Rise of Avalon's moon
World is sick by more ways than one. From black darkness of it rises mysterious being: Black Warlock Prince. L/K/C/A
English is not my mother language so I hope you forgive my writing errors.
"Human language Speaking"
'Human language Thoughts'
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.
4. Rulers of Neon-Avalon and Ashford
"Mother, what is the difference between GDI and CHES? Aren't they both under same military?" little girl asked curiously in bed.
"Good question my dear. To answer your question while whole Britannian army is under Emperor Charles it was divided by which of two greatest competitors for throne, Schneizel eu Britannia or Maximillian at Britannia, they support, although also their other siblings used those militaries.
GDI is what Britannian military was usually called after organization was taken by Britannia and is its public face. During Britannia's world invasion its patron was Schneizel eu Britannia. It was first to send troops wholly composed from Knightmares and those were mainly used by GDI. It takes the public image of the knights of old and prides by being military of the knights and it holds most of the children of noblemen and royal knights and their servants. This army likes to go fast in mid-range and close-range combat where other nation's machines like EU and Chinese Federation are seriously lacking. After fielding the Knightmares it didn't make many technological breakthroughs before seventh generation machines started coming out, but when ASEEC's Camelot-group got in work it made many achievements, most famous being aerial ships and variations from Lancelot. Aside Knightmares it uses mostly technology of old GDI like Pitbulls, Mammoths and such and its icon transport are G-1 Bases. Most of Britannia's greatest heroes are from GDI, but it also supports racist groups like International Purist Faction and Knights of St Darwin and in technologies it researches things like satellite weapons and missiles of mass destruction. Its many dirty things, like war-crimes, rapes and etc., are swept under carpet and good things are high-lighted making it highly romanticized so much that many of its own knights believe they can do no evil. Nobody believes in romanticizing lies as badly as the liars themselves. Known members are for example Cornelia li Britannia and later Suzaku Kururugi.
If in terms of middle-ages GDI is regular army CHES-forces are troops of the church and while GDI took image of the knights from days of glory CHES's image was the futuristic and modernized Britannia with heavy emphasizing towards ranged combat where GDI has some lacking. They were also military part of the Titans Foundation which is created by at Britannia brothers Maximillian and Maximus. Since developers of the Automatons, FutureTech, is research branch of the Foundation CHES is first one in the world and only military in Britannia that uses those. Its military mostly uses Automatons although they have worked lately in development of the Knight Giga Fortresses which were firstly developed by EU and Knightmares. CHES uses mostly Britannian middle-class citizens and former nobles as their soldiers offering them chance to rise in nobility and riches if you're ambitious and willing to sacrifice things like your morals and others. Since GDI has to stay 'pure' they're mostly used when nobles want some dirty work from military, but they also help in spreading technology used in stopping and containing ayersium and it builds safe houses and cybernetic armors and develops cybernetic limbs allowing Britannia spread in orange and sometimes in red zones. In its most known technologies are cybernetics, rail guns and harmonic resonance and its icon quadrupedal walker transport, first Crawlers, CHES MCV Mk VII Offence Crawler Base."
"I see. But that is enough; right now I want to hear about more of your story."
"As you wish my dear. Today we talk about two greatest female warriors in recent history Altria and Kallen and leaders of the Neon Avalon."
X-X
Almost two hours later at Military Base of CHES-forces at near the Viceroy's Palace the soldiers left behind in Major Sega Waltz's zealous attempt to destroy rumored Funeral Parlor's secret base, saw the G-1 and a few Sutherland Knightmare Frames and armored vehicles entering the base. Apparently they were some forces from other GDI base coming for routine inspection ordered by Clovis. It was in schedule so they didn't suspect anything.
They had received word via a text-only message from sub-viceroy Roberta that the unexpected resistance force was encountered at Shinjuku Ghetto which was to be liquidated, but in their foolishness and overconfidence in Britannia's perceived superiority they failed to realize danger entering their base. Worse yet was the fact that the men protecting the base right now were below the bare minimum required for proper security and protection since Clovis and major Sega took just about everyone to their quests.
However as this was happening a lone soldier was conducting his rounds inside a reserve Knightmare Frame hanger which was being used by the Advance Special Envoy Engineering Corps to store its prized creation, one of the world's first seventh generation Knightmare Frames the Z-00 Arthur. Workings late into the evening were a pair of scientists who were working for the ASEEC.
"You realize Edward we still need a pilot."
"Yes I know, but that pompous fool Bartley wouldn't allow us to tag along with Lancelot. Lloyd could have gotten Arthur ready and moving already while they were at it." Edward Princeton said replying to a comment made by his co-worker and effectively his right hand man Charlie Archer.
The lone soldier assigned to watching the hanger's interior and its contents was private Al Charlston who had lost the draw for guard duty in the hanger which was the most boring of tasks. Al kept quiet as he fulfilled his duties and despite what he heard this job wasn't too bad compared to other jobs he had been assigned. It was quiet and uneventful, but it was a nice change of pace. It also allowed him time to talk with two young girl Knightmare pilots of his age from Purist Faction, Marika Soresi and Liliana Vergamon.
Al, Marika and Liliana were protégés of three persons in charge of Purist forces in Area Eleven, Jeremiah Gottwald, Kewell Soresi and Villetta Nu. Villetta Nu was descended from African slaves brought in Britannia decades ago and in order to rise from hatred that Britannians felt at her skin color she joined Purists as it was quick way to show her hatred at non-Britannians and become baroness. Marika's big-brother Kewell joined by same reasons, as Soresis descended from Australians. Al, Marika and Liliana worked as testers of new Knightmare weapons in Camelot and son of baroness Al himself was there to find murderer of his mother. His mother had been commander of first forward base in Area Eleven and died when mysterious attacker set base in fire. Al's mother was nice at those who hold same rank as she, but treated those below her cruelly. Al was son of her lover. Well he could wait his revenge and get closer with Liliana he holds feelings for.
Yet little did Al realize that was suddenly going to change as on the bridge of the G-1 the Gai Tsutsugami, or also known as leader of Funeral Parlor Triton, sat in the throne once occupied by the commander as he gave the order. Revealing base had been a bait to lure CHES-forces from base so that this base could be destroyed. Real forces of GDI had been ambushed and annihilated quickly under ECCM while they were on their way there.
"Now!"
At that moment the Sutherlands that had followed the G-1 into the base suddenly broke away and began using their weapons including heavy bazookas to quickly destroy most of the Knightmare Frame hangers and other structures throwing the entire base into disarray. Soldiers of Neon Avalon and new recruits from the vengeful and angry citizens of the Japanese ghettos poured out from the G-1 and transport trucks with guns blazing while the more battle hardened members using Airburst rocket launchers were destroying everything else.
Inside the hangar containing Arthur the explosion and the alarms going off caused Charlie to jump out of his chair in alarm.
"What is going on out there?"
"I think someone is attacking the base." Edward replied nonchalantly.
"But how, we're in the base at the center of government for Area 11." Charlie as the very idea of someone attacking the base they were in seemed impossible.
Al on the other hand was trying to contact his superior to find out what was going on, but all he received was static. Taking a risk the private opened up the armored door leading outside and what he saw shocked him as virtually the entire base was in flames as armored vehicles were destroyed. He saw the G-1 usually used by the GDI, but it was obvious within moments that a terrorist group had taken it and smuggled a large force into the base catching it completely off guard with a surprise attack.
Al realized by some of the clothes and attire the attackers wore so it was easy to figure a terrorist group was behind this attack, but at this point he shouldn't even consider them a terrorist group but rather an army invading the base. Al watched as the Funeral Parlor's forces brutally ravaged the base like an army of extremely pissed-off ants.
In the middle of the horrific burning inferno Al saw Sutherland with big sword leading the attack as a dozen CHES-forces' Automatons Gautiers were attacking the armored warrior with assault rifles, but to the young man's amazement the Sutherland was effortlessly deflecting most of the bullets with quick and masterful swings of his blade.
Then quickly, one by one, the Sutherland dealt with the Britannian Automatons foolish enough to attack him as it left a trail of severed limbs and heads of machines as it moved with a great. Al felt a chill go down his spine as he felt the Sutherland was looking at him after destroying the last Britannian Automaton attacking it.
Closing the door quickly and locking it tightly before he hurried around making sure all of the entrances were locked and sealed he hurried to researchers, Marika and Liliana.
"Excuse my lords and girls, but the base is under heavy attack and I strongly suggest we should evacuate the base."
"Thank you for the news report Mr. Obvious…I am already cleaning out the computers of our research data and transferring it to a portable storage device." Edward said.
"But how are we going to get out?" Charlie asked as Al didn't even have an idea, but he was responsible for their lives and the machine they were developing so he would see them to safety one way or the other.
He wasn't able to think anything before doors burst open and Sutherland with sword fired at them with rifle. It didn't aim to kill, just force Britannians out of the way and it worked. When they run in cover Sutherland was free to roll in front of Knightmare Frame Arthur. Machine had legs, arms and head ready, but mechanics in torso were bare as day. Still after making sure Britannians stayed in cover with quick burst from rifle cockpit opened and out stepped young woman with blue dress, knight's armor and helmet and big beautifully crafted sword. She jumped in Arthur's cockpit and started it up. Knightmare gripped big sword designed for it, world's first Maser Vibration Sword and after slicing her former Sutherland with said sword she moved out of hangar.
"Great we lost Arthur for enemy." said Marika. "What we do now? Lloyd is going to have cardiac arrest for this, but we can't give it to rebels."
"Well we have the three Sutherlands and single Gloucester, but I don't know if those can defeat Arthur… It still misses armor and some equipment…" Edward began as he lazily turned his attention to girls and Al. "Privates Soresi, Charleston and Vergamon was it? I understand you test our weaponry so you are pretty good with Knightmare Frames."
"Well yes my lord, but we have never been in combat." Liliana answered.
"You can't be serious…I know the situation is bad but…" Al said as he realized what researcher was asking from them.
"Edward I just heard news that one building where Cocoons were was destroyed by rebels." Charlie said. Cocoons were term for cockpits where pilots of Automatons drove remotely machines usually far away from battlefield.
"You have any better ideas?" Edward began as suddenly the sound of fists pounding on the wall and explosions of Knightmares and Automatons could be heard. "And we better decide right now."
Outside trying to break down the base the Triton and a group of his followers were planning on invading. Since they were razing the base to the ground and taking what hasn't been destroyed in the initial attack the Triton planned on claiming Arthur for Lelouch's servant Altria who he had borrowed for this attack, which was why the hanger it was contained in was spared the initial bombardment. It had worked as Altria was able to charge in hangar and now she was swinging huge sword masterfully while Neon Avalon's fighters closed in to help her.
X-X
At same time lonely EU's Automaton Jumeau, which was bought from EU contacts by Triton, was hunting machines trying to escape from base or enter in and help Britannians. Jumeau units feature a more bulky and rounded appearance, disk-shaped heads, piston-like arms, hind-legs and a predominantly black color scheme. They were inferior for CHES's Gautiers, but she was ace pilot with lot of experience.
"How many opponents Black Swan?" the woman pilot of the white mecha questioned.
Code name Black Swan AKA girl named Tsugumi's voice replied, "Still unknown… The numbers keep rising! Hang in there."
As the pilot turned the mecha around a corner she accidentally rammed into a hostile mecha and gasped in pain before backing away while being berated by Tsugumi. The green mecha then launched a couple of missiles to which the hostile mecha began retreating away from the objects approaching it.
The indigo Gautier was successful in dodging the missiles as two of the three impacted the ground while the third impacted the building that a trailer was parked next to causing the trailer to fall sideways.
X-X
Just as they broke the armored door down and streamed inside the base Altria saw as the hanger doors were blown apart as the two Sutherlands and lone Gloucester sped out attacking the nearest enemy Knightmare Frame with its slash harkens. In the confusion of the sudden attack its transport trailer hurried out of the hanger making a mad dash for the rear gate intending to escape the base.
"Privates, remember your mission…destroy Arthur, cover our escape and then retreat. We cannot afford to allow the Arthur to fall into enemy hands."
"I understand my lord." girls and Al replied as they sat inside the cockpit handling the Sutherland and in Al's case lone Gloucester. Al was amazed by the performance and the handling the machine had as he tried to deal with the enemies around him.
"So they are making their escape. No matter…order the men to back away, I'll face them myself." Altria ordered soldiers of Funeral Parlor as she prepared in combat.
"Yes ma'am…"
Altria had finished defeating another group of enemy Knightmare Frames and two Sutherlands and lone Gloucester shouldn't be problem. The sight of over a dozen destroyed Britannian machines was a lot to take in more so was the fact that a single machine piloted by rebel made it hard to believe.
"So this is our little troublemaker…she must be quite skilled to do all of this. At last a worthy challenge for us." Liliana declared, but she had no idea just to what she was facing. Al questioned if confronting the seventh generation Knightmare even if unfinished was a good idea as the combat experience he had been screaming at him for a tactical retreat.
Although on the offhand Al knew they couldn't run, but something about this foe had him on edge.
"I'll take him!" Marika declared charging him with her Sutherland's lance ready heading straight at the Arthur.
"Wait Marika there is something wrong here!" Al said as all of his instincts as a pilot and soldier told him that something were very wrong here.
Liliana was going to say something, but her attention was drawn to Marika as she engaged the knight of Lelouch in single combat. Yet to their horror the fight lasted barely a minute as the Altria in her new ride easily parried all of Marika's attempts at impaling the Arthur with stun tonfa before the Purist Member was disarmed quickly followed up by getting impaled through the stomach by the Arthur's MVS sword.
"MARIKA!"
Liliana screamed as Soresi's Sutherland exploded leaving now imitating looking Arthur before them ready to add another kill to today's list of casualties for the Britannians. Al was left speechless after seeing one of his own friends get defeated right in front of him.
"We'll avenge her…come on Liliana we'll both take her!"
Liliana almost wanted to run away instead as every nerve in her body was trying to compel her to run away as she could feel every hair on her neck stand up. Yet she couldn't allow her friend to face something as dangerous as the Arthur so using will power she forced her body to compile to her demands as her Knightmare Frame charged forward attacking the Arthur in unison with her friend.
Altria didn't feel the least bit threatened as the Knightmare she commanded twirled the sword in its hands before using it to parry off attacks from the two Britannian soldiers as a fierce duel broke out with the knight of Lelouch fending off attacks from two foes. Using movements and precision swings that were beyond the capabilities of the two inferior machines the female knight was using she held off both Al and Liliana with ease.
But when Liliana attempted to attack from behind the unfinished machine leapt up into the air somersaulting over the female pilot as she nearly impaled her own friend with her lance, but the feat their foe's machine had just preformed was without doubt something that shouldn't have been done in a Knightmare Frame. They knew the capabilities of the machines they were in and some of the movements they saw earlier were just from some tricked out hardware upgrades or something of the short, but to perform a somersaulting over another Sutherland was outright impossible.
"What the hell are we fighting against?" Al shouted as he slammed his fist against the wall of his cockpit, but the Arthur charged them. Although Al evaded the initial swing, but the knight swung big blade again this time with strong momentum and Gloucester's jousting lance was cut in half. "OH SHIT!"
Al didn't have enough time to get away let alone evade the attack completely as the front of his cockpit was slashed damaging a number of critical systems triggering his cockpit ejection block, which saved the soldier's life before his machine exploded. But now this left Liliana facing the rebel knight alone as the Arthur turned its attention to her wielding its sword ready to finish this fight where they hadn't been able to even scratch the machine.
"Just what in emperor's name are we facing?" Liliana said to herself as she had a very strong feeling that she wasn't going to walk away from this battle alive. It was to the point that not even the usually fearless Britannian soldier couldn't bring herself to even recklessly charge the seventh generation machine before her as it merely stood there ready for her.
Growing impatient the Altria lunged at the Sutherland as Liliana panicked as she quickly ejected from her machine, which actually saved her life since the female knight knocked Sutherland's weapon from its hands with MVS sword before using it to stab the chest of enemy machine. Liliana ejected just in time before machine was sliced and it blew up in flames.
X-X
The dark green color old Jumeau was roaming through the area as the pilot asked, "Tsugumi! Where's the next target?"
Tsugumi who was in some kind of Cybernetic globe wearing plug-suit was turning a dial while answering the pilot, "Facing 10 o'clock. Distance is 400!"
"That's too far! There's nothing closer?" The pilot of the Automaton seemed to be unsatisfied with the reply.
As Tsugumi began playing her game, she told the pilot, "Aya-nee, you're trying way too hard. Your poor machine is at its limit too you know."
The pilot known as Aya-nee for now was still stubborn as she mentioned, "But I want to do as much as I can…"
She then let out a gasp as she saw a newer model Automaton of the same color heading towards her at quite a high speed.
It began to fire rounds of bullets at the older Automaton and with its inferior speed and reaction time it wasn't able to dodge the bullets causing the pilot to feel sever pain from the bullets.
The bullets were still coming, destroying and ripping off most of the Automaton's plating along with its head!
Eventually the newer Automaton's rifle ran out of bullets, which was obvious as it stopped firing and tossed its weapon away before deploying a blade from its left arm.
Tsugumi seeing that the situation was dire, gasped and said,
"Bailout!" as she pressed a button with the exact wording causing Aya-nee as Tsugumi called her to be ejected from her cockpit thereby saving her from feeling her body getting pierced by a blade.
As the it's blade pierced through the older model's chest, a male's voice came from the machine saying, "Huh? No screaming? How boring…" and tossed the older machine on top of a nearby truck. Pilot was Daryl Davies a 17 year old Juvenile Officer who belongs to the CHES-forces and holds the rank of lieutenant, nicknamed "Daryl the Butcher". His father is the general in the CHES.
With Aya-nee, she was leaning on the side of her cockpit breathing heavily from the experience she had just felt.
Ayase 'Arietta' Shinomiya-Steiner is half-Japanese half Britannian redheaded young woman who lost her parents and ability to use her legs when Japan was attacked. Her Britannian reformist uncle who spied for Brotherhood of Nod took her in and introduced her for Triton. Her inability to use her legs made her unable to fight until synchronization technology allowed remote control of machines like Automatons. She became ace in using remote controlled weapons and one of main fighters in 'Founders' forces as he created Neon Avalon. Later when Gai had asked her family to join in his fight in Japan she accepted.
She awakened in cocoon hidden along with trailer and huge machine which resembled dinosaur. Ayase slammed her hand at cocoon's side frustrated when young girl with a petite stature along with a black hime cut hairstyle and grayish-blue eyes. She is always seen with an electronic headband that resembles "neko" ears. She is 'Black Swan' Tsugumi Sendo. In civil she is Ayase's maid and best friend, but in military she is one of best intelligence officers there is and she was responsible of updating Funeral Parlor members about status in field.
"This is bad Aya-nee. GDI-forces who moved away to Shinjuku are returning and they will soon reach area ECCM. They are soon to notice something is wrong and then we shall be buried under knights."
Ayase cursed before making contact with Gai. "Triton, GDI is returning from Shinjuku and there is that skilled bastard in advanced Automaton. I have to intercept them with Tiamat."
"Are you sure you can keep it hidden. It's not time to reveal her for Britannians yet." said Gai while directing troops inside G-1.
"I'm positive sir."
"Very well. You have my permission, but you make sure you kill every last one of them."
Tiamat Mythmaton can't be controlled from distance other than few meters. Its cocoon has to be directly linked at its head. Ayase remotely made Tiamat to take cocoon with its claw and place it in slot at back the head. When head was in place greatest weapon in Neon Avalon's arsenal started stretching its limbs.
X-X
GDI-forces were returning from Shinjuku with heavy minds as they had failed in their mission and lost lot of comrades and their royalties. So when they couldn't contact the base they started to get frustrated.
"Captain! We can't get in contact with the base!" Came the report from the comm system as commanding Knightmare pilot frowned deeply at the report from his subordinates. "Keep look out for enemies, I've had enough surprises for this day."
"Roger that captain. We will-"
"Captain! Something is approaching and it's big!" some other person interrupted and group of thirty soldiers and some Knightmares drew their anti-Knightmare weapons hoping to get the thing before it reached them, as they saw the large dark shape move towards them from the dark alley and the captain shouted. "Fire!"
But that thing was too fast and massive clawed foot emerged from alley and stomped five men in a CC-6 Pitbull flat in an instant, then suddenly the beast began to dance in a tip toe fashion, squashing men with each of its giant talon shaped toes, until it made perfect pirouette and its long tail pierced one Sutherland's cockpit killing the pilot. Then it leapt forward and two claws pierced two other Sutherlands. Captain swore loudly as he charged at the beast with his remaining subordinates before it opened its mouth and blue and white flames swallowed entire area.
X-X
After battle between Arthur and three machines Funeral Parlor gained advantage and prepared to give base finishing blow. That is before more advanced looking Automaton piloted by Daryl Davies charged at them and one captured Sutherland was swallowed by explosion. When they looked source of attack they noticed gray machine which was propelled by four independently-articulating hover lifts and armed with two 7.62mm miniguns and deploying the two 150mm artillery Grand Cannon, on the top of the building outside of the base. The miniguns were firing sufficiently against infantry below. It was the FTC-X3 Pacifier Field Artillery Vehicle (or Pacifier F.A.V.), which was a Sixth Generation self-propelled artillery hovercraft Automaton designed and produced by FutureTech and CHES-forces.
Altria eyed Daryl's machine before speaking for her comrades. "Triton, you should lead your forces to destroy that Pacifier while I take care of the Butcher."
Triton gave command, but some Japanese Sutherland pilots wanted to avenge their friends who were killed by the Butcher and disobeyed. Six Sutherlands piloted by the Japanese men encircled the Automaton trying to entrap it and keep it pinned with suppressing fire from their rifles, but to their shock the white Automaton evaded them all before quickly advancing upon them and beheading one of the Sutherlands with a swift attack using one of its wrist equipped blades.
The other Sutherlands tried to stop it, but they were outmatched by the superior performance of the Automaton and the natural piloting skills of Daryl.
As the Sutherlands fell one by one the Arthur used by the Altria charged into the battle as it tried to launch a surprise attack on Daryl.
"The rest of you back away and continue our assault I'll deal with this problem myself." The Altria ordered as she and Daryl were quickly engaged in mortal combat against one another.
"Yes sir!" Japanese men continued they realized they had place in this fight
The remaining Sutherlands backed away as Altria alone faced the Automaton alone in one on one combat, but Daryl found a dangerous foe in the Lelouch's knight as the superior Arthur was able to match the custom Automaton leaving the two foes locked in a stalemate as the two machines tried to overpower the other.
Daryl's reflexes and senses including his instincts as a soldier were going into overdrive to keep up with the rapid attacks of the knight as the two exchanged blow after blow, but an alarm in the cockpit warned him that the arms were taking damage from deflecting the blows from his foe. It was inconvincible really as some would wonder how an incomplete machine could keep up with a brand new high performance machine like his Automaton.
The Arthur dodged a roundhouse kick from the Automaton before trying to counter with an uppercut, but the Automaton narrowly dodged the punch. Daryl tried a reserve kick, but his foe deflected the blow. Altria fought back with the slash harkens from his machine with one grazing the right shoulder of the white machine while the other thankfully barely missed the head.
Altria attacked following that miss with a right cross, but the Automaton spun to the left to dodge before punching the Arthur in the face landing his first blow on his foe. Although his punch came too high to behead it with the slash harken, but he landed a blow at least briefly stunning his foe. But that didn't stop the knight from landing a counterblow with a swift kick to the torso knocking the Automaton back and causing Daryl in Cocoon pain.
The Arthur was about to attack with increased ferocity, but four slash harkens, which usually were not equipped in Automatons, fired at the same time at the stolen machine giving it little time to block them all let alone avoid them. Altria blocked two of the incoming slash harkens with her own forearm mounted slash harkens; however the legs of her machine were not quick enough as the knight couldn't block two remaining ones. The Arthur's legs were damaged by Daryl's attack almost cutting clean through the metal limbs.
"Lieutenant Davies, get out of there, we're clear!" came orders from scientists retreating from the base with recovered young soldiers.
"Don't order me!" he yelled, but did so anyway. His machine was too damaged to let him finish his enemy and in that moment he watched as Funeral Parlor managed to destroy Pacifier and they began to move towards them.
Without another thought the Automaton changed in its tank form and quickly fled the scene escaping the base. Some of the Triton's men had wanted to go after him…yet an order from their leader prevented them from doing so.
"Don't bother…let him go…we don't have the time to chase him down." Triton said
Triton's forces started to load crippled Arthur in one of trucks they managed to take from the base as Triton knew the longer they stayed the bigger the danger was to them that troops from the other garrison and military bases would eventually come to reinforce Britannia's presence while at the same time wipe them out. Right now it was best for him and his followers to retreat before that could happen. Ayase had also destroyed most of forces returning from Shinjuku and like she promised nobody who saw Tiamat were alive. They could only find burning remains of their comrades.
The followers of the Triton recovered what of their damaged machines that were serviceable before retreating from the area, but after they destroyed what machines they couldn't service let alone recover while the rest of the base was left a burning ruin as virtually every building and hanger were razed to the ground or were in flames.
X-Ashford Academy, Tokyo settlement, Blue zone-X
Lelouch was sitting in his room in Ashford Academy with black light glowing staff of aegis leaning in his chair and reading Journal of the Black Knight, his favorite book he got from Altria and told about real life of one of the greatest traitors in Britannia's history, former Knight of Two that lead rebellion in 19th century and nearly changed Britannia. Britannia painted him as a monster and scared their kids with stories about him, but true Black Knight was much different than they told as usually is the case. At same time Lelouch thought about his Geass, staff and Altria.
When he had returned he had been surprised to notice that staff had been glowing more than usual. It has always glowed when he was near as like showing that Lelouch was its master and touching it made Lelouch think being more powerful, but now it did more so than usual and it felt… different. Gaining Geass which power is opposite of Aegis own, must've caused some kind of resonance which made both stronger, Lelouch hypotheses, but he would confirm it from Altria.
Altria Peregrine was true knight of old style Britannia down to her very core. She fought bravely, with honor and dedication to her master, but when they fought with Nod and Lelouch was rookie as a commander she would question his morals with many strategies. It reminded Lelouch about Suzaku, but Altria understood about strategy and responsibilities of leader which made Lelouch think she had been in command of soldiers before.
Despite their differences Altria had been in great help of understanding real battle and she saved him many times. In time Altria started to notice some painful truths of world inside Nod and she changed becoming skillful resistance fighter. She became truly great help for Lelouch who only pushed forward in poisoned world with Nunnally in mind.
Then door opened and Altria stepped inside and Lelouch smiled.
"Welcome back my knight!"
"It's good to be back milord." Altria answered with a smile of her own.
X-X
The data came up showing the white Knightmare moving like an acrobat as it destroyed Lelouch's team. The computer began analyzing the footage and a second screen began showing noted reaction times, electromagnetic readings and other data from the factsphere. Lelouch grimaced while Altria told what she thought. "Well whatever that shield is it generates a powerful EM field in the act of containing the energy. Although a Sutherland's sensors are not quite elaborate enough to tell us as much we'd like. Still it tells us a bit about the pilot."
"Oh."
"Unless the Britannians have suddenly developed neurohelmets then they're using the standard two stick and pedal control interface. With reaction speeds like that even assuming this is an excellent pilot we're looking at abnormal reflexes and high end motor control. Well above the average. Someone that good will have probably made a name for themselves."
"We'll send a copy for analysis to the hidden city. In fact we may have to go there in person." Lelouch said.
"Really why?"
Lelouch turned to his knight and smiled. "Because I meant what I said about speeding up the schedule. Clovis and Roberta are dead but with Geass the possibilities are enough that I intend to commence phase one."
"Our earliest projections did not see the commencement of phase one for another nine months. They will want to know why. Regardless, all of our initial planning saw us dealing with Clovis in the initial stages of phase one. His replacement will be a different order and we both know who that is likely to be."
"I have already considered that. In fact with what Clovis told us I am anticipating it." Lelouch's face flashed a predator's grin. "Besides even at our most optimistic we both knew he was going to turn up eventually. Just as everyone knew that we'd have to begin to adapt to shifting circumstances once it all kicks off."
"Perhaps but we could have gotten that information without killing such a usefully inept opponent. I don't dispute the necessity, the moment he started killing innocents he had to die. Why did you need him to know who you were?"
Lelouch's face was calm as he looked back at the screen. "I had three reasons one personal the other two practical." He turned to look at Altria. "Choose."
Altria paused they had often played this game with one another when explaining why they made a particular choice in strategy. "Practical. The second."
"We don't know how much he knew about the power that woman gave us. He might have figured out we used it on him. Perhaps he would have found a way to overcome the memory loss. The risk was too great especially considering as you said he'd already proven he was capable of fooling us." Altria thought for two seconds then nodded in agreement.
"Now moving on now that I have this Geass it would be best you tell me what it really is Altria."
Altria thought about it for second before talking. "Geass, or power of the kings, is something that people receive through contract with certain special individuals and is never the same with different people like there is no people who think precisely the same way. There are always weaknesses or setbacks for them and like connection with the Staff of Aegis its power rises through time and usage or with dosages of energies from place called 'World of C'. Geass has existed for thousands of years as there has been ancient records that rulers of Atlantis used it and it is called 'magic' in old times and users of it are called witches, wizards, warlocks, contractors with God or Devil…
The stronger Geass becomes the more willpower is required to deactivate it. Eventually it becomes so strong that you can't deactivate it and it spreads to other eye. Those are also considered way of showing levels of power that person has over Geass and with time you gain back ability to deactivate it.
Geass has shaped world from shadows for centuries and there are those who have created secret and not so secret orders around it. Clovis probably tried to use your contractor to spread geass among his allies in order to rise higher in pecking order."
Lelouch's mind was racing, trying to join dots. 'The Lab bombing, the 'poison gas' cover up, the prisoner's outfit the girl wore, the rapid mobilization of the Royal Guard, the attack on the Ghetto….Clovis, Roberta, you are an even bigger fools than I thought.' he raged at his cowardly half-sibling and step-mother. He could see the chain of events clearly.
Clovis and Roberta had come across this girl, somehow, and desired whatever ability she possessed, whether it is Geass or something more, and took her prisoner to find out how it worked. The girl probably refused to tell them what they wanted to know, so they experimented on her to find out.
They had probably classified it top secret and had it mislabeled as something else entirely, creating a dummy secret project, presumably to create poison gas, to conceal it from his father as well. Somehow the terrorists had found out about the dummy project and believed it existed, so dug deeper and, through luck or skill, had actually discovered the location of the actual project.
Hopefully, rather than using the gas, they had intended to attempt a propaganda coup of some ilk, showing the world what a so-called honorable royalties was cooking up. Not bad, as plans went, but they had failed to take Clovis' terror of being found out by the Britannian Homeland into account.
Not even a Prince and Royal Consort were fully immune to censure in Britannia, especially if they violate the International ban on the creation of chemical and biological weaponry, one of the few treaties Britannia has not broken because of spreading od poisonous Ayersium. Even if he told the Emperor it was a cover story, the Emperor would demand full disclosure of the project in question as confirmation, meaning goodbye to any chance of gaining this girl's abilities.
So Clovis and Roberta, the fools, dispatched the Royal Guard, along with some disposable Honorary Britannian Soldiers, in order to retrieve it. Lelouch was willing to bet that after the sadist of a commander had reported the capsule was open, xenophobic Roberta had likely ordered the destruction of Shinjuku to cover their mistake-permanently.
Lelouch was disgusted by the lack of respect for life his 'family' was showing, although the tactician in Lelouch did acknowledged that the plan was simple and effective. By killing all of the inhabitants of Shinjuku, the girl would have nowhere to run.
X-Ashford Academy, Tokyo settlement, Blue zone-X
"Wake up, Lelouch!" A loud demand followed by a quick smack to the head with a rolled up paper pulled Lelouch from a blissful sleep. A well-developed bust came into view, identifying the attacker as Milly Ashford. "I know you were sleeping your hand stopped moving." Each word was followed with another smack with her chosen weapon.
"That's hardly a reason to beat me with a rolled up collection of last year's budget cuts."
Lelouch, Milly, Rivalz, Sophie Wood and Altria Peregrine were around a long table in the board room, while Nina was quietly working on a computer in the corner. The board room was actually a spare room in the small mansion on campus. The only occupants were Lelouch, Altria and the maid Sayoko Shinozaki (secretly there also lived Lelouch's double Rolo), which brought up a few strange accusations.
"Well you do deserve it for hanging up on me like that." Milly had decided to sit on Lelouch's left side and constantly gave Lelouch a shifty glance. "What was with you yesterday?"
"Well, you see-" Milly took immediate notice of the awkward situation.
"Well I have vague idea where you were so let's forget it for now." She softy hit her hand with the rolled up paper as a threat. "Let's not get sidetracked here. There is plenty of time to squeeze the gossip material out of her later. If we don't come up with a fix for the club activities budget, then there won't be enough money for anything at all." Oh lord, what would the school do without the yearly cross-dressers ball?
Nina lifted her head from the computer "And if it comes to that point-"Seeing the prime opportunity for a laugh, that is partially true, Rivalz decided to finish the sentence. "The equestrian club will be pissed. We don't need them coming in here on horseback."
Milly looked exasperated at the frightening, ridiculous memory. You get distracted for one day and the entire budget gets messed up. "Rivalz, can't you act like a responsible student council member?"
"I believe we all know the answer to that." Altria said while standing straight as always. She was unofficial bodyguard of Student Council and best sword user in the school. She always had her wooden sword at her side as she wasn't allowed bring her real one in school building.
"It would have been nice if you reminded us about this a day ago." Sophie looked away from the form she was filling out.
"I'd have to say a day later then we could just blow this off completely." Rivalz was slouching in his chair, balancing a pen between his index and middle fingers.
"That's still is an option for us." Lelouch leaned forward suddenly intrigued by the new plan.
"GUTS!" Milly's voice bounced off the walls. Everyone cringed at the Milly's special brand of "magic".
"Oh for the Love of God. You're using that guts spell again?" Altria said rubbing her sore skull.
"That's right. I want you people to start putting a hundred percent into this." Milly was looking way too smug.
"Sorry, but I don't think your magic is going to make much of a difference." Lelouch was nursing his poor ears. Sitting right across from the President during her "magic" is a surefire way to needing a hearing aide before you turn twenty.
"Actually it's got me going Madame President." Sophie raised her hand to show to represent her as a volunteer.
"Just the kind of girl I like supple and obedient." Milly had a strange spark in her eyes as the lids lowered half way.
"I work hard in the gymnastic club." Sophie raised her arm while grasping it with her other one to show that it was pure muscle.
"That's not what I was talking about. You're a size ten." Sophie was confused and looked down at her developing bust. "From what I've seen in the girl's bathroom anyway. You've been filling out in all the right places."
"Oh." Rivalz gained a lecherous expression as his eyes zeroed in on a certain dark haired girl's chest.
Sophie wrapped both her arms around her chest, hiding her breast from view. "Wh-what are you talking about, you perv?" A light blush decorated her cheeks while voice took a higher pitch.
Milly who laughed at Sophie's misfortune then remembered something. "Oh, by the way Altria, bunch of vigilantes have been harassing students in the area. Maybe you could…"
"I'll see to it immediately after this meeting." Altria said with her serious look. Altria worked also as member of displinary forces in school and took care of problems which couldn't be resolved by words. Most think she is crazy, but after seeing her defeat Britannian gangsters who wanted protection money from Ashfords with her sword without killing them they quieted down.
X-Later-X
Sophie was walking back to class with Nina on her right and Rivalz on her left. Altria had left to deal with vigilantes.
"I swear our President is a dirty, old man on the inside; sullying the meeting with her filthy mind." Sophie was still uncomfortable with Milly's observation about her breast size.
Not knowing how to appropriately respond, Nina answers in the only way that made sense. "Yeah well, that's Milly for you."
"Look on the bright side at least we got the budget balanced, didn't we?" Rivalz said.
"They used poison gas!" The three friends looked in the classroom they were passing and saw a student's looking at a news report. Britannians were claiming that resistance croup had set off the poison gas in Shinjuku, even going so far as to broadcast a picture of dead bodies supposedly killed by the gas.
'Bodies that clearly had bullet-holes in them! Are they really that stupid?!' Lelouch seethed and unknown to him certain redhead had same thoughts.
"Man that's freaky. Shinjuku's only thirty minutes away." Another male student gave a spoke a fact that sent everyone in the room on edge.
"I saw smoke rising in the Shinjuku area yesterday." A girl gasped in realization. "It must have been the gas." The sound of heels meeting tile alert the three teens standing in the doorway to their two friends.
"Shinjuku?" Sophie turned to question Lelouch behind her.
"Just as we were about to leave, I heard someone talking about terrorist activity in Shinjuku. We normally go through the area as a shortcut so I decided to call you to check out the full story." Lelouch spoke with a small smile, strategies for future battles were being developed in his mind.
Lelouch smiled at the simple lie, Sophie was buying it completely. Honestly it was surprising how stupid people can be. They entered the room seeing a larger crowd of students around the computers pointing out disturbing facts.
"Check out the footage of those dead elevens."
"Oh, don't look at it." Lelouch glared at the girl. 'A common display of racism. They don't even think of them as living creatures, just nameless objects to be shot for amusement.' The report ended with the usual note of how great Britannia is, that we are God's chosen, and all those around us are simply born to be conquered.
"They used poison gas," One of the Ashford students said out loud, causing Lelouch to groan as he listened to the conversation of some of the clueless students that he was force to interact with.
'Some of the people here are so narrow minded that it's almost sickening. If they look clearly, they can see that the injuries receive by those so called 'Eleven' are not cause by poison gas, but by gunshots.' Lelouch thought with a small frown as he intently listen to the conversation that was happening around him, and he did not like it. 'Britannians, arrogant to the bone and narrow minded fools.'
'This is strange, not one hint that a member of royalty has been slaughter. Why would they cover it up? Are they waiting for another Viceroy to become available to reduce public outrage?' Lelouch bid a quick "Good bye." to Nina and Sophie before heading towards his homeroom. 'But if that's the case, who's available for such a high position and has the true determination to seek out killers of the royal family?'
And froze seeing a flash of red. The red of fiery flames. The red hair of a girl sitting in one of the benches. The hairstyle and the look on her face were different, but the resemblance was unmistakable: she was the girl he had seen in the truck of the capsule and that, if he was remembering correctly, was piloting the red Glasgow. He thought she seemed a Britannian, but seeing her there in school showed that she was. A traitor like him? He walked past her and sat, but the look he had given the girl did not go unnoticed by Rivalz who felt it necessary to share with his buddy all the knowledge he had on her.
"Kallen Stadtfeld. They say she's sick or something: misses a lot of classes, but still a top student. She's the only heir to the Stadtfeld family, which means she's well-bred and rolling in money. Man, you sure know how to pick 'em."
He resisted the urge to smirk at the comment. 'Sick? It's more likely that she misses classes because she is busy planning attacks and not because she is in bed weakened. Excellent coverage, it allows her to stay away from public life and to justify her absences. And the money? A portion for sure goes to finance her friends. If she is the same person.' "Merely curious about a person I've never seen before. Anyway, the fact that you know so much about her," he gave a mischievous smile, "means she has piqued your interest first?"
"No no no, nothing so limited." He dismissed the assumption with a wave of his hand. "I take note of EVERY cutie in the school." He said taking a white notebook from his bag. "And not only here at Ashford: Carol Academy, Firstborn University, the bunny girls of Babel Tower Casino...name your preference, I'll find your perfect match!" He finished with a wink.
Lelouch gulped. "You'll be lynched someday. Savagely."
"If it's by girls then it'll be worth it."
"Kallen! It's been ages." The shrill voice grabbed Lelouch's attention as he entered his homeroom. Four girls were crowded around Kallen, but here she is known as Kallen Stadtfeld, a brilliant girl with a weak immune system. Her face was paler than normal, her hair had been combed straight, and her eyes only had the lids half open.
"Are you alright?" While Kallen had a slight smile on her pale face, her eyes showed that she despised these girls.
Kallen lifted her head to look at the girl who asked the last question. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just have to be a little more careful for the next week until my body settles then I'll be back to normal."
"That's a relief." The three other girls nodded in agreement.
Ohgi had decided that after the victory in Shinjuku the men deserved a break. This time was to be used to prepare the safe houses, heal any wounds received, and restock all equipment. So the school day played out like it's supposed to, even though Kallen hated every moment of it. She felt if she had to spend another moment surrounded by these high pitched girls she was going to show them how weak she was.
'They only talk to me because my father's money, these self-centered Brits.' thought Kallen.
At lunch she was eating a simple sandwich with no crusts while the girls from the class room discussed which boy on campus had the dreamiest eyes. A bee descended upon the five girls, but darted to hover in front of Kallen. Immediately the girls began to scream and point for a full ten seconds before they gathered enough brains to run.
"There's a bee! A bee!"
Kallen had merely been staring at the insect absentmindedly as it hovered in front of her face. "Oh my God, Kallen run!" Her attention was drawn when her name had been called reminding her that she was supposed to play the weak school girl.
"Hurry up and run!"
She slowly put the sandwich she was eating into her container and slowly walked away from the area before doing a quick sprint into the bushes and trees.
"I don't get it, why is a bee after me?" Kallen heard buzzing close to her ear soon she saw the bee flying around her head. She looked at it with little interest; she wasn't allergic so the concept of a little sting didn't frighten her. "I wonder if there's a hive nearby." Getting fed up with the aggravating buzzing she slowly lifted her lifted her left arm before attacking the bee. The bee few silently to the ground, its body sliced into three sections.
"God, I hate this! I'm tired of acting like a freaking weakling!" Kallen angrily bit into the sandwich she was eating earlier unaware that she was being watched.
She then took a rather aggressive bite out of her sandwich. She hated this life; the academy student's life. However, it was the best cover for her as should the rest of her group in the resistance managed to get captured, she'd be okay. Being part Britannian had its quirks as no one in the academy aside from the principal and his family knew of her mixed heritage. However, it did not mean to say she liked it. She hated this place; hated how everyone she met denounced her people and called them "Elevens"; hated how everyone was getting taught how "great" Britannia was and how as Britannians they could do no wrong and above all, she hated socializing with these people. They were Britannians; they were the enemy. How could she ever be friends with them? She could never befriend a Britannian. Those three girls she hung around with; she did not consider them her real friends, though the act she put up was rather convincing, but they did not know of her mixed heritage and she figured that if they did, they'd all turn on her and abandon her. However, Ohgi and Naoto, between them had decided that this was the best course of action. Ohgi always did say how Naoto would have wanted her to remain in school in order to stop her protests.
"Excuse me." Kallen turned around to see one of the twins she had glanced at in history class earlier, and had a brief moment of panic. 'Shit, if he saw me swat that bee, he'll practically know I'm a sham!'
"Can I help you?" Kallen asked cautiously, her hand slipping towards her pink purse.
"Yes, could you..." That was all Kallen heard before she noticed a red-violet glint in the Britannian's left eye and Lelouch then activated his Geass.
"I want answers," he said in a somewhat demanding tone and Kallen felt a strange sensation enter her right eye before she had a chance to react.
"Of course," she said in an emotionlessly dead robotic tone as her eyes widened and her irises were surrounded by red glowing circles.
"Were you the one piloting the Glasgow in Shinjuku?" Lelouch asked simply, though he still maintained the demanding tone.
"Yes," was all Kallen said, confirming Lelouch's suspicions.
"Why terrorism?" Lelouch asked in a calmer tone, though the demanding nature laced within was still present.
"Because I'm Japanese," Kallen answered obediently as she was unable not to, "Though technically I'm half-Britannian."
'As I thought, she a half-blood,' Lelouch thought, not that all surprised, 'Now to see what she knows about what she and her cohorts really stole.'
"What was it that you stole from the Britannians?" he went on curiously.
"Poison gas," Kallen replied simply, "We were going to use it against them, but unfortunately we were discovered too early and the capsule was lost in the resulting chaos. However, after seeing the Britannians massacring everyone in the ghetto, I'm not so sure that it was poison gas, but something else; something that the Britannians didn't want made public."
'Good deduction,' Lelouch thought, surprised that Kallen had become suspicious of the capsule containing C.C. had been what was to blame.
"But why go so far?" he asked seriously, curious as to why she was willing to go to such lengths to help liberate her country from Britannia's iron grip.
"My older brother was killed by them." she said and tear flowed from her eye. Lelouch's gaze hardened from that.
Lelouch, believing that he had all the answers she needed released Kallen from his Geass, leaving the half-Japanese girl rather confused as she had no memory as to what happened. However, her memories quickly came back to her as she remembered noticing Lelouch staring at her after making a rather loud outburst, voicing her feelings.
"Um, d-did you want something?" she asked in a rather quiet and feeble tone as she got back into the role of a girl with a weak constitution.
"No, I got what I wanted here," Lelouch replied in a somewhat mean dismissive tone as he turned to leave before stopping after only taking a few steps, "Oh wait, just to be sure."
He then turned back to Kallen and reactivated his Geass and locked his eyes with Kallen's.
"Don't tell anyone about Shinjuku," he said in a tone that suggested he expected Kallen to comply without defiance.
"Uh, what do you mean about Shinjuku?" Kallen questioned in a rather calm tone laced with a hint of suspicion and apprehension, apparently unaffected by Lelouch's Geass.
Lelouch's eyes widened in surprise at hearing this.
"Why would you say that?" Kallen went on in the same tone, though it became somewhat demanding.
"Go back to class," Lelouch demanded as he regained his composure and sounding like he expected no defiance.
"As soon as I get an answer to my question I will," Kallen said in an equally demanding tone as she dropped her façade and glared demandingly at Lelouch.
"It's not working?" Lelouch thought with a look of surprise and fear, realizing that he had made a blunder, "What's going on here?"
Kallen continued to glare as Lelouch started to take cautious steps backwards, ready to defend himself should Kallen decide to attack. He did not know what happened, but he knew that he did not know his Geass power as well as he thought and because of it, he just may have put her own life in danger as from the look on Kallen's face told her that she would kill him if she believed that there was a chance that he could expose her true identity and he doubted that he could beat Kallen in a fight anyway as it was apparent with Kallen's superb skills that the half-Japanese girl was clearly stronger than him.
"Hey, Lelouch, Kallen," a voice came from one of the first-floor windows, causing them both to look up to see Altria, who had opened the window and was now leaning out while waving at them, "You know it's time to head over to the chem lab, you better get a move on."
"Oh crap, it's my turn to set up for class," Lelouch said almost immediately as he slapped himself over the head, feigning surprise before he ran off before Kallen could stop him and interrogate him further.
Kallen turned and watched him run off, leaving her to ponder over her suspicions.
"It didn't work, but…" Lelouch thought as he continued to run and knew that unless he could come up with some kind of plan; Kallen would almost definitely try to kill him at the first available opportunity if she felt that her façade was under threat of being exposed.
However, she was spared Kallen's wrath by his knight this time who arrived after Lelouch got away from Kallen.
"Thanks a million Altria," he thought in relief, "I could just kiss you."
Female knight blushed. "It was nothing and it would be better you don't kiss me." Lelouch didn't listen as he thought about all this.
He knew that next time, he may not be so lucky and he knew that Kallen would probably watch him like a hawk while waiting for an opportunity to corner him to present itself. Cursing his bad luck, he knew that for now, he'd just have to leave it. However, he knew that if he did not think up of something and fast, he would be in deep trouble.
"Huh. I guess your ability has some limitations as well." Altria mused as she and Lelouch power-walked to the student council building. They had rooms in the east wing, which was a blessing, cause there were some entrances to the facility from there.
"Yes, we should start testing it soon." Lelouch agreed, starting to pant from the exertion.
"You really should work out more."
"Shut up. I'm already doing hyper park hour and basic self-defense katas." In order to make sure her lord could protect himself Altria had forced him to exercise. Lelouch had given up when she told him it makes him better pilot and makes brains think with greater capacity.
Entering the building, they turned at the stairs, entering through a door.
"Lelouch, Altria, welcome back!"
"Hello Sayoko." The two chorused gladly, seeing Sayoko, the maid.
X-X
The sound of freedom echoed throughout the building causing teenagers of all ages to make their escape from the tyranny known as school.
Lelouch Lamperouge continued on to class, his recent activity over night planning his moves and putting the finishing touches on his disguise putting him to sleep. As the class let out, he noticed that many of the girls were surrounding their 'sickly' peer.
"Um, Lelouch, if you've got some time this afternoon maybe we could . . . well y'know, hang out." one of girls said.
"Sorry, I've got plans for the afternoon."
Fangirl looked definitely put out by his cold put off. He rounded the desks that lined the room and approached Kallen Stadtfeld. His eyes were indifferent, but none of the girls in the room seemed to take notice of that but Kallen.
"Do you have some time? I need to talk to you. It's rather important."
The cadre of females began to frantically glance between the two students.
"Sure, I was wondering when you would ask me."
Kallen stood and the two began to walk out of the classroom. All the girls in the room couldn't believe their eyes and ears. They hardly made it to the door when scandalous squeals peeled through the room and out into the hallway, prompting some occupants outside to glance in their direction.
A short walk later and Kallen followed Lelouch into a room she'd never been in before.
"So what is this room?"
"It's the ballroom used for dances, recitals, extra activities. Generally it's normally reserved for the Student Council."
"Here it is!" Lelouch and Kallen looked to the second story and saw Sophie holding a microchip. "I found it. Look, this is it right?"
Nina came into view, taking the chip, and giving it a quick look over. "What a relief you found our lab data." Rivalz and Altria soon revealed themselves but they were definitely in an uncomfortable position. "God my ass is killing me." Rivalz unneeded comment was enforced by him rubbing his backside while Altria looked much better than she did before.
The sound of automatic doors opening announced Milly, wearing a light blue apron, entering the room with a cart of different food. "Did you find it?" Milly made her way to one of the nearby tables. "I finished up on my end. Should we dig in?"
"Oh Yeah!"
"Way to go Milly!"
Milly placed each dish in a different spot as the others praised her. "You adore me, I know."
"Um, Milly what is all this? I thought we were going to keep this simple." Milly turned to her Vice-President.
"This is simple." Lelouch looked over the lobster biscotti's and grilled tuna. "We may have to reacquaint you with the dictionary?"
"Um, what is all of this?" a confused Kallen asked.
"Lelouch, doesn't she know, I thought that's why you brought her," Milly said as she stopped what she was doing to look over at Lelouch before going back to setting out the food on the tables, "We're inducting Kallen into the student council."
"Say what?" Kallen asked, completely dumbfounded as she clearly did not expect this outcome.
"It was Lelouch's idea actually," Milly said, ignoring their reaction as she stopped to briefly look over at them both before returning to what she was doing.
"Lelouch, why would you do that?" Kallen asked in confusion.
"He thought it best, with your poor health, she'd have a harder time with regular club activities," Milly replied, not stopping this time, though she did stop once she was done and turned to look directly at Kallen and laugh, "By the way I'm Milly the President of the council, pleasure to meet you."
"Oh thank you. The pleasures all mine." Kallen had completely reverted to her polite, sick girl persona.
The others had come down stairs and gathered around Kallen.
"I'm Rivalz, the Secretary. If you need help with anything I'm your guy."
"Name's Altria and if there is anyone in school that's giving problems just let me know. I'll take care of everything." There was something very unsettling with the way she said that.
"Hi, I'm Sophie and I'm a member of the swim club. Welcome."
"Um, hi there. My name is Nina." As usual Nina was as quiet as a mouse.
Kallen quickly took mental notes on all the people around her. "Nice to meet all of you."
Rivalz took out a bottle of champagne and placed it on the table. "Now then let's start this party off with a toast to our new member."
"Champagne?" The outraged question hid Shirley's desire to smack Rivalz upside the head. She still had to get back at him for that perverted attitude of his from the meeting.
Nina offered her own brand of reasoning. "Yeah, but we're on the student council."
Rivalz gave off a light laugh as he struggled to uncork the bottle. "Oh you guys need to lighten up."
Sophie grabbed the front of the bottle and tired to get it out of Rivalz hands. "No, we're going to get in trouble."
Rivalz twisted his body to evade Shirley's fast hands. "Lelouch catch!" Rivalz tossed the bottle towards Lelouch, who easily caught the bottle.
"Don't think you're going to get away with this either." Sophie rushed Lelouch making both girls meet the marble floor.
"H-hey," Lelouch said just as Sophie slipped and fell towards him, bringing them both to the ground. However, the bottle was still held high and all the movement suddenly caused the cork to shoot right out of the bottle and towards Kallen, who instinctively slapped it away, briefly dropping her façade.
The slap was so quick that no one actually saw it, but before Kallen could calm down, the contents of the bottle followed the cork and shot out, coming down on the top of her head. Nina stood with her hands over her mouth with a horrified look on her face whereas Rivalz, Altria and Milly just had dumbfounded looks on their faces.
"Um, Sophie, can you get off me now?" Lelouch said unable to believe what just happened.
"Uh, oh," Sophie said, realizing that she was on top of Lelouch and immediately stood up and backed away with her face as red as a tomato as she placed her hands over her cheeks.
"Oh my, I was… Lulu…" she thought as she shook her head.
Kallen just stared at Sophie, unable what to make of it all.
Milly offered a shaky laugh. "Welcome to the student council." Milly continued to laugh in order to cover up how badly everything went.
Slowly the other members began to offer their own laughter. Altria was the first to join in; she had been holding it in since Sophie practically jumped on Lelouch back. Rivalz was second because it was technically his fault, alright completely. Sophie was next after she scrambled to get off Lelouch with face dyed red from embarrassment. Lelouch stood up and slowly brush himself off, he didn't laugh but gave the heartwarming smile; he didn't dare laugh out loud. Even Nina had an unsteady giggle from the awkward scene.
It was during these rare times Lelouch could forget his misfortune for a few precious moments. Times when he could forget the war, the revolution. He could pretend he was a simple school boy hanging out with his weird friends.
But like all things it must could to an end.
Even the Britannian Empire itself.
X-X
Later at the clubhouse's utility room, Sophie placed all of Kallen's soaked clothes into the washing machine by the door and Milly sat nearby on a stool, waiting for the machine to finish.
"Do we have clothes for her?" Milly asked Sophie, clearly not too pleased that the newest member of the council had just been sprayed with champagne.
What a disastrous first impression, she figured. Kallen had a weak constitution, which was why Lelouch had suggested that she be on the student council in the first place and no doubt, she'll think of them all as a bunch of idiots that enjoyed horsing around and did not take their work seriously.
"Sayoko's on it," Sophie said with a sigh, also not too pleased at how things had gone; especially since she had been partly responsible for it.
Meanwhile, in the clubhouse's bathroom, Kallen stood in the shower, cursing her luck as she washed herself down.
"This is why I hate Britannians," she thought, facing the shower and looking upwards with her eyes closed.
What a disaster, she figured. She had finally gotten that boy, Lelouch alone and was about to act, but then his friends had to come along and stop her and to make matters worse, she had been inducted into the student council. She started to wonder if perhaps her façade had worked a bit too well. She absolutely detested this place and wanted nothing to do with the student council.
Anyway, a knock at the door brought her back to reality as she looked towards the door as she opened the shower curtain.
"It's Lelouch," the familiar voice came from the other side, "I brought you a change of clothes."
"You can come in," Kallen said as she removed her hand from the curtain, letting it fall back into place and block the view of her body from the outside, "I've drawn the curtain already."
Lelouch walked into the bathroom with a change of clothes for Kallen on the tops of the palms of his hands and she momentarily stopped at seeing Kallen's silhouette against the shower curtain.
"Eh, sorry about all this," he said, repressing the urge to whistle as he shook his head, "I know they can be a little over the top."
"That's okay," Kallen replied from behind the curtain in a dismissive tone, "Nothing wrong with cutting loose every once in a while you know."
However, she was currently envisioning herself running both Rivalz and Sophie over repeatedly with her father's limousine and then turning it on her furious stepmother for making her life a living hell.
"These are some of Altria's clothes," Lelouch said as she placed the clothes in a rectangular straw basket lying on a stood at the side of the sink, "I hope that's okay."
"It's cool, don't worry about it" Kallen said from behind the curtain as she continued to wash herself down, "That was fast; you went all the way to the dorm?"
"Actually, I live here," Lelouch replied, much to Kallen surprise as Lelouch leaned on the sink with his butt, "The principal of the school lets me and my servants Altria and Sayoko stay here as a favor. His family was good friends of my mother before she died."
"I see, but don't you have any family?" Kallen said with genuine sympathy in her voice.
"I… have little sister, but due to certain circumstances I'm not allowed to be with her. Don't ask. Do you have any siblings?"
"I had brother, but he's dead now." Lelouch felt sadness in her voice; they both sympathized with each other.
"Anyway," Lelouch said as he started to make his way to the door.
"Hey wait!" Kallen called out, deciding that now would be the best time to confront Lelouch now that he was alone.
Lelouch stopped and turned back round to face the shower curtain as Kallen moved her hand out of the end and motioned it towards the sink.
"Can you hand me that purse over there?" she asked somewhat kindly.
"Sure," boy said as he walked over to the sink and grabbed the pouch in question, knowing full well that Kallen was now going to make her move.
However, that did not phase him one bit as he had already planned on how to deal with it. Boy was Kallen in for a surprise in a few minutes? Lelouch smirked as he thought about it.
'Now Rolo, it's all up to you so don't let me down.' he thought as he pressed his hand against the pouch and felt the outline of a knife blade hidden inside.
As he walked over to the bathtub and reached his hand inside through the gap in the curtain to hand the pouch to Kallen. Kallen's hand suddenly slapped down on his wrist, causing him to drop the pouch and then Kallen's fingers wrapped round her wrist in a tight grip and Lelouch feigned shocked surprise, though she knew if anything went wrong here or if Kallen was smarter than he predicted and saw through his plan, he could not fight out of her iron grip.
"Are you really that sick or are you just feigning sickness?" he said in a rather calm tone in order to hide fact that he was seeing Kallen's good-looking naked body and that he was blushing inside, "Because you seem too strong to be sick to me."
"Were you the one in Shinjuku?" Kallen asked, dropping her.
"What do you mean?" Lelouch asked in fake curiosity.
"Don't play dumb!" Kallen stated in a tone that indicated that she was in no mood to be messed with, "You brought up Shinjuku the other day, why?"
Her original plan had been to just kill Lelouch; no questions asked and then hide the body in some ditch somewhere. However, she decided to just give Lelouch a chance to explain herself and hoped that she was wrong since if it turned out she was right, she felt that she would have no choice but to kill Lelouch in order to protect her true identity.
"Why do you ask?" Lelouch shot back with a hint of fake suspicion in his voice, hoping to buy some time and to get Kallen to stop in case he decided to just do the deed anyway regardless, "Is that something wrong with Shinjuku?"
"Don't answer my question with a question!" Kallen stated seriously as she slowly reached down with her free hand and took up the pouch while still having her other hand tightly wrapped round Lelouch's wrist, "Yes or no, that's all I want to hear out of you."
She then opened up the end of the pouch and the knife blade flicked out and Kallen held it dangerously close to Lelouch's wrist.
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about," he said as he eyed the knife through the gap in the curtain nervously, "You've obviously got the wrong person for whatever it is."
Before Kallen could reply, the phone, which was situated on the wall between the sink and the bathtub started to ring, causing her eyes to widen.
"Damn," she grumbled, gritting her teeth and tightening her grip on Lelouch's wrist even further.
Just who the hell could that be and why did they have to call now of all times? She was in a rather awkward position right now and if someone came in, her cover would no doubt be blown and then she'd be in a heap of trouble. Oh well, if someone did come along, she'd just have to kill them as well.
"If I don't answer it, someone'll come," Lelouch stated as he calmed down and resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief, "That okay?"
Kallen's grip did not lessen as Lelouch reached out to the phone with his free arm and literally snatched it off the hook.
"Hello, Ashford Academy Student Council," he said as Kallen glared at him and inched the knife ever closer to his wrist in case he tried anything, "No, this is… I don't know anyone called Q1."
Kallen gasped as Lelouch's statement, remembering that Q1 had been the codename that the mysterious woman had assigned her during the Shinjuku massacre.
"Oh… I see," Lelouch said with a nod as he reached the phone through the gap in the curtain, "It's for you. He says he knows you."
Kallen stared at the phone hook with a surprised look on her face, remaining still and silent for a good few seconds, before sighing to herself as her expression became rather serious. She looked down to the side and slowly placed the pouch down on the side of the bathtub and then took the phone from boy, though she did not let his wrist go and stared at the hook for a brief second before placing it up to her ear.
"Hello," she said rather hesitantly.
"Glad you're still alive Q1," the familiar voice of the mysterious man who had helped her and her resistance group in Shinjuku came, causing her eyes to widen in surprise and shock.
She then looked towards where she was holding Lelouch's wrist, wondering if perhaps it was some kind of trick as their voices did sound kind of similar.
"Was I wrong?" she asked herself as she peered out through the gap in the curtain only to see Lelouch standing calmly looking off to the wall opposite the sink with a calm and collected look on his face.
"Sixteen hundred hours, the day after tomorrow; the observation deck at Tokyo Tower," the voice said in a strangely eerie tone, "Come alone. Oh, and by the way, what are you planning on doing to that boy you're holding onto? I hope you're not planning anything naughty now."
"Who are you?" Kallen demanded furiously, "And how did you arrange that cease fire order and how do you know about what I'm doing?"
However, her only response with the sound of the person at the other end hanging up before the line moved to an engaged tone.
"Hey, don't hang up!" Kallen shouted as spun round. However, her movement caused the cord of the phone to move the curtain back, revealing her naked body for all to see.
She growled in frustration, not aware that her body was exposed to anyone who may just happen to walk in.
"Did you say ceasefire?" Lelouch asked with suspicion very evident in her voice as he decided to give Kallen a little scare as revenge for almost slitting his wrist, "Sounds like you keep dangerous company."
Kallen's eyes widened as she realized that Lelouch was still there and she desperately searched through her brain; trying to think of an excuse to get the boy her back.
"Oh, um… that was…" she said before trailing off as she realized that she could not think of anything else to say.
"Let me guess," Lelouch said in a surprisingly dismissive tone as she looked off towards the door and smirked, "You're talkin' 'bout a game; something online?"
"Uh, yeah… you got me," Kallen replied, calming down as she decided to play along, thankful for this boy's false deduction and finally released his wrist, "Cause, you know… I've been shut up in my house so long."
"That's what I was warning you about, when I told you not to bring up Shinjuku before," Lelouch stated rather calmly as he massaged his recently released wrist, which was a bit sore from Kallen's vice-like grip, "Seriously, some people will try to show you footage of what happen that day and it's pretty damn grim… By the way, you realize that I can see you right?" He flushed a bit and looked away.
Kallen's eyes widened yet again as she stared at Lelouch and then upon noticing that the curtain had been moved back, she looked down at her body from behind.
Kallen then immediately pulled the curtain over the bathtub and bent down, covering her breasts with her arms and clenched her eyes shut; unaware that she was still holding the phone.
"Um, I won't tell anyone, I promise," Lelouch called back to her.
"Thanks," Kallen shouted back, feeling awfully embarrassed; not just at accidentally exposing herself.
She then remembered the voice, "I was wrong," she said aloud, feeling somewhat guilty that she had almost killed an innocent guy. Britannian or not…
X-X
Meanwhile, upstairs in Lelouch's room, Rolo put his voice changer down.
"Okay My Lord Brother, I've done what you wanted me to do," he said to no one in particular.
X-Later at that evening-X
Both of the Lelouch and Altria headed to the elevator just off from the central table while Lelouch was holding his staff.
As they got in they straightened their clothes while Altria pressed a button on the wall. Out of wall came retinal scanner and Lelouch put his face in front of it as scanner scanned his eyes. The elevator rose. When it stopped a screen on the wall showed them three shots of an empty corridor near the schools underground water storage. They pressed a second switch and the door opened. They then began to lightly descend their way down to secret room under Academy. After few seconds elevator stopped, Altria moved to open the door and they entered a magnificent hallway colored in light shades of white and red and doors. After choosing one door and ascending the stairs they approached a very ornate door which burst open.
Room was size of huge chamber, complete with large computer, door to safe-room and it was filled with military gadgets, devices and some Knightmares and Mythmatons both Lelouch and Altria had used during their time in creating Neon Avalon. Right now they were heading for aircraft that resembled flying saucer from old movies. It was Rheingold infiltration UFO created by Germans during 1945 when their nation fell and who joined with Nod during creation of Neon Avalon. It contains visual camouflage technology from Nod and it flew using greatest inventions of former German's; anti-gravity technology.
Lord and knight dressed in special suits before stepping in Lelouch took driver's seat and started the engines. UFO rose few meters before large doors opened and UFO flew to secret passage in former tunnels that Japan had created before losing their independence. In few moments Lelouch activated the UFO's stealth capabilities as he rose up from fake construction yard and it kept rising all the way above the clouds.
When Altria went towards her window, she saw that instead of white clouds and blue skies, she saw blackness with white dots all over. Even after all these years she wasn't used to idea of flying in space.
They had flown half way around the moon when the voice came from UFO's radio. "Attention Rheingold-unit. Please send code from EAT-1468QT within ten seconds or we shall open fire." Lelouch smiled as he noticed that defense is as tight and paranoid as he remembered. It should considering Lelouch was heading towards greatest secret of the entire Neon Avalon.
"This is unit 001LALP369. Passcode is Alpha-C Gamma 112, requesting flight permission towards the Valhalla." Lelouch knew that surface of the moon was filled signal-interrupting devices like Disruption Towers which had cut his ability to send message in Gaia and SAM turrets among other weapons ready to launch countless surface-to-air missiles and long-range projectiles and beams at him in moment's notice. There were most likely also many hidden fighters ready to fire at him. "Code accepted. Continue by shown route." Soon they had flown directly behind the moon where were seeing two unbelievable sights.
In the surface of the dark side of moon there was entire large metropolis equivalent of buildings, used by both Nod and now by Neon Avalon in Gaia's surface in yellow, orange and red zones and now in space. For kilometer after kilometer, there was nothing but the twisting, jagged, and vaulting architecture of the former Brotherhood of Nod. Multiple layers of immense walls topped with laser towers and missile emplacements and manned by legions of soldiers. Long, blocky barracks and housing complexes topped by angular observation towers and balconies, where even more warriors and workers resided. The spiked, flower-like shrines that glowed with Ayersium incense burners, amidst the dome-like Hands of Nod, with tall, hand-shaped towers gripping globes. Other structures, ranging from tall air towers buzzing with air- and spacecraft lifting from their high launch pads, to squat, deeply-buried factories and armories filled the city-scale complex. All of it was contained within the immense walls, and the outer perimeter of the city was defined by missile emplacements, concealed bunkers, and the towering, gleaming forms of the Obelisks of Light, the mightiest defensive weapons of the Neon Avalon developed from Prism towers. Below they could see the teeming masses of people hurrying about the city in class tunnels connecting buildings and under surface was even more structures and tunnels.
Above city floated still one sight which was even more impressive than Luna-city, the HQ of all Neon Avalon's military and Lelouch's destination: Gotterdammerung-class Deep Space Colony Ship Valhalla. The vessel is approximately the size of a small town. It features multiple rotating tubular and circular structures spread all over the ship. Apart from its anti-gravity propulsion it also has two main reactors on its rear. The bridge of the ship sits at the front of the ship and after it was captured by Neon Avalon it was modified constantly so now none of its parts show out of it. Gotterdammerung had been greatest weapon in entire arsenal of Germans who escaped in moon 1945. It had been proven too dangerous to use as a weapon so just born Neon Avalon had rearranged its purpose after Moon Germans were assimilated in Neon Avalon.
"Valhalla Control. This is unit 001LALP369. We request permission to get in." Lelouch spoke in radio.
"Nice to meet you again sir," the voice in radio said "Please proceed in hangar 2, so we can take you in. They're waiting for you." He finished as the intercom shut down. Lelouch and Altria started to relax as their Rheingold flew inside Valhalla and prepared to land.
They were inside a hanger bay with a whole bunch of different Mythmatons and different type of UFO-units, preparing to transport weapons and resources on Gaia, in different places of the planet.
Neon Avalon soldier smiled at Lelouch and Altria as they stepped out of Rheingold in their suits. "I like to welcome you sirs to the Valhalla."
X-Conference room-X
Lelouch seated with Altria standing in his side as others sat down also. A collection of scientists, engineers, war commanders and other high-ranking personnel took their seats with certain woman across Lelouch. With the Harkmen, Hakuoro and Hakuoro's bodyguard Touka unable to attend general Kilian Qatar was the highest ranking military officer on room. Lelouch let his gaze drift across all of them. Princess Kushana the officer in charge of weapons testing and one of most experienced war commanders. Doctor Richter was a bespectacled old man and master of anti-gravity theory. Michael Ashford was in charge of creations of all Mythmatons. Professor Johann Pascall a rather thin man studied in biology and was in charge of anything considering energies and Ayersium. Finally there was Marcion, leader of Neon Avalon's old special division Black Hand, which came from days of Nod, and supreme leader of forces in Australia and Pacific. Other members who should've been there were Battle Commanders Benawi and Triton, but Triton had work in negotiating with officials of EU and Benawi was helping colonel Karura in African front.
"Since everyone is here I wish us now to review our actions over the past three months. Since we have secretly infiltrated so deeply Britannia's Areas 14-17 so that we can take over them as soon as we wish, we have also managed to rescue over 3 460 people in southern hemisphere and brought them to safety here and in capital. Many of whom represent the scientific and intellectual elite of our nations as well as their families and other important people. Through rationing and our 'liberation' of supplies we have enough food, raw materials and other necessities to operate safe houses outside the Class Isles and space at full capacity for another three years. It is now confirmed that the Britannians did not locate the secret training facility in Japan's island south of Okinawa and we will have a more effective means of communicating with them soon." Lelouch spoke.
Lelouch paused and then started to talk about thing why he was summoned there. "When I ordered operation of helping in Shinjuku refuges to retrieve those people I was obeyed because those people would've died otherwise. This also allows me to form special group of my own which will help in Pacific front when we begin Second Ayersium War and at same time I got information from Roberta and Clovis about some Code R-project which is funded by Emperor Charles. Although we had to show existence of Nephilim Mythmaton it was necessary with that experimental seventh generation Knightmare Britannians deployed. At same time Triton made surprise assault in CHES-base destroying it and taking almost complete seventh generation Knightmare Arthur. After Arthur is updated by us and tech in it is used to finish our new mass-production Mythmaton Avatar it will be assigned for Altria here." Said woman at Lelouch side nodded at them.
Lelouch spoke. "We have long suspected that the viceroy and sub-viceroy of Area 11 had been working on a secret project involving the creation of a chemical gas weapon. We never could find any evidence of large scale manufacture so we assumed it was still in the development phase. However it seems that for the first time Roberta managed to actually pull a march on us. An independent group stole a large container connected to this project which Clovis attempted to retrieve under the cover of 'urban renewal.' However the weapon was not a chemical gas weapon of any kind. Yet it was certainly something worth killing for. I will state at this time that I am classifying the exact nature of what we found in that. But with the aid of what I obtained I was able to eliminate a detachment of the royal guard sent to retrieve it. I interrogated their commander … thoroughly. I realized Clovis intended to completely 'renew' the area to conceal his work. So I rallied the resistance fighters and launched a counter offensive." Visual data from the battle began to play on the large hologram in the table's center. "I was successful in defeating GDI forces. However they had a weapon in reserve." The camera changed to a recording of the Lancelot blocking fire with its energy shields before wiping out Kallen's comrades. "It seems Prince Schneizel's ASEEC team was in the area and provided assistance. In the form of what we can confirm is a seventh generation Knightmare frame. That utilizes some form of energy shield that is fitted into the frames forearms. This frame also operates on the concept of high agility as shown here." The frame executed an acrobatic move that spin kicked another Knightmares head off. "Naturally we wish to obtain as much data on this new technology as we can but since the ASEEC is independent of any agency in Area 11 that will be difficult.
It defeated us swiftly however I escaped. I and R2 then infiltrated the G-1 Base where we forced Clovis and Roberta to call for a ceasefire and learned valuable information regarding his little project. Then we killed them."
Killian stopped Lelouch there. "So I heard you guys finished decoding the Code-R project Clovis was working on. I would like to hear about that Battle Commander."
Although Lelouch's real power was greater than single Battle Commander's as a founder of Neon Avalon and member of inner circle Battle Commander was his official rank in Neon Avalon. Structure of Neon Avalon is mainly based on old Nod as Neon Avalon is more or less Brotherhood constructed anew. One of the Brotherhood of Nod's most troubling tendencies is its capability to survive damage to its overall hierarchy and command structure. Elimination of key Nod officers did little to slow the Brotherhood down. This is in part due to the semi-independent nature of the Brotherhood's armies and factions. Each of the highest-ranking Nod officers (often referred to as "Inner Circle") commands a large portion of Nod's forces, but each officer operates on their own.
This organizational doctrine is originated in the Ayersium War, where Nod assembled much of its army from disparate military and mercenary organizations across the globe, and a strong degree of local autonomy was required to keep these semi-independent groups loyal and able to operate without central control. An example of this would be Black Hand units, which operated largely outside the control of other Nod officers. With their defeat in the First Ayersium War, high-ranking Nod officers began to assert more direct control, bringing large territories under their command until they were assimilated in Neon Avalon.
By now, there were several dozen individual military factions within the Neon Avalon answering only for Inner Circle. Each faction has its own particular officer it follows and the troops in these armies are believed to owe near-absolute loyalty to their leaders, with only the chosen leader of Neon Avalon standing above them. Among these officers are men such as the Black Hand commander Marcion or general Killian Qatar, who is suspected to have reached a near-parity with Hakuoro and Mysterious Founder (Lelouch) themselves in how highly regarded she is within Neon Avalon.
Lelouch nodded his head as he brought up the information onto one of the monitors in the room and let Altria talk. "Code-R was a top secret Britannian military research project which was overseen by Prince Clovis." She explained "Clovis and Roberta employed something called Rosenberg Institute which is under the leadership of one of Clovis' most loyal man named Bartley Asprius. According to information we received it focuses on the experimentation of a power known as Geass and a girl Geass, also known as the power of the kings, is a mysterious ability which certain people can bestow upon others. The Geass power manifests differently in each individual, possibly related to their inner desires and personality. It is also proven that the power of Geass increases with use, and should the users of the Geass power lack the willpower, they may be consumed by it, also the power of Geass is represented by a glowing, bird-shaped symbol. Geass is power of mind that is recorded through-out the history and power Aegis in sir Lelouch's staff is opposite for it." She finished as Pascall looked at Lelouch "So what does your power do Lelouch?"
Lelouch's left eye flared with the Geass in it "My Geass is known as 'the power of absolute obedience'. This allows me to plant commands within a person's mind upon direct contact." As he noticed other people get tense he shut of his Geass and added, "Don't worry. I am still learning about it and haven't used it at anyone here."
Killian decided to continue. "Now that is out I would like to ask was it necessary to bring Tiamat Mythmaton in Japan. It is first seventh generation machine in existence and our greatest weapon during war in creating our nation. Because it's made completely from blue Ayersium and its upgraded daily it's still one of our strongest and most expensive units and can't be mass-produced. Tiamat is trump card that shouldn't be showed for Britannians until it's really necessary."
"You know that Ayase who had piloted it since its creation is best pilot for Tiamat." Lelouch assured. "Triton knows its significance and uses it only when it's certain Britannians who face it will only see blurry glimpse… or never get out of conflict able to tell what they see."
"I see." Killian mused. "Carry on what you were talking about then."
"Thank you general Qatar. However despite the success of that and the other operations I know that there is discontent. I know our plans towards Japan and whole Gaia involves the creation of an inspiring figure to rally the people and create the force necessary to initiate phase one. I shall be one with forces I'm creating from terrorists in Japan and my name shall be known as Zero, while my partner Altria shall be called Saber."
Richter narrowed his eyes. "Zero as in nothing?"
"It's said Charles zi Britannia fears nothing, but he fears Britannia losing its superiority in the world and that someone grows strong enough to challenge him. He will sooner have whole world burn in hell than see something surpassing Britannia. If he fears nothing I shall become something that represents nothing. It will also symbolize absence of Numbers and Zero is where everything starts and ends. That's why I shall be Zero." Lelouch explained.
"Through my leadership we shall achieve three things that everyone desires. The liberation of the Areas and the destruction of Britannia. I shall start by liberating Japan, show world weakness and corruption of Britannia and providing the answer to the question that Japanese have asked."
Ashford narrowed her eyes "And what question is that?"
"Who conspired in the murder of Prime Minister Kururugi?"
Around the table there was only silence.
"Yes I have said it the thing you all know and none of you can prove.
After the miracle of Itsikushima Britannia's chances for a swift decisive victory against Japan were dashed. Of course even with that they still possessed sufficient forces to grind Japan down in a conventional war. This is why Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi ordered for do or dies resistance from all military, militia and civilians. As well as scorched earth protocols to be employed against every valuable piece of property or infrastructure the Britannians might seize. It was quite a moving speech really especially the last part. 'We shall fight them on the beaches; we shall fight them in the streets, in the mountains and upon the water. We will burn but never break. We will die but never yield.'
Only Genbu Kururugi knew about two aces he had alongside negotiations about Ayersium. One was that Japans greatest military contractor Tenshin Zaibatsu had technologies from Federation along with some new technologies that were never in the end shown in base ready to be deployed in Okinawa. It housed navy that could've fought against Britannia for control of the Pacific. Second was that he had been negotiating about alliance with Marcion here. Marcion had been sending veteran soldiers along with Flame and Scorpion tanks, Mantis anti-air missile mobile platforms, Armageddon bombers and their ace newly created fourth generation Knightmares Purifiers.
The Britannians would have to fight for every meter of ground. The cities would become killing zones. After a few months the EU and Chinese federation would be forced to intervene in order to protect zones in Japan which are livable and out of the fact that the total annihilation of Japans industry and mining infrastructure would cut off all the world from a steady supply of blue Ayersium. It was trading lives for time. But even if Okinawa base never existed it would have worked because Britannia would not have been able to take control of the blue Ayersium fast enough to bribe the EU and China into backing off."
Lelouch's head moved around the table slowly like a cat seeing which mouse would bolt first.
"But secret Okinawa base did exist. And even though it still would have cost thousands of lives it would be far less than first believed. Because Marcion was secretly working with Japan and was preparing send his soldiers and technology. One which could've is used to slow Britannia's advance further. While admittedly less graceful than Glasgow, Purifier Knightmares were still superior in terms of combat performance as all these years in Australian conflicts has proven. Marcion" He nodded respectfully to the dark-skinned man. "Proved the effectiveness of the Purifier beyond any doubt."
Marcion grudgingly nodded back.
"Then two days after receiving requests from the Prime minister to prep your Purifiers for open deployment and to receive access in Japan he kills himself. More in a suicide note he states he did so to force Japans surrender over the hard line stance of his own party. The Government collapses. Effective resistance becomes thrown into disarray. Much of the military forces that don't acknowledge surrender are massacred. And the crown prince and princess of Japan are killed while evacuating to safety because the fall of the Gora defense line lets a Britannian raiding force through. The emperor dies of a heart attack in shock. GDI's attack destroys means to Japanese to protect themselves from Ayersium and extreme weather conditions caused by it. All is lost. Britannia wouldn't be this technologically advanced as they are now if they hadn't got their hands in Japan's blue Ayersium and they wouldn't had gained all those areas since they are hated from actions of Charles' grandfather who betrayed rest of the Gaia during First Ayersium War by stealing GDI and its technologies. Many nations would've kept their independence and GDI wouldn't be in its path of conquest if Genbu Kururugi hadn't died." Lelouch paused allowing his audience to linger over the memories of the sudden and encompassing catastrophe brought on by Genbu's death.
He then continued his voice now lower.
"The senior military officer of the base where vanguard of Nod-military leaves along with commander to destroy any records that could show Genbu's negotiations with Marcion. He succeeds but dies in the process and Tenshin Zaibatsu's facilities goes dark forcing it to send greatest Japanese scientists in India and Chinese Federation. Everyone who knew about technologies Zaibatsu was creating. Those left alive are in either the military or former government they can't risk contacting.
Because unlike everyone else in Japan only Tenshin Zaibatsu knew Genbu would not have killed himself. The murder and subsequent cover up would require not just a single assassin but the collaboration of his security, his cabinet, possibly his speechwriter, any ranking military officer there, numerous heads of Japans business community and certainly the physician on site." At this point Lelouch's voice became mocking. "A physician whose autopsy and subsequent investigation as to the 'suicide' of the Prime Minister would go on record as one of the shortest performed for the suspect death of a head of government in history. If the records were not destroyed shortly after Japans surrender. It could have been any of them. It could have been all of them. And of those still alive they're either deeply involved in the already forming resistance movements, are openly collaborating with Britannia or have fled the country. It's logical since personnel of Zaibatsu have no one they can trust."
Other members were thinking what they had heard. "To think one death determined so much." mused Kushana. "Very well. We trust in you and let you do what you want. When NodMM-A16 Avatars and NodMM-ZX01 Warlock and some other things are ready those will be sent for you when they are ready along with Arthur when it's inspected and upgraded by us. Other suits will take longer since we faced technical difficulties."
"What you're talking about?" Killian asked and Michael Ashford answered. "As you know both GDI and CHES have invested in creating flying Knightmares. Naturally we decided to do so too and gave Richter here task of miniaturizing anti-gravity technology so it could be attached in Mythmatons. We had no luck as while it's rumored that both Schneizel's and Maximillian's scientists have created one workable flying capable Knightmares called Gawain and Aquila. They do have problems in creating flight system for other Knightmares, but in time… Meanwhile we have problem with energies of our flight-capability giving anti-gravity systems."
"Problem isn't in Nidhoggr-system." said Pascall. "We simply always had so much Ayersium that we overlooked information we could get with small amounts. Simply said we need new angle to look at, a new scientist who knows about these things. While looking at it two Britannian persons who have worked with these energies catch my eyes. One is Cecile Croomy, but we better forget her since she is too deep in Camelot. Other is Dr. Alphonse Giraud, French-descended former member of G-Tech, who abandoned Britannia after plane he was in was almost shot down after getting in argument with some countess. Right now he is in Area 17, former Thailand, where he uses his knowledge of Ayersium to help some local poor villages. Clearly he had gotten soft spot for them."
"I think we can negotiate him to work with us from his own free will if we help people in that area. I look at it and shall make contact with him when I go in training facilities in that area." Kushana said.
Talks continued late in night and Altria had to drive since them back in academy as Lelouch was too tired to after meeting.
X-Morning, Ashford Academy-X
Kallen Kozuki was rather peeved and frustrated today. She cannot believe that she was actually in the same class as the man that approached her just yesterday. I mean, how hard is it to miss a guy when most of your so called friends has a slight crush on him and by seeing most of the reaction of the female populace in her class, in the school in general, she can tell that most of them were at the same category.
'This would make it harder to kill him if it came down to it. Plus I have to take on account that bodyguard of his, since clearly that Altria is strong young woman.' Kallen thought as she was relaxing with other council members in their room. Lelouch was little bit far away from sitting in chair and gazing out of window with Altria standing in his side.
Lelouch stared out his window, at the settlement. He flashed his Geass symbol briefly.
'Can I do it?' he thought 'Can I really bring down all of Britannia with this? No! I'm going to need more! I have to assemble a group of sorts. Could I get in contact with the Japanese Liberation Front?'
The Japanese Liberation Front (JLF) was the largest anti-GDI force in Japan. They were led by the powerful warrior, Colonel Kyosiroh Todoh. He was a good fighter and was firmly devoted to his country and people.
'No' Lelouch dismissed 'They wouldn't recognize some random person as their new leader, much less a Britannian prince. Then there are other things. JLF may have the backing of Kyoto and the military might to match the force of Britannian Army stationed here in Japan but they lacked the key elements to achieve victory to win against Britannia.They are lacking several things to be exact but the most prominent are information, public support, military technology, decent war strategy, and motivation. I'm probably going to build a new identity. I could always get together the other groups together, but that could take a long time. But then there are those people….'
Lelouch remembered the group of rebels he helped earlier and glanced briefly at beautiful redhead. He still had a way to contact to them if he had to. They already have some level of trust in him, so that was one obstacle cleared, but they would need more support and power. Lelouch scrolled through the possibilities, and filed them into possible, and impossible. He finally settled with one.
"Looks like I have to do this," he said. He looked at his hand, and clenched his fists.
"It is on this day," he whispered, barely audible to even him," That I make the vow, to destroy Britannia and serve as the guardian of rest of World and Neon Avalon!"
"And I shall walk that path with you." Altria swore.
Lelouch smiled at his knight and stared out the window, as a news report came on.
"We bring you this special bulletin," the reporter said," It seems a suspect has been identified without the murder of His highness Clovis la Britannia and Imperial consort Roberta ne Britannia!" Lelouch froze, and turned to the TV. But he froze even harder, when he saw the screen.
Suzaku was trying to protest, but he was hit in the back of the head.
Altria saw that Lelouch had gripped the edge of armrest so hard that his knuckles turned white, she knew that he was close with the Japanese boy. Altria walked up to him, and squeezed his shoulders; he jumped at first but relaxed when he found out who it was.
If he wanted to save Suzaku Lelouch better think of a plan that wouldn't expose that he was still alive, and fast.
X-Aries Villa, Pendragon Blue Zone, Night time-X
Nunnally was in a garden with Euphemia, Lelouch, Marco and Luna. All of them children just as they had been before the wars and all the death that would come after.
"Who's going to marry big brother first?" asked Nunnally.
"I will! Right Lulu? We'll be together forever and ever." said both Euphie and Luna at same time.
"Sure thing Euphie and Luna but Nunnally have to do something for me first." Lelouch answered.
"Anything for you Lulu!" Nunnally said.
"You have to promise you will never forget me, stay with me and support me like I support you."
"I promise to you, I'll always stay on your side and you can depend on me." Nunnally swore but then she heard multiple steps at her side. When she turned she saw Maximus with other members of royal family behind him.
"Come Nunnally it's time to go back." Maximus said his face turning into a sickening smile as small horns began to grow out of his forehead.
"What about big brother?" she said and turned only to see Lelouch walking away from royal family with Marco and Luna.
"They will come later. Now is time you spend your time with us." Maximus said and all other siblings agreed with him. Nunnally decided to follow them. "We will be separated only for a moment." he said.
They walked little until they reached castle, but it looked vile and corrupted. The tugging on Nunnally's sleeve made her look behind her and she saw Euphie.
"What is it Euphie?" Nunnally said turning her head.
Euphie was saying something but the words seemed garbled until the end of the sentence.
"...saw what you did Nunna."
"What I did? Why your eyes are closed Luna, please open them up it's not hide and seek…"
"But you took my eyes along with my love in order to use for yourself. Give them back please."
Euphie's eyes opened to reveal empty sockets.
Nunnally jumped back, landing with a dull thud on the grass as she tripped over herself from moving too fast.
"Guess you can't give em back. Hmmmm...can I have theirs then?" Euphie said pointing to the side, Nunna's turned slowly until her gaze widened in horror at the sight of corpses...children s mangled bodies.
Euphemia walked over to the pile and pulled young boy's eyes out, the horrific scene made worse as the dead boy began to scream. Euphie just laughed.
"You're really loud aren't you?" Euphie spoke in a childish voice, the sick horror, the nonchalant way this was all unfolding shock Nunnally to her core.
"Oneesama stop her please!" Nunnally said turning to Cornelia, her sister was sure to help.
The slap across the face burned her cheek.
"How dare you use that foul language around Emperor and my sister?" Cornelia said her face appearing contorted with barely concealed rage.
"But I...she's hurting those people!" Nunnally said as her voice cracked.
"Silly Nunna those just numbers. Now how about the world's best emperor makes you your favorite strawberry shortcake. Just need to get some kindling first." Charles zi Britannia said appearing behind her.
The man before her was her father but his face sported long horns and insane grin. As he turned to head toward the pile Euphemia took note of the shovel in his hands.
"Father no! Stop!"
The ground near her caved in and caught flame, like a charcoal pit without the coal. The emperor casually shoveled up small children and dumped them into the flames.
"Why did you do it?" A baby asked from the fire.
"...I didn't. No I didn't do this."
The whole family laughed happily with smiles on their face, sick unnatural smiles that didn't belong. This whole situation didn't belong in this world.
"But my dear you gave us this catch, don't you remember."
"I...I don't. I can't remember any of it."
"Sorry your forgetting things sister but you really shouldn't push yourself so hard. Let the grownups run things." Schneizel said in a sing song voice of condescending arrogance.
"Nonsense, my children all helped with this project, we all did."
Nunnally could see more people seemingly appear out of nowhere like ghosts, her siblings, her mother, Marianne the Flash among them.
"Oh Marianne your so cool." Cornelia gasped in star struck awe.
"Why thank you Cornelia, how's the Knightmare handle?"
'Cornelia doesn't have a Knightmare...not at this age.' Nunna thought in confusion. The more this all played out the more she hoped this was a joke.
"Wonderful your murder-ship! I've finished my homework on the middle-east. May I please take the test?" Cornelia boasted.
"Hmmm. I don't see why not. You scored perfectly on those assignments after all." Marianne cooed.
Marianne the Flash now took a sack labeled Area Eighteen and Area Eleven. The names Japan and middle-east federation were crossed out in blood red ink...or so Nunnally hoped it was ink. Marianne proceeded to dump the sack's contents onto the ground, bodies falling out in an endless stream.
"Whew, you really did a fantastic job Cornelia! Now for your test." Marianne the flash said with macabre cheerfulness as she took an empty sack labeled 'European Union and Chinese Federation'.
"What... how... how can you all do this to these poor people!" Nunnally screamed. She wanted to know why her family had done these horrible things, why she was being patted on the back and told she'd been as bad as they were.
Nunnally turned and smiled as she found herself staring at her brother Lelouch, fully grown and smiling as ever. The man was dressed in black and he carried weapons on his waist.
"Big brother! Thank God you're here, our family has grown crazy, they care nobody but themselves..."
"I know Nunnally. There is only one way to make things right. Britannia has to be destroyed."
Nunnally was confused. "What… What you're talking about?"
"Don't you see? I wanted to meet you, but they didn't let me and you forgot me. They want to separate us forever and world under Britannia will never become better place. It has to burn in order to become better. For that reason I…"
Lelouch's chest exploded out as the sound of a two rifles could be heard.
"Big brother!" Nunnally screamed and began to run toward him as he fell but stopped short gasping at the sight of his attacker until she saw rifle in her own hands. In rifle was flag where was written 'Peaceful ways'. There was identical one on the ground in front of Suzaku with smug grin in his face and Britannians were embracing him, Euphemia even watching him like he was some hero. At same time they applauded at Nunnally.
"It was me and Suzaku!" Nunnally realized. She'd killed him.
Then her father Charles spoke.
"For Britannia he had to die. He opposed us and searched you even though we ordered him not to. You were good girl to keep him away…
"But I wanted to always be with him. I…" Nunnally couldn't tear her face away from Lelouch's body and his blood which joined with blood of the rest of world's and flowed in Nunnally drenching her.
"Be with him? You left him and Waldstein siblings in Area 11 with first chance that arrived. For years you rested here, getting everything you wanted while they suffered in world. You denounced him like I did and forgot him. Naughty little girl it looks like you lost your place with us now that you have lived out of your usefulness. If you're just a commoner and I'm a royalty then you won't mind me doing this. It's your place after all."
With that her father took rifle, turned it on her and pulled the trigger while body of Lelouch fell in dark pit.
Nunnally vi Britannia's scream could be heard from her room as she woke up with sweat and tears in eyes.
Nunnally realized she was crying, feeling the hot tears well up in her eyes and roll down her cheek. She checked the time on a digital clock. It wasn't even 3 am, yet.
Despite her exhaustion, Nunnally sat in bed, hugging her knees to her chest. She did not go back to sleep.
When her sister Euphemia and Nunnally's knight and best friend Alice had found her in the morning, in fetal position, they ran to her and hugged her.
Alice was once an agent of the Irregulars, group under CHES-forces equipped with first seventh generation Knightmare frames, GX 01 series. It was disbanded when its leader's, colonel Madd's, human experiments were exposed, GX-data was given for both Camelot and FutureTech to use and Alice had become Nunnally's knight of honor. Now she test-piloted one of the first seventh generation Knightmares, Guinevere, FutureTech had built.
"Nunna!? What are y-"A familiar voice called out to Nunnally. Her first instinct was to order them to go away, but the Euphie and Alice were already hugging her. "Oh, my god." Nunnally felt herself being grabbed by the shoulders. She tried to tear their fingers off her, but Euphie and Alice kept hold letting out desperate cries and shrieks, "Please, let me help you. Do not panic. It is just me." Nunna felt them embracing her. "It is ok…Calm down." Alice soothed her.
Nunnally clung onto two girls, crying into the crook of their neck. They released Nunna from the embrace and put her hand on the small of my back.
"Nunnally," Euphemia began. "Please tell us what is wrong. I have had nightmares, but even I have never acted like you did."
"It was horrible." Nunnally sobbed. "First it began nicely with us two and Waldstein siblings and Lelouch playing around and I swore Lelouch we would always be together. Then Maximus came and asked me to come with him in family while Lelouch, Marco and Luna walked away. I decided that I would go with Max… Just for a moment…
But it lasted so long and big brother didn't come while at same time our family insisted to keep me away from searching. Instead they forced me watch while they killed innocent non-Britannians and played God and wanted me to join in with them. Then big brother came, but he was armed and talked about burning Britannia. Then…" Nunnally nearly stopped talking there.
"Gunshot was heard and big brother died in front of my eyes. When I looked killer I found myself and Suzaku with rifles while we were embraced by what we did. When I tried to deny it father said I was useless and shot me, while I was covered in Lelouch's blood."
Both Alice and Euphie felt uneasy when they heard about gruesome dream. They tried to make her feel better. "Don't worry, it was just a dream. Your brother is safe and…"
"How we could know that?" Nunnally yelled while crying even more hysterically. "It has been years since I came back and they are talking how he is dead. Our siblings say they are looking for him, but there had been nothing. Father in dream said I forgot him and he was right. I filled my life with fairy tales about princesses and shining knights and servants who do everything for me except letting me out of homeland's blue zones. I realize now that I've never heard a word what truly happens in world other than heroic deeds of knights and GDI and success in battles. I wouldn't know how Ayersium poisons our planet if not my experience in Japan. But first of all… I want Lelouch! Where is he? WHERE IS MY BIG BROTHER WHO SAYS SWEET THINGS AND TUGS ME IN SLEEP!" Nunnally cried last of her breath out of her lungs and, pushed two girls aside and buried her face in pillow.
Alice never knew her best friend's and lady's full blood big brother so she could only watch Nunnally helplessly. Her sorrow reminded her how she was unable to protect her own sister. Euphemia herself could understand more Nunnally's sorrow since Lelouch had been her first love and one of top five dearest siblings and friends. She had tried to support for Lelouch and Marco during that day, but Cornelia had stopped her.
What Nunna had said reminded her how she also had forgotten world outside of Pendragon. Tears escaped from her eyes from remembering forgotten friends and sibling and watching Nunnally shivering against pillow. Euphie actually had even less knowledge from outside than Nunnally. She had only once been outside Britannia's blue zones. About year ago when Nod sympathizers had wreak havoc in fatherland Cornelia had taken her to help her govern newly made Area 17 and she had helped to ease conflict brought by locals and actually convince rebellious village chief to work with Britannia. She was proud of it although she had to return Pendragon soon and she didn't know what had happened since. Euphemia decided that they had been isolated in palace long enough.
"Maybe we could go look for him ourselves?" Euphemia said trying to console her. "Big sis Cornelia shall soon take her leave in Area 11 to pacify it. I talk for father and ask him to send us there. He always says how we should prove our usefulness and governing Area would be just that."
Alice joined in noticing what Euphie was trying to do. "Those in FutureTech always talk to me how my Guinevere needs some actual combat data. Area 11 would be good place for that and Areas up from number 10 always need extra military help."
Unknown for them outside of door one princess who was at Nunnally's age was listening all that. Fifth princess Carine ne Britannia was exact opposite of Nunnally by personality-wise and she was always competing against Nunna and Euphie, although they loved her like any of their siblings. Unlike other royalties in her age group she was told what actually happened outside of Pendragon's walls and liked all that battle and violence in poisoned world.
She was told about death of her mother and she wanted to lash out at Elevens. When Carine had awakened in Nunnally's scream and heard what her sisters and commoner knight were talking about she noticed her chance. This would also give her chance to go in Area 11 to join violence and make lives of her two most hated siblings miserable. Maximus had told her what he had done for Lelouch and Carine was happy for what he had done and she wanted to do something similar for Nunnally and Euphemia. It would be easy in outside world which she knew better and where other siblings wouldn't frown at her.
'You won't be only ones to ask father about transfer in Area 11.'
X-X
"That Carline is big, bad troll! She reminds that nasty little girl who I…"
"Sweetie, hold your tongue." Mother said to her child sternly.
"Sorry mom. Could you tell what there is next time?"
"Certainly. Next time future Black knights shall meet their leader first time as Lelouch takes mask of Zero and saves Suzaku, among other things like meeting a witch. Now sweet dreams my dear." With that mother walks out of the room while switching lights off.
To be continued
Author notes
I should've finished this chapter before summer's end, but I underestimated how badly college and work affects in my drive to write. I'm sorry, but now chapter is out.
If you haven't noticed I've made my first poll where you can choose who will become Suzaku's sweetheart in R2 part. You can't choose Euphemia or Nunnally because I think there has been too much of those and reminds so much of cliché prince and princess pairings so they will never be pair in my stories. Poll ends when I start making R2 so it will be out for a long time. Make your vote!
You might be interested in Saber's Knightmare Arthur and super Mythmaton Tiamat, but they it doesn't come out for long time so you have to wait. Instead I shall show my little modified.
Sixth Generation Mass-production Self-propelled Variable Artillery Hovercraft Automaton: FTC-X3 Pacifier Field Artillery Vehicle (or Pacifier F.A.V.)
Unit history
The Pacifier automaton had three operating modes. In tank form it was propelled by four independently-articulating hover lifts and armed with four 7.62mm miniguns; the lifts gave good all-terrain and amphibious mobility. The miniguns were sufficient against infantry. Deploying the two 150mm artillery Grand Cannon required the Pacifier entrench using the lifts as stabilizers. That is second form, artillery form. In knight form it stands up so it can fire it four miniguns in one direction and use its Grand Cannons in midrange combat. This automaton doesn't have close range weapons.
Pacifier is masterpiece in artillery warfare. It became irreplaceable part of Britannia artillery even when seventh generation machines started to roll out. Especially in EU which prided with its artillery and missile technology this automaton as nasty surprise.
General Characteristics
Manufacturer: FutureTech automaton factories
Allegiance: CHES-forces
Power Source: Yggdrasil Drive, Energy Filler
Known pilots: Many
Design Feature
Cocoon System
4x Hoverlift
Armament
150mm Twin-Barreled Long-Range Artillery Grand Cannons
4x 7.62mm minigun
Commonly-used optional armament
2x Shoulder-mounted "Sattel Waffen" (Saddle Weapon) Missile Launchers
Well she already said what in next chapter. I don't know yet which story I will update next.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Please read and review!
