A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates. Real life stuff came up. Most prominently, the AP Blitz. Sorry about the funky formatting. For some reason or another, the site keeps on trying to "correct" it. In other words, it's messing it up.
Chapter Four: The Cavalry Arrives
Black Knights Destroyer Avalon
One Hour From Holy Terra
The stacks of crates once chaotically strewn around the hangar deck had been arranged in orderly rows as the members of the 5th OPAW used them as impromptu workbenches. The several hours before the assault were used for final inspections on their armor and equipment, with the more experienced members of the OPAW aiding the newer members in their tasks. Normally, such a task would have been accompanied by much laughter, often at the expense of the more junior members, as they were sent off to find nonexistent equipment or forms. That joking was absent this time around: everyone grasped the full gravity of the situation. This was the real thing, and even the tiniest equipment defect could spell a fiery death as they plunged through the atmosphere or as they fought groundside.
The sound of klaxons caused the OPAW members to hurry their final inspections as they were bathed in a low red light. The few OPAW troopers still outside of their Knightmares hurriedly climbed into the two and-a-half-meter battle suits, hurrying through final diagnostics. Specks of green flashed through the deck as Knightmares came online. In the dim red light, their utter silence and momentarily-flashing green eyes gave them an unnerving resemblance to the Necrons. The men and women in the Knightmares disappeared under layers of armor. Soundlessly and with near-perfect synchrony, they assembled into their units for a last-minute roll-call.
"Attention all hands, Condition One now in effect. ETA to Earth is forty-five minutes and counting. All hands stand by at battle stations. All OPAW units report to drop bay."
The OPAW drop bay was a small chamber at the bottom of the ship designed exclusively for rapid deployment of Orbital Planetary Assault Wings. It was small and cramped, but could deploy an entire OPAW, one hundred twenty men and women, in less than ten minutes. The two armored blast doors, located on opposite sides of the chamber, noiselessly slid open as one hundred twenty OPAW members filed in. Preparation for the drop was as much-rehearsed as the drop itself, and was nearly reflexive for most members of the OPAW.
Each OPAW member patted his or her neighbor on the back, both as a gesture of reassurance and as a final check. Their energy wings needed to be tightly folded up in order to fit the heat shields over them. Hatches lowered from the ceiling as the knapsack-sized grey heat shields were lowered to the OPAW members. Though additional protection against the enormous heat of re-entry was unnecessary, their effectiveness at slowing down a Knightmare's descent through the atmosphere was undeniable. A series of metallic clangs echoed throughout the chamber as hadron carbines were secured to torso armor.
"ETA to Earth is thirty minutes and counting."
Space Station Ikaruga
Twenty-Four Hours From Holy Terra
General Suzaku Kururugi, head of the Black Knights Military Arm, circled his personal Knightmare several times as it stood, inactive. Hunched over, its back open to reveal the interior, it was difficult to believe that the device in front of him was one of the deadliest weapons of war in the galaxy. The Lancelot-Seraph, named after the Knightmare he'd piloted against the original Black Knights back on Earth all those millennia ago. Sheathed at its flanks were the two Force Swords that carved up Necron Monoliths with frightening ease. Clipped onto the back was a hadron assault weapon system that could reduce a Carnifax to ribbons in a matter of seconds.
Suzaku circled around the Knightmare once more before stepping into it. He could feel the cold sensation even through his jumpsuit as the psycho-crystalline layer molded to the contours of his lower body. A tingling raced up his spine as the psychic-conductive material synched up with his psychic abilities. He stood straight, arms outspread, as the top half of the Lancelot swung up to meet him. He flexed his fingers experimentally as the psycho-crystalline layer adapted to the contours of his upper body and the armor of the Lancelot flowed together, creating a smooth, unbroken surface.
As the back of the helmet closed, Suzaku's vision temporarily went black before his holographic display blinked to life. His initial view of his quarters was in various shades of red, before the onboard computer hurriedly added the other seven colors of the spectrum. Words blinked past the corner of his eye at blinding speeds as the suit ran startup diagnostics, finally concluding with a "LANCELOT-SERAPH ONLINE" flashing in Suzaku's field of vision.
Taking a few steps, the Lancelot-Seraph responded to Suzaku's inputs with such speed and precision that one would be forgiven to think that he was the Knightmare, not merely its pilot. As Suzaku made his way up to the Ikaruga's bridge, he passed formations of other Knightmares, of the Archangel type, the standard-issue Knightmare for the Black Knights Military Arm. It wasn't hard to deduce that the Black Knights were now on a war footing, if the last few days hadn't been any clue. The full-time soldiers of the OPAW were all upgraded to ready status, and the part-time citizen-soldiers that made up the rest of the Military Arm were hurriedly being mustered. The last time the Black Knights had ever witnessed such a flurry of activity was during the Third Necrotic War, but not on the scale being witnessed at the present.
CC, Kallen, and Nunnally were already at the bridge when Suzaku finally stepped through the blast doors. Last-minute adjustments were being made to their plan of attack, as evidenced by the holographic map of the Sol system currently projected in the middle of the bridge. This campaign would be like nothing they'd ever seen before: bloody, chaotic, close-quarters combat to fight for the system street by street, level by level, hive by hive. Casualty estimates were already far too high for anyone's tastes, and the estimate only kept on climbing.
"The Mechanicum's war factories on Mars," Kallen motions towards the planet on the map, "are doubtlessly one of the Chaos fleet's main targets. They could take out most of the Imperium's remaining industrial capacity and their Titan legions at the same time. I could take several divisions and an OPAW or two down there and establish a defensive perimeter."
"What concerns me the most," Suzaku began as he zoomed in on Earth, "is the defense of Earth itself. The defensive stations around the moon aren't in any position to do much good, and there's too much ground to defend it all. By now, the planet's bound to be one giant hive, and even if we confine ourselves to only the most defensible positions, we'll still be stretched thin…"
"There's still the issue of the Despoiler's fleet," Nunnally interjected, "which we have yet to locate. Intelligence indicates that it's more than enough to overwhelm the defenses around Earth, and I doubt Abbadon will make the same mistakes as Horus..."
"Ma'am," a communications officer interrupted her, "we've received word from the Avalon. They've arrived at the Sol system."
Black Knights Destroyer Avalon
Outskirts of Terra System
"Forward hadron cannons charged and ready to fire!"
"FLEIJA tubes one through four loaded and ready to fire!"
"Helm, take us at flanking speed around the back of the Chaos fleet! Don't smack into their ships, now!"
Orders and counter-orders were shouted across the Avalon's bridge as the ship finally dropped back into real space. Even before the sickly green glow had fully dissipated, the Avalon's weapons were hurriedly identifying targets and calculating firing solutions. Were it not been for the dramatic entrance, the Avalon and its escorts would have gone unnoticed, being absolutely tiny in comparison to the monolithic ships currently slugging it out.
"Fire control, I want the forward hadron batteries ready to fire at medium dispersion on my mark! Helm, hard to port fifteen degrees, elevation twenty-three degrees!"
The fire control computers of the Avalon's forward-mounted hadron cannons had already calculated the same firing solution moments ago, but the Avalon's captain did not spare a glance at the readout. His sheer experience rendered such an action a formality at most. He was a hundred twenty years old, nearly middle-aged by Black Knights standards, and eighty of those years were spent commanding the Avalon. He stayed with the small Avalon-class destroyer, even though most agreed that he could easily secure command of a Yggdrasil-class dreadnought. Those eighty years aboard the Avalon allowed him to know the ship, and all of its quirks, well.
The Avalon twisted around in space, swinging its long hull around to face the thickest part of the Chaos fleet. The trio of frigates accompanying it, spotting the tell-tale dull red glow at the Avalon's bow, quickly moved behind the Avalon, outside of its firing arc. The Chaos and Imperial fleets, still furiously engaging one another, nevertheless kept a wary eye on the new arrival. The glow around the Avalon's bow grew progressively larger and brighter. While the Imperial and Chaos fleets still pondered what the glow actually was, the Avalon's main batteries fired.
Imperial Battleship Glorious
Edge of the Terra System
If it hadn't been for that sickly green glow radiating out from the area, nobody would have paid the new pinpricks of light any mind. They were small, the largest barely half the length of the tiniest escort. All activity stopped the moment the green flash was spotted. A single word ran through the minds of all those in the know: Necrons. Nobody forgot the sickly green glow of a Necron inertialess drive once they saw it, assuming they survived the encounter. The Imperium was at its weakest: they had no hope of fighting off a Necron incursion. The lack of psychic signatures aboard the vessels cemented the fact in their minds.
This time, no ships were close enough to capture pict data, so dots on the auspex were the best anyone had. The crew of the Glorious watched, not even daring to breathe, as the grey dots slowly shifted positions. The largest one seemed to be subtly altering its course, coming to a full stop at the end. The other three dots subtly shifted their positions, putting the larger dot between them and the combined Chaos and Imperial fleet. While gun crews still slaved away on the lower decks, loading and firing the massive weapons batteries at the Chaos ships, the bridge crew merely wondered why the Necron ship hadn't opened fire already.
A massive wave of crimson streaked with black emanated from the lead ship, making its way with surprising speed towards the Chaos fleet lines. Both the captain and the Inquisitor's eyes went wide as the former roared an order to evade. The massive hull of the Glorious swung itself around, struggling to haul itself out of the weapon's line of fire. The only way to describe the devastation they were now witnessing was a Nova Cannon on 'slaught. Entire Chaos warships were instantly incinerated as the weapon easily ripped through their shields. The evasive maneuvers, it turned out, were unnecessary, as the wave lost sufficient coherency only a few hundred kilometers behind the Chaos rear lines to render them harmless. Despite the apparent lack of range, fifteen ships in one shot was nothing to scoff at.
"Praise to the Emperor if they are allies. Emperor protect us if they are not," the Inquisitor muttered, vocalizing the thoughts of everyone else on the bridge.
Chaos Battleship Eternal Carnage
Edge of the Terra System
The Warmaster calmly stood in front of the hololith, arms clasped behind his back. Nobody doubted that he internally seethed with rage, with many thralls barely resisting the urge to run out of the bridge. That new Imperial weapon had ravaged his fleet while taking nary a scratch. He felt a spark of fear as he remembered the beams that had punched through void shields as if they were nothing, or the torpedoes that disregarded them entirely. It had taken the combine firepower of four battleships and numerous support ships to bring it down, and now, the Imperium apparently had four more, possibly built to even higher design specifications.
Where was the Imperium getting the technology to build such ships? If they weren't building them, had they perhaps found some weapons cache from the fabled Dark Age of Technology? Perhaps these ships were not Imperial, but instead belonged to a currently-unknown third party? If that were true, and if a ship that small could inflict such frightening damage, he dreaded to imagine what their larger ships could do.
"My lord! The ships have entered the Warp! We cannot find a psychic signature!"
The Warmaster roared in frustration, rapidly plodding his way towards the unfortunate thrall. The pathetic creature threw up his arms out of reflex, as if such a pitiful gesture could protect him from the blows of a Traitor Astartes. The Warmaster towered over him as he cowered in his seat. His hand twitched slightly, before beginning to turn away, apparently thinking better of it. The thrall breathed in relief, before a vicious backhand separated his head from his body. The severed head hit the wall and bounced off before rolling to a stop, an expression of horror permanently etched in its features.
"My lord! The enemy ships have reappeared on auspex scans! They are firing torpedoes!"
The Warmaster roared again, turning his sights onto the speaker. Before he could move, a terrific force rocked the Eternal Carnage from stem to stern. Looking outside, he noticed what appeared to be a series of light purple stars forming amongst the fleet. Those purple stars turned into slowly-expanding pink spheres, some large enough to encompass a hive city, punching through the shields of those unlucky enough to be in the blast radius to disintegrate the armor underneath. What were these weapons? His fleet was entirely helpless against them!
The Warmaster's eyes went wide as he witnessed the destruction in front of him. A number of ships had escaped destruction by being outside of the initial blast radius, but they were gradually pulled in as the blasts collapsed in on themselves. The doomed ships collided against one another, carving enormous gashes into their hulls and breaking apart as they were sucked in by the sheer force of the FLEIJA blasts. He spared a glance at the auspex, as triangle after triangle blinked out.
"My lord! Second salvo incoming!"
The Warmaster roared, cursing those fearsome weapons as he spotted a bright green dot streak towards him. He cursed the Imperium and the Emperor and the builders of those ships as the Eternal Carnage disintegrated around him.
Imperial Battleship Emperor's Vengeance, Mars Orbit
Two Hours After the Avalon's First Appearance
The initial reports had not been good: the Chaos fleet easily numbered more than one thousand ships, nearly a ten-to-one numerical superiority. Even with the aid of the Grey Knights chapter fleet and a few squadrons from Battle Fleet Solar, the Chaos fleet still held a staggering eight-to-one advantage. The loss of many Forge Worlds during the Reign of Chaos and the Time of Dying rendered the Imperial fleet not only outnumbered, but technologically inferior as well. One by one, the friendly blue triangles blinked out as Chaos vessels picked off their real-life counterparts. Yet, the High Lords still refused to give orders to move the Emperor's Vengeance.
The appearance of several unknown readings, small enough to dismiss as space debris, nearly went unnoticed by the bridge crews until they detected the dreaded sickly-green flash of an intertialess drive. The logic engines screeched as the unknown contacts switched from a neutral grey to purple and were tentatively labeled as raiders. Only four ships, but, with the Imperial fleet distracted, that would likely prove enough. The bridge crew remained utterly silent as the largest of the Necron ships moved itself into a firing arc behind the Chaos fleet. Fifteen red triangles disappeared moments later, effortlessly snuffed out with efficiency only the Necrons could manage.
The crew was already mumbling prayers to the Emperor as the hololith updated again. The slight time lag from system's edge to the Emperor's Vengeance only added to the suspense. Enormous pockets of Chaos ships disappeared, and the ships surrounding the now-empty spaces seemed to be rushing in to fill the holes in the line before disappearing off the display. Tech-Priests scurried up to the hololith, performing quick maintenance rituals to ensure that the display was indeed working properly. The display was obscured by static for a few moments, but sharpened up in time for more pockets of the Chaos fleet to disappear. Similar to the last time, the ships surrounding the now-empty voids seemed to rush in to fill the gaps, only to disappear. The new arrivals moved with blinding speeds into the midst of the Chaos fleet.
"Lord-Admiral, sensors detect several more vessels, including an escort-sized vessel, incoming! They do not broadcast valid IFF codes!"
More sickly-green glows were detected on the outskirts of the system, accompanied by several appearing just over Mars orbit. Even the stoic Lord-Admiral couldn't help but pray, "Emperor save us all."
Outskirts of Terra System
Two Hours After the Avalon's Initial Appearance
The battle had become a close-ranged slugging affair with the Chaos vessels, and the Avalon's powerful forward batteries fell silent in fears of hitting allies. The Imperial fleet, once it recovered from the vessel's unexpected appearance, began engaging the enemy again. The Avalon's OPAW unit had taken few casualties so far, being too small for the enemy to effectively target and too slow to trigger shields. However, their tiny numbers meant that they accomplished little beyond harassment attacks. Occasionally, a team would blast through the hull of a Chaos attack craft, board it, and destroy it from within, but they stood little chance against the larger vessels.
The real punch of the Black Knights' attack lay in the Excalibur squadrons. The Chaos gunners had long since given up on targeting the nimble attack craft, instead opting to put up a furious flak screen and hope to hit something. The sixteen FLEIJA missiles each Excalibur carried were not as powerful as the Avalon's, but still punched through enemy shields and armor with ease. Lances and torpedoes occasionally hit the Avalon's hadron fields, slowly chipping away at them, but not quickly enough to inflict serious damage. The frigates accompanying the destroyer had moved on further ahead, their hadron fields and self-repair systems keeping them in the fight much longer than such small ships should be able.
The Avalon pulled up in between two Chaos escorts, both much larger than the Avalon, but also severely outgunned by the destroyer. Unable to use FLEIJA warheads at such close range, the Avalon's gun batteries rang out, quickly wearing down the escorts' void shields as return fire pounded on the Avalon's hadron fields. Other Chaos vessels, seeing that the feared vessel was preoccupied tearing apart the two escorts, added their own firepower to the fray. Attack craft attempted bombing runs, only to be chased away by their Black Knights counterparts or shot down by the Avalon's point-defense batteries.
The sheer volume of fire proved too much even for a ship as powerful as the Avalon, and its hadron field flickered and died out. As the first field generator recycled, the other generator began to project a new field as the Chaos ships continued their barrage. The frigates and attack craft picked off the ships one by one, but the volume of fire reduced slowly at best. A chance lance strike before the second hadron field fully formed overloaded an energy conduit snaking through the Avalon's armor plates. Chaos weapons fire intensified as a portion of the Avalon's fields flickered out.
Before the Chaos fleet could exploit their newfound advantage, however, a sickly green glow, far larger than the one that brought the Avalon, bathed the battlefield. The nose of a ship slowly forced its way through the epicenter of the glow, as if trying to squeeze itself through a far-too-small entrance. Several smaller glows joined the larger one several ships later, as more ships pushed their way into the Materium. Even before the ships fully forced their way through, their forward batteries rang out, a roar of defiance against the universe seemingly objecting to their very existence.
Black Knights Dreadnought Pendragon
Edge of the Terra System
"Get a jamming field up. I want all enemy sensors and communications blacked out! Communications, tap into the Imperial Omega Line. Tactical, prepare all FLEIJA tubes and Hadron Beams for another volley!"
Despite the huge difference in size, the Pendragon's interior was surprisingly similar to that of the Avalon, though much larger in scale. The ship's captain, at nearly two hundred fifty years old, was on the edge of retirement age and knew his ship inside-out. The ship and its crew had survived attacks from Tyranid and Necron fleets, as well as the occasional straggling Chaos war bands. The massive firepower of the Yggdrasil-class dreadnought was rarely bought fully to bear, making moments like the present all the more awe-inspiring, as the Pendragon launched volley after volley of FLEIJA warheads and hadron beams.
"Omega Line is open, receiving package from Ikaruga actual now."
The Pendragon's captain shook his head slightly. The Omega Line itself was very old technology, predating even the STC fragment that had contained it. The plan surrounding the Omega Line required the long view only one of their immortal leaders could furnish. The designs had been uploaded onto a STC fragment that was then planted just ahead of Imperial fleets during the Great Crusade. They had counted on the Mechanicum's blind acceptance of STC technologies to lead to the standardization of the Omega Line into Imperial communications systems. The exact purpose behind the plan, as well as the plan itself, had fallen into obscurity in the twenty thousand years since, only to be bought back into the light as the Black Knights began their march to Terra.
"Package received and decompressed, sir. Sending now."
The Pendragon's captain gave the communications officer a slight nod before turning back to watch the unfolding battle. Broad beams of red and pinpricks of green came into existence as the Pendragon and the cruisers and destroyers accompanying it fired another volley of hadron beams and FLEIJA missiles. Silent blossoms of flame came into being as the fearsome weapons found their mark. The Avalon had taken advantage of the Pendragon's arrival to limp into the safety of the larger ship's defensive battery coverage, making its way to the docking bay in the dreadnought's stomach. The Chaos fleet was slowly falling apart, possessing neither the numbers nor the technology to take on a monster such as the Pendragon.
"Sir, we have confirmation from the cruiser Alsvid. The package has been successfully delivered."
Imperial Battleship Emperor's Vengeance, Mars Orbit
Two Hours, Thirty Minutes After the Avalon's First Appearance
Gunnery crews had trained several of the ship's weapons batteries onto the new arrival, but most already knew that the gesture was futile. Similar ships, along with one that appeared to be much larger, were ripping the Chaos fleet apart at the system's edge, though they seemed to be leaving the Imperial fleet alone. The ship flew alongside the Emperor's Vengeance, its clean and flowing lines standing in stark contrast with the harsh and angular lines of the much larger vessel. Nothing about the design suggested Necron origins.
The hololith displaying the battle suddenly crackled, the image shifting in and out of focus. Tech-Priests surged forward, rapidly running diagnostics on the malfunctioning machine as everyone else on the bridge focused on the image slowly appearing through the static. A three-dimensional image of a malformed three-pronged trident head finally came into focus as the Tech-Priests still hurried to diagnose the problem. The trident head devolved into static as another image came into focus. This one was grainy and distorted, as if the data had degraded with extreme age.
Depicted was a tall, thin man in some strange garment. A gaudy combination of purple and gold combined with a cape that seemed to defy gravity. Most striking, however, was the mask, which bore more than a passing resemblance to the Emperor piece on a regicide board. Flanking him were two figures in blocky suits of power armor, holding what appeared to be a cross between an autogun and a bolter. Before anybody could wonder just what they were seeing, a booming voice filled the bridge of the Emperor's Vengeance.
"People of the Imperium, I am Zero!"
A/N: This will be the last chapter in a while. I have a few other fanfic projects I'd like to finish, so I'm putting this work on temporary hiatus. Don't worry, the saga of the Black Knights is only beginning, and here's an omake to tide you guys over until I get back to this project.
Omake: Encyclopedia of the Black Knights, Volume One: The People
Name: Nunnally Lamperogue
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown (~48,000 Terran Years)
Rank: Governor of the Black Knights
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Purple
Knightmare: None
Weapon(s) of Choice: 2x Force Claw, Psychic Ability
Description: One of the immortal and ageless leaders of the Black Knights, Nunnally Lamperogue fulfills the role of civil administrator of the Black Knights. Her work keeps the day-to-day functions of the Ikaruga and the rest of the fleet proceeding smoothly. She abhors unnecessary violence, but will fight ferociously when provoked. Her deceptively young and fragile appearance leads many to underestimate her, but the few that survive doing so never make that mistake again. Many speculate that she was blind for most of her early life, as her other senses, particularly hearing and touch, are extraordinary. On more than one occasion, she has deduced a person's mood through the subtle fluctuations in voice pitch or sensed people through the disturbances created in the air. While her body may be weak, she is a Psyker of near-incomprehensible power, having been trained by the Emperor himself. From snapping a battleship in half to telekinetically moving herself, there is little she cannot accomplish with sufficient force of will.
Name: Unknown (Codenamed "CC")
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown (~49,000 Terran Years)
Rank: Director of Black Knights Military Arm-Psychic Special Warfare Department
Hair: Green
Eyes: Gold
Knightmare: None
Weapon(s) of Choice: Force Sword, Psychic Ability
Description: The oldest of the four Black Knights leaders, her laid-back, blasé personality and penchant for pizza often lead to the misconception of her being quite lazy. While true to a degree, she has perhaps the most dangerous jobs of them all. With the recent upswing of conflicts against Chaos, psychic soldiers are in more and more demand, especially by the Orbital Planetary Assault Wing, and she is responsible for training all of them. While not as powerful as Nunnally Lamperogue, she is still an incredibly powerful Psyker in her own right, capable of cleaving a Titan in half with her Force Sword. The few who have met her describe her as utterly inscrutable: her motivations, or even whether or not she actually has any motives, are usually unknown. Her apparent familiarity with the Emperor of Mankind has led some to conclude that she was quite close to him, perhaps his lover, though no conclusive evidence exists.
Name: Suzaku Kururugi
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown (~48,000 Terran Years)
Rank: General of the Black Knights Military Arm-Militia Division
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Knightmare: KMX-012-2 "Lancelot-Seraph"
Weapon(s) of Choice: 2x Force Swords, Hand-to-Hand
Description: A hand-to-hand specialist in the Black Knights, his skill with a Knightmare is challenged only by Kallen Kozuki. Of the four leaders, his psychic powers are the least developed, though they are by no means weak. His forgoing of offensive psychic ability has allowed him to focus more on keeping in-tune with his Knightmare, allowing him to become a nigh-unhittable whirlwind of destruction on the battlefield. In a pinch, he could generate a psychic shockwave to push back or incinerate those in the immediate vicinity, but most of his psychic energy is directed towards enhancing his abilities in close-quarters combat. His ability to see a few seconds into the future gives him an enormous advantage in such situations. As head of the Militia Division of the Black Knights Military Arm, he is responsible for organizing the legions of Archangel Knightmares and the citizen-soldiers that pilot them.
Name: Kallen Kozuki
Gender: Female
Age: Unknown (~48,000 Terran Years)
Rank: General of the Black Knights Military Arm-Special Forces Division
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Knightmare: KMX-012-1 "Gurren-Seraph"
Weapon(s) of Choice: Force Knife, Hand-to-Hand
Description: Instead of the sheer psychic ability of Nunnally Lamperogue or the melee prowess of Suzaku Kururugi, Kallen Kozuki rests somewhere in the middle. Slightly less powerful than CC when it comes to sheer psychic ability, she makes up for it with her ferociousness in melee combat, her rapid blows often wearing down opponents before she goes in for the killing strike. Her psychic abilities are generally confined to either peering several seconds into the future or to subtly redirect incoming enemy weapons fire, though, like Suzaku, she can generate a psychic shockwave as a last-ditch attack. As head of the Special Forces Division, she often leads OPAW units into battle, usually accompanied by several psychic soldiers. Due to her reputation for a quick temper and vicious punches, especially uppercuts, the 5th OPAW has decreed that a member is only truly initiated when they've made at least one drop and have asked Kallen Kozki on a date with helmet camera footage to prove it, the latter being considered the more dangerous task.
Name: Black Knights Military Arm-Militia Division
Population: Unknown (Somewhere in the Millions)
Description: The backbone of the Black Knights' rarely-used war machine, the Militia Division does not consist of full-time soldiers. Rather, all able-bodied Black Knights from eighteen to one hundred seventy are trained and organized into militia units. Under normal circumstances, only a few militia units are active at any given time, serving nine-month stints before being deactivated and returned to their civilian jobs. "Militia Division" does not encompass just the militia units on the ground, but many of the warship crews are also drawn from this department of the Military Arm. Their standard-issue Knightmare, the Archangel, is tough and reliable, as well as being cheap and easy to manufacture en masse. Only a few conflicts have proven large enough to merit their deployment, with the last one being the Third Necrotic War.
Name: Black Knights Military Arm-Special Forces Division
Population: Unknown (~50,000)
Description: Unlike their counterparts in the Militia Division, the Special Forces Division's members are full-time soldiers. Their main department is the Orbital Planetary Assault Wing, tasked with reconnaissance and precision strikes behind enemy lines, as well as to clear beachheads for incoming Militia units where applicable. Casualties are often very high, but the small size of OPAW units, around one hundred twenty members each, fosters such bonds that transfers on non-medical grounds are incredibly rare. On paper, the Psychic Special Warfare Department is the second, much smaller, department of the Special Forces Division. In practice, it is its own independent department. While all Black Knights are Psykers, only a very tiny number display enough ability to merit the attention of the Psychic Special Warfare Department. These specially-trained soldiers tear through enemy lines with their psychic abilities, and are not organized into any formal units. Rather, they are attached to Militia or OPAW units as needed. Nicknames for Psychic Special Warfare troopers range from "mage" to "spook," though the latter is considered mildly derogatory by some.