During the following months, Axel dedicated his time to developing advanced military technology for the UNSC to utilize in the years ahead. He also worked on enhancing Ivan's abilities as an artificial intelligence, even though he was already highly capable he was not a flash clone of Axel's brain.
During this time the new Chairman of the UNSC was chosen. His name was Fleet Admiral Jacob Gardner. Ivan had gathered evidence through UNSC networks about Admiral Gardner relating to his success in his career. His success was mainly because of his years of service and his high political power within the UNSC and the civilian government.
His selection as the new Chairman was motivated by the politics and his rank as Fleet Admiral. Within the first month of him being Chairman Admiral Gardner had the Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence stop the funding for MCU project of Section three but maintained the Spartan program. Any other funding was cut as Admiral Gardner called it a 'waste of the UNSC resources' since they were already contracted to buy robotic units from Misriah Armory.
Instead Admiral Gardner wanted Section Three to focus on research into new space weapons instead of costly robotic units. Once Axel found out about this he slammed his fist on his office desk since it was such a stupid idea as it would only hinder their production of MCU units. There was two factories on Algolis which was dedicated to the production of MCU units and have built around 10,000 units since their creation.
But now those factories were about to be shut down since they won't be getting any more materials to produce more MCU's. Commander Talia stood there reading the news to Axel as she also felt that this decision was a stupid one as well. From her own observations she knew that the MCU's were a much better option when it comes to efficiency and abilities while the robotic units created by Misriah Armory were prone to breaking down after long-term use and in combat they were easy to destroy.
Politics were not her forte, and she often struggled to make sense of them. Still, she couldn't help but question the UNSC's strategy of using inexpensive robots in their fight against insurgents. As a commander, her opinion didn't carry much weight with the Admirals, except for Axel, who valued her unique perspective on certain matters.
Axel, as he sat brooding in his office, finally spoke. He said his thoughts out loud, more to himself than to Talia. "MCU's are adaptable to both land and space combat where our enemies have the advantage. They are efficient and cost-effective. Misriah's robots… they might be cheaper but they lack the adaptiveness and durability of MCU's. Gardner is playing politics when we need strategy."
He slumped back in his chair. A strange silence filled the room as Ivan, still processing data in the background, watched quietly.
Talia shifted her stance slightly, considering her next words. "So, what do we do now, Admiral?" Her tone was calm yet full of concern.
Axel pondered over this question for a minute before responding. "For now we can't do anything so we will just adapt to developing space weapons"
With a heavy exhale, Axel acknowledged that making any significant changes at this moment would only cause chaos. He couldn't help but question why he stayed in the UNSC, under the watchful eyes of outdated leaders who cling to traditional military practices instead of prioritizing what's best for the organization.
His gaze drifted to the vast holographic star map displayed on the wall of his office. The countless glowing dots represented different colonies, each with their unique situations and challenges. It was a stark visual reminder of the magnitude of their tasks.
Suddenly, Ivan's voice broke the silence, "Admiral, I may have a potential solution." Axel turned his attention to the AI who had manifested himself in the form of a translucent projection. He was curious as to what Ivan had in mind.
Ivan continued, "The resources for MCU units can be sourced from other colonies where we have some leverage. We can continue our production covertly using those resources while maintaining the official stance of focusing on space weapon research."
Axel looked at Ivan thoughtfully. It wasn't a perfect solution and carried its risks but under the circumstances, it seemed plausible. He nodded slightly, acknowledging Ivan's input. "That might work," he said, "We'll need to carefully manage our resource allocation though and ensure that no leaks or paper trails lead back to us, should anyone within the UNSC start asking questions."
Axel continued "Ivan, work with Commander Talia to lay out a detailed plan for this."
Talia nodded, her posture straightening as she prepared to take on this new task. "Understood, Admiral."
After that Talia and Ivan got to work on coming up with a detailed plan to execute this task without any way of it getting leaked to other members of the UNSC.
Meanwhile Axel prepared a few projects to get the chairman's eyes off of him. The first was a project to develop a new Ship-to-ship autocannon that could be utilized for both shielded and unshielded targets. Though the actual description for the weapon would be just ship-to-ship combat.
Axel would drag this project on for the next 2 years just because of his dislike of Admiral Gardner. In addition he would keep up the secret production of the MCU's without the UNSC knowing about.
A few months after Section three got new orders to change it's focus, it was now the year 2522. Hammer and the other MCU's fighting the insurrectionists had returned to Algolis after their success within the inner colonies. The insurrectionists were little to no threat to the UNSC at this point thinks to Axel's success in the outer colonies and Hammer's battalion success in the inner colonies.
And with this success also brought about some positives. Axel had received some thanks from many high ranking officers in the other branches who was thanking Axel for the creation of the MCU's since they made preserving lives much easier and they were very adaptable.
And on top his medals which were sent to him upon his completion of his mission in the outer colonies he had gained some additional medals fand awards for his contribution to the UNSC by General Daniel Black of the UNSC Marine Corps.
In his letter he described the MCU's as 'highly advanced and adaptable' and he also mentioned how he didn't understand the reasoning behind their replacement by the Misriah's robots which he stated to be 'unresponsive at times and less efficient than the MCU's'.
It seems not only did Axel and Commander Talia see it as an illogical choice, but do did other High ranking members of the UNSC security council.