Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.
"The Viceroy herself has just confirmed to us that the attacking JLF forces failed to penetrate Yokohama's exterior defensive line. All enemy forces were annihilated in the battle thanks to the timely and outstanding efforts of our intelligence agencies." Diethard Ried reported to the world.
Lelouch shut off the news broadcast on his phone and turned his attention back to more pressing matters. Chief among them was how in the hell he was going to get out of this party. As it would turn out, Milly once again pushed the limits of crazy by suddenly forcing everyone to dress up in cat costumes. Unbelievable as it was, Kallen actually seemed to enjoy being dressed up in a pinkish red fuzzy suit with cat ears.
Kallen made a series of cute nyaa sounds as her sleeping form repositioned. She was laying over Lelouch, her head resting on the arm of the couch, and her legs stretched out across the rest of it. He looked over to his left to see CC in her expertly crafted disguise, a stack of empty pizza boxes next to her.
Lelouch leaned back and took in the moment, as awkward as it was to be at a cat costume party. If everything went even reasonably according to plan in the next few days, they would not be able enjoy one of Milly's insane parties for a long time. It would cause significant harm to the Ashford family to continue to house a known terrorist and her associates on their campus.
As he looked over toward his right, Lelouch made eye contact with Shirley on the other side of the room. As Lelouch and Kallen's relationship spread around the school, Shirley went into denial about it. It was something that she could simply not mentally accept. He smiled at the orange headed girl. Shirley's expression shifted to that of a deer in headlights when she noticed the sleeping Kallen holding on to him. She stared for a few second before lowering her head and turning away.
Lelouch thought of wiggling away from Kallen and going to talk to Shirley, but decided against it. Suzaku came over and sat down on the chair next to them.
"So how true was that news report?" Lelouch asked the knight in his plain Ashford uniform.
"Pretty accurate for once. Intelligence tipped us off almost a day before the attack, and we had a substantial number of extra forces hidden in the area. They didn't exaggerate when they used the word 'annihilated'." Suzaku confirmed to him.
"You won. Shouldn't you be happier about that?"
"It's just that I...I've never been ordered to kill like that before." Suzaku replied with a slight undertone of discomfort in his voice.
"You'll get used to it eventually." Lelouch told him.
"Sounds like you know that from experience, Lelouch."
"I never did go into all the details of what happened to us post invasion. I found myself pulling the trigger more times than I can easily remember." Suzaku looked at him as if he was trying to imagine Lelouch actually shooting someone. "Blood is an acquired taste." Lelouch paused for a second. "So I'm assuming she gave you a couple days off to get over it?" Lelouch explained.
"Just today. The Prime Minister is making an unannounced visit to the Shikinejima naval airbase with the rest of the Camelot development team in two days. As the Lancelot's pilot and as a member of the Special Engineering Corps, I have been ordered to attend." Suzaku informed.
"Maybe Schneizel's crazy mad scientists have cooked up some new toys for you to play with." Of course, Lelouch already had a few ideas as to what they might be testing out there.
"I doubt they have anything better than the Lancelot yet."Suzaku said.
"Who knows. With all the money Schneizel pours onto his special weapons projects, I wouldn't be surprised if they have something much scarier than your white knightmare." Lelouch added. Lelouch already knew the details of what Schneizel was coming over from Europe to test. The preliminary designs of a gigantic knightmare equipped with all sorts of experimental technologies was buried in the mass of data that Lloyd had sent him.
"I'll just have to wait and see then. I don't mind surprises, as long as they aren't shooting at me."
"So why were you pretending to sleep back there?" Lelouch inquired as Kallen walked out of the dressing room in her original Ashford uniform. In the back of his mind, Lelouch almost wanted to ask Milly if he could have that cat girl costume. Kallen could beat Euphemia in a cuteness contest with it.
"I was really sleeping. I didn't get any rest yesterday, and the hot shower I took made me tired." Kallen explained.
"I know. But you did wake up when I was talking to Suzaku."
I...I didn't want to talk to him. Not before this operation."
"Trying to disassociate yourself from him?" Lelouch guessed. "I didn't think you would care how betrayed he's going to feel, knowing where his loyalties are."
"I don't. Suzaku at school feels more like a friend than the enemy. On the battlefield he's the complete opposite." Kallen told him as they walked out the door into the cool air under the starlight.
"And you anticipated that he would try to connect the two?" Lelouch asked as he delved into his partner's thought process. Kallen nodded. "I'm glad to see you thinking ahead."
"If there's one thing I've learned from you, it's that there is no such thing as too many advantages." Kallen responded with a smile.
"Indeed." Lelouch turned to walk along a different path. "This way Kallen, we have one last thing to do here tonight." Kallen pushed back her fatigue as she turned to follow him across the courtyard.
Kallen was unsure of what was about to happen as they approached what was clearly the headmaster's office. She had heard all sorts of crazy stories about Milly's grandfather, many from Milly herself.
The sound of Lelouch knocking on the solid wooden door pulled her back to reality. A muffled voice came through the door in reply, calling them inside.
"Ah, Lelouch! What can I do for you tonight?" Ruben Ashford greeted as they walked inside. Kallen shut the door behind her and turned to see a rather huge and luxurious office. In the center of the picture sat the headmaster behind his large cherry desk.
"Records manipulation." Lelouch replied as they pulled up two chairs. Ashford's expression shifted to a more serious tone.
"Is it wise to be talking about such things in front of a guest?" Ruben asked with caution.
"Kallen is just as deep in this as I am. Her's is one of the records I need altered." Lelouch informed him.
"You want me to erase official school records? What kind of trouble are you in this time, Lelouch?"
"Even worse than the first time I asked you for help. It would probably be best if you did not know the details."
"Trying to keep me in the dark? I've technically been committing treason by protecting you and Nunnally all these years. " Ashford reminded him.
"Should anyone find out that you were conspiring with us now, the list of charges against you would stretch from here to Pendragon."
"I've already done enough to warrant a public execution. What could you two have done that could be worse that treason?" Ruben asked the pair.
"Quite a bit." Kallen added.
"Alright I get it. You don't want to tell me. I'll stop asking." Ashford accepted.
"It's more for your protection than mine. I don't want to see this school and your good name end up as collateral damage." Lelouch told him as he handed over a list of names."Everyone on that list either never attended this school, or transferred out months ago." Two names were circled in red ink at the top of the list. " Just remember that Lelouch and Nunnally Lamperouge never existed."
"When do you want all this done by?" Ashford asked.
"Before 6:00 PM tomorrow night. It will be too late after that."
"Would it be safe to assume that I should be watching the news tomorrow night?"
"To call what's about to unfold tomorrow breaking news would be quite the understatement." Lelouch added as he go up. "You should be able to piece it all together from the broadcast."
"Don't forget Lelouch, if you ever need help, you know where to come." Ashford reminded him.
"It was nice to meet you Mr Ashford." Kallen said as she also got up to leave.
"If only the circumstances were not as grim. I'm not sure I want to know how a pretty young lady like you got involved in this cloak and dagger routine." Ruben said.
"Don't worry. Maybe we can dinner sometime when we don't have to look over our shoulders ever other second."
"Yes, I would like that."
Diethard Ried sighed as he leaned his head back, shifting his vision away from the enormous pile of papers on his desk. He fished a small key out of one of his suit's inside pockets. The key fit into a small covered lock on the front of a small compartment hidden on the inside of the desk. With a fine metallic click, the wooden door dropped down to reveal the secret area.
Ried reached into the compartment and felt around. He passed the pistol, three spare magazines, a knife, and a large bundle of cash before grabbing the bottle of vodka in the back. Being caught drinking on the job wouldn't make his day any better, but dulling the grind of desk work would.. He twisted off the top and took a rather large gulp, ignoring the burn. Diethard barely finished putting the bottle back into his secret stash when the phone on his desk started ringing.
He took his time getting up from under the desk to answer it. He did not bother to check the caller ID.
"I told you, you'll have the list of questions for the next interview tomorrow." He instantly shot into the phone, thinking it was another of his producers calling him to get work rushed.
"And just what interviews might those be?" A cold, synthetic, and chillingly familiar voice asked him back.
"Zero?" Diethard asked in a state of near shock at hearing that voice again.
"I liked the way you reported my freeing of Kururugi that night. Also, your upfront style of interviewing tends to get peoples' attention. How would you like the opportunity of a lifetime tonight?" Zero asked the reporter.
"You are offering me the chance to interview you?" Ried asked as if someone had just offered him a million ton pyramid of solid gold.
"That would be pretty bland. An interview with me wouldn't reveal anything new and interesting. I want you to interview my two strongest knights, the champions of our revolution." Zero told him.
"The people need heroes that they can identify with."
"You catch on quick Diethard. Shinjuku Arena, south entrance, eight hours. Come alone. There will be a car waiting for you." Zero instructed the eager journalist.
"I'll be there Zero!"
Suzaku slowly turned his head to the right, taking in the view. The midday sun shone down from directly above him. Small, puffy white clouds dotted the otherwise perfectly blue sky that stretched for as far as the eye could see. It seamlessly met the endless expanse of calm blue ocean at the distant horizon. As the slightly salty breeze blew over him, memories of a calmer, peaceful time came back to him. The fact that the deck was unusually clear helped to enhance the effect.
The HMS Yorktown's flight decks were rarely this empty. Being one of only two Salisbury class assault carriers stationed in Area 11, there were almost always aircraft on operations.
Suzaku looked around and spent a few moments taking in the enormity of the ship he was sitting on. The Yorktown was a floating fortress, projecting the might of the empire wherever she sailed. And today they were sailing south to the Shikinejima naval airbase. Prime Minister Schneizel had personally requested the attendance of Suzaku and the Lancelot. From what Lloyd had told him, they were going to take part in some kind of technology demonstration and weapons test that involved the entire Camelot research division.
Suzaku looked out over the forward horizon and saw their island destination had appeared next to the forward pair of heavy railguns. He got up and proceeded to go back to the hanger to inspect the Lancelot. Being both a knight and a person of non Britannian origin, he anticipated that the Prime Minister's expectations would be very high, and Suzaku was not about to disappoint him.
Three hours later, the HMS Yorktown docked at Shikinejima's artificial harbor. Five other ships were present as well. Suzaku counted three destroyers and one cruiser. The last one was different however. The vessel was easily as long as the Yorktown, but much thinner. There were no visible accommodations for aircraft or land units on the ship. The first thing that really stood out to Suzaku were the unit's four gigantic diamond shaped turrets, one huge railgun, much larger than the Yorktown's, mounted in each. They sat two on each side of the central tower, the inner turrets raised above the outer ones.
The knight looked closer and identified a staggering number of defensive armaments. He lost count of the number of radar controlled CIWS turrets at two dozen, his attention stolen by what appeared to be large turret mounted mirrors.
"What is that? I've never seen a ship like it before." Suzaku asked Cecile as they drove their transport vehicle onto a large elevator for disembarking.
"That's an Albion class battleship, the HMS Snowdonia I believe. It's a brand new design." The scientist informed him.
"I thought that ships like the Yorktown were built to handle direct fire support. Why resurrect the battleship?"
"While in theory Salisbury assault carriers are capable of filling the same role, take a good look at the Yorktown. The main body of the ship is armored well enough, but the flight decks and control tower are vulnerable to attack. Now look at the Snowdonia's design. The entire ship is heavily armored, and very angular. There is nothing on board that would be a liability in a direct firefight. That ship was built to both give and take a tremendous amount of punishment." Cecile thoroughly explained.
The HMS Snowdonia began to come closer as the battleship moved to exit the harbor.
"What are those Cecile? They look like some kind of mirrors." Suzaku asked her as he pointed to one of the eight odd looking turrets.
"They look like some kind of search lights. I'm sorry Suzaku, but I'm not a real expert on the navy, I can just sound like one." Cecile admitted with a smile just before the elevator became level with the dock. Cecile drove the knightmare transport vehicle along the road up to the command center located on a hill at the north end of the harbor. Suzaku sat in the passenger seat, bathing in the golden light reflected off of the HMS Yorktown and the four smaller warships in port. Off in the distance he could still make out the HMS Snowdonia glowing in the evening sun. Suzaku looked forward as the vehicle stopped. An officer in a spotless uniform came over to greet them.
"Cecile Croomy, Camelot research team. I was told to look for Lieutenant Colonel Fayer." Cecile spoke to the officer from the window of the transport.
"I'm Lieutenant Colonel Fayer ma'am. You can park that thing over there." He pointed to a spot near the command center. Cecile parked the transport and all three of them climbed out to meet Fayer in person.
"Now I'm sure you've been told that I'm in charge of this base, and officially I am. But in reality it's General Adelbern calling the shots for the duration of her stay here." Fayer pointed down off the hill to a line of fourteen M118 MLRS mobile rocket artillery vehicles, unofficially nicknamed Grid Smashers for the level of devastation they could inflict upon an area, lined up in front of a four meter tall wall of reinforced concrete. All four of them looked down just in time to see the rocket launch bays raise up.
"Live fire exercise commencing in thirty seconds! All personnel are to report to their designated positions and safe zones!" The general ordered over the base's loud speakers.
"Well I guess your eyes are in for one hell of a treat this evening." Fayer remarked as they watched the MLRS units unpack their weapons from the hilltop.
"Artillery firing!" came blaring out of the loud speaker. A second later the distinctive whoosh of rocket fire filled the air. All fourteen of the MLRS units fired in unison, their rockets trailing dozens of white streaks out toward the sea. Lacking binoculars, Fayer ordered one of his men at the command center's door to hand him a scoped battle rifle. He increased the weapon's zoom to 8x and handed it to Suzaku.
"Take a look."
Suzaku accepted the rifle and rested it in the most comfortable position possible as he looked down the scope. Off in the distance sat the HMS Snowdonia, directly in the line of fire. Suzaku watched in awe as the CIWS turrets remained still, but the missiles began exploding as if someone had just commanded them to do so. As the smoke from the detonated rockets filtered down toward the Snowdonia, eight flashing beams of red light became visible. Kururugi shifted the sight up and left to see the beams connecting with and destroying the incoming ordinance with incredible efficiency.
"Are those lasers?" Suzaku and Lloyd asked at precisely the same time.
"The HMS Snowdonia had been outfitted with eight experimental tactical high energy laser turrets. We've been testing those things out all week. So far they are proving very effective against rockets, cruise missiles, and even aircraft. The Navy is hoping to replace those traditional CIWS gun turrets with these multirole laser systems. Tests on land have shown that they can even shoot down incoming artillery shells. It's a very promising defensive solution for our fleet." Fayer explained to the attendant Camelot team members.
"I thought the navy was tight on research funding these days. Who's backing them now?" Cecile asked.
"Princess Carine has taken an interest in some of the navy's projects recently. Unofficially, she rather likes the PR benefits of being able to say that she's the one looking out for the safety of our sailors. Especially since she needs to stay on their good side for her campaign in Spain." Fayer replied. Before Fayer could say anything else, the speaker on his earpiece came to life. " The Prime Minister's ship is inbound, ETA ten minutes."
Zero slid the door to the mobile command center open and stepped inside. He looked over to the main table and saw Jeremiah and Viletta, already wearing their full suits of body armor, going over a copy of blueprints for the Chiba Maximum Security Military Prison, more commonly known as the Cmax, with two other members of their assault squad. Zero glanced down at the paper to see that they had thoroughly mapped out infiltration and exfiltration points, patterns of movement, known choke points, and the location where the Guren was to use her radiation claw to break in. Each line on the sheet had a number written next to it. These were the estimated times that each movement should take to remain on schedule.
Zero looked over to his right to find Euphemia, wearing her spotless red and white pilot suit, typing away on a Toshiba laptop.
"Euphemia, come with me for a few minutes, I have a surprise for you." She looked up, puzzled by the idea of a surprise less than two hours before they were supposed to move out. She typed one last thing before shutting the computer and following her brother out of the vehicle.
"What is it?" The princess asked as she followed closely. Zero remained silent until they turned the corner past a row of black Burai frames and came face to face with it. Euphemia's Gloucester had been recolored black with pink highlights. The large golden lance was missing, twin swords attached to the back of the shoulders replacing it. Two assault rifles were attached to magnetic clamps, one on each leg. Upon the unit's left wrist was a large diamond shaped bracer, the edges appearing to be made of a green glassy substance. Attached to the sides of the cockpit were a pair of large triangular devices. The original cape hanging from the shoulders had been replaced with a black one, a silver Black Knights insignia in the center.
"Is that my Gloucester?" Euphemia asked, slightly awed by the significant remodeling.
"Stored within a large amount of Britannian weapons research data that I managed to acquire was a project called Benowyc. Benowyc is a prototype upgrade package for the Gloucester that incorporates technology battle tested on the Lancelot. With Nina's expert help and a few favors, I had the entire thing completed and constructed, just for you." Zero informed her. He noticed the visible smile on Euphemia's face as he continued to explain.
"The standard Gloucester that you acquired at Narita has been customized and enhanced. The lance has been replaced by a pair of Maser Vibration Swords, similar to the weapons that the Lancelot is armed with. Your left arm has been equipped with a Blaze Luminous energy shield, although it is weaker than the originals from the Lancelot due to the power constraints of the Gloucester frame. The Benowyc improvements won't make your frame a match for the Lancelot, but you will share many of its advantages."
"So it's like a weaker version of the Lancelot?" The pilot asked.
"Except for one of my own innovations." Zero pointed to the triangular shaped on the cockpit sides.
"What are those?" Euphemia wondered.
"Jump jets. Twin afterburning high powered jet engines almost allow your frame to fly. With those you can add additional acceleration on the ground, or perform jet assisted jumps in excess of one hundred meters."
"I've never seen anything like that before." She remarked. Lelouch put his gloved hand on her shoulder.
"Angels are supposed to have wings, Euphie. Until I can figure out how to make a knightmare fly, those will have to be a suitable replacement." She looked back at the masked figure with a renewed sparkle in her eyes. "Now go prepare yourself, it is almost time to go."
"I'm on it." Euphemia replied energetically.
"Where is it? I don't see any ships coming in to port." Suzaku observed as his eyes scanned the sea for Schneizel's ship. Fayer chuckled.
"I thought you guys would have known, since you've all worked for him for quite some time now." The lieutenant colonel said as he pointed to what initially appeared to be an arbitrary point in the sky. All three of them turned to look. Up in the sky they spotted something large moving under the clouds. Suzaku focused his vision on the aircraft. Instead of a common fixed wing transport aircraft, he saw something resembling a flying fortress. "The experimental flying battlecruiser, Avalon. It's the world's first combat airship. The Prime Minister recently started using it as his personal transport since it's technically the most secure aircraft in the empire."
"So they finally got the float systems working. What kind of other goodies did they put on it?" Lloyd asked the seemingly all knowing Fayer.
"Don't know sir, I've never actually seen the Avalon up close. I've been told that it's supposed to have 'significant combat power', whatever that actually means." Fayer told him.
"Could that be what he's coming to test?" Cecile wondered aloud.
"There has to be something else." Suzaku stated as if it were a known fact. "If all the Prime Minister wanted was a live fire test of a flying battlecruiser, why not do it in real combat against the EU?"
"In other words, you think it's something secret he doesn't want the Euros to see?" Fayer asked.
"We'll know soon enough." Lloyd stated as the noticably huge airship came in to land in a clearing just east of their position at the harbor's command center.
Diethard Ried turned left past the last building to reach the Shinjuku Arena's old parking lot at the south entrance. The reporter looked around the parking lot and saw nothing but a few isolated piles of rubble amid a sea of empty asphalt. For a second, he thought that the Black Knights might have set him up. He quickly decided that it was against their character to ambush an unarmed civilian, and discarded the idea before beginning his advance across the empty lot.
As he approached the entrance, a black car pulled out from a side street and went over a low curb onto the lot. The vehicle pulled up next to him just outside the entrance. The right back window came down a crack.
"Mr Ried?" A voice inquired from inside the vehicle. Diethard nodded at the window. The door opened to reveal an empty seat in the back.
"We've been expecting you. Get in." The voice commanded. Diethard stepped inside and sat down. He immediately noticed that this was not a normal car, but a very short limo. He sat down in what should have been the back seat, only to see another pair of rear facing seats across from him. Two visored Black Knights occupied the rear facing leather seats. The man on the left was holding a Britannian military issue assault rifle. The man on the right had his hands resting on an Italian made, 32 round drum fed automatic 12 gauge shotgun.
The door shut by itself, controlled remotely by the driver seperated from them by a sheet of armored glass. The man on the left put his rifle down next to his partner before coming closer. He drew some kind of rod like device from his uniform. The Black Knight hit a button on the rod and began to scan Diethard with the device, which emitted a constant audible tone. Seconds later, he completed the scan and went back to his seat before hitting a button on the space between the seats.
"He's clean. No explosive compounds or signal emitters." The man reported to the driver, who proceeded to start moving. The other man stepped forward.
"Sorry, but we are under strict orders to keep the location of our bases safe." He opened a compartment under the rear seat and produced a heavy black blindfold and a headset. "You'll be wearing these until we arrive." The guard blindfolded Diethard and told him to put the headphones on. The Britannian was instantly amazed by the level of noise reduction. Three seconds later the headphones turned on.
"I've seen the blueprints."
"Better than that, got em right here."
Grass in the field flattened away in all directions as the Avalon landed. The glow emanating from the flying battlecruiser's float systems faded away at the unit's landing gear gently met the ground below. With a metallic snap, the locking mechanisms disengaged, and a large section of the ship's underside opened as a ramp down to ground level.
A Gloucester was the first thing to come down the ramp. The unit was colored white with red highlights that looked like it was covered in blood spatter. As the Gloucester touched the grass, another , much larger figure appeared at the top of the ramp. A gigantic black knightmare began to descend from the ship. The unit's gold highlights gleamed in the setting sun. The unit's shoulders were large forward facing cones. Mounted on the knightmare's back was a dark red device with six thin limbs that protruded away from the center.
As Fayer and the Camelot members took in the sight of the knightmares moving toward them, General Adelbern and two other officers walked up beside them. The cockpit of the large black knightmare opened first, revealing a stepped two seat configuration, similar to the cockpit design of a Shortsword gunship.
Two lines came over the sides, carrying the occupants to ground level. The Gloucester's pilot disembarked seconds later to join them. All in attendance immediately recognized the man in the center as Prime Minister Schneizel. The other two, however, were not as well known to them. The ornate uniforms they wore bore the royal crest on the chest, signifying that they were people of immense importance. On Schneizel's right was a tall woman. Her space black hair and piercing blue eyes radiated an aura of commanding authority. Walking on the other side was a slightly shorter man wearing an identical uniform. His bright orange hair stood up as if he wore a crown of flames.
General Adelbern was the first to speak as they approached.
"Welcome to Area Eleven, your highness."
"It's good to finally be here. It feels nice to stand on solid ground again after flying to far." Schneizel commented as he took a look at the naval base in front of him. He turned to take in the view of the trees to his right and the ocean on his left, just as it swallowed the last sliver of the sun's disk.
"Excuse me, your highness, those are the uniforms of the Knights of Rounds, are they not?" Fayer asked the Prime Minister.
"Indeed they are." Schneizel motioned to the man on his left. "Allow me to introduce my assistants and personal escorts for my business here. This is Luciano Bradley, Knight of Ten." He then motioned to the woman on his right. "And this is Secilia Vasburg, the honorable Knight of Two."
"Judging from spotless purple and gold coat you are wearing, you must be the pilot of the Lancelot. Suzaku, right?" Secilia asked in a disturbingly calm and hauntingly beautiful voice. Suzaku nodded.
"Sir Kururugi Suzaku, my lord." Suzaku replied.
"Where is Viceroy Cornelia? I was expecting her to be here since she was impressed enough to knight one of my test pilots." Schneizel asked Suzaku.
"The Viceroy is currently at the Chiba maximum security facility. Kyoshiro Todou is set to be executed tonight, and she insisted on overseeing the execution." Suzaku explained.
"Overseeing an execution? That seems quite out of my sister's character."
"She anticipates that the Black Knights may try to stage a rescue mission to free him. Her highness is there to personally lead our defense, should she be right." the knight continued.
"That sounds more like the Cornelia I remember, her thirst for battle unquenchable." Schneizel remarked at hearing the real explanation. "You've fought them. Are these terrorists actually giving her as much trouble as I've been led to believe?"
"With respect, your highness, the Black Knights should not be grouped together with the rest of Area Eleven's resistance groups. While most of the other remaining resistance groups can be classified as traditional terrorists, the Black Knights resemble a professional army more than a terrorist insurgency. They are well funded, very well equipped, well trained, and extremely dedicated." Suzaku informed.
"Terrorists, professionals, whatever. They'll still bleed when I shoot them." Bradley remarked.
"Now now, vampire. This time your victims might not roll over and beg without a fight." Secilia taunted him with his nickname.
"Vampire?" General Adelbern asked.
"The Europeans call him 'The Vampire of Britannia', which is quite ironic considering I'm the only one of us that actually drinks blood."
"Because you are some kind of demon, Secilia." Luciano replied to her.
"Have I mentioned that I'm the only woman that the vampire refuses to sleep with? Last time I tried he said something about not sharing a bed with demons and monsters until he's the King of Hell."
"If you two don't mind, I would like to get started. General, are the preparations that I requested complete?" Schneizel interrupted them.
"Yes, your highness. We've set up the range you requested just north of the island's airbase."
Euphemia pushed in the key and typed out the nine digit authentication key. As she felt the hum of the Gloucester's start up process, she thought back to that day at Narita. It still felt slightly strange to know that she had killed the knightmare's former owner and pulled the blood covered key from his dead body. If she was even half the pilot that she was now back then, this battle would not be about to happen.
She looked to her right and saw the Guren powering up as well. Euphemia wondered how her sister felt when going through this exact same process. One of her screens lit up, breaking that line of thought. On the screen appeared Kallen, wearing an identical white and red pilot suit.
"Nervous, Euphie?" The ace asked her friend.
"Excited. This is the first battle I get to fight start to finish."
"You're lucky. I was scared my first time. The Britannians had this aura of invincibility. It really felt like I was about to take on the world." Kallen told her.
"I couldn't imagine you being scared. You're always so confident when you fight." Kallen smiled back at her.
On the other side of their gigantic warehouse base, Ougi noticed Naginata siege tanks being loaded into three trucks as he drove his Sutherland toward the base's main elevator.
"Why are we bringing siege tanks, Zero? I thought this was going to be a close quarters fight." The Black Knights commander asked his leader.
"It is going to be a very up close fight. The tanks are going to a different location to provide us with sniper support from long range. They won't be anywhere near the battlespace." Zero explained as three Burai frames loaded into the trucks with the tanks, one tank and one knightmare in each. Minutes later, all three of them descended the elevator down into the dark tunnels.
The three transport trucks drove up from an old subway entrance, the area widened by explosions from a previous conflict there. They turned on to a main road near the edge of the ghetto they surfaced in, and went east.
Twenty minutes later, they were moving one after another to the top of a nine floor elevated parking lot. As they reached the roof, the back doors opened and the Burai knightmare frames exited the vehicles. A quick look around showed that there were only a few vehicles parked this far up, in contrast to the congestion of the lower levels.
Three Naginata siege tanks rolled out from the transport trucks as their escort knightmares moved cars out of the way on the north side of the lot. The tanks pulled up to the north end of the roof and deployed their high powered railguns.
Three squads of infantry disembarked from the vehicles and took positions around the roof. They quickly unpacked their shoulder launched anti aircraft weapons. Once the shooting started, the most likely Britannian response would be some form of air attack, considering their distance of over 9600 meters from the main area of operations. The knightmare pilots knew this as well. One of the three Burai frames was equipped with an Archer SAM pack. The other two were equipped with customized 70mm fragmentation rounds for their assault rifle mounted grenade launchers, loaded with proximity fuses to increase the chance of damaging enemy aircraft.
In the eastern most tank, Inoue looked through her optics into the prison's courtyard, nearly ten kilometers away.
"Zero, we're in position and ready. From this angle I can see twelve Sutherlands in the courtyard, and a significant Britannian infantry presence on the walls. I can't distinguish whether they are MP's or regular military from this distance." Inoue reported to the Black Knights waiting much closer to the facility.
"Any sign of Cornelia?" Zero asked.
"Negative. But there are plenty of places in there that we cannot see from this angle." Inoue informed him.
"Maintain readiness and be prepared to open fire on my signal. Enemy knightmares take priority."
"Understood."
On the east wall of the courtyard, Sergeant William Rurik was slowly walking south toward a guard tower at the front of his four man patrol.
"You think we're really gonna get hit tonight? There's only four hours left until that Eleven gets executed." A man behind him, Private Turner, asked.
"It's getting pretty close. If they were gonna try and bust him out of here, I think they would have tried by now." Rurik replied to him.
"Still, I wouldn't let my guard down until the time's up and we're going home." A third member of the squad said.
"Yeah, you're right. The Black Knights have a reputation for doing all sorts of crazy shit as soon as you stop expecting it." Rurik noted. A second later, three flashes of light caught their attention off to the south.
"Hey Sarge, what was th-" The soldier's sentence was cut short by the deafeningly loud combination of sonic booms and explosions as extreme velocity railgun fire connected with Sutherlands in the courtyard below them. Three units were hit in the initial volley. One pilot ejected as his frame was cut in half at the waist. The other two weren't as lucky. The ultra hardened kinetic penetration rounds pierced their cockpit blocks, detonating the power supplies and triggering large explosions.
"Everybody down!" Rurik ordered to his squad as he hit his radio. "We're taking some kind of anti knightmare sniper fire from the south!" He yelled into the radio. Before he even finished talking, the Sutherlands in the courtyard began moving for hard cover to escape the lethal railgun fire.
"All forces commence attack!." Zero ordered his Black Knights, who were by this point intimately familiar with the operation's original battle plan. Those close to Zero knew that he frequently referred to a prearranged battle plan as 'the opening move'. This was the phase of the battle that he could simply order to be carried out, as it required very little real time adaptation. "Q2, clear the courtyard while our forces breach the walls."
"Understood, I'm going in." Euphemia replied. As the Black Knights broke cover to reach the south wall, Euphemia's upgraded Gloucester pulled ahead as she pushed the accelerator. She pulled the KAR 25 rifles from the magnetic clamps on her unit's legs and raised them before engaging her unique advantage. The custom Gloucester performed the knightmare equivalent of a running jump toward the wall. Jets of blue white fire erupted from her jump packs to propel her frame high into the air.
On the ground below, Britannian forces were stunned to see a Gloucester fly up into the sky before the southern wall. Euphemia engaged her rifles and took aim at two side by side Sutherlands in front of her. 25 mm rifle fire streamed down, tearing the exposed units apart and forcing the pilots to eject.
As she landed inside the courtyard, other enemy Sutherlands opened fire with their own assault weapons. The black Gloucester's left arm came up and activated the unit's lone energy shield as the right arm returned fire. Euphemia closed the distance as her shield absorbed incoming fire. Just as the shield strength indicator dropped under 30%, she disengaged the shield, opening fire with both rifles and her unit's slash harkens.
Two of the Britannian units fell, but the third was saved thanks to its police issue riot shield. Q2 wasted no time as she reactivated the energy shield, placed her right arm's rifle back on its clamp, and drew an MVS broadsword from the Gloucester's shoulder. The Britannian's fire ate away at the shield integrity, but it was simply not enough firepower to break it in time. He brought up his large metal riot shield in an attempt to block the incoming sword, but it was of no use. Euphemia's glowing red blade effortlessly sliced through the plate of metal, and then through the Sutherland behind it.
She turned to engage other targets in the courtyard.
Viceroy Cornelia powered up her Gloucester on the other side of the facility. She was joined by Guilford's Gloucester and several Sutherlands as they raced to the unfolding battle. A desperate sounding transmission came from a Sutherland pilot at the scene.
"This enemy Gloucester can fly! It's got a fucking energy shield, we cant touch it! They're breaking through the walls!"
Cornelia became alarmed at the report of another advanced enemy knightmare. It would be a serious challenge to deal with just the red one.
The two Gloucesters turned the last corner into the south courtyard, just in time to see a railgun shot from a distant Naginata disintegrate the top of a watch tower. One of the Sutherlands behind her opened fire upon the lone Gloucester at the other end of the open ground. They were all astonished to see it activate a Blaze Luminous shield and leap into the air.
Their attention was diverted by an explosion on the wall to their right. The Black Knights had penetrated the wall with a combination of shaped charges and the Guren's radiation surge. Said red knightmare was the first unit to charge forth from the dust and smoke, followed closely by a dozen other black knightmares.
Chaos reigned as another squad of Britannian Sutherlands reinforced from the other end of the courtyard. The hot metal to air ratio increased significantly as both sides exchanged fire in all directions.
Cornelia dodged to the left as the airborne black Gloucester rained fire down on her. As her enemy landed, she brought up her rifle and returned fire. Euphemia raised her left arm and blocked the fire with her shield as she charged forward. The Viceroy's heart sank as she saw her enemy's twin swords begin to give off a red glow. She was one of the few people who truly understood the power of MVS technology. Cornelia had personally witnessed Suzaku's own twin glowing swords slice through everything from knightmares to tanks with unbelievable efficiency. Sword met golden lance as their duel unfolded in the center of the swirling chaos of the courtyard.
Flying high above the combat zone, a white HiTV news aircraft aimed its cameras down upon the prison's courtyard. The unit's stabilized ultra high resolution forward mounted camera swept across the battlefield, bringing the fight live to millions of viewers around the world. Among them happened to be the crew of the Avalon, over 100km to the south.
Three hundred meters away from the landed airship stood Prime Minister Schneizel, the base commanders, and Camelot team members as they observed the first field trials of the Gawain technology demonstration knightmare. General Adelbern's headset crackled to life as the Avalon contacted her. She put her hands up to her head and covered the headset as she tried to hear over the noise of the Gawain's incomplete, although still powerful primary weapons.
The forward facing cone shoulders split open, revealing the unit's primary weapons, magnetically directed plasma cannons, known as Hadron Cannons. The weapons' magnetic shaping systems were incomplete, and thus unable to concentrate the superheated plasma into a coherent beam at long range. In it's current form they acted more like shotguns, spraying dozens of small plasma blasts over a conical area approximately 30 degrees in front of the knightmare.
As the firing stopped, the general tapped Schneizel on the shoulder and began to inform him of what was happening.
"Your highness, we are receiving reports from Chiba that the Black Knights are attacking the prison Sir Kururugi mentioned earlier in force." She received another transmission and immediately pulled out her phone. A few touches on the screen later, and the general had a live stream of the unfolding battle in the southern courtyard on her small screen. She handed the phone to the Prime Minister. "Viceroy Cornelia is currently engaged by some kind of heavily modified enemy Gloucester."
"It would appear that Sir Kururugi was spot on about the Black Knights being more than ordinary terrorists. That knightmare is definitely equipped with a modified version of our Benowyc Gloucester upgrade developed by Camelot. I'm slightly concerned that they not only managed to steal and construct it, but enhance it as well." Schneizel pointed out.
Less than ten minutes later, the test operations had been canceled, the knightmares loaded onto the Avalon, and the airship had taken off toward the battle zone.
On the ground in Chiba, Viceroy Cornelia couldn't have cared less that the whole world was watching her fight. She was being pushed to the edge of her abilities as a knightmare pilot. Her enemy's technological advantage was very significant. Just one good hit from one of those MVS swords would be enough to cripple her Gloucester, while the enemy's energy shield and jump jets gave her a much larger margin of error. Cornelia could not afford to make a single mistake, while her opponent could use her frame's superior equipment to recover from all but the most serious mistakes. Given the clearly high skill level of the pilot, Cornelia knew that she was unlikely to get that lucky.
Sparks showered down upon the concrete ground below as Cornelia parried another downward slash from her opponent's MVS sword. Her golden lance was the only thing she had that was tough enough to make sustained contact with an MVS blade, but each hit was wearing down the lance's integrity. The once smooth and shiny weapon was by now rough and blackened as the swords burned and sliced it with each defended strike.
The Viceroy did however have one crucial advantage over her enemy, combat experience. From the way her opponent was fighting, it was clear to her that they were very skilled in the art of knightmare combat, but they lacked the finesse of a veteran soldier. The only real reason that she could maintain an engagement against such an opponent for a long time was that she understood that a pilot that relied on intensive training fought in the most effective and efficient ways possible. This narrowed down the variety of their likely moves enough to give her a chance.
Cornelia was correct in her evaluation. Euphemia was a naturally talented, and highly trained knightmare pilot. She had become an expert in how to attack, defend, and utilize battlefield tactics, but she had little experience in actual fighting, where a battle of the minds was often just as important as physical conflict.
The Viceroy's royal purple Gloucester thrust her lance straight forward, intent on forcing the enemy to parry. As expected, her opponent utilized both swords to very effectively stop the thrust. In the split second when she could not defend against it, Cornelia launched her slash harkens into the assault rifle stored on the enemy Gloucester's right leg. The weapon exploded as the harkens ripped into, and detonated the magazine. The explosion caused moderate damage to the knightmare's right side.
Half a second later, a burst of red light off to the side caught her attention. Cornelia glanced over to Guilford's lance being boiled away by the Guren's radiation surge claw. He had attempted to parry a swipe of the incredibly sharp silver claw. When he blocked it, Kallen simply gripped the lance and fired her nuclear pulse emitter. The extreme blast of heat and radiation literally began to melt Guilford's weapon.
Cornelia glanced at her tactical map to survey the situation. With the ace pilots of both sides engaging each other, the regular forces had been fighting their own battle. Knightmare against knightmare, the Britannians were winning. This was certainly not another Narita. There had been no massive surprise attack to cripple their command structure. Britannian forces were doing what they did best, engage enemy units in direct combat.
And the reason for this was simple, Zero did not commit the entirety of the Black Knights' military force on this one attack. This was not supposed to be another set piece battle to show off to the world. At heart, the Black Knights' operation was a prison break, and a squad of elite Black Knights infantry were making it happen.
As the battle raged outside, most of the prison's security force had armed themselves with anti armor weapons and had moved out on to the walls to engage the attacking knightmares. Those that remained inside were not prepared for hardcore CQB.
Jeremiah Gottwald snaked a fiber optic camera around the corner as his squad stacked up against the wall behind him. The micro camera was linked to a screen in his helmet, allowing him to see if they were about to turn into an empty hallway, or prepared kill zone. He spotted a number of heavily armed Britannian soldiers on alert at the other end, covered three directions at once. He motioned to Viletta and his machinegunner, Kai.
Viletta produced a flashbang grenade and passed it forward. Kai readied his dual drum fed light machine gun. Connected to the barrel was a similar fiber optic camera device to what Jeremiah had, allowing Kai to effectively shoot around corners without exposing himself to enemy fire. Jeremiah popped the plastic cap, and pushed in the button on the flashbang, activating the four second fuse. He tossed the grenade around the corner with a series of metallic clank sounds as it bounced off the wall.
The device detonated, stunning four of the six enemy soldiers as intended. Kai put the barrel of his weapon around the corner and placed the crosshairs on his screen over the left most enemy. He squeezed the trigger, sending a burst of nine rounds, three of them tracers, sailing down the hallway and cutting through the intended target. Two of the rounds caught the man in the neck and overpenetrated, hitting the Britannian soldier behind him.
"Suppressive fire!" Jeremiah ordered as the team moved up. Kai send a torrent of hot metal down the hall, forcing the enemies to take cover in adjacent hallways. One of the blue uniformed Britannians popped out to fire back, but he was not fast enough. Jeremiah fired first, and four rounds impacted. Two were stopped by body armor, but one hit him in the neck, another through the right eye.
As Jeremiah moved up the right side, Viletta took the left. They each covered a different hallway as they advanced. They suddenly heard the familiar sound of a frag grenade being armed in the left hallway. Jeremiah flipped the safe off of his assault rifle's attached 40mm grenade launcher and quickly fired a low velocity high explosive grenade into the left hall. The resulting explosion was immediately followed up by a secondary detonation from the active hand grenade.
They moved up to cell number 304. Inside was their primary target, Kyoshiro Todou. Jeremiah quickly got to work cutting through the lock while the rest of the squad covered the area. Viletta placed an xray emitter on an exterior wall ten meters from cell 304. Less than a minute later, the wall at that spot caved in as the Guren blasted through it. An APC pulled up to the breach, its autocannon firing away toward enemy Sutherlands on the other end of the courtyard. Jeremiah and his team loaded Todou, still severely disoriented by point blank flashbang detonation, on to the vehicle along with themselves. The hatch closed and they began to move.
Euphemia pushed herself harder as the battle continued to rage all around her. Even though both she and her sister were fighting extremely well, neither of them had actually inflicted significant damage upon the other. Cornelia's lance was all but wrecked from Euphemia's constant assault. But her Gloucester's right arm had become sluggish after the assault rifle had exploded.
Blue and Black knightmares continued to trade fire on the west side of the courtyard. A combined 31 knightmares had been destroyed in the engagement, with 23 pilots successfully ejecting. The Naginata tanks ten kilometers distant were keeping the outnumbered Black Knights even with the Britannian forces. Their sniper support was the deciding factor in preventing the blue units from breaking through.
Cornelia began to feel the weight of inevitability sink in as she finally understood Zero's plan. The enemy Gloucester was keeping her engaged while the red knightmare cleared out the courtyard. Almost all of the other Black Knights' knightmares, along with their sniper support, had been tasked with holding back her reinforcements while they rescued Todou.
Despite her knight Guilford's most heroic and valiant efforts, he was no match for the silver clawed monster. His frame lay crippled on the ground, its arms, head, and left leg having been destroyed. Cornelia almost laughed at her seemingly inevitable fate as she realized that this was the second time that her direct orders had kept her greatest weapon out of the fight when it was needed most. It dawned upon her that she was most likely going to die, for exactly the same reason that her sister did.
Her knightmare was still almost fully functional, but she was trapped in the open between two enemy pilots with superior machines and equal or better skill levels. They both stood close to her, as if predators just waiting for the order to strike. An incoming transmission alert blinked, and Zero's mask appeared on her screen.
"Checkmate." Cornelia said in an uncharacteristically cold voice, the fire and aggression having drained away from her. "At least now I can die knowing that I stole the words right out of your mouth."
Zero laughed in response. He snapped his fingers and music began playing over the comm link. Her brain identified it as "The Light Before We Land", the same song that had been playing the last time she had faced her brother Lelouch across a chess board eight years earlier. She had been decisively beaten when her king had been trapped by a black queen and a black knight. The symbolic act was almost overwhelming to her.
Both knightmares surged forward. Cornelia turned to parry the incoming slash of the Guren's claw with what remained of her lance. The radiation blast that followed disintegrated the remainder of the weapon, leaving her all but helpless against the twin MVS blades coming up behind her. One blade sliced through her Gloucester's left arm, the other cutting through the front of her cockpit block, severing the fuses for the ejection rockets.
Cornelia fired her remaining slash harken, only for it to be effortlessly deflected by the Guren's left handed dagger. The silver claw lunged forward, grabbing on to the front of her frame. She felt an impact, followed by a metallic screeching sound as the Gloucester behind her forcibly tore the cockpit from her frame.
The remaining Black Knights deployed a heated smokescreen as they retreated to prevent Britannian units from using thermal sighted weapons on their backs.
Zero surveyed the results of the battle as they drove back down into the blackness of the old subway system. The Black Knights had lost 13 knightmares in less than a half hour, far more than anticipated. Every one of their frames, with the exception of the three guarding the Naginata tanks, had taken some level of damage. The six Britannian gunships sent to take out the tanks were shot down by SAM missiles before they had the chance to engage. 20 Britannian knightmares had fallen in the engagement, eleven of them from the Naginatas' accurate railgun fire. His primary objectives had been completed to perfection. Todou had been rescued from an otherwise certain death. Viceroy Cornelia had been defeated, thanks in no small part to his daring application of Geass.
As he removed his mask, Lelouch felt uncertain about the future. The last time he had defeated a Britannian leader, he had been replaced by someone far more capable. Lelouch felt a pang of rage as he suddenly understood that he was indirectly doing his father's dirty work. By defeating Cornelia he was fulfilling the unofficial Britannian motto that "only the strong survive." Whoever replaced Cornelia would almost certainly be even more powerful in some way. Barely twenty five minutes after his victory, Lelouch realized that he would either have to beat Britannia at its own game, or find a way to change the rules. A few seconds of thinking later, he decided on the one option he was sure they would never expect. He would find a way to do both.