Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.
The last remnants of the Japanese resistance groups in the Tokyo area had taken terrible, terrible damage from the Britannian onslaught against the ghettos in the west. Their ragtag assembly of infantry fighters and light vehicles had proven unable to even slow down the enemy advance. After the Black Knights tore into Nerima, inflicting more damage on Britannian forces in under an hour than everyone else had in the past week, many of the remaining independent resistance forces offered to join up with the Black Knights. Zero was quick to accept.
With almost a third of their remaining forces having abandoned them, the leaders of the resistance made the difficult decision to abandon the northern section of Tokyo and concentrate all of their remaining forces to the east in the Edogawa area, which they expected to be the final area Britannia would attack as part of Operation Wildfire.
They stood back and watched as Britannian combat units swept through Kita, Adachi, and Katsushika with literally no resistance. Behind the troops, tanks, and knightmare frames came legions of military engineers and civilian contractors to demolish the crumbling ruins of old Tokyo and begin clearing out the debris in preparation for an expansion of the Britannian city.
As the seemingly unstoppable Britannian army began massing on the northern edge of the Edogawa ghetto, the resistance deployed absolutely everything they had left in preparation for their last stand. Hundreds of infantry fighters, some armed with weapons so old they could have been museum exhibits. Twenty one aging Type 90 tanks, three Glasgows, and a dozen civilian construction knightmares armed with captured KAR 25 assault rifles.
Standing opposed to them was the Britannian military machine. Thousands of well trained troops equipped with state of the art weapons, armor, and electronics, 124 Sutherland knightmare frames, and over three hundred modern armored vehicles to back them up. This was the army that had conquered over a third of the planet without much difficulty. Only the European Union had a military that could hold the line against this level of combat power. The resistance more or less knew they had no chance of victory, but they honestly did not care. The men and women assembled in Edogawa were the diehards and the veterans, those who would rather die fighting to preserve the memory of a free Japan than even consider the idea of surrendering. All they could do now was wait for their inevitable fate to come for them.
Lelouch smiled behind his Zero mask as he saw the expression on Kirihara's face through the video feed in the Narita base's control room.
"Could you repeat that?" The head of the Kyoto Group asked, clearly not having absorbed the enormity of Zero's request.
"I need to acquire at least twenty Britannian Airforce flight simulators for the FA120 Tempest."He repeated to Kirihara. "I have already secured simulator units for other aircraft, but being the Empire's state of the art air supremacy fighter, simulators for the Tempest are almost impossible to find on the black markets."
"If you're looking for simulators that means you must have found some way to get your hands on the actual fighters. Don't they have built in simulator software like the majority of their aircraft?"
"Of course they do, and I would use them if I physically had a wing of FA120s down in the hangar. I'm actually planning to steal them, but to do that I'm going to need a unit of trained pilots." Zero replied through the screen.
"Very well, I'll see what I can do for you. This plan of yours sounds interesting already. The rest of it should be ready by the end of the month." Kirihara finished, referring to the large quantity of knightmare frames and armored vehicles Zero had requested at the beginning of their conversation.
"How was school today?"Shirley's father asked her as he opened the door to her dorm room, his long grey raincoat still wet from the relentless storm outside.
"Great! I think I ace'd my History exam this morning." She replied in her usual cheerful voice.
"Wonderful. Now go get your coat. The show starts in just over an hour and it's still pouring out there." He told Shirley, holding up a pair of tickets and smiling.
Shirley turned around and started fumbling through her closet to find a waterproof coat. She heard the door open behind her, followed by a distinctive metallic click. She turned around to see Lelouch, dressed as Zero without a mask, holding a Britannian military issue pistol, the visible laser sight settled on her father's chest.
Shirley stood in stunned silence as he pulled the trigger. One, two, and then a third shot hit her father in the chest from less than two meters, spraying blood over his killer. As the man fell, Lelouch turned to her, covered in blood. He slowly raised the weapon, the laser dot hovering over her heart. Shirley barely had time to hear one final bang.
The second the trigger was pulled, Shirley jolted awake, instantly sitting up in the dark. She was sweaty and breathing heavily as her freshly awakened eyes darted around the room, looking for any sign of what she had just seen.
But the room was just as she had left it five hours earlier. There was no blood, no spent pistol rounds, no dead body, and no Lelouch. It took her mind almost five minutes to realize that it wasn't real, and for the crippling level of fear to diminish.
As hard as she tried to push it away, she could not get the image of Lelouch killing her father out of her mind, as she knew it was at least partially true. He may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he was still the reason her father was gone.
A few tears rolled down her face as she tried to shake it off. Shirley fought hard to control the storm of emotions that she was feeling. Fear and disbelief soon evolved into anger, and then into betrayal. The fact that it was caused by someone that she had once felt the beginnings of love for only worked to amplify the pain. She briefly wondered if this is what Lelouch felt when his mother was shot down mere inches from him.
Her heart told her that it probably was, and in that moment she felt that she understood him far more than she ever had before. Shirley had a glimpse of just how powerful of a motivator loss could be. After all, it drove Lelouch to kill his own brother and start a war against the nation led by his own family.
The more she thought about it, the worse it became. The thought that her good father did not deserve to die grew stronger, and she looked out her dorm window toward central Tokyo. As she did, Shirley received her first visit from Lelouch vi Britannia's most faithful companion. Pure, unmitigated hate.
Suzaku stood around the hologram table alongside the Viceroy and four other Britannian generals. The command center of this G1 mobile base had been sealed, and the armor lowered around the windows, effectively sealing off the room from the outside world.
The need for secrecy was still important. The massive upcoming force redeployment had not yet been made public knowledge, and with the first wave of troops not due until the first week of December, Viceroy Secilia did not want to give the Black Knights a chance to find out about it until it would be too late.
"What I am about to tell the five of you cannot under any circumstances be repeated unless I order you to, understood?" All five voices replied "Yes, Excellency." in unison. "Five days ago I was contacted by OSI Section Seven, an exceptionally secret branch that operates outside of the formal command structure. The director of Section Seven relayed to me a set of orders from His Majesty that completely changes everything. Next week it will be announced that all offensive operations in Western Europe are to be suspended indefinitely, and that the 7th Army will be transferred to Area 11. They will be rotated out of their European positions 20% at a time. The first fifty thousand troops are scheduled to depart from Spain in a few hours." Secilia paused for a moment to let her subordinates absorb this revelation. "Area 11 has become the Emperor's primary focus, and the Black Knights have been deemed the highest threat to the security of the Empire." The Viceroy tapped a button on the holo table in front of her and a copy of the picture William Black had given her appeared on the G1 command center's big screen. "The OSI has informed me that they believe this woman to be Zero, cleverly hiding behind an outwardly male persona. From the limited information I was given, she is known to possess information that would allow the Black Knights access to some kind of powerful superweapon. Our new mission is to capture her dead or alive. To this end we have effectively been given a blank check to destroy the Black Knights by any means necessary."
"Do we have any information on the superweapon the Black Knights are supposed to have?" General Adelbern questioned.
"Unfortunately not. If there is any such information, we do not have access to it. But judging from how it was described, it is a significant threat." The Viceroy answered.
"The first shipment of troops should be arriving in about a week." Secilia hit a few more buttons on the holo table and brought up a map of the Tokyo area. Several red squares then appeared on the map, all of them opposite of Tokyo on the other side of the bay. "These are areas that will be converted into new bases for the 7th Army. Construction is to begin immediately so that we can provide a seamless integration of the new forces into Area 11. I have already begun to construct a new strategic plan to cleanse all resistance from the main islands with overwhelming power once all of our forces are in place. Until then, our priorities are the completion of Operation Wildfire and protecting our assets from future hit and run attacks." She turned to the left side of the table. "Kururugi, starting now you will be back on the front lines with the Lancelot."
Prime Minister Schneizel el Britannia stepped out the front door and began to descend the seven steps leading back down to the street. He had just spent the last five hours in an extravagant hotel room with fifteen of Area 11's most powerful and influential business leaders discussing possible government strategies to increase the Area's economic growth from its painfully low average of just 0.79%
As he exited the building, he was met by a group of about 40 protestors that were demonstrating against a variety of different issues. This was no concern to the Prime Minister however, as a dozen heavily armed Royal Guardsmen stood on either side of the stairs leading back down to the armored limousine below.
On the left side, a very determined Britannian student pushed her way to the front of the group. She was driven to have her voice be heard, but was blocked by the imposing troops in front of her. She pushed closer and was met with the threat of a stun baton.
"Get back!" The masked Royal Guardsman yelled as he held out the metal rod, electricity visibly arcing along it.
As the voices in the crowd grew louder, and with time running out as Schneizel neared the limo, she was faced with the prospect of defeat. This was unacceptable. In desperation she yelled out as loud as she could the one thing that she hoped would have a chance catching Schneizel's attention through the ocean of noise. "I know who Zero is!"
As she predicted, Schneizel did hear, and in that instant he stopped moving as his brain quickly went through the many possible scenarios. She could just be another protestor trying to get his attention, some kind of admirer, or perhaps there was the abysmally small chance that the girl really did know something about Zero. He looked over to his left and saw a student well dressed in a spotless private school uniform, quite different from the average lower class protestors. At the end of his one second mental debate, and with nothing to lose by doing so, he decided to take a chance. Schneizel motioned to the captain of his guard unit to let the student through, and seconds later she was being pulled through the barricade by the same man that had threatened her only moments earlier. In a blur she found herself ripped from the chaos of the crowd outside and into the calm of the limousine's interior.
Aside from the one armed guard sitting off to the side, she found herself face to face with one of the most powerful men in the Empire.
"So you claim to know who the infamous Zero is? First tell me your name." Schneizel gently ordered.
"Shirley Fenette, your highness." she replied with some noticeable nervousness in her voice, despite her attempts to control it. It was quite a difference speaking to the Prime Minister in person compared to the hundred times that she went over it in her mind. In fact, she had thoroughly prepared for this moment by spending the last two days creating a story that was an intricate weave of truth and lies.
"You are a student, are you not? Ashford Academy judging by your uniform." Schneizel observed.
"Yes sir."
"And how would a nice young girl such as yourself come to know the identity of the most wanted man in the Empire?"
"He was a former classmate of mine." Shirley paused as memories of happier times invaded her mind. "I...loved him once." The Prime Minister started to regret his course of action, but decided to ask one more question.
"And what is his name?" Schneizel asked as he started to think she knew absolutely nothing of value.
"Lelouch...Lamperouge." Shirley spoke with slight hesitation.
With those two words, the world stood still. Schneizel froze as his mind tried to register what he had just heard. For her part, Shirley was not surprised at the effect the name had on him. She too was aware of who Lelouch had once been, due to Milly's misjudgment at including her at that meeting. But for the moment she pretended that she was in fact clueless as to the significance of the name.
"Tell me about him." Schneizel managed to speak after several seconds of silence, his voice showing much more curiosity than before.
"He was charming, nice, and unbelievably intelligent. No matter how many times he skipped class, his grades were always flawless. He was the president of the chess club and vice president of the student council. He resigned from the chess club last year after going undefeated for six months, and ended up with a gambling problem involving illegal high stakes chess matches. I don't believe he ever lost one though." Shirley recalled.
Schneizel just sat there quietly and listened to the seemingly endless stream of insignificant information that so accurately described the personality of his long dead brother.
"What do you know about his past?" Schneizel questioned, his tone more serious.
"Not much. He hated it when people tried to dig into his past. The one time I tried to push him he told me that his sister was killed by the Britannian Airforce during the invasion of Area 11. It almost brought him to tears just talking about it. I never tried to bring it up again." Shirley explained. As much as she wanted justice for her father's death, the last thing she wanted was to hurt Nunnally. It was also close enough to the official story that they had both died during the invasion to hopefully keep her survival a secret.
Schneizel absorbed the knowledge to think about it later. What mattered now was finding out everything he could.
"Why do you think Lelouch is Zero?"
"His girlfriend, Kallen, is the pilot of that knightmare, the red one." Now that was a solid piece of information that made real sense. From what he knew of the Black Knights, she was their ace pilot and a member of their upper leadership. "They both disappeared together the night before that battle at Chiba." Shirley reached into her pocket and pulled a slice of paper from it before handing it to Schneizel. It was a picture, dated just over a year ago that showed Lelouch at a school championship chess match. Again carefully picked to avoid involving anyone else. Schneizel stared at the picture, the uniformed figure frozen in time holding a black king piece invaded his mind and shattered what he believed to be the truth for the last seven years.
Schneizel handed her a black mobile phone. "If you uncover any more information, or he contacts you, use this phone. It is a secure line directly to me." Shirley took the phone as the three vehicle convoy approached the Ashford Academy. "Shirley...what made you come forward?"
"Zero killed my father at Narita. I...I just can't let him get away with that." She told him as a few tears began forming in her eyes.
"Do you have any family back in the mainland?" Shirley nodded. "You should go stay with them for a while. If Zero discovers that you've exposed his identity, you might become a target yourself." Schneizel suggested. Shirley instantly agreed, along with the fact that she couldn't bear the though of having to face the student council, especially Milly, if they found out that she had effectively betrayed their trust. The vehicles came to a halt near the gate, and the limo's door opened.
Shirley stepped out back into the sunlight and nearly felt sick as the three vehicles drove off. She could barely believe that she had worked up the courage to confront the Prime Minister of Britannia, and although the he had reassured her that she had done the right thing, Shirley was anything but certain. Scenarios of what might happen if the whole truth was exposed began to haunt her. Just the thought of what would happen to Nunnally and the council if her lies were unraveled was terrifying to her. She suddenly felt the urge to listen to the advice she was given and go back to the mainland. The potent mixture of fear, guilt, and uncertainty made her want to desperately get as far away from here as she could. She opted not to use the main gate, instead getting back onto the campus through a side entrance on the north wall, and hoping that nobody had seen her get out of the limo bracketed by armored cars.
The day after his chance encounter with Shirley had thrown the world on its head, Schneizel had made the choice to conceal his discovery and conduct his own secret investigation. There were still far too many unknowns surrounding her story. He therefore assigned one of his trusted Royal Guardsmen, Tobias Barnes, a highly secret and dangerous undercover mission.
Barnes stepped in the door of a house rumored to contain a Black Knights' recruiting station wearing plain clothes and a brown coat. The interior appeared as any ordinary home on the edge of the city would. Inside was a Britannian man wearing an average business suit typing away on a laptop.
"Can I help you?" The man asked without even bothering to look up from his computer screen. Barnes moved a few feet closer.
"I'm interested in joining the Black Knights."
"Are you now? And who told you to come here?" The business man replied cooly.
"A mutual friend." Barnes replied. The business man chuckled.
"Well your friend was right. I'll just need to take your information over here, and..." In a flash, Barnes drew a suppressed pistol with a visible laser dot sight and centered it just above the recruiter's left eye at close range.
"My name is Tobias Barnes, Prime Minister's Schneizel's Royal Guard." The previously care free man was quickly gripped by fear as he found himself staring precision laser assisted death in the face. Barnes pulled a plain white envelope from an inner pocket of his coat and dropped it on the laptop's keyboard. "Make sure that message gets to Zero, quickly." Barnes began walking back toward the front door, keeping his pistol on the recruiter as he did so. "Oh and by the way, there is going to be a raid on this house in about two hours. I suggest you get moving. Consider it a bonus for your cooperation."
Barnes slipped out the front door and concealed his weapon in one seamless motion before walking back to the rental car he had left three blocks down the road as if nothing had even happened. He pulled a phone and dialed the only number in the memory. Four seconds later it was answered, and Barnes delivered his message.
"They have it."
December 7th, 22:27, approximately 500km east of Area 11. NMT 141, also known as HMS Selene sailed through the calm Pacific. The Selene was an unarmed naval military transport, a huge vessel designed to carry massive quantities of weapons, equipment, munitions, and anything else Britannian military forces around the world could possibly need to wage war.
Although unarmed and crewed by only 46 non combat personnel, HMS Selene, like most trans ports, sailed alone. Apart from the EU, there existed no nation that could challenge Britannian naval dominance on the open ocean. This meant that there had not been a reason to cluster ships into armed and escorted convoys for nearly half a century. Over such a long period, security had become taken for granted by more recent generations of sailors. So when three rope ladders launched up from the depths and hooked themselves onto the side of the ship, there were no vigilant guard patrols to notice.
Three black clad figures quickly ascended the side by side ladders boarded the ship. Two of them scanned the deck with their suppressed assault rifles for any hostile targets, while the third drew his pistol equipped with a tactical light and leaned over the railing. He aimed the weapon down and flashed the light three times, signaling the rest of the strike team to climb up.
Two minutes later, sixteen Black Knights had boarded the Britannian ship. Four of them quickly opened their backpacks and began assembling a short range signal jammer. Another minute went by before the device was online and functioning normally. They had waited to move from their undetected position near the rear of the ship until the jammer ensured that the crew would not be able broadcast a distress call. Leaving two members behind to guard the jammer and keep it working, the remaining fourteen split into two teams and slowly began to move up both sides of the ship simultaneously.
The right team had slowly and quietly advanced thirty three meters from their starting point when they heard a metallic click from a door handle in front of them. The Black Knight on point motioned for everyone to hug the wall and stay quiet. A former Japanese resistance fighter, his first instinct was to just shoot the Britannian with his suppressed weapon and throw the body overboard, but he remained calm, remembering their rules of engagement. The sailor before him was clearly not a real threat, and they were not allowed to simply kill unarmed people.
He slowly pulled a cloth soaked in powerful anesthetics from a special pouch on his belt. The Britannian suddenly found a strong gloved hand shoving a foul smelling rag into his face and then a forceful tug as he was pulled back from the railing. The chemicals quickly took effect and two of the others had the unconscious man bound and gagged within seconds.
The point man edged up to the door and peeked in through the small window. Inside were between 20 and 30 of the Selene's crew, gathered around a TV, watching what appeared to be a football match. He motioned back and the Black Knight behind him handed him a flashbang grenade. He pulled the pin but kept the handle in place. He then raised his other hand and manually counted down from five. All seven of them readied their weapons as the point man opened the door just enough to toss the device inside. A deafening bang and blinding light was followed by the rapid entry of the assault team.
On the other side of the ship, The other team of seven had used similar tactics to seize the bridge, and four of them were on their way to the engine room shortly after. Within twenty minutes the ship had been captured without any real resistance, and the entire crew had been herded into the recreation room. Aside from a few minor injuries to the sailors, there had been no casualties.
"The assault teams are reporting that the ship has been captured with minimal resistance. The jamming device has worked as expected, no signals have been transmitted from the Selene in the last hour." A communications reported to Ougi on the bridge of the submarine.
"Have them change course toward the rendezvous point and begin prepping the cargo for unloading." He relayed fresh orders to the newly captured Britannian transport. Within a minute the ship had changed course from a route to Tokyo bay to a new destination almost 300km north of the city. The mission had gone perfectly to plan so far.
During his days as the leader of a small resistance group in Shinjuku, Ougi had doubted his abilities as a leader compared to Naoto Kouzuki, the original founder of the unit. Ever since the rise of the Black Knights, his confidence had been returning to the point where now he actually felt comfortable in his new position of command.
It had taken two days for the letter delivered by Barnes to reach the Black Knights in Narita. After a series of scans and tests that checked the simple paper envelope for explosives, poisons, tracking devices, biological weapons, or anything other than its stated contents, it finally made its way into the mountain fortress.
The soldier that had brought the envelope from one of the front entrances had to walk through most of the base to reach the command center that Zero frequently spent the majority of his time in. As he went, he passed through a military installation that the former JLF owners would have been jealous of. From the run down and abandoned state the mountain fortress had been in when they reoccupied it two weeks ago, it had been transformed into a modern facility that housed almost twenty thousand personnel in the base itself and the sprawling tunnel networks beneath it.
As he passed through one of the main hangars toward the elevator that led to the command center, he got quite a sight. From large ramp leading down to the tunnels emerged tank after tank. 40 Newly restored Japanese Type 10 MBTs, complete with new black paint jobs, rolled out one by one into the well lit hangar and lined up along with the other armored vehicles recently delivered by Kyoto along the south wall. With the addition of the former JLF's tanks, there were over two hundred units in this hangar, and even more in the adjacent one. The fact that so many combat vehicles were stored in one place was no accident. Thousands of Black Knights passed through this hangar on a regular basis, and the impressive display was working quite well as a morale booster and confidence builder. Seeing an assembly of forces that only the great world powers could match was a very inspiring sight.
As the man stepped off the elevator into the command center and began walking toward the front, he found Zero and Todou standing over a large map of central Japan. Numerous force deployments and attack plans had been drawn across its surface, as well as several different color coded Britannian response predictions. On the screen behind them was a wider area map, showing in real time the position and projected course of the Black Knights' submarine, as well as another ship he did not recognize. As he approached the table he noticed several friendly attack paths on the paper map that were marked as air strikes.
'So maybe that's what those flight simulators are for.' He wondered to himself, recalling the delivery of weapons and supplies that Kyoto had provided four days ago.
"Zero, this is the letter that one of our recruiters claims is from Prime Minister Schneizel." The soldier announced as he stepped close enough to hand Zero the white envelope. "It has been thoroughly analyzed and contains nothing but a folded document."
"Thank you." Zero replied as he took the envelope and began to open it as the messenger started back toward the elevator.
Zero opened the envelope and found a single folded sheet of paper inside. The hand written message was short, to the point, and very surprising.
"So, is it really from Schneizel?" Toudou asked, intrigued that he would really go to such lengths to get a secret message to Zero.
"This is definitely his writing." Zero mentioned as he read the letter's contents again. "It is a set of instructions for accessing an ultra secure Britannian diplomatic communications channel. According to this, he wants to speak to me without the knowledge of the military or the Viceroy. I'll have to enhance our security on this end, after all, we can't afford having them back trace the line to Narita."
"Do you think that he is considering switching sides?" The former JLF officer wondered. "Having secret contact with the enemy leadership would appear as a classic first step toward treason."
"Normally I would say no, but from the way this is worded I suppose anything is possible. Schneizel is one of the few people that I cannot easily read." Zero brought the letter to a communications officer in the command center and had him start preparing the additional security measures.
Schneizel walked through the cold evening air atop the government building toward the lowered ramp leading into the Avalon. He had given his subordinates a set of orders that effectively rendered him unreachable for the next six hours. He stepped into the airship to be greeted by several of his Royal Guardsmen.
"Is the room prepared?" He asked as the soldier nearest to the ramp controls pushed the button to raise it.
"Yes, your highness, all preparations have been completed to your specifications. Schneizel made his way up to the communications room in the back of the Avalon. The two armed soldiers that followed him remained outside as he entered the room. Here inside the Avalon was one of few communications systems that could access the most heavily encrypted channels available to Britannian officials. To his knowledge, a channel of this class had never been breached, making it perfect for such an event. He activated the unit and opened the line. It was precisely 48 seconds before the time he had specified in the letter. All he could do now was wait and see if any other connections were made. Five minutes later, another system successfully connected to the line with the proper identification codes. The information on the screen in front of him indicated link was online and a few seconds later, the video feed appeared.
As he had hoped, it was indeed Zero on the other end. The room he was sitting in had been blacked out, save for a single light directly above him. There was no way to tell from the image where he was.
"Thank you for accepting my request." Schneizel began.
"After all the trouble you went through to ask, how could I refuse? However, I am curious as to why you would go to such lengths to contact me directly."
"If the Viceroy or the military knew what I was doing, they would undoubtedly try to trace the connection and launch an attack. I'm a diplomat, not a soldier, I would rather that we attempt to find a peaceful solution to this conflict instead of wasting more lives and resources. As they say, only fools go to to war." Schneizel responded.
"There can be no truly bloodless outcome, however, there is a slightly less violent way to finish this."
"And what would that be?" Schneizel wondered.
"I know that you have quite a bit of influence within the military, Prime Minister. We could end this war right now if you would agree to meet two conditions. Overthrow Emperor Charles, and deliver him to me." Zero told him plainly.
"Do you really think that I would start a coup for you?" Schenizel replied, astounded at the idea.
"Honestly, of course not. But the fact remains that this is not a war that will end with signatures on a piece of paper. If you have no intention of helping me, there is little that we can negotiate on." Zero informed him.
"What do you hope to accomplish by fighting us? I am curious as to what you really want that cannot be accomplished with words." Schneizel asked.
"The destruction of the Holy Britannian Empire. In practical terms that translates to freedom for all of the Areas, and the death of Emperor Charles, along with all who would defend him. There can be no treaty with the power to produce such an outcome." Zero stated.
"I see. So there really is no alternative to war, I feared as much."
"Then it would appear that we have nothing more to discuss." Zero concluded.
"Before you leave, I have just one more question for you."
"Hmm?" Zero wondered.
"How did my sister die?" Schneizel asked the founder of the Black Knights.
"You are mistaken, Schneizel. I can assure you that Cornelia is alive and well. If I wanted to kill her I would have not even captured her in the first place." Zero replied, wondering why he would believe her to be dead.
"As much as I am glad to hear that, I was not referring to Cornelia." Schneizel continued.
"Then who?" Zero asked, now genuinely confused. To his knowledge, no other Britannian princess had been killed or captured by his Black Knights or any other group in a very long time.
"Nunnally vi Britannia." Schneizel answered. Zero paused for a moment, unsure of where this was going.
"That was during your invasion seven years ago, why would you believe that I know anything about the circumstances surrounding her death?"
"Because you were there, weren't you Lelouch?" Schneizel remarked with a smirk. Although it was almost 80F in the command center deep inside the Narita installation, Zero felt as if someone had injected ice water into his veins.
"How did you..." He quickly shot back, his voice laced with anger and surprise.
"You certainly left me enough subtle clues. First was the fact that you consistently used algebraic chess notation as unit call signs in battle during every communication that we managed to intercept. Second would be the Black Knights themselves. You always played black, and always loved your knights, even though you kept insisting that pawns were the most valuable piece. Third, Euphemia's betrayal suddenly makes much more sense considering how much she's always loved you. Finally, I can think of no one else with the strategic brilliance to repeatedly embarrass the most powerful army in history with a handful of rebels. And of course there's always the fact that truly confirming a death when you could not recover a body is nearly impossible." Schneizel explained. By now, the initial surge of anger had subsided, and Lelouch had regained his composure.
"So you know my name. Although this was...unexpected, you are too late to use this information against me to any significant effect." He reached behind his head and pulled off the Zero mask. "This mask has already served its purpose. We are well beyond the point where revealing me would do any real damage, after all, I am already the most wanted man in the Empire."
"You still have not answered my question, Lelouch." Lelouch's mind poured over the question he had been asked. He knew for certain that Nunnally was in fact alive and very well hidden hundreds of kilometers north of Tokyo. That Schneizel thought that she was dead indicated to him that he thought her death was his motive for starting the revolution, or maybe something else. Either way, he did not have the time to consider the possibilities and stuck with the first option.
"She was killed by a Britannian airstrike. Had I actually been there as you had assumed, I would have been vaporized in the blast as well." He told the Prime Minister, sticking close to what their intended fate had been.
"Nunnally was killed by our own air force? How can you be certain?" Schneizel asked, doubting Zero's claim.
"It was two months after the invasion, and nobody else had strategic bombers flying through Britannian controlled airspace. However, I would not be surprised if there are no records to confirm it. The OSI are very good at covering their tracks."
"Are you implying that the OSI was involved in her death?" Schneizel asked.
"Our deaths were ordered by the Emperor himself, and the OSI was his weapon of choice. I have more than enough evidence to prove it." Zero revealed.
"That makes no sense. Why would he try to have his own children killed?" Schneizel was actually astonished at the idea.
"Ask him yourself. I just know how, when, and where, but not why. Although to be honest with you, I don't really care why. They killed my sister, and I will make sure that they suffer for failing to kill me as well." Lelouch half lied. Although Schneizel had somehow figured out who was behind the mask, he still thought that Nunnally had been killed, which made hiding her as easy as staying off the grid and making sure any evidence of her survival was effectively erased.
"This did not turn out anywhere near the way I was hoping it would. Because I was one of the few that knew your bodies were never recovered, I always had this faint hope in the back of my mind that could have somehow survived. I wondered to myself what would happen if a day came that you and Nunnally returned with some miraculous story to tell. I could have never have imagined that it would end up like this. That we would meet again on opposite sides of a war. Goodbye, brother." With that, Schneizel killed the connection on his end.
After a three day journey on their forcibly altered course, NMT 141 ran aground near a coastal village that had been abandoned shortly after the invasion. Waiting nearby in the forest were a fleet of transport trucks concealed by a mass of camo netting. Thirty knightmare frames were also on site, hidden among the ruins of the destroyed village.
The ship had run as close to dry land as it could, before it dropped the two large ramps that led into the cargo hold with only half a meter of water between them and the beach. Moments after the ramps hit the water, four hundred Black Knights personnel rushed up the ramps and raced to start up the huge number of vehicles within. Thanks to the efforts of the team that had captured the ship, they had been provided with detailed maps of how everything had been stored within the hold. The vehicles inside were still fully fueled from being driven onto the ship. Their additional fuel stores and all of their weapons were stored separately in another section of the ship.
The Black Knights quickly started up 90 Panther tanks, 73 Badger APCs, 42 Sutherlands, and five Gloucesters. While the tanks and APCs were being unloaded, the knightmares moved to acquire the fuel and weapons on board.
The operation went smoothly and efficiently as the captured Britannian military hardware was disembarked and then loaded into the waiting trucks. After three hours of rapid work, the vehicles and their escort began the long twenty hour trek south toward Narita through the now sparsely populated forests of northern Japan. Along the way, a group of four Burais broke off from the main convoy and shot down several Britannian military aircraft with surface to air missiles almost 50km away, serving as an effective distraction.
Just before dawn on December 12th, after a week of preparations that established an air tight containment perimeter around the remaining rebels in the Edogawa ghetto, Britannian units were given the green light to launch their assault. The lethal combination of heavy armor and knightmare frames backed up by ground attack aircraft began their advance into the now crumbling remnants of old Tokyo.
Under the streets, Sutherlands and infantry units systematically sweeped through the old subway tunnels that the resistance had relied on for years as a means of evasion. In the week leading up to the assault, recon teams had mapped out virtually every tunnel entrance in eastern Tokyo, removing any chance of a stealthy escape.
Among the hundreds of Britannian infantry soldiers down in the dark tunnels was Fireteam Echo of the 2nd Royal Infantry. Led by Sgt Matthew Sanders, the team of four proceeded down the right side of one of the tunnels, just to the right of a Sutherland several meters in front of them. He scanned the tunnel as they advanced, the night vision mode of his integrated helmet display enhancing the visibility of the otherwise black tunnel to a green tinted version of something similar to just after sunset. The beams of the IR laser assist weapon attachments indicating where his team, and the other four troops hugging the left wall, were aiming their weapons.
Suddenly, a small red triangle appeared on his hud, indicating that his helmet system had identified a human shape that did not have a friendly IFF tag. He informed the Sutherland pilot, and a quick check with the Sutherland's zoom optics showed that it was a hostile with a rocket launcher sticking up from behind a small barricade. Fortunately for the Britannians, the resistance fighter had not yet seen them in the darkness of the tunnel.
"One hostile with an RPG behind cover, 160 meters down on your one o clock. Pop him." Sanders ordered Echo's marksman. Corporal Claire Ennerdale dropped to one knee and took aim with her heavily modified M392 rifle. She activated the zoom device behind her holographic sight and found the resistance fighter's right eye with 6x magnification. Claire squeezed the trigger and removed half of the man's head before the sound wave could even reach him. Seconds later, a storm of hot lead and bright flashes came screaming down the tunnel as other resistance fighters returned fire into the darkness. With their night vision devices and precision optics, the Britannian forces eliminated the now revealed troops with deadly efficiency.
They quickly closed the distance to the area where the dead resistance fighters had fallen, discovering it to be the entrance to an old subway station. Echo team climbed up onto the boarding platform and began to sweep the area as Bravo and the Sutherland slowly continued toward the other side of the station. With no additional contacts spotted, they began to move back toward the knightmare when suddenly a section of the roof of the tunnel collapsed, seperating them from the tunnel where Bravo and the Sutherland were.
"Something just collapsed the tunnel and trapped us in this train station. Echo team cannot continue on mission, requesting new orders." Sanders radioed back to his superiors. A moment later, a voice from the other side replied.
"Roger that Echo. Your new orders are to go through the station and make your way to the surface. From there you are to link up with friendly forces and provide assistance." Sanders acknowledged and motioned his team toward a door on the right. They switched their lasers from IR to visible and disabled their night vision in the lit station. Corporal Ennerdale loaded the modular shotgun attached to the bottom rail of her battle rifle and altered her grip to the trigger just in front of the rifle's box magazine before following her assault rifle wielding friends into the unknown.
Fourteen hours of intense combat later, the operation was complete. The result a decisive Britannian victory. One thousand, eight hundred, and ninety four rebel fighters had been killed to only two hundred and sixteen Britannians, a kill ratio of almost nine to one. Most of the buildings in the Edogawa area had been severely damaged as the advancing Britannian forces were uncaring about collateral damage. Several more had been collapsed completely by the raw power of the Gawain's dual Hadron Cannons.
Britannian officials were quick to label Operation Wildfire a resounding success, as the rebel and terrorist presence that had plagued the Tokyo area for years had been mercilessly crushed. However, they had not managed to locate the Black Knights' main base, or inflict serious damage upon them. The day after the battle at Edogawa ended, they did in fact find a place that appeared to be a Black Knights facility located in a warehouse based on an anonymous tip. An additional thirty troops were crushed to death when they discovered the hard way that the warehouse had been a trap that was carefully rigged to implode.
December 18th.
Diethard waited until his coworker had shut the door as he left the office before opening the secret compartment in his desk. Its contents had changed considerably in recent months. He had finished the bottle of vodka, but decided not to replace it. Instead the same space now held many more bundles of 100 Pound notes.
The military issue pistol had he had stashed there had also been replaced. Diethard had spent a portion of the payment Zero had provided for his outstanding coverage of Euphemia's reveal on a .44 magnum revolver, complete with a rail mounted laser sight and a custom muzzle brake. A dozen full speed loaders, color coded by ammo type, and a spare box of regular magnum ammo accompanied the new weapon. He placed a piece of paper laden with confidential contact information inside, but the phone started ringing before he could close the compartment. He got back up and answered.
"Hello Diethard." Zero's distinctive voice greeted him through the line.
"Zero! What can I do for you today?" Ried was happy to hear his voice again. The last time Zero had called he had made more money in 40 hours than the prior two months, on top of getting the most exclusive story in the world at the time.
"Tomorrow night, actually. I'm sure you're aware of the Prime Minister's scheduled speech?"
"Of course. HiTV will have the exclusive broadcast crew for his highness." Diethard paused for a moment. "Something tells me I am going to like where this is going."
"I'm going to be making my own speech, and I would like to 'borrow' some of Schneizel's air time." Zero told him. "Can you replace the feed with my own about five seconds into the broadcast?"
"The signal from the camera crew comes directly to our headquarters before distribution for security purposes. The only way to intercept it is to do it manually from inside this building." Diethard informed.
"Can you do it?"
"Of course, but they will undoubtedly attempt to stop me once the broadcast switches."
"Would you like me to provide you a covert security team to defend the site?"
"Certainly, Zero. That would be most helpful. After all, it would be a daunting task to maintain the connection and fight off the police at the same time." Diethard responded, ending the conversation. He pulled the large chrome revolver from the still open secret compartment and spun the cylinder around.
"Looks like you are going to give me a wonderful return on investment."