"And once again, the Lion changes the face of war, let it not be the last time."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.
…
Dust surged as the music arrived, the plume of white fire he saw coming from the corner of his eye slamming into the ground with enough force to shake the earth. He knew what was coming, those infernal tunes meant but a single thing, meant that the enemies greatest had arrived, the Perseus was here, Xingke allowed himself a small smile through the pain of the BRS and the radiation flooding him because of the Baryon Cannon.
Then Xingke saw something impossible, a bubble of pure white holding back the Baryon Cannon.
The Baryon cannon was a terrifying piece of equipment, Xingke had seen what it could do to Knightmares several times during testing, a particle cannon based on the prototype the lion deploy for testing year earlier combined with the research on radiation based weapons from fugitive scientist Rakshata Chawla. He had seen it tear apart mountains, break buildings in half, rip through old Gun-Ru's like they were paper, and now he saw it fail, the music came and now a golden titan stood where it should have been obliterated, dust slowly falling back to the ground.
The shape of the Perseus was familiar yet different from its form during the war, taller by half a meter, legs stockier with its giant thrusters, its torso armor thicker then before, its arms broader with more powerful servos. Then there were the obvious changes, the giant wings that matched the ones on the Guren, with the exception of the colour, the shoulder guns that somehow seemed more lethal then ever, the giant barrel slung under its right arm, and the massive white glowing sword thrusted into the ground, its pommel projecting the pure white blaze luminous shield dome around itself.
"Well, well, well... Li Xingke, I thought you would have fought with honour... this is rather distasteful, you outnumber them so, and yet you still strike... typical Chinese Generals, you are looking more like those old Eunuchs with every years spent as one of them."
"Alexander... I simply fight to win!"
His rush forwards was interrupted by the lion, as expected, the man had ripped his giant sword from the ground and countered his slash, the Perseus's strike was far, far stronger than in the simulations, and his arm was torn to the side. His spinning slash harken blocked the Lion's follow up swipe, and he moved in for another counter, but his sensors pinged and he dodged out of the path of the Dragoness spear thrust.
"And you speak of fighting honourably!"
"Oh, come on Chinadoll! We are still way outnumbered you little shit! Not that it matters!/Oh, Come on Xingke, 2 against 20 is still in your favour, if only barely."
Those damned arrogant bastards...
…
"Sir Marius! We are ready! The Prince has landed!"
The Hercules powered on within an instant, its bulky arms raising from the ground as the screens came to life around him, the missile launchers on its shoulders glinting, he was pretty happy with those, derived from the air defence system he had used on the island base to defend against the Black-knights airstrike. Harris had slimmed the design down a lot, they held nine missiles each, with two mounted on his shoulders he had eighteen missiles total, eight interceptors and ten HEAT headed missiles to deal with Knightmares.
Dora powered the Hippolyta Amazonian beside him, her newly upgraded Knightmare painted a bright neon green that hurt his eyes when he looked at it too long, the new fusion lance in her chest displayed proudly, its dozens of cannons and weapons now baring increased calibre. In its hands the Hippolyta held a large axe and shield combo, now able to use both its ranged and melee weapons simultaneously.
Then there was the most worrying person he knew, Nonnette, the white haired bitch tornado he called his sister by bond, slid the absolutely gigantic Ajax The Greater into its landing craft. The machine towered over everything on the field, at 7 meters tall it would have towered even over the Gawain, with its massive Titanium alloy mace able to crush lesser machines in a single blow. She had become known as the Berserker, the blood spatter on blue paintjob certainly helped with that... Well Marius hoped it was paint at least... He was never sure when Nonette was involved. Still he was glad to have her here and she was looking forward to smash some Chinese Knightmares with her giant mace and that frigate grade cannon on her back.
"Fucking finally! Landing craft! Make to shore with Godspeed Spartans! To our Prince!"
"God damnit Marius, you're spending too much time with Andre, you're sounding like him."
"Fuck you Nonette!"
"That's 'Fuck you Dame Nonette!' to you Sir Marius!"
…..
Every blow was like tanking a MBT shot to his armor, while every second blow was aimed and precise, seeking to disassemble him wholesale, his two opponents covering each other's weakspots perfectly, one always attacking and one always keeping his allies from interfering. It was like the Lion and Dragon knew each other perfectly, they fought together like they had done so for years, he never got a chance to attack that did not seem like a trap.
Meanwhile the Shen-hu was slowly killing him, slowly draining his life as he fed it more and more blood, the Shen-hu was already a machine that stressed its pilot to the very maximum, but the installed BRS took it far beyond that. It would not be long before his body would start to give out, his organs failing, blood acidifying in his veins, eyes melting out of his head, he had to push, to finish this quickly, he had to go beyond his limits.
"For Tianzi!
...
"Landing craft are inbound!"
"We have to destroy that landship Lancelot!"
"Understood Shogun, if we can get your cannons in range its dead."
"Easier said then done. You take point, clear me a path and I will fire."
"Just don't miss."
He found himself smirking at Suzaku's words, the tone was so familiar, so teasing, god he missed working together with the man, it felt so natural. Lelouch briefly lamented that it was a temporary thing, Suzaku not joining him after he had saved him from his execution still stung, then again the boy did not know his identity at the time. The fact that Suzaku even knew he was Zero was of course his never enough damned brothers fault, the man's meddling always seemed to cause problems for him.
He focused as a foursome of Chuyen that got passed Suzaku's spearhead, the Shogun dashed forward, ducking under a sword strike and delivering a swipe with his katana that cleaved its cockpit open. The Cockpit around him rumbled as the plasma cannon in the Shoguns chest slammed into its partner, he continued the spin firing his cannon had put him in, taking the head off of another machine.
Lelouch took a hit to its back from the last ones sword, he flinched briefly before turning around, slamming his fist into the Chinese Knightmares chest, sending it careening back. He swiped again, the Chuyens cockpit flying into the distance, the hadrons were nearly charged again, and the landship close, this was almost over.
…..
A plume of white fire was his only warning, his harken spun to counter the incoming blast of superheated plasma, testing its heat resistance and almost finding it wanting, those cannons had been upgraded, clearly. Damnable Lion, always changing, upgrading, the conniving creature that tried to make him its prey. One thing was worrying him more than others, the underslung barrel on the Perseus left arm, it was unused, and the BRS could not identify it, which left only a few possibilities, the most obvious was the one that Chinese intelligence could have provided.
A Fusion lance, the Lions pet project WMD, projected energy output big enough to tear an aircraft carrier in half, beating out even the Baryon Cannon. The BRS alerted him to the incoming grab attempt from the Guren, the blood red machine leaping towards him with its wings flared out, he was forced to tank the spear thrust coming from her to dodge the claw, feeling it sheer through his shoulder armor.
"You're on the back foot Xingke." The Lion's words made him scan out with the BRS again, watching as the Perseus tore a Chuyen in half with its massive sword, its shoulder cannons barking briefly, incinerating another two of his soldier. "The Shen-hu is not made for this, you don't have the body to keep this up, your dying Xingke, how will you serve her when you are dead?"
Dread gripped his heart like a coiling snake, what was happening, the BRS was burning in his mind, something about the Lion's words hurt him almost physically, like it was tearing into his very soul.
…..
I was somewhat surprised at the reaction my battle meditation had on Xingke, like it was amplified, similar to what happened with Mao... like his senses were amplified, was he using a brain raid? Hmm, I have been wanting to see how those worked with my Geass... This is just perfect, a chance to test and get a look at the Shen-Hu before the Chinese use their political capital to get it back.
"Come on Xingke, you know you cant win this, surrender now and I promise you fair treatment."
This time I did not tug on his despair, I ripped on it, pulling and twisting and watching as the Shen-Hu briefly stopped moving mid strike, Kallen immediately piercing its leg with her spear at the opening, the Chinese miracle machine stumbling back at that. I moved in next, ripping my claymore like sword free from the Chuyen I had imbedded it into to strike forward.
"I will never surrender!"
"Then you will fall."
My blade came crashing down at the same moment as Kallen thrusted her spear forward, she pierced his sword arm as I cleaved down into his cockpit block, the mangled cockpit flying into the distance. My Factsphere caught a brief glimpse of Xingke sitting in it, eyes bleeding and body shaking, alive, for now, if he survived the brain haemorrhage the BRS caused I will both surprised and impressed.
"I call dibs on that machine."
"Ha, not if those guys have anything to say about it Andre."
"Don't you worry about that my Dear, my reinforcements should be here..."
I looked to the shore nearby, eighty landing craft slamming into the shore, the guns atop them sending shells towards the Chinese forces as the bay doors slammed open. From them emerged my Spartans, a wave of 150 Knightmares and their pilots charging towards the enemy landships, led by three custom machines, my own army, men and woman who would stand with me no matter what.
"For the Lion!"
"Now."
"You fucking planned the timing didn't you?"
"I assure you it is a coincidence."
"Suuuuure."
…
"Missiles away!" The pods on the Hercules back fired trails of smoke as the missiles left their tubes, moments later they impacted the Chinese landship that was desperately trying to back away from the approaching Spartans, they impacted, piercing through the first layer of armor then exploded in the middle of the landship. The explosion rocked the battlefield, Marius clamped a hand on the Lancelot's shoulder as it stumbled back, Suzaku was ragged at this point, yet he would have to push for just a bit longer, they were close to the Chinese HQ.
"Sir Kururugi, stay close to me and the Ajax, we are moving in fast."
"Yes Sir Marius!"
…..
"Forty-five!"
Nonette's mace was pulled up from where it had cratered the ground around the Chuyen she had smashed, the Ajax's arm reaching out to pull its partner machine back towards her, right into the path of her swing, cracking its cockpit and crumbling its armor.
"Damnit! Thirty-two!"
Dora found herself fuming at the blond woman piloting the Ajax, their kill contest were something they often participated in Africa, in those more open and spread out battle fields the Hippolyta offered her the advantage, but in this battle where there were more enemies up close then far away Dora was falling behind rapidly.
"Pick up the pace Dora!"
"Sod off Nonette!"
…
The Chinese HQ fell within thirty minutes meaning we got a front row seat of the retreating Chinese fleet. I took great pleasure in the way my girlfriend eyes went wide as the Olympus came into view, the giant aircraft carrier cruising through the air as its fusion lance batteries glowed white for a brief moment. We could feel the air pressure from our places atop our Knightmares, Kallen rocking back as the lances of white fire struck the Chinese ships, every single shot sinking a ship.
"And once again, the Lion changes the face of war, let it not be the last time."
"Its just us two here Andre, stop trying to sound like a ham."
"Let me have my fun Kallen, my quote recorder is always ready."
"Quote recorder?"
"Its exactly what it sounds like."
"You are such a fucking ham."
….
"You have your prize Zero, our truce lasts a week, please do make it last."
Lelouch cut the connection to the cockpit of the Perseus the second the Lion confirmed that, sighing deeply, he felt exhausted, but he had achieved his objectives in their entirety for once, testing the limits of the Geass he placed on Kallen and the lengths the Lion was willing to go for her. Even testing the upgrades to the Shogun and Guren, it had for once been a success, one without downsides and for some reason it made him nervous.
Fighting against the Lion was nerve wracking, but working with him? It was worse, Lelouch knew not when, how or where he had been played, but he was sure he had been and it was both annoying and terrifying. It was a common consensus on the Lion in his opinion, if Xingke's babbling about the man was correct.
Speaking off, the Chinese general was not in the best state of mind or body, but still a prize to have. Sure the man's power was likely to diminish after this fiasco, with the rival Eunuch faction ready to put the blame on him, even then he would still hold the loyalty of the Knightmare corp, the only section of the Chinese army that really mattered in the long term. Damn the Lion and his need to invalidate entire sections of the military, first the tanks and foot soldiers and now the Navy and Airforce with his flying death carrier and the new wings strapped to the Perseus.
"The next battle will have to be planned perfectly, lets all be lost."
"Come on now Lulu, planning can wait until you had some sleep."
"Alright C.C, that sounds like a good idea..."
…
"Kallen? It is not our normal time..."
"You are really complaining about me being here?"
"Of course not, come on in."
Kallen rolled her eyes as Andre led her to a familiar set of chair, she however instead made her way to the liquor, pouring both of them a glass before sitting down on his lap, a bit bold of her, but she was still on the adrenalin high from the fight. Her eyes glazed for a millisecond as she remembered the brief conversation she had with Lelouch before leaving for the palace.
"Trust me Kallen, relax, go to the Lion and relax together."
"Bold of you, though I do not mind."
"Of course you don't, if you did I still would not move, you're a good chair."
"Hah, of course I am, some music or a movie?"
"Movie please, something relaxing."
"I'll put on a random Christmas romcom then."
"God, the fact that you enjoy those..."
"You like them too!"
"Yeah... I just don't admit it, which makes me better."
"Sure, Kallen, sure."
Leaning back Kallen took a few sips of her drink and quickly found herself falling asleep, to the silly and predictable plot on screen and the warm arm around her shoulders, it was simply peaceful, just being with Andre, not having to worry about anything else for a little while.
…
"The Federation apologises for the actions of its general Li Xingke regarding the unlawful invasion of Japan, according to a Chinese investigation the general had been misled by corrupt officials looking to deal damage to the federation. The council of High Eunuchs has entered negotiations with the Britannian Prime Minister for the return of prisoners and equipme..."
I woke to the news being on, laying on my lounge chair with a sleeping redhead still on my chest and I considered the events of the past week. Which in fact was only four days. What a fucking mess, but it has been worth it, the Chinese humbled again, the truce given me time to set the next and last stage into motion, and maybe have a bit of fun at the festival. Yes, it wont be long now until the end of the story I have woven into being, lets hope Amon is satisfied.
"Morning..."
"Morning Kallen... Breakfast?"
"Yes, pancakes? I need sugar. And Coffee."
"Black right?"
"Yeah, don't need it sweetened and you know... lactose intolerant."
"Coming right up... if you let me get up that is."
"Just a minute, you're comfy..."
…
"It is not that I am unable to participate in politics, I just often have better things to do, like literally anything else."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia