Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass or any of its canon characters.
Three hundred kilometers northwest of Tokyo sat the Noto Strategic Airbase. Originally a civilian airport with a single runway before the Britannian invasion, The Britannian Airforce had taken over the airfield in the days after Japan's surrender and began a massive upgrade project. Noto was perfectly positioned to provide a first strike capability against any hypothetical Chinese invasion of Area 11's west coast. To transform it into a facility that met their specifications, the Britannian engineers extended the original civilian runway, and then added two more next to it. Next to the runways sat a large hangar complex that could accommodate virtually any aircraft in the Britannian arsenal.
To provide the first strike capability, the base had been outfitted with 84 of the state of the art FA120 Tempest air supremacy fighters. Designed to excel at both air superiority and strike missions, the FA120 replaced a wide range of previous generation air superiority and strike fighters. In addition to the Tempests, Noto was also home to a wing of fifteen Stingray strategic bombers, a large twin tailed flying wing design with the capacity to drop over 80 bombs or launch 105 precision guided missiles against land, sea, and air targets.
Overall, the Noto base was equipped with everything required to rain destruction on an enemy force from the air. It was also well prepared to hold against any Chinese or European sea or air attacks with a variety of anti missile, anti air, and long range anti ship defense systems. However, its location far away from any terrorist or resistance hotspots meant that the base's commanders had cut ground defenses to a bare minimum, as they did not expect an attack from anything that did not originate from the air or sea. It was precisely for these reasons that Zero chose Noto as the location of his opening move.
Concealed in the hills along the southern edge of the base were just over six hundred Black Knights infantry, including all of those that had trained extensively on the flight simulators. They were backed up by twelve knightmares, three Sutherlands and nine Burais. With Britannian ground patrols almost non existent in the region, staying hidden was not a challenge for them. They already had their orders and battle plan, all they needed now was the signal to strike.
Milly Ashford took a momentary break from the enormous stack of documents on the table before her to lean back. To say her quality of life had degernerated over the last few weeks would have been an understatement. This happened to be the fourth day in a row that she was working long into the day doing three people's work, with only Rivalz to back her up.
She looked up at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. She was stuck with so much work because her once great student council had since disintegrated. Lelouch, Kallen, and Nina had suddenly dissapeared one night after one of her parties. They had left with no warning, no reasons, not even a trace of where or why they had gone. It was not long after that Suzaku had been rapidly promoted up the military ladder by the new Viceroy. Because he was now a real military commander and constantly occupied with his duties, he had not been able to attend school in weeks. And then there was Shirley, who had also left them without any apparent reason the week before. The only information Milly could dig up was that she had hastily packed up whatever she could carry and left in a hurry, leaving everything else to her roommate.
Of course, Milly had tried to find replacements to fill the gaps in the student council. She had ended up recruiting four new enthusiastic members the week earlier. By Monday they had all quit, mostly because of their president's inhumanly high expectations. Secretly, she was actually happy to see them go, reducing the council back to just the last two original members. Milly had found out the hard way that they had to spend so much time micromanaging the new recruits that all six of them actually got less work done than she and Rivalz alone. She had eventually realized that there were no real replacements for the team of all stars that she had come to rely on to keep Ashford Academy running smoothly.
"I miss them, Rivalz. I wish everything would just go back to the way it was a few months ago." Milly said, still staring at the ceiling.
"That makes two of us." Rivalz added. "I miss everyone too, especially Lelouch. It's just not the same without him here."
On que, the student council room's phone started ringing. They looked at each other, and then at the phone, wondering who would be calling them. Milly got up to answer it since she was closer. She picked the phone from hook, brought it to her ear, and felt her blood run cold.
"I'm sorry, Milly." A very familiar voice came through the line.
"Damn it Lelouch, you better be sorry after disappearing on us like that!" She yelled back at him. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been? How worried we've all been?" Lelouch could hear sadness mixing into her initial anger.
"I know. But it was for your own protection. The last thing I would have wanted to happen was for your family and the school to be targetted as a way to get to me. It was simply impossible to continue on as a student while simultaneously leading a revolution." He explained.
"So you admit it then? You really are Zero?" Milly was slightly surprised that their theory had been correct.
"Yes, although it isn't much of a secret anymore. Schneizel knows, so I have to assume that the OSI and the Emperor are aware as well. If they know I'm alive, there's no reason to hide any longer."
"What about Nina, Nunnally and Shirley? Are they a part of this too?" Milly asked him, desperate to find out what became of her friends. Lelouch thought over her words for a few seconds, the part about Shirley sticking out at him.
"Nunnally is safe, I won't say any more." He paused for a moment. Saying that had brought his sister to the front of his mind. Although he was certain that she was safe and well looked after, he still wondered how it felt to be all alone with only Sayoko in the middle of nowhere. Lelouch pulled himself off that train of thought before the desire to be with her grew too strong. "Nina works for me now, and I haven't heard from Shirley in weeks. Did something happen to her?"
"She disappeared just like you. One day she was perfectly fine, and the next I find out that she cleaned out her room and left a note saying that she couldn't stay and that she was sorry about something." Milly informed him.
"Wherever Shirley went, I assure you I had no hand in it. As much as I would like to investigate, there is something much more serious and immediate. I need your help, Milly."
"With what?"
"Remember the underground warehouse beneath the campus? I need you to get everyone at the Academy down there as soon as you can." Lelouch told her with a hint of urgency.
"Why? What's going to happen that we need to hide underground?" Her voice became a bit more concerned.
"I suppose it wont hurt to tell you the truth, considering the whole world will know soon enough anyway. In just under three hours I will be launching a strategic offensive with the goal of seizing the capital and ousting the Britannian colonial government. The Order of Black Knights will be assaulting Tokyo itself, and avoiding civilian casualties is a high priority. " Lelouch killed the connection before she could respond. He immediately went back to overseeing the deployments and preparations, having decided that he could not waste any more precious time.
Diethard Ried sat at his desk at the HiTV headquarters, going over the blueprints of the building's 8th floor where he would have to manually switch the signals. The broadcasting control room had only one entrance out of the main hallway, an easily defensable choke point. In addition, there were also air conditioning ducts inside the south wall that were technically big enough for the average person to move through. Just as he was contemplating whether or not an armored SWAT police officer could move through the space, two knocks preceded his door opening.
Five Britannians stepped into the room, four men and one woman. They were dressed in ordinary black business suits, white shirts, and ties with a red and black diamond pattern. Just as Zero had told him they would be. He had them shut the door and they immediately went to work planning their hostile takeover.
Princess Carine le Britannia looked down from her seat on board the VTOL aircraft that was giving her an aerial tour of her army's new bases under construction. Viceroy Secilia had paced the construction crews' efforts to match the arrival schedule of the five separate shipments of troops. The first of the five new bases was already complete when she and the first fifty thousand soldiers of the 7th Army arrived in Area 11.
The Viceroy had been surprised to learn that Princess Carine would be leading the 7th Army, assuming that General Anthony Fletcher would wait until after this deployment to retire. Despite her young age of fifteen, Carine possessed an enthusiasm for violence and warfare that few could match, as demonstrated by her numerous and brutal victories in Western Europe during her five months of military service. Although Secilia would never admit it publicly due to Carine's royal blood, she was concerned about having a bloodythirst teenager in command of such a large force. Technically, Carine was to be operating under her command, but Secilia knew from experience that she had very little real power over a princess. And if forced to choose, very few soldiers would disobey the orders of royalty.
Carine watched from her seat high above as NMT 137, an enormous transport ship, unloaded weapons, supplies, and vehicles to the new base. Her available forces were short on equipment and had to borrow some surplus units from Area 11's existing forces, as one of the transports had apparently been somehow hijacked and looted on the open ocean. Regardless, she looked down upon her forces with supreme confidence. After all, these were just numbers and traitors that they were here to fight in Area 11, nothing like the strong and professional armies that they had faced in Europe. In her mind, the princess had little to worry about. She would crush these rebels and secure her reputation as a great Britannian war hero.
December 19th, 14:30. The few ground units that comprised the land defenses of the Noto Strategic Airbase began their regular shift change. As the soldiers took the four minutes necessary to switch, powerful jamming devices were activated along several nearby hills, effectively cutting any direct communication with Tokyo.
Before the Britannians even knew anything was wrong, hundreds of hostile infantry surged forth from their concealed positions barely three hundred meters from Noto's southern perimeter. Backed up by twelve knightmare frames, which split into groups of three, they quickly covered the open ground to the base's outermost fence, which the knightmares were already clearing for them. As they neared the perimeter, they took eight casualties, three fatal, from a machine gunner who had been blindly spraying fire at them from behind a container crate. A nearby black Sutherland quickly removed the threat with a burst of 25mm explosive rounds.
The assaulting infantry units quickly split up after breaching the perimeter and moved to capture their assigned objectives. Some went to neutralize the base's remaining ground troops, others went to clear the nearby buildings, and even more raced to the hangars to secure their aircraft.
For the most part, the Black Knights were very successful. The Britannian defenders had been taken completely by surprise by a numerically superior force. However, they managed to regroup in the northeast corner of the installation. The remaining Britannian forces, about 100 infantry and four hastily armed maintenance Glasgow frames, scrambled to dig in and resist.
The attacking Black Knights infantry that were engaging their position from the south found themselves pinned and held back by their determined enemy's overlapping fields of fire. The Britannian troops were desperately calling for reinforcements, oblivious to the fact that their communications were being actively jammed. No help would be coming for them.
Twenty minutes later, all twelve knightmare frames and upwards of three hundred Black Knights launched a vicious assault on their position. Within minutes they managed to penetrate and destroy the pocket of resistance, at the cost of 38 troops dead, 33 more wounded, and one Burai destroyed by anti armor rockets.
As the fighting ended, the noncombatant personnel in the base were gathered and placed into one of the larger hangars under armed guard. Their new rules of engagement were very clear. Armed Britannian soldiers were to be killed on sight. Unarmed troops and noncombatants were to be given the option to surrender, and killed if they refused. Civilians were to be protected if possible, and detained with minimal force if they resisted.
An hour later, the Black Knights had armed and boarded all of the Tempest fighters, and ten of the Stingray bombers, the other five remaining on base as they did not have enough air crew for all of the aircraft. Utilizing all three runways, the Tempests took off six at a time, followed shortly after by the strategic bombers. They started climbing and formed up in the skies over western Japan before they began flying east toward Tokyo, their stealth technology and custom IFF signals rendering them practically invisible to all active Britannian radar installations.
Prime Minister Schneizel walked up to the podium, put down his three sheets of paper, and began waiting for the two minute countdown timer that the HiTV news crew used to indicate when they were going live. Gathered in the room with him were a variety of Area 11's elite, including the Viceroy.
As the timer reached twenty seconds, and Schneizel prepared himself, a soldier entered from the back and quickly approached Viceroy Secilia.
"Your Excellency, we have just lost all contact with the Noto airbase, they aren't responding to any transmissions." The infantryman informed her.
"What do you mean 'lost contact'? Have they been attacked?" The Viceroy asked.
"We do not know, there haven't been any reports from the area in the last two hours. I must inform you that two hours is fifty seven minutes longer than any communications issue on record for that base."
"Divert an air patrol over to Noto immediately and find out what is happening. Report back to me the moment you have new information." Secilia ordered.
"At once, Viceroy." The soldier finished before quickly leaving the room to carry out his new orders. As the door shut behind him, the news team signaled that they were going live. Schneizel prepared to speak.
At that same moment on the 8th floor of the HiTV headquarters in central Tokyo, Diethard Ried and his team of undercover Black Knights had taken over the broadcasting room as planned. He changed a few settings to match a signal that the head of the security team had provided him. On schedule, Schneizel appeared on the live feed in front of them, standing behind the podium with a pair of well lit Britannian flags adorning the wall behind him. Exactly five seconds into the broadcast, Diethard flipped a switch and changed the outbound signal.
The screen with the live feed flickered for a moment, before switching to something else entirely. Zero appeared on the feed, standing atop a silver Gekka frame. Other knightmares were visible behind his. On Zero's right stood the Black Knights' custom Gloucester. Like Zero, its pilot also was standing in the open air above the frame. Above the new black uniform was a head that could not be mistaken. Cornelia li Britannia stood in the cold December air, wearing a uniform with a very visible silver Black Knights emblem across the chest. On Zero's left was another Gekka with a custom black paint job. Kyoshiro Todou stood at attention above the unit.
The image was truly awe inspiring, not because of the fact that a Britannian princess and a Japanese war hero were standing beside Zero, but because they were standing beside Zero with the whole of Britannian Tokyo clearly visible behind them.
A minute earlier aboard the Black Knights' submarine, three hundred kilometers southeast of Tokyo, an order came over their secure channel. A crew member keyed in a set of sensitive codes on a normally restricted console after receiving authorization. Two of the submarine's vertical launch tubes' doors then opened. Seconds later, flame and smoke erupted through the calm surface of the Pacific Ocean as two strategic missiles reached up into the sky. They quickly ascended vertically, leaving white trails behind them, before heading west toward their target coordinates..
The world watched in surprise as Zero had cut off the Prime Minister's speech. Most of them were all eager to find out what he had to say. The exception being the Black Knights themselves, as they had already gotten a preview 17 hours earlier, just before they prepared to move out toward their operation starting positions. Four seconds after he appeared, Zero began to speak.
"I am Zero, founder and leader of the Order of Black Knights. Over the past five months, you have witnessed things that were once thought of as impossible brought to reality through my actions. This mask that I wear has always been the public face of our struggle, and it has come to represent the ideas and values that the Black Knights stand for.
However, in the end it is nothing more than a symbol, a tool that has allowed me to build an army with the strength and determination to fight for what we believe in. We fight for a world without the racism and injustice heaped upon us by Emperor Charles, and my Black Knights are living proof that it is possible. We are an equal opportunity military, where everyone from Japanese refugees to Britannian royalty live and fight side by side for the chance to create a better future for us all.
My mask has completed its mission flawlessly, and now the time has finally come where we no longer need to rely on a symbol. Zero will not defeat the Holy Britannian Empire..." Zero spoke. Then, for the first time on live television, he reached behind his head and unlocked the scales, which then slid up. He removed the mask and placed it down on the Gekka. The camera zoomed in closer, and the whole world finally got to see the face of the mysterious revolutionary leader. "But I will."
"Once upon a time, I was a prince, living my happy childhood in a grand Pendragon palace. But it was not to be. Seven years ago, I was betrayed. In an instant, Britannia stole everything from me. My home, my family, my entire place in the world. I was exiled to Japan before my eleventh birthday, tossed aside by the Emperor as if I were nothing more than worthless garbage. But just as I finally had a place that I could call home again, Britannia came half way across the world to destroy it all for the second time.
Emperor Charles, my name is Lelouch vi Britannia, and I am a demon of your own creation. I will tear down your empire, and cleanse your evil from the world. I will have vengeance for all the innocent lives that you have destroyed. I will erase your life's accomplishments from existence, and burn everything that you stand for. Then from the ashes, I will forge a brighter future for everyone, because we are all created equal, and we all deserve to be free. My only regret is that you won't live long enough to see it happen." Lelouch boldly declared to the Emperor, with literally the whole world as his witness. Lelouch checked his watch, and saw that it was exactly 16:02:27, exactly nine seconds until the projected impact time. The Black Prince looked back up at the camera. "This is the way your world ends!"
Thousands of miles away in Pendragon, Emperor Charles sat at the head of a large oval table with various members of the royal family and a number of generals and admirals. The Emperor was fond of having these type of meetings, as they allowed him to well informed on the status of the Empire. They had spent the last hour discussing everything from the military situation in Europe, to new technology. That was a bit of information William Black could not have cared less about as he and four other OSI personnel barged through the door, to the surprise of the room's occupants.
"What is the meaning of this interruption William?" Charles asked with an undertone of annoyance as he stood up.
"Forgive me your majesty, but you must see this!" Black quickly blurted out as he moved to hit a few buttons at the controls of the room's large screen. Their map of Europe disappeared and was instantly replaced by the live broadcast from Area 11. They, along with hundreds of millions of others around the globe watched in silence as Lelouch vi Britannia declared his intentions. When the speech ended, the room sat dead silent for several seconds. Then their Emperor began laughing.
"Who would have thought that such a little weakling would grow up to be this much of an annoyance."
Port Yokosuka, just over 45 kilometers from central Tokyo, was home to a Britannian Royal Marine base. The six thousand personnel stationed here had a wide variety of responsibilities, being the only Royal Marines in Area 11. Unfortunately for the action hungry Marines, this was a quiet area, and their duties mainly consisted of assisting the Royal Britannian Navy, and boring patrols through abandoned areas. Most of the civilian population had fled north following the initial invasion, with virtually all of those that remained following them in the years after. By late 2017, there was little but the ruins of what once was, and base left in the area.
Down on the docks, three cruisers and a frigate were in port for resupply. Nearby was a large military transport ship. The transport had stopped here to unload the 400 RM personnel it had ferried from the mainland, before sailing to the other side of Tokyo Bay to deliver its main shipment of seven thousand troops of the 7th Army to their new base near the abandoned town at Kisarazu. This was the second of five total transport ships bringing the second wave of fifty thousand troops to Area 11 from Europe, the first having arrived ten hours earlier. This ship had in fact passed the last one on the way into the bay two hours earlier. The crew of the departing vessel had no idea just how lucky they were.
A small light, trailing white smoke, sailed through the sky toward Yokosuka. From a distance, it could have easily been mistaken for a high altitude aircraft. No alarm went off as the missile approached. Those that were not already busy at their posts were glued to whatever screen was closest, watching Zero on TV. The seconds ticked by slowly as the Marines watched Zero, now revealed as the supposedly dead prince, Lelouch vi Britannia, check a wrist watch. He looked back to the camera.
"This is the way your world ends!" The time was 16:02:47, December 19th, 2017, A single moment that would change the course of history forever.
At precisely that second, the incoming strategic missile was 1 kilometer over Yokosuka. Upon reaching the programmed height, the Mjolnir warhead activated, and the weapon detonated. In a fraction of a second, the most powerful artificial explosion in human history was unleashed upon the unfortunate base. With power equivalent to approximately five megatons of TNT, the Mjolnir bomb exploded into a titanic blast of blindingly bright pink light.
Many times brighter than the sun, the massive fireball grew to a diameter of nearly four kilometers in the blink of an eye, instantly vaporizing Port Yokosuka and all who were there. The unbelievable heat generated by the explosion fueled a supersonic blast wave that smashed and incinerated everything within an eleven kilometer radius of the fireball. After the wave passed, the intense heat sparked thousands of fires through the remains of the affected areas.
What had been a Britannian military base only a minute earlier was now a huge and rapidly flooding crater that would have been easily visible from orbit. There were no survivors, no remains, not even a trace left in the blast radius that the Yokosuka base had even existed. All thirteen thousand troops and sailors had been erased from the world at the push of a button.
Forty two seconds later, the second strategic missile slammed into the nearly finished Kisarazu base, just over 25 kilometers away, with similarly devastating results. The name Mjolnir was well suited to the weapon's power, for what remained of the target areas really did look as if they had just been hit by the hammer of a god.
The view of Mjolnir from Tokyo had been both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. As one sun dipped lower in the western sky, two more rose in the south. The heat, wind, and sound generated from the twin nuclear blasts could be clearly felt even at over 40 kilometers away, momentarily banishing the cold of winter with a surge of midsummer heat. As the fireballs dimmed, two giant mushroom clouds reached high into the evening sky.
Lelouch lowered himself back into his Gekka, pleased that he had managed to time his speech almost exactly to the flight time of the first missile. Psychologically, it would give the impression to many that his words themselves had caused the unbelievable explosions. An incoming transmission notice appeared on one of his screens. He accepted it and was greeted by a young Japanese woman dressed in a spotless Black Knights uniform. From what he could see behind her, she was one of the intelligence staff at the Narita base's command center.
"Zero, both Mjolnir weapons have detonated successfully against their targets of Yokosuka and Kisarazu. Total estimated Britannian military casualties are between 12 and 18 thousand. Civilian casualties in those areas would have been minimal, no more than one or two hundred at most." She reported.
While significant damage had clearly been done in the strikes, Yokosuka and Kisarazu were far from the juiciest targets. The bases had been singled out for their lack of nearby civilian populations. Using Mjolnir to strike Starlight Field and the newly constructed base just south of Chiba would have outright crippled their enemy, all but assuring a quick victory. However, they were also in close proximity to highly populated areas. Killing 40,000+ Britannian troops would have been great, but murdering upwards of half a million innocent civilians in the process was simply not something Lelouch was willing to do no matter the reason.
In addition to the significant physical destruction caused, the secondary and indirect effects of Mjolnir were far more widespread. The whole world was in shock at the events of the last hour, and that could be exploited as a decisive strategic advantage. Britannian military communications were a disorganized mess immediately following the nuclear attack. Being completely unprepared, and fearing additional strikes could be incoming, several Britannian field commanders ordered their forces to break formation as a preemptive defensive measure. On paper, it did make sense to start moving as fast as they could if more missiles were incoming. The problem for them was that it was nothing more than an elaborate trap. The fact that fear and panic could shatter a defensive position faster than any conventional attack was an element that Lelouch had considered when designing his battle plans.
One such Britannian armored unit had been ordered to move from their assigned positions and advance ten kilometers north of Tokyo. As they approached three kilometers from their starting point, they found themselves suddenly and brutally engaged by dozens of black tanks and knightmare frames that had been concealed in the forest. They had run blindly right into a Black Knights armored unit that was not suffering from panic induced disorganization. The Britannians returned fire as best as they could under the circumstances, but were no match for the calmly aimed, lethally accurate fire being poured onto them. Within five minutes, all of their vehicles had been systematically destroyed by the advancing armor, with the surviving infantry being mercilessly exterminated by the advancing armored vehicles' thermal sighted secondary weapons.
The story was the same all along the front above Tokyo. Thousands of Black Knights advanced from their starting positions toward the city at a rapid pace, easily crushing what little disorganized resistance stood between them and their objectives.
Britannian military communications had been severely disrupted in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear attacks. Both from the shock and chaos created, and from the weapons' EMP effects. Britannian commanders did eventually manage to restore order, but not before numerous units had been lost to the devastating surprise ground attack from the north that had been initiated as the strategic missiles had hit in the south. Many of the units stationed to the north of Tokyo had taken serious casualties.
Without any other good options, All Britannian forces north of Tokyo were ordered by the Viceroy to pull back into the massive structure of the city itself. From this position, they had several critical defensive advantages over the attacking Black Knights. The entire Britannian city was raised almost 40 meters above ground level, with the main entrances being a series of bridges that led in from Area 11's highway system. As the troops, tanks, and knightmare frames retreated into the city, they had a natural high ground advantage, as well as security in the knowledge that the city was surrounded by what effectively amounted to a large moat.
The water channels setup around the city were home to the massive solar and tidal power arrays that provided a significant portion of the city's energy supply. They were also deep enough to keep an invading army out.
As the Britannian units crossed the bridges into the city, waves of ground attack aircraft and Shortsword gunships flew over the area to cover their retreat and suppress the enemy advance. As they did, several of the pilots noticed a small section of the western sky was sparkling with what appeared as a cluster of stars. This would be nothing unusual, except for the fact that stars were not supposed to be visible that close to the setting sun.
Ried had been very correct in assuming that the staff and police would try to end their hijacking of the broadcasting room. It was only a few minutes from the start of Zero's speech until a police unit had shown up at the front door of the room. A dozen regularly uniformed officers, not armored SWAT troops, stacked up on both sides of the double doors.
Diethard took a moment to think over the situation. He had broken into this room at Zero's request, cut off the Prime Minister's speech, and was now standing with five Black Knights to defend the position. He was no longer just a reporter doing some questionable things to get a story, but in effect was now working for Zero. This was now a real war, and he had taken a side.
"Why the hell not. I guess making the news can be just as fun as reporting it." Diethard muttered to himself as he drew his custom revolver and activated the laser sight before taking aim at the door. A few seconds later, the police, at the insistence of the HiTV staff, tried to breach the broadcasting room. The doors were smashed in, and in rushed the police with their pistols and three shotguns. The Black Knights team immediately opened fire with their assault weapons as the officers entered the room, quickly injuring two and forcing them to take cover near the entrance.
Diethard poked out from his hiding spot behind a server tower and leveled the magnum toward a policeman with a pump action shotgun on the other side of the room. The red laser dot settled just under his target's left ear. Ried squeezed the trigger, causing a sound much louder than the lower caliber weapons exchanging fire. The large round hit precisely where the laser said it would, blasting a large portion of the man's head off with an unmistakable wet popping sound. It was the first time he had ever killed someone, but Ried had seen enough death and gunfights first hand during his career to not let it faze him. He shifted to fire at another, but they were now aware of his position and repositioned themselves out of his line of fire. He fired three more .44 caliber rounds into the desk one of the officers was using as a shield. The scream that followed indicating that he had hit someone.
Britannian Tokyo was itself a true marvel of modern engineering. The massive structure that the entire city was build upon had six main entrance bridges which led up from the highways at ground level. As the Black Knights forces pushed toward the city, they would have to go up some or all of these to get their armor into the city.
As black tanks, APCs, and knightmare frames pushed up the four bridges that led in from the north and west, swarms of Britannian attack aircraft rushed to defend the area. Dozens of Shortsword gunships engaged the exposed Black Knights, raining explosive rockets and 30mm cannon fire down upon their vehicles. The forces on the ground returned fire with what anti air capable weapons they had available. Knightmares' 25mm assault rifle fire, secondary machine guns mounted on the tanks, and even a few Badger AD variants equipped with powerful 20mm Gatling cannons, designed for short range anti air and tactical missile defense.
Despite their array of anti aircraft weapons, it was clear that the Black Knights were in fact losing. Several of their vehicles exploded under the barrage of fire from the air. Combined with a counterstrike by Britannian armor at the top of the bridges was pushing them back. The counterstrike was particularly effective in the north, where Britannian units managed to force the Black Knights off of the northern most bridge entirely.
As Britannian forces retook control of the northern most bridge, they began to exchange fire with Black Knights vehicles 400 meters away on another bridge. Hundreds of glowing tracer rounds danced between the two bridges as well as into the sky.
Within the HiTV headquarters inside the city, another battle was raging for control of the broadcasting room. Diethard and his Black Knight allies had managed to kill most of the original police officers that had breached the door. However, just as they had taken a numerical advantage, the first swat team arrived on scene.
The heavily armored swat officers rushed through the doors, advancing through heavy fire under the protection of shields and first rate body armor. The Black Knights' small arms were unable to penetrate the heavy shields carried by the officers on point, and soon ten of them had reached cover inside the room.
Unlike the regular officers, the swat unit was more heavily armed. In addition to pistols and shotguns, they carried sub machine guns, compact assault rifles, and stun grenades.
A Black Knight threw a flash grenade of his own, and all six of them raised up and opened fire at their disoriented opposition. The swat troops had been trained on how to deal with this type of situation however, and were quicker to recover than expected.
One of the armored police found a good angle, and fired a long burst from his assault rifle across the broadcast room. The first Black Knight fell as nine rounds shredded her upper torso and neck. Her bloody remains slumped down against the desk behind her. Seeing an opportunity as the enemy fire diminished, the SWAT team began to advance. They slowly moved in teams of three across the room, being careful not to be too exposed.
One of the Black Knights tapped the briefcase he had brought with him, and the other three nodded at him. Diethard looked at them with confusion, until he saw what was inside the briefcase. The Black Knight had in his hands three large tan bricks, each with a switch taped to them. He put one of them down and Diethard's eyes widened as he got a good look at the writing on the side. "C4 High Explosive, 1 Kilogram. The man flipped the switches to green on all three blocks. At the same time, the others raised up and unloaded their weapons on full auto at the approaching police. Another suited Black Knight was killed by a headshot as he stood up.
A total of 100 hot metal bullets were sprayed across the room at the police. Although intended as a suppression tactic, many of them hit the approaching force. The police tried to get behind the protection of their shields, but it was not big enough. Two of the swat officers suffered multiple hits from the assault rifle fire. The screams of their suffering unnerved the rest of the SWAT, and the advance stalled as the police tried to get their wounded back to the entrance.
When all of the rifles clicked empty, the Black Knight with the briefcase threw the C4 toward the entrance and the pinned SWAT officers. With his hand on the detonator, he motioned at the large vent cover near them. Diethard raised his revolver and blasted off the large bolts holding the vent cover in place. The last bolt exploded, and the man behind him pressed the detonator.
An overwhelming conbination of light, sound, and explosive overpressure shook the entire building. The C4 had obliterated the front half of the room, the police occupying it, and probably more in the hallway. The four survivors squeezed into the ventalation system and moved to make their escape.
Viceroy Secilia quickly climbed into the Gawain's cockpit and began strapping herself in. Nobody, especially the viceroy herself, had expected the Black Knights to launch such a massive attack so soon. With the majority of her reinforcements still in transit from Europe, and Britannian morale shaken by the scale and ferocity of the enemy assault, Secilia was not confident that anyone other than herself achieve a decisive victory from the mess she was preparing to fly into.
"What is the status of our forces at the bridges?" She asked the moment she had established a connection to the G1 mobile base running operations at the front.
"Viceroy, large enemy ground forces are attacking from the north and west. Our air power is slowly driving them back in the north, but enemy armor is close to breaking through in the west." The chief communications officer aboard the G1 informed her. "
"Do we know what caused those enormous explosions earlier?"
"Negative, excellency. Whatever they attacked us with is exponentially stronger than anything in our arsenal. We have new imagery of the blast sites, uploading now." the comms officer informed her. A pair of smaller screens appeared in front of her, showing two massive craters filled with sea water. Secilia stared in awe at the scale of the devastation for a few seconds before issuing new orders.
She would never show it, but she was starting to feel a tendril of fear in the back of her mind. The Black Knights had just demonstrated that they have the ability to unleash unimaginable destructive power whenever and wherever they want. She wondered if they were too late, and if this was the super weapon that William Black had warned her about.
"I want all of our forward units to pull back toward areas with large civilian populations immediately. If the Black Knights have more of those weapons, I doubt they would use them in such a way that could cause massive civilian casualties."
"Understood excellency, relaying orders now."
The Gawain's diagnostics showed all systems functioning normally and both energy fillers at full charge. The large knightmare picked up its scythe from its resting place against an adjacent tree. The float system came online and the system's six arms began to glow as they released plasma to generate lift. The Gawain rose off of the palace atop the government building and began flying toward the failing western perimeter.
Another massive explosion rang out in the distance. Reports over radio channels indicated that HMS Snowdonia had just destroyed one of the main bridges with a very accurate artillery strike.
As she flew, she had a moment to think. The success of the Black Knights made real sense now that their leader was revealed as Lelouch vi Britannia, and not some mystery woman in a straight jacket. Like many others among Britannia's upper ranks, she had seen his powerful mind in action as he went about regularly humiliating chess grandmasters before his ninth birthday.
It was in that moment that she realized the mistake they had been making all along. Britannia had always thought the Black Knights were nothing more than another resistance movement, something that could be effortlessly smashed when the time was right. But this was something else. She was facing a real strategic genius with a real army and unbelievable weapons of mass destruction.
Secilia couldn't help but admire his strength. Going from an exiled child left for dead to waging open warfare against the most powerful empire in history at the head of his own private military. This was exactly what she had been waiting for; the chance to prove herself against the strongest enemy in the world. Secilia had her mind set, this would be her finest hour, or her final hour.
AN: Changes made in revision: several hundred errors corrected throughout the entire story. A lot of dialogue tweaked to be (hopefully) better. Removed a lot of old notes that did nothing more than inflate the word count. Removed the lemon (tried to rewrite it, but ultimately decided to leave it out. As far as the story is concerned, nothing changes) Only 1 retcon, HMS Edinburgh is now HMS Yorktown.
Update:9/13/2012: Fixed a few errors and changed a tiny bit of wording to sound smoother.