports and news feeds.
"Sir, take… a look at this," Omni pulled up numerous screens showing worlds being invaded by the Precursor forces. Images of Ascendency cities on fire, towering war machines walking through the streets, and hordes of Precursor soldiers mercilessly slaughtering citizens filled the screens.
First, he was forcibly sucked into a wormhole and dragged to a new hostile galaxy, then he was attacked by the Precursors causing hundreds of soldiers to die. Now, the Precursors were invading the very empire that he built and murdered innocents.
As much as he wanted to express his anger and frustration, he had to stay focused. Using his neural link which had reconnected with the Guardian Custodes after returning, he ordered them to various systems to assist various fronts.
In total, there were reports of over 20 worlds actively being invaded out of the hundreds that the Ascendency controlled. One of these active invasions was of Reach, the world that was the most important to the Ascendency because it was established as the center of all Naval activity.
But before this, he turned his attention to the crew of ship who were looking at him with faces of expectancy. He saw despair, confusion, terror, and other such emotions that some tried to hide. He knew that if he allowed this fear to take hold, then all would be lost. So, Axel did what a leader should, offer a few words of encouragement.
"Look around you," he began, looking at each officer. "You see destruction, you see chaos, you see the possible fall of our empire. You see an end."
He paused for a moment before he started again, the confidence in his voice clear for all to hear. "But I don't see an end. I refuse to acknowledge it. I see the start of a battle that we can and will win!"
The room went silent as the crew's attention was solely on him, some had tears developing in their eyes at his words. "We are the Ascendency. We have faced challenges before, we have stared down death and adversity and emerged victorious each time. We won't be beaten now! Especially not by these damned Precursors. Their entire motivation for this war is to annihilate us, to wipe out every single thing and person we have fought for. But I won't allow it."
His words seemed to affect those around him and seeing this, Axel continued, "This is our world, our galaxy! The Precursors think they can overrun us? Let them try! We'll give them such a beating that they'll remember for the rest of their damned existence."
"Now, return to your stations," he ordered. "We have a job to do as soldiers." Everybody on the bridge salutes sharply before returning to their stations.
There wasn't much time to waste on mourning the loss or brooding over the onslaught. They had barely escaped annihilation once, and now they would be thrown into war once again.
"Omni, I want to know the whereabouts of all fleets within the next 10 minutes, then I want to know the current status of our defenses across the galaxy," Axel commanded.
Omni responded, "Understood, sir. Compiling fleet status and defensive reports now."
Axel leaned against the command console, his hands gripping the edge as he studied the holographic display of the galaxy. Each glowing red marker signified a battlefront, a world under siege, or a fleet engaged in desperate combat. The situation was worse than he had anticipated, but there was no room for hesitation.
Looking at Installation 00, Axel saw that that region of space was greyed out, which meant that there was no communication coming or going from the location. The Capital of the Ascendency had already fallen, which was probably due to the Ascendency forces being spread too thin around the galaxy.
The protocol for if Installation 00 fell, the government and would be transferred to Genesis, a Forerunner shield world that was uninhabited as it was kept secret from a lot of people even the Senate.
"Omni, get us to Genesis, code 98124380." This code was his personal code which was needed for an AI to gain access to the location of Genesis. Even Omni, Axel's personal AI required a code due to the high-level security placed on the information.
"Code accepted, plotting course to Genesis now." Seconds later the entire fleet jumped to slipspace and simultaneously appeared above Genesis.
Axel ordered an encrypted broadcast to be sent out announcing his return and the re-establishment of the Ascendency government on Genesis. All military officer's loyalties were unquestioned, so they were the only ones to receive this encrypted information, while the senators and other high ranking civilian positions were left uninformed.
Catherine had suggested declaring martial law to not only be able to snuff out traitors, but also maintain control of things and better protect planets that were near the battlefront.
A empire wide transmission was put out, revealing Axel's return. This saw an immediate boost to the morale of Ascendency soldiers all across the empire. At first, they were fighting to protect their loved ones and homes, but now they were fighting to follow their Emperor, their symbol of hope, into victory.
"Omni," Axel commanded. "Give me a status report on every ongoing battle."
Reports began flooding in. Each planet was different, and each was struggling in its own way. But seeing as there were too many issues to deal with at once, Axel had to prioritize. He organized a list of the top 10 most important planets that required immediate help.
The first planet that he came up with was Reach, one of the Naval hubs for the Ascendency fleet. The numerous shipyards above Reach were important to building up the Ascendency fleet and for his plans to create AI controlled fleets controlled by Metarchs.
Much like the Forerunners, these fleets could be built quickly as they didn't require a trained crew to man them, and they were replaceable. Before leaving Genesis, Martial law was officially declared, and each Senator was placed under temporary arrest so that the AIA can flush out the traitors.
Arriving above Reach with a host of 10k ships, Axel saw the Precursor fleet battling the 7th Fleet led by Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood.
"Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood has led an admirable defense," Omni reported, "Despite being outnumbered three-to-one, he's managed to hold back the enemy fleet, but his forces are spread thin."
Axel nodded, coming up with a plan to assist Admiral Hood and his forces. "Direct our forces to reinforce Hood's fleet," he commanded.
"At once, Sir," Omni acknowledged, and relayed his commands. Within moments, Axel's fleet descended upon the Precursor fleet which numbered 15k. Combined with Admiral Hoods fleet which numbered around 5k, the Ascendency now had around 15k ships in total, they were able to turn the tides of the battle.
The clash of the two fleets filled the space between them with all types of lights, either from kinetic or energy cannons targeting the Precursor ships. Axel watched from the tactical map as his fleet carved its way through the Precursor's formations, giving the 7th fleet a chance to regroup and reform.
"Admiral Hood," Axel commed in, "What's the situation."
Admiral Hood responded, "We've been fighting these bastards for the past 72 hours now. They haven't managed to break through the planetary shield yet, so the surface of the planet is secured."
"Good, let's secure the space around the planet then. Pull your fleet back for now, we can handle the heat for a while," Axel said.
With Admiral Hood's forces repositioned behind the lines, they had a chance to regroup and heal the wounds which they had sustained in combat.
Catherine was sitting next to him as she decided to never leave his side after what had happened before.
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