Chapter 163

The Reapers were here and within hours, they had spread throughout the galaxy attacking various species homeworlds. The Batarians were the first victims of the attack as the Vular system was the first system to be attacked and fall to the Reapers.

The next places to be attacked were the core worlds of the Batarians which proved to be a mistake as such a widespread attack against the Batarian Dominion was not something that the Ascendency would let go considering the Alliance that they had with the Batarians.

In response to the attacks, Axel had sent the Guardian Custodes, which are considered a special part of the Ascendency military that is specifically under Axel's orders as they only recognized his authority and were connected to him through the Domain.

Each Guardian Custode has been upgraded through the Ascendency's research on Forerunner technology, assisted by the Librarian, as well as their own technological advancements. Now Guardian Custode's can be created, and each Guardian Custode is equipped with several Assembler Vats that allow it to produce a Million MCUs in a single day, thousands of vehicles for the MCUs to use, as well as dozens of ships ranging from a fighter to a small Cruiser.

All of this was able to work thanks to the creation of new Contender class AI which controlled each Guardian Custode. These AIs created other smaller AIs that helped in managing the massive amount of work that needed to be done to police an entire system.

Two Guardian Custodes were sent to the Batarians Capital system where they would patrol not only the capital but any adjacent systems. The Batarian fleet which numbered only around 400 ships was not sufficient to deal with the Reapers by itself.

In response, the government elected to shift the economy to war production and start conscripting soldiers to fight in the war. This decision was made within hours after the appearance of the Reapers had been confirmed and was made to ensure the survival of the Batarian race.

On Earth, the Alliance was already in shock of what was going on in the galactic news. Within hours, they were receiving reports of their colonies going dark and of small engagements with the Reaper ships which were proven to outclass them. In response, the fleets were mobilized, and several high ranking civilian and military officials began to debate over what should be done to counter this threat.

———

After two days had passed, the situation in some parts of the galaxy was not looking well. For the Alliance, Arcturus station which was already being guarded by the 2nd, 3rd, 5th fleets were attacked by Reaper forces which decimated the three fleets forcing Admiral Hackett to sacrifice the 3rd fleet and flee back to Earth to mount the second and maybe last defense.

But when the Reapers entered the Sol system, two Guardian Custode appeared and started shielding the Alliance forces while fighting off the Reaper forces. Seeing the reinforcements arrive, Admiral Hackett knew that only one empire could be able to fight the Reapers, and that was the Ascendency.

With the 3rd and 5th Fleet now protected, he ordered the support ships to start repairs and sending the injured down to Earth where they would get better medical care. The Guardian Custode's had also released hundreds of Sentinels that started to repair the Alliance ships.

The Reapers realizing who they were going up against had fled the system, only losing 40 ships before they successfully got away. Once they were gone, the AIs that controlled the Guardian Custode's had coordinated with Admiral Hackett and the Alliance to secure the Sol system and start to slowly take back the other surrounding systems that had been lost.

———

The Turian Hierarchy was a much higher priority to the Reapers than other races because of their military like traditions which would make harvesting them take longer if they don't have most of their forces fighting them. And because of their secret rivalry and plans to get back at the Ascendency, the Turian fleet was much bigger than what they had on the official numbers.

Years of military buildup under a well-crafted plan, kept the Turian fleet largely hidden and dispersed across various strategic locations. But now the ships that they were going to use for revenge, were now ships that they had to turn on the Reapers.

Thanks to improved technology, they managed to slow down the Reaper advance down, making the harvesting of their species take even more time. But the Reapers still had the power on their side forcing the Turians into a traditional battle where ships lined up on each side and attacked each other.

Because of this, the Turian fleet was forced to retreat, allowing the Reapers control over their home system and Palaven where a ground battle was about to take place.

———

The Volus, Elcor, Hanar, and other smaller species stood no chance to counter the arrival of the Reapers. Their homeworlds fell and the one who got out fled to Atlas Station which had become a refugee over the past two days for those who managed to escape the Reapers harvesting.

Within the Ascendency, Axel for the past two days since finding out about the Reapers arrival was already in debate with the Senate over allowing the deployment of Billions of soldiers and thousands of more ships to destroy the Reapers. After the first day of reports came in, the Senate allowed for the deployment of the MCU fleets which was not enough to stop the Reapers.

The MCU fleet after the end of the Human Covenant war and the formation of the Ascendency, was restricted to only 3,000 ships. This was in response to growing concerns over the MCUs having a large fleet which numbered close to 10,000 at the end of the human-covenant war. After great debate, laws were passed stating that the MCU fleet can contain no more than 3,000 ships at any given time, unless the Ascendency is threatened by a major crisis which requires the MCUs to have a great fleet.

This was part of a demilitarization policy that a few senators wanted to implement a few years after the war ended. However, their efforts to reduce the actual military size of the Ascendency was never approved as it would have put billions of people out of a job and made the Ascendency vulnerable to any external threats that they may encounter.

Now there was a new faction that was forming in the Senate that did not want to send Ascendency soldiers to fight in another war, especially one that is in another galaxy. The war didn't threaten them, and they had the most sure-fire way to ensure that if they needed to, they could abandon the other galaxy and prevent the Reapers from invading theirs.

The other faction was the Senators who wanted to prevent the death of billions of people, especially those that had formed a close relationship with the Ascendency. They saw that not doing anything would tarnish the relationship that they had so carefully formed over the past two decades.

The same Senator who had wanted to simply invade the other galaxy and conquer the other races had as expected simply said that they should not even be debating this and should just use the power that they have to destroy the Reapers and save the galaxy.

Axel shared the same thought and was growing tired of hearing the same thing repeatedly for the past two days. But this was the result of him making the decision to retain a form of democratic system when establishing the Imperial Ascendency.