Assignment 13: The Assault on Pendragon

I breathed out a long sigh. I had managed to get the parts for the Knightmares we needed and piece them together in a week, but they were a far cry from what they should be.

"Kallen, remember, we are going in there to get Odysseus and a few of the Emperor's consorts. Cassius has provided us with just the right information to make this work, but we can't blow his cover yet. Your job is to handle Dorothy, Nonnette, and Waldstein, if he shows."

"I know, you've already told me."

"It doesn't hurt to run through the game plan more than once."

"What about air support?"

"You have the Baryon Cannon, use that."

"Leann, you're bitter today."

"I don't like people that I'm in charge of die when I could have saved them." I growled.

"You're still mad about not making it to the eye of the hurricane."

"So what if I am?"

Kallen paused, not knowing what to say next.

"Listen, it's not your fault that Fred-"

"I know it isn't. Now get ready for activation."

We launched ourselves into the sky of Pendragon. Almost immediately the air force responded, but Kallen took them out with her Baryon Cannon. I flew toward the palace, knowing that I would have to catch Odysseus before he was evacuated to safety. I saw Dorothy's Knightmare take to the skies, but Kallen engaged her forthright.

Dorothy's Knightmare was purple in color, with a pink energy pack that supported her in the air. She had two slash harkens in her shoulders, and also had a VARIS rifle mounted on her right arm. She drew two MVS swords and raced at Kallen, brandishing her weapons like only a Knight of the Round could. But Kallen was better. Her left wrist harken wrapped itself around Dorothy's left MVS, and dragged it out of her hands. Dorothy swung her other MVS down hard on Kallen's left shoulder, but her blaze luminous activated, clashing with the atomic level sharpness of the sword.

Kallen took this opportunity to grab Dorothy's left arm and send a huge electric shock through her Knightmare. The machine faltered for a moment, but regained its composure and stayed afloat. I could tell Kallen was grinning, because she was shouting at Dorothy through her loudspeaker, taunting her and basically insulting her piloting skills. I turned my attention from the fight and to my tracker on Odysseus' car. Cassius had had it planted the day before, so I could follow him to capture him.

I cursed when I saw that Waldstein was trailing the crown prince is his Knightmare, the Galahad. As far as I was aware, Bismark had a Geass, so it would be dangerous to combat him, even if we had better Knightmares. As it stood, our Knightmares were only on par with his, so it would be a lucky win if we could pull it off. Unless, of course, Cassius had actually planted the bomb in the Yggdrasil drive like I had planned. It was cowardly, but Bismark was a formidable opponent. Sometimes you had to do dishonorable things.

I contacted Cassius through his private line to see if I could just blow up Waldstein.

"Cassius, did you or did you not plant the bomb in the Galahad?"

"I did, why?"

"Our friend Bismark's following Odysseus and it would just be easier to blow him up. How big will the explosion be?"

"About a twenty foot blast. I can't guarantee anything though. It is the Yggdrasil drive and liquid sakuradite we're talking about here."

"Thanks Cassius. Where are you?"

"Gathering the court ladies, just like planned. I'm bringing them to point 3A, where I have a jet ready to fly over to Japan."

"Perfect. Talk to you later."

"Stay safe, Leann."

"I will." I ended our transmission there, and pushed the trigger to blowing up the Galahad. Just before I did, Bismark ejected, leaving his Knightmare behind as it blew up, tearing up the pavement for several yards around it. Odysseus' caravan made it through, but it had taken some of the dust up with it. I flew down to pick up Odysseus and take him to where he would be taken to Japan.

I was interrupted by fire from an enemy jet fighter. The plane flew past me, showering me with bullets that penetrated my now unstable Knightmare. I lost my left leg to the rounds of metal tearing through the Guren, but I managed to stay airborne. The jet stopped in midair when it noticed that I had survived the blast, and transformed into a Knightmare.

I cursed. It was another model of the Knightmare that had taken me out of commission in Tokyo. It drew its sword and charged me, swinging the blade of tungsten at my right arm. I grabbed the weapon with my RWS, and activated the radiation that would destroy the Knightmare/jet. The pilot determined that he couldn't hold on to his blade and dropped it, pulling out instead a VARIS rifle. I swear, that blaster was becoming more and more popular.

He took aim and fired, but I blocked it with the RWS, then decided to try dissipating the beam so it covered a large area, but with less focus. I was pleased to see that it worked like it was supposed to, but it wasn't as powerful, so the Knightmare returned to its jet form and flew away, leaving me to wonder who was piloting it. Picking up Odysseus's car, I decided that I needed to contact Kallen, so I called her up on my radio.

"Kallen, how are you doing?"

"Dorothy's down, but Nonnette is giving me some trouble."

"Finish her as soon as possible. We have to get our prisoners to safety."

"Gotcha."

"We're leaving on seventeen minutes. Be there." I headed over to point 3A with Odysseus' transport held firmly in my hands. I thought over how well this had gone, while I lowered myself to the ground. I took the appearance of a servant in the palace and opened the door to his transport.

"Lord Odysseus, follow me. We have a plane ready to take you away to safety in Area 2."

"Thank you." Odysseus stepped out of the car and followed me into our trap.

The nobles had boarded the plane with some of Charles' other children mixed in. We had made sure there were no guards, and there really was no reason to have them, because only nobles would allow themselves to be saved. I excused myself from Odysseus's presence to 'get a drink' and made my way to the front of the plane. I went into the cockpit, and knocked out the pilot with one blow to the back of the neck. I shoved his body through a hole in the floor and covered it up quickly, knowing that I could be discovered in an instant if I wasn't careful.

I gave an announcement over the loudspeaker to tell the nobles that they were being taken to Japan instead of Canada. There was some confusion over this, but I assured the nobles that they would be perfectly safe in the hands of Zero. I called in to headquarters.

"This is Miyan. Mission accomplished. Landing in 7 hours."

"Good, I was waiting." Was Zero's reply. I smiled, knowing that we were one step closer to victory.