Author's Note: So here we are, at chapter 30. Wow. Back when I started writing this, I never thought that, interludes and other demi-chapters aside, I would ever write something so long. Just goes to show you how much fun writing is for me.
I suppose I should also put this here, just to be nice.
Coming to AO3, April 2019…Code Geass the Prepared Rebellion: Nina of the Submission.
Look at my profile for my writing schedule! BEFORE you ask me in a review or PM!
As always, Read, Review and check out my other stories.
Disclaimer: Code Geass isn't mine.
Beta'd By BigCC.
"Kallen" - Speech
'Lelouch' - Thought/mental communication
"{Die}" - Geass Command
"Halt!" - Loudspeaker
"Roger." - Radio/Walkie-Talkie
Chapter 30: The Reborn Wolves of Mibu
With Lelouch, Kallen and Nonette
Lelouch found himself, for one of the very few times in his short life, somewhat stupefied. Did these idiots even grasp how stupid their name was on multiple levels?
'Shinsengumi' translated from Japanese meant 'New Selected Group', so they were, in essence, calling themselves the New New Selected Group, an utterly ridiculous name if he ever heard one. Not to mention that they were adding a Britannian English term with their traditional Japanese. It was like the idiots didn't even know how to speak their own language anymore.
'The Reborn Wolves of Mibu' or 'The New Ezo Republic' would have been far better names.
Even without that, they were taking the fact that a factitious rebel group was taking the name of what was actually a military police force specially designed to hunt rebels. Granted, it had been distorted with patriotic bullshit since the destruction of the original Shinsengumi during the Boshin War well over a century ago, but it still made the Exiled Prince's head ache to think someone could take actual pride in a name so clearly at odds with their purpose.
Then again, Lelouch wasn't an easily lead idiot, like these people clearly were.
"Zero, who are these people?!" Nonette demanded as the Bedivere stepped forwards threateningly.
"Breakaway members of the JLF who've apparently founded a new group and wish to see us all dead." Lelouch answered lightly. "Q-1, we appear to have a pack of rapid dogs blocking our exit, we are going to break through them."
"Yes sir!" Kallen responded immediately.
The Guren flexed the claws on its silver hand, even as the Kokuten stepped up beside it.
Unlike the Guren, Lelouch's Knightmare was optimised for mid-range firefights. In addition to the back-mounted chaff dispersers, left-arm mounted Custom Handgun and single chest-mounted Hien Sōga-type Slash Harken that all of the Guren-pattern Knightmares were equipped with as a standard, the Kokuten came equipped with a miniaturised Battle Rifle on its right arm, and carried two other weapons carried on either side of his cockpit; another Battle Rifle, albeit one that had been redesigned to up the power of each bullet and also to fit the Kokuten's aesthetics, and a prototype Anti-Knightmare Shotgun. The shells for that one scattered ball bearings the size of footballs at great speeds in a similar way to the Raikō did, albeit at greatly reduced speeds by comparison.
Lelouch had also ensured that, if a close combat situation became unavoidable, he also had a Fork Knife and collapsible Kaiten Yaibatō stowed at the Kokuten's waist. He made a note to have all close combat weapons to be at least using the Kaiten Yaibatō's technology, as the relative weakness of their standard issue blades had been proven to be one of the Guren's weak points in the fight against the Bedivere.
'I might just make 'Standard Issue Is Insufficient' the new motto of the Black Knights.' The rebel leader mused with a somewhat mocking grin. The irony was, there had to be some degree of standardisation in order to make an army an effective fighting force; however it was the degree of that standard that set armies apart. Money was usually the main issue in determining that standard, along with ease of usability and standard of manufacturing, but money made the world go around.
A number of Cornelia's earliest and remaining problems were due to Clovis' penny-pinching when it came to military spending, resulting in low-quality weapons and equipment being the norm for most of the soldiery, outside of the elite Knights and a few other areas. While a good general had to make the most of their resources, it was impossible to make gold when all you were given was lead.
Fortunately, funding was not a matter that Lelouch was going to have to worry about for the time being, having enough on hand, both from fleecing his chess opponents and from his various acts of setting up corrupt nobles and officers, that he could safely set up the foundation of his army without risking driving himself bankrupt. And that was just his personal funds. The Black Knights not only had their own funds, donated from the people of the ghettos, but they had the remaining funds that had formerly belonged to the JLF, a fraction of the money assigned to the Imperial Japanese Army, as well as the full backing of the Six Houses of Kyoto and their multi-millionaire leaders.
So yes, the Black Knights could afford to set their standard fairly high.
"Q-1, you charge the enemy in front of you, I'll be providing covering fire to keep these mutts from dogpiling you." Lelouch ordered swiftly, bringing his weapons systems from passive to fully online. The 'motorbike' style cockpits that Rakshata seemed to favour were not conductive to operational planning, but there was little that needed planning other than 'cut through the enemy and escape' in this situation. "Knight of Nine, I bid you farewell. I should not worry about attacking us in this instance, as our mutual antagonists would seem to be a far more pressing issue, wouldn't you agree?"
The grinding of teeth could be heard from Nonette over the speakers, as she realised that she really had no option but to let them go. As powerful as the Bedivere was, if she recklessly charged after him and Kallen, ignoring the massed Burai and Burai-Kai, with the small amount of power she had left, there was every chance her batteries would fail while she was being bogged down by the massed enemies and then her goose would be royally cooked.
The shielding system Halo Luminous was a very good protective system, but the Knight of Nine had realised something about it that made her want to throttle Lloyd Asplund; the more hits it took in close succession, the more power it drew from the Core Luminous to maintain its protective field. A single Battle Rifle was no threat to her, but the mass of at least twenty she could see being levelled in her general direction by the newcomers meant she had to forego that and rely on the Shining Luminous Shields whilst she eliminated these 'Neo Shinsengumi' first.
During which time, Zero and his Knight would likely escape. This irritated the experienced Knight of Round, but she reasoned that the Red Queen had earned it by pushing her as far as she had.
"Fine. Make sure neither of you dies. I want to finish this fight." She said aloud.
"Such poor enemies will not fall us, Knight of Nine." Kallen said over her loudspeakers. She eyed the Burai and Burai-Kai with scant favour. She had, as a matter of course, piloted simulated Burai and Burai-Kai, so she knew what her fellow Black Knights had to work with. The Burai was, despite a few minor upgrades, little more than a reworked Glasgow, so she had very little to learn about that one aside from the turret and Arm Guards that let them parry close combat weapons that were not Kaiten Yaibatō or MVS.
The Burai-Kai were far superior to both Glasgows and regular Burai, even the customised Sutherland she'd been using before she got her Guren hadn't been able to match their specs; though they were still a bit below the Gloucesters. Still, the few times she'd practiced with one it hadn't felt…right was the only term she could think of. Something about the design just didn't mesh well with her piloting style.
The Guren did feel right to her, almost as if it had been made for her. Rakshata had promised to tune it to her so that her sync rate, which was at about 92% on average, would shoot up to at least 95% or so, which was about the highest it could go without being cybernetically connected to the Knightmare.
"Let's go, Q-1!" Lelouch ordered.
"Right!" Kallen shouted as she sped forward with her Landspinners, Lelouch and the Kokuten waiting a couple of seconds before speeding after her.
Nonette took this time to dial back the power on the Halo Luminous. She swore that something was up with that system. Then she also charged into the fray, ten Finger-Harkens arcing out to slam into the exposed joints of the Burai. That flaw, along with the buggy Slash Harkens and weak servo-motors and all-too thin armour, were the main reasons that the world's first Autonomous Armoured Knightmare Frame had been phased out of the military and was barely holding on as the Civil Protection Knightmare Frame, the Knight Police; and that was mostly a cost issue rather than anything else.
Kallen snarled as her Fork Knife sliced through the weak joints of several Burai before slamming the Radiation Wave Surger into a charging Burai-Kai wielding a Knightmare-sized Katana.
"Eat radiation!"
With a pulse, red-tinged black radiation spelled the doom on the machine…but the pilot didn't eject, dying with his machine.
"What's with these guys? They must have disabled their ejection seats!" the Red Queen exclaimed aloud.
"The First Rule of the Neo Shinsengumi is to act as a true Samurai at all times!" one Burai-Kai declared through its built-in loudspeakers. "And to flee in the face of an enemy is not such a thing!"
"You insane bastards!" Kallen spat in disgust. These idiots were almost as bad as the Britannians when it came to twisting history to suit their worldview. "Fine then. All those who want an honourable death…come at me!"
With a roar, the Neo Shinsengumi tried to overwhelm her with the sheer weight of their numbers, only to be beaten back both by her own skills and Lelouch's deadly accurate fire support. The Custom Handgun and Mini-Battle Rifle both barked loudly, piercing the weak armour of the Burai with ease and even the armour of the Burai-Kai was pierced by the Battle-Rifle's bullets.
Lelouch, much to his disappointment, had little hope of ever matching his mother's skill when it came to piloting a Knightmare Frame. He was average at close combat, which had been his mother's forte, and was only slightly above average at piloting in general. One area where he was actually better than Marianne the Flash, however, was with ranged weapons. His incredible intelligence could calculate various factors into his shots that even the standard targeting computer on a Glasgow, which was one of the few things that hadn't gotten any real form of upgrade as more advanced Knightmare Frames were developed, couldn't accomplish. His score at sharpshooting actually averaged out to a near-constant 100% once he started disabling a lot of the targeting system's automatic systems and utilized his mind instead.
Knightmare after Knightmare fell to the three powerful Knightmare Frames, with the Guren liberally smiting any who tried to break past her to try and attack the Kokuten. Her pride, stung and smarting at being unable to defeat Nonette on her own, would not allow anything less than complete and overwhelming victory over these so-called wolves.
"This is Zero to all units. Susano'o. I repeat, Susano'o." Lelouch called through the radio, using the code word for 'retreat, unexpected factor entering battle' rather than the code word 'Ryūjin', which would be 'retreat, all according to plan' that he had been about to use prior to the Neo Shinsengumi's unwanted appearance.
"Roger that." Mamoru said lightly. "This young pup is practically frothing at the mouth to try and kill me, so it might be difficult to pull back."
"General, when you withdraw, do so using plan Sigma as opposed to Epsilon." Lelouch immediately ordered, even as he kneecapped a Burai-Kai with his newly-drawn Anti-Knightmare Shotgun. Sigma would have the good General detonate the scuttling charges on the disposable landing craft that Lelouch had 'acquired' from the Britannian's own docks and retreat in an arc to link up with Mamoru, as opposed to Delta, which would just have him and his Four Holy Swords retreat into said landing boats and cross the bay before scuttling them.
He had no place he could safely store them, and simply leaving them to be reused by his foes would have foolish, so their 'requisitioned' transports were always doomed to sink
"Will do." Todoh replied, a slight amount of frustration in his voice. "I have yet to dispatch either Cornelia or her Knight of Honour."
"Regrettable, but not a major issue." Lelouch assuaged the stubborn General's ego. "Cornelia knows that she fell for our plan, hook, line and sinker. For someone who has prided herself on her skills as a strategist, being led around so thoroughly will be humiliating enough that a personal defeat would have simply been icing on the cake."
The consolation even had the benefit of being true in this case. Cornelia had been forced to endure several reality checks and other stressful situations since coming to Japan, none of which had been pleasant. She had to have known that she was not the best general, although she was very, very good, but facing 'Zero' in battle on several occasions had to have driven that point home with no degree of subtlety. Being drawn out and technically beaten by him (again) would be highly humiliating for her.
That left out the ease at which Todoh and the Holy Swords had cut her and her oh-so-proud Royal Guard into pieces. THAT, he knew, had to have smarted more than her prowess as a general and strategist being outdone, even if she hadn't been personally defeated in the fight. Cornelia was a warrior, first and foremost. She prided herself on being the best Knight outside of the Knights of Round. Having Todoh essentially treat her like a child in the sparring ring again after all these years would hurt her ego more than anything else.
With one final strike of the Radiant Wave Surger, the Guren broke through the wall of Burai and Burai-Kai and sent those on either side of her flying with a quick roundhouse kick. Lelouch deftly guided his Frame through the gap and rounded on the encroaching Burai, switching his ammo for the AKS from shelled rounds to pure buckshot and firing four times. Unlike the previous set of shells, designed to travel a distance before spewing the deadly balls wildly, this mode of fire unleashed gouts of shot as soon as the shell left the barrel, sort of like an upgraded blunderbuss.
This particular variant ammo type was of little use outside just short of hand-to-hand range, but within its striking distance it was pure murder on anything without super-heavy armouring. A single shot could rip through a standard Knightmare's armour like tissue paper and the spread was wide enough to catch at least four opposing frames in these cramped conditions. A few rounds even managed to maintain enough energy to damage the Burai behind and to the sides of his main targets.
"Q-1, you start moving. I'll act as rearguard." Lelouch ordered briskly, holstering his AKS and drawing his spare Battle Rifle, reversing quickly while keeping his weapon levelled at the badly battered Neo Shinsengumi now caught between him and Nonette. Caught between the two superior frames, the fools seemed honestly confused on whom to target with their human wave tactics.
"Roger that." Kallen answered, not sounding terribly happy. The Exiled Prince had to admit that her protectiveness of Zero was a very admirable trait in the redhead, although it made the possibility of those feelings turning sour when she eventually discovered who he was problematic.
Oh yes, Lelouch had earmarked a couple of people in the Black Knights as being too smart for their own good and highly likely to discover the triple identities he hid.
The first and most obvious was Kallen, as she knew him in two of his three personae, and it would only take a quick read of a recent history book to discover the name of the oldest son of Marianne the Flash. Reuben Ashford had ordered the Second Pacific War removed from the curriculum 'out of compassion for the Number and their Honorary Britannian fellows' but the real reason had been to protect Lelouch and Nunnally. Not only had the Head of the Ashford Family done that, all books pertaining to Marianne the Flash's career after she married the Emperor had been heavily sanitised so that they were vague, impersonal histories that glossed over the children's existence completely. A hefty bribe to the Area 11 Ministry of Education had made the sanitation total across the entire Area. Even the Area Interweb was sanitised, a feat made possible only by how strictly under the control of the Area Government it was.
Anyway, another two who were on the 'too smart for their own good' list were Todoh and Rakshata. Todoh had known him as a child and it was only a matter of time before the old general got over the death of his superior and the dissolution of the JLF to start studying his new 'ally' in greater detail. While he was confident in his abilities as an actor, Todoh was a sly old fox and he wouldn't put it past the old man to notice something he wasn't aware of, or couldn't hide easily. Rakshata was something close to a modern iteration of Leonardo da Vinci, a universal genius, with doctorates and degrees in close to a dozen different fields, and was highly analytical and observant by her very nature. That would make it entirely possible that she'd discover clues connecting his identities and put the whole thing together on her own, quite likely without actually meaning to.
And that was presuming she didn't actively take an interest in her new employer's identity. If she actually did, he honestly didn't give himself a week before she found him out.
Being something of a genius himself, Lelouch knew better than to underestimate a fellow genius, which was why he had cautioned C.C. to be very careful when seducing and training Nina Einstein. It was wasted concern though, as, thanks to her own generally submissive nature, the far younger verdette was almost completely under the Immortal woman's thumb by this point. A couple more months and there would be little the genius girl wouldn't do for 'Celesta' if told to do it.
The distinctive sharp crack of an Anti-Knightmare Sniper Rifle roared and one of the Burai-Kai's Factsphere Sensors, which had just opened, shattered. The Frame twitched spasmodically as the feedback caused the Knightmare's systems to go haywire. There was a reason that the Factsphere Sensor was one of the most heavily armoured portions of a Knightmare outside the cockpit; if the relatively fragile mass of electronics was destroyed not only was the frame left almost completely blind, but the feedback loop could cause every other linked system (which consisted of close to 75% of a Knightmare's electronics) to go haywire as well.
As the now-headless Frame collapsed to the ground, C.C. called to him over the radio. "Move it. Reinforcements led by Sir Dalton are almost here."
"By your command." He snarked back at her. Turning around, he activated his chaff dispersal system and sped away, leaving the remnants of the Neo Shinsengumi behind to be smashed to pieces by Nonette.
"Zero!" Cornelia shouted as he sped by her position. He smirked as he saw that the once-pristine purple body and white cape of her Gloucester was torn, scratched and ripped in multiple places. Clearly Todoh-sensei had been giving her a lesson in humility. He had also removed her Landspinners, so the Witch of Britannia wasn't going anywhere fast.
"If you want to beat someone down to ease your frustration, your Knight of Nine is destroying a group who have apparently been living in a cave for the past decade or so." He informed her somewhat cheerfully. "Better hurry or she'll have taken care of them all."
"ZERO!" was all Cornelia could howl as he sped off, leaving her behind.
Unseen to both sides as the combat wound down and the Black Knights retreated, a solitary figure perched atop a rooftop some distance away had been viewing the entire battle via a high-tech pair of binoculars.
"Hah! Not bad Lelouch." Desmond smirked as he lowered the binoculars. "You and C.C. are truly worthy of praise for outwitting the so-called Goddess of Victory like you have. A shame those idiots seem to have caught you by surprise before you could finish her, but no one's perfect."
The smirk on the Agent of the Geass Order's face grew into an evil smile. "I suppose I had better get around to eliminating the pair of you soon then, you could really become flies in the master's ointment otherwise."
Later
Meeting Room, Black Knights Temporary Base
"The Neo Shinsengumi?" Todoh blinked in surprise. "What idiot decided to use that uselessly redundant name?"
The other occupants sitting at the table, Ohgi, Tamaki, Kallen, Mamoru, the Four Holy Swords, Rakshata, Augur and Zero, were all nodding their agreement in some form of the other. It didn't take more than the slightest effort to find the real history of the Shinsengumi, rather than the films that made them more heroic and patriotic than they had actually been.
"It must be that zealot Kadzuki." Senba opined gruffly. "He's the only person who could have deployed Burai and Burai-Kai aside from us and the Six Houses."
"Where did they come from?" Kallen asked with a frown. "They seemed to have come from the warehouses that you blew up Zero, but none of them had a scratch on them."
"I was a bit curious about that myself Kallen, so I did a little digging and discovered how that happened." The Masked Man answered and pulled a rough sketch of Port Yokosuka from a folder lying on the table's surface before him and spread it out. He pointed at one particular area. "This is where Kallen and I fought the Knight of Nine, and this is where the Neo Shinsengumi showed up. Immediately behind those warehouses is the entrance to an underground tunnel that leads to another warehouse a click away. It was designed built during the war to more safely deliver military goods without risking an obvious air raid target like a bridge In all likelihood, these *ahem* 'Neo Shinsengumi' travelled through the tunnel and emerged just after the explosion in an attempt to ambush Kallen and myself. Nonette being there was beside the point. At no time did they focus on her unless she was actively attacking them. It was a rather clever plan, truth be told, though the execution of the battle itself leaves much to be desired."
"I don't get it." Ohgi shook his head in distress. "Why? Why attack you? You've done so much for Japan!"
"Kadzuki was always an ambitious sort." Todoh stated with narrowed eyes. "It's one reason why he was never promoted above Major. General Katase and I felt there was something not quite right about him. There was never any real reason for us to feel that way, just pure instinct."
"I'm still trying to get over the fact he had them disable their ejection systems." Kallen said in disgust. "He sacrificed his men for no good reason!"
"It was an information-gathering mission." Zero stated coldly. "Those were all of his regular Burai and early production Burai-Kai, proven by the thin armour that some of the latter possessed. I'd be willing to bet that all of the pilots were also the least skilled members of his group as well. He threw them at us in order to get a base grasp of exactly how skilled Kallen and I were. I'd lay even odds that the cameras and sensors were being streamed to Kadzuki himself. He probably has data on the basic capabilities of both the Guren and the Kokuten, as well as their weaponry."
Tamaki muttered several unflattering words regarding Kadzuki's ancestry, appearance and likely sexual prowess. Rakshata was also unhappy that someone was researching how to kill her 'children'.
"But I am honestly more worried about how the Neo Shinsengumi attacked us today, not why." Zero continued as he tapped the table with one gloved finger.
"Huh?" Tamaki looked confused.
"In war, there is a saying: 'Dabblers study tactics. Amateurs study strategy. Professionals study logistics.'" The Masked Man quoted.
"And?" the redheaded man said in confusion.
"It means that while tactics can win a skirmish, or even a few in a row, and strategy can win a battle, or even multiple thereof, the logistical chain can determine the outcome of an entire war." The Regicide elaborated. "Such as whether the skirmishes and battles are worth being fought in the first place. In this case, Kadzuki shouldn't have had a large stock of Energy Fillers following his flight from the JLF's Narita Base, meaning that using them to move or even use their basic systems without moving would have drained them long before now. Even assuming he had somehow been able to sneak away with a few spares, there should be no way for him to have mobilised that many Knightmares at once.
"Even if he did have the Energy Fillers to manage that…somehow…he still launched Fourth and Fifth Generation Knightmares against a pair of Seventh Generation Frames he had no real data about, not to mention the Bedivere. Anyone with the slightest tactical acumen, which his ambush showed this Kadzuki possesses, should know that it was suicide, plain and simple. With so few Frames and supplies available, launching this kind of attack, for nothing more than information gathering, would have been so far beyond him that it is completely unfathomable. Even if the Frames were little more than refurbished Glasgows and flawed Burai-Kai, and his pilots were the bottom of the barrel, the ammunition, fuel, and spare parts he sacrificed would have been substantial. So then…the question is why did he do it?"
The table was silent until Tamaki shrugged and said, "Because he knew he could replace 'em." And then the redhead blinked. "Oh shit."
Zero clapped once and pointed at him. "Exactly. This suggests that he has access to supplies from somewhere else. Not just food and ammunition, but Energy Fillers, Knightmares and possibly additional soldiers as well. As I doubt he would replace the Burai with poorer Knightmares, such as the Knightpolice, we can safely rule out him stealing from the Britannians. That leaves two possible sources."
He raised one finger. "Option one: He has accepted funding and supplies from the Chinese Federation. An option I find unlikely for several reasons, not the least of which is that he is an extreme Japanese Nationalist, or at least he is playing the role of such a person in order to gain power for his own purposes. That means he will not, or simply cannot for the sake of appearances, accept foreign aid, especially given the historical animosity between China and Japan. Not only that, Kadzuki would truly be a fool if he believes throwing the Britannians out only for the Chinese Federation, the ones who invented Refrain and are having it smuggled into Japan, come in and set up shop is anything close to a good idea. No, I am going to assume that Major Kadzuki is not a complete fool."
With that, the Masked Man raised a second finger to join the first. "This leaves the second, and less palatable option…someone in the Six Houses of Kyoto is providing supplies to him, with the aim of attempting to kill me."
That started an uproar amongst the gathered Black Knights that took a few moments to settle down.
"I thought the House Heads were on your side, Zero." Todoh stated calmly after the muttering had subsided. "That was the impression I got from our little discussion with their representatives."
"Three of the six Family Heads are firmly on my side, while a fourth would be best described as benignly neutral in my favour." Zero informed him honestly. "The last two are against me because of various reasons that I'm not going to disclose at this juncture. If anyone's been supplying Kadzuki and the Neo Shinsengumi, it's either those two, or a former leader I've learned was recently forced into retirement over an argument about me. Worst case scenario, all three are in cahoots about it."
"I find it hard to believe that members of the Six Houses would fund a nationalistic fool such as Kadzuki to kill the person in charge of the largest rebel group under their command." Urabe frowned.
"Oh, the assassination plan was no doubt Kadzuki's brainchild; I doubt the traitor or traitors amongst the Six Houses knew anything about those plans until after the fact." Zero answered with a snort. "No, my best guess would be that his backers offered him their supports to use him as a way to prove that I am not as necessary as their fellows think I am. They either want to demonstrate that I'm not as good as I've shown myself to be, or at least prove that solely backing me isn't their only option. No, an assassination attempt would have not only lost them a major resource in the Black Knights, they know my group is useful if nothing else, but would have likely brought the other Family Heads down on them like the wrath of god for violating their edict.
"No, Kadzuki is playing his own game here and he's likely simply using the Houses as a means to an end." The Masked Revolutionary went quiet for a moment before his attention to Todoh. "General, aside from this feeling of untrustworthiness that you felt from him, what was Kadzuki like?"
"As I said, he was an ambitious man." Todoh stated simply. "He generally hung around Kusakabe's little clique, but he was far less…ardent…than the rest of the Nationalist group. Besides that he was mostly polite and cordial, but there was always something off about him, like he was forcing politeness more than anything else. Most put it off as him being a bit of a recluse, since he rarely interacted with others during R&R. He had a few close subordinates; the first to come to mind was a Sergeant Minazuki. She has been his loyal subordinate ever since the Invasion, for reasons I have no way of knowing.
Pausing, Todoh turned to his only female subordinate. "Chiba, you mixed with the other female JLF officers more than I did. Anything to input regarding Sergeant Minazuki?"
The sole female Holy Sword member shook her head. "Minazuki didn't really mingle with the rest of us, sir. When she did, she rarely spoke unless spoken to and let very little about herself known. There were…rumours that she was Major Kadzuki's lover though."
"That would explain part of her loyalty if it were true." Zero mused. "Colonel, were those rumours ever aired around the good Sergeant?"
"A couple of times." Chiba answered with a slight shrug. "She never said anything either way. Minazuki was very hard to read too; it was like talking to a bodhisattva statue sometimes for all the expression she had on her face."
"Well regardless, Major Kadzuki is going to be a problem for us, I believe." The Masked Man said with a sigh. "Well, aside from unexpected attacks, the two operations we set out to accomplish today have both been complete successes. Twenty-one Sutherlands have been destroyed, along with thirty Portmans and a half-dozen Gloucesters. Doctor Chawla, I trust the data that we acquired for you for the two Guren, Kokuten and the Gekka were satisfactory?"
"Oh yes. With this data, I can start customizing your Knightmares to improve your sync rates with them, and thus raise their performance." The Indian woman smirked. "Oh yes. Zero, I finished that little problem you gave me as well."
The scientist pulled a flash drive out of her coat pocket and threw it over to the Masked Man, who caught it easily.
"It was quite the delightful little mental exercise." Rakshata smiled in satisfaction. "If you have any more like it for me to solve, just let me know."
"My dear Rakshata, your intellect is truly a terrifying thing." Zero commented, shaking his head. "I was beating my head against the wall with this for two months, and you solve it in less than a week?"
"You made some astute deductions, but failed to make the leaps of faith required to complete them." The woman informed him absently, taking a short puff of her ever-present pipe. "The basic research was very thorough and well thought out, which is why it only took a few days rather than a fortnight to solve the problem."
"I see. Well, this will help my own research immensely." The Masked Man nodded as he slipped the drive into a secure pocket hidden within his uniform. "Moving on, while we were holding the attention of the Viceroy and the majority of her forces, Ohgi was performing a secondary mission. With the majority of the Britannian military distracted with their supposed raid and the ensuing battle, he lead a raiding force of our own to secure food and medical supplies that the Britannians have been hording. Ohgi, were there any issues with the mission?"
"Everything went according to plan, sir." The former teacher smiled. "There were barely a handful of guards left at the depot and they surrendered when the Burai we brought along pointed its Battle Rifle at them. We managed to empty two warehouses full of supplies. Most of it was supposed to be for the ghettos, according to the paperwork we stole. Why it wasn't distributed before now is beyond me."
"Then to the ghettos it shall go." Zero said with a firm nod. "Organise it so that some of our more trusty allies in the ghettos pick up the supplies from prearranged drop points at prearranged times to distribute amongst everyone that needs help."
"Will do, Zero." Ohgi nodded. "Um…can I ask where Aegis is? It's odd to see you here without her."
"Aegis is currently in the middle of meeting with a very high-level sleeper agent of mine." The Regicide stated. "As one of my most trusted and anonymous members, as well as one who has mastered all eighteen aspects of Ninjutsu, especially Intonjutsu, Shinobi-iri, Chōhō and Hensōjutsu, she is the ideal person to handle any meeting that requires a…more than average amount of discretion. She will return before the morning, I assure you. Now, I must go and contact Kyoto House and alert them of both our victory and the newest fly in the ointment, so I hereby adjourn this meeting. Unless I have given you specific tasks to work on, the folders to the left of the door are your instructions going forward. Should you have none, kindly go to the celebration taking place in the empty hanger."
With that, the caped man left the room with a swish of his cloak.
Kallen got up slowly, her face somewhat miserable. She jumped when Augur tapped her shoulder to get her attention, even as everyone else bustled out of the door.
"Penny for your thoughts?" the white-costumed woman asked.
"It's nothing." The redhead shook her head slightly. Then she yelped when Augur poked her in the ribs.
"If it was nothing, then you wouldn't look like someone trashed your beloved Guren." Augur stated firmly. "Out with it. The only reason it isn't Lord Zero asking you this is because the possibility of certain members of Kyoto House acting against us is at a slightly higher priority than our resident ace's sudden melancholy."
"I couldn't beat Nonette Enneagram." Kallen said after a moment of wrestling with herself. "I couldn't even touch her without Zero's help."
She was surprised when Zero's 'sounding board' snorted with a bit of laughter. "Girl, is that it?"
"If you're just going to laugh…!" Kallen attempted to step past her, offended, only to be halted by a hand around her wrist.
"Sorry, but…you do not have any idea how arrogant what you just said sounds." Augur shook her helmeted head. "Kallen, Nonette Enneagram is a not only a Knight of Round, Britannia's elite of the elite, but she is their longest serving member. That means, that compared to the thousands of other Knights within the Britannian military, she is not only one of the most skilled warriors alive, but that she has survived more battles and against greater odds than nearly any other Knightmare pilot in the world. More than that, she was a part of the team, alongside Bismarck Wallenstein and Marianne the Flash, who carried out the testing on the first real Knightmare Frames, the Third Generation Knightmares Ganymede, Eileithyia and Deimos. She has been a Knight since the Knightmares were invented and has been the test pilot for almost a dozen different kinds of Knightmares over the last seven years. The sheer breadth of her piloting experience, both in and out of combat, is dumbfounding.
"There has been only one Knight that has ever been able to successfully defeat her in one on one combat, and that was Marianne the Flash; which was one of the feats that helped make the 'Commoner Queen' a legend. Not even the Knight of One can get more than a draw out of a fight against her. That you managed to hold your own against her before Zero intervened instantly makes you better than roughly ninety percent or more of the Empire's Knights. To put it quite simply, your ability to hold your own against her as an equal puts you on the same level of skill as any Knight of the Round, and possibly quite a bit higher than several of them."
Kallen opened her mouth, shut it and then opened it again. "Huh…" She hadn't really considered the level of her opponent; merely that she'd failed in her self-appointed task.
"I should also point out that Lord Zero has already ordered Rakshata to begin development on an improved version of the Radiant Wave Surger. He hopes that with some modifications they can not only improve its striking power, but modify it to act as a ranged weapon as well." Augur continued, getting a curious look from Kallen. "To put it simply, the Bedivere's shield was stronger than the Guren's spear this time. The Halo Luminous shielding system is simply too monstrously powerful for the Surger to breach at its current level. Your Fork Knife is also due to be upgraded to include the same technology as the Kaiten Yaibatō, and possibly the MVS after that. Combined, they should even the field when the next time comes for you and the Knight of Nine to dance."
The redhead bared her teeth in a vicious smile. "I hope so. Being forced to dodge around like that without being able to properly counterattack was galling."
"I can imagine." The Masked Woman said dryly. "Now shoo. Go to the party or supervise the maintenance of the Guren or something. The devil makes work for idle fingers and all that jazz."
"Yes, yes." Kallen rolled her eyes. She felt better, as if a burden had been lifted from her. As the half-blooded girl left the room, she resolved to speak to Rakshata at the earliest opportunity to suggest some possible improvements to the Guren. Data was all very well, but maybe the scientist would appreciate the opinion of a pilot as well?
Same Time
Princess Euphemia li Britannia's Private Office, Viceroyal Palace, Area 11 Administration Building
"That can't be."
The speaker, one Euphemia li Britannia, was sat behind her desk in her office and staring at a sheet of paper resting in her delicate hands, her mouth slightly ajar in shock
"Sister is not going to be happy about this." She groaned. "I'd better tell her now."
Standing, she strode out of her office and headed for the Viceroy's office, where Cornelia was undoubtedly licking her wounds from her latest beating at Zero's hands.
Quite why her usually smart sister hadn't wised up about the man who had murdered their brother Clovis (although not unjustifiably) was something of a mystery to Euphie. She supposed being thrown from the throne as the undefeated 'Goddess of Victory' must have been a great shock for Cornelia and she wasn't adjusting well.
The vague sense that she somehow knew Zero kept niggling at her, gnawing at her mind like a beaver at a particularly stubborn piece of wood. Euphie didn't know where the feeling came from, but something she didn't doubt was that at some point in her life she had met Zero without the mask on. That persistent, baseless thought was driving her to distraction!
Shaking her head to banish the thought temporarily, she nodded at Viletta Nu, who was on station outside her sister's office. "Announce me."
"Yes, Sub-Viceroy." Her predecessor nodded and opened the door. "Her Highness, Princess Euphemia!"
As she swept in, she saw that her usually immaculately dressed sister's coat was unbuttoned and that there was even a tear in it. It must have quite a battle, and quite a loss at that, if her sister was too depressed to maintain her usually immaculate, military appearance.
Also in the room were her sister's two Knights of Honour and Lady Enneagram. Well, at least everyone was here that she needed to tell.
"Euphie?" Cornelia looked up from the tumbler of 100 year old whisky that she was nursing. Seeing the frustrated and dour look on her younger sister's face, the older li Britannia sister groaned. "What now?"
"Someone is playing silly buggers back in the Homeland." The so-called 'Archenemy of Avarice' said grimly. "Rather than the replacement Sutherlands and Gloucesters you ordered, we are instead being supplied with Liverpools and Yorks."
The reactions she got were as varied as they were negative.
"What." Gilford blinked in disbelief.
"You are joking? Please tell me this is a just poorly timed joke, Your Highness!" Darlton almost begged.
"Heads are going to roll." Nonette growled in frustration.
The Fifth Generation Knightmare Frame called the Liverpool was only a Fifth Generation Knightmare Frame due to the improved servo-motors it used and the thicker armour it possessed. In all other respects, it was basically a tank with legs, with all the speed and manoeuvrability that moniker derived. No arms, no Slash Harkens, no Factsphere Sensor Unit. It was equipped with an Anti-Tank Main Gun, with a mounted Gatling Gun and Missile Launcher as extra armaments.
It was also mockingly referred to as a Generation Four and a Half Unit rather than a true Fifth Generation unit because even a Glasgow could outmanoeuvre one of the lumbering behemoths.
The other Knightmare unit mentioned, the York, was essentially to the Liverpool what the Gloucester was to the Sutherland. Slightly more manoeuvrable, even more heavily armoured and with more powerful servo-motors in the legs to keep up with the extra weight. It still had no arms or head, still had no Slash Harkens, still had no Factsphere Sensor System, but it had a double-barrelled Anti-Tank Gun as its main armament, with co-axial turret on top that mounted a Missile Launcher and it had several small mounted turrets equipped with machine guns covering several sections of its body.
Sadly, both units were considered jokes when it came to Knightmare combat. They had firepower, but both were simply too slow and bulky to manoeuvre easily and their targeting software just couldn't keep up with the speed and manoeuvrability that a Sutherland, let alone a Gloucester, could provide
Just about the only advantage that the Liverpool and the York offered was that they were both unmanned units. Drones, essentially. They could be assigned to patrol an area and engage all units that violated the area they were defending or sent on a suicide mission without qualms as there were no human lives to lose with them.
"Do you think the Bradford Family are sticking their oars in, Nonette?" Cornelia asked her old mentor wearily as she sipped her whisky.
"Probably." The dirty-blond woman scowled. The three Third Generation Knightmares had each been made by a different company, each headed by a different Noble House. The Ganymede, piloted by Marianne vi Britannia née Lamperouge, had been produced by the Ashford Foundation, led by the Family of the same name. The Eileithyia, piloted by Nonette, had been produced by the Accel Group, led by the Rosenkranz Family. The Deimos, piloted by Bismarck Wallenstein, had been produced by the Bradford Group, led by the Bradford Family.
Out of the three, the Ganymede had been the one chosen to have the next generation of Knightmare developed from it. The Bradford Family had never let that go and had been one of the more ardent detractors of the Ashford Family, not to mention one of the families who had done their utmost to tear the Ashford Family apart when Empress Marianne had been assassinated.
They had manage to wrangle a few contracts for designing and producing Knightmares since then, with the Liverpool and the York being the best known, along with the Portman. What had incensed them was that no one took their best creations seriously. Evidently, a member of the Bradfords, or more likely a bribed supply officer, had chosen to mess with Cornelia's request for replacement machines.
"How many are we being sent, Euphie?" Cornelia sked with a frown.
"Two battalions of Liverpools and an oversized platoon of Yorks." The Sub-Viceroy answered and handed a sheet of paper to her sister. "This is a missive sent from the commander of the Hawaii airbase informing us of the departure of the freight planes on the final leg of their trip."
"Princess, this isn't good. We need better Knightmares than those damned drones." Gilford grimaced at the thought of facing Zero with just those over-inflated tanks. The Masked Menace had already proven to be able to outmanoeuvre their elite Gloucesters, Gilford didn't want to even imagine what he'd do against something as slow and predictable as the Liverpools.
"Nonette, can you put in a request with me for proper Knightmares?" the Witch of Britannia asked.
"Sure. I'll also have the orders traced back for the Liverpools and have whatever idiot that sent them shot." The Knight of Nine smiled humourlessly.
"Please do." The Viceroy smiled back just as humourlessly. "Any other bombs to drop, Euphie?"
"None sister." The pinkette shook her head. "I'll leave you to it. Please try not to drink too much; you know what an awful hangover you get when you have too much spirits."
"Who's the older sister around here?" the older woman grumbled, much to the amusement of her Knights and Nonette.
"See ya around, Euphie." The blond woman waved airily to the younger li Britannia sister. "I'll keep an eye on her for you."
"Please do." Euphie giggled and retreated from the room, ignoring the sound of her sister squabbling with Nonette. There were precious few people in the world that could make Cornelia unwind like that. Nonette was one of them and Euphie was glad she was here to stop Cornelia from brooding.
Returning to her office, the Sub-Viceroy had barely sat down when the sound of the door clicking closed came to her ears, which was odd; she had left it open. Looking up, her eyes widened as a black-clad figure stood where the door had once concealed her. The female demon face leering at her from the mask made this only one person.
"Aegis…" she breathed.
"Indeed. Greetings, Princess Euphemia li Britannia." The woman said courteously, offering the princess a deep bow. "I have disabled the panic button you are no doubt pressing with your foot and I have also looped imagery in the hidden security cameras from before you went to visit your sister, so no one will disturb us while we have a little chat."
"What cameras?" Euphie blinked in surprise before cottoning on and growling under her breath. "Oh Cornelia…!" Her sister just refused to learn!
"Having an overly protective sister does have its disadvantages, doesn't it?" Aegis offered, her voice leaking amusement. "But that isn't what I came to discuss with you."
"What did you come to talk about?" the pinkette asked as she sat back in her chair. There was no point trying to get away from her; Euphie may be a competent Knightmare pilot, but she had only received the absolute bare basics of self-defence training thanks to her sister's overprotectiveness. She stood no chance against even an opponent who had even just a reasonable competency in barehanded combat.
"What do you think of your Empire, Princess?" Aegis asked bluntly.
Euphie blinked. "That is a very broad question."
"Is it? Or is it more an awkward question considering your father's actions?" the Masked Woman riposted. "He uses his children as pawns, sending them out to do tasks that he believes they might be useful at. If they are not useful…well, what happened to Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia is a very good indicator."
The Princess stiffened at that.
"They were cast away, beaten, bloody, and battered, to an island nation that was invaded a mere half a year later." Aegis continued. "One might even think that it was a possible pre-planned move, to have two bloody little shirts to wave as justification for the invasion beyond the wealth of Sakuradite that Japan possesses."
"Enough…!"
"Sacrificed without hesitation for wealth and a stranglehold on the vast majority of the world's Sakuradite…that is very much in line with Charles zi Britannia's line of thinking." The other woman mused. "He must have seen it as a bargain; two 'useless children' in exchange for securing Britannia's future."
"Don't you DARE call them that!" Euphemia shouted, standing up and clenching her hands into fists. Her violet eyes blazed with rage. "Lelouch and Nunnally were not useless! I refuse to allow you to call them that!"
Cornelia's handpicked soldiers and Knights mostly shared their Princess' admiration of Marianne vi Britannia, but, every so often, a few cropped up that mouthed off about her and the fates of her children. Euphemia had, with great difficulty, concealed a smirk of satisfaction when those loudmouths had been taught a lesson. No one dared to speak like that around Cornelia's soldiers and Euphie, although no soldier would defend her siblings' good name with everything that she had.
"My apologies. I spoke a bit too harshly." the demon-masked woman bowed her head in apology. "However, you do realise that what you just said is in direct opposition to your father's ruling regarding your siblings?"
Euphie huffed and sat back down. "Fine. Yes, I am of the opinion that several of Britannia's policies are less than stellar; including the Area and Number Systems and the expansionist policy, as well as the way Father treats us, his children. What of it?"
"Lord Zero intends to do more than simply throw Britannia out of Japan, Your Highness." Aegis said as she glided forwards elegantly. "He intends to conquer the world."
This drew a blank stare from her audience. "Really?" Euphie deadpanned.
"Yes, really." Aegis answered seriously. "To be precise, he intends to throw Britannia out of Japan, assassinate the High Eunuchs, persuade the members of the Chinese Government loyal to the Vermillion Throne to accept the Empress' authority, ally with China and then modernise the Chinese Federation's army and domestic policies. He will then commit to total war against Britannia and its scattered Areas, freeing them one by one until only the Britannian Homeland itself remains. Then he will accomplish something no one has done since the Napoleonic Wars…he will invade the Britannian Homeland and conquer it."
Strictly speaking, the current Homeland had never been invaded, but the original Homeland, the British Isles, had been. Both Homelands were considered equally important and the sense of violation and humiliation of being driven from their original Homeland had never quite left the Britannian people.
"Mad. You and your master must both be mad to believe you can accomplish all of that." Euphemia stated flatly. "To do all of that is plainly impossible."
"As impossible as knocking the Goddess of Victory off of her pedestal? As impossible as killing an Imperial Prince in his own Command Centre?" the demon-masked woman asked innocently as she rounded the desk.
"No one is impossible to defeat in battle, not even my sister." Euphie said coolly. "And there is no such thing as a completely secure location, as your presence here proves beyond all doubt. But those are on a smaller scale compared to everything else you just said. There's the impossible that is unlikely and then there is the impossible that is exactly that. The number of concurrently positive events that would have to occur to achieve even one goal on your list is ridiculous."
By this point, Aegis was standing to the side of Euphemia. Reaching down with one gloved hand, the masked woman lifted her chin and made the Princess lock eyes with her.
"My Master is a miracle maker on a scale that leaves Todoh in the dust." Aegis said softly. "He is the one to whom I have given my complete and utter loyalty. He will accomplish what he sets out to do. Britannia's time is drawn to a close. When the sun sets on Charles zi Britannia, he hopes that the next monarch…will be you, Princess Euphemia."
That made the Princess' eyes widen.
"Are you mad? I have no chance at sitting on the throne." Euphie whispered harshly, as if even daring to speak such words aloud would bring the wrath of her older siblings down on her.
"Lord Zero doesn't intend to leave very much in the way of choice in the matter." The shinobi replied easily. Removing her hand from the chin of the Princess, she sat on the desk. "Let us be honest, shall we? Of your siblings, Schneizel el Britannia is the only one who is too smart to let live, he will have to fall if Britannia is to be truly defeated. Odysseus eu Britannia is too weak-willed and easy to pressure for the throne. Guinevere de Britannia and Carine ne Britannia are both too bloodthirsty and arrogant to not cause Britannia's destruction in less than a decade if either takes the thrown. Your blood sister, Cornelia li Britannia, and the rui Britannia twins all have no desire for the throne, preferring their current positions. Marrybell mel Britannia is so far down the line of succession that I doubt most people remember that she exists and, like your sister, she also prefers her current position in the military. The rest are unremarkable and have either died, been disgraced or are so thoroughly average that they make Odysseus look like a genius by comparison.
"You, Euphemia li Britannia, are skilled at administration and bureaucracy, as well as modestly skilled with Knightmare Frames. Should you persuade her, you would have the backing of your older sister and thus a large percentage of the Imperial Army. Marrybell would also support you, in all likelihood. You would also cease the expansionist policies of Britannia and turn the funds sent to war to the benefit of science and raising the standards of living. Most of all, while your sister has tried to keep you wrapped up in cotton wool, you are nobody's fool. You are well aware of the state of the world and how wrong most of the Britannian superiority drivel espoused by your family and the nobility is. Out of every living member of your family, you are the best choice to take the throne and prevent the destruction of Britannia from being completed after my master's war ends."
Speechless, Euphemia took this short lecture in for a few minutes before looking up at Aegis with a hard look in her eyes.
"And just what does Zero plan to do if I refuse to be his Toom Tabard?" she asked coldly. This was a reference to a King of Scotland, John Balliol, who had been a Britannian puppet king back before Scotland had been conquered, the name literally meaning 'Hollow Coat'.
"He has no wish to control you or direct you, Princess." Aegis reassured her. "You would be a fully sovereign monarch with every secular power that Charles zi Britannia currently possesses. All he asks is that you cease the wars on the world. If you, and Marrybell after you, refuse to cooperate though, he will be forced to make Britannia cease to exist as a country, dividing the land into five or six Dukedoms and ensuring they fall into infighting against each other over grudges and other petty concerns. The world would look at the remains of what was once the most powerful nation on the planet and laugh in scorn."
The hair at the back of Euphemia's neck rose at this revelation. 'This woman…she's being absolutely serious!'
"That is to be the absolutely final, last-ditch option to handle the 'issue' that is Britannia. One that my Master would not care to enact, but having a plan for every situation is how he has overcome all his hurdles up until this point." Aegis stated. "Can I hope that you will at least consider my words, Princess Euphemia?"
Euphie was silent for a moment. This was such a lot to take in all at once. She was essentially being asked to betray her country and family. Yet…if she didn't, and Marrybell refused Zero's overtures as well, the future if the Regicide emerged victorious was not a happy one for the remnants of her homeland.
'At the least, I can agree to think it over. She isn't asking me for more than that.'the pinkette thought carefully. 'That should buy me the time to figure out what the hell to do about this situation.'
The problem was that, for all that Zero was guilty of murdering her brother Clovis and almost killing her beloved sister, he was also very much right in that Britannia was guilty of a great many crimes. Slavery had almost been brought back shortly before the Emblem of Blood only to be narrowly defeated by the House of Parliament. Two less votes and outright slavery would have been practiced across the entire Empire. The very thought made Euphie sick to her stomach.
He was also right about changing the policies from within, Britannia would never stop its constant battles against the rest of the world until either the Britannian war machine was stopped and crushed completely or the entire world fell into the hands of the Holy Empire of Britannia. So many people dead. So many lives lost. All because of what? Some notion of 'Manifest Destiny' and a sense of superiority over the world? It made no sense.
Something had to be done.
"Very well. I shall think on what you have said to me, Aegis." Euphemia said softly. "I will also keep your visit here today a secret. I will not, however, betray my sister, nor will I outright help you before it is necessary should I decide to agree to Zero's proposal."
The masked helmet dipped into a bow. "I thank you, Princess. Lord Zero will be greatly relieved to hear that."
The Black Knight slid off the desk and stretched. "Well, I had better return to my master's side. He will be getting worried for me."
It made an odd picture to think about, Euphemia mused to herself. Zero, the heartless outlaw and Regicide, pacing a room, awaiting Aegis' return.
The other woman padded soundlessly to the door before pausing. "Oh yes. Lord Zero wanted me to play this tape for you before I left. How silly of me to almost forget."
Reaching into her clothes, Aegis pulled out a handheld tape player and pressed play. When the first sound came out, Euphemia froze in shock and disbelief as a voice she had not heard in seven long years graced her ears once again.
"Big brother! I'm fine!" The voice of Nunnally vi Britannia, her closest half-sister, protested petulantly. She may have started to go through puberty, but that was a voice that Euphemia would never -could never- mistake.
"The temperature on this thermometer says otherwise, Nunnally." A stern, protective male voice said, making tears break out from Euphemia. There was only one person to whom Nunnally ever referred to simply as 'Big Brother' without their name.
"Lelouch…Nunnally…they're alive…they're really alive!" she choked out.
Aegis clicked off the player and tucked it back into her uniform. "All the more reason to think very carefully about what your answer will ultimately be, Your Highness."
With a swish of her cloak, the rebel was gone, leaving a tear-filled Euphemia alone in her office.
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Next Chapter: Geass versus Code Geass
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Knightmare Hanger
- Name: Guren Reishiki/Kokuten Isshiki
General Characteristics
- Crew: One
- Height: 4.52 Meters
- Weight: 7.60 Metric Tonnes
- Power Source: Yggdrasil Drive, Energy Filler
Design Features
- Cockpit Ejection System
- Kō Kisō Kudōrin-type Landspinner Propulsion System
- Head-Mounted Automatic Factsphere Sensor System
Armament
- X1 Hien Sōga-type Slash Harken (Chest Mounted)
- X1 Left-Arm Mounted Custom Handgun
- X1 Right-Arm Mounted Miniaturised Battle Rifle
- X1 Rear Left Rack Custom Anti-Knightmare Shotgun
- X1 Rear Right Rack Custom Battle Rifle
- X1 Fork Knife
- Xi Collapsible Kaiten Yaibatō
Optional Armaments
- Optional Replacements for either of the arm-mounted weapons include Gatling Guns, Grenade Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Additional Slash Harken Launchers, Anti-Knightmare Net Launchers and other weapons.
- Additional Custom Battle Rifle.
- Anti-Knightmare Sniper Rifle