Chapter 92

1 Month later

Humanity has been holding on for nearly a month now while their military continues to grow by the week. Within this month, 1 billion soldiers have been conscripted into the UNSC to fight against the Covenant, bringing the number of ships that the UNSC Navy can man to the tens of thousands.

In this month the UNSC also managed to produce 500 million MCUs and deploy them to frontlines to fight against the Covenant. This bolstered their ground defense plan and increased the number of fighters and bombers that the UNSC can field at once.

This month also saw the completion of the massive station that will be used to build the MCU fleets. With that complete it will take an additional two weeks to pump out a fully manned 100 ship MCU fleet. So, in another month they would have 2 of these fleets that will be used in a variety of ways.

The casualties so far have been in the tens of thousands thanks to the use of MCUs which prevented many casualties in the beginning of the war.

So far, no civilian casualties have been reported, which kept morale high amongst the military as they knew that they were doing their job by preventing not even a single civilian from dying in the war.

On every world that the Covenant was able to invade, UNSC forces were always outnumbered as most of the conscripted soldiers were still in training, and that training would take 2 Months.

Axel didn't want to lower the training time any more than that, as he didn't need untrained men and women running around wielding advanced technology that they barely knew how to handle. That would cause unneeded accidents to happen on the battlefield.

In another month, 300 million people would be out of training and deployed depending on their job roles. Majority of these people were part of the Army or the Marines with about 50 million spread out between the Navy and Air Force.

Despite being outnumbered in both space and ground warfare, the UNSC was holding steady. Morale was high and everybody was motivated to fight. Thanks to the Spartans and other Elite units, the Covenant Elite troops was not able to achieve much on the battlefield.

Rumors and tales of individual Spartans taking down entire squads of Covenant troops spread through the ranks, bolstering the morale of fresh troops in training. They yearned to finish their training and join the fight, to put their mark on this historic war.

However, the most well-known Spartan was the Master Chief or John-117. He was considered the top of the top when it came to the Spartans. Every battlefield that he is put on, victory is guaranteed. John had taken out things from entire Covenant bases to Covenant Cruisers in space.

John was currently on the world of New Carthage, one of the few Inner Colony worlds that was invaded by the Covenant. He was working alongside Master Sergeant Avery Johnson who had recently been promoted in the previous year.

Master Sergeant Johnson was leading the marines in their defense of the planet alongside the Army and the Air Force. At this moment Johnson and Master Chief were attacking a Covenant base which had been discovered to have a high value target within it.

Their mission was to either capture or kill this high value target. Master Chief was leading 2 Battalions of Marines/MCUs alongside 4 other members of blue team to assault the east side of the Covenant base, while Johnson was leading the remaining battalions alongside some Spartan-IIIs to assault the base. Attacking the South side of the base was Colonel Nicolas Strauss and the UNSC Army.

Flying above to establish air superiority and support ground combat was the UNSC Air Force with the current Ace deployed on the planet. His callsign was 'Maverick'.

"Come on ladies, don't let those grunts outshine us!" Shouted Master Sergeant Johnson, his voice echoing over the sound of gunfire and explosions. The Marine forces charged forward, their advance as relentless as waves against a shore.

"Yeah, get some!" shouted one Marine as he had taken out three Covenant grunts before taking cover.

John had already breached the east side of the base, mowing down hordes of Covenant in his path. He was at the front, taking charge of the battlefield as the marines followed behind not wanting to be left behind.

"Blue Team, status?" John barked into his comm unit as he reloaded his weapon.

"East gate secure," replied Fred from somewhere to his right.

"Linda covering sniper positions," came Linda's voice, punctuated by the sound of a sniper rifle discharging.

The remaining members of Blue Team checked in, all secure in their designated areas. They were making progress, but they knew there was still a long way to go.

Meanwhile at the south side, Johnson and his battalion were met with heavy resistance, but they were holding their ground. Johnson was relentless as well, his shots bringing down the shields of Elite covenant soldiers before taking them out entirely.

"Keep advancing!" Johnson yelled over the chaos, as energy shots from all sorts of weapons were being exchanged with the Covenant plasma weapons.

Back at the east, Master Chief's presence had caused the Covenant defense to not be as effective as it would normally be. Some of the Covenant even started screaming demon as he charged forward.

"Chief," came Cortana's voice in his ear. "Sat intel shows a cluster of high-value targets in the central dome."

"Acknowledged, Cortana," Master Chief replied. He signaled Blue Team and a small group of marines to follow him towards their new objective. As if they were one entity, the group had shifted direction towards the central dome leaving the rest of the marines to continue the attack.

Meanwhile on the South side of the Covenant base, Colonel Nicolas Strauss was commanding his forces as they attacked the Covenant base. At the front his subordinate Sergeant Hernandez was leading the front charge alongside some heavy vehicles.

"Tomas!" Shouted Sergeant Hernandez, "Grab that soldier and drag him to cover" he ordered to Private First Class Tomas. Tomas was from a backwater colony planet that he experienced a surge in technology which was part of the UHEs plan to modernize all colonies.

He had a large family of 5 brothers and 8 sisters. His mom was trying to get a doctorate and his dad was supporting her with his automotive business. So, he joined the army to support his family, but to also make a few friends. He had been in for three months so far and had found a great interest in guns and explosives.

Tomas had grabbed the wounded soldier who was out in the open and dragged him to cover as the nearby infantry laid down some cover fire. Once he got the soldier behind cover, a medic came by and started to work on the wounded soldier.

Meanwhile from above, a UNSC transport ship had flew overhead "Bravo actual to all ground forces, I have a couple of presents for you from central command, I hope you like them" Announced the pilot as 5 Titans had jumped out of the transport and landed inside of the Covenant base sending several unlucky grunts flying.

These powerful power suits were operated by specialists and would be a massive game changer for the attacking UNSC forces. They began advancing into the base, tearing through Covenant forces like a hot knife through butter.

"Nice timing, Bravo actual," Sergeant Johnson said with a smirk, watching as the Titans breached through the enemy's front lines, causing disarray among their forces. He seized this opportunity to push forward, leading his men towards the breach.

Back in the air, Maverick was having the time of his life as he dodged and weaved the incoming fire from the Covenant fighters and took a few of them down.

"Three more bogeys down," he reported with a grin over the radio. "Airspace is looking clearer by the second."

Behind him was his wing of fighters who were also enjoying dogfighting with the Covenant fighters. Their fighters had more speed and agility allowing them to pull off some insane maneuvers.

"Good work, keep it up," came the voice of his wingman, Hawkeye, over the radio. A chorus of acknowledgements responded, punctuated by the occasional cheer as another enemy fighter was taken down.

The combined effort from three branches was proving to overwhelm the Covenant forces in the base. It could already be marked down as another victory for the UNSC.

But not everywhere was like this. On the world of Terceira, UNSC forces were being overrun by the Covenant. And the cause of this was because of one Covenant warrior.

His name was 'Atriox', he and his clan were used by the Elite commanders to charge the frontlines of the UNSC allowing for the Elites to not waste their lives when they can use the Jiralhanae.

Atriox was currently attacking a UNSC base and had successfully broken through the entrance and started slaughtering the humans, alongside his fellow Jiralhanae.

Atriox was different than most Jiralhanae, he was smart, strategic and a cunning warrior. With every swing of his gravity hammer, the armor that the UNSC soldiers were wearing crumbled like tin cans beneath him. His eyes were always on the prize, making sure their objective was met at all costs.

"With me!" he roared, his voice echoing loudly in the chaos of the battle. His clan followed him without question, tearing through UNSC soldiers like a storm. They were unstoppable.

But even as Atriox and his clan were cutting a bloody swath through the beleaguered humans, a spark of hope was kindled.

"Delta Squad, this is Charlie Lead," a voice was heard over a battered UNSC radio. "We're coming in hot with reinforcements."

Colonel Hunter, the commanding officer of Delta Squad, gave a grim nod. He had seen the brutality of the Jiralhanae firsthand, watched as they'd torn through his men with a savagery that defied belief. But he was a soldier of the UNSC and he would not abandon his post.

"Gunships inbound!" came another voice over the comm0link as four nimble UNSC gunships swooped in from above, their gunners opening fire on the rampaging Jiralhanae below.

However, this didn't stop Atriox as he gripped his gravity hammer and ran straight towards Colonel Hunter smashing any human that got in his way.

Colonel Hunter fired his energy rifle at Atriox but tried to stop him, but Atriox dodged each one as his more Jiralhanae followed behind him.

In an instant Atriox was on him, his massive gravity hammer swinging down. But Hunter had been a soldier long enough to know when to stand and when to move. He rolled away just in time, the hammer hitting the ground where he'd stood a moment before.

Hunter came up firing, as his energy shots were absorbed by Atriox's energy shield. The Jiralhanae didn't even flinch as he charged again, the hammer ready for another killing blow.

Colonel Hunter tried to dodge again, but Atriox had predicted his movement and landed a clean blow sending Colonel flying back into a nearby wall.

With a gasp, Hunter fell to his knees, seeing stars. His body felt like it had been hit by a freight train. He looked up to see Atriox with his hammer raised for the killing blow. His body couldn't move fast enough, and he was hit directly, the last thing he saw was Atriox's triumphant face before darkness claimed him.

The reinforcements that had arrived were forced to turn around seeing the entire base flooded with Covenant troops, and Covenant fighters which outnumbered them were heading their way. This battle was lost, so the Officer in charge of the reinforcements had called for them to pull back, not wanting to waste any more lives in this battle.