Halo Reborn

Current Year: 2165

Prime Minister Andrew Ainsley of the Alliance was being briefed on the current situation that was transpiring within the Terminus systems. As they had been exploring the regions of space close to the Terminus systems, the Alliance maintained constant surveillance of that region of space to protect their exploration and colonization efforts.

Right now, they were getting numerous reports of various locations within the Terminus systems being raided by highly advanced super soldiers that had the insignia of Ascendency on their armor. These reports seemed to match the disturbing footage of the super-soldier onslaught in Tuchunka.

"They are demolishing every organization that had any sort of involvement in the attack on the Empress," said Ainsley's military advisor, a stern-faced woman known as General Stross. Her eyes were filled with a mixture of fear and admiration as she watched the footage over and over.

"The Ascendency has some hidden cards it seems," said General Stross. She had studied the information that they had collected from the Ascendency's short war against the Batarians to get a sense of their military strength, but there was either not a lot of footage or she didn't see enough to properly determine how powerful the Ascendency was.

Because of the current state of the galaxy, she put the Ascendency over the Turians in terms of their military but didn't have enough knowledge to compare them to the Salarians in terms of their espionage, so she put the Salarians over them.

As for their influence, well she puts them second to the Asari because of their construction of the inter-species station which she couldn't choose whether it was on the same level as the Citadel or better. Then add in their diplomatic outreach with the other races, one could see that they were gaining ground.

"Massive, coordinated strikes across the Terminus systems... How did they manage to coordinate such an operation?" questioned Ainsley.

"The Ascendency's intelligence network must be vast, surpassing even our own," admitted General Stross. "Every target must have been part of the attack against them and not a single innocent has been accidentally caught in the crossfire. Their precision is surprising."

"For now, they have remained out of Council space and only in the Terminus systems. Numerous corporations based within the Terminus systems have been targeted and lost a few top executives to these operations."

"Any indications they are planning to extend their operations to Citadel space?" Ainsley asked.

"No clear signs yet sir, but if they do, we won't have to worry as we have multiple agreements with them and because of both our empires consisting of humans, the Ascendency considers us to be like a distant cousin of sorts."

"Good. The last thing we need is a conflict with the Ascendency," Ainsley acknowledged.

At that moment, the office door swished open, and a tech officer entered carrying a data pad. His face was pale under the bright lights of the office and his face had a serious expression.

"Prime Minister," he began, "We received an emergency request for help the Citadel in response to an Ascendency fleet that has surrounded the Citadel."

"What!!" yelled the Prime Minister confused as to what the hell was going on right now.

"Secretary of defense has sent the 7th fleet in response and is requesting that you reach out to the Ascendency to find out what exactly is going on"

"Very well," Prime Minister Ainsley said, steadying his nerves. "Coordinate with the Secretary of Defense and keep me updated on the progress of the 7th Fleet."

Turning to his communication officer, he directed, "Set up a secure line with the Ascendency immediately. If they've surrounded the Citadel there must be a reason. We need to understand what's happening."

As the communication officer scrambled to comply, Ainsley turned to General Stross. Her face was a mask of concern, underlying the severity of the situation.

"We need to be prepared for any eventuality," he told her wisely, "get our forces on high alert, but do not provoke unless provoked. The last thing we want is to escalate this situation further."

———

Meanwhile a few hours earlier on Nova, Axel was sitting in his office doing some administrative work involving the recent colonies that were created increasing the Ascendency's total colonies in this galaxy to 14. At the moment, the total number of people who have migrated from their home Galaxy has reached 500 million with millions more coming through every month.

Migrating was entirely voluntary and up to the person, and once the person decided to move, they were provided with a place to live and a job to support their new life. With every single human within the Ascendency now able to live to 300, the number of people that could work, travel, or do the things that they couldn't do when they were younger were many. 6 billion people were no longer in their retirement age and could continue with their lives as if they were young again.

Many former military officers rejoined the Ascendency military while some who couldn't go to college before went back to college and fulfilled their long-held dreams. It was a time of personal renaissance and rejuvenation for many, as they were given opportunities that they had never thought possible.

As he was working on integrating the new colonies and ensuring they have representation within the Senate, Omni's avatar materialized to his right on top of his desk.

"Sir, me and Cortana have been working alongside ONI which was now subdivision of the Ascendency Intelligence Agency (AIA) and have finally uncovered the person behind the attack on Catherine." reported Omni.

Leaning back in his desk and crossing his arms, Axel waited for the answer. "It was the Turian Councilor Katius who was the original person to plan the attack on the research base. We have recordings which were encrypted to the highest level of him talking to numerous influential people and groups within the Terminus systems planning the attack. After him we have the names of all the third-party people who were hired to organize the mercenaries, though they have already been captured" explained Omni.

Axel scoffed upon hearing this news since he had a lingering thought that one of the Councilors might be involved. While the evidence wasn't there at first, ONI's original assessment of the all the corporations and influential figures within the Terminus Systems 4 years ago was that they would not develop into a problem because they were more worried about their interest which Axel didn't plan to interfere with at first.

But with a nudge from the Turian councilor and with information gathered from the Batarian war, their interests had shifted to include learning more about the Ascendency as well, hoping to gather some valuable data on their technology.

As if reading his mind Omni already knew what was about to happen based off his experience over the years being with Axel. "Shall I prepare a fleet?"

"Yes, prepare a sizable fleet as a show of force. Councilor Katius will be taken prisoner to answer for this attack and then executed since he attacked the Cath, we will first submit the evidence showing how guilty he is. If they take too long to release hand him over to us, then we will take control of the Citadel and forcefully take him into custody.

They can't gain access to our space through the Mass Relays, so we don't need to worry about a retaliatory attack on our Capital, but just in case have fleets on standby near each races border." ordered Axel.

Omni acknowledged before disappeared and transmitted his orders to thousands of ships and Millions of soldiers who started coming in though the dimensional gate.

Within hours, the Ascendency fleet was gathered above Nova and prepared to jump towards the Citadel. The soldiers were informed that they were going to arrest the person who orchestrated the attack on the Empress. Learning this filled them with determination and a sense of purpose.