After receiving a full medical eval from the medical team, Axel returned to the command center as the rest of his forces finished off the remaining Precursor and Kynthari forces.
Inside the command center, Axel was informed of the progress with the remaining enemy forces. The Kynthari forces were all but gone, except for a few prisoners who had surrendered themselves upon seeing the horde of strange soldiers dropping on top of them.
Being surrounded on two sides some of them would rather choose the actual humanoid looking aliens over the strange creatures who just showed up and started slaughtering them. Their fleet wasn't responding anymore, forcing them to believe that they no longer had a fleet to support them.
After surrendering the Ascendency forces secured them and moved them to a secure location away from the frontlines and the fighting going on within their own base.
For the Precursor creatures, the ship orbiting above had stopped sending down reinforcements leading Axel to believe that they had run out or saw how useless it was to send more creatures.
But no matter what the case was, they needed to hurry up and capitalize on the ship while it was still within their reach.
"Put us in the air, we need to board and disable that Precursor ship" Axel commanded as orders were issued to evacuate the area around the ship to not cause friendly casualties when they take off.
Within minutes the area was cleared, and the flagship began its ascent into orbit. The time it took to get from the surface of a planet into space didn't take long as they were exiting the atmosphere of the planet and not descending into it.
As the flagship breached the upper atmosphere, Axel stood at the command console staring at the massive Precursor ship in front of him. It was as massive as his own ship, only lacking in some areas.
While he looked at the scan of the ship, Omni appeared to inform Axel of the ship's current situation, "Due to a virus I have sent to destroy their ship's AI, the ship momentarily has its weapons, shields, and engines disabled, and won't be able to get them back on for about an hour."
"Good, thanks Omni. Do I tell you how much I appreciate you." Axel Jokingly stated. "Not nearly enough, Sir." Omni replied with his own remark.
"Alright, I want MCUs and Spartans to breach the hull of the ships via boarding pods and eliminate any crew onboard unless they can secure one of them. Once in control of the ship, we will move it to another location and begin our research into its technology and how different it is compared to our tech." A ship wide broadcast was sent out as Spartans and MCUs began moving to their stations.
Once onboard their boarding pods, they were launched out of the ship and into the hull of the Precursor ship. Because of the massive size of the ship, a large number of boarding troops were sent to board the enemy ship to secure it faster.
Exiting their boarding pods, some teams encountered enemy resistance immediately. From the live footage that Axel was looking at, the crew of the ship appeared to be the same creatures that attacked them on the ground, only in different forms.
The Spartans and MCU teams had to maneuver through tight corridors while watching for friendly fire and avoiding being hit by an enemy attack. Though because they were trained for boarding enemy ships, their teamwork was superb allowing them to act as one cohesive unit.
The ship's internal layout was an intricate maze of interlaced corridors, sublevels, and control rooms, designed to confuse invaders and give the ship's crew a home-field advantage. However, the boarding parties proved to be adaptable, their training allowing them to seamlessly navigate this labyrinth.
Despite the initial resistance from the Precursors, the boarding parties continued to press forward through the maze-like structure. The MCUs held a significant advantage in these close quarter combats, their mechanical constructs allowing them to adjust to complex fighting conditions instantly.
It was the same for the Spartans who's combat ability always adjusted to the environment that they were in.
Even as they drove deeper into the vessel, bursts of gunfire echoed through the ship as pockets of resistance were found and eliminated. Progress was swift yet slow as each secured area allowed them additional foothold and strategic advantage.
"The third and fourth teams have reached what appears to be a control deck. Resistance is heavier than anticipated, but they are holding their ground," reported one of his officers.
"Move teams Foxtrot and Echo-2 to assist them. If we can secure that control deck, we will have command of their ship systems," he ordered.
In front of him, a hologram of the battle was shown, displaying numerous teams fighting through the ship. The enemy forces were relatively gone as the heaviest resistance was at the control deck which meant that the battle was almost over.
With a final decisive push, Spartans and MCUs crashed into the control deck. Precursor warriors, evidently some form of elite guard, put up a fierce resistance. But they stood little chance against the Spartans and MCUs.
Axel watched as the final Precursor was killed gaining them complete control of the ship.
"We have command, Sir," reported a Spartan through comms.
"Good," Axel acknowledged, "Omni, begin downloading their data, see if you can salvage any useful information from their systems." Axel confirmed and began to see what he could find.
Meanwhile, on the surface below, what was left of the Precursor forces were eliminated with the help of the Yanme'e drones with no prisoners taken. It's not that they didn't try, but the creatures fought until the end not allowing themselves to be captured alive.
If they could still move, then they would try to take out as many soldiers as they could. Because of this risk, the soldiers were simply ordered to eliminate all the creatures and not risk their own lives.
Now a mop up was beginning as those injured were being cared for and the dead bodies of the alien forces were burned which is better than letting them rot away on the battlefield.
In less than an hour after capturing the ship, Omni was not able to find any information about the Precursor. He didn't know if it was wiped before they boarded, after he sent the virus, or maybe even before the ship arrived.
He was clueless as to what happened to the information and felt bad about having to report this to Axel.
"No data whatsoever huh," said Axel, his mind becoming lost in thought. To have captured such a prize, only to find it empty, was very frustrating. "I trust your judgement on this Omni but keep searching just in case. In the meantime, we will focus on studying the technology of the ship."
"Certainly Sir," Omni responded.
As a few more hours passed and the situation had returned back to normal, the forces on the surface had begun repairing and reinforcing their defenses. Now aware of what they could potentially face in the future, they needed bigger guns. And not just bigger, but a variety as well to give them an advantage in every combat scenario.
A planetary shield would be constructed over the planet preventing another attack on the surface as well as orbital defenses. The current situation reminded Axel of the early days in his career when his fleet was limited, and he had to use tactics involving every single thing he had in order to ensure victory.
He no longer had the vast military of the Ascendency with him so he couldn't just blast the enemy with overpower firepower, so he needed to compensate by building more defenses and making use of every single defense that he had.
For those lost in the battle a giant memorial was planned for them in the coming days to honor their sacrifice. Though their actual bodies would be buried within their home galaxy on Reach which housed the massive memorial of soldiers who die while in service. They don't deserve to be buried within a galaxy that is not their own.