Chapter 6

Preparations

It was fortunate for Lelouch that Margrave Gottwald was one of the highest ranking members of the empires military still active in the Area, as this meant that when Cornellia arrived and discussed her plans plans to capture Zero it was with Gottwald, and the listening device Lelouch had planted on him, present.

Of course, the only reason there were no higher ranked members of the military left was thanks to a plot from the pureblood faction that backfired on them.

With Gottwald working with Zero, the call to claim a sighting of him in Shinjuku led to the Margrave being able to confirm that Zero wasn't there and instead of falling into the trap alone bringing trustworthy subordinates, supposedly to help capture Zero, but really to catch the ambushers.

With them captured the conspirators were revealed to the new viceroy, who questioned why they would want to silence someone who had been investigating multiple deaths of members of the royal family beyond the agenda of a political faction and came to a reasonable, if inaccurate, conclusion.

The end result of the trap was the arrests of the pureblood faction and Gottwald being placed in charge of the military until more experienced nobles could be brought in.

Even Lelouch had no idea that things could turn out so well, beyond his wildest dreams for his alliance with the Margrave.

It had become clear that he was the only person capable of spotting the devices, clearly just another way his 'Geass' messed with the world.

The only problem was that he was supposed to be in class when Cornellia arrived, a problem solved, at least somewhat, by taking a leaf from Kallens book and playing sick. Fortunately, his record was with him, as whenever he dodged school to gamble he hadn't bothered with an excuse, instead making sure he would be back before he was missed, and so there every indication that if he was off sick, he was actually unwell.

It helped that he knew beforehand and was able to set up his 'illness' ahead of time.

He wasn't planning to use a similar excuse for his activities as Zero of course, it would be too easy to draw a connection between the times Lelouch was off sick and when Zero was active after all. But taking time off sick for times that he wouldn't appear as Zero would hopefully act as a cover, as if he was going to use illness as an excuse for time off, wouldn't he use the excuse to cover his activities as Zero?

"We will need to recreate the events of the attack on Shinjuku ghetto to draw out Zero," he heard Cornellia state with a confidence that was typical of his half sister. "Prepare the military to target Saitama ghetto."

"How should we prepare to deal with zero?" Gottwalds voice was much clearer, thanks to the listening device having been planted on him.

"Ensure that the replacement Knightmares have explosives planted in them to prevent Zeros forces using them against us. Beyond that, my personal forces will be kept in reserve until Zero appears. Tell the military that they're being held back to deal with any groups that take the chance to attack while we're distracted. Now remember, while it is important that Zero hear about the attack, we must ensure he doesn't learn that it is a trap."

It's a test of his loyalty, Lelouch immediately realised. There's no way she would tell him the whole plan otherwise.

He needed to think through how to deal with the attack carefully.

If he was too obviously prepared for the trap it would blow Jeremiahs cover, but if he sacrificed too many of the residents of the ghetto it would destroy the trust he had started to build with the group he had encountered in Shinjuku.

Then again, there was certain to be another resistance group in Saitama who he could recruit to help him. Also, if the attack resulted in the same quest as he encountered in Shinjuku, he would be best served by ensuring there were as many people in the ghetto to begin with as possible, and getting them all out alive.

The problem was that if he contacted anyone ahead of time they would attempt to evacuate the civilians, which would damage his ability to grow stronger for later encounters.

He would have to prepare for everything that was going to be thrown at him, but in such a manner that his preparations could be seen as just reactions to what he could have learned without Gottwald working for him.

What would he know without the Margraves help?

The new viceroy was Cornellia, who would have her inner circle of knights with her.

That was it. There was no way she would come to Japan without her closest knights, so it would be entirely reasonable for him to prepare forces to deal with them. And if the report was that these knights would not show up for the Saitama attack, it would be reasonable for him not to send out his 'specialists' until they showed up.

As long as he could outfit the group correctly, he could hold them in reserve to deal with the trap without breaking Gottwalds cover.

As for the Knightmares, he would need a justification not to use them.

The obvious solution would be to provide more advanced Knightmares, but then he would need a way to smuggle them into the ghetto without raising suspicions, quite aside from needing to obtain the Knightmares in the first place.

He opened the shop menu, just in case there was any change in the Knightmares shown as available.

A few of the Knightmares in the list made him frown, but he moved on, finding that the cheapest Knightmares he could see as being useful, the Sutherlands, were still too expensive for mass purchase, although apparently the shop was running a sale on them.

That or he had unlocked a permanent reduction in their cost.

He had thought to use any surviving Sutherlands from Shinjuku, but apparently they had mysteriously stopped working once the battle was over, with no trace of what the problem was.

Given the way he had abused his power, in the exact manner it had warned him not to, it seemed a fair bet that it had disabled them somehow.

Without any way to obtain the Knightmares he would need to avoid the trap, Lelouch decided to check the sell screen, in case there was anything that he didn't need, and wasn't coming to mind at the moment, that he could use to produce the necessary funds, and was surprised by the listing of ten Sutherland class Knightmares.

The surviving units from Shinjuku.

It seemed as though, despite the Knightmares being disabled, they were still counted as sellable assets.

Without thinking twice he sold them, before heading back to the buy screen to obtain working replacements.

There he found a certain problem.

The Sutherlands may be cheaper to purchase than before, but that didn't quite make up for the lower sale price that all games, clearly including his power, included.

For the price that ten Sutherlands brought him, he could purchase just six, with a small amount left over. At least, small amount in terms of Knightmare prices.

Alternatively he could buy five Sutherlands and a distinct Knightmare for himself, a choice that his 'Lead From the Front' skill should benefit from, such as the, apparently experimental, Islington, labelled as between fifth and sixth generation.

As he considered whether he should proceed with purchasing the units, a thought occurred to him; he was able to sell the disabled Knightmares to buy replacements in full working order, so why shouldn't he be able to sell the sabotaged frames and buy replacements?

With that solution apparent he confirmed the purchase of five Sutherlands and the Islington, already preparing a plan for how to bring the Knightmares into position.

All that was left was to prepare Kallens group to attack the viceroys personal guard from outside their encirclement.

They shouldn't have too much trouble raiding a production facility, should they...

Omake:

There were serious questions that the Knightmare frame posed.

He had never even heard of the 'Shinkiro' frame, so what was with this 'Super Robot Wars' model Shinkiro?

And why did its entry in the shop say 'DLC: invalid payment option'?

There was something up with this...

AN: Sorry about the delay, the internet availability has barely improved since last update. Also apologies for the lack of length (and not much happening), but I saw how long it has been since the last update when checking the events of the previous chapter. Over a month seems a bit excessive as update rates go.

The omake has been planned, at least in broad strokes, for ages. After all, what is a modern game without DLC, and what DLC can be purchased with in-game currency?

As for the disabled Sutherlands, I had been planning that from the start (not the selling them, just the disabling), and was surprised that I hadn't had it mentioned yet.

And if anyone questions Lelouch leaving people in danger until he saves them... he wasn't exactly the most heroic of protagonists at the start of the series now, was he?

Next chapter should see his battle against Cornellia, and if I'm lucky get to consequences of changing events. It will also hopefully come out late this or early next month.