Chapter 305 — Knowledge Won
The residence was unusually quiet.
For the first time since the Covenant attack, everyone had finally gathered in the same room.
The battle was over.
Cascade had won.
Although the evacuation remained in effect, it had been scaled back, allowing many civilians to return to their homes while engineers and construction crews spread throughout the colony, repairing damaged infrastructure and restoring essential services. The frantic atmosphere that had gripped the colony for days had finally given way to cautious relief.
For the first time in what felt like forever, there was nothing demanding their immediate attention. Those who had spent days overseeing the evacuation, especially Naruto, finally had a chance to relax.
They could simply sit together.
Tony Stark stood near the center of the room, a glass in one hand as he looked around at everyone seated at the large table.
Gaius.
Naruto.
Mindy.
Tanya.
Diana.
Saeko.
For a brief moment, Tony simply smiled.
Then he raised his glass slightly.
"First."
His smile widened.
"Everyone did an amazing job."
Naruto immediately started clapping.
"Yeah!"
Mindy laughed and joined in, clapping enthusiastically beside him.
Diana smiled warmly.
Saeko gave an approving nod.
Even Tanya, who normally maintained a composed expression, looked faintly pleased.
Across the table, Gaius sat quietly without his armor, dressed instead in ordinary clothing that made him appear almost approachable despite his enormous size.
He gave a single nod.
Naruto immediately pointed toward him.
"See?"
"Even Gaius agreed we did good."
Mindy burst into laughter.
"That's basically a medal coming from him."
Several smiles appeared around the table.
The mood became noticeably lighter.
Tony allowed the laughter to settle before speaking again.
"Second."
This time, his expression became more serious.
"Gaius managed to recover Covenant data from the flagship."
The atmosphere shifted immediately.
Several heads turned toward the Ultramarine.
Diana spoke first.
"How much information?"
Gaius answered calmly.
"Unknown."
"But it filled the storage of the device from the ship."
Tony nodded.
"Which means it could be a lot."
He reached into a pocket and placed the small storage device onto the center of the table.
Everyone's eyes followed it.
It wasn't large.
It easily fit into the palm of a hand.
Yet despite its size, everyone understood just how important it might be.
Tony lightly tapped it with a finger.
"This could contain command records."
He tapped again.
"Navigation data."
Another tap.
"Communications."
He continued.
"Fleet organization."
"Potentially anything the flagship had access to."
Mindy's eyes widened slightly.
"That's huge."
Tanya nodded once.
"If the data is intact, it may be more valuable than destroying the fleet itself."
Tony immediately pointed toward her.
"Exactly."
"If this contains what I think it contains," Tony continued, "we'll learn how Covenant fleets operate."
"How they organize."
"How they communicate."
"How they deploy."
"How they locate targets."
He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
"And maybe even why they do some of the things they do."
Halsey's earlier theory regarding the Covenant's strange fixation on certain planets immediately came back to mind.
The room grew quieter.
Everyone understood the value of intelligence.
Knowledge had always been one of the greatest advantages in war.
Gaius gave a small nod.
"Information is often more valuable than weapons."
Tanya immediately agreed.
"Correct."
"A weapon wins a battle."
"Information wins wars."
Tony grinned and pointed toward her again.
"See?"
"That's why I like having the scary little commander around."
Tanya's eye twitched.
Across the table, Naruto quickly looked away before she noticed him trying to suppress a laugh.
Unfortunately for him
She noticed anyway.
Naruto instantly straightened his face.
"I wasn't laughing."
"You were," Tanya replied flatly.
Mindy nearly choked trying not to laugh herself.
Even Diana smiled into her drink while Saeko quietly covered her mouth, amused by the exchange.
Tony chuckled.
"I'll let Jarvis check what's inside first and summarize everything important for us."
That seemed like the sensible approach.
The tension left the room little by little.
They were simply sitting together.
Alive.
Victorious.
Already preparing for whatever challenge came next.
Because one thing was obvious to everyone.
The Covenant would never forget Cascade.
And they certainly would not forget the giant Ultramarine who had boarded a flagship, destroyed it from the inside.
Naruto had been quietly eating for several moments when something suddenly occurred to him.
His eyes widened.
He hurriedly swallowed.
Then looked toward Gaius.
"Gaius."
The Ultramarine looked up.
"Yes?"
Naruto pointed directly at him.
"How did you actually survive coming down from space?"
The room became quiet almost instantly.
Several people looked toward Gaius.
Truthfully, everyone had been wondering exactly the same thing.
Naruto continued.
"Was your armor doing all the work?"
Gaius happened to be eating as well.
Unlike everyone else, however, his dinner consisted of compressed Sea King meat.
The block was so heavily compressed that it resembled a dark slab of stone rather than food.
To an ordinary human, chewing it would have been nearly impossible.
For Gaius—
It was simply dinner.
Crunch.
The sound echoed clearly throughout the room.
He calmly swallowed.
Then paused briefly, more out of simple etiquette than necessity.
"My armor contributed."
"Specifically the Iron Halo."
Naruto immediately pointed toward the circular device floating behind Gaius.
"The circling thing behind your head?"
Gaius nodded.
"Yes."
Diana tilted her head.
"But you said it only contributed."
That single word caught everyone's attention.
Contributed.
Not protected completely.
Not carried the entire burden.
Only contributed.
Diana continued.
"What was the other part?"
Unlike the others, Diana wasn't asking because she doubted it.
Truthfully, she believed she herself could probably survive such a fall.
What interested her was the method Gaius had used.
Gaius answered without hesitation.
"Armament Haki."
Naruto blinked.
"The Haki from the pirate world?"
Mindy spoke almost simultaneously.
"The one Rayleigh taught?"
Saeko also looked interested.
Even Tanya looked up from her drink.
Gaius nodded.
"Yes."
Diana's eyes brightened slightly.
"It seems I should learn Haki."
Naruto immediately nodded.
"Definitely."
Mindy agreed.
"Same."
Saeko smiled.
"I am interested as well."
Tanya remained silent.
Outwardly, nothing changed.
Internally, however, she had already added Haki training to her list of priorities.
Naruto scratched the back of his head.
"The problem is..."
"I still don't really understand how Rayleigh explained it."
Several people nodded.
His explanation had been useful.
But it hadn't exactly been easy to understand.
Gaius understood the problem immediately.
"The explanation was indeed a bit vague."
Gaius continued.
"I will send a complete document into the Group Chat."
"Everything Rayleigh explained."
"My own observations."
"My training methods."
"And practical exercises."
"That should make learning it significantly easier."
Naruto's face immediately brightened.
"Seriously?"
Gaius nodded.
"Yes."
A grin spread across Naruto's face.
"Thanks."
Mindy smiled.
"Yeah."
"Thank you."
Saeko inclined her head respectfully.
"You have my gratitude."
Diana smiled warmly.
"That would be very useful."
Gaius simply nodded once before returning to his meal.
Only a few seconds later, Jarvis spoke.
"Sir."
"Analysis and summarization of the Covenant flagship data is complete."
Tony immediately looked up.
"Let's see it."
A blue hologram appeared above the table.
Multiple categories floated in the air.
Fleet Records.
Navigation Data.
Communications.
Military Reports.
Artifact Recovery Operations.
One category immediately stood out.
Its title appeared highlighted in bold.
FORERUNNER ARTIFACT RECOVERY GIVEN HIGHEST PRIORITY
The room became noticeably quieter.
Tony frowned slightly.
Was this what he thought it was?
"What does that mean?"
Jarvis expanded the category.
New reports appeared beneath it.
Orbital bombardment delayed pending artifact recovery.
Ground forces deployed to secure relic site.
Excavation operations prioritized over fleet efficiency.
Another report appeared beneath them.
Artifact acquisition designated primary objective.
Mindy blinked.
"They're willing to risk entire battles for those things?"
"Apparently," Tony replied.
Tanya narrowed her eyes.
"Then those artifacts must be extremely important to them."
Saeko folded her arms thoughtfully.
"It seems that's the answer to the Covenant's strange behavior of going down to the planet."
Jarvis continued.
"Analysis indicates Covenant forces repeatedly conduct ground assaults to recover Forerunner relics, even when orbital destruction would be more efficient."
Mindy frowned.
"So that's why they sometimes invade instead of just blowing up the planet?"
Tony slowly nodded.
"Looks that way."
Suddenly, many of the Covenant's previous actions made far more sense.
From a purely military perspective, many of their invasions had seemed inefficient.
Now there was finally an explanation.
The relics mattered more than efficiency.
Jarvis switched to the next category.
Another line appeared in bold.
COVENANT IDENTIFIED AS MULTI-SPECIES RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE
Naruto stared at the display.
"Wait."
"That's why when I fought them there were differences between them?"
"Yes," Jarvis replied.
Naruto scratched his head.
"I thought they were just like Gaius' other enemies."
"You know... the same species, just different types."
"I didn't think they were an entirely different species."
Jarvis answered calmly.
"Current records identify multiple species operating under a unified religious authority."
Tony leaned back in his chair.
"A religion holding together an alliance of completely different alien species..."
He rubbed his chin.
"That's either incredibly impressive or incredibly dangerous."
Mindy frowned.
"They're religious aliens, sure... but that still doesn't explain why they're so determined to wipe out humanity."
Tony nodded.
"Exactly."
"I think Halsey, Parangosky, and Osman are going to want to hear about all of this."
~~~
PS: Classes are here, guys, summer's over. I've been a bit busy lately, so thanks for bearing with me.
~~~
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