Mad? You think I'm mad. I'll show you mad!

Chapter 53

Two kilometres west of Fukouka harbour, CFA occupied, Zone Area 11

The Reaper

Fish scattered in the wake of the Reaper as it glided through the water. Its tractor beam propulsion systems kicking up a trail of silt and murk that further obscured it.

The cockpit no longer had controls or handles. Instead Luthur floated in a suspension fluid of impact resistant aerogel. A breathing mask and helm et was attached to his face even as data cables snaked into the back of his skull and connected to the Reapers systems. Emerald light filtered through the sluggish liquid. Illuminating the VR rig that connected to his arms and legs. Keeping him from tangling his limbs in the data cables connecting to his body like a marionette.

The temperature sensors translated the chill of the water as a ghost sensation even though his liquid cocoon was warm.. He could feel the cold water on the metal hull. Nowhere near the sensitivity of real flesh as if his limbs were wrapped in wool. Yet to his kinaesthetic sense he was a enormous floating metal revenant. His hands metal claws gripped his weapons as easily as if flesh and bone. A dull warmth in his chest was the hum of the reactor. Even as the camo cloak billowed behind him in the water like battered seaweed. There were slight motions of the shoulders shifting in mimicry of breathing. Six smaller figures floated in the mire behind him. Lesser kindred to the reaper they drifted through the water like titanic ghosts. Special weapons proof against the corrosive seawater held beneath their cloaks.

Then they stopped and lowered themselves into the silt. From beneath the billowing cloth dozen smaller objects drifted away from him and headed towards the shoreline. Two of them trailing thin micro datacables.

A seemingly innocuous navigation bouy floated up onto the surface of the water. A digital periscope which sent its visual data back down the line.

"Talon I am in position. Remora drones deployed." The digital periscope showed the Federation landing vehicles, the troops marching ashore and the considerable AA emplacements that had been added on to the bases pre existing defences. The Federation had taken the base with relatively minimal damage. Of course relatively minimal for a Bastion class Brittanian military base meant there were large holes and battle damage scattered across its expanse. One of the docking cranes had been destroyed. Most of the worse damage had probably occurred inside when the garrison realised that command control had been compromised and either surrendered or fought to the last in bitter room to room combat. A hammer the CFA may be but it was a very disciplined hammer. Armoured vehicles were still rolling ashore from transports that turned around and headed back across the sea as soon as the last vehicle deployed.

A dozen small human sized torpedoes passed by the Nobuseri wraiths. Micro propellers pulling The Talon and her operatives through the water.

In the air above crows flew through the spotlights and larger raven drones manuevered into the patches of shadow above and beside the buildings. Providing a map of the enormous Military citadel. A skyscraper sized fortress with a functional military base within, around and on top of it.
As much as he hated Brittania Luthur always admired their advances in the art of superscale engineering.

"Talon you are to infiltrate the base and establish hard lock connection to their data systems. The Chinese have manually severed any possibility of infiltrating the network from outside. They may have physically replaced key sections with their own hardware to inhibit the Brittanians.

Remain concealed within the structure until the activation of phase two where you are to secure the generals escape along with Sawasaki I will remain hidden here.

Brittanian forces are amassing at rally points. Estimated time to operation launch T minus three hours.

We will use the counter attack to cover our strike.

"What about the Eunuch general."

"He is secondary priority. If there are unavoidable complications he becomes expendable."

He turned his attention away from their conversation and contemplated the dataflow. Satelite imagery and intelligence giving him a view of the territory the chinese had already seized. He turned his systems to an analysis of the Brittanian forces. Now what will they be using as their spearhead?

The Knight

Through the fading evening light the Avalon sliced through the clouds far east of the captured base.

The Lancelot was undergoing pre launch checks as Cecile conferred with Suzaku.

"Remember don't activate the … " A harsh cough came from Lloyd and Cecile rolled her eyes. "secret weapon until you have maximum effectiveness you only have one shot."

A computerised voice confirmed the final linkage of the flight pack. "Avionics connected."

"You rated as top class on the float simulator." Cecile sighed. "Tell me Suzaku why did you want to give up being a knight."

Suzaku slumped inside the cockpit his eyes downcast. "Princess euphemia still believes in me even now. Even knowing …. If I disappointed her I think she'd end up hating me herself. And the idea of her knowing what it means to hate anyone is unbearable."

The Princess

Euphemia looked out the window of her

The Talon

The sheer size of a brittanian fortress often made defending against infiltration a difficult task. All the more so if you were an invading enemy. As the Base shifted to high alert a small team of skilled warriors moved through empty crawlways. The most noise they made was in cutting away panels to allow Luthurs small mechanical toys to latch onto the bases fibreoptics.

Hanging upside down above a live wire Talon affixed a hand sized mechanical spider to the final connection. The device activated with a tiny chirp. She blinked her right eye three times rapidly to activate her helmet com. "Shinigami final connection established."

"Well done Talon. I have access o the system beginning decryption. Until I have prepared the doppelganger protocol we might as well enjoy the show."

The CFA air defence radar had picked up the approach of the Avalon and the AA missile batteries had responded.
"Incoming missiles apparent launch point Fukouka base one minute five seconds to impact."

"Not bad they're prepared for aerial attack as well."

"Are we laying down a barrage?"

"Oh don't worry we're fine where we are."

From below the cloud layer dozens of AA missiles streaked upwards one after the other exploding upon the Avalon shrouding the vehicle in fire and smoke.

A CFAF spy glass monitoring plane provided a long range view of the destruction. Relaying the imagery back to the main base.
"Target destroyed."

Sawasaki stood by Eunuch general Dal Wong in the Citadel command centre. "Hm unimpressive."

In the silty depths of the harbour fish darted away from the reapers shaking head. Oh if only.

Sawasaki blanched at the next message. "Target remains." The deep breath of the officer hinted at shock. "I Repeat target remains." The smoke parted showing the Avalon forging onwards protected by green hexagons of energy.

Lloyd danced around the bridge laughing in joy even as the ships technicians tried to focus on their jobs. "We proved the system was practical with the Lancelot and the Kay. So scaling up to a ship was the logical next step." He then shifted into an improvised combination of a jive with cha cha.

Cecile tensed her mouth to keep from laughing and updated Suzaku. "The ship will breach the enemy line at high altitude and near your drop point. You are using the experimental knightmare scale float unit. You will attack the enemy headquarters at Fukouka base. The float unit uses energy at an extremely high rate so pay close attention to the operational time limit."

The accelerator rails charged with power even as the turbines of the flight unit heated up. With a crack the lancelot shot forward into the sky like a cannon ball.

Sawasaki was still waiting for an explanation as to the somehow unharmed flying ship when he received more bad news.

"The enemy ship appears to have launched a bomber but it is moving faster than a fighter plane"

"Visual confirmed."

"A knightmare?"

The Eunuch general frowned in disbelief. "Not being transported but moving on its own?"

Beneath the waves Luthur was experiencing identical shock. That is impossible how is it achieving such a speed? It was too high up. The reaper moved as it did by using multiple grav tractors to pull it along the ground. Which required it be within a minimum height for the beams to grab. Otherwise it was more like a rather heavy balloon. Actual gravitic impellers were fundamentally impractical with a humanoid structural frame.

The Lancelot was even less aerodynamic and was somehow dodging through the air as easily as on the ground and at seven times the altitude the reaper could handle. The Avalon had been annoying enough but at least it moved in a predictable fashion.

A eye blink turned his attention back to the feed of the Bastions control centre,
"Could it be what was reported the special weapon of the ASEEC?"
Sawasaki cursed"Then it must be piloted by."

Suzaku of course. A brief eye twitch and the feed zoomed in on the modifications made to Lloyds prototype as it crossed the final perimeter and landed on the edge of the upper Citadel.

The Lancelot looked much beefier a mech. A raised metal collar came up from the chest plate obscuring the lower half of the lancelots head. Additional weapons were attached to locking points on the side. The central chest section was reinforced with a thicker pure white metal. And two large bulky objects lay bound by pipes and cabling to the side of the cockpit. Well secured or they would be getting ripped off by the wind tension. The central horn and the shoulder plates were also reinforced by thick metal plates.

Suzaku received his final update from Cecile even as he opened fire on the bases outer AA systems. "Sawasaki is the government of japan. Remove him and the federation loses its legal figleaf for being here."

Suzaku broadcast on the CFA frequency. "Sawasaki Throw down your weapons and surrender. End this conflict."

Sawasakis voice replied slightly garbled but still carrying the edge of disdain."So Suzaku. You're as stubborn as your father I will give you that."

"This has nothing to do with my father I came to end this fighting, If you would only surrender.

"You would rob this country of its dream of independence. Is that you're idea of justice without ideology?"
Oh Sawasaki are you going to reason with him. This will be amusing.

Suzakus voice sounded strained as the agile frame ducked past. "No you're wrong." and does he follow up a justification for that statement no of course not.

A chinese federation gun ru scored a hit on the lancelots outer plate. Deep gouges wrought into the metal even as Suzaku turned and eliminated the attacker. Yet more forces were surrounding him and he swerved behind cover as a gun ru line unleashed a wall of munitions that even the Lancelot could not dodge.

"Distracted just from me talking to him he has much to learn."
As amusing as it would be to watch this banter between you Sawasaki I'm afraid we're out of time.

Luthur sent a signal to the Operatives near the control room.
"Talon all signals replicated take him. I have completed my stealth takeover of the base security.

Sawasaki cursed as the vid screen suddenly cut out.
"What? What happened to the feed general what is?" The loud click of a safety being deactivated caused the self proclaimed prime Minister and the Chinese general to turn around very slowly.

"I'm sorry sawasaki but I'm afraid things are not going as you hoped they would." General Katase held a gun on the shocked pair even as Luthur mimicked their commands to the rest of the base easily. "You're not as indispensable to our plans as you thought. Also I never liked you."

A series of dull gasps and wheezes signalled the simultaneous death of all the guards in the room. As ninjas appeared from the ceiling the floor, every conceivable and inconceivable surface. Two appeared to just step out of thin air.
Luthur allowed himself a microsecond of amusement before returning his attention to the task at hand

Sorry gentlemen but I think I can coordinate these forces better then you at least as far as getting rid of my interfering sibling is concerned.

The processing capacities of the Reaper paired to Luthurs mind seamlessly overrode and suborned the communication systems. It had taken over an hour of carefully recording communications to be able to duplicate the generals and his command staff perfectly. Still since he had assigned smart conversation programs to the other officers present it might not hold up under close scrutiny but he only needed it to last ten minutes.

The Princess

In the office of the Prince Euphemia made an unusual request to her brother. "Schneizel I can I please have a private room and a direct link with my knight there is something I must tell him." Thank you Nina for your words. Euphemia was still afraid the green haired girl she had encountered in the public access of the citadel might be slightly crazy. Of course being a friend of Lloyd who had been invited into the citadel to discuss theories made it more likely.

The Knight

The Lancelot veered away from the central area. Any attempt to get close to the part of the base Sawasaki was in failed. Three times in the past ten minutes he had retreated in the face of Gun Ru's and battle tanks launching simultaneous volleys that even the lancelot couldn't dodge. Suzaku looked at his energy readout and gritted his teeth. I just need one clear shot at them.

Then a familiar voice shook him from "Suzaku?"

"Princess Euphemia?"

"Suzaku well the thing is I."

"Things are a bit difficult right now." The frame leapt past a pair of Gun ru's before firing the Varis into an AA battery destroying its missile payload.

In many ways this was futile the base was enormous as well as being a hardened military structure. Suzaku would be unable to even destroy a tenth of it.

"Well its that uhmm."

Suzaku's slash harkens glanced off the thick armour of some Chinese D49 heavy tanks even as their cannon shells missed him by centimeters. "I must focus upon the battle."

"I command you to love me"

"Yes princess at once." Suzaku had already launched two slash harkens into a gun ru before his brain caught up to that statement. " Wait what?"

Cecile and Lloyd both looked back at the princess. "What?"

Record statement analyse linguistics confirm ERROR SLASH ABORT SHUNT what? In his aerogel cockpit Luthurs head twitched in harmony with the Reapers own cowled skull. Even as he ran a diagnostic on his audio transceivers.

"And I will love you"

A declaration of love in the middle of a battle? What is going on with this woman?

"I love your stubbornness and you're kindness.. Your clumsiness and how bad you are with cats. I love everything about you so please don't hate yourself."

Suzaku's face showed both joy and sheer perplexity as he replied.
"You're always saying things like that. Everything you do is spur of the moment." The MVS punched into a Gun Ru cockpit and bisected its pilot. "When we met. When you declared yourself as the princess. When you decided on my school. Made me a knight" he drew in a breath "Yet it is that very thing that opened doors for me."

"But don't worry Princess. I will come back to you. I promise."

Then Suzaku stopped because he realised that his most recent dash for safet had him land in the middle of a marshalling area. And he was surrounded by Gun Ru's.
The voice of Sawasaki came in over the speaker.
"Suzaku surrender and be taken into custody. As the son of the last prime minister I can promise you'll be treated well." For a patricidal traitor that is.

"No I'd never forgive myself if I used my father name that way."

The lights of the optics in the reapers skull rolled in exasperation. Well how about that he actually discovered a sense of shame.

Luthur watched through the eyes of a pair of stealthy raven drones the small hovering robots hiding in the shadows of the buildings from which the Gun Ru's emerged. Yes there was no way for The lancelot to successfully evade the wave of fire that was going to descend on him. Luthur let out a breath the reaper's head tilted downwards. Quantity had a quality all its own.

His energy filler is down. The Lancelot''s need for customised batteries to catalyse its Yggdrasil drive was a severe weakness. Lloyd always let practical details slip past him. In case you don't survive me wrecking Lloyds little toy goodbye little brother. Then the voice of the prime minister Sawasaki came over the band. "Prepare to fire."

Suzaku let out a breath "Lloyd. They've got me surrounded. Its time."

Inside the Lancelot Cockpit Suzaku flipped a special panel that covered a large red button. With the words PRESS WHEN IN NEED OF LUDICROUS POWER Etched into the panel beneath it Several high intensity magnesium flashbangs launched off the Frames shoulders. Blinding his foes for the span of several seconds.

The lancelot removed the battery and replaced it with something different. Instead of an orange rectangular box it consisted of a small metal sphere bracketed inside a metal frame The frame was welded together with the look of something that had been done by hand.

Once it locked into place there was a brief shock of static electricity and the small sphere began to spin itself. Twisting in its mount like a thing possessed. Discharge ran down the line and the sakuradite cube in the centre of yggdrassil drive span even faster.

The ambient energy readings on the raven Drones sensors doubled and then doubled again.

He sheathed the two MVS.

Then his arms reached back and locked into the bulky metal packages on either side of the cockpit

He held out the pair of devices on either side. They unfolded like childrens toys. A pair of energy shields snapped on above and below the barrels of the weapons. The pilots recovered from their shock unleashed a storm of munitions that strained against the shields.

A bark of sound and a pair of canisters shot out breaking up into a thousand small crimson ball bearings before Twin cones of scarlet light were cast into the pink cloud. They were diffuse. Reaching no further then thirty meters.

Refined solid sakuradite unlike unprocessed ore or liquid sakuradite is actually very very difficult to explode. In its stable form it can be set on fire smashed into powder or hit by a lightning bolt without destabilising. However the hyper charged particles of the hadron cannon were of a different nature.

Unfocused the energy wave generating insufficient thermal energy to even breach the Gun'rus armor. Then a microsecond second later the countless tiny fragments of refined sakuradite exploded in a wave of incandescent plasma. It rolled out like a tsunami from hell. Twin cones of destruction that burned so bright it fried cameras and rendered organic eyes blind.

There was no time. No way to escape. The Raven drone feed went black in an instant as they were vaporised. As the entire upper sector of the base and every gun ru within the perimeter were consumed.

Emergency failsafes cut off the data feed before the sheer incandescent light could damage Luthurs optic nerves. Even so the reaper slumped into the silt as if punch drunk. For several seconds of real time Luthur lost all sense of where he was.

Luthur retasked the remaining drone to float up above the drifting smoke and gaze at the remains of the central base.

The entire area was a roaring inferno. The blastwave had continued across the upper surface igniting everything around it. What hadn't been annihilated by the plasma blast stood as slagged and melted ruins the metal fused with the shredded and glass streaked stone. The destruction continued for two hundred meters and everything beyond it was on fire. The pressure and heat continuing on from detonation to shatter glass and ignite flesh, paper and plastic. At the far edge of the megastructure molten metal ran downwards like an infernal waterfall.

The drone caught images of infantry soldiers reduced to charcoaled ruins. Others still alive with their armor and skin flash burned off screaming in pain. Flinging themselves off the edges to die.

A thunderclap of displaced air echoed as the smoke cleared. Revealing what lay at the epicente of annihilation.

The lancelot was still standing there both of the hadron cannons were smoking ruins. Electrical discharge crackling over blackened and warped surfaces. The shield emitters already melting into unrecognisable slag. Backwash from the detonation had streaked the lancelot with black and grey where it had worked around the edges of the shields.

Steam vented as the weapons broke from their locking clamps coolant hoses writhing like serpents as they detatched and fell to the ground. Melting power cables falling apart into puddles of liquid metal.

The image flickered glazing in places where electro magnetic fields interfered with sensors. Snarling static echoed on almost every communication channel.

Inside his respirator mask Luthurs breath stilled. The Lancelot must surely be drained of power. The strain generated by such a titanic weapon stressing its reserves and battery capacity to nothing.

The knightmare turned its glowing optics towards the central spire of the upper base and accelerated through the flames.

Ah yes. He is still after Sawasaki.

"Talon expedite your extraction. The Lancelot is still active. Repeat still active. He just destroyed half of the upper base with what appears to be a directed plasma bomb."

A digital command routed through the datanet. Wraith squadron complete the sabotage of the harbours outer works. Rig the mines for delayed activation and then prepare to provide supporting distraction and pick up for Talon operatives.

He activated an internal count down while he turned his mind to understanding what the hell just happened.
command - Replay video track from point 29. Overlay with magnetic resonance imagery.

The last readings before his drones perished played backwards in slow motion.

Makes no sense the beams were still diffuse like last time. Even our own toroidal plasma ammunition can't do that. Wait. Insert command Red23 Run comparison to Toroidal plasma weaponry. ERROR - Blast yield too high thermal wake too high.
- Access archival footage. Run comparison…. Dispersion effect more closely resembles the detonation of an FAE.—calculate end of line.

Slow magnetic resonance imagery focus separate out field running from the core.
The Hadron cannon like that deployed from the Avalon previously. Yet the particles are of insufficient concentration. In fact it appears they are even weaker?

Spectographic analysis complete. Energy wave interacting differently along particles prior to Gefiun dispersal. Conductive with Sakuradite.

Confirm presence of Sakuradite.

The computer within the Reaper accelerated through ultra rapid stochastic analysis. Slowing down imagery to overlay it with the Athena implant.

Brilliant. He drew most of the base into close range. Then detonated refined solid state sakuradite with a precisely tuned particle bombardment from the hadron cannons.

Lloyd you are a brilliant visionary. …. AND YOU ARE ALSO FUCKING INSANE!

His second in command of the Wraiths chimed in. "Shinigami my readings are anomalous he is generating enough power he should have already run down on the main battery."

The Lancelot charged forwards smoke rising from gaps in the metal even as its MVS carved apart the few remaining gun Ru trying to stop it. The weapon blast had also generated a hideous emp effect that had rendered Luthurs ability to coordinate the remaining chinese forces non-existent. And cut them off from the rest of their forces fighting across Japan.

"It is insane. How is it generating that much power?"

Luthur pulled his mind back from the data analysis and felt his thoughts shift to a more normal pattern.

All those years Rakshata told me I had never really seen Lloyd when he was angry. Now I see it.

Suzaku couldn't stop using it The energy signature the ever increasing amount rising arcing off the frame as it moved. The juddering sound as that unstable orb shook in its casing.

"He's using an unshielded teslonic sphere. It provides the necessary motive power for the Ygdrassil its drawing in ambient electrical charge to catalyse its self sustaining electromagnetic reaction. Like nuclear fission in a way.
He can keep burning off power but it will just get worse and worse soaking up electrical charge until.

Luthur had a mental hiccup as he paused at the sheer audacity of the situation.

"It explodes. He's powering the lancelot with a bomb! That's why ygdrassil drives were used. The Teslonic Sphere was a fundamentally flawed concept. Incorporating Teslas bizarre notions of wireless electricity was near suicidal. The very thing that made it so powerful also rendered it uncontrollable."

Wraith -2 spoke to their master. "What does this mean?"

"It means there is no way to safely shut the thing down once its built up to full cycle. Except Lloyd has done something dumber he's using it as a battery for the ygdrassil drive. Which means Suzaku cannot stop using it. Eventually he will either overstress the ygdrassil Drive which will make it explode. Or cause it to simply have a physical break down. At which point being unable to burn off its own cascading discharge the Tesonic drive will explode. Or it will build to critical overload no matter how much stress he puts on the ygdrassil and then explode."

Wraith-3 chimed in his voice deadpan as always. "Perhaps that is the point that plasma blast has thrown their communications into chaos. He's created an enormous gap in their CFA's air defence network. Their coordination is shot to hell. Cornelia can airdrop in regular knightmares now.

Oh heavens mercy Suzaku. He didn't pick you in spite of your death wish He picked you because of it.

The Lancelot continued to move its shields sparking on and off in a staccato pattern even as it performed a split and rollerbladed between two narrow walls. Suzaku may not consider any other possible motives for him being assigned this mission but he was clearly intent on finding Sawasaki if he had to fight his way through the fortress floor by floor.

"Talon The lancelot is inbound and armed to your location. Take the minister and general genbu kill the spare. That EM pulse has rendered any attempt to coordinate the remaining forces outside the central structure useless. So I will ensure he is kept busy.

"Of course Shinigami."

Luthur confirmed that his Wraith squadron had completed their primary objective and then issued the order for them to follow him.
"Come my brave Tengu we have a knight to hamper."

The Eunuch General sweated as the talon operatives led them down another eerily empty corridor lit red by emergency lights. Luthurs take over of the system guiding them seamlessly. He looked forward at the owl themed ninja talking on her communicator. Then turned his attention to the pair levering open a elevator doorway to reveal an open shaft "You're mad you will never get out of"

Talon pulled out a pistol and promptly shot the Eunuch general in the head and heart before he could finish the sentence. Another of her ninja clamped a metal collar around Sawasakis neck.

The collar went live and beeped. And minister Sawasaki fell forwards as the device injected Torpor into him. Slowing his system down even as a breathing mask apparatus raised over his face. The largest of the talons warriors strapped the unconscious man to a carrying harness on his back.

Talon nodded at her fellow operatives even as they secured clamps to the elevator cables and began their high speed descent into the depths of the fortress.

"Come Minister. There is someone who very much wishes to speak to you."

The Princess

"Why can't we reach him?" Euphemia was convinced Suzaku was alive especially after Lloyd had described the weapon he had fired. But her inability to reach her beloved knight

Cecile replied to the princess. "I am sorry your highness but the disruption caused by firing the weapon prevents us making contact. We should reestablish communication in the next ten minutes."

There was a heavy knock at the door.
"Princess Euphemia. Your brother requires your presence immediately."Euphemia closed her eyes for a moment. Mastered her emotions and then replied to Cecile. "Inform me as soon as you confirm his status.:

Cecile nodded back over the vid link. "Of course your highness."

Euphemia opened the door to see Lord Darlton at attention flanked by two soldiers. The soldiers were glad of their full face masks as the glare of extremely controlled displeasure from the normally sweet pinkette princess was ... extremely intimidating.
"I'm afraid you have to come with me. We need to ask you about something you did earlier today." Darlton was slightly impressed. Euphemia in that moment looked much like Cornelia did before she killed someone.
The Princess polite but in ice cold tone responded to the knight General "What it could be Lord Darlton? With all respect my knight is in the midst of combat."

The scarred knight had an expression combining worry and sheer bewilderment. "There was a injured bird you asked your staff to care for. Its head has apparently exploded due to an implanted self destruct device."

The Lancelot leapt up onto the ledge of a helipad even as the slash harken tore a transport copter to pieces. The data on the bases layout had revealed the most direct escape routes. His factsphere scanned the area. The escape vehicle had arrived in response to a frantic evac signal breaking through the interference.

"At last once I capture Sawasaki I can end the fighting." Still no sign of the minister.

A urgent alarm blasted into the cockpit. WARNING CONTAINMENT FAILING. ENERGY SPIKE IMMINENT.

With one hand he reached around and seized the makeshift charging device from where it had been placed. Tearing it free and flinging it away. It fell down past the ledge and then exploded in an actinic flare of blue light illuminating the sky above. Kneeling down he inserted the third and final energy filler into the Lancelot Frame.

"Lloyd I am still alive but I'm onto my reserve filler now. Preparing to."

Something beaded across the factsphere. Water. But it had stopped raining. Another droplet of liquid fell down and hissed against the heated MVS blade.

The factsphere reorientated upwards.

There was the reaper floating in the air halfway up the wall. Standing at right angles to the fortress in utter defiance of gravity. Around him a half dozen smaller figures wrapped in robes of grey. Giant metal wraiths with gleaming blades, sea water falling like rain from their sodden forms.

For a moment only silence. The dull roar of the distant inferno echoing like the sea. Then it ended as the figures dropped down towards the Lancelot blades extended.

It was on.

Authors note

Derain: It Lives! Sorry guys between legal battles my second book and other problems lelouch and friends have been on the backburner. Yet here we are again. Although watch out because Cornelia will get her time to shine. As in shine a microwave laser into the Black Knights Faces.

Also my editor is on holiday at present so the more scrubbed up version of this may appear in a week.

BRANNOTH: Yes but its a good thing i got you to fix that temporal paradox before i came back!

Lelouch: Really powering the Lancelot with a bomb?

Derain: Yeah the real reason suzaku got the job is because he has a death wish. There are other skilled pilots in Brittanias armed services who might be offered the 'honour' of working as the ASEEC's test pilot. Yet they would rather be riding a shark with two hundred sticks of dynamite strapped to their chests into the mouth of an active volcano.

And while we are on the subject in Canon when Lelouch gives the lancelot the replacement battery at fukoika base one thought keeps popping up. Where did he get the battery? The Lancelot uses customised energy fillers made specifically for it so how could lelouch have one? The Gawain is twice the Lancelots size easily with an inbuilt float unit. Its power requirements must be even worse.

Kallen: Luthur is calling someone else a maniac?

Derain: This is also a major difference between Luthur and his nemesis Lloyd. Luthur is very $^&% when it comes to scientific procedure and safety. He chewed out Lelouch for saving his life. Considering what he works with it's the reason he didn't melt himself into radioactive sludge.
Lloyd is a bit more unconventional.

Lloyd when he is motivated is like a spark on expresso. With a limited budget he decided to forego things like safety, durability and whether any sane army in the world would want to actually make more then one of these things. He just destroyed two prototype cannons by turning them into directed plasma bombs and blew half his remaining budget on a reactor that only works once before exploding. And the other half on enough refined sakuradite to power thirty drive cores.

Right now the accountant in charge of ASEEC has just had a slitting migriane. I've decided that this universes incarnation of Nikola Tesla married into the Asplund family. Just for laughs.

Suzaku: Wait I thought I was Luthur's nemesis.
Luthur: Suzaku you are not my nemesis. You are not Lelouch's nemesis. You're more like Arthur the cat's nemesis.

Arthur: MRawwwn.

Luthur: Oh sorry Arthur. Right you are not even the cat's nemesis. You're more like an overly large mouse he toys with.

Derain: I may just create a separate tech file to discuss sakuradite and its various bullshit properties. As well as the physics breaking bullshit Luthur does with radioactivity and gravity. And after playing the new Fallout DLC I realise that this fic needs … more robots.