Chapter 42

Once the Pelicans returned to the Leviathan, the injured marine was immediately taken to the medical bay, while Axel went to take off his armor and report what happened to Admiral Cole and see if he could send some troops to try and take back the vault.

Axel had walked towards the Spartan armory which is the place where the Spartans go to take off their armor with the assistance of machines since it is impossible to take it off without the help of machines. Mainly due to the weight of the armor, and how it was built to be airtight to allow breathing even while in space, on non-breathable planets, and so on.

While walking to the Spartan armory he was notified that the Falcons and the Longswords were returning to the Hanger and would arrive soon. The Spartan armory wasn't just any armory, but it contained the tools to take off the Spartan armor and store the weapons for the Spartans and provide mobile repair on Spartan armor if needed.

A few minutes later he had arrived at the Spartan armory where he was led to a designated place by the technicians who were trained and qualified in the maintenance of the Spartan armor. The Leviathan was the only ship with an entire section dedicated to the Spartans because of the designs of the UNSC ships and constant operations.

Spartans usually eat, sleep, and drink in their armor while en route to their next mission or between missions. But Axel saw the need to have such a thing on his ship since he didn't want to be stuck in the armor for the entire mission.

Once his armor was off Axel walked to his office on the ship and contacted Admiral Cole.

"Avia, get Admiral Cole on the line," said Axel as he sat down at his desk.

"Copy that Admiral Getting Admiral Cole now" Replied Avia as she carried out her task.

A few moments later the hologram of Admiral Cole appeared in front of Axel "Admiral Cole, I have something to report from my mission"

"Axel," Cole replied as it was just the two of them around, so he called him by his first name instead of Admiral Woods. "What happened on your mission to the surface."

Axel clarified, "We came across a Forerunner Vault that held a map pointing to another colony called Arcadia. However, as we were leaving, the Covenant attacked us; we believe they had tracked our Pelicans. We're not sure if they were aware of the location of the Vault before but now, they are, so I intend to go to Arcadia soon and uncover why the map pointed us there."

"Interesting," Cole replied, his holographic image nodding in thoughtful agreement. "I'll see what I can do about sending reinforcements to the Vault. We can't allow them to know the location of the colony."

"After interacting with the computer inside of the Vault it deactivated shortly after, so whether or not the Covenant would be able to use it is unknown at this moment, but the technology we can gain by studying the Vault would also be vital" Stated Axel.

"Whether or not they can interact with it is not a risk I would like to take, so I'll have to send some troops immediately, and once we gain control of the vault, we could set up a research facility and sends some scientist and engineers down to research the technology inside of the vault," said Admiral Cole.

"Also, Admiral, if you can keep this knowledge about Arcadia between the two of us that would be greatly appreciated" said Axel as he didn't want people like Admiral Parangosky to start poking her nose in his mission.

"I trust your judgment Axel, so I will keep Arcadia out of the report and just mention the vault" said Admiral Cole as he trusted Axel's decision to keep it a secret. Admiral Cole himself thought it was a good idea as well since if Axel finds something amazing on Arcadia, then he would be the one who found it, however if he was to report it then Admiral Parangosky probably would try and get to it first to reap the benefits.

Cole didn't like Parangosky because of her personality and character. He also thought that she had a superiority complex and abused her power sometimes.

"Thank you, Admiral, I'll stay in contact to let you know the results of what I find on Arcadia" Stated Axel. With that, the connection between the two Admirals was cut.

"Avia," he called out, not wasting a moment. "Divert the Leviathan towards Arcadia at maximum speed."

"Affirmative, Admiral," came Avia's response quickly from overhead. "Plotting course to Arcadia now."

As the ship moved in response to her command, Axel felt a lump of anticipation rise in his throat. He glanced out the window of his office for a moment, watching stars streak past as they jumped to warp speed, each one potentially hiding dangers untold.

A war—a war that humanity must win was unfolding before them and every minute mattered. The Covenant could send another fleet to Harvest at any time. Or they could start attacking more Human worlds within the Outer Colonies.

He already had plans in place to deal with many situations regarding the political situation of the UNSC. If need be, he could do things the hard way and force a takeover, but doing that early on would result in a split. However, if he waited until things started to intensify, then he could just swoop in promising victory in the war and take over the UNSC and start to reshape it.

Or there was a third option, he could literally just split off from the UNSC and form his own faction much like the Insurrectionists did. Though it would be quite ironic for him to become an insurrectionist after years of fighting against them.

These were his options, and he was heavily considering choosing one of them sometime within the next 10 years.