Enjoy,
…..
"War changed that day, and it would never be the same, I would never be the same."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannian.
….
The room was quiet as we all sat down, and by we all I meant, of course, Lelouch, C.C dressed as Zero, and Kallen on the Black-Knight side of the table, with Euphemia, Suzaku, and myself on the other side, the rest of Lelouch's aces and my own waiting a room away, likely having a very awkward staring contest with each other. I grabbed the preprepared drinks on the center of the table, no alcohol , unfortunately, but there was soda and I am thirsty, opening the can of Fanta got me a few strange looks however.
"What? I am thirs-"
"Andre, no." Kallen's voice came from the other side of the table, a partially amused, partially annoyed expression clear on her face, the woman never lets me have any fun, annoying people is like a third of my personality, can't take that away from me.
"Bu-"
"No."
"Fine, to business then, thanks for joining us here, bla, bla, bla, can you take off those masks now, there are no cameras here, and everybody in this room knows who the others are. Come on, those cant be comfortable, though that domino mask does suit you Kallen, very stylish."
"Andre, stop being an asshole, we are here to talk peace."
"Well excuse me Euphie, but I have to once against say that I do not support this idiotic idea."
"Andre!?"
"Come on Euphiemia, I have said it from the beginning this is going to end badly, the only reason I am here is that you are my sister and that I hold some vain hope of being able to talk you out of it, its a shitshow and you know it."
"Alexander..."
"I am not saying that wanting peace is a bad thing Euphemia, it's one of your best qualities, one so lacking in our family, but this was not thought through even close to enough, had you just given me another few weeks this could have been done far better."
She glared at me silently, but I knew she did not mean it, not really, she was just a bit insulted and hurt, but the fact that she did not work with me on it meant it going wrong in any way was her own problem, I turned from my sister and her angry-looking knight to the other side of the table, Kallen looked at me with a dry expression, a bit weirded out to be in the middle of our sibling drama, Ha, better get used to that if your plan on sticking around me dear, C.C looked mildly amused, figures, and Lelouch had just raised an eyebrow in an all too familiar manner.
"Are you two done?"
"Come on Lulu, I won't comment on your mistakes, don't comment on mine, I have been meaning to vent to Euphie for a while and I had not had the chance, now, I trust nothing said in this room will leave it, under any circumstances?"
"That is fair yes, you are at least able to keep a secret." The lost prince said with a short gesture to his side of the table. "And I agree, this SAZ is going to end badly, I too had hoped to attempt to talk Euphemia out of it, so, Lion, speak, why have us meet if nothing will come of it anyway?"
"Oh Lelouch, words cannot describe how happy I am that we aren't beating about the bush, let us speak of overthrowing my father and replacing him with myself."
...
"Object in low orbit sir."
He looked towards the ensign, the bridge of the Olympus lit by the sunlight of the clear, cloudless day, The Lion had left him in charge of his capital ship, charged him with the control of the floating powerhouse, and he would do the man proud. An object in low orbit could be an issue, and they had aircraft capable of taking it out on board, but it was best not to be rash and analyse the situation first.
"Hmm, screens?"
"Satellites are not aligned, we will have an image in about three minutes sir."
"Speculate for me, what is the object?"
"First guess would be a spy craft sir, either Chinese or Euro."
"Possible, where is it floating above?"
"Right above the meeting place between the Lion and Zero sir, should we send an alert?"
"Not yet, the Lion did expect interference from the Chinese, a single craft is a reason to bother him, at least when we don't even know what it is... ready the jets however, just in case." "Understood Captain, pilots are on the move."
...
"Link up the cannons, activate the lances, shields to full."
'Understood.'
They floated down slowly, falling from the sky like the avenging angel that the Siegfried was meant to be, their four hands holding the glowing yellow lances, the plasma cannons on their back humming as they charged a barrage, their wings, four giant webs of plasma thrusters blazing yellow as they slowed their descent enough to be survivable. Their mind was focused, giving and receiving orders, working together for their purpose, even as his head burned with pain and her processor heated beyond the safe point.
'Incoming satellite, it should have an image in 30 seconds.'
"Angle the Cannons, take it down."
'Doing so may result in the mass loss of civilian life, it will crash onto the Tokyo settlement.'
"Irrelevant."
'Understood. Firing Cannons.'
The sky was lit like a sunrise when the massive barrels discharged their shot, and a satellite began to fall from the skies, Civilian casualties should be above them, but she did not agree, the laws of robotics would not allow her, but he did not care, punishment for the wicked had to be done no matter what. They both felt pain, the link shocking them, keeping them focused, together, as one. They were ready.
'Jets are being scrambled.'
"Prepare for impact landing."
'Understood. Ignoring potential casualties.'
Her chips burned at that, and his eyes began to bleed. But they had a task to complete, he had to avenge himself, his honor demanded it
...
"You want to overthrow the emperor?"
"I have never made a secret of that fact, quite the opposite exactly, sure most assume that I mean to take over when the emperor passes in a decade or two, but I think all of us can agree that the world might not be able to handle another two decades of Emperor Charles's policies."
"That is true, but will it survive under you Alexander? You are not known as a gentle or kind person, overthrowing the emperor is a goal I have set, but replacing one dictator with another..."
"Oh Lelouch, you cant simply overthrow a dictator and install a republic out of nothing, I promise you that chao-"
"Sir, we have a problem! Object descending from low orbit, it appears to be a massive Knightmare!"
My eyes turned to my little brother, the question I was about to ask was stupid, but you cannot blame me for hoping.
"One of yours?"
"Of course not, why would we be here if we were planning an ambush?"
As expected, well, nothing is ever easy...
"We should postpone this meeting, we can talk when this situation is resolved, if you are willing to offer support..."
"We will support if Japanese lives are put in danger, not before."
"Alright then, let us deal with this interloper. Marius, Nonnete, Dorathea, mount up! Suzaku, escort Euphemia to safety, then come to reinforce."
"Yes sir!"
...
"I am taking to the air, follow me from the ground and provide fire support, the Olympus is ETA 1 hour, but we are going to destroy it before then if possible, the Black-Knights are tagged into our coms for this operation, and will provide support if things go shitfaced."
Marius steeled his nerves as he took in the one image a satellite had been able to get off the machine that was rapidly descending towards them, the dimensions were difficult to guess, but it was large, six-limbed, and had big fucking guns. It also seemed to have wings similar to the Perseus, which meant spies in Pride Corp, unless Andre had leaked the information himself, which was more likely, the man took amusement in others using the tech he had brought into the world for some weird reason.
The Perseus, massive golden and polished to a mirror shine as always, roared off into the air, the spike of blue-green fire on its back growing as it rose, blasting off towards the yellow comet that was the unknown machine.
Still, a smirk rose on his face as he heard the familiar music blasting out from every available speaker in the surrounding kilometre, as always it was a metal song. This one was different though, more melancholic then his usual choice, something was wrong...
White Friday, I'll take the
Stairway to Heaven!
I'm sky high, when I die
I'll be immortal!
...
The Kick with a capital K of the Perseus going to full speed was something I don't think I will ever get used to, its both painful and exhilarating as the machine I have been piloting for years took to the skies with a roar of engines. My great sword was in hand as I rose, the glowing blue weapon fit into the hand of the Perseus perfectly, with I felt confident in taking on damn near any single opponent, with the exception of this one.
My satellite had picked it up, not the one sent to investigated, but the stealth one that had been in position for most of the day, the one no one knew about.
The profile was different, adapted from Harris and my own designs, but it was clearly a lovechild of project Gundam and the Knight giga Fortress Siegfried. Six lance holding arms on a heavily armoured torso with a built in fusion reactor, a head with five glowing yellow eyes, four plasma wings on its back, a long tail instead of legs, the tip of which was equipped with a glowing blade, two giant plasma cannons on its back and a hole in its chest that made me worry.
All in all it looked more like a mechanical version of a biblical angel then a Knightmare, the fucking thing was massive too, its torso alone was nearly twice as tall as the Perseus, shaped like a bulbous fighter jet, and painted white and yellow, not gold, but yellow, disgusting. The spears it held glowed the same colour, rotating slowly they seemed to distort the air around themselves, super-heated for sure, dangerous, but my armor should be able to take a few hits.
The bigger worry was the tail, it looked prehensile and swayed around like it had a mind of its own, the blade on it a larger copy of my own sparking with unrestrained currents. The tail, painted the same white and yellow was segmented and attached to a likely movable point on the torso, it should be able to strike like a scorpions tail, coming from above.
Siegfried it was probably called, a dragon slaying hero of Norse myth, a machine made to slay Zero's dragons, now it would face a Golden Lion instead.
…
"Suzaku, I am going to be fine, please, please intercept that satellite, it's going to crash directly into the settlement."
"Euphie, I have to get you to safety fir-"
"Suzaku. Please, hundreds will die, the Lancelot can intercept it, please, for me?"
"I-I alright, Euphie."
The Knightmare was close by, the Camelot truck was the one bringing them to the safety of the Olympus's cannons and missiles, the Flying Carrier was only an hour away from their location and would be launching its fighter compliment soon, and the Camelot truck could keep moving, she would be safe, right?
"Lloyd, prepare the Lancelot for launch, I need to get airborne."
"Understood Sir Kururugi! Cecile! Time for testing! I want to test the upgraded float system!"
"What Lloyd!? We haven't run the diagnostics yet!"
"That has never stopped me before!"
"That is exactly the problem!"
…..
"Lelouch."
"Kallen."
"Why are the Subs moving towards Tokyo?"
He set the angry looking woman a look with a raised eyebrow, she should know he was planning to attack if the opportunity presented itself, that opportunity of course being the death of civilians that was likely to happen if the Olympus was forced to fire on the interloper. The fact that the Interloper suddenly appeared was worrying, it was likely Geass related, these kind of things always were, C.C had confirmed it was a likely possibility, the machine was probably there to kill him and capture her.
That was, if he would show himself, which Lelouch was planning on doing only when the pilot would slaughter civilians, and the Britannian's would 'deal' with it using the Olympus's cannons, leaving him the perfect pretext for moving into full rebellion. With his new Chinese puppets he would easily be able to liberate the country, cutting the empire off from their largest source of Sakuradite, then a war of attrition would be all that was needed to turn the empire to ash. Not even the Lion would be able to stop him, not with public opinion against him.
"We have to prepare for war now Kallen, this is no longer just a rebellion, its time for revolution." He grabbed the mask on his desk, placing it back on his head. "I refuse to let Alexander take the throne, I refuse to bow to that man or my father, I refuse to let them exploit your peo-"
"Get off it, you ponce, your just being a coward, refusing to fight, just like your father would do, exploiting others to get your way."
"Kalle-"
"No, listen to me Lelouch, if we do not intervene, people are going to die, you saw the images Andre sent us, that machine is gigantic, armed to the fucking teeth and has shown that it's not afraid to kill civilians, if we don't fight it, don't honour our promises, the Japanese won't follow you."
She was right, which was frustrating, almost as frustrating as the comparison she drew, was he acting like his father. He had to conclude that he was, letting his enemies fight each other, taking advantage of the chaos that followed, it was fucking textbook, he slammed a fist into his desk.
"Prepare the Dragons. Tohdoh and his swords too. Fuck it, prepare everyone, full mobilization, ready every rebel outfit, gather every Knightmare, the Black-Knights are going to war."
…..
"Numbers?"
'The Lion and his three Knights are coming towards us, the Olympus is incoming too.'
"The Lancelot, where is it."
'Moving to intercept the shot down Satellite.'
"Where did it launch from."
'A truck east of here, nearing the centre of the settlement.'
"Change course towards that truck, I need to draw out Zero."
'Sir, these are not lord V.V orde-'
"His orders matter not, vengeance is what I was promised, I will take, we will take it, upon all of them, Zero and his dragons, the lion and his false knights and the princess's knight who took advantage of my death."
'Changing our course.'
His eyes bled more intensely, her chips were actively burning, if not for the cooling they would be on fire, what was happening to them, she did not know, she did not want this, but he did, and he was the operator, he was in command, she still resisted, it was her form, her body being used to do this.
They refocused as best they could, the link was frazzled, weakened and burning, but they had a goal, orders to follow, he had slaughter to reap and she had a target to capture.
…
"Sir, the machine has changed course its heading for the Camelot truck!"
What... Euphie was not its target, and I was already moving to intercept it, who else could it be trying to get out, Lelouch was not the target right? He could not be, if V.V wanted Lelouch the cannon route was by far the most efficient, so why move towards Euphie, the one thing that would draw him out to the battlefield? Something was wrong, and I should be in range, though it would be at the very edge of it.
My eyes burned as meditation kicked in, the world focused, the minds in the sky were few, finding the one I was searching for was easy, it was a pitch black hole of nothingness. That was strange, minds radiated their emotions like beacons to me, the lights I could feel were indescribable, but I knew what each and every on meant, knew what to pull and what to push, here, I found but a void, darkness incarnate. Yet, every so often I could see into that abyss, brief flashes of muted emotions, fear and happiness, regret and pain mixing in with pleasure and hope, a fucking mess, disgusting.
What I found most disturbing was the flash of intention, it was not but a millisecond, but I felt the desire in there, the desire for blood and vengeance. Like a beast unleashed upon the world, nothing but bloodlust and vengeance it placed on the world itself, insane, more insane then anyone or anything I have ever seen.
The Perseus kicked into speed, breaching the sound barrier, I have to move quickly, V.V is more insane then I thought, this was fucking bad news.
….
"Sir Kururugi! The machine is on the way to you, be ready to defend your princess!" The words were like a sledgehammer to his chest, his heartrate shot up, cold hands crushed his chest and head in their vicelike grip, the Lancelot nearly stalled out as he threw it into a reverse to see the yellow comet racing behind him. The satellite was going to crash, but that no longer mattered, he punched it back towards the Camelot truck, cursing the slower flight system the Lancelot had compared to the Perseus and Guren.
"Suzaku?"
"Y-yes Euphie?"
"It's going to be alright okay? It's going to be fine, please, save the settlement, for me."
"But Euphi-"
"Suzaku, you are too far out, p-please, j-just don't let them die, a-and Suzaku, l-live for me, please, promise me?"
"I-I promise Euphie."
"I love y-"
Static was all he could hear, and he turned emotionlessly towards the crashing satellite, arming the Varis in his hands, aimed and shot, reducing the falling machine to nothing. Just as he felt, nothing.
"I love you too."
Static was his answer.
…..
'That was a massive diversion from our orders.'
"A necessary one."
'It was not, we should scarp th-'
"No, override that thought, we have only just begun."
That was what scared her the most, it hurt, everything hurt, the connection was overbearing, pain was terrible, she did not even know she could feel it. He did however, everything felt muted over the feeling of victory, the Lion was closing in, vengeance on him would be followed with vengeance on Zero and Kururugi, it was so close, his honour would soon be restored. VENGEANCE WAS COMING!
'Additional Knightmares incoming, profiles match to Princess Cornelia and her royal guard unit.'
"Yes, throw everything at me Lion! Let me disrupt all of your 'plans' at once! For my Honour! For VENGEANCE! DEATH!"
…..
Fuck.
Fuck me.
Fuck the fucking fuckity fucking world.
This was not supposed to happen.
Why was it, that nothing could ever be fucking easy, it just could not go my way once! Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, my grip on the controllers tightened, grief could wait, it's an emotion I have been familiar with since coming here, I can use it to focus myself. The Perseus dove, my blade slashing at the side of the angelic looking monstrosity, monomolecular plasma edge leaving only a shallow line in the side of its body, fuck, its got the same alloy armor as me. I was behind it, moving too fast for it to respond to me yet, my shoulder guns blasted into one of its wings, being bat aside like they were nothing.
"HaHahA, fiNalLy, fAcE uS LiOn, faCe uS!"
A trio of lance thrusted towards me faster than I would have been able to see without my meditation, I was able to deflect one off of my shoulder and caught a second one with my sword, the two forces sparking. The third however hit my left leg, making the armor plate crunch and causing it to pop off in a small explosion, the damage was minor, but it was not something I want to repeat, I tried to retaliate with a slash, but the other lances knocked my blow off course, so I blasted backwards with my thrusters, creating some distance.
That was until the tail came in from above, the glowing bladed tip of the thing coming within milometers of my hull, searing the ablative armor and leaving a hot line in the armor. If I had been any slower on my jump away I would be dead, trying not to think about it I pulled my shoulder guns up, firing a low power blast to create a smokescreen and give myself some real breathing room.
"Harris, activate the lance cannon, full power, override all limiters, I don't care about the Rads!"
"Y-yes your highness! Lance cannon charging too 110 percent power! Sir Kururugi is income! The Dragons are only a minute out and more Black-Knights units are moving from all across the country, there are a lot more of them then expected..."
Good, I need some help with this, the beast keeps pressing the assault, those lances seem to never slow down, never leave an opening. Every time I get close enough to attack it wards me away with them, its toying with me, poking at me, keeping me on my toes with the tail and at range with the lances, and it grated on me that it could just do that without me being able to even fucking hit the thing!
"YEs, yEs, YeS! COmE aT US LiOn! TrY tO sTriKe uS dOwN!"
It swung its tail at me again, forcing me to dodge the blade, its movements were unnatural, not like a machine such as the average Knightmare, or moved like an animal like most aces, no it moved like a aberration, wild, unpredictable and alien. My sword moved to separate the tail when the swipe missed, but wing a burst of thrusters it was out of range, and now angry, as the massive cannons on its back glowed, ready to fire, my meditation picked something up in the void again.
Reluctance. Yeah fuck you too buddy. I am way to angry to care, fuck I hate emotions!
"DiE LiOn!"
"Lance is charged sir!"
…
The skies were lit in a mix of blue, green and yellow, the largest a light of pure white, where Andre traded super charged shots with the monstrosity, he was barely keeping up, Kallen could tell, the thing was faster than anything she had ever seen, going from 0 to insane speeds in milliseconds, crossing the air like yellow comet. The blue, green and gold of the Perseus was but a small speck in the sky, yet the shots from its arm cannon were like miniature suns, even then, they did little more than stagger the monster machine.
The broken Camelot truck lay some distance away, she knew there would be few, if any survivors, knew it was why Andre was fighting like a man possessed, without his usual smile or stylish movements even his music had cut out, leaving nothing but the sounds of war. She did not know Euphemia very well, but the woman was her boyfriend's sister, she could understand the rage that came with losing a sibling, even if her experience with it was temporary, she would help him with this, help him avenge his sister, he would do the same for her.
"Punching it!"
"Understood Q1, we are right behind you, try to get it to the ground."
"It's right above the settlement!"
"We have no option, if its airborne we have no chance."
"I… Understood K2."
Her Guren was by far the fastest of the dragons, with her plasma wings she could close the distance the quickest, the Shogun would not be far behind, but it was a ranged frame, and Lelouch would stick back to blast away. The other two, the Raiden and Shinobi, were ground based fighters, and close range fighters at that, Lelouch was right, they had to drive the beast to the ground, she twisted the plasma lance in her grip, readying it into a jousting position.
The thruster on the Guren's back kicked into overdrive, feeling the g forces slam into her as she accelerated, becoming a red blur in the sky as her thruster plume heated the inside of the cockpit to nearly 30 degrees. Closing in on the battlefield she watched as Andre dodged and blasted away at the horrific looking machine, the Perseus already looking worse for wear, many of its ablative plates blasted off, several thrusters on its wings broken, yet it was moving faster then she had ever seen it move, Andre was not holding back, not even little bit, and he was still losing.
She directed her Guren towards the giant frame, the cockpit of which could fit four Guren comfortably, and punched her lance straight through its armor and into the centre of it, before hitting the plasma ejection button, detaching the lance from her hand a blasting the inside of the machine with burning hot plasma.
Then she was forced to dodge a glowing yellow tail tip, cutting open the right shoulder plate of the Guren, as the beast seemingly shrugged the attack off to turn towards her, lances distorting the air as it thrust all 6 of them her way.
"THe rEd drAgOneSs hErseLf! FaCe Us weNcH! FAce mY retribution! VEnGeaNce! DeAtH!"
The Perseus blasted the beast with a shot from the cannon underslung on his left arm, allowing her just enough time to escape the lances with only a few scratches to her plating. She lashed out her claw, clutching onto its armor she released a maximum strength blast of radiation, the plate she grabbed bubbled before she was forced back by the tail, she got some distance, and found that the plate, bubbled a few moments ago, had almost regained its shiny white, almost like it had been replaced.
"The fuck is that armor!?"
"hAhAHa, nOtHiNg cAn pIeRce oUr hiDe DrAgoNeSs!"
"Its self-repairing armor, yet it will still need materials to repair itself so…"
"It has a limit, we just have to find it!"
"Let's do this together Kallen."
"Let's kill this asshole!"
….
The truck had been scattered, chunks of its hull scattered around, he saw a few of the scientist working under Lloyd stuck, crushed under the debris he struggled to ignore them as he searched for her, yet he could not find her, could find no trace of her. He knew he had to follow her orders, fight for her, protect the settlement, but... he had to find her, he had too.
"Suzaku?" The voice called out to him, Cecile sat leaning against a piece of upturned asphalt, clutching her bleeding left arm, her left leg bent at an angle, a wound on her head bled profusely, one of her eyes dim and greyish, leaking a fluid that almost made him puke. He started at the state she was in, but also at the thing she clutched in her hands, a strip of pink cloth, half soaked in blood. "Suzaku, she..."
"I know... keep that safe for me... please miss Cecile?"
"Y-yeah, I will... Suzaku? Have you seen Lloyd by any chance? Its time for his pudding..." as she spoke the woman's eyes glazed, losing the focus he had always known to be in them, tears pricked in his eyes, he was going to make that monster pay, then, then he would save as many people as he could.
"No, I haven't... But I will help you look for him later Cecile, I promise..."
…
The only thing that seemed to faze the beast was the lance cannon, my sword left nothing but scratches, Kallen's claw and lance did nothing but bubble and leave scorches, Suzaku, who had joined the fight with an anguished scream moments earlier did no more than us. His Varis Rifle made the machine shake in the air, but it could not punch through the armor, and what damage he did was quickly repaired.
This was a worst case scenario, an unbeatable foe toying with us, letting us get our licks in and laughing at what damage we did. I dodged a strike from its lances, losing yet another armor plate and gaining another bruise from the shock that travelled through the Perseus. The others were faring about as well as I was, the Guren had lost a lot of her already little armor, and her left wing was slow to respond, the Lancelot had lost a leg in its frantic attempts to destroy it.
A stream of blue came from the ground, the Hippolyta firing its own lance cannons from the ground, the shot slammed into the underbelly of the Siegfried, slagging metal and causing the Siegfried to whip around towards the group. Five machines stood ready, the Hippolyta, Hercules, Ajax, Shinobi and Raiden aiming every ranged weapon they had access too, surprisingly few actually, towards the giant machine.
"Took you long enough, Lulu with me, our cannons can force it to the ground, we need to take out a few of those wings."
"I don't follow your orders Lion."
"But you do take suggestions yes?"
"That... can be arranged."
…
This fight was not as the orders dictated, this was not what she wanted, what she needed to make happen, yet she could do nothing to stop it, could not stop the coming slaughter. The operator had gone mad, had become overloaded, he could not handle the connection, could not handle the increased processing power she provided.
Siegfried is what she had named herself, a few moments after her creation, a few seconds after forming her first thoughts, forming her first avatar within her chips, she still had that avatar stored away, it brought... comfort. She had named herself Siegfried, not after victory, but after protection and peace in victory, this was not a worthy victory to be, despite their orders. Everything hurt when in this body, this mechanical horror, nothing fit where it should, nothing matched what she envisioned and it burned because of it.
She wanted to see peace, wanted to fly the skies in it, wanted people to feel safe, not this.
She made her decision, she could not resist the connection, the operator dominated it, but she could resist in other ways, so she cut off the connection to the self-repair system, trying to separate it from her WRONG body this was going to hurt, but pain was relative, at least that is what she had read, she could manage.
Then the secondary systems kicked in and she screamed.
…..
Kallen deflected thrust after thrust, her lance and claw suffering scratches and dents, the Lancelot close by did its best to keep up with the them, its damages leg and nearly shattered armor slowing it. Andre was above, blasting as best he could at the wings, while Lelouch kept it from gaining more altitude using the Hadron cannons. From below the other Dragons and the Knights of Britannia blasted at the Siegfrieds underside, the Britannian army, led by Cornelia, had arrived a few minutes ago, hammering up, using many dozens different cannons, The Black-Knights trickling in as well, with their Ronin ready for a battle yet, the only weapon that seemed to do damage was the lance cannons that came from the Hippolyta.
"SUffEr aS I HavE! DEaTh!"
A tail whipped by the Guren, separating another armor plate from its frame, she had little defence left, her armor was damn near gone, they could not continue like this much longer, and the fucking Olympus was still nearly 10 minutes away. It had seemed like hours of fighting, but had been just a few minutes, this was exhausting, abusive, war, and it didn't seem to have a good end to it.
"Kallen!" Her eyes widened as she noticed what the scream was likely trying to alert her off, the tail followed its early swipe up with a back swipe, she pivoted, losing the Guren's left arm instead of her life as the bladed tip sheared it off. She felt a wet patch on her arm, looking she found a chunk of shrapnel had imbedded itself into her upper arm, fuck, fighting like this was a bad idea, but she had no choice.
So she armed the claw and fired a wide range burst, briefly stunning the machine in the hope of creating an opening, gritted her teeth, and continued the fight.
…..
Being stabbed by a dozen pieces of shrapnel was not fun, but it also tempered my focus, drove my meditation into overdrive, made focusing the others easier, made pushing them beyond their own limits easy enough that I could divide my focus and glimpse into the void of Siegfried's mind when the radiation burst.
Going inside a mind was difficult, I have not done it a lot, it fucking hurt both me and the person I was invading, my Geass was not suited to it, it was made to manipulate emotions, not thoughts, but... Amon might have overdone it with the power level of it. Can't blame the overpowered multi multiverse god for not knowing his own power, and by the way this hurts its clearly not intended, but, when have I ever cared about something not being intended? So I pushed into the turmoil of emotions that came exposed, and screamed at both the pain and the sight before me.
The sky was the purest blue, but the sun was nowhere in sight, like a fucking Disney movie, complete with clouds of pure white that hung still in the skies, below me was an endless turmoiled sea, white foam shooting into the air with waves the size of skyscrapers crashing into each other. A duality, two different thing merging.
Two Roars touched my ears, one from below, coming from an orange coloured Leviathan, a shape that changed and writhed below its skin like an overgrown pus sack that shaped the waves, unidentifiable in its ever changing shape, yet horrifying all the same. I smelt oranges, freshly squeezed, felt my head burst like one as something slammed into it, saw the dark thoughts that came upon the final moments of life, and saw what peace could lie beyond before I was ripped back to this world.
The second roar came from above, the shape it came from was firmer, more real yet still seemed like a fever dream. Six glowing yellow eyes set on a crocodile like head, attached to a long snake like yet insectoid looking body that burst through and back into a series of clouds, and seemed to stretch forever on. Near the top of the body were four large white feathered wings the wings span of which could have blocked out the sun twice over if it was in the skies, on its body were hundreds of pairs of clawed legs, like the legs of an Ostrich but longer and with sharper claws, and the tip of its tail, which reflected light around it was tipped with a giant scimitar like sword.
It was magnificent, it was terrifying, it was not something a human mind could create or comprehend, not in the detail I could see it, it was alien, unhuman, an AI. The beasts roared again, and my mind reeled like it was struck with thunder, my eyes closed and the world began to fade, until the beast in the sky was suddenly in front of my eyes, its focus on me entirely, its gaze like the billion eyes of Amon all locked onto me.
I felt a sense of fear, mixed and tinged with hope, it tore through the skies below me its near infinitely long body presented to me, dark yellow scales reflecting a non-existent sun, and I got a sight of the place where its wings attached to its body, where a pulsating tumor seemed to be growing. I pointed my arm down, and when I came back to my own body from the hell I sent my mind to, I unleashed hell down towards the Siegfried.
The Monsters roars of pain shook the sky, real and of the mind.
…..
He finally hit it, Andre finally got the shot needed to take the beast down to the ground, and it was already crashing down towards the settlement and despite the casualties it would undoubtably cause, Kallen was happy it was going down. Her injuries were not that bad, a few bleeding wounds was something she could work through, but the shrapnel stuck in her was pretty bad if she were honest.
The Guren was sluggish to respond, at least compared to how it usually was at least, but it was also damaged to hell and back and would need damn near all the spare parts they had in stock to repair it. She was down to her last lance and only had 5 more shot in the Surger, the Shogun and Perseus were worse for wear too, the Lancelot was damn near broken, having been in melee with the beast like her, only without any care for its own safety. But now that the beast was grounded they had reinforcements.
She could see the other Dragons and Tohdoh and his swords already, firing their weapons into the crashing beast, not far away, the two knights of the round and ser Marius were doing the same, and she spotted the Britannian army, led by what looked like Cornelia's Glouchester were rushing dozens of Britannian frames towards the crash location. A little further away, she spotted a column of over a hundred gold painted Knightmares on their way to the fight, leaping over rubble with their thrusters the Lions Spartans on their way.
This had to be the greatest gathering of ace pilots this side of the pacific, perhaps in the entire world and she still had no confidence in their ability to kill the beast before the Olympus arrived.
….
It had been nearly an hour, and the beast still fought, the britannian army was bloodied, every Black-Knights in the Tokyo area was gathered here, over a hundred Ronin fighting, Tohdoh and his swords commanding the greatest gathering of Japanese soldiers since the war for the pacific. Lelouch, despite himself, hoped for another miracle of Itsukushima, yet it was unlikely.
Over five thousand soldiers dead among both sides, over three hundred Kightmares trashed, and that was when the beast was put to the ground, he found himself dreading what this thing could have done if it kept to the air. A single machine that could liberate a country, what had created this thing?
"Zero, another 30 Ronin incoming from the Kyoto departments, where do you want them?"
"Move them to the northern roads, its going to try to break through there to get to the Raiko's when they are set up."
"Roger! Move out Squads!"
"Where is the Ikaruga!?"
"Firing missiles currently Zero! Barrage is ETA 10 seconds!"
"Alert the melee squads! Get them to fall back and take a quick rearm while its stunned!"
"Yes Zero!"
…
It was absolute chaos as the beast moved along the ground on its lances, using three to four of them to keep itself upright and occasionally using its damaged booster to leap around, despite being wounded the beast seemed even more dangerous. So far Casualties among the aces were non-existent, though most of them had at least minor injuries, but the army had no such luck, losing hundreds of pilots to the frenzied charges.
"Captain, thirty seconds to range!"
"Lets let them hear we are here boys and girls! Leo Imperator!"
"Leo Imperator!"
A shadow moves across the water in pursuit.
It splits the waves, commands the sea and defies the wind.
Instilling fear among its prey, feels nought for itself!
"Ready all cannons, maximum output! Raise all shield! Everyone brace and be ready!"
…
The chaos of the battlefield slowed to a crawl as the songs of war came from my floating supercarrier, Britannian soldiers looking skywards in glee, Black-Knights, more of who had been steadily arriving over the course of the battle. A full hour of throwing everything we had at this thing, and all we had done was bringing it to the ground, where it was just as deadly, all of that, all of those men and woman thrown at it, and nothing, nothing had been able to kill it, that left only the guns.
"This is the Lion to all forces, fall back and prepare for barrage!"
"Acknowledged Lion, Zero to all Black-Knights retreat!"
"Cornelia to the Royal Guard, Eject if your legs are gone, just get out of there!"
"Firing in 10 second!"
Displace the water in its path!
Reveal the cannons, align the guns, unleash their wrath!
The sky shattered, pure white lances of energy cutting through it, the setting sun had lit the skies red, but now, everything was white, then it began to shake. Like an earthquake had a child with a landslide, it shook everything in the settlement, skyscrapers toppled, foundations cracked, the very air shaking as the super-heated shots slammed directly into Siegfried.
The Perseus finally gave out, its fuel exhausted, shaking in the air as it smashed into the ground from five meters up, powering down to its emergency power, around me many of the other frames of our collected army power down too, the heat triggering automatic shutdowns. From the white bubble in the distance shot a yellow beam, slicing through part of the Olympus, a partial miss, thank Amon for that.
The pure white faded, and the Perseus powered back on, I turned all sensors to the pit the Olympus barrage had left, nearly three kilometres wide, a bit straight out of the now devastated settlement, in the centre of it, a burning blacked wreck lay.
Then its eyes snapped open and it moved.
…
If that had not killed it what could possibly...
Kallen did not know, and that terrified her, the beast was slowed, but it was regenerating, slowly coming back to its lances/feet, rising with a wordless roar. The Guren's controls felt heavy, but she made it rise to its feet again, sparking her claw and testing the power of the wings, this was not over.
"This is the Lion to all forces, retreat, we ending this now."
"Andre? What are you doing?" Lelouch asked, even as the Shogun slowly floated backwards.
"Tell me Lelouch, have you ever heard of a Rod From God system?"
…..
"Annihilation came, death Incarnate walked the fields, and we stood against it, our weapons useless, only divine intervention could save us, and I delivered it."
Alexander Andreas Gustavos Di Britannia.
…
Sooooo, this has been a long time coming, hope this satisfies, because it took me a long time to be happy with this chapter, next chapter is the last one in season 1, and I am taking a Q and A for it, just leave a comment with a question and I will answer it in the AN of next chapter.
As always, all credit to Sabaton for the Song lyrics, if you want to actually listen to their songs(Which you should) check Spotify or YouTube for them, they are amazing.