Chapter 9: Captive and Captivated
Myuute sat in a white room with a mirror on her side, she's not in her usual attire but white prison outfit instead, she was intrigue expecting to be naked or at least ragged clothing, that is not the case with the Britannians and the Siren was thankful that she's given modest clothing. But the fear of enslavement is still there.
She is startled when the door opened and walking in is a man in dark clothing and an odd black glass eye coverings, he sat on the chair in front of her when he begin reading some papers, she straighten up as she awaits her fate.
The man in question didn't speak nor looks at her as he just read the papers that he's holding, Myuute is wondering what is he reading but she didn't want to disturb the man who could possibly end her life in a whim. After sorting through the papers for minutes, he looks up and stares at the Siren.
"From all the information I've gathered your name is Myuute Luna Sires, am I right?"
"Y-Yes, that is my name." She answered, the siren is wondering if this talk got something to do with slavery, then again some slave traders would ask the name, skills and other details of their merchandise so the buyer would know what they're buying.
The man looks down on the papers as he reads some paragraphs. "It's said that you're a Siren, not only that but reports say that you also have the ability to conjure magic, one such spell is to block arrows."
Myuute gave a nervous nod as an answer.
"Interesting. And you're just a traveling Siren, paid to assist in the siege of Italica?"
Again, Myuute nodded.
"Good, now on to business, you have two choices: You can either serve as one of the first members of the Foreign Legion, or you serve prison time until the end of the war." Agent Smith offered. "So what's your decision?"
"This "Foreign Legion", is this some sort of army made up of slaves?" Myuute asked, slave warriors aren't that rare, they're just considered expendable tools to preserve the numbers of their master's warriors.
"No." The man said simply which surprises her. "Slavery is abolished in our country for over two centuries now; we see it as an unethical and barbaric practice. Considering the circumstances we decided to be much lenient with you and offer you an alternative penance. Do not worry, once you served your time you're free to do whatever you want."
"No slavery? Then what's going to happen to the enemy that you captured?"
"Prisoners of war." He answered. "And they'll remain so until the war is over, it is that simple." He didn't said the full details but not all prisoners will be set free, particularly Saderans from the Fifth Legion, all of those criminals are going to spend the rest of their lives in prison for their heinous acts during the Battle of Los Angeles.
The Siren stares at him with amazement, this is completely foreign to her, it is unheard of that a powerful country would not turn their captured prisoners into slaves.
"So what it's going to be?"
Myuute thoughts about but didn't last a minute as she quickly made her decision. "Yes, I accept your generous offer, Sir."
"Excellent, now-" Agent Smith picked up a plastic bag containing all her clothing and hands it to her. "Get change, and after that I'll escort you to barracks to get started."
"Yes sir."
Get in the Alnus fort, meet the ruling commander, talk of the need of her people, and leave, that's Mariet's plan regarding her mission that she's entrusted upon by her leader Avhara. Her group are survivors of the Bunny-Empire War, after the humiliating defeat and the enslavement or genocide of her people Avhara gathered any survivors and been living on the run ever since.
Her group of over a hundred had been living as nomads for years now, surviving through foraging, trading, and assassination and prostitution services. Their journey is full of perils, suffering starvation, bandit attacks, dangerous beasts, and worst of all Saderan Enslavers, they lost dozens already to these pigs and this led Avhara to decide in meeting with the Britannians to gain an asylum for the tribe.
Mariet's nervous right now, besides wielding immense power and having a grudge on the Saderans, the Britannians are almost foreign to her, she don't know if they take slaves or if they're as bad as the Saderans, she and her tribe have come across plenty of untrustworthy people and that make her very wary of these people, but Avhara's instincts tells her that they'll be safe with the Britannians than any other nations- besides Italica.
She don't know if this is a good idea but she removes her hood which reveals her dark brown bunny ears that matches the color of her short hair. It's not long now, she's near the entrance which is heavily guarded by soldiers, men in grey armor and metal carriages that doesn't need a horse, her blue eyes focus on the things that have been fascinated by many people of this continent: Iron Giants.
She stops behind a group of refugees who's leader is talking with one Britannian, she gaze up and examines the Giant, there are four of them guarding the entrance, ensuring that peace is in order, Mariet can't help but be astonished by this beast as it just stood there holding it's weapon, the shape of its head, and with that metallic look it made her think that it's some kind of golem.
"Thank you, sir. Thank you very much." Mariet looks at the group of refugees who are now entering the small city.
The officer and a few soldiers are now looking at her as she nervously approaches them, once she's close the officer began asking. "Name?"
Just go along with this, everything will be fine, Mariet thought as she answers. "Mariet."
"Race?"
"Warrior Bunny." Though she can't see soldiers' reaction because their face is covered but she can tell that they're interested, or simply never saw her kind before.
"Purpose for your visit?"
Mariet have to tell all, no use in hiding it. "To see if this place safe for my tribe."
"There are more of you?"
"Yes, and my leader Avhara want to speak with you leader." She awaits his answer.
The officer looks at her for a moment, wondering the intentions. "Just wait for a minute; we'll contact him if he's not busy." He talks to his communicator to inform the higher-ups, Mariet stares curiosity in who he's talking to. "Alright, they've been notified, just follow Sergeant Martin and he'll lead you to the palace." He pointed to one soldier.
Mariet can't tell the differences since the other soldiers are wearing almost identical clothing and wearing strange masks with no eye-holes. "Thank you."
With that she follow the man through the gate, when she's inside saw that there are many typical buildings but some structures with a different design, no doubt these Britannians, there are residential, some businesses, restaurants and a pub, it's effectively a small town.
She notices that half of the inhabitants are demihumans, two-thirds are Warrior Bunnies like her. "Sir Martin, If you don't mind me asking, just how many people are staying here?" She asks walking by his side.
"Two thousand, I think." He said without looking at her.
"You're housing that many and you're not asking them anything in return?" Mariet asked.
"Prince Schneizel is very generous, he understand the hardship of every people who seek refuge here. If they feel the need to give something back, well, they can simply work at some job that we offer, like those guys who work as carpenters." He pointed at some men constructing a building. "Others can work as gardeners, street cleaners, seamstress, or even join the Foreign Legion."
"Foreign Legion?"
"Yeah, non-citizens serving as soldiers of Britannia."
"So it's an army of Auxiliaries then." Mariet frowned a bit, throughout history warriors serving in Auxiliaries are mostly treated as expendable "meat shields", fighting and dying so their master's army will have little casualties.
"Something like that, though most of them are serving as town guards here, ensuring that peace and order is maintained. But to individuals who have special expertise will be given a specialist post."
Mariet wondered what that means and wanted to find out more of it. "And what does "Specialist" do exactly?"
"It depends on the skill actually." He casually said. "Like we've already employed two medusaes who have mind reading ability, they'll serve either interrogators or stationed at the gate to watch out for spies or fake refugees; or werewolves or the bunny girls, they're quick and with high reflexes, might serve as troopers or assassins."
"I see." Mariet considered this fact. Because of the Britannians many survivors of the Empire-Bunny War have come out of hiding to seek their vengeance, news of groups and individuals such as Greta's tribe, Lucette's mercenaries, and Agnes the assassin are attacking strongholds and caravans, the Saderans can't mount a proper retaliation as their focusing most of their forces at the Britannians.
"Well, here we are." They stopped at a two story building, Mariet notices that the doors are made of glass and instead of swinging like door would the glass doors just slide to the sides, needless to say she was fascinated by this as a young man comes through.
"Is this Mariet from a traveling nomad?" He asks.
"Yes, Lord Maldini."
"Good, you may return to your post." Martin salutes as he walks way. "Please, follow me; Prince Schneizel wants to speak with you."
"Of course." The Warrior Bunny came inside the building, nervous and on guard.
Marianne smiles while reading through many reports and memos, things are going well, they're able to successfully house over two thousand refugee, people from Coda were very thankful for letting them harvest Dragon Scales, more vassal states are declaring their neutrality in the conflict while a few are secretly declaring their support for the Britannians, demihumans are making a daring move by attacking Saderan encampments, caravan, bases and fortresses.
Thanks to Tuka they have establish communications with the High Elves who now openly support them and are moving to make an alliance, dozens of messengers have arrived from different nations, tribes and factions who either wanted friendship, supply aids or simply join the fight against the Saderans. There is also the report of a tribe of Warrior Bunnies who seek shelter; Schneizel will be the one who handle the talk with the leader.
There is also a document focusing on the formation of the Britannian Foreign Legion, so far the number reach about two hundred with over half of them are demihuman. Of course they're not immediately going to arm them with modern weaponry, that's a very risky move, all of them will be armed only with medieval weapons except to those who served for a year, show great loyalty and wanted to become Britannian citizens.
She also read some files of their next move against their opponent; tomorrow they will launch four simultaneous assaults on the Saderan forces, an attack on a heavily fortified hill, a large encampment, an occupied town, and a massive airstrike on the Saderan fleet. This will be broadcast to show that the Saderans are weak and Britannians are strong and thus more will support their cause.
On a side note an Indian scientist named Rakshata Chawla wanted to test her new experimental Knightmare model on the battlefield against the Saderan, to which Marianne agrees as she wanted to see its performance.
Then comes to the matter concerning the princess of Sadera Pina Co Lada, Marianne suppressed a laugh upon learning her name, was the Saderan emperor drunk when he gave her that name? Thanks to her son securing the release of the captured Britannian citizens will be much easier, they must not let her out of their sight so security must be tough.
They'll be generous with the princess by granting her and her Knights a comfortable stay, jail cells with decorations and a soft bed and a fine meal while the Pina will be staying in one of the guest rooms which will be heavily guarded. One step out of line and the consequences for Pina will be quite severe.
The Princess of Sadera pace back and forth in her room, it's been ten days since she and her knights are taken prisoners, and now she fears the worst. She feels dread for Bozes and the other Rose Knights, imagining that they're all naked in prison cells and their maidenhood forcibly taken, raped every day and night. During her stay she bangs on the door demanding to know the conditions of her knights but the guards and servants just ignore her which didn't ease her worries.
She went to the bathroom to wash her face, some cold water to calm her nerves. She turns the knobs and water comes out the "faucet", even though her head is filled with worries and unnerved speculation of her fate she got to admit that the small things like faucet, shower and light bulbs are amazing.
After washing she went and lay down on the bed to ease her worries, but then a horrid thought came to her mind, she always think that she's here in this safe and comfortable room because of her status as a Princess but what worries her more is the possibility that the bed she's laying on will be used when Lelouch started forcing himself at her.
Lelouch doesn't seem the type like her elder half-brother Zorzal but for all she know the prince could be one and secretly hiding it, waiting for the right moment to enter this room and defile her, and that scared her greatly.
But what can she do to stop it? This room is almost devoid of any items that could possibly use as weapon, and she can be certain that she's being watched carefully even though she didn't see any cracks or holes on the walls. The only thing she can do is learn their language thanks to translation book, so far she learns many English words and grammars, and this is a must if she is to negotiate with the Britannians.
Then suddenly there is a knock on the door and Pina readies herself for whoever behind that door, to her pleasant surprise as a familiar voice is heard. "Your Highness, this is Bozes, Prince Lelouch ordered our presence."
The door opened which Pina saw that Bozes is accompanied by Panache, Hamilton, Grey, armed Britannians and a dark skinned woman with silvery hair who Pina assumes to be in charge of the escort. Pina examines her friend who appears to be fine. "Bozes, what about the others, are they fine?"
"Don't worry, Princess, they haven't done anything to us, except give us a translation book to read." Like her Bozes is learning the English language to better understand the Britannians.
"What a relief, anything else?"
Bozes shake her head and answered "That's just it, we've been locked inside our cells doing nothing but eat, sleep and read that translation book, I feel I'm going made because we're being isolated from one another."
"I feel the same way." Pina said, not holding a conversation with another person does make you crazy.
The dark skin woman then interjected. "My name is Viletta Nu, a Royal Guard and I will be your escort. Are you ready?"
"I have nothing to do for today anyway, so yes, lead the way." Pina's mind then begin to bring up many possible outcomes to this meeting, mostly thinking of a demand for her nation's surrender.
As they walk through the halls Pina think of a way to counter the demands for a surrender, and the best way to do it either an armistice or a peace treaty, making sure that it last long enough until they discovered a way to defeat them. For now she must learn as much as she can about the Britannians and their strength.
She was expecting to speak with the Britannian royalties, but instead she went outside the building and made their way towards an odd looking carriage being escorted by two purple Iron Giants with giant lances. "I thought we're meeting a member of the Britannian royal family."
"You are, Prince Lelouch is inside this limousine, he's taking you for short tour around Alnus." Viletta explained.
"Oh, I see. Very well." Knowing this fact Pina will have a chance to take a look what it is like inside Alnus with the Britannians.
The Saderan Princess and three of her Knights cautiously entered this "limousine", there she saw the Black Prince sitting at the front seat facing the back of this strange carriage. "Princess Pina, good to have here, please sit down."
And with that Pina sat on the back seat between Bozes and Hamilton, Grey sat on the left seat. Lelouch isn't alone on the right seat is simple Britannian soldier in dark armor, no doubt he's only there to insure that they're well behave, and on the left side next to Grey is a man with orange eyes and blue hair looking quite relax.
After Viletta entered and sat next to Lelouch then limousine then moved, the four Saderans tense up and hold on to something, this seem to amuse the Prince of Britannia. "Would you like some wine?" Lelouch offered, he's holding a glass cup with blood red wine.
Pina's is a bit nervous right now so a little wine wouldn't hurt. "Just a little." The orange eyed man poured some in a glass and handed it out Grey took it from him and gave it her.
"Do you want some as well?" Lelouch asks Pina's subordinates to which they replied with a no.
Just taking one small sip and Pina tasted the best beverage she ever have, the flavor and the texture, this tasted much better than all the wine served in royal feasts and parties, it made her forget the seriousness of her situation for a moment and keep taking sip by sip to make it last.
The royal convoy passed dozens of buildings of design both familiar and foreign to Pina and her Knights, they saw that the refugees are going on about their daily routine fine and lively like they're residents here.
Then they entered a military base which is located on the northeast of the base, the Saderans leaned and look out the windows, men and women in gray armor or blue uniforms, buildings that they assumed to be barracks, armory, mess hall and warehouse.
They pass by a training area but instead of fighting with wooden swords or training bows they have odd devices in their hands destroying practice dummies in front of them. "Are all Britannian soldiers wizards?"
Lelouch just laugh softly as he explains. "No, as a matter of fact there is no magic at all, as you can see they're using weapons."
"What kind weapon are they using?" Bozes asked, wanted to know more about this, thinking that they can duplicate it for their own use.
Lelouch smirks as he anticipated what they're thinking, trying to get a hold of advanced weaponry in hopes of mass production in order to gain an advantage over their forces, well too bad for the Saderans the technological level of their country is very far behind to actually do such a thing.
But he decides to humor them by unholstering his gun and took out a bullet from his pocket. "This is called a "gun", just pull the trigger and it create an electromagnetic force to send this-" He presents the bullet. "Flying out the barrel with incredible speed, traveling long distance and inflicting damage on the target."
Before any question is asked he added a few more info. "Though this pistol is merely used as a secondary weapon or self-defense, the weapon that Sergeant Lawrence is carrying-" He points at the lone soldier in the limousine making the Saderan stares at his rifle. "is called an assault rifle, it can fire multiple rounds in seconds, perfect for all range, effective against large numbers."
"All of your soldiers are armed with these?" Hamilton asks.
"Why yes, it's a standard issue weapon for all Britannian infantry." Lelouch is enjoying the reaction from the Saderan princess who is disturbed by the facts.
Pina looks at the weapon with awe and fear, recounting the details of the battles that she witness involving Britannian infantry, remembering how they kill the opposition with chilling ease, with such weapons a small group of soldiers can annihilate an army of hundred.
The convoy exited the base and headed for another one, and then suddenly a loud boom is heard and felt the limo shake a bit. "What was that?" Grey looking quite alarmed, his hand going for his sword but realise that it's not there cursing himself for forgetting that they're unarmed.
The girls look out the window on their right and saw four metallic beasts roaming the land, destroying wooden structures by firing something through its long snout. "What the hell is that?" Bozes gaped at the strange beings.
"They have Iron Giants and Metallic Dragons, now they have Iron Elephants?" Hamilton guessed.
Though they heard Black Prince laugh the four turns to Lelouch. "Iron Elephants? Those are called tanks. Heavy armored vehicle capable of firing high-explosive rounds or armor-piercing shells, perfect for destroying buildings, taking down big target, or wiping out a group of enemies. And for the Metallic Dragons, they are call gunships, deployed for close air support or assault run."
After the brief explanation the Saderans stares back at these "tanks" as they fire their projectiles at wooden houses and large group of training dummies. Then they moved to an area were Iron Giants are sparring with one another with lances.
"If you call Iron Elephants "tanks" and Metal Dragons "Gunships", then what do you call Iron Giants?" Pina asks the prince.
For a moment of pause Lelouch answered. "Autonomous Armored Knight, though we commonly refer them as Knightmare Frames, the fastest and deadliest unit in the force, capable of fighting effectively in different terrains, to mountains and forest to city streets and alleys."
"Knightmare Frames." Pina looks at these giants for a minute and back at Lelouch. "These things must be hard come by, right?"
"Hard to come by?" The Black Prince let out a dark laugh. "Princess, we currently have a hundred thousand in active duty, more of them are being produced in factories, and by the next year a new model will be in service."
The Princess felt weak and halfway to fainting, Bozes, Hamilton and Grey shock by the stated numbers, a hundred thousand Knightmares? They have hope that the number of these Giants would be a hundred, but now they know that the Britannian have a Legion worth of Knightmares.
"Hold on, what do you mean by "new model"?" Hamilton asks since she doesn't understand the term.
Lelouch just points at the sparring Knightmares. "Did you see the difference? The design and color? The blue Knightmares are called Sutherlands while the purple ones are Gloucesters, do you know the difference between the two?"
At this question, the Saderan party didn't answer for they don't know difference between the two besides the color.
"The Sutherland is the older model and Gloucester were the recent ones, a new model tends to be stronger, faster and more combat effective." He saw the Saderans now understand the meaning of the "new model". "We differentiate them by model and generations, the Sutherland and Gloucester are the Fifth Generation, while the Knightmares like the one that I use Gawain is the Sixth Generation, we already have a handful of Seventh Generation like the Vincent, Vercingetorix and the Lancelot." Lelouch pointed to something outside
Pina and her friends looks at one white Knightmare which they assumed to be the Lancelot sparring with three Sutherlands, awed that one Knightmare fighting with ease despite outnumbered. After Lelouch explaining these things the Saderans are starting to sweat.
"After much research and development, we'll produce Seventh Generation Knightmares base on the designs and technologies from the Sixth. I predict that by the next year we'll be mass producing the new models by the thousands."
Pina is almost hyperventilating, she now understanding the concept of models and generations, recalling the memory of the black Iron Giant, or "Gawain" as Lelouch called it killing the notorious Flame Dragon and annihilating hundreds of bandits during the Siege of Italica, and to learn that the Britannians are going to make thousands of new Knightmares similar to the Gawain. This does not bode well for her nation; a hundred men can't destroy a single Knightmare and now their facing thousands of them along with new and dangerous ones.
Now her mind is playing a grim scene of her nation's capital, structures on fire, throngs of screaming people, sky is swarming with flying ships, Saderan cavalry charging at the enemy's line only to be massacred by Britannian guns, a phalanx is marching and got blown to pieces by tanks, and thousands of flying Knightmares firing energy beam of black and red destroying all in their path. It is nightmarish thought with a high chance to become a reality.
The limo came to a halt, Pina snap from her thoughts as she looks out the window again, they're in a different area with soldiers, tanks, gunships and Knightmares all lined up. A royal guard opened the door and Pina carefully steps out along with her companions. "Where are we?"
"One of the four perimeter military bases. It's your lucky day; you're going to witness how the Britannian Military operates."
"You're allowing us to watch how you lead?" Pina asks, though it's not that uncommon for a representative to watch other leaders commanding their army.
"Schneizel stated that this for educational purposes, to make you understand us better." Lelouch started walking toward huge structure, Pina and Grey notices that it has wheels.
Without a word they followed the prince seeing many Britannians salute as he walks by, then a young woman approaches Lelouch whom Pina recognize as the same one who knocks down Panache. "Pardon me, your Highness, but what are these primitive savages doing here, I thought they're staying in their cells and be interrogated by intelligence agency." She said while glaring and the Saderans, looking as if she's about to strike.
"Calm down, Kallen, they are here as representative of their nation, they're not going to do anything stupid, and besides they know the penalty if they did." Lelouch reasoned with her though she doesn't like it and gave the Saderans a hateful glare then headed back to her Lancelot.
"What's her problem?" Bozes asks as she and the others come close to Lelouch and his guards.
Lelouch didn't answer for a minute as he head towards the G1 Mobile Base, and then told them of Kallen's family. "Her family were victims during the Battle of Los Angeles, your countrymen from the Fifth Legion storms their home and brutally kills everyone, they raped and stabbed her mother, beheaded her father, and her brother was impaled by a spear, she was very fortunate that she wasn't present in her manor at the time."
Pina, Bozes and Hamilton were horrified by this as they look at the leaving young Stadtfeld with sympathy, Grey knew that this kind of things happen quite often when they conquer a city and fully understand the girl's thirst for revenge, he doesn't condone such dishonorable acts himself and he would chastise his comrades if they defile a woman, sadly he can't enforce everyone in the army to maintain a clean honor.
Chapter End
AN: Chapter 9 is out, hope it's satisfactory. Also, Rakshata Chawla and the Guren-Type-02 are going to make an appearance on the next chapter, and I already decided the Knightmare's pilot, so here's a guessing game you all: who's going to pilot the Guren?