Chapter 14

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Suzaku sighed, all this was horrible, but it had to be done. Before Lloyd had been enthuisatically waiting for an opporutunity to test out the Float system for the Lancelot in combat against a position the enemy had heavily fortified, but prince Schneziel had put an end to that idea.

Well on the plus side it did mean he and Kallen were fighting side by side, which was much nicer than having to face the Gurren in combat. Lelouch had remarked it was rather odd that the in truth the Lancelot better supported Black Knight KMF schools of thought better than the Gurren... Rakashata had been rather miffed by that announcement.

He finished making the last adjustments on the weapon, "Okay, I'm taking the shot," The Gunru well over a kilometer away exploded. He'd be glad when Lloyd completed the new VARIS rifle for the Lancelot, the scientist promised it'd be even better than the original. The VARIS had a revolutionary ammo feed system, that traditional rifles just couldn't really match. A spent casing ejected from the rifle landing in the mud.

A lot of people were going to die today. He adjusted the interface for the Lancelot, locking the rifle back onto his back, "I need to keep back, and back up the Gurren, so I've only got one sword, but I've got my machine gun so here we go."
"Come on you slow bastard." Kallen hissed irritably, geez why couldn't she have gotten deployed with the rest of the Istavaanians, there were a dozen Burais a half klick west of her position she could be fighting alongside. Instead she was stuck with Suzaku and the kid piloting the Gawain... and the green haired witch, well at least Todoh and the Holy Swords were here. Lelouch said he'd be launching shortly... something about the Merlin's diagnostics.

The Gurren's own machine rifle fired a burst, causing Todoh to groan, "Conserve your ammo Kozuki, its not worth the bullets this far out."

She grumbled even as the Lancelot buzzed past her, "We don't need to worry about those guys Kallen, they know we're coming, so they're going to be prepared." and all his helpful advice went out the window as the Gawain surged forward a black shape grim and terrible across a darkened sky.

Todoh grimaced from his frame, this whole mess was too complicated, first Sawasaki invaded with the Chinese, and then there were people who had the nerve to pretend to be the JLF. Even if Kusakabe had dishonored them all, and brought Cornelia against them all it was a travesty to all those dead men's memories to use those colors.

In any event for now the enemy was the Chinese, Todoh let the first missiles fly, the large, relatively speaking for KMF launched, 300mm, diameter, missiles shrieked flying from the one shot disposable pod mounted on the Gekka's shoulder. It clicked detaching from his machine's shoulder and dropped into the mud. They were self arming once locked to a target, a simply system as they zoomed towards the Gunrus. The down side was it might be possible for the missile not to destroy a gunru depending on where they impacted the armor, other locations had the opposite effect and were overkill. The second pod also started firing, data fed from lased targets through his machine's sensor suite. He reached to click his radio, "Hold on Kozuki, we need to talk."
Kallen slowed the Gurren allowing the Gekka to pick up beside it... her, "What is it colonel?"
"You know about the facts of this battle, how whatever happens everything that was the norm is gone."
"I don't quite understand, sure we're all getting together to fight the Chinese-"
Todoh cut her off, "There is that but also there are the people dressing up like they're apart of the Japanese Liberation Front," And that was thing some of those involved could, and might have been JLF survivors, but all of this had to have an outsider back. Whether it was Kyoto, or even the Black Knights. "Understand you cant' afford to get too far out today, we have no idea what the enemy intends."

"Right I understand." Kallen responded, "Whats that mean though, really," Honestly it was one of those questions Lelouch was really good at answering but he wasn't here right now, and besides Lelouch phrased things to clincally at times.

"Britannia, and Kyoto will never see eye to eye, but even though they're allies today won't matter after, we're still fighting Japanese forces here, and they won't forget that." Todoh all the while rotated through the available enemies they were coming up on.

Suzaku shoved a Gunru, one of the Lancelot's hand gripping a burst cannon, and the other brought the MVS sword down. The objective was to contact the enemy point here along this position, and overwhelm them. Naturally the Chinese would respond, as they already were given the barrage fire they were leveling at the Gawain overhead, with an assault press.

The down side was the float system revolutionized the way an object could move, while it couldn't attain the speeds of a jet engine, when mounted on a knightmare, it allowed full range of movement in any direct. The Gawain was able to pull back, ascending and moving backwards, while firing its hadron cannons to deal with the bulk of the projectiles. It wouldn't be able to sustain that for long, but it didn't need to. As far as distractions went large seventh generation frames flying in front of your face kept people focused.

Kallen adjusted the joystick controlling the fire control angle and elevation on the side mounted cannon. She nudged the control, the Gurren Nishiki had been intended to be extensively close combat oriented so the refit was less effective than it could have been. Still a squeeze of the trigger sent a cluster of rounds up the hill. The Gunru returned fire even as its left leg exploded underneath it. Kallen grunted as the explosive rounds rattled the Gurren through the exterior armor. She surged forward, there was no gleam to the radiation wave surge claw, not in this weather.

Suzaku groaned as two of Todoh's four holy swords swept off to the side, driving into the group of Gunrus. Asahina turned his revolver cannon into the group, "Come on they've got friends coming up." The ADEN roared whirling around. At this close of range even the comparitively heavy armor of the Gunru, and the derivatives, did little to slow the 30mm hypervelocity ammunition from the autocannon. The nine second burst emptied nearly half of his attached magazine, but it was worth it, even if a some of the rounds had gone wide in between Gunrus. The fussilade at close range had succeeded in punching through the front armor of the Gunrus with ease.

A second squad of Gunrus, unharmed by virtue of being out of the way of the attack, attacked. It was enough to force Asahina to take heed to avoid the massed burst cannon fire, the Gekka's downside being in its specifics for melee combat, and agility it was a more sensitive to jarring from shockwaves.

"There are a too many coming over the hill. We'll need to hold them back for the artillery to match up. They're cocky so when we bloody their noses we'll have them where we want them." Senba grunted. His Gekka had expended his bolt on ordinance already, not that it'd make much difference.

Todoh nodded, "They'll either come at us, or the Witch of Britannia." His black Gekka whilred about its new sword lashing through the legs of a Gunru, above them the Gawain fired again, and again. "We're fighting a cluster of fools, and fanatics, but they're large in number, too many to fight as one group. We need to drive them into the Burais, and the Britannains split them down the middle." He twisted around, bringing the blade through another Gunru.

For all the dangers of close quarters Knightmare combat it was the preferred method of much of Britannian forces, as well as the Japanese Knightmare aces here. "Can we really keep this up though? If we get too far out we'll end up just having to shoot our way out."
"Stop whining."
"Suzaku has a point," Todoh acknowledged, "only the Gawain is capable of flight here, even so it is well within our ability to shoot through the enemy as they are!" The Gekka's frame mounted guns opened up, Todoh took care only to target joints as the small caliber, for knightmare combat, would be insufficent for the heavier front armor of the Chinese Gunru.

"Kyoshiro Todoh, well I'd say this is an appropriate place to meet the miracle of Itsukushima!" A voice declared over a radio, white knightmares, white Sutherlands, and Burais... "This is a battlefield, and you and the JLF are still fighting a pointless battle." ... and that was a Raikou.

"Scatter," Todoh ordered as the Chinese Kyushu reinforcements fired. "he wants us to stand still keep moving pick them off. We'll divide them, tell the Dudleys to fire their hadron cannons!"

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"Well there is the Enemy response," Lelouch commented, "taking Todoh, and Suzaku was probably Sawasaki's choice, Cornelia has a larger force with her."

Schneziel sat back, "I know Oddyseus won't be able to contribute much, but we should probably talk with him. At the very least it'd give us additional pull on reinforcing our position. With their use of Sutherlands we'll definitely have support to bolster a prescence, but the regular army is really best suited to these kind of fights."

"I could contribute to that!" Clovis piped in eager to make himself more useful to the cause.

Well that made more sense Schneziel was hoping to counter terrorism with more updwardly mobile elements, and while Cornelia could make those kind of formations it'd take time, so he was looking for someone to bolster numbers for an interim. "Their Sutherland numbers are rather small," Lelouch commented, of course the Homeland would count Kyoto's Sutherland models as well as probably the Black Knights too.

Clovis straightened his royal jacket, "Ah yes well the second Siegfried is operational, I can launch it whenever you want it."

"We'll handle that shortly then,"

Cornelia popped up on the liquid crystal screen. "The Chinese are rallying," Well that was rather the hope, let them press either a bunch of elite seventh generations or Cornelia, her knights, and the Thorian 7th Platoon, they picked the stronger individually, but numerically smaller force. Big shock there. "You knew this would happen."
"Of course Cornelia the Chinese would naturally hope to knock out our most advanced units out." Schneziel remarked,

"Besides we expected the Suzaku and Todoh to be bigger targets." Lelouch remarked, "They've been told already, and to pull back into the formation once the full counter is in play."

Schneziel highlighted the tactical display, "The Gunru companies here are the secondary problem, this set of hills is our best chance to hit them quickly."

Cornelia huffed irritably, "I can slow them down, they're numbers are a disadvantage,"

Schneziel glanced at Lelouch, "How many Assault Frames are in those sections?"
"Not enough,"

The other two royals rolled their eyes at that response, "and of the Dudleys?"
Lelouch snorted, "Wrong Knightmare Platoon, she's got enough frames to hold for two hours, max, the Hardrocks will be out of ammo by that point if not sooner. Catching them in close quarters after she chokes their advance point is the best bet." He paused tapping the interactive display, "Sawasaki though has plenty of forces, enough to significantly harm our own forces, but to completely overwhelm, well no not unless Kyushu is available." Which was possible. Contemplating the Kyushu rebels strength was difficult, in Honshu at least there was the excuse of Kyoto, and constant conflict with Britannia to confound estimates. Kyushu though it was sparsely controlled anarchy, here was no telling how well stocked the rebels were. It would be nice once all of this was over and done with to retire to the Fortress at Hokkaido.

"Do we have a location?"
"On Sawasaki, no. All we know is that he's got established lines of communication."

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"Is everything prepared?"
The Eunuch nodded, "It is, however Atsushi once we commit to this they'll be little chance to back down."

"Britannia will want to fight until the night falls, but in this terrain if we have to retreat under the cover of darkness, we can use the underground railway. If they can't throw us back this battlefield will be decided tomorrow, where our numbers will decide the course of the battle." Around them dozens of screens relayed connectivity reports. "Don't worry even if we can't convince them to talk, we can throw them off balance."

"If words had that kind of power the land would already be at peace, only action can determine the course of this land." The man once called Shinji remarked, "There is also the issue of Kyoto, they're not going to be swayed by words."
"Oh, is that so," Sawasaki stroked his mustache, "Colonel Todoh, and Genbu Kururugi's son are committed now to battle. I think everyone will find what I'm going to say very interesting."

The Kyushu rebel's lieutenant snorted, "We're in position to support you, but they're going to advance and hit the main line like a hammer."

Sawasaki nodded, "Then the communications lines are in place?"
"Yes, when you're ready."

"Then get me a line to the Lancelot especially, and also find the Black Knights leader, and we'll force Kyoto to hear us out, them and the Britannian royals." Sawasaki smirked, "Though I suppose I should say one of Britannia's royals is the leader of the Black Knights, whether he is here though, that is what we're gambling on!"

This was a key part of the strategy, if Chinese forces could establish a strong garrison, hold long enough, then the hope was to force Britannia to the negotiation table. Everyone was on a time table here. The telecommunications grid flickered, "Ah whats this?" Suzaku exclaimed.
"Sawasaki you dare show your face!" Cornelia snarled.

Todoh, and Schneziel also chimed in.

"How nice to see you all looking so well." Sawasaki remarked, "but we have so much to discuss. Isn't that right Kururugi Suzaku, and Lelouch vi Britannia." The look on Cornelia li Britannia, and Schneziel el Britannia's faces were totally worth it. "I knew you were likely here when I saw Kirihara's granddaughter." Sawasaki continued boldly, "You and he were student and teacher, but after the invasion you took different paths!"

"Lock the networks out," Lelouch hissed.

If Sawasaki noticed the order he paid no mind, as electronic warfare went to work. "Our land, Japan, has been divided since the fall of the Kurugugi regime. Since then it has been an era of a country divided by war. Divided by grasping ambitious rivals."

Todoh stared blankly at the screen... really.

"Thats enough," Schneziel had actually stood up, "What is it you want Atsushi Sawasaki this is a battlefield, and I am more than content to let my brother and sister crush beneath their heels!"

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