AN: Sorry it's been so long, folks! My laptop has a broken screen, and not being able to see what the hell you're doing makes it really hard to type… Anyway, here's the next chapter of Ad Libitum! This will hopefully answer a few of the questions that some of you have been asking, so… Yeah.

Ad Libitum: Chapter 4

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Ulster Project MCC, North Africa

"Yeah Nunally, I'm doing fine." Lelouch says into the phone.

"That's good to hear big brother, I miss you…" Nunally answered. "How is the chess tournament going…?"

"I haven't been defeated yet."

"That's good. Schneizel won't be there, will he…?" Nunally asked. Lelouch frowned.

"This is too low key for him, and he's busy in the EU at this time, so I don't need to worry about being discovered…"

"Knowing Schneizel though, he would hide my existence as well… Not for free though."

"Nuna, shouldn't you be in bed by now? It's morning right now in South Africa, and I'm sure it's past your bedtime in Japan…" Lelouch chided.

"Big brother…!" Nunally pouts over the phone. Lelouch chuckled at his sister's innocence. "Come back soon, big brother! I miss you!"

"Of course. I should be back in a couple weeks. Goodnight, Nuna." Lelouch hung up the phone. He was sporting a scar on his cheek, right below the right eye that was a rather good size.

It had come from the first operation when they had attacked Tripoli; he had gotten cocky and the cockpit was damaged by a heavy munitions shell, and a piece of shrapnel had slashed his cheek.

He had just come out of the most recent operation for the Ulster Project and hadn't changed out of his devicer uniform, and was currently in his Jonathan McKinley disguise. Lelouch ran his finger along the length of the scar. He was still trying to figure out how to explain that when he got back, but the best explanation he could come up with was that someone tried to mug him on the streets. For now, that would have to suffice.

Lelouch looked up at the docked frames and smirked. The flexibility of the Ulster frames had exceeded his expectations, as the test pilots took to them quite quickly; way faster than anticipated. Their output is similar to their Britannian-make counterparts, but due to their interfaces and control systems, the pilots are able to use every piece of equipment with greater finesse and efficiency than a Sutherland or Gloucester would allow. Not to mention the ability to easily swap out major components and weapons systems rather quickly, and you have machines that adapt to the battlefield, rather than having the pilot compensate for the lack of the correct equipment.

However, Lelouch frowned when he thought of the issues regarding the frames that he would have to address when given the opportunity and proper fabrication machinery. He could only fine tune the machines with pre-existing parts while out in the field like he is, and that only alleviates minor issues, if at all. He thought back to the heat that was generated by the landspinners, of all things. It turns out that his compact design was ill suited to the maneuvers that his prototype Cu Chullain and mass production Setanta will be performing. Their center of gravity is higher than that of other Knightmares, and that puts stress on the stability actuators located in the ankles of the frame, and when using the landspinners, that gets translated to even more heat, especially during extended periods of rapid and constant direction change. The motors tear overheat and seize up.

That issue is not present in the mass production Cu Chullain, most likely due to the fact that they are long range units that really are not meant to be dancing around opponents. Still, Lelouch would rather not have that become an issue, ever. Right now, all he can do is fashion some form of heat sink that will be placed in the offending areas. Having a landspinner motor seize up when going at combat speed is not pleasant, as the frame will fall over in some undignified way quite violently.

Lelouch shuddered at that experience… He still has the bruise on his forehead from when he clunked the console… Thankfully there was no concussion, as the medical staff would be curious as to why he was wearing a wig.

The other machines haven't gone unscathed either; in fact, one of the Setanta has the left arm of a Sutherland, and one of the Cu Chullain had to replace the linear cannons. Somehow, he managed to salvage the cannons off of a couple Panzer Hummels and retrofit them to work with the Cu Chullain's modular equipment. Lelouch was pleased with just how adaptive they were; as one of the Setanta has both legs completely replaced with that of a destroyed Gloucester… He made a mental note to analyze the parts and adapt the technology to suit his own machines when he got back to Japan, as he was being allowed to keep all destroyed equipment that he picked up.

The best part of that deal is that the Britannian definition of destroyed is much different that Lelouch's definition… The Division under the command of Caldwell didn't have the time to repair disabled and/or heavily damaged frames, nor did they have the storage space to keep them… So Lelouch took what he wanted and dumped the rest. During his off-time after the maintenance of the Ulster frames was done, Lelouch had managed to slop together a Chimera of a Knightmare using Glasgow, Sutherland, Gloucester, and Panzer Hummel pieces. Pretty it ain't, but it was a result of a bored teenage boy who had access to really big toys.

Surprisingly, the Homunculus of a frame works. Once the kinks are worked out of it, he was even considering launching it with the Ulster frames during the final sortie. He'd need a pilot though… Someone who could keep a bipedal improvised knightmare with four 120mm cannons mounted on the back and shoulders from falling over when fired…

"Oh well. I'll ask the Caldwell later." Lelouch muttered to himself. "It shouldn't be THAT hard to find someone…"

Lelouch decided to pay the man a visit…

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General Normand Caldwell is a man who had seen a lot in his days… But the day that 'Jonathan McKinley' decided to reveal who he really was left him flabbergasted. Caldwell was a long-time supporter of Empress Marianne, him being of common birth himself. To have her son reveal himself to him was a huge shock and honor! When he'd asked about it, the exiled prince only responded with "I did some research. I can trust you with this knowledge." and then talked with him as if he didn't just reveal that he was a prince.

"Caldwell." Speak of the devil. "I have a request to make."

"Yes, Lelouch?" Caldwell responded, having been told that Lelouch disliked formality; something that Caldwell secretly enjoyed. "What can I do for you?"

"You've seen what I've been tinkering around with in my garage, haven't you?" Caldwell nods. "Well, it's operational and combat ready if the tests I want to perform pass my expectations. I need someone to pilot it; someone who can keep it from falling over after firing a full salvo."

"I'll see who's available at this moment…" Caldwell rolled his chair over to a monitor and scrolled through a list of off duty pilots. "Hmmm…. Let's try Gene Carradyne. He doesn't have a frame at the moment since his was demolished last week. Will that do?"

"Yes, it will. Send him down to the bay immediately, I would like to get these tests done with as soon as possible so I can see if I can make a pile of scrap into a viable weapon." Caldwell nodded and pressed the intercom and ordered Gene to the Knightmare bay.

"Thanks. This will leave me to collect data in freedom since I won't be distracted by the frame itself." Lelouch explained, putting on his wig. "I'm thankful that I don't need to keep up that accent anymore, since no one here has even heard an Irish accent to begin with… And if they did, they'll just assume I was born in Britannia."

"True."

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MCC Knightmare Bay

"So I'm supposed to pilot that pile of scrap…?" A brunette, dark skinned male asked. "Does it even work…?"

"I can assure you that it does…" McKinley answered, giving Gene a minature heart attack. "Mostly… I have no clue."

"Well that's reassuring…" Gene deadpanned. "Oh, AND DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN…!"

"I'll keep that in mind." McKinley retorts, waving the young man's exclamation off casually. "Now let's get to work now, get in!"

Gene looked at the looming mismatched behemoth and sighed before riding his zipline up to the cockpit. Getting into his seat, the interior seemed comfortable enough: no light was streaming in through any cracks, no stray cords, everything seemed to be in order. He put the activation key into the slot and put in the code. Surprisingly, the system booted up rather quickly; the OS displaying SCATHACH across the screen. Soon, McKinley's voice came over the radio.

"I installed the SCATHACH system in the computer, as well as modifying the original software of a Cu Chullain to sustain a much larger frame like this one, as well as its weapons systems." McKinley explains. "You may not be used to it, but from what I've seen, you'll pick up on the OS really quickly."

"I guess… What next?"

"I'm going to pull back the restraints, and it will be standing all on its own, and I want you to tell me the status of the machine." In a couple seconds, the support gantry moved out of the way.

"Well, the screen with a diagram of a frame shows all green…"

"That's good. Now, I would like for you to have it exit the MCC and wait for my next directions." Gene nervously directed the frame forward at a slow speed. Lelouch stared incredulously at how timid the man was being with his machine. After a minute, Lelouch finally had enough. "It's not fragile, dammit! Stick a pepper up its tailpipe!"

Once again, Gene had a minor heart attack and as a result almost lost control. Regaining his bearings, he directed it at a more reasonable pace off the MCC. Bringing it to a stop, he wiped the cold sweat off of his forehead and let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright then, enable the Eraser System. You'll find a switch that turns the safety off for it." McKinley ordered. Gene quickly found the switch labeled ERASER SYSTEM written with a sharpie on a piece of duct tape. He hesitated for a second before tossing caution into the wind and flicking it. When he heard something whirring and a couple clanging noises, he tried to duck and cover, but ended up whacking his head on the console.

"Right. This is going to be the difficult part, since the Eraser system consists of four 120mm cannons, I'm not sure how the recoil is going to affect the frame." Gene paled. And his hands instantly recoiled from the controls.

"Uh… W-what will happen when I fire…?" Gene asked nervously. "A-and do I even wanna know…?"

"Hm…" McKinley paused, scaring Gene even more. "Several things could happen. The machine could twitch from the recoil, the whole chassis could topple over, the cannons could dislodge themselves from the frame, the machine could explode, it could tear the whole upper body from the legs, or absolutely nothing could happen."

"C-can I change my mind…?" Gene asked.

"Nope. The likelihood of the mentioned events happening is quite low, so I'd suggest doing what I say if you want to keep your job…" McKinley threatened. Gene wanted to cry right there, but resigned himself to his fate.

"Okay, I'll fire them…"

"Excellent. You should see a special reticule on your factsphere monitor that will allow you to aim more easily, as well as data from the SCATHACH system." Gene nodded in understanding, finding the interface easy to use. "I want you to destroy the targets I've placed around the area with the equipped weaponry. I'll tag along in my Cu Chullain."

"How will I find those targets?"

"With the SCATHACH, I can enter in the coordinates of any target and mark them on the tactical map and share the data with any and every machine that is connected to the network. I already have them entered into mine, so you should be receiving them shortly."

Sure enough, Gene noticed several blips on a satellite image map of the area and shifted the knightmare into combat mode.

"Laeg." McKinley said aloud.

"Eh…? What?"

"That's what I'll call it." He clarified. "Laeg was Cu Chullain's companion in the Ulster Cycle… I find it fitting."

TO BE CONTINUED

I'm pretty sure this chapter will raise a whole new set of questions… I'm not concerned about it though. Later!