Chapter X
Suzaku sat in the Lancelot, which gleamed in the sunlight like a golden, white god. It towered over an Eleven ghetto near a sandy river bed. The entrenched makeshift city of wooden shacks, and tents, housed refugees from neighbouring cities. It looked more like a homeless camp.
He commanded an entourage of Nightmare Frames that were assigned to quell a minor civil unrest. Britannia ground militia had entered the camp looking for rumoured rebel forces, and the residents fought back. Reports said the residents were harassing the soldiers, and had called for back up. That was when the call came in for Nightmare Frames.
So far, all was quiet. Since the Knight of Seven was here.
His eyes darted from different screens inside Lancelot.
The situation didn't call for a Knight of the Round, only Nightmare Frames, and he was merely here to observe, and for intimidation. However, after Zero, a Knight was normally assigned for operations like this in case the situation escalated. And it was his turn.
He watched his monitors as the Britannian forces dealt with the mild unrest. It seemed routine, there wasn't much to it. But the Empire wasn't fooling around anymore. Suzaku turned off the outside sound, other than from his own personal communicator—which he tried to turn out.
"Rioters throwing common items at my Nightmare Frame," one his entourage reported through the open channel to Suzaku, "but no weapons have been detected, yet."
Suzaku saw the Elevens as they threw items like tin cans, pots, and other items of insignificance, that wouldn't even put a dent in the metallic exo-skeleton of a Knightmare Frame.
"Seems the natives are just restless," said another.
There was laughter.
Suzaku frowned. "Acknowledged," Suzaku replied back tartly, leaning back.
Suzaku yawned. His eyes felt heavy. He was bored, with little to do. And it bothered him that he was become desensitized to this sort of thing. All the Elevens wanted to do was exist, but the Britannia's kept harassing them as if they were mere rodents.
Suzaku hated the comparison.
This operation was going more smoothly than he had hoped, the reports of rebels in the area had seemingly been false, probably spread maliciously just so the encampment would be removed—and it would be, as per policy. From the report given, rebels were being harboured within the camp. But from what Suzaku saw, the report was most likely just a slanderous act of unsightly discrimination.
The residents appeared mostly sickly, a virus was running rampant through Elevens who lived in unhygienic places, having to eat rotten food and drink stagnant water. He wanted to help them, and even insisted medical staff stage regular check-ins within Eleven camps, to keep them healthy. But the Elevens kept pushing them away, some were even harmed for refusing.
When Suzaku heard these reports, he punished those soldiers who committed the acts. And he was hated by Elevens and Britannian's alike. Elevens called him a traitor, while the true-blood Britannian's called him "unclean". He was a Knight of the Round now, so he was "accepted". The Emperor had appointed him personally and no one defied Charles zi Britannia!
Suddenly, the rebels emerged, bursting out of structures like cockroaches, and a fire fight ensued. They petted the Knightmare Frames with bullets with hand-held machine guns.
"Gunfire! I repeat, gunfire!" a Knightmare Pilot shouted.
"Return fire!" said another.
"Wait!" Suzaku said.
But his order was drowned out by return fire.
He was conflicted. They were his people, fighting for the basic needs, and wants, and rights of any person living under an authoritative government. Suzaku knew Britannia needed to change, he should have been fighting with them, but—there was nothing he could do.
After what happened in his quarters with the assassin, his plans were set back. And now, he was under the microscope, because of his Japanese birthright. They'll be watching my every move. Security would be tighter now at Knights Headquarters.
Dozens of Elevens were immediately mowed down by mechanical, rapid weapons fire, including weapon toting rebels, their bodies ripped apart, with blood spattering explosive impact, hunks of flesh torn asunder, dropping to the ground like slabs of worthless meat.
He heard blood curdling screams, mixed in with the voice of his entourage.
"Cease fire! I repeat, cease fire!" Suzaku ordered.
This was supposed to be a simple removal operation, it now had turned into a bloodbath!
If only the rebels hadn't gotten nervous and attacked, remained hidden, then this slaughter would not be happening right now. They—the rebels—had had caused the countless deaths of dozens of innocent people! The Britannian forces were only retaliating against enemy combatants.
He had been continuously dispatched to silence rebel forces in the last couple of weeks. With Zero gone, some rebels still felt emboldened. The fight went on. The futility and the wasted effort sickened Suzaku. But this had to have been the most bloody he had every seen thus far.
"I SAID, STOP IT!" he shouted.
He heard was sounded like a thunk against the Lancelot, the proximity sensor alerted him to a threat. He focused in on a lone individual standing just at the left of the Lancelot's foot.
The monitor that captured the "terrorist" act, but there was no gun involved, it appeared to be a tin can that bounced off the exo-skeleton. There was no damage, but it was enough to sound the threat alarm.
He zeroed on the individual, and it was a boy of maybe ten years old, and he was shouting at him. He didn't need to turn up the sound to know what he was saying, his body language and face said it all. The boy then bolted away as a soldier came running after him.
Japanese people hated him, and rightfully so. He had turned his back on them.
On one occasion, disguised as an infantry officer, a member of a rebel faction tried to assassinate him. Easily forted, the man was captured. It was Anya Alstreim, the Knight of Six, who signed the death warrant, because Suzaku refused believing the man could be reformed.
It was a public execution, broadcasted throughout the Empire. The man was blind-folded and placed against a brick wall with his hands bound behind him in front of a five man firing squad. At a chain-link fence adjacent to the site, hordes of Eleven's protested.
The condemned man shouted, "For Japan!" And then was shot.
It was a senseless killing, despite news reports around the nation stating otherwise. But he had attacked a Knight of the Round, and that was an immediate death sentence. But without pulling a trigger, it made Suzaku out to be the bad guy. And the target of all Eleven's hate. He was immediately branded a traitor to his own people, apart from turning Zero in.
Deep in his heart, he regretted switching sides. But a hard cold truth forced him to realize the reality of the situation. He understood the hot, white emotions from his own people. But they needed to stop. He was now in a position to change the status quo.
The rebels were wiped out, the ghettos were riddled with bullets, and dozens of bodies lay scattered about, as the slaughter ended. The clean-up began.
"Area now secure," one of his entourage declared, "no other enemy detected, sir," the voice added to Suzaku.
Suzaku put his hands to his face in disgust, frowning deeply. And he felt sick to his stomach. Every muscle in his body tightened into knots. He cursed himself. It had happened so fast, there wasn't even time to breath.
He decided then that he needed a change, a change of venue, a respite, even a temporarily leave of absence to ease his troubled mind. He needed to get away from this brutality. The boxing match Gino set up had helped, but this situation had brought all that tension back.
He was a Knight of the Round—a request he made of the Emperor after capturing Lelouch—and with it, the position held with it was a new status, with influence and power. The Emperor even granted him the return of the Kururugi land to him for his loyalty, originally taken away because he was Japanese, and being the Prime Minister's son. Both the main house, and the shrine, were in such disarray after so many years of being unoccupied, but now, because of his new position, he was able to commission a restoration. And they were almost completely rebuilt. He would return there, and get away.
He decided after this latest incident at Knight Headquarters, he would move back home, anyway. The other Knights didn't like him, and why stay in a place he wasn't wanted.
Gino voiced concern about the lack of a security system at his home. Now with this new wave of hate crimes against him, it was necessarily. Yet he assured Gino that things would be fine until one could be put in place. And besides, he had Arthur, Suzaku had joked.
He didn't cry, instead he grit his teeth in anger behind his hands. But with his eyes closed, he couldn't get away from the scenes he had witnessed as the residents of the ghetto were gunned down. He hated every one in his entourage.
"Goddamn it!" Suzaku cursed, scowling.
"Sir? Is everything alright?" asked someone through the open channel.
Suzaku looked up from his hands with cold, hard eyes, at the screens in his cockpit that displayed the carnage. "Everything is fine," he said straightly. "Situation is normal."
And that was a big problem, Suzaku mused. Everything was "normal".
Suzaku sighed deeply. Then closed his mind off to his emotions and focused on his orders.
He ordered a Knightmare Frame to remain, the camp would be torn down, as per policy. But to him, he preferred it to remain—as a monument to everyone who just died in vain.
To be continued...