Chapter 61

Once Axel returned to Earth, the members of the security council were immediately shocked by his new appearance. Sure, they were aware that he was undergoing some surgery to get some experimental implants to make him stronger, but they didn't expect this result.

Within the meeting room, Axel was standing at the end of the table where the Chairman usually sits, while Admiral Ross was on his right, and General Black on his left.

Every member was staring at Axel with complete admiration. General Graham even popped the question that was on everybody's mind "Are you a God?".

Axel looked at General Graham and was speechless that he would ask such a thing, but at the same time if he was to be in his shoes then he might ask the same question.

"No I am not a God General Graham, why would you ask such a thing" Replied Axel.

"Because over the past years, you have just been creating new technology that makes our current technology out of date, coming up with a way to enhance humans without risks, never losing a battle to the Covenant, and becoming basically the protector of humanity," General Graham explained, listing off the incredible feats and accomplishments that Axel had achieved in recent years.

General Stone chimed in, "I have to agree, although referring to someone as a God may be a bit extreme. However, it is the closest comparison we have."

The room descended into murmurs as the members started voicing their thoughts on the matter. However, Axel had simply face palmed himself since what they were talking about was superficial at most.

"If I was a God then I could have predicted the Covenants invasion of Harvest and prevented it from ever happening or destroy the entire Covenant fleet with the snap of my fingers" It was a lie of course as he knew of the invasion it from his previous life. But he will never announce something like that as it will probably only back up their statement saying that he was a god sent from another Universe to help them out and Blah, Blah, Blah.

He should probably avoid bringing up any evidence that contradicts his earlier statement of not being a god. Just as he finished saying this, Omni's avatar materialized at the center of the table with a smirk on his face. "But Admiral," Omni countered, "perhaps you are simply suppressing your god-like abilities."

"Omni, that's the last thing we need," Axel retorted. The room was filled with laughter as the members laughed at Omni's joke.

"Joke's aside, I think we better start the meeting" said General Graham as the room got quiet. The first to speak was Admiral Ross "As of late, Covenant activity within the outer colonies has been decreasing which should be good news but at the same time, Insurrectionists activities have increased, and they are utilizing Covenant weapons" Explained Admiral Ross.

"How did they get their hands on Covenant weapons?" asked General Stone. Admiral Ross turned to Omni "Omni, if you would."

Omni had pulled up an intelligence report which revealed a hidden base "This location is a settlement made of the survivors from the Colony Madrigal which was glassed by the Covenant. As of now what we know is that a group of insurrectionists have control of this place and they are working with a group of Kig-Yar whom they have convinced to trade with them, in exchange they will get Covenant weapons while giving the Covenant old slipspace drives" Explained Omni as a voice recording from both the Insurrectionists and the Covenant was played.

"Admiral, this is a grave threat to the UNSC. If they start pushing in the Inner colonies, then they will start to threaten even Earth, or they could just attack earth directly if they wanted to" Voiced Black.

Axel put his hand up causing the the room to go quiet "We won't need to worry about that, we have the Forerunner dreadnoughts that will stop any Covenant fleet that tries to attack Earth, plus the Orbital Defense Stations have been built on numerous inner colony worlds which will slow down the Covenant advance in time for us to gather our fleet and mount a counterattack" Said Axel.

"True," General Graham conceded, "but the key point here is that the insurrectionists are threatening our outer colonies. They might not have any direct influence on Earth, but they are destabilizing our territories, and this could lead to a much bigger problem in the long run."

"I am not neglecting the outer colonies General; I am simply stating that any attack within the inner colonies will be stopped. Now as for the Insurrectionists I am tired of them continuing to be a thorn in our side." Even though Humanity was under threat by the Covenant, the insurrectionists still want to fight against the UNSC because of things they don't understand.

Axel's expression became serious as he addressed Admiral Ross. "I will assemble a task force and personally lead them. Our mission will be to take control of this settlement and eliminate the insurgent group to stop them from trading with the Covenant."

Admiral Ross wanted to convince him not to go, but Axel's face showed that he was determined to go. "Very well Admiral," Admiral Ross said.

The other members nodded agreeing with the proposition. Sending in Axel would guarantee their victory and send a message to the Insurrectionists and Covenant that the UNSC would not back down from any threat, internal or external.

With the matter decided, they moved on to more trivial matters. The council had to discuss increasing the fleet size, advancing the technology utilized within the UNSC, and improving the defense system of the outer colonies. While Axel had already started his preparations for the upcoming mission.

As the meeting came to an end, Axel stood up abruptly, causing the entire council to turn their attention towards him. He glanced at them with a serious expression on his face. "I am not a god, and I hope that we can drop this topic," he stated firmly. The members of the council exchanged glances with each other. "I believe in human strength and resilience. That's what will win us this war, not some divine intervention."

"I will be leaving for this mission within twenty-four hours. During my absence, I trust that you all will continue to operate as efficiently as you always have," Axel declared. He looked directly at Admiral Ross as he added, "You'll be in charge during my absence."

Admiral Ross nodded solemnly, respecting Axel's decision. As a military man, he understood the need for hierarchy and command structure.

Moments later Axel had left the meeting room. A few hours later a task force consisting of one forerunner dreadnought 3 Cruisers, and 2 Light carriers was assembled above Earth.

The public hadn't seen Axel's new appearance yet as he had just gotten back from fully recovering from the Surgery. So, during the 6 Months that he was out, Omni had fabricated propaganda videos of Axel speaking to the people to raise morale and control the flow of information regarding the war.

Because of this civilians had begun to have a sense of unity and saw the need to stand together against both the Covenant and the Insurrectionists. Still there were those who thought differently and had joined an Insurrectionists group, but their numbers were too few to pose a major threat to the UNSC, instead it was the fact that they were so widespread within the outer colonies that made them a problem.

The Outer colonies are more susceptible to the ideas of the insurrectionists because they have been facing the brunt of the Covenant threat. Still there were more loyalist than insurrectionists making the insurrection not be able to spread as far as they could before.