FUBAR - Military term: Fucked Up Beyond All Repair.
Now, to be a bastard and a half, everything before the First Lancelot's encounter will exactly be the same. The moment Suzaku launches is where I change things. After all, isn't that the point of fanfictions? To see how certain people go different directions?
One of the first things I'm going to add to Plasticwolf's story, is the inclusion of POV changes. It's somewhat going to be a regular thing but I want to switch perspectives for only a bit so you guys can know what's going on in other characters heads when they meet Jason or just getting a better insight on whoever's personalities. Basically, my head canon as to how and why said character are like that.
Plasticwolf had this entire road map where he would give the Shinjuku Cell call names including unnamed unknowns who were mostly likely there with them but to be honest that's just gonna be extra work in something I'm not proficient in so I just deleted it. He was also going to introduce a minor occurring OC who would be joining the cast as a supporting character but I decided to not include him as I think introducing OC's are trickier than one would believe.
IF, I was to introduce an OC that will impact the story, I will let you guys know so when they pop up again later you all won't be "Who's this guy?" and not have the benefit of going on a wiki to access information on the character as this is a fanfiction.
One thing Plasticwolf was fond about was responding to reviewers and thanking people for saying they liked his story and answering some questions. Unlike him, I won't be doing such things since his previous draft was nearly 3000 words just thanking people and that was when all the draft had was the opening paragraph. I think readers will feel cheated if they saw that the chapter was long but it was just replies to reviewers.
If you like the story I will thank you in advance and my response will be: Then I hope you like the next chapter.
To reviewers who want something to change: Sorry mate, my story. Unless you really convince me then MAYBE i'll think about it. When I say maybe, I don't mean maybe but no, I mean maybe as in the literal sense of the word.
To reviewers who have questions: I will only answer you either through PM's or on a small section in the author's note section if it doesn't spoil what I have in mind for something.
To reviewers who flame: Read another fanfic then.
To reviewers who give me ideas: If it's a good idea I'm gonna steal it. A good idea is a good idea, sorry mate.
I will try to keep in the same style of writing as Plasticwolf but he was the better writer than me and hell of a lot more detailed person than I am.
For posting schedules, I'm still debating whether to release new chapters bi-weekly or monthly. For now it's bi-weekly for the foreseeable future with every Sunday being the earliest I can post a new chapter and every Monday being the latest. To some it might be Monday or Tuesday instead thanks to the time difference.
Right now it means 2 chapters a month with interludes being posted as extra. The extra chapters will not counted to the 2 chapters a month deal. The interludes are there in case Jason or anyone else has a major flashback explaining certain things. Instead of me writing it in the main chapter, it'll be in the extra one. TL:DR It's there but it's not mandatory reading material and can be ignored as it won't affect the story too much. This may change but I will forewarn you if it does by writing it in the author's note.
If I do decide to go monthly, then this is the length you can expect my chapters to be. This chapter was only this long as an apology on the behalf of Plasticwolf.
If I think something will come up to stop me from releasing a new chapter, I will say it in the author's note. But be warned, I get bouts of writer's block at times and will get busy with my job and family. So don't be salty when I take a month or more break to edit the draft.
If I do edit previous chapter's, I will let you know in the following chapter and tell you what I edited in or out so you won't have to read it again to see what I changed. You can still read it if you like and it'll be greatly appreciated if you do.
Without further ado, I will be issuing a spoiler warning for this fanfic. The OC has in-depth knowledge of Code Geass and information will be spoilt throughout the story,
This is Metalhound signing off.
PlasticWolf nor I, MetalHound, do not own Code Geass. Code Geass is owned by Sunrise, Goro Taniguchi, Ichirō Ōkouchi and Clamp. In addition any other animation works that's mentioned are all owned by their respective creators as well as owners. Please support the official release.
"Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you" Speaking.
'Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you' Character's Thoughts.
"Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you" Telecommunications.
"LELOUCH VI BRITANNIA COMMANDS YOU" Speakers/Intense (Will change the term once I find the word)
"Lelouch vi Britannia commands you" Geass Command
(Flashback) "Lelouch Vi Britannia commands you" flashback/recap.
Please suspend your disbelief.
Line Break
Previously
Hi there, my name is Jason Jung Ehn Everett.
"Since you placed your trust in me, you get to win."
I'm a 25 year old male born to an American Father and a Korean Mother whom I love very much.
"What the? Friendly fire?! YOU! WHAT UNIT ARE YOU FROM!"
I have an older sibling who I am quite close with. My hobbies include watching anime, reading manga, cosplaying and listening to music.
'DON'T YOU DARE TAKE CONTROL OVER ME!'
I'm a Mid Level Office worker with a decent salary. I don't have a girlfriend but I have friends who I can call family.
"YOU BET YOUR ASS YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT IT BOY!"
Did I mention I'm in the body of an anime character from a TV show that I watched from high school?
"Well then Ladies and Gentlemen of the Shinjuku Cell. It is time we fight back."
Now
After instructing Kallen to act as bait we were able to take down a majority of enemy Knightmares by ambush. Everything was going well. Too well. In fact I find it highly disturbing that I of all people could make strategies on the fly and adjust them accordingly. At first I obviously was nervous and was dreading over the fact that I will get someone killed or myself God Forbid... 'or is it hive mind considering where I am now...?'
In any case no one on my side was killed. Every time a new development occurred my brain automatically made a response and it was devastatingly effective. I was shit when it came to strategy based games like League or Star-craft. Don't get me started on Civilization. I would mainly need to rely on other team mates orders or just find cheats to make the game easier. The only type of strategy games I was good at were those Japanese RPG's like the classic Final Fantasies or Super Robot Wars.
Now though? It didn't even take me a minute to fully analyze new data. Soon as I finish reading the info my mind starts to go crazy fast. If you wanted an example, it would be like that high speed formulating bit earlier where I wondered if I should have killed Villetta or have her as an ally. Only like twice as fast.
Weird thing is, sometimes I just get an answer to things that I shouldn't know...or rather something 'Jason' shouldn't know. It's...honestly scary and a hard reminder that I'm not me anymore... What I am I'm not sure. Even if Lelouch is an anime character, I basically hijacked his life along with his capabilities and memories as well it seems. That does explain why at certain points my body seemed to have a mind of its own... If I was forced to explain what that felt like... It felt like... he... was in his final death throes (1) as I was choking hi-... In any case, as much as I would like to sit down and go over what the hell happened to me, there was a battle I needed to win.
"Q-1, This is Zero. Head towards southwest of your current position and go to the top floor. The Knightmare on the roof is targeting civilians, over."
"Roger!"
"B-1 P-4 P-5, move 75 meters to the left and fire your slash harken's towards 11 o'clock, over."
The Sutherlands that Kallen's group were using didn't have IFF's(2) installed, mostly likely cause these were a fresh batch straight out of the factory so the military didn't have time to put them in. Oh well, I'm not complaining since it's helping me. Even made sure to tell Ohgi and his gang to check if it was and thank whatever higher being that was protecting me that it wasn't installed yet. Cause I would have had no idea in how to disable it lol... yea I'm not saying that again, just ignore me. I'm barely holding back a panic attack.
Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you see it, the moment I told Villetta that her loyalties now lie with me my co-pilot switched off her IFF which made me feel embarrassed since it was a simple switch you needed to flip rather than inputting a certain code in the programming. Turning the IFF off also meant that the communication channel we were using up till now needed to be offline as well. That annoyed me since it meant we didn't have a way to spy on what the enemy was planning. But after she told me her reasonings, we decided that it was for the best.
By having them offline, Villetta could make an excuse as to why she was unable to be contacted when she's helping me. So far, the best one we came up with was that she spotted the Royal Guards on the floor, dead. However her Fact-sphere was able to pick up a sound of someone having trouble breathing. Finding a heavily wounded survivor, she disembarked her Knightmare with her key still attached inside as she went up to the survivor to treat his wounds. She was about to send an SOS message to the G1 when the survivor, who turned out to be a disguised terrorist ambushed her and successfully knocked her out. When she woke up, she was tied up to a post in a warehouse with her Knightmare missing.
It was not a 100% alibi and certainly with some holes in its integrity but I figured the military won't have the time to investigate it considering what I had in store for them later. Well, what the show runners had in store really.
"B-2, Turn 32 degrees to your left and launch your Slash Harkens at a 73 degree angle. N-2, A platoon of tanks is heading your way. Position yourself on a roof gazing down at your current location with the grenade launcher prepped. They can't be allowed to pass otherwise B-1 P-4 & 5 will be vulnerable to a 3 pronged assault. Q-1 Great work, continue on luring the enemy to the points I have sent you, you should have 4 of them left after which rendezvous with N-2 and set up an ambush with him."
I could really get used to this. The confidence. The light speed formulating, the planning that was done for me... the ordering... Whatever worry I had before was all but a memory when this feeling of euphoria kicked in. I would simply need to think what I wanted to do and everything else falls neatly into place. It honestly feels like a cheat but who gives a fuck when I winning so easily.
"R-2 P-1 P-7 what's your status?"
From the other side of the radio P-1, Tamaki the loud mouth replies "Yeah yeah we're almost done. But man this is bullshit. I should be out there kicking Brit ass but here I am herding people to tunnels. And what's up with that weird fucking thing you told us to do at the mall anyway?" People like Tamaki are everywhere in life. The overconfident type who honestly believe that they're god's gift on Earth. There is one simply way, among others, to deal with them. You stroke their ego... as if they were a cat.
"P-1, I am disappointed. I thought you out of everyone here would excel at this task. That was why I put you in charge of evacuating the civilians. If the military were to find them there's no doubt they will be slaughtered. They need someone as strong (stubborn I correct in my mind) as you to help lead them out of the chaos."
"O-oh... if you put it like tha-"
"Continue to evacuate them P1, I believe in you." I struggled to contain the giggles in me. "P-4 & 5 detach from B-1 and head to where the other P members are gathering for the final push. P-1 to 4 will box in enemy from the front while P-5 to 7 and N-1 will ambush the same squad of enemies at the back."
"Got it!"
Releasing the tension that has been forming up on my back and I slump on my seat and massage my sinuses. When that order gets pulled off Clovis will be stupid enough to break formation and circle towards us while we will be safely beneath them waiting to collapse the floor above. The prissy tart will then launch the bane of Lelouch's existence: The Lancelot. I have somewhat come up with an idea to stop it but I still am a bit unsure about a few things. Timeline changes aside, Suzaku's reaction time is something that is downright scary to face against. Right now it is something along the lines of B+ to A- (Above the average) but will be borderline S Rank in the Season 2 finale.
I remember he had a 70% chance of evasion whenever he was up against non ace characters in the SRW franchise. Meanwhile non-trained Aces only decrease it to 45% if you didn't invest some points their personal stats or their machines builds. Not to mention all the other Code Geass material that had him doing what was essentially, superhuman feats of agility. To know that I am going against THAT is freaking the crap out of me and will no doubt cause panic to the Resistance members. Hopefully my ace in the hole can somewhat counter against that patriciding asshole.
"Q-1, are you finished with your task?"
"Yeah, I even took out a couple more frames since I finished your order quickly. What do you need me to do next? I can help out Sugi- I mean N-1 and the others out an-"
"Not necessary, I need you to disembark your Knightmare and get into a Sutherland to-"
"W-What! Bu- But I can help the others out now! Like you said I'm the best Devicer we have and we're kicking those Brit's asses! We'll be wasting time an-"
"Enough." There's that unintentional commanding tone again. I would complain but it seemed to do the job considering Kallen stopped speaking.
"The reason I want you to get in a Sutherland is because after P group finishes what they're doing, His Royal Douchebag will issue an order that will topple the advantage to our side then he'll be launching that 7th Gen Knightmare out. I need you in tip top condition I.E. my best Devicer in a better Frame to distract it so it won't target the others when they panic as we face that monster in the mall. I have seen what that thing can do with the right pilot from the intel I was given."
"Fuck... is... is it that bad?"
'Weird' I think to myself. 'She'd be more stubborn in this situation... curious'. I then wondered how I should frame my words as to how terrifying the Lancelot is, especially since we didn't have the Guren in our side. After a few seconds the sentence was formed.
"Q-1... The Lancelot... You don't know me and I can understand if you and your group have their doubts in my character and abilities... But you saw how effective we are together... with my tactics and your groups tenacity we were able to overcome the Britannians and gained victory for Japan on par of the battle of Itsukushima... so when I say that even with this under our belts... I have no confidence in us in beating that monstrosity... I am absolutely terrified in having that as an opponent unless I stack the entire deck to our favor."
Pausing a bit so I can keep myself calm I continued after audibly sighing through the radio "I don't have much info on it's controller but I have enough to know that the Lancelot's Devicer is the type of person to be direct and gullible enough to assume that the best Devicer we have is most likely the leader especially with the orders I will send to you later."
'Please let that be enough for you!' I begged silently while waiting for her response.
"...Give me a minute to find a hidden Sutherland."
'Oh Thank the heavens!'
"Thank you Q-1... I'm sending a file that contains the orders I want you to carry out and the equipment list I need you to have."
"Gotcha"
"Very well, sending the file now."
Queen-1 POV
"Very well, sending the file now"
I pulled out my water bottle and drank it till it emptied. This battle was tough on me but... I feel great knowing that what I- I mean... what we were doing was worth it and that it was working. I think back to all the previous fights we were in and bitterly thought that if we had this guy earlier then Naoto-nii wouldn't have...
A trickle of tears flowed down my cheek without permission as I remember about my older brother and why I joined Ohgi and his group.
Ping.
'I guess it finished downloading the file'. Pushing off the backrest I click on a few buttons to acknowledge the file and bring it up on the screen. Seriously, why did it take so long in sending and downloading a single fil-
...
'What the fuck?'
I will admit that I have the tendency to skip a few things when reading to just get to the point but I swear I didn't skip anything this time. I read it a couple of more times to reconfirm if I did indeed skipped some things. Imagine my surprise when it turns out I didn't. I re-read it again one last time at a much more slower pace to see if maybe I finally lost it or something. It seems I'm not insane and that I was currently in a Glasgow ready to kill some Brit's by following the plans of a totally random stranger who showed up out of nowhere... In hindsight I'd look back to this day and admit to only myself that perhaps I was slightly crazy... maybe... just a bit...
After reading the file and got ready to delete it there was only thing I could say.
"Who the bloody fuck is this crazy dipshit?"
Jason POV
Excellent, everything was going accordingly to plan. I was tempted in doing a word for word reenactment of Yagami Light in Death Note but decided otherwise. Empathizing with a psychopath did not help my cause in any way or matter.
I'm currently watching several dots in a circle slowly closing in to the center of a screen in front of me. After this, it'll be a couple of minutes or hopefully a few when we see the Lancelot in the field. After I confirmed with Kallen if she was at her position I told Ohgi or rather his call sign B-1 that after this, we'd be entering the climax of the fight and that the Lancelot will be launched soon after.
Tamaki, the twat, again blew a gasket and went on and on about, in his words, "So what?! We're 20 against 1! It's not going to be that bad".
On principle, I should have shot him for raising that goddamn flag but I asked Ohgi and Kallen to get it through his Vibranium apparent skull that we'd be fucked if the Lancelot came out.
The plan was simple, we'd let a few of our Knightmares get defeated and pretend we were retreating. The ejected pilots will be in places that when the ejected cockpit landed, it will be near the hidden Sutherlands and they can rejoin us as we were laying out suppressive fire on the Lancelot. This cycle will repeat until we run out of spare Frames.
On the way to our 'rendezvous' spot we will no doubt lose a lot more pilots to him so we'd have 6 on top of roofs to fire at him once he reached the the main street then the gunners would slowly guide him to the abandoned shopping mall. It was big enough for a group of 4 Sutherlands to gather and pretend talk through their speakers about "what was that thing".
In his haste, Suzaku would no doubtingly enter the premises and tell everyone to surrender. In my memory, Cecile, the hot assistant of Lloyd was Suzaku's operator and would give him intel. I know for a fact that this would be her first combat engagement in any sort of way so this trick would only work once on her.
This is betting a whole lot of things in my favor thanks to foreknowledge so you can guess how much of a nervous wreck I am in.
Now, why was Cecile's first time as a operator a huge gamble in my plan?
It was because of the ambush that I was setting up in the mall. Kallen would be waiting in her spot with, hopefully, a clear view of the Lancelot thanks to the openings I had make R-2 P-1 and P-7 make prior to entering the field. Giving Kallen multiple access views to certain target spots we will try to guide the Lancelot to within the mall.
This would all crumble if Cecile warns Suzaku to seek hidden heat signatures in case it was an ambush which it was. Cecile may be an attractive woman but I am not that misogynistic that I'd doubt even someone beautiful as her was just as intelligent. After all. She was the one who designed and invented the Energy Wing Propulsion System and later it's devastating offensive abilities.
"But Jason, it's common sense for Knightmare devicer's to check the environment before going into unknown hostile territory." Viletta mentioned, thanks to the brain power of the Black Prince that added to mine I was able to lay a trap within that line of thinking for the enemy.
"I'm counting on them seeing the heat signatures of various Knightmares closing into the mall to retreat. What I hope they won't notice is the fact there's a stationary heat signature miles off that doesn't seem to be doing anything but sitting still. If all goes well, we will be enough of a distraction for Suzaku to try and make us surrender."
I pull up the radio. "B-1 do you have the map of Shinjuku?"
"Yea but it's the old one, will it do?"
"It will, on my mark aim for the floor above."
B-1 Ohgi responds with a "Roger"
Checking with R-2 Yoshida, to see if they finished evacuating the civilians to which he confirmed, I turn to see Viletta scowling at me. There was that little bit of fear in me when I think to myself that she may have broken out of the Geass but dismiss it as Lelouch's was one of the strongest. The answer was provided by Viletta's question, which I was thankful for.
"I'm sorry but did I hear a "we"? As in WE were going to distract the Lancelot? I do not want you anywhere near that thing considering how much of a threat you perceive it to be."
"Look, I get it. You're looking out for my safety but if we don't do this then we all are going to die. My plan will work if we all do our part."
"Are you scared Jason?"
I was a bit surprised by that question frankly speaking. Sure I was worried about the outcome but I'm pretty confident that this was gonna work out somewhat fine. "What are you talking about?"
"Your hand. Ever since you radio'd Q-1 and told her about the Lancelot, your hand hasn't stop shaking."
What.
I look to my unoccupied hand and was surprised to see it shaking and quite actively as well. In fact as I concentrated and try to calm it down, the sensation... was weird. Like it was numb or a something was trying to numb it cause I couldn't even feel the vibrations throughout my arm even once I noticed it.
I get the whole thing about 'delayed pain since the adrenaline in you was keeping you numb' bit. What I don't get is that I did not have any adrenaline in me but I still don't feel it.
All I could come up with was that my body was going through some form of shock subconsciously and must have reacted to the situation for me. Which I interpreted as, I will probably go whack and scream a bit once I had time to sit down and think what just happened. That was something I wasn't looking forward to. By whatever grace from a higher being, I still seem to have my mental faculties in check and was somewhat calm so I'll use that to my advantage.
"Viletta, just... Just trust me, if after anything happens and we fail I will follow your lead instead."
I was greeted with nothing but tense silence. 'Ooh boy, I hope I didn't fuck things over for myself.'
"Fine, but if this does fail, I'm taking you to the G1 with me".
Ah.
Faaaaaaaaaaaaaack.
The White Knight POV
"Lancelot M.E. Boost"
I feel the Yggdrasil drive go into rotation and await Ms. Croomy's confirmation for deployment. 'Just wait for me Lelouch! I'll find you as soon as I can!' It felt like a lifetime till I heard Ms. Croomy's voice crack through the radio.
"Lancelot, Launch!"
Slamming my foot down on the accelerator and punching the right control stick forward I roll out of the trailer that housed this Lancelot and went out at full speed. Seeing the amount of dust it kicked back I winced a bit for what I may have done to Lord Asplund and Ms. Croomy.
'I'm going to have to apologize to them in person about that.'
After experimenting with the Lancelot's speed and maneuverability I was incredibly impressed with it's performance.
"It's better than what the manual said! With this-" I stopped once the pain in my right abdomen flared up in response to the stress that my body enduring from the Lancelot. I hold onto my wound as I increased the speed.
'Come on Suzaku, ignore it for now, Lelouch and that girl is counting on you to be on your A game.' I entered the outskirts of the cityscape and prepare myself for combat. As soon as I entered, I saw one Knightmare that wasn't paying attention to me. I was about to stop and contact it and ask the Knight inside where I needed to be that is until I saw that the Sutherland was not registering on my IFF radar.
"It's one of those terrorist that hijacked the Knightmares! In that case!" I weaved in a zig zag pattern just in case it noticed me and opened fired but the terrorist didn't have time to respond to the lightning fast Lancelot and I knife chopped it's main camera (the head) off with this Frame's own hand.
Thanks to the funding Lord Asplund got, the Special Corp were able to line the basic frame's body with some sort of substance. An advanced metal formula, to strengthen the Lancelot so that even without the armor plating on, the frame inside would be strong enough to be safe from rifle shells. Tanks on the other hand... In any case, with what they had done to this Knightmare... 'if I were to aim a pin point melee strike to a joint's weak point I can sever the limb off...'
I can hear Lord Asplund saying something about "not being in their predictions" but I ignore it as I see two more Knightmare heat signatures 6.2 KM away and around the bend. Blasting off, I reach there in a few seconds and engage the two other Knightmares. With the Slash harkens that are equipped on the Lancelot's forearms, I put it on standby mode not to fire it but to use it like a forearm blade to disable the two terrorist mounted Frames. I made quick work of these two and search for other targets to eliminate.
"Wait for me Lelouch! I'll find you!" The Lancelot readies itself in a runner's starting pose. It's emerald eyes flash menacingly as it obeys and performs the command of it's master.
The White Hunter has awakened and has now entered the fray.
Jason POV
Interestingly, it wasn't Tamaki who was the first to engage the Lancelot but an unnamed scrub. Like I hoped, the Lancelot eliminated 3 more units and no more before someone noticed it. Now it's currently playing cat and mouse... 'would it be more fitting to have be called tiger and mouse instead?'
Anyway, thanks to support fire from the others and myself we were able to not let any other of our Knightmares be destroyed by a stressfully narrow margin. Fuck, even Viletta and I had some close calls with that monster.
Due to my warnings and by seeing it's performance first hand, the others were now more than happy to listen to what I have to say without question. The 3 who got took down by Suzaku earlier were now in different machines and have regrouped with us and were now trying to not let others and themselves get close to that thing.
Over the radio I hear Ohgi. "What kind of monster is that!? It isn't even fazed with the amount of bullets we shot at it! I'm almost down to my last cartridge!"
I wipe the sweat off my brow as I saw the Lancelot dancing around the city evading our projectiles and trying to get near us but once I realized who it was going for, I was able to direct focus fire to where he was going to go and not let him near one of us. Thankfully we're on schedule and that we had more ammo waiting for us near the shopping mall rendezvous point.
"I need a sound off! Who else is on their last cartridge!"
I hear a couple of people say "I am" and 3 more saying they were already out while the rest saying they were about to be. I nearly shit myself when I hear that 3 were already out but it wasn't too detrimental to our "retreat".
"P-2 P-7 only fire if the Lancelot is coming to your position, P-1 P-4 R-2 Retreat to the mall first then prepare the ambush procedures. The rest of you, we will now cover each other as we slowly retreat towards the Lumine Shopping mall and prepare our exit. Once we run out of ammo we'll switch to Chaos mines, Is that clear!?"
A chorus of "Yeah" and "gotcha" came from everyone as I instructed Viletta to head towards the mall. Slowly but surely we were able to guide the Lancelot to the trap and lead him inside. We lost 11 more pilots to the Lancelot from our retreat. Fortunately none of them died but on the flipside there were no more extra Knightmares we could hop into as we ran out by the time the sixth of the downed 11 resistance member boarded the last one. But at this stage we will need some stealth operatives to bamboozle Suzaku if we want to succeed.
The five Knightmares left from the fake retreat, which included the one Viletta and I are on, were able to make it into the mall unimpeded and prepared the scripted shouting match between us to trick or confuse Suzaku. P-1 P-4 and R-2 who left earlier should be making their way to us and hopefully hide Kallen from Suzaku's radar.
Seeing how the Lancelot was quickly catching up to us, I asked Viletta to make our Knightmare nod which would signal Ohgi to start the conversation by talking through open speakers and start reloading our rifles and grenade launchers. This would distract Suzaku enough that he won't look to see if any one of us were in on a private channel, communicating with someone. E.g. my silent communication with Kallen's frame.
I have a few more hidden cards to play on Suzaku's mind if he does catch onto Kallen though but I hope I don't use them this early.
"What was that out there? It was able to shrug off all of our ordinances. Did anyone see the clear green shield like barrier that formed up?" Ohgi questioned
While this was a trick to lower Suzaku's guard a bit, it's authenticity was helped by the fact that Ohgi and some of the members had real questions they wanted to ask whilst we played a fake game of who's to blame for this. Ohgi had asked why we needed to do this before the operation to which I replied that the Lancelot's Devicer would be distracted by it thanks to the fact that his frame could pick up our chatter from far away.
How on Earth do I possibly know that the Lancelot could do that?
It was thanks to the data book I bought at the 20th anniversary of Code Geass celebration. In the book, fans were now able to know what the individual Ace piloted Knightmares can do and what their specs were. Nifty features and lore as to why it was so. Like how the Tristan's cockpit was so tailored designed to Gino's likes and his habits so that no one else but him could effectively wield the transformable frame. Additionally like how the Mordred had an inbuilt sakuradite charger so that Anya could recharge her personnel phone/camera device while in flight or combat.
Or... like how Lloyd re-designed the Lancelot's Fact-Sphere Sensor to be a hell lot more sensitive in picking up sound data than the regular Sutherland if the Devicer wished it too. A feature that was surprisingly not in every future mass produced Knightmare frame. I guess it was probably too expensive technically to reach that level of sensitivity. Too expensive for mass produced grunt units. While it was a must-have in all the future Ace piloted Frames like the Knights of the Round or the Black Knight Elite's machines.
Sugiyama I believe chimed in as well "Don't get me started on the way it moved! It was like it was fucking dancing around out there! Did you see the way he took out Kenzaki (4)!? He performed a flipping flying spinning kick to the head! How the fuck did it do that!?"
Questions like these were asked by the others which I stopped once I saw the Lancelot slowly entering the corners of our camera's. According to what I know about Suzaku's personalities he would try to end the conflict as soon as he could when he was piloting. However, due to how guilty he feels thanks to the fact he murdered his father he would subconsciously either try to make the Japanese he was fighting surrender or actively die trying if he was pushed.
So far everything was working to plan but this was still too much of a huge gamble.
Making my voice deeper and testing it out I turned on the speakers of the Sutherland.
"Everyone, heads up! That thing is here!"
Before everyone could raise their rifles, out of the 3 possible ways I envisioned this to go Suzaku went for the one I was hoping for.
"Please Surrender! As of right now the army is slowly making their way here. I can easily take you all out but please just stop this! This mindless slaughter!"
I could figuratively hear the blood boil in the other's veins from that statement. They are being told off by, from what they assume, a Britannian Knight by calling their actions an act of a petulant child while the Britannian's were slaughtering the Japanese like they were cattle and acting like they were the good guys.
"Slaughter!? Us!? Are you kidding me!? After what you all did to the civilians?!" Yoshitaka yelled. I motioned Viletta to turn off our speakers as I needed to inform and ready Kallen.
"What happened to the civilians was tragic... but they wouldn't have been killed if it wasn't for the fact you guys used the poison gas! Where did you put it!?"
My right eyebrow raised in confusion from reflex. 'Strange, Suzaku should know by now that there was no poison gas in that capsule. Why would he-' I literally answered my own question as I realized what Suzaku was after.
'Suzaku wanted to see if the terrorist would blurt out if they knew anything about Lelouch or not... that's... a lot more clever than I thought Suzaku could amount to. No wait, is it cause he was being careful in not exposing Lelouch's true identity? Am I over reaching in my assumption?'
Viletta snapped me out of my distraction "Jason! Contact Q-1! We don't have much time left!"
Right
"Q-1! We're at the 2nd floor near the elevators, you should have a clear view of us at point Lima-1 Niner."
"Yea I see you guys alright but I don't have a clear view on Lancelot."
That's troublesome. Did Suzaku planned it that way cause he saw Kallen or was he just lucky? If he did noticed than that lowered my success by 23%. Bringing down the overall operation success rate to a total of 51%. I needed to think of something quickly as Ohgi and the others distracted Suzaku.
Spacial Awareness was something I was originally good at but with Lelouch's abilities, it came out a lot more clearer in my mind scape than before. 'Damn. Was being this much more intelligent such a huge difference? No wonder some genius' I knew were arrogant as fuck.' Maping out where everyone was, I noticed that the Lancelot was hidden by a shadow from the semi destroyed state of the wall it was near to. Unlike us who were next to broken windows.
'Mental note, Don't stand near windows in future ops because the enemy would have a clear shot on us'. Calculating the distance the Lancelot was away from the wall and the angle Kallen needed to aim it at, I relay my orders to Kallen.
"... After which you'll fire on my mark, is that clear?"
"Clear! Ready when you are Zero!"
I saw that Suzaku was getting ready to pounce on us so I motioned to Viletta to reopen the speakers. I figured that If I shocked Suzaku with the right info once Sugiyama finished his rant about Britannia I can get him distracted enough to get shot by Kallen. Thankfully I was able to multitask, forming the calculations for Kallen whilst fishing for info from Sugiyama's rant to use on Suzaku. When Sugiyama mentioned that they were never going to use the gas I jumped in.
"We'll admit that we have the poison gas capsule... but like he said! We weren't going to use it! We were going to show the world what Britannia was doing behind closed doors! Conducting experiments on bio terrorism! Hell! Even that kid we found with it was horrified!"
If a Knightmare could be shocked, it'd be looking a lot like the Lancelot was now.
I scream into radio. "Q-1! NOW!"
A Knightmare issued sniper shot was heard going off some kilometre's away. Even though it was a fraction of a second, the Lancelot was able to block it with it's blaze luminous but did so with a shudder from the impact of the impressive piercing round to it's energy shield. With Suzaku's attention now on Kallen, the five of us made a beeline to our exit points while Kallen kept firing her shots off to buy us more time to make it out.
As soon as we did, I signaled to Tamaki, an unknown by the name of Kazama (3) and Inoue. "P1 P4 R2! Now!" deploying our slash harkens so that we could hang onto something. Elsewhere in the mall, R-2 or rather Inoue squeezed onto a trigger, detonating the C4's that were lined 1 floor beneath where we were just standing.
You see, while we were distracting Suzaku, Inoue and the other 2 Knightmare pilots were using that time to line up the C4's with their Knightmares. It would have taken longer but they had help.
From the 11 downed Knightmare pilots from earlier. With them lending a hand they were able to set up the C4's and head up to a higher level and wait for my signal to start the ambush on the Lancelot.
As the floor below us collapsed, the five of us leap up into the air and use our slash harkens as anchors so we didn't fall like the Lancelot did. From my camera I was able to see that Kallen was able to distract him to the point that he didn't have time to launch his harkens in time as he had to shield himself not only from Kallen's sniper rounds but also from the C4 explosion as well as the debris projectiles that shot up at him below. Now the frame was on it's back. We could easily have killed him weren't if for the fact that the explosion kicked up a lot of debris dust and the resulting cloud gave him cover. The Fact-Sphere sensor only showed a general heat signature which didn't help us much.
After some of the dust settled, I could see that the entire 2nd floor wasn't destroyed. Everyone took their positions and aimed at the approximate area where the Lancelot may have landed we all waited in silence.
I don't want to kill Suzaku just yet. Hopefully what I'm about to do is enough of a warning for him.
"Everyone! Be ready! He might not be downed yet considering what we saw this thing could do!"
Lo and behold, exactly as I finished saying that, 2 harkens launch out from the dust cloud and hit Tamaki's Knightmare. One went deeply into it's chest plate and the other decapitated the main camera. Through the private channel, the resistance members and as well Viletta and I could hear the red headed man raging as he was forced into an auto eject. He landed several miles away from harm and landed safely.
2 other harkens from the Lancelot made its way towards the ceiling of the 2nd floor of the mall. A kin to a bat out of hell, the Lancelot jumped into the air then went into a spinning kick that kicked off Ohgi's Knightmare out of the mall's windows and disappeared into the dust cloud from wheance it came from.
I only reacted in horror for a second before I gave the command to everyone nearby. "Fire at will!" The concert of bullets was unleashed towards to the 7th gen Knightmare. Unlike before, it wasn't in a somewhat free environment. Now it was more boxed in where Suzaku couldn't take advantage on the frame's agility and flexibility. All 6 Sutherlands continuously spammed their automatic rifles. Those 11 downed resistance members were now firing off bazooka's to help in whatever capacity they could. It was small, but the gesture behind that action raised up everyone's morale somewhat.
The Lancelot's only counter was to deploy its Blaze Luminous shield to cover itself from the heavy rainfall of bullet hell hailing from above. There was no clear exit for the Lancelot to go to thanks to the debris. It's only chance of escape was to wait for a gap in time as we reloaded our weapons. Making this a battle of attrition. Lancelot's batteries vs our ordinances.
Thanks to the firing pattern I instructed everyone to go by, we were able to keep the Lancelot pinned down for a good 9 minutes. Some of us still continuously firing while others reloaded earlier and in irregular times. Meanwhile some of those 11 resistance members brought in more ammo that we stationed at the mall. They did it via trolleys that were lying around in the mall. The idea for this came to me from a movie I saw when I was a kid.
'I'd never thought I'd say this... but THANK YOU MATRIX: REVOLUTION!'
Once we reached a certain level of ammo, couple of us had to break off to use the other weapons that came along with the train. The Cannons and the Snipers. There was one near heart attack inducing close call when Suzaku saw a small gap in our firing/reloading and exploited it. Kallen who had finally joined up with us then, shut him right down by launching a well timed sniper round to the Lancelot's shield, pushing him back to where he originally was.
13 minutes have passed and it was nearing 14, with the Lancelot's Blaze Luminous showing no signs of it's energy running out while we were now on a critically low level of ammo reserves. Only 7 rifles cartridges. Sniper was down to 12 which was okay but the cannon's were downed to 4 which was not good. A flash of horror runs across my eyes as I realized something monumentally fatal to my plan.
'FUCK! The Float System! It was because of that, the Lancelot's energy levels were low when he landed in Fukuoka! Shit! Does it mean he has still has more energy to spare!?' To say that I was panicking was describing it lightly. Despair was more like it. I thought this was how we were going to lose... how I was going to lose.
Something pulsed within Jason at that moment...
When he admitted to himself that he was going to lose. A staggering amount of rage came out of nowhere and hit him at full force. Deep within our displaced male, he heard a growl of unmatched wrath and chaos that said a word that resonated with his soul.
'NEVER'
Jason didn't know what that was.. but he thanked it because it made him come to his senses and remember something. He picked up the radio to contact the one person who might be able to help him win. He pressed the button on the device and called out to his last ace.
(1) Death Throes - Death throes, is the act of something that's in it's final stage just before it fails completely or ends. If a living being was in their death throes, they are dying and making violent, uncontrolled movements (spasms) usually because they are suffering from great pain.
(2) IFF - Identification, Friend or Foe. A signal to help identify an ally of a friendly forces location as well as it's trajectory. Despite the name, IFF's can only track allies, not hostile entities.
(3) & (4) Unnamed resistance members I made. They're not an important character.