A/N: this arc might be a little longer than I thought, although this chapter is going to be shorter only because I thought it was an excellent point to end it. However, this is building up to another battle coming Lelouch's way which will cement his reputation as a Knight of Justice or rather a Demon of Justice.
After all your enemies will define you.
But I would like to thank those who reviewed the last chapters as I greatly appreciate the feedback and support.
I might continue this Black Knights Rising Arc for a while longer since I have been coming up with more ideas than I thought for it.
Thanks once again to Grey Wolf4 for his help with this chapter including helping me some information about the Sunrider's universe that is a huge help with some characters for this chapter.
Edited: 1/13/2019
Chapter 7
Independent Actions
Somewhere on one of the many massively overpopulated habitation modules of the planet Ongess, which was unanimously known as the most hellish planet in the entire galaxy as centuries of uncontrolled Ongessite mining. Especially the time the New Empire once controlled the world, has left the class seven with catastrophic environmental damage resulting in the planet's surfacing being nothing more than bare rock. Its situation made worse by the fact that the planet's massive population of thirty-eight billion people is crowded into slums. This was due to extremely poor, or rather a lack of, public planning, technology, medical aid, and education has turned Ongess into an overpopulated diseased-ridden world.
Because of these conditions and the fact that even after becoming independent the world is still exploited regularly by other nations and corporations who want access to Ongessite.
So it was no surprise perhaps that many of its people have become involved with criminal syndicates and pirate groups to get away from the hell that was Ongess.
Inside a hidden room large enough to accommodate fifty people was where the largest gathering of pirates and crime bosses was taking place. At the head of a meeting sat a muscular man wearing a black trench coat with a white dress shirt underneath who was surprisingly clean and kept his appearance decent as well. Those who knew the man would understand that Captain Miguel Kidd was the most bloodthirsty and dangerous pirate of them all whose reputation and followers he commanded made him the most powerful of the gathered crime bosses and other pirate leaders.
Swiping a single black glove hand through his blonde hair, he kept combed back as his blue eyes scanned the gathering he rose from his chair using his hands to gesture for his fellows to quiet down allowing him to speak.
"My fellow pirates and friends we are gathered here today to talk about a problem plaguing us, and if we leave this problem unchecked, it will become a serious threat to us."
"So it's about Zero isn't it?" A crime boss, but this time he was a large obese man with a bald head wearing a white business suit with a black tie and red undershirt with green eyes. "He is just one ship and a few Ryders who have gotten lucky, so I don't see any real reason to worry."
"Lucky my ass he has taken out Edward's group and a dozen others in the last six months. Not even the fucking military of the Neutral Rim have done that." Another pirate captain snapped before an argument began to erupt between the gathered pirate leaders and crime bosses.
But Miguel stopped it from escalating further by firing a pistol into the ceiling to silence everyone.
"That is enough," Kidd roared as everyone quieted at the sight of his furious and bloodthirsty gaze. "Consider this. I am not only speaking on behalf of some of us when I say this, but there is someone who wants Zero dead and this person who has contracted me is going to give me the accumulated plundered wealth of the New Empire and seven worlds to make Zero's death happen."
"What the hell are you talking about Kidd?" Another Crime Boss demanded.
"I am talking about a very hefty reward will go to those who help me find and destroy Zero. We will crush him completely, and those of you involved will walk away wealthy men." Kidd asked as a smile appeared on his face seeing that he had the attention of everyone in the room now. "My sponsors have been very generous so far, and I would like to extend what they are offering in the future to you, although they have asked to remain anonymous for now, I think this offering they are giving us might prompt you all to consider it."
"Why should we believe you?" Another pirate leader demanded.
"Because if we don't do something about this now, then it is only a matter of time before Zero is going to start wiping out more of us until nobody is left," Kidd said gently, but with a severe tone.
Among the gathered crowd a girl who hasn't appeared to have aged in years was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chosen attire a purple Ryder pilot suit with black trim. Cosette Cosmos quietly listened to the gathering including the arguments and threats that was beginning to fly around. Her sour expression made it difficult for any outside observer to tell if she wasn't interested in the discussion or not, but her own pirate group she had been building had managed to stay below the radar of the Black Knights due to both its size and reputation.
And the reputation of Cosette Cosmos has become mixed over the last two years.
Initially, a native from Ongess who like many who lived on the planet joined a pirate group as soon as possible, but the rest of her past was something no one dared attempted to discuss with her unless they had a death wish. As a result, all kind of rumors began to float around about her, which Cosette didn't care much about them unless they were about her height. One thing the pirates in her own gang had learned with a few learning the hard way that if you talk about or especially mock Cosette's height then the blonde haired pirate will excruciatingly kill you.
"So Cosette are going to get in on this?" Another pirate gang leader asked her.
"No fuck that shit," Cosette replied bluntly before adding. "Bringing that many pirates together is like painting a fucking bulls-eye on your back. If Zero doesn't end up killing them, I wager three hundred credits whoever Kidd brings together will end up backstabbing one another when it's over."
After that Cosette decided to leave the gathering as she felt the meeting was going nowhere else that would justify for her to remain.
The meeting lasted longer after Cosette left, but soon after it was over some pirate gangs and even some of the criminal syndicates offered to pledge their support to Kidd and his assembled forces to hunt down the Black Knights.
But one of their own sent out a coded transmission once he was alone aboard the ship he traveled with his fellow pirates.
In the field of asteroids near the Black Knight's hidden base Jeremiah, Lloyd, and Lelouch were observing field exercises of new combat pilots while training their current ones to improve and sharpen their skills. Even though the observation deck of the base gave them a good view of the asteroid field where the test was taking place at it was too far away to see what was going on. Thankfully a dozen different holographic screens provided the observers with plenty of opportunities to watch the test.
As Jeremiah supervised the combat testing and training of the new Black Knights, Lelouch and Lloyd were going over information on new possible recruits the Black Knights had been scouting. Jeremiah was observing the testing of a new unit which was designed to be a new kind of Ryder explicitly intended for both reconnaissance and sniping of enemy targets from afar. The Knight units out there now were supposed to find the sniper to stop him from shooting more targets.
Once he gets seven scored hits without getting caught he will win the exercise and prove the effectiveness of the unit.
"His name Bob Ritter, a former member of Cera Military Intelligence Division who has left due to growing disillusionment with the military over lack of expansion and improvement," Lloyd explained as Lelouch read over his profile.
"I presume this is due to PACT?"
"Naturally as it has been some for the cases of new recruits we have been picking up from militaries of other neutral worlds that either dismissed them as paranoid warmongers or they left on their own accord."
In the last year, there have been more signs of PACT building up its military forces and stationing a concerning number of their troops along the borders of the Neutral Rim. Officially this is to increase border security against pirates, which might have been an acceptable excuse, but the numbers of forces have been steadily growing.
Even some of the neutral planets who had once been entirely ignorant of the threat posed by PACT began to voice more of their concerns to their respective leaders who were either ignored or dismissed from service like Bob had been.
Somehow it wouldn't surprise me if PACT was paying off certain leaders of those neutral worlds to sabotage any preparation efforts or preventive measures before their invasion of the rim. Lelouch thought as he found the idea of such a thing happening very likely, which was why he was trying to build up more of an intelligence division within the Black Knights.
They had a decent number of information brokers they can turn to and agents, but it wasn't enough especially if they wanted to examine planetary leaders. They didn't just need more people for their division, but they needed people familiar with said planets and the people needing to be investigated so they could quickly gather enough evidence to prove their corruption without tipping them off.
"Investigate his background a little more before we recruit him. If it checks out assign him to one of our bounty hunter sub-groups until we can test his loyalty and rule out him being a spy." Lelouch said making the decision onto recruiting Bob, but like most new members they were usually assigned to a bounty hunter group as a way of testing them in both skill and character to determine if they are trustworthy or a spy.
"Sure thing," Lloyd said filling Bob's file under approved before moving onto the next recruit, "Here is the next one."
The next person for Lelouch to review was a young woman in her early twenties with long, lush pink hair that hung over thickly on her shoulders and presumably reaching down her back to her waist. She had a fair skin tone and a beautiful face with violet eyes. Lelouch raised an eyebrow under this mask because unless Lloyd was playing a joke on him, he could have sworn he had just been given the profile on a supermodel instead of someone who was Black Knight's material.
"The next one is Claude Triello. She was a certified doctor, but at present, she is something of a freelancer. I thought we could expand our medical staff."
"What do you mean WAS?" Lelouch said studying the image of Claude a little more. There was something about that girl that reminded him of Milly somehow. He didn't get the feeling she was into weird costumes, and parties like Milly was, but rather the happy expression he saw on Claude's face was something he recognized from Milly as an early warning sign that trouble was to be expected.
"Oh, nothing much she had her medical license suspended due to malpractice," Lloyd answered causally forcing Lelouch to look further into Claude's profile and review the information himself.
"WARNING: this individual is known to masquerade as a medical practitioner. Her skills fall well below the standards of modern medical care. Patients are advised to seek the advice of a professional medical practitioner and not this individual." Lelouch said reading the warning that had been attached to her long list of crimes she was wanted for in five neutral rim planetary systems, including Alliance Space, which included gross negligence, and a lot of counts of improper conduct. Many of which involved molesting her own patients.
As a result, Claude Triello has been banned from EVERY medical licensing agency in the known galaxy.
Lelouch read over the summaries of some of the reports and charges against Claude he found that the woman had been charged with inappropriately touching her patients, the vast majority of whom were handsome men with an occasional victim being a beautiful woman sometimes with some relation to the male victim. As Lelouch read over these reports, his face paled as he came to a single realization.
I just found someone who is far more of a pervert than Milly, Clovis and Kaguya put together.
The masked man had come to the conclusion that for whatever reason Claude for becoming a doctor it was also motivated to indulge in exercising her perversions.
"Lloyd…just…no," Lelouch said unsympathetically as he did not hesitate to hit the REJECT button.
"What's the problem, Lelouch? We're all considered outlaws, and you have done crimes much worse than that woman did. Besides don't we need doctors to help supplement our forces?" Lloyd argued as the prospect of having someone like Claude in their ranks barely bothered him.
"True, but I doubt the men would appreciate having a woman of her very questionable work ethic onboard. I am even certain we'll have some problems and complaints from our female members as well if what I gleaned from her criminal record is anything to go by." Lelouch said fearing that Claude would be more trouble than she would be worth.
"Anyway, I think the exercise should be coming to a close," Lelouch said deciding to go over the rest of the recruitment applications and intelligence they had on new members they were considering to add to the ranks of the Black Knights.
Lloyd and Lelouch joined Jeremiah at the observation deck observing what was probably the closing minutes of the exercise.
"The new recruits have improved," Jeremiah commented as he noticed Lelouch and Lloyd having joined him in watching. The three observed two teams of Knight Ryder units using specialized training guns that fired paintball like rounds to simulate real combat in realistic conditions as they were hunting down the new Ryder Lloyd had designed as part of training for the pilots and a performance exercise rolled into one. Although they had simulators, Lelouch and even Jeremiah felt that simulators could only teach so much and sometimes a taste of the real thing would go much further than combat in a simulator.
"Two shots left until our sniper wins the match," Lelouch reported checking the scoreboard on the live exercise happening outside via his holo on his wrist.
The Ryders outside continued their search to find the sniper, but thanks to the asteroids their quarry had plenty of hiding places.
But that is not the only problem.
Lelouch smiled smugly under his mask as he knew aside from actually trying to spot the sniper the new unit Lloyd designed was not only able to fulfill the role of a sniper, but it had the capabilities of acting as a long-range reconnaissance machine and electronic warfare. In conjunction of being able to operate for much more extended periods on its own, the new unit was designed with advanced electronic warfare and countermeasures package inspired by the remains of a Ryuvian Scout unit they had recovered. They couldn't salvage its weapons, but they were able to study and reserve engineer the long-range scanner dish and optical scanner equipment.
From that along with some creative input and ideas from Lloyd was called the BKR-03S Cherubim.
Built to serve the roles of a sniper, scout, and ECM support while using its electronic countermeasures and warfare package to not only interfere and disrupt enemy communications as well as invade their ships and Ryder's operating systems, but to mask itself more effectively from enemy sensors. Its sniper rifle was a long-range type Super VARIS rifle explicitly designed for long range, but also with a barrel to hide the flash of light that would be emitted by both the shot and the bullet itself to conceal the shooter from enemies.
At that moment the second to last target was hit, so unless the team found the sniper before he shot the final objective, they would lose, and sniper would win. Under the mask Lelouch was smiling at both how successful the test was proceeding and the skill of the pilot handling the Cherubim. Jeremiah spotted what appeared to be the sniper's location ordering the Black Knight Ryders to converge upon it.
"Rush him now!" Jeremiah ordered furiously, but Lelouch already knew the sniper was not there because through his holo he saw what the sniper saw.
Instead, all they found was an old abandoned alliance Ryder, which had been suspiciously moved to pose in a way to look like a machine in a sniper position.
Smart, these asteroids were used by the previous Alliance occupants to mine for materials for the war effort against the New Empire. They left behind some Ryders too damaged during the war to bother with, which our sniper used to set up as a decoy. Lelouch thought with a smile as he was impressed by the pilot's display of resourcefulness and thinking outside of the box.
"Sir we found nothing but an old Ryder." The pilot replied over the open comm.
"Damn it…he's good." Jeremiah said although he was pleased the sniper had outmaneuvered him he did feel a little sore from loosing.
At that moment the last shot rang out, and the final target was destroyed.
Jeremiah sighed in defeat before calling out on an open communication channel.
"Alright, you win this one. Come out, soldier." Jeremiah ordered, and to the shock of Jeremiah and Lelouch's concealed amusement, the sniper emerged from a small asteroid drifting close to where Lelouch and Jeremiah were observing the mock battle.
The BKR-03S Cherubim was streamlined in design with a slightly lanky flame, but it had a specially designed head with optical scanners and sensors capable of tracking long-range targeted based on light-reflections and more. It had a long-distance communication's package with two scanner dishes equipped on the back of its shoulders, one for each shoulder, capable of detecting small targets from astronomical distances. The same dishes were capable of transmitting data and invading enemy communications and networks of a ship to hack or compromise its systems by disabling some.
It was mostly black with some purple trim with a head that was similar to the Vincent but modified to include its powerful optical scanners and sensors. It also carried a second fusion reactor built into its main body on its back to ensure enough power for long missions and flights. For weapons, it had a specially designed VARIS sniper rifle and a pair of MSV combat knives stored within its forearms that it could use the blades in the event of course quarters combat against a melee enemy.
Like most of the other machines it had blaze luminous shielding on its forearms as well, but to help it in its sniper or recon missions it had a pair of slash harkens on its hips to use to anchor itself to asteroids or other large debris more efficiently. The frame also included a variety of different micro-thrusters to help it move around without being detected. Its legs and backpack had more powerful thrusters, but it could switch to a silent mode usage in which a particular gas-like propellant would be used instead to move it to evade detection.
"How the hell did you get so close to us?" Jeremiah demanded as the image of the pilot appeared on the screen.
He was young in his early twenties with dark brown skin, being a Denari native of the planet Gestalt from the Denari Expanse. He had bright blue eyes and a military-style buzz-cut black hair wearing the black and purple trim pilot plug suits of the Black Knights.
"Sniper approached the commander by being a sneaky bastard, SIR!" Domingo Clark replied with an amused smile on his face.
"Well done I am very pleased with your performance." Zero applauded.
"Thank you, sir!" Domingo replied before Lelouch dismissed him with a nod ending the transmission.
"But more than that I am happy to see the Cherubim prototype perform beyond expectations we had for this mock battle," Lloyd commented joining the conversation while the pilots outside began returning to the hanger to disembark their machines.
"That is because we have chosen an excellent pilot for it." The former Emperor noted.
"That too," Lloyd answered dismissively, "but onto the real subject at hand. The data from these mock battles are going a long way in developing new units and improving the current ones." Lloyd exclaimed happily. "I'll begin plans to produce more Cherubim units as soon as we can after I go over the combat data to make some improvements."
"Even so we can't get ahead of ourselves." Jeremiah cautioned. "We are nowhere close enough to match PACT's numbers even if our forces are technologically superior to them."
"I agree so we must work on expanding our forces and numbers, but we'll need more resources to pull off such an expansion," Zero said, but Lloyd added another issue with a slightly grim expression.
"We will need some money too because there is only so much the bounties we have been collecting on these pirates, and the donations we have been receiving will carry us."
"Are you suggesting we need something along the lines of a steady income?" The former emperor asked turning his head towards Lloyd who stood onto his left while Jeremiah was on his right.
"Or a vast slush fund to help cover our expenses."
"Are you suggesting we start robbing those pirates?" Jeremiah inquired with an expression suggesting a form of annoyance but a hint of curiosity mixed in.
"It would help, but I doubt they would have enough to cover our expenses properly."
"Please forgive the interruption Zero."
Lelouch turned and saw a middle-aged man with blonde hair wearing glasses over his blue eyes approach him wearing the standard black knight uniform.
"What is it, Donald?"
"We just received some information from the sleeper agents you planted among the pirates," Donald replied before handing Lelouch a small holo containing a copy of the information he had just received. Lelouch opened the holo and began reviewing the info quickly before taking a moment to consider his options.
"Did something happen?" Jeremiah inquired noticing Lelouch's silence to mean that something big must have been going on.
"It seems the pirates are taking us more seriously." Lelouch began to explain before using his own holo to forward a copy of the information to Jeremiah's own holo. "Captain Kidd, the most powerful and dangerous of the pirates out there, is trying to put together a fleet for the sole purpose of hunting us down."
"Considering the threat, you poise to them…getting them to unite under one banner must not have been easy," Jeremiah said thinking out loud. It was rare for most pirates to work together due to a variety of reasons, which usually revolved around getting a better cut of the spoils, seeing a chance to eliminate a competitor or both.
"Unless they have something to entice them into working together, which this information notes that Kidd is offering a very considerable amount of credits from his sponsors," Lelouch added leading Jeremiah to realize who was probably behind this push of the pirates allying with one another.
"So it's really PACT pushing for Kidd to build a pirate fleet."
"Yes and more than likely they are providing him with the credits to do so, which the amount he must be offering must be substantial."
"Then what is the plan?" Lloyd began to ask while adjusting his glasses. "Those pirates will probably tear through smaller and barely defended sectors to draw you out since looking for you blindly is obviously out of the question."
"Then we'll need to give them some bait," Lelouch answered as a plan was forming in his mind. "It is said that all warfare is based on deception, so instead of meeting them and fighting them on their terms they will fight and meet us under my terms."
"You sound to have already a plan in mind?" The blue haired cyborg asked.
"Yes and we have much to do in preparation alone, and if this works out and the proper conditions are cleared we can possibly tend to some of our other issues."
One week had passed since the meeting between the pirates and when, unknown to them, Zero had discovered Captain Miguel Kidd's intentions of assembling a pirate fleet consisting of more ships and Ryders unlikely anything that has been seen before. As Kidd was using a remote part of the Neutral Rim as a staging area as he waited for more pirates and their ships to arrive the fleet was beginning to take shape. Kidd was standing on the bridge of his flagship the Queen Mary's Revenge, which was an old Solar Alliance Battleship he had managed to get his hands on and refit into a heavily armed pirate ship with more kinetic cannons than the vessel was supposed to have including some newly installed laser banks.
"How much longer until the rest arrive?"
"In one hour the last of the ship should be gathered." A rugged pirate sitting behind a navigation terminal, but a few moments later another one sitting behind a communication's console spoke up.
"Captain we have a private transmission coming in for you on channel 14-Omega."
Captain Kidd rose from his chair preparing to hurry off of the bridge to reach his cabin.
"I'll take it in my cabin the rest of you will oversee the gathering of our fellow pirates."
Miguel hurried through the corridors of his ship until he reached his cabin, but upon entering he made sure to lock the door. He knew who was calling and it was important that no one outside of his cabin would be aware of the caller's identity. Such was the agreement between them, which has been a very beneficial one for him and one he seeks to continue if not just for more riches for himself…
It was just to ensure his survival for what was to come.
After making sure he was alone he activated the FTL transmitter as the holographic visage of Veniczar S. Arcadius appeared before Miguel.
"We do not like waiting," Arcadius said firmly making her displeasure known.
"Forgive me Veniczar," Kidd said blowing respectfully on one knee before adding, "but I merely took a moment to ensure that our partnership remains unknown to everyone but you and me."
Even though Miguel could not see the expression of Arcadius's face beneath the mask he assumed by the calmer tone she spoke in that the masked leader of PACT had calmed down and understood.
"Are your preparations nearly complete?"
"They are," Miguel answered quickly, "we are only waiting for the last of the ships to show up."
"Excellent," Arcadius replied clearly pleased, "and you will proceed to hunt down Zero?"
"Yes and we plan to begin our attack in the northern sector of the neutral rim. We will strike against a few outlying settlements and pre-wrap planets to draw Zero out," Miguel said beginning to explain his plans to lure Zero out without wasting time and resources to find him. "Once he makes a move we'll converge on him…if he doesn't he'll lose support among the Neutral Rim."
Arcadius took a moment to consider this before saying, "we approve of your plan Captain Kidd, but we shall be expecting results from you soon."
"I will not fail. Just give me time to smoke Zero out, and I promise he shall be dealt with in one way or another."
"Very good, but if possible we would like him delivered to us alive."
"You want Zero alive?" Kidd inquired with a curious expression.
"We want to know who his supporters are since there is no way he could have built a ship and those three machines on his own," Arcadius explained before Miguel realized what she was getting at.
"I understand, and I'll do what I can to capture him alive if an opportunity presents itself."
"We will be awaiting word Captain."
With that, the avatar of Arcadius vanished leaving Captain Kidd alone in his cabin until the silence was disturbed by a beeping coming from his polished metallic desk in the circular-shaped windowless room.
"What is it?" Kidd asked clearly annoyed after pushing a button on his desk to answer the call.
"Captain the last of the ships arrived, but they bring word that they captured a member of the Black Knights."
A/N: Well is this the prelude to some kind of dangerous situation for Lelouch and his Black Knights or could it be something else?
Will Garibaldi and C.C. prove Lelouch correct and find another world that would make a more suitable home base for them especially given the war that is coming.
Next chapter its Lelouch and his group facing the most massive pirate fleet assembled, at least until much later in this story when a certain someone will end up topping that.
The polls for pairings have been closed for now, but I am open to suggestions. I have some decisions in mind, but I am going to see how the story and upcoming events will play out first.
As for everything else the next battle will be a difficult one because there will be an unexpected visitor that neither Kidd nor Lelouch will be expecting.
