Fate/Geass: The Eden Vital War
Disclaimer: In this particular universe, I do not own or in any way shape or form hold a claim to the Code Geass, Fate/Stay Night or any other modern works that I may reference in this story.
Long ago, there was a war between Code-bearers and their Geass gifted armies over the power of Eden Vital, a war that destroyed the legendary continent of Atlantis and sent mankind back to the Stone Age. To prevent this, direct confrontations between Code-bearers are now forbidden, with disagreements to be resolved in a ritualized war of champions. But when V.V does the unthinkable and violates this tradition, he will soon learn that he is not the only one able to bend the rules for victory.
" " denotes speech
'italics'denotes thought
'bold' denotes location names
'bold italics' denotes skill use
Battle over Tokyo Bay
In the skies above the foam flecked surface of Tokyo Bay, where hundreds of thousands of lives had been claimed due to the sinking of an Imperial fleet, a fierce battle raged, with Knight of Four Dorothea Ernst and her squadrons of Vincent Wards facing off against Kyoshiro Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords (and their squadrons of Sutherland Airs), playing a lethal game of tag and bait and switch in the air, with tracers of light and fire flying back and forth between the constantly shifting battle-lines, punctuated here and there by powerful discharges of madder red or the answering roar of forest green flames.
'These Sutherland variants are not going down as easily as one would expect. Even if the Vincent Wards are somewhat faster, these Sutherlands have the advantage of those damnable shields…,' the Knight of Four groused, even as she powered up the dual Hadron machine guns equipped to her Gareth, spitting lethal crimson flares at the oncoming foe—
Whoosh!
—a blast that was penetrated by a devastating blast of emerald light that issued from the onrushing Vincent's elbows, as Tohdoh's KMF shot forward with the speed of a meteor, with two maser vibration swords arcing down to slice the Gareth in two—
'Not that easily, Tohdoh…you're facing a Knight of Rounds!'
Whoom! Whoom! Whoom!
Missiles launched with a dull roar from the Gareth's legs and chest, the vapor trails deceptively elegant in the moonlight as they fanned out—and then converged upon the hapless black and silver Vincent they targeted from all sides—
Crack-a-crack-a-crack!
—with the Knight of Four firing her anti-Knightmare autocannons to enhance the force of her countering barrage, forcing her opponent to veer away sharply as he jinked and juked and jived—leading the missiles towards four waiting Gekka units, which drew the missiles away and—
Hiss! Boom! Boom! Boom!
—apparently were destroyed, the four frames disappearing from radar in a bloom of smoke and fire, as the Gareth turned to deal with the troublesome—
"Spinning life or death formation!" a harsh voice came over the radio, as the Gareth whirled to find the Four Gekkas soaring out of the haze of the explosions, heated chainswords revved up and ready to slice through armor, ready to destroy a Knightmare or four.
'I see…they must have deployed anti-radar chaff to confuse the missiles' guidance systems…as expected of elite pilots,' the Knight of Four thought, a slow smile of fierce exultation spreading over her lips. 'Perhaps this will actually be something of a challenge.'
Whoom! Whoom! Whoom!
With the hiss-roar of rocket motors flaring, the remaining missiles in the Gareth's launchers were shot out all at once, trajectories twisting in the air as they homed in on the Gekkas, which once again deployed chaff smoke as they peeled away from their target—leaving the black and silver Vincent of Kyoshiro Tohdoh unguarded to surge forward though a hail of hadron blasts, with the green blaze of its close-range energy weapon being used as a makeshift shield—
Whirr! Crash-crunch! Screeeech!
—as eight Slash Harkens darted out from the Knight of Four's Knightmare Frame, embedding themselves in the sword arms of the black and silver Vincent and ripping them off with the screech of tearing metal, leaving the Vincent—
Whirr! Crunch!
—in a perfect position to launch its own Slash Harkens, the two wire guided projectiles slamming into one of the Gareth's Hadron machine gun arms and crushing into its mechanisms, rendering it inoperable, as the Vincent went into a dive, pulling the Gareth off Balance as—
Crack-a-crack-a-crack!
—anti-Knightmare slugs shot out from four descending Gekkas, in a synchronized four way assault that made complete evasion impossible, blowing off one leg, then another, then—
WHOOSH!
—though the damaged Gareth was still not to be underestimated, as its second Hadron machine gun was still in proper working condition, a wave of light and heat continuously firing, the beam wavering in the air—
BOOM! Whirr! Whirr!
—and vaporizing one of the Gekkas assaulting it, as its Slash Harkens targeted two others, and crunch-crunch-screech, the projectiles tore into two more frames, ripping apart a cockpit and float unit from one, while only the sword arm from another.
'Two down…three hostiles remaining…' Dorothea Ernst mused, calculating her chances of victory in this matchup. 'Interesting tactics, though they seem more used to ground-based combat, as this synchronized four way attack of theirs is avoidable in the air.'
Whomp-hiss!
Pressing a button, the Knight of Four ejected her unit's disabled arm, freeing the Gareth of its entanglement with Tohdoh's frame.
"Damn, she killed Asahina and Senba!" cursed Nagisa Chiba from within her Gekka unit, witnessing the carnage that the Gareth had wrought on their supposedly "unavoidable" combination attack. "Your orders, Colonel Tohdoh?"
Within the black and silver Vincent, Tohdoh retracted his unit's harkens, releasing the now ejected arm of the Gareth as he considered his options. With the loss of the Vincent's arms, the only weapons he had remaining were his Slash Harkens—which were somewhat limited in usefulness when up against an opponent against an opponent with far more, plus autocannon and hadron machine gun.
'Urabe's unit remains undamaged, unlike the others…Nagisa's no longer has its sword arm, and mine is limbless…'
"Chiba, Urabe, deploy chaff smoke and close in," the leader of the Four Holy Swords directed, while sighing that he himself would have to be the bait in this trap. "I will distract the Knight of Four."
With that, the man called Tohdoh of Miracles swung his KMF about to face his opponent, applying full power to the float system, launching Slash Harkens aimed for the leg and torso of the oversized frame in front of him.
Whirr! Whirr!
But they hit nothing as the Gareth pulled back, back back, shoulder-mounted machine cannons discharging rounds of shrapnel that took off a leg, then a wing of the Vincent's float system, forcing the so-called Tohdoh of Miracles to eject from his frame.
Hiss!
Smoke filled the area, confounding the Knight of Four's sensors for a moment, and wary of an ambush from behind, Dorothea Ernst commanded her unit to dive towards the ocean, using the Gareth's one remaining hadron machine gun to fire straight downwards.
FSHH—WHOOOSH! CRACKLE CRACKLE HISSS!
A ribbon of blood red incandescence lanced out from the hadron cannon towards the bubbling waters of Tokyo Bay, which had just recently been the site of a catastrophic methane hydrate release—the incredible light and heat igniting the upwelling methane.
FLASH—BOOM!
The result: a massive explosion, as the air and water itself was turned into a weapon, heat and light and turbulence going off the charts, with Knightmares, friendly and enemy alike, losing control as they were tossed and turned by shockwaves, weapons being fired in panic, doing indiscriminate damage that the rebels were only slightly more shielded against.
Below, the sea was a raging inferno, an unbroken sheet of fire, with tongues of flame rising hundreds of feet into the air over where the methane release kept on outgassing, illuminating this hell on earth where Knightmares collided with Knightmares, ships with ships, machinery with the surface of the sea, as the combatants remaining spiraled out of control.
Thunk! Fshhhh! Creeecchh—BOOM!
Dorothea Ernst's frame was no exception, badly battered as it involuntarily hurtled into the readied edge of a heated chainsword, the teeth of the sawlike blade biting into the armor of the Gareth and slicing through it with a metallic hiss, cockpit block and all, as the Knight of Four made her final move, overloading the hadron gun in her unit's remaining arm and taking the swordsman ambusher with her to a fiery grave, as a sphere of destruction bloomed over the sea, reducing both units to sparks and shadows.
'So this is the face of victory…'
The only survivor of that battle was Kyoshiro Tohdoh, whose escape pod, though buffeted by winds and waves and fierce turbulence, managed to fly clear of the killing field, where victory was won, but a heavy price paid.
Bridge, Aerial Battleship Avalon
After the defeat of Knight of One Bismarck Waldstein and the destruction of the Corbenik by rebel elements presumably led by Zero and the Governor General of Area 11, what remained of the forces under Bismarck's command had panicked, with formations breaking as the surviving combatants lost coordination and simply fired off ordinance randomly to buy them time to flee for safety—only for the Avalon and its escorts to wipe the Britannian forces from existence with a deadly hail of missiles and sweeps of the Hadron Cannon.
Rider (in the guise of Zero) had observed this impassively, watching silently from the bridge of the Avalon after her retrieval by a knightmare VTOL dispatched from said ship, while many of the crew members looked at her with awe…and not a little intimidation. It wasn't exactly every day that someone managed to defeat the greatest (and supposedly most dangerous) Knight of the Empire, and the fact that she had done so (in addition to others knowing of the mysterious powers that she wielded), tended to make her seem a figure beyond humanity.
'Which is exactly how I look at Zero most of the time, now that I think about it, so I suppose turnabout is fair play,' Kallen noted with a twinge of bitterness. 'And with this exchange of roles, with 'Zero' gaining the credit for these victories and powers, it means that at the very end, when this war is over, I can return to a normal life.'
"My congratulations on your victory, Earl Asplund. It appears that you are a more capable commander than Britannia ever gave you credit for," Rider said out loud, watching as the last remnants of the largest branch of the invading force tried to cut and run—only to be destroyed without hesitation or mercy.
Surrender had been offered, but the enemy's chain of command had been broken, and for some reason the Britannian forces believed that the demon Zero was out to kill them all, and so they had fought to the last man, spending lives like water for no real effect. In a way, Kallen pitied them—not that it stopped her from doing what was necessary.
"Hohoho, they will rue the day they decided to stick me with all the paperwork," the Governor General replied, a gleeful expression on his face as the Hadron Cannon's beams cleansed the sky. "And thank you, Zero. Without you, we couldn't possibly have collected so much interesting data!"
"Don't mention it," Rider remarked, finding herself thankful for the mask of Zero, which served to conceal her amused expression. "As for more data, with the defeat of this armada, our next step should be to return to Tokyo Settlement, correct?"
The Earl tilted his head, squinting as he considered the best strategy to proceed with.
"Our Knightmare squadrons are intact, but…" Lloyd allowed with a shrug, clearly considering another course of action. "We still need more data on the Sutherland Air variants—and the new arm being installed on your Guren needs testing."
"You had a replacement radiant wave surger aboard?" Kallen asked, glancing at the Earl of Pudding with more than a hint of skepticism. "I didn't think that Rakshata trusted you not to tamper with that."
Lloyd's face soured slightly at the mention of his archrival's name, as it brought back some rather bitter memories of competition and heartbreak from long ago.
"No…I don't have a radiant wave surger, unfortunately," the white-haired man admitted, pushing up the glasses that had been sliding down his nose. "It's a pity, since Rakshata's rough prototypes leave something to be…"
Realizing that Innis was not quite interested in his thoughts of Rakshata's technology (and having learned the pain of angering dangerous women he worked with), the Governor General decided to return to a more relevant line of thought.
"Right…the new arm has an inbuilt VARIS cannon, as well as a Blaze Luminous generator, Harken Booster and a set of five Radiant Wave missiles," the Earl said at last, smiling at this triumphant development in technology, something he'd been working on as a complement to the left arm of the Guren. "I've also taken the liberty of replacing your Air Glide Wing pack and forkknife with—working models, since our dear Rakshata did see fit to leave me with some of those."
"You have a better idea than returning to the Settlement?" Rider asked, slightly curious as to what went on in the man's mind.
'I suppose that since Euphie is doing most of the actual governing, Earl Asplund can afford to be more eccentric. Then again, almost every Britannian noble or royal that I've encountered has had some eccentricities, so I suppose that would make Euphie the exception, rather than Lloyd, though I doubt the other nobles would enjoy being compared to our Earl of Pudding.'
"As a matter of fact, I do," the Governor General replied, his eyes positively glowing with delight at the thought in his head. "However, if you wish to return to the Tokyo Settlement, the Guren can be transferred to the aerial cruiser Canoel for the journey, while the rest of the Armada heads…for Pendragon."
Behind the mask of Zero, Rider's eyes bulged out in shock.
'I know that in history, the capture of an enemy capital usually means victory, but the Governor General seriously intends to…' But Rider's thoughts trailed off as she looked at the expression on Lloyd Asplund's face, with the man looking eager and confident in his creations. 'And we've already beaten the Empire's greatest Knights here, so all we will be facing is the home garrison, since most of their army is committed on the EU front…wait…this might just work.'
"Your plan has merit, Governor General Asplund," Kallen noted approvingly. "And while I appreciate the offer, I feel that it would be in our best interests to have the flotilla continue on to Pendragon."
'With this Guren, with the Avalon…we can win. We've already defeated the Knight of One, now…we just need to get rid of an Emperor…'
Battle over Tokyo Settlement
In the wake of the mutual destruction of Tamaki's squadron of Knightmares and the Knight of Nine's Aquila, the battle in the skies above the Tokyo Settlement had only redoubled in ferocity, with the Black Knights and their allies in their Sutherland Airs falling upon the enemy's Vincents with a frenzied determination, while the Britannian forces rallied in a desperate effort to stave off defeat.
'If we can win here, if we can capture the capital of Area 11 and neutralize sub-viceroy Euphemia li Britannia, then we can finish this rebellion once and for all,' thought Knight of Twelve Monica Kruszewski, as her startlingly blue eyes studied the tactical map from within the cockpit of her Parsifal, a green and gold unit similar to the Knight of Ten's Percival, but with the addition of miniature proximity missiles that could be launched from chest and hips. 'Still, I never expected that our opponents would be so well equipped, their Knightmares and ships possessing the advanced shielding technology that remains uncommon among our own forces.'
For that matter, the deceptively gentle looking blonde had not expected there to be pilots capable of challenging a Knight of Rounds in a provincial Area—only to find her expectations thrown out the window when first the Knight of Nine had been killed, and now, when she found herself under attack by two advanced Knightmare Frames, the Lancelot prototypes that had paved the way for Seventh Generation Knightmare technology.
Blam! Blam! Blam!
—a flurry of black and red bolts streaked through the sky as the Parsifal soared, using its hadron blasters to distract squadrons of Sutherland Airs, while missiles shot from her shields to surge towards the enemy, leaving white trails in the darkness of the night as they sought targets.
Boom! Boom!
Here and there, a flight of Vincents managed to get behind a squad of Sutherland Airs, attacking float units and weak points, though the enemy soon began to counter this with a massive onslaught of Chaos Mines, an attack that the Vincents could only dodge, seeing as they did not have the benefits of Blaze Luminous shielding.
Fzzzt! Whirr—Smash!
Other times, Vincents managed to close in and use their Needle Blazer weapons to neutralize the shields of their opponents, though they usually found that the brief moment needed for that left them vulnerable—with many Vincents destroyed or damaged by Harken Boosters during that time.
Clang! Screeech!
Movement was impeded by one of only two units capable of matching the Parsifal's speed in the air, with the Lancelot Club parrying the other units whirling force-shield drill-lance with its maser vibration sword, while firing a green particle blast from the VARIS into the Parsifal's shield/missile launcher at point blank range, destroying it.
Whoomp!
Said sound accompanied the launch of miniature proximity missiles fired from the chest and hips of the Knight of Twelve's KMF, leaving purple trails in the air as they raced for the Lancelot Club, with most striking—and detonating harmlessly on—the shields, but some striking legs or exploding near the face, shaking it loose once again as—
Thunk! Fshhhh! Creeecchh!
—the Parsifal's arms, including the primary armament, the drill lance, were sliced from the frame's body by an attack from behind.
'What?ǃ'
With a burst of speed, the Knight of Twelve did the only thing possible, sprinting forwards through the air towards the Lancelot Club, firing Hadron blasters at maximum rate, while launching all three Slash Harkens simultaneously, unloading a merciless barrage on the one who had dared to attack her.
'If I can eliminate this one, when it will be down to just one enemy…'
Blam! Blam! Blam! Whirr! Whirr! Crunch!
While the enemy unit fell back, it was forced to use its shields to protect itself from the Hadron blasts, allowing the Slash Harkens to find their targets, as a VARIS Rifle and part of a float unit were destroyed, the miniature explosions behind the shields sending the Lancelot Club careening away, gradually dropping, with a flurry of black and red bolts streaking after it, blowing off arms, legs, the unit's head and—
Thunk!
—a maser vibration sword slammed through the cockpit of the Parsifal from behind, its quickly oscillating blade slicing through the rear armor and cutting the Knight of Twelve in two.
"Ugh…damn!" the blonde croaked out, the weapons of her unit firing one last time, converged on the shell of the Lancelot Club, the enemy before her, so as to at least destroy one of the enemy's top devicers—
Blam! Blam! BOOM!
—and in answer, black and red bolts surged from the hadron blasters, destroying all that remained of the Lancelot Club—except for the cockpit, which managed to eject just in time and took only cosmetic damage as it soared into the grounds of the Government Bureau, protected by a squadron of Sutherland Airs that moved to defend the Director of Camelot, using their harken cables to guide it to a gentle rest.
Once on the ground, a blue-haired woman emerged and was quickly escorted inside the Government Bureau by a detachment of Black Knights under the command of Kaname Ohgi, who had been assigned to protect the building from an incursion by hostile Britannian forces. Being Black Knights (and thus, mostly Elevens) instead of the original security detail, they proved more difficult to blend in with than OSI had anticipated, as the infiltrators who had tried had quickly being exposed and executed.
'Zero does want this rebellion to succeed so that Japan will be independent,' Ohgi thought to himself, 'because she wishes the destruction of Britannia. She will lead us to victory in the end…I trust her.'
No mean feat, to trust someone who always wore a mask, but Zero's results could be very very persuasive at times.
As for Cecile Croomy, once inside the building, she had proceeded onward along the well known route to the Governor General's office, where Princess Euphemia li Britannia stood looking over the streams of tactical information coming in from the many fronts, being challenged—and being allowed to pass, several times before the Director of Camelot finally arrived at her destination.
"Princess Euphemia," the scientist greeted with a bow, as was proper protocol. Since Lloyd didn't follow protocol at all when he could get away with it, someone had to… "How fares the tactical situation?"
The pink haired princess looked up from the map, eyes widening slightly as she laid eyes on the blue-haired woman.
"It looks like Lloyd was able to defeat Bismarck's fleet, and Tohdoh defeated the Knight of Four's," Euphemia li Britannia replied, taking another glance down. "The only remaining conflict is in the in the skies of the settlement."
"Then I suggest you demand the unconditional surrender of any remaining Britannian forces, as we have defeated the Knights of Nine and Twelve," Cecile advised, as Euphemia took a step back in surprise.
"Oh my," she whispered, stunned for a moment, her legs giving way as she found her way to the nearest available chair. While she had known that victory was possible, being confronted with it in its entirety was a little overwhelming. "Then we've…"
"Yes…we've won our battle," the Director of Camelot confirmed, a slight smile on her face. "Lloyd will be pleased with the data we've gathered—but not so pleased at the wrecked Lancelot Club."
Outside, the Britannian forces had grown more disorganized yet again with the loss of their leaders, which, when coupled with the fierce onslaught and the presence of the White Knightmare quickly becoming called the White Reaper, nearly led to a full on rout—or would have, had any of the Britannian ships survived.
As it was, they were hard pressed to survive, and when Euphemia li Britannia made a broadcast to all surviving Britannian troops in Area 11, promising mercy in exchange for immediate and unconditional surrender, Vincents flocked to the ground in droves, with the pilots ejecting, dropping their weapons and going to their knees, weeping with a sense of relief when the Black Knights found them and brought them to their cells.
For them, the nightmare was finally over, and they, unlike their comrades in arms, would live.
Student Council Clubhouse, Ashford Academy
Within the Student Council Clubroom, the television's weak glow was the only source of light, as an official broadcast from the Government Bureau announced the utter defeat of the invading forces, accompanied by news of the arranged marriage in the Chinese Federation being called off. Yet this time, there was no idle chatter discussing the news as one might expect, no members of the Student Council sitting and watching, though clearly someone had turned on the television earlier.
Creak!
Slowly, the door swung open, as the wheelchair riding form of Nunnally vi Britannia peeked inside, having been attracted by a commotion earlier, wrinkling her nose at the pungent scent of blood and terror that escaped the moment the door was opened.
"Hello? Is somebody there?" she asked hesitantly, feeling her heart begin to beat faster, breath growing ragged, as—
Click!
—something cold and hard and metallic was pressed up against her forehead.
"So, Nunnally Lamperouge, is it?" a darkly sinister, if childish voice asked. "Or was it Nunnally vi Britannia, the other child of Marianne?"
"Who are you? What do you want?" she asked shakily, knowing enough to identify the object as something dangerous and potentially deadly.
"That's an interesting question, isn't it?" replied the mysterious voice which clearly meant her no good at all. "I'm here to fix a mistake I made eight years ago: I should have killed you and your brother when I had the chance. After all, you are your mother's children, and I should have known that her spawn would interfere with my plans."
Hiss!
A sharp intake of breath, as Nunnally turned her face towards the speaker.
"You mean you—"
"Nunna," came a weak voice from inside the Student Council room. "Get away from—"
Crack!
A single gunshot echoed through the chamber, leaving silence in its wake.
A crimson sigil flared, and two figures vanished, leaving behind a single bloody corpse.
A/N: Exeunt the Knights of the Round, as the last battle draws near. Twas a heavy price to pay for some, not as much for others...and there will be more suffering before all is said and done. Thanks for reading, and reviews are always appreciated!