Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.
The Britannian Army units surrounding the Nerima ghetto area had been in combat against resistance units for nearly a week. During this time, their main opposition consisted of light infantry fighters, remote controlled car bombs, and a few old tanks hidden in the ruins. The majority of Japanese resistance units in and around the Tokyo area had been all but depleted of heavy armor and knightmare frames from years of conflict. What they did have was an abundance of brave and determined soldiers willing to die for the cause. But just as in the First Pacific War, bravery and determination were not proving to be an effective substitute for world class training and huge quantities of modern weapons and vehicles. The end result was that the Britannian Army was effortlessly demolishing all opposition with very few losses.
Based upon years of combat experience, Viceroy Secilia had employed her revised combined arms tactics with excellent results. Tanks and similar armored vehicles formed the solid core which mobile knightmare units operated around. The Britannian military was finally beginning to understand that knightmare frames were not the all encompassing wonder weapons they were originally touted to be, but an excellent addition to existing armored warfare, and Secilia was the first to build a set of new tactics to exploit this. Along with air support to find targets and provide supporting fire, every unit type covered each others' weaknesses like a medieval shield wall. The Japanese rebels had no way to effectively counter and were taking very heavy casualties.
Facing such a combat ineffective enemy had put the Britannian forces into a classic pitfall for powerful attacking armies. Overconfidence, magnified by their widespread racist view that they were inherently superior, came on strong. So when dozens of hostile knightmare frames, exponentially more combat power than anything they had faced over the last week combined, launched a brutal surprise attack from outside their containment line, the first units to make contact were simply evaporated as if they weren't even there.
Despite the raw power of the initial strike, Britannian forces were quick to regroup and mount an organized defense of the ghetto they had been attacking into only moments earlier. Following Zero's battle plan, the Black Knights did not attempt to smash through the newly forming defensive line, instead engaging from medium range and with cover. Believing their enemy to be hesitating, the Britannians launched a counter attack in an attempt to crush the assault.
On the other side of Nerima, Bradley would have jumped with excitement if he wasn't strapped into his cockpit. This was the moment he was waiting for, a chance to finally test the infamous Black Knights in combat. He turned his bone white and red spattered Gloucester away from the machine gun nest he was firing at, and sped right toward the unfolding battle.
Unfortunately for the Knight of Ten, his thirst for battle overpowered his tactical judgment, and he found himself taking an overwhelming volume of fire from six black Burai frames mere moments after reaching the edge of the battle space. Bradley activated his Gloucester's single Blaze Luminous shield and launched both of his slash harkens toward the top of a building to his left, all while doing his best to dodge or deflect most of the incoming rifle fire.
The slash harkens anchored effectively into the upper floor of the structure, and he retracted them at full power to gain a height advantage. As he was ascending to the rooftop, Bradley launched a chaos mine at the enemy knightmares down the road.
Because it was hard to distinguish from the chunks of falling debris knocked off by their rifles, the Black Knights in the road did not see the device until the casing split off as it prepared to fire. The initial charges activated and started a five second torrent consisting of hundreds of armor piercing stacked projectiles. Four Burais at the edge of the weapon's cone of fire took damage from multiple hits, but much like a shotgun blast, the individual projectiles were too small to cause significant destruction without a large volume of impacts.
He reached the top of the building and turned back to re engage from above, but saw the slightly damaged enemy knightmares retreating. Bradley laughed as he saw the Burais turn a corner and go out of sight at the end of the road. He thought they were running scared. What he would realize in about two seconds was that they were simply getting out of the way.
The Gloucester's impact alert went off, indicating that something was on a collision course at high speed from directly behind him. Bradley turned and just barely had enough time to bring his left arm's shield up before a huge metal claw with a glowing palm crashed into the green barrier at high speed. The force of the impact knocked his knightmare from the building's roof.
It was only then that he got a good look at the unit that had ambushed him. The Knight's eyes followed the claw, up the arm, and to the unique red frame behind it. He instantly recognized his attacker from the recorded footage of the battle at Chiba. The Black Knights' ace, armed with their most powerful knightmare frame. He suddenly remembered what the real function of that large silver claw arm was, but it was already too late to do anything about it.
The red light he saw in the weapon's palm suddenly exploded outward. The immense heat and radiation instantly popped his energy shield like a bubble in a bath tub, before burning into the left arm. Fortunately for Bradley, the force of two frames hitting the ground after a 40+ meter fall was enough to knock the enemy unit off him before the concentrated nuclear blast could melt through his left arm.
Bradley quickly drew the dual MVS blades his unit was equipped with, each sword glowing red as they activated. The Guren lunged forward, attempting to slash him with the claw. The Gloucester parried the attack with a sword, before trying to back out of range of the radiation surge weapon.
Seeking to buy time, Bradley fired his remaining two chaos mines and launched his slash harkens toward the Guren. He expected her to move back and evade the mines, but what happened next could only be described as unbelievable.
The Guren dodged both slash harkens and simultaneously caught both of the wires between the blades of her left hand's forked dagger, while firing a radiation surge at one of the chaos mines, effectively creating a shield that would vaporize the projectiles before they reached her frame. With both of the Gloucester's slash harkens captured, she reversed and pulled with the left arm with enough force to yank Bradley toward her.
The white and red Gloucester was pulled to her, just as the chaos mines' outer casings broke away. With her radiation surge blocking the second one, she dragged the Gloucester directly into the chaos mine's kill zone. Realizing what was about to happen, and facing certain destruction from his own weapon, Bradley desperately tried to use his MVS to sever the slash harken wires and escape the trap. His opponent had other ideas, however. The autocannon on the Guren's left wrist spit short bursts of fire as explosive shells quickly moved to prevent him from slashing the wire with flawless accuracy. Over a dozen rounds detonated on each of the Gloucester's hands in rapid succession, blasting the swords from his grip.
The chaos mines unleashed their barrage, and just as Kallen wanted, her Guren was protected by the continuous crimson explosion while Bradley's trapped Gloucester was shredded by hundreds of armor piercing projectiles. Out of options and taking critical damage, the Gloucester's cockpit block automatically ejected out of the rain of metallic death just seconds before the unit exploded.
Cornelia kept her Gloucester close behind the custom Gekka prototype in front of her as they moved into the shelled out ruins of a derelict office building. Before the battle, Euphemia had taken the prototype Gekka and gave her Gloucester with its English controls to her sister, who despite her best efforts was proving to be terrible at language learning. Euphemia's new knightmare was faster, stronger, and more agile than the older Gloucester, but lacked the Benowyc's powerful defensive measures and jump jets.
Regardless of her orders, Cornelia's first priority was to protect her sister. She suspected that Lelouch was aware of this when he changed the Zero Squad's command structure to a hierarchy, and placed her as the third member, under Euphemia's direct command.
From the north end of the building, a Panther tank and two Sutherlands were moving up the adjacent road, firing at distant targets the pair couldn't see from their position as they went. Euphemia's heated chain sword hummed to life as it activated. The weapon's teeth began to glow a bright orange with heat as they moved around the blade at high speed. Cornelia followed along and drew the right MVS from her shoulder.
"Take down the Sutherlands first." Euphemia instructed as they prepared to attack.
Euphemia's prototype Gekka burst forth from its concealed position just as the Britannian units were moving past. She brought up both of the knightmare's arms, and opened fire with the unit's twin wrist mounted rifles. A 2 to 3 mixture of armor piercing and high explosive 25mm shells quickly closed the distance. The Panther tank's 20mm turret mounted secondary gun was instantly destroyed as the streams of fire connected, before shifting onto the forward Sutherland.
The Gekka's cannons ripped through the enemy knightmare as she closed the gap to engage the tank at melee range. Cornelia's Gloucester followed closely behind her sister's attack, targeting the rear Sutherland. Her glowing red MVS broadsword slashed forward at the enemy knightmare, who attempted to block the attack with his lance. Unfortunately for him, the smaller silver colored lances provided to Sutherlands were inferior in every way to their larger golden colored counterparts. The MVS blade met resistance as it collided with the silver lance head, but the material quickly failed, allowing the sword to easily cut through the Sutherland's armor before detonating the Core Luminous with a large explosion.
She turned around just in time to see her sister's chain sword tear into the Panther's turret, killing the crew and rendering the severely damaged vehicle harmless. Even in its minimally equipped and unfinished state, Cornelia admired the effectiveness of the Gekka. To her knowledge, Britannia had no real plan to replace the Sutherland in the near future, instead focusing on the development of powerful experimental technologies. Unlike the Lancelot or Gawain, the Gekka was much more suited for mass production. She marveled at the thought that the Empire may actually lose its technological advantage on the battlefield for the first time in nearly a century. After all, a few ultra powerful experimental units would not be able to singlehandedly defeat entire armies by themselves.
The Gloucester followed the prototype Gekka away from the wrecks of their first three kills, into what appeared to be the decaying central courtyard of an old office park. Seven black Burai frames were retreating through the area, attempting to dodge incoming fire from four Panther tanks and five enemy Sutherlands that were slowly but steadily advancing forward. The two new arrivals rushed forward to attack the left flank of the enemy formation. Sensing an opportunity to put this new ability of hers to use, Cornelia's right eye lit up and bathed the Gloucester's cockpit in a faint crimson glow.
Just over 200 meters away from her Gloucester, the outgunned Black Knights felt the power of Absolute Inspiration wash over them. At this range, the effect was quite powerful. With new found confidence, they turned and launched a counter attack, sending bursts of HE and AP rounds streaking into the Britannian units as they advanced.
As the Sutherlands and the Panthers' secondary gunners attempted to fight off the Gekka and Gloucester at close range, the tanks turned their powerful 130mm main cannons on the Burais. Blasts of smoke and fire erupted from the ends of the five meter long weapons. Two of the Burai pilots managed to dodge the shells, but with the range quickly closing, two others hit their targets. One Burai took a direct hit in the waist, the shell's massive kinetic energy tearing it in half and forcing the pilot to eject. A second Burai was hit square in the chest, detonating the power supply and causing the frame to disintegrate in a violent explosion.
The Panthers attempted to reload, but they did not have the five seconds required to do so. The Burais were upon them, ripping through the tanks' weak spots at point blank range with slash harkens and a lance taken from a downed Sutherland.
Cornelia's Absolute Inspiration effect also touched her sister, who lashed forward at the nearest Sutherland with her chain sword. The Britannian knightmare's right arm was severed instantly by the vicious slash. Euphemia quickly pulled the KAR 25 rifle from the destroyed arm and unloaded on the damaged Sutherland, as well as the one behind it with a total of three combined streams of 25mm fire from close range. The devastating volume of accurate fire easily burned through their blue armor, forcing ejections from the pilots. She turned to fire upon the last Sutherland, but eased her finger from the trigger button as she saw the red glow of an MVS blade slice her target into three pieces.
They surveyed the status of the unit they had helped. Five Burais remained with various levels of combat damage. Two of them had sustained minor damage from enemy rifle rounds. Two other Burais were in worse shape, with damaged factspheres and inoperable light machine guns in addition to missing pieces of armor. The fifth was still standing, but barely operational. Its left arm had been completely blown off from just above the elbow, and large gashes were visible along the torso with the occasional electrical arc dancing across the gaps.
Zero observed the status of the battle from the cockpit of his Gekka, issuing orders and directing the flow of combat. His forces were taking some casualties, but had not suffered any major losses yet, likely due to the absence of many high end Britannian units. Kallen had engaged and forced an ejection from a white and red Gloucester with a skilled pilot, but it was currently unknown who had actually been behind the controls. The Four Holy Swords had also reported destroying three standard enemy Gloucesters in close combat, but it was clear that they were not the Glaston Knights. Neither Viceroy Secilia's Gawain or Suzaku's Lancelot had been sighted either, leading him to suspect that something out of the ordinary was happening.
He looked closer at the real time force deployment map and saw Q2 and Q3 assisting the P6 squad in cleaning up a group of Britannian knightmares and tanks. A spark of curiosity hit him, and Lelouch checked the data from Cornelia's Gloucester. The system showed him that she had multiple confirmed kills and over a dozen combat assists.
An unexpected priority alert on the Gekka's main display knocked him out of this train of thought. Three Black Knights' Burais in a forward elevated position had reported that the Gawain was inbound at high speed from central Tokyo. Zero used his Gekka's slash harken to reposition to a better vantage point on a nearby building. He looked southeast and saw the large black and gold knightmare flying toward Nerima, the six pronged flight unit on its back emitting a bright red glow.
Just as Zero finished ordering a missile strike on the Gawain, the Gekka's main screen pinged another alert, this time picked up by his unit's own sensors. A red marker appeared over the Viceroy's Palace at the top of the Britannian government building in the center of the city. A smaller window appeared over it and zoomed to 12x magnification, showing that the Avalon had taken off from the roof and was also inbound. Sensing that the situation was most likely about to get very bad very fast, Zero quickly checked the status of the transport convoy and saw that they were only four minutes out from their target distance.
Zero's assessment had been spot on. Instead of being on the front lines, the Viceroy was instead occupied with business at the palace. When the initial reports of massive enemy contact started flooding in, she was sitting in a meeting with a dozen government officials and Prime Minister Schneizel. When an officer interrupted their arguing to inform her of the attack, she was visibly furious at being denied the chance to fight her real enemy because of politics. She got up and ran out of the room and toward the elevator to the roof at blazing speed, plowing right through an unlucky servant that happened to be in her way.
Schneizel decided to follow her, although not nearly as fast, figuring that this would be an excellent opportunity to give the Avalon a field test under real combat conditions. He radioed the crew and ordered them to prepare the airship for combat as he also left the room, and the angry government officials, behind. He arrived at the garden on the roof a full three minutes later to board his airship.
By the time the Avalon was taking off, Secilia's Gawain was already approaching the battle. She immediately took control of the situation, fully utilizing her knightmare's powerful command and control systems. Despite suffering heavy initial losses from the Black Knights' surprise attack, Suzaku had managed to effectively stabilize the battle to form a defensive line, and then he attempted to counter attack. She took a moment to admire the man's natural talent for warfare. Most other Britannian commanders would have crumbled under the devastating sneak attack, but Suzaku had managed to hold the line, although just barely. Even though he was technically losing before she assumed command, the fact that he had risen from being just another Number to leading a Britannian army in battle with moderate effectiveness was a truely extraordinary accomplishment.
Her mind snapped back to the battle at hand as her knightmare flew over friendly forces and directly toward the enemy. The Viceroy immediately came under fire from three Burai frames on the street below, two hugging the buildings with the last one in the center of the road as they fired their rifles skyward. Secilia attached the Gawain's five right hand finger slash harkens to a set of slots at the bottom of her scythe's shaft. She twisted the right arm back, before swinging it downward and firing all five slash harkens simultaneously. The glowing red MVS scythe rocketed down toward the ground at high speed. The huge weapon came flying down the middle of the street street toward the center knightmare, blade first. The scythe blade sliced clean through the left half of the Burai, forcing an ejection just a second before the frame exploded.
As the scythe was pulled back into place by the five retracting slash harken tethers, the Gawain's shoulders split open to reveal the glow of fully charged Hadron Cannons. Just as she was about to fire at the two remaining Burais in the road below, missile lock alerts blared through the unit's large cockpit.
A kilometer to the north, several more enemy knightmares had launched a volley of Archer surface to air missiles at her airborne unit from the top of a derelict tower. Faced with the prospect of being shot down by the ten rapidly closing missiles, she turned the Hadron Cannons on them instead, launching twin beams of superheated plasma to intercept. She manually guided the beams over the paths of the Archers, the extreme heat evaporating them without detonations.
Four kilometers behind the Gawain, Prime Minister Schneizel saw the missiles launch from the bridge of the Avalon. He turned to the airship's primary weapons operator.
"Charge the Avalon's main cannon and fire a shot at full power. Target that building's fifth floor on the east side and bring it down." Schneizel ordered calmly.
"At once, your highness!" The finely dressed officer happily replied, eager to actually fire the massive weapon she had spent the last three months training to operate. She entered a simple firing solution as the capacitors reached 100% charge. Electricity arced through the Avalon's massive forward railgun as it prepared to fire. She looked back at the Prime Minister with a smile, her finger hovering near her joystick's trigger. Schneizel nodded and weapons operator held down the red safety button and squeezed the trigger.
With an effective range in excess of 300 kilometers, the destructive power of a 310mm railgun with a 23 meter long barrel at a distance just short of five kilometers was nothing short of incredible. A huge blast of blindingly bright plasma erupted from the front of the weapon, accompanied by a deafening hypersonic scream as the ultra hardened projectile lanced forward with barely imaginable speed. The shot left a faintly visible trail of plasma behind it as it slammed into the lower section of the tower with enough kinetic energy to literally disintegrate three floors in either direction from the point of impact with a massive explosion. As the building crumbled, the Black Knights' units near the top scrambled to escape their impending doom. Two of the Burais managed to jump to safety with the assistance of their slash harkens to adjacent buildings. The remaining three pilots simply ejected, seeing no other way out.
The extreme sound and vibration generated by the Avalon's railgun and its effect on target could be clearly felt on the other side of Tokyo. If there was anyone in the city that did not know that a battle was underway, they certainly did now.
The railgun shot did exactly what Schneizel had intended. The entire tower came crashing down to earth, spawning a huge cloud of dust and debris that washed over the immediate area. But it was not enough to conceal where the remaining two knightmares had jumped over to. Slots on the top of the Avalon slid open to reveal four turrets, each equipped with three cylindrical rocket pods. They turned and unleashed a hellish high explosive barrage on the two adjacent buildings, showering the roofs and upper floors with dozens of unguided rockets.
The crew of the Avalon tried to confirm if they had hit their targets, but the Black Knights appeared to have slipped away before the volley impacted. Reports then started coming in from all across the ghetto that the enemy were breaking contact and retreating to the west.
"Why are they running? They still had plenty of strength left." Suzaku's image appeared on one of the Avalon's communication screens, next to the Viceroy's.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Kururugi. I've never seen them deploy so many knightmares in one place before. I'm surprised that we managed to win that fight so quickly." She observed.
"It is only a tactical victory." Schneizel added. "Whatever Zero's true intentions were, I doubt that decisively defeating us was one of his objectives. The Black Knights launched a surprise attack, inflicted significant casualties on our forces, and then executed a well organized retreat while losing few of their own units. The strategic victory is certainly theirs."
"Regardless of their intentions, we should be thanking you Suzaku. Had you not been able to rally our forces and form an organized defense, Zero would certainly have routed us." Secilia spoke as she turned her blue eyes to him.
"No, Excellency, we took far too many unnecessary casualties from their assault." Suzaku replied, a lingering feeling of failure hanging over him.
"You held an attack that we were completely unprepared for when it mattered most. Had you failed, and believe me when I say that most Britannian commanders would have under those circumstances, there would be at least an extra zero on the end of our casualty figure." She paused for a moment before changing her tone to something that sounded more like a helpful teacher than a battlefield commander. "It is inevitable that while commanding an army in battle you will give orders that send good soldiers to their deaths. What you need to understand is the difference between lives spent and lives wasted. Ask yourself if the outcome was worth the number of people that died to obtain it for you. I believe that what you called unnecessary casualties today were in fact necessary sacrifices."
"I understand, Viceroy. I will keep that in mind the next time I have to make such a decision."
Several hours after the Black Knights broke contact at the ghetto's border, the remaining operational knightmares were coming up the road that led into the now abandoned town that had been partially destroyed during the Battle of Narita. The JLF had forcibly evacuated the area about a week before the Britannian assault, and very few decided to return afterward.
From atop one of the rooftops, a Black Knights recon team reported the units' arrival. Inside the base, teams moved to activate the two operational external elevators that remained from the original six.
When the trucks, tanks, and four Burais first arrived, they found the installation in the same conditions that Toudou had reported previously. Most of the external defenses and four of the base's external elevators had been destroyed or rendered inoperable along with the JLF units manning them. The base's core interior sections were in better shape, but still required some work. The JLF had attempted to destroy what sensitive equipment they couldn't take with them in the aftermath of the battle, and those systems that remained needed to be repaired.
One of the three underground power generators in the mountain fortress was also damaged. So while the main base and the two large interior hangars were still functional, the doors that led into the tunnel network beneath the mountain were disabled, along with the tunnels' lighting and ventilation systems. But even without the use of the tunnels, the Black Knights were now in possession of a lot of secure space and real military facilities that included purpose built firing ranges, barracks, and proper ordinance storage areas.
Zero began to understand how the JLF managed to wage a war from this location for years as his Gekka rolled into hangar A alongside all the other assorted combat vehicles and transports with plenty of room to spare. There was no way to grasp the scale of the installation from the mountain's exterior, as the base extended much farther underground. He was already thinking of ways to put this area to use as the last knightmares rolled in.
The Black Knights began to take stock of their losses at the edge of Tokyo. Sixteen frames and twelve pilots had been lost during the engagement, with another 31 knightmares sustaining various levels of damage, some beyond repair. The losses were unfortunate, but not unexpected considering the size of the enemy force they had engaged. Maintenance crews were already at work sorting the frames for repairs, moving them through the connecting tunnel to the second hangar where they had an area allocated for maintenance work.
Near the repair area, Rakshata had put her assistants to work setting up their own research and development corner. She had a number of projects to work on now that they were in a more stable location. First and foremost, the scientist wanted to complete the design of her flight system upgrade for the Gekka.
Similar to the Camelot designed float unit installed on the Viceroy's Gawain, the new design was basically a directed plasma engine with magnetically vectored thrust. While conventional magnetic field generation technology could shape and accelerate the plasma generated by the unit, it was not precise enough for flight. But the technology inside a Blaze Luminous shield generator already did almost exactly what she needed. Before she could begin on any of this, she would need the combat data from her prototype, and access to a functional energy shield generator, which meant finding Euphemia and Cornelia. She set off to look for the royal sisters, and more importantly their knightmare frames, leaving her technicians to finish setting up their equipment.
Twenty minutes later, Rakshata had lured them both to her section of the hangar. As soon as the Gekka prototype's cockpit opened, the technicians wasted no time attaching an array of wires to the central console. Euphemia roped down the other side of the machine to find the impatient Indian scientist waiting for her.
"My assistants can collect the Gekka's operational and combat data, but I need your help while they do. After all, even my brilliant designs are worthless without a suitable pilot."
"Earlier this week, European forces attempted to open a second front in Spain by bypassing our front line in the Pyrenees through an ambitious amphibious landing." General Simmons began to explain as he pulled up a map of northern Spain on the large touchscreen at the front of the room. "The EU landed two divisions across a four kilometer area and proceeded to push another two kilometers inland before our rapid reaction knightmare units, along with supporting air power, stopped their advance. Nine hours later, ships of the Second Fleet circled around the peninsula and engaged the landing force from behind. Faced with the risk of being cut off, EU forces quickly retreated, abandoning much of their hardware in the process." Simmons enlarged several photos showing dozens of abandoned Leopard tanks, Panzer Hummel knightmare frames, and a few mobile artillery and air defense vehicles.
Although he was doing his best not to show it, Simmons was very worried. Being chosen to provide the Emperor with regular military status updates was one of the most stressful jobs imaginable. So when a man wearing a black uniform he had never seen before walked into the room and proceeded to interrupt him, Simmons felt like an anvil had been taken off his chest. After the initial feeling of relief, he began to wonder who this person was. A quick glance around the room revealed that only the Emperor appeared to know. The man whispered something to the Emperor, who then got up.
"All of you stay here, I have an urgent matter to attend to. We will continue this afterwards. " Emperor Charles instructed the various military personnel in the room as he followed the mysterious man out of the room.
The man leading the Emperor out of the room was known as William Black. He was a mystery in many ways. As the head of OSI Section 7, he did not officially exist. Every record of his past had been systematically erased over the course of his career with Section 7. Even the name William Black was something he had chosen for himself, his birth name having been long since wiped from history.
"In here, Your Majesty. I have had this room throughly secured." Black said as they approached the seemingly ordinary room 127 in the same hallway. Emperor Charles stepped inside to see four other armed Section 7 agents manning an array of powerful jamming and electronic countermeasure equipment.
"Now what is so important that you had to come and interrupt our meeting, William?"
"Allow me to explain, Your Majesty. After we acquired the details of Clovis's Orange project, we used that as a starting point as we attempted to find CC. Back in August Clovis ordered that CC be transferred to a research facility outside of Tokyo. The container she was locked inside was marked as a chemical weapon. The vehicle transporting it was hijacked by a small group of Eleven terrorists which resulted in the Battle of Shinjuku, Zero's first known appearance. The terrorists that stole the gas capsule are known now be the core members of the Black Knights. Later, when Zero made his first public appearance to free Sir Kururugi, the same capsule was used to dispense a harmless colored smoke screen. Somewhere between Shinjuku and then they opened the capsule and discovered CC.
On the assumption that she was either still with the Black Knights, or they had information that could lead us to her, we sent an infiltrator to penetrate their operations. He was discovered and killed less than thirty six hours after arriving. Based upon the facts we have, it is almost certain that CC is among the Black Knights' leadership, with a strong possibility that she is Zero." Black explained in detail.
"Are you certain? Zero definitely appears to be male." Charles asked, recalling images from the exchange on the highway.
"While there is no way to be completely sure without actually seeing through that mask, I would bet my life that our analysis is extremely close to the truth. Her known height is very close to Zero's, and it would not be very difficult for a woman of her build to disguise her gender specific features. Voice altering devices of the grade Zero uses are also easily obtainable."
"This is troubling. If she is able to build a powerful army, and arm it with Geass..." Charles pondered the possibility.
"The Black Knights have already proven themselves capable of defeating our forces in battles of their choosing. And as her latest operation has proven, the Knight of Two lacks sufficient forces to force the Black Knights into battle on our terms. She simply does not have nearly enough troops to sweep Area 11 for their bases without taking crippling damage from their sneak attacks." Black informed the Emperor.
"What do we have deployed in Area 11 now?"
"Approximately 50,000 troops spread around the islands, around 30,000 in the Tokyo area. There are no accurate figures of the Black Knights' strength, but our latest estimate is between three and seven thousand, and they are known to possess upwards of ninety knightmare frames. Including several apparently custom built units that meet or exceed the performance of our own seventh generation frames." Black assessed.
"We need to capture her before this gets out of hand. There's no telling how much damage that witch could do if left to run free."
"What will you do, Your Majesty?"
"Our spring offensive in Europe will have to wait. CC is to be our top priority. Once we acquire her Code, everything else is only a matter of time." Charles announced decisively.
It had been only three days since the Black Knights arrived to reoccupy the Narita mountain fortress, and they had already had most of the installation up and running. The base's command center had been repaired and brought back online. The room was a flurry of activity and dozens of uniformed Black Knights personnel worked on the consoles, delivered reports, and rushed to fetch more coffee for their superiors. At the front of the room, near the largest screen, Zero sat in the same chair that General Katase commanded from during the battle. Instead of shouting orders left and right as Katase undoubtedly had been, he was silent.
On the table in front of him sat several large maps of central Japan and the Tokyo area. Zero was hard at work putting dozens of red and blue lines across the large sheets, planning potential targets, attack paths, and estimated enemy responses. Of particular interest on the larger area map was a Britannian Airforce base far to the west of Tokyo.
Originally built as a civilian airport before the war, Noto Airbase was one of many taken over and heavily upgraded by the Britannian military. Noto was now the Britannian Airforce's primary staging area to project power over the Sea of Japan as a deterrent against a Chinese attack. The area surrounding the base had lost most of its population in recent years, and there had been practically no rebel activity in the area for years. A perfect target. Zero began outlining an attack plan to seize the base.
"Zero! We got the third generator repaired and restored power to the tunnels. You're not going to believe what we found down there." Kallen interrupted him as she rushed over. Zero looked up from the table full of maps. " There's 14 Burais and 43 Type 10 tanks in a service area down in one of the large caverns. It looks like the JLF were doing repairs and upgrades on them when they were forced to abandon the base." Kallen reported with excitement.
"What condition are they in?" Was Zero's first response, amazed at the find.
"Everything down there is in various states of disassembly, I don't think any of them are operational as we found them. But it shouldn't be too much of a problem to put them back together."
"Just how big is that tunnel network?" Zero asked.
"We don't know yet. The search teams were still going off in three other directions when I came back up. Who knows what else we might find down there."
"This is closer to perfect than I could have hoped for. We can assemble an entire army's worth of equipment down there without having to worry about Britannian spy planes."
"Would that be for whatever those plans are?" Kallen wondered as she took a closer look at the map on top.
"While we have found quite a bit of success so far, in the grand scheme of things all we really have accomplished is giving Britannia a mild headache. Hit and run attacks can wear down Britannian forces, but it will not break them. We need to achieve a decisive strategic victory to liberate Japan, and ultimately bring us closer to our true goal. All of these tactical successes will add up to little if we are never able to take ground and hold it." Zero explained.
"That's a map of Tokyo..." Kallen said. Even though the concept should have been obvious, actually seeing an outline of a real battle plan to take Tokyo from Britannia was incredible.
"These plans are going to change drastically before it is possible. We don't have nearly enough forces to seize the capital at the moment. But this base is large enough to assemble a sufficiently powerful army in secret. Once we are strong enough, I have no doubt that we can win. I believe the Japanese want to take this country back much more than the Britannians want to hold on to it. But Britannia did not conquer a third of the world through weakness. They will not give up Japan without a fight."
"I can understand the number of troops, but where are we going to get enough hardware to wage open war?" Kallen wondered.
"So how do you like your new powers?" CC asked the four sitting at the table behind her as she plopped down on the bed .
"It's...incredible." Kallen spoke as her mind replayed the fight with the white Gloucester. "It felt like everything but me was in slow motion. I could see and hear every little detail so clearly...and my reactions felt almost instant. The Gloucester pilot I fought was very good, and I forced him to eject in under 30 seconds when I activated my Geass.
"Does it feel natural when you activate your Geass?" CC asked them, dangling her head off the edge of the bed and looking at them upside down as her green hair fell to the floor.
"As if I was born with it." Lelouch replied, the memories of the tunnel exit in a Shinjuku warehouse freshly resurfaced.
"I thought you said that the Geass power is a reflection of your strongest desire." Cornelia questioned the immortal. "So why then did I get an ability that makes me a better soldier, instead of something I can use to protect my sister?" Euphemia turned to at her with a 'I'm not a fragile little girl anymore' look.
"Nobody can predict what kind of power Geass grants you with certainty. What I said was just an observation from hundreds of years of experience."
"Maybe you're looking at it the wrong way." Lelouch suggested. "Instead of wanting to protect Euphie, maybe you actually wanted to help her instead. I see a large amount of synergy between your two abilities, and I doubt that is just a coincidence. Take some time and try to develop some tactics that include Geass."
"That's a very good idea actually. My Geass can empower our troops, and Euphie can use her's to help coordinate their attacks." Cornelia noted.
Miles away, a Britannian heavy transport aircraft lowered its four VTOL capable thruster blocks to put down atop the main government building's rooftop landing pad. As the transport made contact with the landing pad, the twelve stealth fighters escorting it broke off to land at Starlight Field to the north. Numerous Royal Guard infantry units had already lined up before the transport's main ramp as it lowered. At the bottom of the ramp, William Black stepped off the plane and onto Area Eleven for the first time.
A Royal Guardsman entered the meeting room, interrupting Viceroy Secilia as she briefed a group of assembled staff and politicians on the latest Britannian advances against rebellious Japanese forces in the ghettos surrounding Tokyo.
"Your Excellency, a transport has just landed on the roof carrying an OSI director, he requests your immediate attention on the landing pad."
"Did he say anything else?" Secilia questioned the soldier.
"Just that he is here under the direct orders of the Emperor, and that he needs to see you in person." She quickly directed a few subordinates to finish the briefing before leaving the room in the direction of the elevator.
Minutes later, the Viceroy arrived on the roof near the landing pad. The aircraft and the OSI man were there, just as the soldier had said, but it was clear that something was different about them. The transport aircraft was smaller than the military transports she was used to. Many of the flat surfaces had been replaced with angles, and the entire aircraft was coated in black radar absorbing material.
There was something off about the OSI director as well. He was wearing the right uniform, but she did not recognize him. Secilia was certain that she had met almost all of the directors throughout the span of her military career. He did not look particularly friendly as she approached.
"Viceroy Secilia, this way please. My transport has been heavily modified to prevent eavesdropping, and you are the only person I have been ordered to brief." The director turned and began walking back up the ramp. She followed him up into the belly of the plane.
"Why was I not contacted by Lorenzo about this visit? He is supposed to inform me when things like this are going to happen." She asked.
"His security clearance is not high enough to know that I was coming. For the record, neither is yours, but His Majesty gave me clear instructions about what to tell you."
"And just who are you? There are very few people that can outrank OSI directors and Knights of Rounds in such a way."
"Forgive me, Viceroy. My name is William Black, director of OSI Section Seven. If you've never heard to me, or Section Seven, then people are doing their jobs right. Section Seven, and myself, officially do not exist." Black informed her.
"So why are you here then?"
"Straight to the point, good. Section Seven has uncovered some very disturbing information regarding the Black Knights, and their mysterious leader. Based on our investigation, we have determined with a high degree of certainty that Zero is in fact this woman." Black told her as he pulled a picture of CC from his uniform's pocket. "This image was taken by a research team under Prince Clovis three years ago during the time she was secretly in captivity under his Orange project.." He handed Secilia the photo of CC bound in a straight jacket and strapped to a chair, surrounded by three lab technicians and a man with a large needle. "Her escape was the direct cause of the Shinjuku incident, and almost certainly the death of Prince Clovis."
"Who is she?"
"The only name we know her by is CC. She is in possession of information of the most sensitive nature. Assuming we are right, this means the the Black Knights are in possession of a weapon of unimaginable power. The Emperor wishes that you capture her dead or alive before the rebels can activate this weapon. You are to spare no expense to make this happen." Black explained.
"What sort of weapon are we talking about?" Secilia wondered.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot tell you the details. His Majesty directly controls the release of that information. But I can tell you that it is a direct threat to the very survival of our empire. Capturing her is to be your first priority. Nothing else matters until we have her."
"How am I supposed to find her? The Black Knights have proven to be incredibly elusive. We have spent the last month trying to force them into the open, and now you're asking me to capture their leader."
"His Majesty understands the difficulty of this mission. Therefore he has decided to suspend all offensive operations in Western Europe and redeploy the 7th Army to Area 11." Black revealed, giving it a few seconds to sink in.
"The entire 7th Army? That's a quarter of a million troops..." Secilia awed at the prospect of having five times more forces at her disposal.
"Then I trust that you will have no difficulty smashing this rebellion with such a force?" Black asked.
Secilia looked him in the eyes and smiled. "They're as good as dead already."
Icy uses Wall of Text. It's super effective!: The battle that starts this chapter was originally supposed to be at the end of the last one, but I decided to wait until I felt I thought through the new Geass powers enough. I've seen too many good stories fall apart because overpowered magic. That said, adding some magic can be absolutely awesome when done right. The goal here is to keep it balanced and interesting.
I like to think that Lelouch's Absolute Obedience is a good example of a well balanced power. Potentially devastating when it works, but loaded with enough limitations to make it a powerful weapon, not a godmode cheat.
Cornelia: Absolute Inspiration. Motivates and inspires everyone Cornelia perceives to be her allies(does not include herself) within a variable radius out to 1 kilometer. The power of the effect varies greatly with the range, which is controllable. At point blank range under 20m, the effect is immensely powerful, causing those under its effects to fight with a level of ferocity and determination almost unheard of otherwise. At between 800m and 1km, the effect is barely perceptible. The effect is uniform across the entire radius. Ex. When set to 1km, Absolute Inspiration does almost nothing regardless of how close to Cornelia you are. (Think of a limited volume of gas being expanded or compressed.)
Euphemia: Absolute Unity. Euphemia's Geass is also an area of effect ability that functions almost identically to Absolute Inspiration, but with a very different effect. Those affected by Absolute Unity become linked to Euphemia's conciousness. They then feel her emotions and develop an urge to carry out her will. Barely perceptible at ranges further than 600 meters, the effect steadily intensifies as Euphemia shortens the radius. When set to just a few feet, the effect of Absolute Unity becomes nearly irresistible, and can rival Lelouch's Absolute Obedience at point blank range. This power can be used to either help or harm people as Euphemia sees fit.
Kallen: Absolute Perception. Kallen can activate her Geass to put herself in a state of sensory overdrive. This effectively triples the sensitivity, clarity, and power of all of her senses and mental functions (including reaction time). Absolute Perception is similar to Rolo's canon Geass in that it is extremely hard to maintain the effect, becoming nearly impossible to keep it running continuously for over a minute. This effectively allows Kallen to trigger short bursts of superhuman ability and awareness.
Every Geass power develops with use until the power reaches perfection, if its owner remains alive that long. They all become either easier to use or more powerful as they develop, but also harder to control. Geass Runaway occurs when the Geass user loses all control over their power. If it reaches perfection, they will regain control, but this almost never happens because Geass Runaway tends to cause a severe mental breakdown, and almost always results in the Geass user dying for some reason first. Geass Runaway is not destined to happen in every Geass user. Instead, it is determined by the strength of the individual's willpower to maintain control.
Quite a few people have asked in reviews and messages about where Nunnally is. The short answer is that she's under Sayoko's protection in rural Hokkaido, far away from the escalating conflict. The long answer is that I simply cannot find a real role for her as a part of the revolution. She is fragile and disabled, making a combat role practically impossible without some kind of magic cure. She couldn't have been one of the five with Geass either, due to the way Lelouch views her. The whole point of his plan is to use Geass as a weapon to achieve final victory by killing the Emperor and his immortal allies. The last thing he would do is knowingly put Nunnally in a combat situation. However, I will still try to find a place for her before the end.
Thanks to everyone that sent in suggestions, I did read them all.