Author Note-I personally find that my European characters occasionally slipping into their native tongues adds a bit of flavor to the story, if you guys think its annoying and ruins your immersion lemme know and I'll take it into consideration. Also Nunnally will be channeling a bit of Alucard today so enjoy, credit to Teamfourstar and Purplyeyeswtf over on youtube for a couple of the oneliners. As always please review!
I wouldn't call the capture of the English Isles easy per say, more like we caught them completely off guard, they'd amassed troops in Russia and the idiot commander's actually ignored V.V.'s orders after the failed attempt to nuke us, something we didn't know until much later by the way, anyhow they ignored him and those are the forces that got F.L.E.I.J.A striked in Siberia and got Lloyd'd at the Forbidden City. So with reinforcements stretched across Eurasia not sure which direction to head the Isles were pretty much left to die on the vine until we hit London. London's defenses set the tone for what we were to expect when we hit the mainland though...we should have taken heed, its not like our little infiltration gambit could be repeated after the press got wind of it.-Interview with Lord General Suzaku Kururugi circa 2031
En route to European Air Battleship
Receiving her orders to take out the approaching airship Isabella ordered her three squadrons of Vincents forward, as they spread into formation Timeo's unit of Gareth's formed up into firing positions on their six, zooming her factspheres in on the ship as it came into range she snarled to herself.
"Usted ha conseguido ser una broma... finished the Chimera finally I see, dammit..." The vessel before them was actually a hodgepodge of four navel battleship hulls, one ships aft married to another's forming a sort of pontoon, the set of hulls then had dozen's of support structures connecting them to a twin pontoon. This structure was designed to house the worlds first fully functional long distance plasma cannon which ran the entire length of the ship dangling below and in between the double hulls. Dotting all available surfaces were back up float units, MAC emplacements and countless nests of CIWS, while formidable in its own right it was made exponentially tougher with its new fully functional blaze luminous shielding.
"Jo det är bara härligt," her wing man muttered, their were echoed agreements across the channel, everyone knew what they were about to get into, sighing she signaled,
"Ok people we're running the gauntlet, Timeo your lads are to bombard quadrant three as fast as your cannons cycle, those shields are still new and there's a good chance focused fire can burn out an emitter, Joakim take squad two and run interference for any panzer's that try to harass them, everyone else set your VARIS to maximum charge when that thing drops the shield in front of the cannon we'll have roughly two seconds to get a shot in, good hunting people." And with that her irregular unit charged headfirst into the oncoming fire, never slowing down the three dozen Vincent variants danced in the sky weaving their way forward. Grinning she saw dozens of fully charged hadron beams hit a single shield panel on the starboard side, while it held it changed from deep amber to a sickly watery yellow.
"Keep it up boys, don't le-oh l'enfer, des manœuvres d'évitement!" Timeo yelled as a white and blue knightmare charged his formation, it cleaved two Gareth's in half with a large broadsword then killed five Vincent's with rapid shots from a laser rifle. Timeo fired his Gareth's missiles and slash harkens at it ordering his men to do that same, the deluge of explosive's made the almost feminine frame break its attack for the moment.
"Oh crap, finished that too" was all that was said as they finally got a look at the hovering unit, its thin form a firm departure from the typical Panzer frames, as it turned to face Timeo the decorative blue hair hanging from underneath the renaissance style helm swayed in the wind. The Schwalbe lazily raised its rifle and shot down another Vincent as a tittering voice came across the open channel,
"Hehehe, so I get to finally meet the infamous Euro Turncoats, I have no idea why you traitors joined the Imperialists but it matters not, I vill be your executioner today so please do your best to make this interesting." With that Colonel Hilde Richthofen, the Hellcat of Germany charged forward and impaled another Gareth, this pilot was fortunate enough to eject but his luck ran out as the pod ran directly into the flak fire. Groaning at the loss of so many of her subordiantes Isabella charged in to attempt and hold the ace unit off.
"Away from my men harlot," She snarled holstering her rifle and drawing both her double headed spear and MVB rapier, twirling both weapons expertly she charged the Schwalbe blocking a blow meant to bisect another Gareth.
"Oh der Kopf verräter, gut gut! Danke for saving me the trouble of sifting through the vrecks of your battalion, it would have been quite tedious." Parrying the sword with her rapier Isabella threw the spear underhanded destroying the German's rifle, the reaction was...surprising. "Hehehe, gut gut gut! Finally a real challenge!"
"...Joder..." Isabella mumbled as the Schwalbe took its broadsword in both hands charging forward, the rain of blows was impossible to follow, the high speed ace frame was slowly widdeling away the Vincents armor, its shield and rapier beginning to buckle from the onslaught. An unlucky glancing blow managed to skip past the blaze luminous and shear off her left arm, attempting to pull back she realized she was about to die.
"Oh vell, maybe I'll find someone more entertaining, wir sehen uns in Walhalla fräulin Generaloberst." As the broadsword was about to impale her Vincent the massive form of a Gareth was in front of her, its crab claw grabbing the falling blade and firing its hadron, the limb and sword both exploded as Timeo fired the last of his missiles at the temporarily stunned ace.
"RUN! I'll hold her off ma'am!" With that the damaged Gareth charged forward snapping its remaining hand open he fired rapid shots at the now evasive Schwalbe as Isabella screamed for him to retreat. As the German unit recovered it drew its two remaining swords from its hips and closed the distance, cleaving off his good arm the snarling ace slashed downwards toward the Gareth's chest. A flash of blue came to a screaming halt in front of the Schwalbe as a tri-bladed spear caught both descending blades, the Valkyrie hovered in front of Timeo, its angelic wings pulsing with bleeding sapphire energy.
"Hi there, he happens to be mine," Everyone who knew the young woman shivered unbidden at the complete lack of emotion in her voice.
Snapping out of it Hilde glanced back at the battleship and blinked nonplussed, the remaining Gareth's had continued their bombardment despite the shark in their midst and had actually managed to take out the shield panel, as it was fluctuating the remaining forces stormed in and started shredding the weapon emplacements.
"Vell, scheiße, mission failure, oh vell little girl we'll dance later," As the Schwalbe tried to fly off the Valkyrie sprayed energy darts in its path stalling her escape.
"I did not give you permission to leave," Nunnally deadpanned as she spun Gungnir and charged the ace.
Skies above London
Kallen watched as the E.U. airship's main gun came apart in the distance, it was starting to list to one side but it seemed to be throwing all power into its engines to make a break for it, 'Might actually make it too' she mused, 'Damn thing looks like it has more redundancies then anything we've got'. Focusing her attention back to her own struggles she landed in the midst of another group of panzers, slashing them apart she sighed as she commed Suzaku,
"Hey Suzu?" There was a brief pause then a,
"Hi Kallen, whats up?" Sighing she said,
"I'm...god this sounds stupid, but I'm bored," There was a brief pause then a snorted laugh, after a moment he sighed in return.
"You ever take a step back and look where we are? I mean we're invading a sovereign nation in the name of an Empire we fought to destroy for nearly half our lives and while we're ravaging the capitals last defenders we're bored with it all." Shaking her head ruefully Luluka piped in,
"All for the plan, I just...man when you break it down like that this shit is truly insane, the entire reason any of this happened was my uncle being a petty, obsessive, and vindictive little bastard, makes you wonder." Nodding at this Kallen found herself in Trafalgar Square, the Europeans had done a good job keeping this part of the city intact, it was quite beautiful and very little damage had been done to it during the fighting. Rolling the Guren towards the Knightmare height bronze statue of Napoleon Kallen cocked her head at it,
"You know I've always wanted to find out if my radiation burst actually made everything explode or if its just Knightmare's cooking off, think anyone would mind if I tried it on this guy?" Suzaku chuckled and said go for it, unbeknownst to either pilots the Guren was currently being filmed, in an act that would endear the Empress in waiting to Britannians over night and vilify her to the citizens of the E.U. the clawed right hand grasped the statues face and sent a wave of radiation through it. The bronze bubbled and deformed briefly then the entire thing exploded in a fireball sending debris scattering, with molten metal dripping from the claw Kallen looked at it inquisitively. "Why DOES this thing make stuff explode? I mean really it doesn't make sense." Suzaku's image shrugged,
"You're a multibillionaire industrialist flying a giant fighting robot who is currently sleeping with the crown prince and an ancient immortal all while living in a floating castle in the sky, sometimes Kallen I find it best to not ask questions." Considering that as she shook the Guren's hand clean and lifting back into the sky she eventually nodded.
"Yeah good point, well lets go find out where Lelouch wants to send us next this places defenses have gone to hell with the destruction of those towers I sincerely doubt this will take much longer."
Collecting the Reaper's toll
Nunnally parried a thrust from the Schwalbe, as she countered the locked blades went flying from the German units hands and with a lazy flourish Nunnally smashed it in the face with the butt of Gungnir, flicked a switch she hadn't gotten to try yet the needle blazer in its base fired taking the knightmares head off.
"Sie betrügt hündin!" The ace screamed, charging past the Valkyrie Hilde pounced on a Vincent tearing its rifle and spear from its hands, spinning as she cleaved the unit in half she managed to catch the next attack in time to counter. "I am Colonel Hilde Richthofen and I demand your respect!" Finally letting some emotion back into her voice Nunnally replied,
"No, you demand my attention," her tone sounding bored as she avoided the VARIS shots, getting in close she managed to avoid the thrust from the Schwalbe and cleaved both its legs off, screaming in frustration the enemy ace spun around and shot Timeo's Gareth in the air glide system. Snickering she quipped,
"Finish me and let your little boyfriend die," growling Nunnally dove after the fallen giant,
"You're sooo totes paying for that one bitch," Firing a baryon shot over her shoulder at the fleeing unit Nunnally fired her slash harkens at the free falling Gareth, able to slow their descent enough to not kill them they touched down hard. Popping her cockpit open the concerned teen scrambled up Timeo's damaged war machine and hit the manual release, the back hatch fell away and the handsome mans chair rolled out and locked into place, 'One Frenchman in a can, yes thank you please.' Checking his pulse she managed to rouse him, flickering his grey eyes open he smiled at her wanly,
"I must admit mon chéri I never expected to be the damsel in distress," sobbing out a laugh she hugged him tight,
"Don't worry you'll get use to it."
Air Battleship Dreadnought
Sighing in relief at seeing the damaged enemy ship attempting to escape at flank speed C.C. leaned against Lelouch letting the tension flow out for the first time that day, she couldn't die, but he could...and that wasn't acceptable. Nodding at what he was seeing he ordered all units to break off pursuit and begin recovery of their fallen, Cornelia's forces had already occupied much of the city and following their standard combat doctrine the majority of the metropolis was left unharmed. Clicking the fleet wide broadcast Lelouch announced,
"Job well done I'd say, ok people you know the drill, damage reports and then repairs, once we've gotten the confirmed surrender from whoever is currently in charge we'll begin deploying the ground troops, well done everyone." With that he fell into his chair and let out a ragged sigh, sifting through channels she realized he stopped on Kallen and Suzaku's private line, not saying anything he just smiled listening to their banter comfortable in the knowledge they were ok. "This war may very well cost me everything C.C. but for today...the losses were not in vain..." Looking across the vast city before him his brow furrowed a bit, "Now who the hell am I putting in charge of this place?"
Pendragon, Emperors Office
Charles was dozing off in his chair when his terminal started beeping loudly, snapping out of it he said,
"I was totally not just sleeping!...Eh?" Staring down at the blocked number he shrugged, worse case scenario it was a telemarketer and he could completely screw with their day, hitting accept the last person in the world he expected to see was staring back at him.
"Hello little brother," gritting his teeth he glared at his twin,
"Hello V.V., what do I owe the pleasure?" The man child gave Charles that condescending little laugh he despised so much,
"Oh I just wanted to tell you to enjoy the early Christmas present I prepared for you, the English isles are quiet beautiful from what I'm told...well sometimes anyhow, I hear they are also very damp." Raising an eyebrow incredulously Charles responded with,
"Do you honestly have the audacity to claim every single one of your colossal strategic fuckups and over reliance on convoluted plots is responsible for my kids kicking the E.U. off the Mother Isles in less then a month?" Frowning at his younger brother V.V. seethed,
"Of COURSE! That whores brat could never out maneuver me," Seeing where this was going Charles sighed and grabbed a bottle from his desk, he was going to need it.
"Vivictis, cut the crap, after you murdered my wife you made it your life's goal to kill our offspring out of childish spite because to be blunt, you never stopped being a child, you're a sixty year old brat who never experienced what life had to offer." As he was saying this Charles had poured a generous glass of green liquor and downed it in one pull, the immortal on his screen going red with rage.
"You know the funny thing big brother? Without you constantly harping on me to be obsessed with Ragnarok, and especially not dealing with the fact that I had to pretend I didn't know you murdered the only woman I ever loved I've discovered something that had been in front of my face the entire time." Trying to calm his rage the diminutive little man replied,
"And what is that Charles," grinning as he topped off another glass he let out a small laugh,
"I thoroughly enjoy being a father, did you know that Odysseus is a sculptor? I had no clue, wasn't until I made it a point to talk to him for a few hours that I find out he didn't even WANT to be crown prince and held no grudge against Lelouch. You know what I got for Christmas last year? A bust of myself made by him, and I'm smiling, you know how many art pieces there are of me smiling? One, the note on the base was 'Thank you for finally getting to know me father', and you know what? That hurt and at the time I didn't know why" The entire time he said this V.V. was getting more furious,
"And Cornelia, holy hell that woman has a dry wit, we've had drinks together a couple times and she can be so hilariously scathing I've had to take notes, little Euphemia who everyone assumes is a frail flower literally killed an entire hit squad while bleeding out from her stomach, a hit squad you sent may I add, and hell even Schneizal is fun to talk to. All that I needed to get along with him was for Lelouch to curb his desire for the throne, that man can play a mean bass guitar by the way, I didn't know that before you left either." Grinning fully at his brother Charles finished with,
"And of course my wondrous children from my murdered wife, Lelouch and Luluka, a set of strategic smart asses who are like mirrors of their mother...well ok Marianne never crashed a knightmare into a dumpster and tripped it into a bakery but still. And of course my favorite my little Nunnally, the only one of my children who gave me a chance when she didn't have to, the one who started the ball rolling on me finding life after Ragnarok."
"I see-" Charles interrupted him
"You really don't, my partner in trying to create a world without lies was the biggest liar of them all, you took something wonderful from me out of jealous spite because you have the mentality of a child and the vindictiveness of an old man. I'm done with you Vivictis, my children are creating a world that will be unified under equality and science, I've seen Lelouch's plans and while overly idealistic I think they might actually work. When he finds you in whatever hole you're hiding in remember the only reason he is even there is because you struck first, good bye, oh and Merry Christmas.
The segment with Kallen and Suzaku was something that hit me a week or two ago, without each other mucking up the other sides plans they literally have no real challenges, they were the others foil. So what happens when two super aces are on the same side? They get deathly bored with fighting cannon fodder and start dicking around looking for something interesting to do.
Usted ha conseguido ser una broma-You have gotta be kidding me
Jo det är bara härligt-Well that's just lovely
oh l'enfer, des manœuvres d'évitement-oh hell, evasive maneuvers
Oh der Kopf verräter, gut gut!-Oh the head traitor, good good!
Joder-Fuck
wir sehen uns in Walhalla fräulin Generaloberst-See you in Valhalla madam general
scheiße-Shit
Sie betrügt hündin-You cheating bitch