Chapter 89

2 days after the Concord incident

Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree gave his speech to the Covenant forces before their departure to human space "Today we will finally see the fall of the pitiful humans and their so-called false empire. They believe in unity and peace, but they fail to see that they are merely puppets dancing on the strings of a false prophecy. We, the Covenant, the true bearers of the Great Journey, will enlighten them with our power and might."

His words echoed through the vast, ornate chamber filled with a sea of multi-colored armor. Xytan's speech was broadcasted throughout every Covenant ship, riling up their fervor for battle. The fleet was enormous and ready for war, their ships shined under the light of their home world's sun.

"We are the Covenant, and we are the rightful guardians of the universe! For too long we have been patient, allowing these creatures to sow chaos and discord in the name of their false peace. Today, we shall cleanse them from the universe and show them the true path to enlightenment. March on my brothers and sisters, march toward victory, toward our destined glory!" The chamber filled once again with a deafening roar of agreement; the Covenant was ready for war.

The Covenant fleet comprised of an intimidating line-up. Colossal Carriers serving as the heart of the armada, heavily armed Cruisers alongside the carriers, Destroyers ready to pound the human ships, Frigates with their speed and agility, and countless other vessels, each bringing its unique destructive capabilities to bear.

At the core of the fleet was the flagship, 'Sublime Transcendence', an imposing super-carrier carrying an aura of divine supremacy. It was on this very ship that Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree made his call to arms. He stood imperiously over holographic maps and models of human colonies, strategizing with a cold analytical gaze.

Meanwhile within Human space, the number of people volunteering to join up had reached 50 million in just two days, while the number of people that was currently being conscripted had reached well over 300 million across all worlds. Thousands of training facilities were constructed utilizing the Assemblers in just a matter of 2 days and instructors were chosen from veteran members of the UNSC who qualified to instruct new recruits.

However, these new training facilities were designed differently as they needed to be able to fit hundreds of thousands of recruits at once. As such these new training facilities were built within empty regions on planets and they were as big as a city containing numerous training grounds in one.

In the middle of the training grounds would be the the teleporter which would bring in recruits by the tens of thousands almost every hour. From there they would be transported to their designated facility where they will be processed and then put into training as soon as possible.

(Training facility Image)

Every planet including newly established colonies now had a planetary shield alongside the Ion Defense cannons set up on the surface of the planet. The Ion defense cannon and the planetary shield worked as one since the ion defense cannon naturally fire through the shield, so the planetary shield would open a small part of the shield to allow the ion shot to pass through the shield and hit its target.

All of this was controlled by AI since no human brain could quickly determine the exact part of shield that needed to be opened fast enough before the ion shot reached the shield. The AI would calculate the trajectory of the ion shot and coordinate with the shield to open it up in real time, preventing any internal damage. The AI defense system had been tested using simulation programs and was ready for actual combat.

UNSC ships were marked as blue, civilian marked as green, and Covenant marked as red so that the AI can use the position of friendly ships to not accidentally hit a UNSC or civilian ship.

In orbit of each planet was of course the Orbital defense platform which would fire pulse rounds at Covenant ships designed to penetrate take down the shields of Covenant ships exposing their hulls.

The UNSC's space and ground operations were continuously updated with the latest technology. The old ships were replaced with next generation ones, while new ship classes were also introduced. A new drop pod was designed for ODST deployments, in addition to new fighter and bomber models. On the ground, a anti gravity tank was added to work alongside the existing spider tanks.

A/N: A quick run down of the current military creations new and existing. If you don't care then just skip this part obviously but this will allow you to imagine what ships and vehicles will be used in the in the war alongside other UNSC vehicles.

UNSC Ship classes and support ships (New and existing):

-Super Carrier

-Battleship

-Battlecruiser

-Luna class medium carrier

-Light carrier

-Cruiser

-Destroyer

-Frigate

-Support ship

-Troop Transport ship

-New MK2 Fighter

-Bomber

Ground support vehicles (New vehicles only):

-Vehicle transport ship

-Anti gravity tank

-Orbital drop pod

The Super Carrier was designed to outclass the Covenant super carriers and offer the UNSC aerial superiority in both space and ground operations on planets. It had a crew of 25,000, could carry 10 Frigates as an escort force, 200 dropships/Pelicans, 500 fighters, 300 Bombers, hundreds of ground vehicles, tens of thousands of ground troops, and the new Orbital drop pods.

Currently the UNSC has 20 of these super carriers spread out across 15 fleets. More were in production and would be added as the months passed.

As for the new battleships, they were built to cause pure mayhem among the Covenant fleet. Their main weaponry consisted of 8 MAC cannon turrets, 10 Ion cannons, 10 Standard autocannons, 20-point defense turrets, and 25 Heavy autocannons.

Before the UNSC had smaller ships compared to the Covenant and they usually needed to outnumber the Covenant 2 to 1 to win a battle, but now that was not the case as the new generation of UNSC ships not only matched the Covenant ships in size but also surpassed them in firepower and defensive capabilities.

The shipyards were producing ships at a rapid pace, bolstering the UNSC fleet with new starships every day. However, the Covenant had the numbers on them which would result in some battles being fought on the defensive rather than the offensive.

Back on Earth, Axel had just finished his meeting with the security council as they developed a plan to deal with the incoming Covenant fleet that they knew was coming. They didn't have the number of ships, but they knew that it was going to be the biggest war that they ever had, so they would first take a defensive stance in the war to build up their fleet and military.

The first few months of the war would be the most difficult and they expected that, but once the military got up to par with the Covenant then they would go entirely on the offensive. Their plan revolved around saving the lives of citizens rather than the colony itself as they can rebuild it in the future.

The civilians would utilize the teleporters to quickly flee the planet when the planetary shield collapsed and it was deemed undefendable, while UNSC forces would be deployed to fight off the Covenant on the surface of the planet. Teleporters would be tightly guarded to prevent the Covenant from using them, but as a last resort if they couldn't be protected then they would have to blow them up to prevent them from being compromised.

This was their plan for the first few months of the war, to fight the Covenant world by world while defending their most crucial planets and building up their military.

After the meeting Axel had established his new flagship as his command center where he would direct the war from. Onboard his ship was his daughter serving her first assignment as a weapons officer onboard his ship, she had already undergone the officer enhancements and also took advanced combat classes while she was in OCS school.

Axel wasn't the one who assigned her this command, nor did he request it, but he can't deny that when her name popped up as one of the new officers onboard his ship a small smile creeped across his face.

Meanwhile, Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree fleet had just left from High Charity heading towards their intended target. About half an hour later, the fleet had arrived at Andesia, one of the outer colonies.

Orbiting Andesia was two UNSC battlegroups consisting of 15 ships each for a total of 30 ships. In the face of the Covenant fleet, which was 1,000 ships, this number was nothing.

The UNSC forces had already contacted for help once the Covenant ships were detected coming through slipspace. Within 5 minutes another fleet of about 20 UNSC ships had appeared. 10 of these ships were the Sojourner-class dreadnoughts while the others were 4 Battlecruisers, 4 light carriers, and 2 destroyers.

At the same time that Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree had arrived within the system, multiple reports of Covenant fleets had been detected within both the outer and inner colonies causing reinforcements to be focused on other places. If the Covenant was attacking one world with 1000 ships, then the UNSC would focus on the other smaller fleets especially since this Covenant fleet had 1,000 ships.

Imperial Admiral Xytan 'Jar Wattinree stood on the bridge of his flag ship while ordering his fleet to engage.

"Begin the assault," he commanded. The Covenant fleet, like a swarm of ravenous locuses, descended upon the defending UNSC ships and orbital defense platforms. The entire space was lit up with purple lights and mini explosions as the battle between the two began.

Severely outnumbered, the UNSC's mission was to hold out until the civilians on the ground evacuate.

Multiple battles raged across human space as the Covenant launched simultaneous attacks to quickly defeat the human military forces.