1.5 Years later, 2534 April 4th
The construction of the Mega-structure, Star lifter was complete and had been operational for over 2 Months now. When it first began construction there was only speculation as to how many resources it would provide or if it would even operate how Axel said it would.
But during the first month the Mega-structure had proved all those speculations wrong. Within the first month the Mega-structure had produced a metric ton of various resources which included Titanium, Iron, Platinum, Vanadium, Osmium, etc.
It unfortunately couldn't produce gasses as it was originally intended to but that wasn't a problem as they could mine Gas giants for those types of resources.
With the new mega-structure complete this opened the door for a lot of things to be built, including the new ships that Axel planned to build. However, these new ships were highly advanced and bigger than normal UNSC ships, so Axel had the Office of Naval research which a subordinate command of ONI come up with a new design for shipyards.
With the help of AI, the Office of Naval Research had come up with two designs that could both be utilized for constructing ships.
(Nemesis Shipyard)
(Nova Orbital Station/Shipyard)
The first Shipyard was a smaller and much cheaper design that could be built quickly while the second Shipyard was both a Shipyard and Orbital station that could act as a Command station for UNSC fleets.
When the designs were completed, construction of these stations had begun. Axel had used this chance to deal with rising unemployment and millions of people who were without jobs due to them evacuating their former planet.
Hundreds of thousands of people were recruited and trained prior to the Mega-structures' completion to fix this problem. Because once the Star lifter was done being built, they would have a ton of resources opening a lot of job opportunities for millions of people and providing manpower for all the large-scale projects that were planned.
Thanks to Corporations who bought materials from the UNSC from the Star lifter, Money was flowing in like crazy allowing the UNSC to increase civilian jobs and offer a fair wage to everybody.
Countless individuals who were once scared and disoriented due to displacement from their home planet now found themselves with purpose and a newfound sense of unity. The process had given them something to believe in again.
Even though the UNSC was mainly a military organization, it had taken over control of some of the responsibilities of the UEG to better protect all Human worlds from the Covenant. However, at the same time the UEG lost a lot of its Authority and influence over the civilian sectors. The balance of power was definitely tilted, yet the transition had been surprisingly peaceful. The civilians, although initially doubtful, have now come to respect and trust the UNSC's guidance more than ever.
The tension that existed initially started to dissipate when Axel delivered a planetary-wide broadcast addressing the rising concerns. His heartfelt speech, promising stability and job security, worked wonders in calming the anxious populace. It also gave a much-needed impetus to the workforce which then saw a surge in enrollment numbers.
The rapid mobilization of civilian resources proved beneficial for both the climate of morale and the numerous construction projects. Working day and night tirelessly, the project teams filled with displaced and determined individuals made progress at a pace that surprised even Axel. Each construction worker was given their new Space Vacuum suit that could be utilized on a wide variety of space work.
(Space Vacuum suit)
Mock iterations of the new ships systems were being taught to the Navy personnel in training and a few active-duty Officers already serving aboard other UNSC vessels. It would take time to build ships to replace the current UNSC fleets so in the meantime those not on deployments would undergo the training.
Besides the civilian improvements, Axel, alongside a few engineers created the next generation of weapons for the UNSC which involved Energy weapons. As of now only a rifle and pistol was created for infantry to use, while other more destructive weapons were still in development.
(Energy Rifle)
(Energy Pistol)
Unlike other military equipment, Axel had put a restriction on the Energy weapons to only allow the UNSC to develop them. This way they won't fall into enemy hands until the Insurrectionists are dealt with.
The Spartan-III Project was a success and it created thousands of Spartans enhanced with the Gene-seed surgery, making them stronger than the previous project. Spartan-IIIs had their own armor separate from the Spartan-IIs which is far stronger than the Spartan-II armor.
(Spartan-III Armor)
And with thousands of new Spartans, Axel created the new Spartan Operations Branch of the UNSC which would oversee all Spartan Operations. The Spartan Operations was created as a subbranch of ONI with the Commander-in-Chief of ONI being the de jure leader for the branch.
Axel didn't forget about the Spartan-IIs either as they had also undergone a different Gene-seed enhancement that was superior to the what the Spartan-IIIs got but not as strong as his own.
They were taller and stronger than the Spartan-IIIs making them the most elite force the UNSC currently had. In addition to the Spartan enhancements, an enhancement for marines and army members was almost done being developed as well as an overall population enhancement that would be implemented at birth to help the child grow into a new Human.
Unlike the Surgical enhancements that the Spartans go through, the enhancements that would be implemented for civilian use was only a genetic enhancement to improve the next generation of human growth. The ones for the marines, army, and air force would have the same effect but instead of increasing their height it would only increase their overall physical attributes, reaction time, reflexes, and eyesight.
Officers would also undergo a weakened version of the Spartan augmentation that would only enhance their ability to make tactical and timely decisions. The enhancements would vary depending on the branch, Naval Officers only needed to command from their ship while Marine and Army officers were on the frontlines, so they needed more physical enhancements.
The air force would need enhanced reaction time, reflexes, eyesight, and strength to be able to better control fighters, transport ships, dropships, etc.
It was a lot to make several different enhancements for each branch and then test them to make sure they work. Then you had to consider what if some people's bodies were incompatible with the enhancements, or they couldn't handle it at all. Which is why more time was needed before they could be released for wide use.
Lastly, Catherine had undergone her own gene-seed enhancement. While not as powerful as the other ones it still improved her cognitive ability further than what she already had while offering her an extended lifetime.
In a few decades Axel wanted human life expectancy to increase to that of hundreds of years to help with the growth of population in the future once the Covenant was dealt with.