Code Geass: Nunnally of the Insurrection
Six: The Princesses, the Witch and the Warrior
Nunnally paused as she reviewed the files in the safety of the bedroom, her expression thoughtful. "That's the data you had Nu send, isn't it?" CC asked, the green haired woman lounging on Nunnally's bed. Since she had arrived days ago CC had taken over the bed with a eerie self confidence, exiling Nunnally to the couch.
'I suppose I could have agreed when she offered to share,' Nunnally thought wryly, 'but I didn't like her tone of voice. She sounded... odd, almost seductive.' Aloud Nunnally answered, "Yes, she sent the military bios to a dummy mail account I created. I'll erase it when I'm done."
"Anything interesting?" CC asked, lounging in one of Nunnally's shirts along with some underwear. She seemed absolutely lacking in modesty or shyness, looking amused at Nunnally's occasional blushes.
"There's some interesting stuff," Nunnally concentrated on the screen and not on CC, "Jeremiah Gottwald, for instance, is Nu's leader, a Margrave, the temporary Consul until Euphemia and Cornelia arrived, and he guarded my mother Marianne."
"Really?" CC looked rather intrigued by that thought, sitting up.
"There's... ways we could use that," Nunnally mused. She looked up at the time and made a face, "It's starting soon."
"You go," CC waved her off casually as she said, "this kind of event bores me."
Nunnally strode out of the room, adjusting her tan school uniform and making sure her long hair was neat. Girls and boys called out friendly greetings as she walked, Nunnally casually returning them as she walked to the student council meeting room.
"Hey, Nana," Milly looked up as the busty student council president relaxed on the edge of a desk, "it's about to start."
"Sorry," Nunnally smiled sheepishly as she took a seat by Rivalz and Shirley. She looked over at the screen as she asked, "Have I messed anything yet?"
"Just a guy listing all of Cornelia's military victories," Rivalz said dryly, "kinda dull."
"Rivalz!" Shirley scolded him. She looked over at Nunnally as the long orange haired girl admitted, "I never realized our military was so busy."
'Just because Bitannia hold something doesn't mean they've given up,' Nunnally thought. Parts of the military were always busy somewhere, putting out fires of one type or another.
"People of Area Eleven," Princess Cornelia declared forcefully, the purple haired woman clutching the podium forcefully, "you have been troubled by strife as lowly, misguided people struggle against our rightful rule. I give you my word that it will stop, and I and the members of the Brittannian military will bring order to Area Eleven!"
'We'll just see about that,' Nunnally thought to herself dryly, looking across the table at Kallen Stadfield. Her fellow member of the resistance was hiding her emotions well, but she could tell that Kallen was furious.
"Loyal Elevens will be rewarded," Cornelia added, "but those who oppose our rightful rule will be punished to the limits of our ability!" A image of a blasted, burned out hillside appeared, "Just yesterday we destroyed this base of the Japan Liberation front, and more will follow."
Nunnally hid a frown, 'That doesn't look good. I'd better confirm with Ohgi what she said, we'll need to start planing our own response.' Of course, such thoughts were more those of a princess than a simple fighter, but Nunnally remained largely unaware of that fact.
A smaller, lighter purple haired girl appeared, introduced as Euphemia by the officer at the podium. Her manner was far less military, her expression gentle as she said, "People of Area Eleven, I hope we will be able to work together to improve your lives. I know that things are hard for some of you, but please remember that as you grow closer to Britannia, the more things will improve for you all."
'She might be a greater threat than Cornelia,' Nunnally admitted as she listened to Euphemia explain the benefits of joining Britannia. She suspected the resistance would survive no matter how good Cornelia was militarily, but if Euphemia managed to sap the will of the common people they'd be ultimately defeated.
"Together," Euphemia finished warmly, "I hope we can make Area Eleven a wonderful place."
Milly shut the television off once things shifted away from the speeches and announcements. They talked about the speeches and Milly suggested they hold a party to celebrate the arrival of the new viceroys. Nina shyly pointed out that it might be jumping the gun, and they needed to consider celebrating the anniversary a year later instead.
Kallen made sure to walk close to Nunnally as she quietly asked, "What do you think we should do about them?"
"I have a idea or two to interfere with their plans," Nunnally smiled, "but we're going to need to talk to Ougi and the others."
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Several days later Cornelia Li Britannia cursed softly as she strode through the military hospital as her knight Gilbert Guilford followed close behind, her sister Euphemia trailing a little behind as she chatted with the injured. "What did these rebels do?" she demanded softly.
Guilford met her eyes seriously as he said, "The first target of our Tokyo sweep was going to be the Saitama Ghetto, we hoped to draw out the group that won in the Shinjuku Ghetto."
"I know that," Cornelia said, "what happened?"
"We have a leak," Guilford said as he handed her a folded sheet of paper.
Unfolding it Cornelia saw a series of photos combined into a background, photos depicting Britannian soldiers gunning down Elevens. Apparently, unarmed, helpless Elevens at that. Over top it read, "Britannia did this to Shinjuku! Saitama is next!"
"Number scum!" Cornelia growled, compulsively crushing the paper in her hands.
Guilford met her angry gaze calmly, "I already have trusted people working to find the leak. However, we were planning operations across Japan and sharing information with local army units. Any of them could have leaked pieces of the operational plan."
Cornelia managed to get her temper under control, noting that she was alarming nurses. "We'll need to scrap all the plans," she said, her mind racing. There was no way to know how much information was out there on their plans, they needed to start over.
"Do you want me to plan operations based on just our Glouster Knights?" he asked, refering to the loyal band of soldiers that had followed Cornelia to Area Eleven.
"We'll have to for now," Cornelia made a face, "at least until we can determine which units we can trust. This is going to severely limit our tactical options."
Guilford noted that thoughtful tone in her voice, "Do you believe that was intentional?"
"It's possible," Cornelia admitted. Despite the bad news she actually sounded cheerful as she added, "We may be facing a better strategic thinker than I expected. This could be interesting...."
As Guilford and Cornelia talked Euphemia moved from bed to bed, talking to the recovering soldiers, giving them a kind word or a bit of support. She moved to a young man who was sitting up in bed, his hair messy in part because of the bandage around his head. "Hello there," she smiled at him gently, "I'm Euphemia."
"Ma'am," he nodded to her respectfully as he introduced himself, "my name is Suzaku Kururugi, it's a honor to meet you, ma'am."
"Not ma'am, please," Euphemia chuckled softly as she flashed a smile, "I'm too young to be called a ma'am."
That brought a surprised smile to Suzaku, too, though he squelched it as quickly as possible. He winced, putting a hand to his head as he muttered, "Sorry, moved to fast."
"What happened?" Euphemia asked as she placed a comforting hand on his head.
"I don't know," Suzaku admitted ruefully, "I was found half dead after the Shinjuku uprising. I was lucky, I guess, the head shot I took deflected along my skull."
"You're very lucky," Euphemia noted as she saw a black cat winding it's way through the beds only to boldly jump on the bed beside Suzaku. "Friend of yours?" she asked.
"Sort of," Suzaku admitted as the cat lunged for his finger, gnawing on it a moment. Strangely once it bit the cat settled down, curling up and purring.
"What a odd cat," Euphemia noted, trying not to laugh at the pained look on Suzaku's face.
"Euphemia," Cornelia said coldly as she walked up to the bed, "it's time to go."
"Of course," Euphemia agreed as she got up. But as Cornelia was walking away she smiled at Suzaku, "I hope I see you again."
To be continued....
