Turn 5

"Congratulations Spartan! You've become what you've fought your entire career to destroy."

"I only wish it was that simple. What we really have here is the covenant war made anew. Only now we can't draw the line at humanity."

Conversation between Phillips and Noble Six after jumping out of the train.


Noble six was quiet. Both in movement and in thought as he moved towards his Shinjuku hideout.

His silence was beginning to unnerve Phillips. But before he could say anything, Six finally spoke.

"MORON! Pointless. Ungrateful...AAAARRRRGGHH!" He screamed.

"You ok spartan?" Noble Six kicked the corner of a wall and sent giant chunks of mason flying. "Okay, calm down before you..." Six then went to another, bigger, wall and punched it. Cracks spider webbed out from under his knuckles for two feet. "Really you're..." Noble Six punched it again, then again, and again and again as the cracks got bigger as the building it was apart of started to sway. "That's Enough Soldier!"

Six's fist stopped an inch from the wall.

"Now what in the heck is going on? Are you trying to get caught." Which was a major possibility since the authorities were still on high alert.

"After all the work, the kid just turns around and walks right back into police custody." the spartan sat down on a slab of concrete, "I'm flying blind here and I don't like it."

It made no sense to Phillips either but breaking stuff wasn't the right way to go about it at this time.

"Well get back to the shuttle, I've got a plan that you might want to hear..." the spartan got back up just before giving one last hard glare at the wall he was assaulting a moment ago, right before it caved in with the rest of the building. "Tomorrow. After you've had some time to calm down."


"I'm back." Lelouch said to Nunnally as he walked into the dining room. His escapades earlier that night had left him drained. Right now he was expecting Nunnally to greet him and ask where he had gone. He would give her a truthful, but less than accurate, story about his time away then they'd both turn in for the night. However the response came from someone else entirely.

"Welcome home Lelouch."

Words could not describe Lelouch's shock at seeing C.C. Sitting next to Nunnally. All he could do was stand and gape. His mouth opened to say something, but his brain was unable to come up with a suitable sound.

"I'm so glad, I was worried." Nunnally said, completely unaware of the truth.

"I'm assuming you ate out tonight, judging by your appearance." CC Said as she finished folding another paper crane.

"Thank goodness I thought you might have been caught in all the uproar by that man Zero." Lelouch was frozen in place as Nunnally continued to elaborate on what happened while he was out.

"I tried calling you but you didn't answer your cell-phone. I wanted to tell you ms. C.C. Has been waiting for you as well."

"She has?" for the first time Lelouch could remember. he was glad Nunnally was blind. The second to last two people he wanted to see together were sitting at the dinner table, folding orlgami cranes, and drinking tea.

Nunnally giggled "Your friend goes by such an unusual name. Only her initials."

"Yea." Lelouch had no intention of letting these two meet, let alone remain in the same room together, yet the situation was delicate. He needed something to separate them without Nunnally asking too many questions.

'what do I do? I can't think of any thing to say on the fly. The tea cup? No, a reprimand from Sayoko was extremely unpleasant.'

"I was just wondering," Nunnally suddenly asked."is CC your girlfriend?"

"He made a promise about our future together. Right?"

Lelouch could have died of shock right there."Huh!" did C.C. tell her about Geass?

"A future together? You mean marriage?"

That assumption could be even worse. "No! No, that isn't what she's talking about. It's like... Uh... She's kidding around."

"No I'm not." C.C. Said flatly

Fine teacup it is then.

"Well your certainly doing this sooner than most, but everyone's different aren't they. So I suppose it isn't that strange-" Nunnally stopped when she suddenly heard the tinkle of breaking china.

"Oh CC look what you've done. Your soaking wet." Lelouch said as he grabbed her arm and lead her out of the room. "Come on, let's get you to the bathroom into a dry change of cloths. Nunnally stay here and I'll clean that up in a minute. And she was kidding before, kidding, just a dumb joke that's all."

Once they were out of ear shot Lelouch finally showed his ire. "What about, stay here, was too hard to follow?"

"I was hungry and I decided to find something to eat. She was in the dining room and heard me come in."

Lelouch groaned internally. This Whole ordeal had become far more complicated by the arrival of the… he really didn't know what to call it. A man, Machine, An amalgamation of both? Did he really hold no loyalty for Britannia?

Could he trust him?

There were plenty of good questions to consider, but every time he thought of them, he remembered what the Spartan was capable of.

He stood up to a bullet at point blank range, and in the junk yard where they built the copy of his brother's limo, the Spartan single-handedly lifted the vehicle's entire frame up so the two volunteers could check the undercarriage. He could easily brake a man with his bear hands.

There was no doubt in the boy's mind, the Spartan would be useful.


"Case number one zero seven. Suzaku Kururugi, area eleven military forces. In the murder of his highness prince Clovis you are no longer a suspect and set free from lack of evidence."

Those were the word the MP said to the boy just before he practically threw him his clothes and all but shoved him out the door.

It had all happened so fast Suzaku was in a light daze. "What happened? I'm free." For some reason he expected something to drop from the sky and crush him like a bug.

"Hello again!" the familiar voice of Lloyd shouted.

He and Ms. Croomy were standing next to the same truck used to transport the Lancelot knightmare frame back in Shinjuku. Looking at it now, made it feel out of place

"Looks like I win the bet Lloyd." Ms. Croomy said before opening the door to let Suzaku climb in first.

"Even so they probably gave him the third degree about the whole zero incident."

"They sure did." Suzaku said, scratching the back of his head like it was all just a joke. "Kind of surprised myself that I'm, just walking, out."

While it wasn't really all that funny the professor smiled all the same. But that smile soon turned a little creepy. "Oh by the way, it's a shame about your acquittal. Looks like you'll be working for me again."


Deep in the personal comhub, of the pure blood faction, a meeting of its senior staff was being held. Officially the pure blood faction had been disbanded after its head had been imprisoned after his attack of madness during the transport of Suzaku Kururugi. However they had until the new viceroy's arrival to come up with a way to change her verdict. So far their only solution centered around their former leader, and not in a good way.

"We must get rid if this orange character before princess Cornelia assumes her new post." Lord Kewell said. His sentiment was shared by many of the members, and since he was the highest ranking member they had appointed him their new leader.

However since the now former margrave's incarceration on the charges of conspiracy and corruption, Jeremiah had been rendered un-touchable until after the trial. Since killing their former leader was not an option now, the rest of purebloods had shifted their problem solving focus else where. Trying to find somewhere else to point the blame so they could save their doomed reputations, with little success.

"Do you know what this orange means?" One of the lower ranked members asked Lord Kewell.

"In any case lord Jeremiah is definitely hiding something." Another said as the former margrave continued to remain the center of the groups ire. "Saying he can't recall anything, Bartley offered the same excuse."

Then the communications officer said something that got everyone's attention "Could there be a connection there?"

The room suddenly got very quiet. Could it be possible? It was true that Bartley and the senior staff had all given the same excuse. Even after Bartley's disgrace, many of that same staff were hooked up to lie detectors. All it really did was prove what they were saying, one second they were with the prince, The next outside inspecting the G1's tires. If there was a connection, then that meant this went deeper than anyone had realized. Which lead to another topic

"What about the snipers? And the knightmare frames? Who or what could have done that?"

The mention of those events sent a cold shiver down almost everyone's spine. When all the sniper teams failed to report in, Kewell had sent two man teams to investigate each one after he'd assumed command. At first it looked like they'ed just fallen asleep at their posts. However the first team was in for a shock when they rolled them over and discovered both the sniper and spotter had their necks snapped like twigs and all their gear was gone. The first group also had the unfortunate surprise of finding a primed flash bang under their one of the dead, one of them had almost fallen off the building in the chaos. Other traps were found on the other teams as well, ranging from simple tension wire traps to a frag grenade. Lucky for them the grenade was a dud but it had a note attached to it.

"Next time, BOOM!"

Then came the knightmares, four of them had been disabled by a, as of yet, un-known weapon with a ridiculously long range that fired explosive shells the size of one's small finger. To the best of everyone's knowledge no such weapon exists that wasn't wielded by a knightmare, just who was pulling the strings here?


Back under the Shinjuku ghetto Noble Six was taking the time to hear Phillips idea.

"Ok so let's go over this plan of yours." he said.

"Okay, except for the contents of this shuttle we've got nothing. No infrastructure, no back up, no resupplies, and no evac." Phillips then began tearing pages out of his note pad and throwing the crumpled wads into the air, where they became holographic windows displaying texts and or other visual documents. "To supplement our limitations we must seek out side aid. Hence your contacting the terrorist group in Shinjuku and this Zero guy-"

"Kid." Six correcting the AI.

"Right... since there are still limits to working with these terrorists, and Britannia is not an option, plus we currently can not make contact with any other nations we have no stable infrastructure." Phillips then tossed out a new set of windows listing companies, locations, and people that were for sale, bribable, or having financial trouble. "There for I propose we build it our selves."

Noble six gave them a quick once over before waving them off with some disbelief. "Your serious?"

"I know it looks to be a impossible job but hear me out." the holographic windows retreated back into the clumps of holographic paper before dissolving. "While the Britannians have no formal internet, all their commercial, and most of the financial, computer networking is run through a single site. The BIGLOBE." The avatar flipped through several more pages before ripping the one he wanted out then converting it into another series of holographic windows. "It has access to everything we need. Banks, factories, databases, and transportation."

"But?" Six asked, bringing the AI's excitement to a screeching halt.

"But my ability to traverse and manipulate this network is still very limited. We AI are used to battling cutting-edge encryption and billion-dollar security. But sometimes the toughest challenge we really have is cracking something old and out-of-date. I'm basically up against an obsolete network of landlines and first generation broadband, loaded with arcane software, so you can either place yourself in a cryo tube and wait for a few centuries of improvement or admit defeat. We're looking at mid twentieth century software, to me is like trying to flip a switch at the bottom of a narrow tube filled with water and a thick layer of mud on the bottom. It starts out clear, but the further you reach in the harder it is to see what you're doing."

"And?" Noble Six asked waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"I have an option that can help me get around that, but my programming requires that I must first receive permission from the highest ranking officer, when connection is lost with the main command it falls to the highest ranking officer present." The Spartan's tacpad beeped, there were two boxs on the screen. One said approved, the other deny. "Please sir, just sitting here is driving me Crazy!"

The spartan looked at the screen on his arm and then at the avatar. "That's it, no explanation, no details?"

Phillips smiled like an idiot and started to whistle, like if he ignored the question long enough Noble Six might forget he asked. It took Two minutes of hard staring for him to finally crack. "There are four ONI stealth Stratellites down in the storage area."

"How do four highly classified-" Six stopped himself, it was becoming increasingly apparent that this AI was still not telling him everything. At some point the spartan would need to ask him directly what this shuttle's actual destination was supposed to be. If there was one to begin with that would warrant this equipment. Beyond that Noble Six just said "You know what? I don't care anymore. If we have them, fine! Then let's use them."

"It is a temporary fix while I release designs for UNSC equipment into the public-"

"What?!" Six shouted as he bolted up right at the AI's treasonous confession.

"Its mostly going to be the ambiguous tech!" The AI said, trying to calm the spartan down and ease his thumb off the detonator "Mass production consumer goods, industrial equipment, medical supplies, and more modern electronics. Better stuff that we can work with. Or do you want to rely on the terrorist for everything?

Six had to flinch just a bit when he said terrorist. "You know, I've been thinking about that term. Its a label for criminals, but It's not like they're really in the wrong here. When people are divided like this it breeds monsters on both sides. You've seen what kind of world is out there haven't you?

Then it was the AI's avatar's turn to flinch. Phillips had seen what Noble Six was talking about, every AI was created with the current sum total of human history, the good and the bad. Wars for power over people, land, and money. Mass starvation and the disease that followed it. The filth and decay brought about by the neglect from racism. Watching entire nations all wither away before crumbling into dust. The spartan was right, if just a little bit, not all of these people were really terrorists.

"Besides," Six said before closing down the rest of the hologaphic text windows. "What else can I do? What purpose do I serve now? Either I do something to change things for the better, or just lay down and die." Noble Six then hit the approve button on his tacpad before picking up the electronic tablet with the inventory. "Ok, where were those stratellites again?"


"Sorry about the detour." Ms. Croomy said as the sun started to dip below the horizon. "We may have the license to drive this thing, but outside of combat situations it's not exactly street legal."

They had actually been driving all day thanks to Lloyd's navigation skills, or lack of any being the case. For some reason every time he took a turn they would be stopped by some type of traffic jam. At one point Lloyd suggested, testing, the Lancelot by having it clear a path through a intersection that was jammed by a car wreck. Cecil had slapped him up back of his head before Suzaku could even think about agreeing.

"Its okay." in truth Suzaku's mind had been elsewhere as he stared out the window at what once was a battle field only days ago. "The Shinjuku ghetto, ruined again. An the residents were starting to return too."

"It must hurt a lot." ms. Croomy said sensing Suzaku's depression.

"It does." he replied, feeling the weight of the world catching up again.

"Well don't worry about keeping it in," Lloyd said as he stole a look at his devicer's mood, "Its not like it's a weakness. All though to be perfectly honest, any other Britannian would… ya-AH!" Lloyd's blunt response was quickly squelched by miss Croomy with a quick tug of the ear an some blunt words of her own. She would have tugged harder but she didn't want to force him to pull over.

"This is not the time for that." she turned back to apologize but Suzaku was lost in his own thoughts by this point.

Was it bad to be weak? Seven years ago, the world seemed like such a terribly sad place to him. A world with no hope at all. People would rise up for one reason or another and bring down their leaders, then get brought down themselves for the same reason. The cycle needs to be broken. Somebody has to do it because No one should lose more of the people they love, a world without war.

'Prove it! Give me a reason to believe you. Tell me how you're going to change a nation of cutthroat bigots and supremacists?' fingers of ice dug into the young man's chest as those words echoed in his head. That man, thing, Suzaku had talked with after leaving zero had shaken him, down to his core. This, Noble Six, had called him out on his plan and realized Suzaku had nothing to show for it. But now that he was free and back with the ASEEC and the Lancelot, it was a step toward that change, he'd prove it or die trying.


In the ghetto itself another situation was about to develop. In the form of Two typical Britannian high school kids that were nosing around the former battle field. Looking, among the many grave markers left by the handful survivors of this tragedy, for anything cool that they could brag about to their friends.

The first teen, a tall thin boy with black hair tied in a pony-tail, originally wanted to get his picture taken while standing next to some rocket grenade craters, but he was to be disappointed. "Man they didn't use RG on the elevens, I figured they wouldn't." He said like he knew it all along.

"Hey look!" his friend, a short teen with a orange bandanna on his head, said pointing at some large bullet holes. "Those are marks from hummer rounds, get a clear shot of it."

"Say cheese. Got it, okay me next."

However the two students would be in for a loud and rude interruption as their little incursion into the Shinjuku ghetto got the attention of it's local terrorist chapter. Tamaki shouted as he knocked the camera out of the boy's hands. "Get out of here you dam Britannian bastards!"

"How dare a lowly eleven speak-" the kid shouted back like he owned the place. No concern for the lesser man or the two other elevens behind him.

"Don't call me an eleven! I'm Japanese!" Tamaki shouted, for seven year he'd been walked on. These two brat teens unfortunately were in sight when he'd snap for the day.

However these kid didn't seem to realize just how much trouble they were about to be in and continued to talk back. "Your wrong! You people seem to forget that you people lost. Your nothing but a beaten dog."

"You raciest pig!" Tamaki grabbed the shirt of the nearest kid with the intent of doing something violent to the brat's person.

That is until a seemingly random person passing by took notice. "Hey! What's going on here?"

To the people there, his features had the same telltale signs of a eleven, or maybe chinese.

"Stay out of this!" Tamaki said before trying to knock the interloper aside, but instead struck his hand against something hard, really hard, and it hurt.

"Agh!"

A lot.

"Ling! That's enough." said a brown haired man also sharing Japanese facial distinctions as he put himself between the two of them, blocking Tamaki. "Having a fight here would be a bad idea for everyone. Enough blood has been spilled here, let's try to give the dead a chance to find some peace tonight."

Tamaki was still angry and normally logic and reason would dive out the window in his case, but this stranger's words struck a cord with him. "Whatever let's go."

Once Tamaki and the others were out of ear shot the two teens started to complain like a pair of old hags.

"Why did you wait? Some honorary citizens you are."

"Why'd you let'em go? You should have killed him, what's a few dead elevens to-"

The large boy's tiered would be violently cut off as a man of Britannian heritage appeared and punched him in the face with enough force to put him on the ground.

"You! Would be wise to consider where you are Boy! We could have easily continued walking and let those men teach you two a real lesson in humility. One I am sourly tempted to do now. So get out of here before you become one of the many Britannians that have gone missing in the ghettos."

What fear Tamaki had failed to instill in these two this man had driven home. Both kids turned tail and ran as fast as they could back to the settlement.

Then a fourth man appeared, also of seeming Britannian decent. "Nice one James, I just hope all Britannians are not that infuriating."

"Yea, give me the covenant any day."


Back under Shinjuku, Noble Six had hit a road block with the supplies.

To Hell With It!" He shouted as he kicked the heavy lid to the container that the AI had told him to open.

"Okay, tell me exactly where I lost you?" Phillips asked.

"You didn't," Noble Six said as he leaned his back against a bulkhead. "That Stratellite's container need a, some assembly is required, sticker attached to it."

"Ha-Ha, that's funny-" the avatar then froze as the fact sank in. "Wait you're serious?"

"Like an empty clip in a fire fight. To make it worse we don't have all the equipment here needed to put it together." then Six shook his head in disagreement, "No we just need to be smart about this. I'll take it with me to the school tomorrow."

Deep down Noble six realized he had to have known better. A stratellite is, in essence, a small airship outfitted with a complex communication system that has the power to reach every corner of a small continent. Something this complex had to be shipped in two separate parts, the airship's balloon and the communications systems.

The first part was ready to go, a Dual envelope balloon, made of neo Dyneema, easy to inflate but almost impossible to puncture. Once inflated with Helium and Nitrogen it would take on a delta wing shape, similar to the long sword fighter. Once air born the small airship would reach a Cruising altitude of 65,000 ft just above the jet stream,air traffic, and most weather phenomenon. For navigation, once in the air, 6 onboard GPS units connected to the ship's seven engines. Six tilt rotors for short distances maneuvering and a one use turbine for, emergency, long distance travel all powered by high out put solar cells. Plus a active camo cover on the top would hide it from any terrestrial targeting satellites. Yea all that was set up and ready to go, it was the electronic espionage and counter intelligence payload that needed work.

The Payload was basically a 3,000 lb collection of cameras, long range broadband transmitters, and other electronics needed for whatever black pen operation ONI had up it sleeve. With a line-of-sight 300,000 square miles wide one stratellite could cover the entire island of Japan for over a year and a half with the right video gear. Plus the broadband signal's coverage could easily surpassed those 300,000 square miles, the terrain features and man-made structures would only prove to be a little annoying in the worst case scenario. In a nut shell, Phillips was trying to create his own private pirate signal network. However until it was properly assembled the whole thing was pretty much worthless.

"I'll make some arrangements with the local moving companies, get those containers delivered right where you need them. Oh, are you going to contact the local, terrorist, cell as well? Let that girl Kallen know you're around." Six turned to face the AI's avatar. His helmet might have hidden it, but Phillips could detect a rather unsavory glare coming off the spartan. "Right, never mind."


In the settlements central prison, in the exact same cell that had once held Suzaku, the former margrave sat, bound in a standard prison jacket, to await the final verdict for his actions.

Despite what he'd been told, what he'd endured, he had faith that the truth would be revealed. He told them everything, he was facing this Zero ready to capture him, then he was holding his own men at gun point. It was all true, he was a Britannian, an officer, and a gentlemen. They had to believe him.

That was when one of the personal knight of princess Cornelia opened his cell. "Your getting out Jeremiah."

"Lord Guildford! You see I'm innocent don't you." Lords Andreas Darlton and Gilbert G.P. Guilford, had arrived earlier that morning ahead of their princess in order to secure things for her arrival. Seeing who it was they sent to release him could only mean that he was being given a royal pardon. That was his first mistake.

"Well it seems in the eyes of the court you are anyway. Orange boy."

"Huh?"

Guildford had not come with a pardon, but the final nail for the coffin of Jeremiah's career.

"Whatever the truth is, zero got away and you pure bloods let it happen. You've been demoted three ranks for failure. You have two options to choose from. Starting over as a pilot, or cultivating an orange farm."

It was the cruelest blow he could take. To advance so far only to be knocked back to the beginning. An worst of all, he realized that there might be no recovery from this.


Hours later at the Tokyo airport, military sector, Euphemia greeted her elder sister as she stepped off the plane. She was here to replace their late brother Clovis as viceroy. Right now she was wearing the usual military attire of her forces, a maroon suit and pants, the only article of clothing she was wearing with any implication of noble status or femininity was a ornate alabaster cloak.

Cornelia was without a doubt a beautiful woman. However when angered it could easily be over looked in place of her fierceness.

"I heard what you did Euphimia. You shouldn't be so reckless." the older sister was referring to an attempt Euphimia had made to leave her quarters at the viceroy's palace through the window by tying her sheets together to make a rope so she could scale down the side of the building. If she hadn't been caught by Lord Darlton in the nick of time there would have been no telling where she would be now.

Luckily there were few things that could make Cornelia mad at her favorite sister. "I know dear sister, forgive me but-"

"You will address me as viceroy, sub viceroy Euphimia." but Cornelia was definitely upset now, ten seconds off the plane and she went strait to the topic of public image. "Because we're sisters we need to follow a stricter protocol."

"Yes, I understand." Euphimia said, her eyes down cast. this wasn't the first time they had a discussion like this. Her latest reason for upsetting her big sister may having been getting caught in an attempt to jump out a window so she could see the settlement and ghettos without an escort, but it was really just a drop in the pool that had formed since their older brother clovis's death.

So If Cornelia was in a good mood she'd ignore the minor slips in her little sisters edict an protocals, and just give Euphimia a hug. These days however Cornelia seemed to actually want to be mad about something.

"Now then give me your report." she said to the vice minister of the late viceroy.

"Yes, my lady the first order of business is a welcome party we've arranged for your highness-" the government official stopped as Cornelia pointed her weapon, a short gun-sword, squarely at his head.

Apparently the man had miss read the situation and started off with the wrong topic. She was clearly angered and despreatly wanted something to vent her frustration on. Her voice grew from a growl into a roar. "Sloppy, senile, corrupt. Where Is Zero! I Want The Enemy Of The Empire Caught! Get Zero!"

Cornelia wasn't like her other siblings, Not any of them. Not like Clovis and the other party going relations that preferred to coast through life with the finer thing on their mind, or Schniezel an his ilk with their military plans and political plots in the shadows. No she was the kind that would eagerly get her hands dirty to obtain victory.

There would be no party that night. Only an intenceified search for the new most wanted man in area eleven.

The next day Lelouch stood up strait in his seat after almost strategically falling asleep in class. All because a familiar and unexpected voice had just announced it's self. "I'll be joining the student body here at Ashford Academy beginning today. My name is Suzaku Kururugi. It is a pleasure to meet you." Lelouch fought every desire to get up, his best friend was free and now a fellow student in his class it was almost too perfect.

"Very good. Please take an available seat. Now everyone remember, the charges against Mr. Kururugi were dropped. So let's try to keep the rumors to a minimum during this lesion." the teacher said to the class.

Suzaku walked past the staring students and sat at a chair near the back. All the while listening to what the other kids were whispering to each other, when they thought he wasn't listening.

"What's a damn eleven doing here?"

"He was a suspect in Prince Clovis's murder"

"But the teacher said the charge was dropped"

"Still suspicious enough to arrest though right?"

"You don't really think he is a terrorist right?"

"Of course he isn't. The school board would know something like that"

Such harsh gossip was whispered for the duration of the entire class. To Suzaku it wasn't anything new. Be it the army, the school, or people on the street he was still an honnorary Britannian. Still an outsider. So he just did what he did every other time. He just sat at his seat and listened to the person in charge speak.


I feel awful about this chapter. So much dropped content, altered senes, changed dialoge... What Was I Thinking?! However don't worry, when one chapter is short for any reason expect the next one to be extra long. So please keep reading, favoring, and following.

If anyone is curious, the stratellite is a real world technology. Its still under development but I think it has some real promise. Look it up.

Also I did mention I intend to pair Noble Six up, while I do have someone in mind I want to know who you'd pick. Who knows you're idea might be better.

PS

Which knightmare frame should be his first as well? I want to see you're choices.