Onboard Krieg Chessboard, Japan

21:23 MST

August 16th, 2020 a.t.b.

"Grandmaster," Butler said as he opened the door to the Red Army's command room. Tamhas sat behind his large oak desk with a chessboard in front of him. Red and black Chess pieces were set up on the chessboard, the black pieces opposite of the Grandmaster. The majority of the black pawns sat on the side of the board, captured by red pieces. "We have lost all contact with Alpha Lance," The old mercenary stood at attention, his hands clasped behind his back as he waited for the Grandmaster's orders.

Tamhas remained behind his desk with his hands clasped together behind the chessboard as if he was praying. After a few moments he reached out and removed a red pawn from the chessboard. "Did our sensors pick up anything before we lost contact?"

"Negative sir."

"Hmm," Tamhas muttered as he picked up the red King piece from the board, "Tell the mechanics to run diagnostics on my Battlemech and prepare its drop pod." Then he placed the red King right in front of the black King. "I think it's time for the Grandmaster to join the battle."

Belinda cycled through her Uziel's weapons as the mech soared over the low buildings of central Tokyo on a plume of superheated exhaust. 'Looks like the Grandmaster overestimated the Black Knights,' She thought as she selected the Short Range Missile 6 installed in her mech's missile pod. Without a second thought she fired the salvo of missiles at an unlucky Akatsuki Knightmare that was hanging off a building by a Slash Harken about 20 meters away from her 'mech. The Knightmare exploded as the unguided missiles slammed into its body right as Belinda's mech landed on the pavement.

Things had been looking grim for her and Echo lance a few minutes earlier. They'd lost Echo 3 and his 50 ton, 9 meters tall Enfield because of a Raikou that had been hiding in an alley. The Autocannon 20 on Echo 2's 9.5 meters tall, 50 ton Hunchback dispatched the Knightmare seconds afterward. The Black Knights had Belinda and Echo Lance surrounded and had started to close in for the kill. At that point Belinda thought that she'd overestimated the power of her Uziel.

Then Madde had arrived with her backup, which came in the form of eight 65 ton, 11 meter tall Axman Battlemechs. The close combat weapons on the reinforcements, backed up by the powerful arsenal on Madde's Mad Cat had turned the tide back in the Red Army's favor. Not to mention the fact that Morrighan and her three lances of Heavy Mechs would arrive soon to punch a hole all the way to the Black Knights' HQ.

Belinda was knocked out of her train of thought as a rocket slammed into the Uziel's left torso. The 50 ton Battlemech staggered backward as it tried to stay upright. If it fell over the Belinda was as good as dead. The Black Knights' Akatsukis would stab their Katen Yaibatou's into the back of her mech and cause the nuclear reactor to explode. "Shit shit shit shit!" Belinda cursed as her neurohelmet used her own sense of balance to keep her mech upright. "Who the hell just shot me?" She muttered as the Uziel managed to stay on its feet. She quickly ran a damage analysis of her mech and realized that the machine gun inside the left torso had been destroyed.

"Ah hell." Belinda grumbled as a dark blue Akatsuki Jikisanshiyo appeared hovering right in front of her Uziel. 'That bastard just took out one of my better close range weapons.' This wasn't exactly true. Her SRMs had more firepower, but they lacked heat-seeking capabilities. The machine guns were significantly weaker but had a much faster rate of fire than the missiles did.

Chiba's Knightmare hovered in front of the massive machine, her right arm minus a radiant-wave surger rocket. 'They're more durable than I expected,' She thought as she pointed the machine gun mounted on her Akatsuki Jikisanshiyo's left arm at the massive Knightmare. "Die." She said as she pressed her thumb on the trigger. The machine gun opened fire on the Uziel, peppering the machine with bullet holes that barely scratched the surface of the mech's eight tons of armor.

There was a flash of red light as Madde's Extended Range Large Laser just in front of Chiba's cockpit. The laser took the Knightmare's left arm off at the elbow.

"Damn it!" Chiba yelled and yanked back on the controls and pulled her Akatsuki away from Belinda's Uziel as Madde's larger Mad Cat walked toward them. 'It's two against one! I can't win!'

"Commander Nagisa," A voice called out to her from the vid comm. Chiba looked down and saw the enigmatic form of Zero seated in the cockpit of a Knightmare. "Give me a status report."

"We are about to get overrun!" Chiba shouted Zero's image rather harshly. "The armor on these Knightmares is too thick for our Machine guns to penetrate, and they're firepower has been keeping us from getting in close to use our swords!"

"And the Raikous?"

"Raikou Two destroyed one of the smaller ones at point-blank range in an ambush," Chiba replied, "but it was taken out seconds later."

"How many enemies have been destroyed?" Zero asked suddenly.

"Two, maybe three," Chiba answered, "They were able to knock the machines off their feet and close in with their swords before the Knightmare could get back up."

"Interesting," Zero said as he stroked his chin in thought. "Keep falling back. I've sent reinforcements led by Tohdoh to back you up. Kallen will arrive soon and I shall enter the battle shortly after her arrival. Form a defensive line and hold that position until Tohdoh arrives." He switched off vid comm and Chiba fell back as the Machine guns on Madde's Mad Cat shattered the windows beside her Knightmare.

Morrighan adjusted her Vulture's throttle to zero as she neared the massive pillar of smoke rising from the battle up ahead. "Delta Group decrease throttle to 25 percent." She ordered over the comm to the three lances of Battlemechs behind her. "Delta Lance One will take the left street. Delta Lance Three will take the right street. Delta Lance Two will take the street in front of me. We are going to clear out any Black Knights in the area before we link up with Echo Lance. Copy?" The chorus of affirmative responses added a tiny smirk to her expression. 'Now's my chance,' She thought as she closed her eyes. Suddenly her eyes snapped open and a red Geass sigil appeared on her right eye. Her body relaxed as she went into a trance.

Suddenly images began to flash in front of her mind. A girl with red hair, a purple blur cutting through a large Battlemech, a black haired teenage boy wearing a cape of some sort, and a winged Knightmare attacking a Vulture, its right arm poised to strike the cockpit. The images surfaced in her conscious and then vanished as quickly as it had appeared. At that point Morrighan started to panic. 'Please…' She begged her mind, 'Make it stop!' Suddenly she screamed at the images. 'I can't take it anymore!'

"ORACLE!" Tomhas' voiced snapped Morrighan out of her trance and brought her back to reality. She slowly reconnected with her body's sense as her Geass deactivated. It quickly occurred to her that she was drenched in sweat and her body was shaking uncontrollably.

She keyed her comm's mic and hesitantly replied, "T-this is Oracle. G-Go ahead Grandmaster sir."

"We lost contact with Alpha Lance about ten minutes ago. It's a safe bet that the Guren is involved. The Krieg Chessboard is en route to your location for aerial support and spotting purposes. ETA, six minutes." His voice became hushed as he added, "Stay alive for me Morri."

Morrighan's body calmed itself as Tamhas spoke. "Understood Grandmaster. Oracle out." She replied and flipped off the comm for a moment. She could that her cheeks were bright red in the reflection of one of her mech's control panels. "Delta Group, be advised." She said as she turned the comm back on, "The Chessboard's got intel that the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. is in the area. Maintain partial airwatch."

21:27 MST

Kallen frowned as the Guren neared the main battlefield. Smoke was rising from Tokyo's center and a couple of buildings had already been destroyed in the crossfire. From her bird's-eye view Kallen saw flashes of gunfire and colored beams of energy in the smoke below. 'I can't see a thing…' She thought as she hovered east of the columns of smoke.

"Kallen," Zero said as his masked visage appeared on the screen below her chest, "Sensor reports indicate that a group of large Knightmares are approaching from the west, headed toward the battlefield. We can assume they're here to reinforce the current mercenaries already locked in battle with Chiba and her forces." He paused as Kallen looked down at the screen. "Wipe them out."

"Understood." Kallen replied and turned the Guren west, away from the battlefield.

The Guren had traveled about 50 meters when two bolts of blue energy shot past the Knightmare's head. "Looks like I've been spotted." Kallen remarked as she looked down at her attackers.

"This is Delta Lance Two!" A pilot shouted over Morrighan's comm, "We see the Guren and are engaging it now."

"This is Delta One," Replied another pilot, "My Lance is en route your location Delta Five. Leave some for us okay?"

Morrighan rolled her eyes at the juvenile nature of the pilots around her. She keyed in the firing sequence for her LRMs as her Vulture closed in on Delta Lance Two's position.

Suddenly her eyes widened as she saw a purple blur slice one of the Nova Cat down the middle. She watched, frozen as the winged Knightmare from her vision appeared from the blur. It quickly turned and fired its right arm like a Slash Harken at another Nova Cat. The arm's massive hand latched onto the mech's cockpit and crushed it with no effort at all. 'It's a monster.' Morrighan thought in horror as her face paled beneath her neurohelmet.

Something caught Kallen's eye as the Guren turned to attack another one of the large Knightmares. A fifth Knightmare stood a little ways off from the two remaining Knightmares. It was a different model from the others, and Kallen spotted a red queen insignia emblazoned on the Knightmare's shins.

"That's the leader," She said aloud. "If I take him down the rest of the mercenaries won't have a commander! They'll fall apart!" She turned the Guren toward the new enemy as its right arm returned to its shoulder and flew straight for the Knightmare's chest. She was going to get in this mercenary's face before her Guren killed him.

Morrighan sat petrified with shock in the mech's pilot seat. 'The one she was going to kill…' she thought as the Guren closed in, The pilots from every remaining mech in the area yelled at her to move, to eject; to get the hell away from that menace. But Morrighan remained frozen, her eyes watching the Guren's right arm as it came above the cockpit to crush it and end her existence.

That's when she fired at the Guren with everything her Vulture had in a desperate, all-or-nothing alpha strike.

"Wha-?" Was all Kallen had the chance to say as the Knightmare fired point-blank into the Guren with forty missiles.

The arm-mounted Pulse Lasers hit the tips of the Guren's energy wings, doing little damage other than causing the feathers of energy to flicker briefly. The missiles were another story altogether. Even if the LRMs had never been intended to hit something at point-blank range, the mere force of the missile's impact on the Guren was impressive. Then the missiles detonated at point-blank range.

Kallen had been caught completely off-guard by Morrighan's act of desperation. The missiles obliterated the energy wings in a fraction of a second, along with its left arm, right leg, and most of the Knightmare's armor. Luckily for Kallen, the cockpit, left arm and head survived the barrage and could still function. The same couldn't be said the left leg. It had been mangled beyond repair by the barrage and was only still attached to the Guren because of a tangle of wires and cables.

However Morrighan's panicked attack backfired on her as well. The explosion from the missiles destroyed both of her Vulture's missile racks, and her mech's "beak" was smashed in by the Guren as it crashed into the Battlemech. The force from the collision snapped both of the Vulture's at the hip joints and knocked it on its back.

Both Morrighan and Kallen had lost conscious during the collision.

Lelouch sat inside the cockpit of the Shinkiro as it hovered over the carnage of the battlefield below. 'I hope Kallen is alright,' He thought as he quickly erected a shield and deflected an autocannon round from a nearby Axman.

A large boom and a supersonic projectile slamming into his Shinkiro's Absolute Defense Territory's shield drew Lelouch's attention to the massive Krieg Chessboard as it dropped a fifteen meter high, ten meter wide, and seven meter thick metal container in front of him. The massive container descended on a giant pair of rockets and had the appearance of a giant tombstone.

"Hello again Zero," Tamhas taunted over one the Black Knights' secure channels, "Enjoying the game I trust?" His masked face appeared on the Shinkiro's vid comm.

"You," Lelouch said as he donned Zero's mask again.

"Anyway," the Grandmaster said, ignoring Lelouch, "this game is beginning to bore me. How about we finish this with a Duel of Kings?"

"A Duel of Kings?" Lelouch asked, somewhat confused.

"It is a duel that will decide the ultimate outcome of the battle," the Grandmaster explained calmly, "We each have one vehicle to fight in, and the terms of surrender after the duel are decided by the victor."

"Very well," Lelouch said from beneath his mask. "My vehicle is the Shinkiro. And yours?"

"My vehicle is right in front of you," Tamhas replied coolly.

"You're going to fight me with a giant tombstone?" Zero said in disbelief.

"Hahaha!!" the Grandmaster laughed and clapped his hands in amusement. "The boy knows how to make jokes too!" He pressed a button off screen and there was an explosion of steam from the side of the container in front of the Shinkiro. A pair of massive doors opened outward and something monstrously large stepped out of the container. Its red eyes gleamed through the steam as they stared right at the Shinkiro. Lelouch began to sweat underneath his mask as the Battlemech's skull-like head appeared out of the steam. The humanoid machine towered over the Shinkiro in sheer size, standing at least twelve-and-a-half meters tall.

"Allow me to introduce to you the Atlas." Tamhas said in a smug voice.

"This is my vehicle. May the best King win."