Chapter 7

Helltanz's notes: so apparently I've managed to loose, again, an entire composition book worth of writing, and plot information.

Day one end: Interlude I

-scene break-

The return to base had been more like an assisted recovery for some of the pilots, "Come on you idiots haul your ass!" Touji snapped, "You want those fucking sell outs to catch use with our trousers down, move your asses and get that knightmare on that transport!" He shouted.

Lelouch sighed, well that was certainly a truly dignified and refined non commissioned officer right there, a quiet normally introverted man in a Black Knight Major's uniform walked up and saluted, "Sir,"

"At ease Max,"
The man slackened about an inch, maybe two, "Thank you sir, we've confirmed intelligence reports sent by Captain Takahashi, I strongly suggest you move forward with alerting the rest of the coalition."
His features twisted into a smirk, "You may relax Major, I'm leaving to see Cornelia as soon as she gets back. I've already spoken with Miss Misaki about the issue, she's assured me she'll relay my inquiry back to Kyoto, though I doubt anything will come of it." The six houses of Kyoto sooner or later were going to fracture, and become his enemy. Good ties with the Kirihara and Sumeragi's aside the other four weren't likely to take well to his stepping up his own plans.

"Respectfully sir, I think you should terminate Cromwell, and enact Cancer."
"Out of the question," Lelouch hissed, as a half dozen Black Knights stared at their two conversing fellows.

The Major straightened, "Sir with all due respect enacting Cancer now should allow us to strategically decapitate the Chinese command within 72 hours from there Britannia could encircle Kyushu, and once the storm lifts rely on aerial superiority to achieve victory." And all of that was perfectly logical, and an accurate assessment of a retaliatory plan.

"Its out of the question, major," Lelouch repeated in a calmer tone, "the council has discussed this and at this time it is illadivsed to enact Cancer, while Cromwell still has the potential to succeed." Lelouch held up a hand suddenly as his radio squawked, he listened in for a moment before continuing, "I don't disagree that this does alter our situation, and if we get into a fight, yes it will be that much harder, however at present there are other concerns on the field than this." Namely the EU pacific fleet detachments in the sea of Japan, but that wasn't to say there were other concerns. "In any event Schneziel, and Anya Alstreim is another concern, we have to consider the potential hazards of a knight of the round around so much sensitive material. Compile your reports submit to the JFCIR," Joint Faction Command Intelligence Review was the black knights command which was responsible for coordinating the various intelligence assets in the order, and compiling threat assets worldwide. Telling someone to file it within them directly was reserved expressly for priority issues, which was certainly what this qualified. He really had hoped the next Siegfried would have been operational, but then the Chinese had hit them at an inopportune time. Clovis had bitched about it over the radio funilly enough, inconsiderate dishonorable bastards, along with a lot of other things Lelouch wouldn't have repeated in polite company. He hadn't realized his brother had quite the foul mouth when angry. Cornelia apparently hadn't know either, funilly enough. Speaking of Cornelia that was here purple Edinburgh.

Damn he'd be glad once they completed the RPI 1000 Test Type, of course all 999s would get shuffled off to other units for further modification, or mothball, but that wasn't really an issue. The Edinburgh's down side was its reduced operations time compared to the 372, but it brought over all higher performance. He headed up the gantry to where Cornelia was disembarking.

"Lelouch,"
"Its about time you got back," He groused, "what part of a priority return to base did you miss,"
"Why-"
"Shut up Guilford," He snapped back at her knight "Black Knights forward intelligence assets have pressed along critical information regarding an imminent threat to continuing operations in combating the Chinese," He handed over a secure data tablet linked to their ops server,

Cornelia blinked, and didn't say anything, "These are..."
"Flip to the next page," He commented,

She ran a finger over the screen, "Sutherlands? Are you serious, the enemy has Sutherlands."
"They're Matteis, Kyoto's derivative, and there are at least forty of them," That was of course the only confirmed hard number, and at last report, he hated to say it but there were probably more. "the only reason I haven't called Hammerfall, or an abort order is they aren't near the burais, and appear to be a seperate group." He paused, "next page."
The viceroy of Area 11 blinked, "What is this some kind of new Frame?"

"No, well yes, but," He paused how to put this without going into technical jargon. The thing shared features with the Burai, and Burai Kai, but also the Mattei, and the Gekka... "The design appears to be an amagalation of existing Japanese employed frames. We think its a command frame, production seventh generation, but sixth gen isn't out of the question."

"I don't mean to interupt your tirade," Darlton interjected, "But can I trouble you to ask what hammerfall is? Also I'd like to see the intelligence files, as well.."

Lelouch thrust another tablet at Darlton, "Hammerfall is a Thorian Scorched Earth initiative," one he really didn't want to authorize, if they were thinking that poison gas fiasco had been bad this would be worse exponentially so... and that was saying something as Lelouch had already authorized battlefield use of chemical weapons via artillery... quick dissapating or not it was still a step he didn't like taking when he could avoid it.

"So its a codeword for kill everything, just wanted make sure," Darlton commented paging through the computer dossier, "So these Japanese Sutherlands there the same as what Kyoto is issuing to our help."
He nodded in response.

"I thought so, you think we're getting double crossed?"
"I don't know," and the truth was logic was pulling him both ways. It made no sense to betray them during the battlefield, and at the same time humans didn't always act rationally.

-scene break-

The screen was filled with a half dozen view points of a J-series frame, when she walked in. It was the current body of the Sutherland model, which meant it was the same body structure the Mattei's used more or less. The J-series was actually a fairly recent improvement, roughly the same time as the 'Oni' derivative had entered mass production. Of course this particular bit of technological knownledge was outside her realm of knowledge.

"What are you looking for?"
Lelouch looked up, "I'm starting to consider whether I should rip a Mattei apart to see what all they changed, I dislike the J-frame, they lightened it too much." The new composite material replacing the H, and I series bodies were definitely lighter but had serious drawbacks, of course they were also cheaper, and a lot easier to replace than the H-series parts. He reached up to tap the liquid crystal display, "This part here is loose on the J-frame, we figured that much out from looking at the data we they first came out."
"Why is that? If its loose isn't it a problem for the knightmare?"

He shook his head, "Obstensibly it was a mantience reduction move, and generally it improves performance in the field." It wasn't as effective as more expensive systems, but it was a great deal easier to replace and less likely to foul, "It comes at a price obviously, the lower tolerances decreases stability during complex maneuvers, and ability to deal with recoil. Its why the Oni are better than modern Sutherlands." The H-series certainly hadn't had the problem, but they'd been finicky and maintenance happy, much like the RPI 999 Tranche II.

"So whats the deal with it? We're fighting the Chinese right?" Kallen questioned, "Should youn't you be looking at there machines, or are you trying to figure out how to keep the Britanian, and Japanese troops who are using Sutherland types alive."

"I misjudged the Chinese, their Gunru variant with the burst cannons," the supersized grenade launchers, "are surprisingly becoming a problem." It was less an issue of armor, and more the concussive force of repeated detonations, "In any event how the Gurren performing, I know the armor improvement was somewhat hurriedly put together?"

"Its slowing down the gurren, thats not an issue though," It certainly shouldn't have been, as far as standards went the Gurren II was faster than the Lancelot, or the Gekkas, "Its taken some getting used to the extra weight though."

He nodded, "Thats to be expected, in any event this is the latest data from our intelligence branch."

"These are Burais? We're going to be fighting Burais?"

"Yes, its extremely likely,"

Kallen blanched, before recovering, "Well that sucks, do we know who these guys are, maybe they could be allies?" She asked hopefully

"I doubt it."

-scene break-

Jeremiah Gottwald swept another Gunru away. He'd long since discarded the now empty standard issue machine gun for a 30mm revolver cannon he'd gotten from a resupply unit. The ADEN was actually one of his favorites for close quarters, and before he'd switched knightmares he'd been considering improving the firepower on his edinbrugh by requistioning a quad cannon set up for the machine. It certainly carried more ammo than the higher caliber machine gun, and certainly more than the KMF Rifle.

The ground rocked as the first bits of Britannian ground artillery hit the battlefield. A half dozen destroyers were offshore as well. The army units had just gotten their fire set of fire orders though, it certainly helped things.

He swept his seventh gen frame around a swathe of debris, and briefly wondered how long the Chinese had been planning this. Intelligence had always warned them about the Gunru in the hands of terrorist, and certainly it'd always been a point of political tension between the Empire, however he hadn't realized it'd been this bad.

"Sector 3 secured General Gottwald, 3rd squad is advancing on your position Mallory bought the farm sir," A voice echoed over the radio.

Damn it, the last thing they needed were losses at this stage. Still one sector cleared, was one devoid of enemies, which was good. Wait... shit... "Wasn't Mallory in an Edinburgh how he bite it?"
"Anti tank missile sir to his rear armor from Chinese infantry units in a building, sir"

"Right, keep an eye out then," Great Chinese in buildings, and the last thing they'd need was to go about levelling every skyscraper around them, and then have to deal with all the complaints afterwards when the dust had settled.

He blinked as they got the priority RtB order, well that wasn't according to any plans he'd been made aware of, especially since he was nominally in charge of Britannian forces for the area. His confusion deepened when the knightmare's visual audio communications system suddenly activated attuning to a priority Black Knight encrypted channel, which didn't make sense as encrypting actually caused a lag making it unwieldy for battlefield comms especially on knightmares where computing power was also limitted.

"This a priority 1 announcement the combat situation has altered radically in the light of new intelligence," the man on the other end announced, "be at advised enemy troop disposition evaluations are being altered. New enemy units confirmed, standby for warbook data file, new photo uploads."

What the hell? These were those Japanese knockoffs of the Glasgow, and Sutherland. This third one though the devil was it? Jeremiah thought looking at the sceen even as the man kept speaking.

"The final KMF is assuredly not Chinese, there is a high possibility-" Those damn Elevens they were going to stab them in the back, of course the Glasgow, and Sutherland knock offs weren't Chinese. Sure he could see the Chinese collaborators using the Glasgow knockoffs but the Sutherland copies, those were knew, and based off the H-series, the Chinese couldn't have gotten their hands on them in any number. More than that Lelouch had openly stated Kyoto's aid was less than expected, and as he'd put it 'anemic at best'. "Its capacity is unknown, but likely similiar to the Gekka employed by Todoh's four holy swords,"

The Gekka's original warbook dossier was displayed. Followed by the current modifications to the design rendered by the Black Knights.

Jeremiah's hand reached for his comm control, "Everyone continue returning to base, just watch out for any suspcious behavior." He ordered the assembled Britannian troops in the area, before altering the frequency to the Black Knight HQ line, "I need a priority line established with the Thorian faction leader."
The man on the other end grimaced over the video line, "You will have to wait Brigadier General Gottwald, the Thorian Faction head is currently in discussion with the rest of the Council," The faction pin that the man was wearing didn't ring any bells for Jeremiah, "as he's currently ignoring second princess Cornelia and second prince Schneziel for the duration I do not think that will change for you. I will add you to the list of those apprised when the meeting ends, however if this is about the advisement on enemy force disposition you should be aware that is the reason for the return to base order issued to all coalition forces."
Jeremiah cursed, "Damn it, when is he supposed to finish?" He demanded turning his knightmare around.

"Given ongoing combat the meeting should conclude reasonably quickly, however there has been no word given on actual duration."
"Thats not an answer he snapped." Speeding up to the Britannian forces defense lines just north for this part of the city, "Give me a guess if nothing else?"
"Twenty minutes."
"I'll call back then." He shut the channel off, and focused on traversing the debris in the city paying close attention to the various skyscrapers, and his knightmare's sensors.

-scene break—

Helltanz's notes: This is not the original chapter seven, as I said i've managed to loose an entire composition book worth of Dark Prince notes, most of it was mechanical specs for the knightmares that will be showing up in Book 3. In any event chapter 8 should be up in January.