Chapter 180

In total, the Endeavor had 400 crewmembers documented in their original roster with 50 of those crewmembers being marines and 12 being Spartans. Counting the people just rescued as well as the people rescued from the escape shuttles, in total there were 234 Crewmembers remaining, with 22 Marines, and 12 Spartans.

2 Spartans had to be placed in intensive care because of their injuries sustained during battle while the others were still fit for full duty. This was the first time since the Human-Covenant war that a Spartan had been severely injured during combat. Against the Reapers, the Spartan-IIIs and IV were like gods among men, breaking through their lines with ease. But this new enemy was different. They were advanced, more brutal…more deadly.

It was the first time since the Covenant that they had a hostile encounter with an alien species. And seeing how that turned out, most can only imagine what would be done with this new species.

As the frigates left the system, they failed to detect an alien ship which was hiding in a nearby nebula which disrupted ship scanners from detecting anything hiding within the Nebula. The ship was a Kynthari stealth ship, designed to track enemy ships as they entered slipspace.

Onboard the ship, Kynthari Warden Vhorrak, was watching as the last enemy frigate entered slipspace. Once the last enemy ship was gone, he turned to one of his subordinates, "Did you get the data" he asked.

"Yes, my lord, I have the coordinates for where those ships exited slipspace, I can transmit them to the fleet at your command." responded the subordinate.

"Transmit them. I don't know who these aliens are, but make sure to tell the fleet to proceed with caution once they attack." ordered Vhorrak as he turned to stare back into the black void of space. He was lost in thought trying to figure out what race had those ship designs, but no matter how hard he thought, he had no idea.

———

Within the Ascendency controlled system, the task force had returned and offloaded the rescued survivors. In his office, Axel was reading the report about the total number of rescued crewmembers, "Only 234 crewmembers made it back." Axel muttered, scanning the data on his screen. "A third of them lost…."

His assistant, Ensign Yana, stood silently by the door, awaiting his next order. "Sir, is there any word on the missing crew? The ship's manifest shows discrepancies, but we've yet to confirm if they were lost or simply overlooked."

Axel's gaze shifted, his fingers tapping on the edge of his desk. "I want those crew members found, Yana. If they're alive, we bring them back. If they're gone... we confirm that so when we get back their families will know for sure. The last thing I need right now is to find out that we lost a third of the crew to those aliens." He has always tried to maintain a balance between being a pacifist and a warmonger.

But sometimes what a situation requires is a pacifist and sometimes it requires a warmonger. As of late though, he has been favoring being a warmonger as it tends to get results.

Yana stood there for a moment in silence seeing that Axel had a serious expression on his face at the mention of those still lost. She had only recently been appointed as his assistant due to their current circumstances. At first, she was surprised that she was nominated to this position as this was her first assignment after leaving the Naval Academy on Reach, she was supposed be doing other administrative duties in the fleet, but life had a strange way of surprising you.

Axel's reasoning for doing this was to give young officers a chance to gain valuable experience seeing how he does things as the Emperor of the Ascendency and leader of military forces within the Ascendency.

Once a few seconds had passed, Axel looked at Yana who was still standing in silence which prompt her to finally speak up, "I'll relay your orders Sir, was there anything else." she asked.

"That will be all, once you relay those orders, schedule a briefing with the Spartans and Marines," Axel said returning to the reports on his desk. Yana nodded and briskly turned to leave the room, but as she did that, the alarms started to ring throughout the entire ship.

"Kynthari ships have just exited slipspace and are already entering the atmosphere." reported Omni appearing on top of Axel's desk.

"Activate the defenses, get the MCUs to their battle stations, launch all fighters and prepare for battle. Also make sure all personnel are within the safety of the shield." Axel ordered. Alarm rang out across the ship as the planetary defenses that they built were activated.

"Yana, tell all crew members to evacuate the non-essential zones and head to their designated safety areas," he added quickly, already turning away to overlook the live feed of the area outside his ship, a handful of Kynthari vessels were already swooping in attacking the shield.

"Understood sir," Yana responded swiftly, slipping out of the room to relay his orders quickly.

Outside the sky began to fill up with fighters as they began to engage Kynthari fighters outside of the shield. On the ground, the immediate perimeter around the shield was being secured by ground forces as they moved in preparation for enemy ground forces.

The shield that was deployed around the base was the typical shield used by Ascendency forced on the ground which protected anything within the shield from incoming enemy forces. Friendly fighters were equipped with special identifiers which allowed to come and go between the shield while enemy fighters would be destroyed on impact.

The shield is tuned to react violently to fast-moving objects, such as incoming aircraft or projectiles, by rapidly absorbing and then dissipating their kinetic energy. In this process, the aircraft would be destroyed almost instantly upon contact with the shield, as the energy of their high-speed collision is released in a manner that disintegrates them.

Ground forces didn't have the same luxury because the shield allows for safe passage of slower, heavier objects that are not considered high-energy threats. The shield is designed to allow objects with mass moving at a "normal" human or terrestrial pace to pass through, as their energy signature is not high enough to trigger the shield's defense mechanism.

Several hundred miles away from the Ascendency base, the Yanme'e Queen who had established her nest on the planet to build up warrior drones was already informed of this attack and had begun sending thousands of drones through the portal which connected the two places.

Thanks to the portal, the defenses of the base were able to be bolstered within minutes while the fight outside the base continued.

In orbit, the Kynthari fleet had begun orbital bombarding the planet seeing as the enemy had some strange shielding technology which prevented them from swarming their positions with fighters. Ground troops were deployed out of the bombardment area to prepare for a ground assault on the enemy position once they finished their orbital bombardment.

Within the Kynthari command ship, which was a cruiser battleship sized ship, one of the crewmembers who was a secret agent for the Precursors had transmitted what they found back to the Precursors' home planet within the galaxy.

Upon receiving this, the Precursors recognized the ship as the Ascendency ship in which they had been looking for since forcefully bringing it to this galaxy. It was a high priority and a must for them to destroy this ship and all its crew as soon as possible.

In response, they decided to intervene and dispatched one of their own ships to the system to destroy both the Kynthari and Ascendency forces in one battle. This would be the start to them bringing the Kynthari who had rebelled against their influence, back under their control.