Chapter 175

The survivors of the attack on the Endeavor watched the ship's explosion as half of the alien ships had been caught in the blast and were reduced to mere space debris.

On the escape shuttle, Captain Harper was being attended to by a doctor as she had suffered injuries from when the aliens attacked the bridge of the Endeavor. Lt. Meyers meanwhile had to maintain her composure despite what was going on around her.

As a Spartan Officer, she had a duty to keep calm under any circumstances so that the decisions she made were not clouded by fear or despair. She took off her helmet and walked to where the pilot of the shuttle sat, placing her hand on his shoulder to calm them down. The pilot turned to look at her, the fear in his eyes evident, "Sorry Ma'am, I'm just worried since I don't know if my sister made it out or not on the other shuttles."

"It's okay, soldier," Lt. Meyers offered a reassuring smile. "We're all fighting our own battle. We must trust in her strength, and yours, that she made it out alive."

The pilot nodded, swallowing hard before turning back to the holographic projections of their flight path in front of him. "Start contacting the other shuttles and come up with a safe meeting spot relatively far away from wreckage of the Endeavor." ordered Lt. Meyers.

"What about the troops defending the outpost Ma'am," asked the pilot.

"Last I heard, they had to abandon the outpost, and we don't have the resources nor capabilities to save them. The entire surface of that planet is filled with enemy forces. We will have to leave it to the ground forces to find a way to escape." she replied. It would be a suicide mission to attempt a rescue mission in their current state.

The most logical plan would be to regroup with the other escape shuttles and come up with a plan. A few minutes later, the pilot had got into contact with the other escape shuttles and had collectively, they had found something interesting on long-range scanners.

"Ma'am" called out the pilot as Lt. Meyers stopped what she was doing and walked to the Pilot. "What's going on?" she asked.

"In the middle of coordination with the other escape shuttles, we picked up friendly contact," informed the soldier pointing to a spot on the holographic map which displayed a blue dot.

"Is that an Ascendency ship?" Lt. Meyers asked surprised at what she was seeing but also hopeful that it was in fact an Ascendency ship.

"Yes Ma'am. Each escape shuttle is equipped with a short-range transponder locator. That's definitely one of ours," the pilot confirmed as a flicker of hope ignited within the cockpit.

"Plot a course towards that ship," Lt. Meyers ordered immediately, her voice holding a mixture of relief and urgency. There was still hope for reinforcements to arrive and for the people still on the ground.

The pilot quickly patched into the comms, "Endeavor Escape shuttle 006 to Ascendency ship, come in." The pilot waited and waited, but there was nothing but silence. So, he tried again, "Endeavor Escape shuttle 006 to Ascendency ship, come in."

But once again there was silence. "There probably jamming our long-range communications so we can't call for help."

"Then we need to get out of their jamming range as soon as possible so we can get some help," Lt. Meyers decided, clasping her hands behind her back as she continued to stare at the holographic map. "How long will it take before are out of their range."

"We'll, since we don't know their exact range, we can only make an educated guess, so I'll say about 10 days at the least based on the information we already know about their capabilities." informed the pilot.

"Good, have the other shuttles follow our same course so we can finally get some assistance." ordered Lt. Meyers.

"Copy that Ma'am" replied the pilot as he carried out his orders.

———

On Gamma-01, the Terraforming process had finished, turning the once rocky and desolate world into a seed world, teeming with life, scenery and gigantic seas. Mining operations on the planet were already at completed with tons of resources coming in every day.

Axel had granted the crew shore leave, allowing them to spend some time outside the ship while preparations were being made to come up with a way for them to get back.

Axel alongside the other high-ranking officers onboard were already coming up with ways to get back home to their own galaxy. Axel leaned over a holographic display table in the command center, surrounded by his senior officers and Omni. The room buzzed with the excitement of fresh ideas.

"Omni, pull up the data we got on the initial wormhole anomaly that got us here," Axel instructed. Omni complied, pulling up the information that was collected from the initial wormhole that trapped them within this galaxy.

Looking at the data, an idea popped up into Axel's head, "What if we use the data collected to try and create an artificial wormhole utilizing a similar energy signature to get us back home?"

"The initial wormhole was unstable, but if we can recreate its energy signature, we might be able to generate a temporary wormhole ourselves," Omni said, considering the feasibility. "However, the energy requirements will be significant. We'll need resources and power far beyond what we have on hand."

Another officer, Commander Petrov, raised his hand, "And I assume we will have to test this before we just blindly fly through it and end up in another galaxy even farther than this one?"

"Yes Sir, you are correct. We would need a constant supply of resources and would need to create dark matter in order to be able to generate an artificial wormhole and test it at least a dozen times to see if what's on the other side is our home galaxy." replied Omni.

Lieutenant Commander Harrison chimed in also, "How long are we looking at before we can get home?"

"If everything pans out, I estimate approximately 5-7 years, but if we encounter any problems and setbacks then we could be looking at a longer window considering how many unknowns there are with the project."

Satisfied with the answer Lieutenant Commander Harrison began to jot down notes on his holo pad making sure he got everything he needed from this meeting.

"Now, since we are all aware of the battle which happened between who we know to be the Kynthari and Nimrathi, we will mainly utilize MCUs if any conflict arises with any of their forces. Hive Queen Elthyria has also been given some designated places on the planet where she has agreed to start creating more soldier drones for us to use if any conflict arises, so our defensive force will mainly consist of MCUs and Hive drones. Spartans will be used to conduct targeted strikes and carry out combined operations with MCUs and drone soldiers." explained Axel.

"Our main goal is to get home, but let's not become blind to how we got here either. Whatever higher power above the Reapers brought us here we need to be prepared and respond accordingly to any future threats that we encounter."

The room was filled with a bunch of nods as the officers understood their mission.

"Now, we will have a training session for the crew today at 1500 hours. Lieutenant Petrov," Axel said turning to Commander Petrov, "You are in charge of putting together the training program. Include simulation exercises against hypothetical Kynthari and Nimrathi attacks based on what we know about their combat tactics."

Commander Petrov stood at attention with a crisp salute, "Yes, sir. Right away."

A murmur of general agreement spread across the room as each officer left the room to see to their assigned tasks.

On the other hand, the Precursors were beginning to exert their influence over the galaxy more to prepare for a massive galaxy invasion in the coming years. Their target would be the Ascendency to get rid of the Forerunner and any technology related to them and turn the various species of the Ascendency into subservient species.

In addition, those species who were not under their control, the Precursors had used their own fleets to subjugate them and bring them under their control. Their expansionist plans had always been gradual, slowly taking control of larger and larger areas of the galaxy without drawing attention to their movements. But now, their plans need to be accelerated so they can achieve their goal in due time.