God's sword Chapter 4, a code geass fanfic

Chapter 4

God's Sword

Helltanz's notes: Its important to note, and yes I know its confusing but the EU is presenting a front to the public concerning modernizations, basically equipping its Eastern Block and the African members with new seventh generation frames, in reality France and Germany are already mass producing a ninth generation mass production type for their militaries.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass understand?

Chapter begin

Her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Cornelia li Britannia's week had been steadily going down hill. About the only good news was the fact that everyone had come as requested, the political ramifications of otherwise would not be pleasant.

The Knight of Four had survived Bismarck's charge, probably Suzaku's or possibly even Lelouch's intention all along. If such was the case there was no real way of knowing precisely why, though some seemed keen on using it to insinuate things whenever possible.

Right now the Knight of Four was responsible for the defense of the Capital in its heightened state of alert. Hopefully it would prevent her and Jeremiah Gottwald from fighting.

The capital's defenses were heavy. During Lelouch's reign he had drawn up schematics for a rebuilt Imperial Capital along the style of his reformations. This rebuilt capital had housed the Imperial Guard's headquarters, which now served as the point of coordination for defense of the city.

Jeremiah had arrived earlier in the day with former Knight of six, Anya Alstreim, who had resigned following Schneziel's defeat at Damocles. His arrival was actually rather fortuitous given recent events and the tension between the factions which made up Britannia.

Like the Margrave, most of the other people were all somewhat acquainted with her brother the previous emperor. The only one who was absent was, of course, Nunnally vi Britannia, who was safely squirreled away.

Kallen Stadtfeld didn't looked pleased at having been summoned to the palace by the Empress. The Gurren's pilot stood on her own in the majestic hall, which looked almost empty with only the handful of people present. Under Lelouch's reign this hall had served little purpose, and in fact few knew for what it had been used.

The red head didn't want to speak with Gino, who had also been invited; whatever Lelouch had done had seriously messed with the boyish noble's psyche.

Gino was, at the present, more or less a total wreck, and from the look of things hadn't slept well since Lelouch had done whatever it was in Carolina.

Jeremiah stood near Anya, away from both the currently present Knights of the Round and Kallen as well.

Lelouch's return was imminent, that much was obvious. Not just to Jeremiah, but everyone in the room. What would happen when the Emperor did return however was not so certain.

Cornelia stood. "Lelouch vi Britannia is alive, and it is my belief he retains control of the fortress Damocles and most likely its supply of FLEIA warheads."

This wouldn't have a profound effect on Britannia, or at least it wouldn't divide the country anymore than it was already. Lelouch had suffered the loss of Pendragon at the hands of Schneziel via the weapons everyone knew this. As things stood, the country was divided amongst the supporters of the 98th Emperor's policies, the Charles Camp, and the supporters of the 99th Emperor's policies.

The Charles Camp was comprised mainly of members of the surviving 'Old' nobility of the time, and some of the large business owners, and was far smaller than its opponent group.

Still, that group did possess a great deal of influence in Britannia's internal affairs; influence they would likely lose if Lelouch reclaimed the throne. A day Jeremiah Gottwald eagerly awaited. Under Lelouch's leadership, the ongoing political strife with the EU would be nothing.

Tensions with the EU had been worsening since their test of their new knightmare, likewise tensions with the UN had also been growing and today, things had only gotten worse.

Jeremiah's arrival in the capital of the Holy Britannian Empire had also marked another event. The world wide announcement of the launch of the first Albion-class air battleship, an announcement that had set off a fire storm of reactions across the world.

It was a ship that everyone in positions of power knew about, but no one had up until this point talked about because of what it represented. The building of the ship had been met with loud droning noises, because there wasn't much that could be done to stop the construction.

Condemnation had immediately came from several members of the EU, and the Black Knights but then other responses had filtered in. Responses neither Cornelia nor anyone else had expected from the unplanned announcement; responses of approval of the launch. It was the approval however that was like ice to her - there was only one person, only one, who could have caused approving responses to come and that was what worried her.

That sole person was Lelouch vi Britannia, a person who up until now everyone had thought was dead, a person who was nearly unknown in capacity.

She hadn't wanted the Albion to be announced to the public, especially in such a controversial manner either. Unfortunately the Albion's launch had been announced, and justified by the minister as a showing of Britannia's strength in a time of trouble.

Jeremiah had heard the news, both condemnation and the reports of approval. He also recognized it as Lelouch acting behind the scenes, to prevent the UN and EU from taking action.

It was of course only a temporary measure - certain factions could only be delayed so long - but no doubt that the Emperor already knew that. There was little doubt in his mind that when they did Lelouch would be ready.

Cornelia recognized this fact as well, and knew what it meant and that was precisely what frightened her, that Lelouch knew and was already prepared to act when someone attacked and disturbed the peace.

She still had her suspicions that the EU wasn't acting on their own and therein was the problem - if Lelouch was manipulating the EU leadership already, it meant he was likely going to move against the UN.

For what reason, one might ask? That was obvious. Britannia was, unfortunately for Cornelia, ultimately going to support Lelouch. Acting against the Emperor would cause massive riots amongst the commoners, and Britannia couldn't afford a populist-loyalist revolt in the present climate.

If Lelouch was already in control of the EU from behind the scenes, then that left only the UN and the nations who supported it closely as a viable challenger to his Dominion.

How much of a viable defense it would be possible for Britannia to mount remained to be seen in light of Lelouch's technology advantage.

Lelouch would ultimately destroy the UN, either through military force or by public opinion.

"…as things stand Lelouch vi Britannia's goals are unknown, the disposition of forces is also not known to us; what is known, is that his support among the people is considered to be in the Billions." She stated, "The UN army, according to our experts, will be defeated in any military engagement against his forces."

The fact was, Lelouch had support throughout the masses across the world. Even if the Black Knights could deploy without repercussion, they would not only face the local Lelouch loyal militias in a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1, but members of local national militaries and if Lelouch's own machines intervened - even the weaker of the 2 models seen so far, well…

The 'New Days' in use by the Black Knights would be facing a Knightmare frame at least three generations above them.

"Your Highness, as you have no doubt surmised, the Emperor's technological base has not been impeded by the UN treaties passed after his betrayal and the enactment of the Requiem," Jeremiah stated, "The Imperial Guard was ultimately a tool to distract the resistance while his Majesty looked into the matter of nuclear power."

Cornelia quashed her annoyance, she understood all too well the implications of this information.

"Nuclear energy would permit his Knightmares a nearly infinite, no, what would effectively be an unlimited operation time," she stated, "Equipped with Hadron weaponry his troops would be able to fight without needing to rearm."

Kallen wasn't as surprised by Jeremiah's revelation as she thought she would have been. Lelouch had been using geass troops as something to draw attention away from research he was having conducted. Ultimately, that was Lelouch; he showed one card but kept the one with higher potential tucked away.

"Your Majesty, if that's true then Lelouch could be prepared to utilized FLEIA against high value targets," Gino protested, "If he has further refined nuclear technology then he could have developed a new delivery system."

That was true enough. Damocles had included a powerful mass driver to deploy weapons including warheads to targets on the planet below, but Lelouch had little use for FLEIA in his plans.

Of course, that was only usable as a weapons-delivery system from orbit, being as it was how Schneziel had intended to deploy the FLEIA. Unfortunately, all original information on the Damocles had been destroyed.

Lelouch had originally done it to insure no one made another one, but to everyone else it looked as if he had done it to prevent them from discovering some kind of weakness. In regards to military tech that was in widespread use already Britannia, the EU, and the Black Knights of the UN, were all at about the same technological level due mostly to the effective cessation of military development in the post-war years while everyone focused on rebuilding.

Cornelia however, and others no doubt, recognized that all that was coming to an end even without Lelouch's unexpected return. Still, he had apparently returned from the dead and the implications of that were frightening.

He hadn't been bound by the restrictions of the world, and with a fully functional Damocles and whatever advancements he had no doubt rendered to it, the world was facing something far worse than just an end to peace.

The Black Knights were used to providing security for the UN Summits, so it was for obvious reasons offended when Britannia had insisted the Knight of Four be briefed, but that was neither here nor there at the moment.

"Kallen's busy with school," Tamaki remarked, "Ah, and her old man doesn't seem to be doing so well according to the rumors, probably what Cornelia called her to Britannia to talk about, you know how the Britannians are about their nobility" he stated. He propped his feet up on the nearest empty chair. "Orange-boy got called to help stop a riot, and as far as we can tell Cornelia wanted his opinion in what He might be up to," the Black Knight remarked, choking a little. By 'He', Tamaki meant Lelouch of course.

Ogi nodded, "Do we have any idea, what about Chiba? Any word at all from her?" he inquired,

Tamaki shook his head, "Nah, we still can't get a hold of her," responded the man, "All we get is her voicemail."

"So right now we're short two of our best pilots," Ogi grumbled. Li and Todoh's deaths had been major blows to the strategic and operational capacity of the post–war-era UN. Machine for Machine the Black Knights were smaller than either Britannia or the EU superpowers, but they had an advantage in quality.

The New Day was a 9.5 generation Knightmare Frame that matched to a squad level commander frame rather than a mass production type.

Right now the Europeans were claiming publicly to be upgrading finally to a seven point five (seventh generation) KMF. This was a load of bullshit as far as Ogi was concerned considering that the Europeans had had, during testing, higher generation frames, but for now there was no evidence.

The Middle Eastern Federation was another concern, "What about the accumulation of weapons in the Middle East, and Lelouch's return?"

For a moment the Japanese Black Knights all shared dark looks, "Lelouch admittedly was and still is pretty popular, I mean the guy did disband the area system," Tamaki commented, "But anyway the MEF has what appears to be KMF factories, pretty much the modern standard ones, but we also expect them to have a lot of hidden factories like what the Houses of Kyoto had during the Occupation Years" he stated. "The factories are producing and distributing parts which are way above the usual Tetsujins, add to this the groups running about with those KMFs, well, it's a worry for regional stability."

"These groups, they're Lelouch supporters?" inquired Ogi, already dreading the answer that he knew he was probably going to get.

Minami nodded, "Yes, the largest one calls themselves 'The Brotherhood'." The actual word was 'Fedayeen' meaning "men of sacrifice". "They are cell–based, but altogether they are pretty well armed number-wise."

The leader of the UN Army nodded, but otherwise remained silent. The only potentially good news was the MEF wasn't likely to support Cornelia.

"The announcement of the Albion, also concerns us, given increased chatter both within the official government channels and the rumours of The Brotherhood's movements." Minami continued.

Ogi perked up nervously,

"The MEF didn't condemn Britannia for the launch of the battleship or the sabre rattling the minister went on about," stated the bespectacled man continuing. "but the chatter also involves something about 'the time is coming near', and given the increase in the transfer in goods well Lelouch may be getting ready to make his move,"

He sighed, "I get the feeling this isn't all," Ogi groaned, Tamaki nodded his head in confirmation, causing the leader of the UN Army to groan again.

"Lelouch's support base in the former Chinese Federation is also an issue. There is a limited group of Chinese who believe Lelouch carries the Mandate of Heaven, which would make any move he makes even more of a problem; luckily they are expected to be a small minority," Minami remarked "but India is a more pressing issue,"

Rakshata nodded, "The population's support is stronger than in China and we've got reports of Knightmare development programs; unfortunately the local militias will at the very least be using the Tetsujins, but from the rumors Lelouch's children" by which of course she meant his Knightmares, "have been rumored to be operating there, particularly in the region of Kashmir."

Ogi stared hard at the map, particularly western India, which was a hop and a skip from the Middle Eastern Federation. "What about security for the conference?" he inquired.

"The security is in place, and if need be we can bolster our numbers with the Chinese Dragon guard units," Kento suggested,

As a part of the Chinese participation in the Black Knight's Li had insisted that China be allowed to benefit from the technology. These days the Dragon Guard utilized upgraded and modified Akatsuki frames to defend the Empress.

He nodded back, "Lets do that. Kaguya should be able to get us a good sized force from China."

Hopefully it would be sufficient to deter Lelouch from making any moves on the summit.

Rakshata shook her head, "You don't get it," the scientist complained, "If my estimates are right, Lelouch could deploy his forces under stealth, and even with my refinements to the Ikaruga class Lelouch's boy is too burly to face in open combat, not with it carrying a full complement of Knightmares" she stated, "If those carry as many Knightmares as we think they do, he could enter our defence grid under stealth and his children would cripple our defences before we could respond."

The Ikaruga-class Aerial Cruiser was the backbone of the UN Fleet. The production model featured a number of changes over the original. Amongst the changes was the better accommodation of shielding technology and Hadron weapons.

Still, the reports about the Albion indicated the Ikaruga would have to fight with a ratio of 3:1 to win, the same odds for fighting an Eowyn-class, given that the estimated size of its Knightmare complement and advanced stealth system were decidedly worse.

Ogi frowned; a fully operational optical camouflage system, supplemented by additional stealth technology was a real worry, "Do we have any way to counter that?"

"No." Stealth wise there wasn't any existing method of countering such. "The Albion and Britannia's ships would in theory help with patrol, but…"

"We can't be sure they won't switch sides when the big man arrives with the big ship," Tamaki interjected, "I mean, yeah, the witch," an indignant sniff from one of the Britannian observers, "put her bests guys on Albion but-"

The other Britannian watchdog spoke up, "Yes, the Emperor could have loyalists amongst the Imperial Navy; ultimately by bringing in more ships we run the risk of his Majesty being able to have his forces compromise our defences," stated the Britannian. "With the expected protests of the summit, additional troops would not go over well with the populous," he added after a moment of thought.

Ogi glared at the watchdog, "EU Plato aerial cruisers would be probably be just as useless," he conceded.

The EU Remnant had finally deployed aerial warships against Lelouch during the days after his ascension as the proclaimed ruler of the world, but it had been too little to late. The upgraded Logres Heavy Cruisers and advanced KMFs possessed by Lelouch's Imperial Guard had just been too much. The EU had of course corrected the flaws on the Plato but chances were they would be comparable to regular Logres class, if not slightly inferior.

Cornelia had retained the Improved Logres class when she had taken the throne but hadn't had any more refitted for the stand due to political tensions.

Of course the EU was working on developing a new class to deploy their new, secret, ninth generation frame.

Lelouch had managed to do the impossible: defeat Britannia with so very little. Now he had far greater resources and no one could really be certain of what his goals were.

Ogi didn't like it. But he was glad that they knew of the potential danger rather than being totally unaware of it until the time Lelouch decided to make his move.

Plans had already been in the works to try and lessen the bite of the MEF by the UN, primarily instigated by the Black Knights for peacekeeping reasons. The MEF was hardly the most ardent supporter of the UN Army after all, but the plan was supported by some of the Former members of the Chinese Federation and by the EU.

It wasn't simply the MEF's support for Lelouch, though that was most assuredly a factor in the move.

Infrastructure development had been ongoing for the past few years, as was arms development. The proliferation of military hardware was something to be concerned about due to the fact that the MEF sat on a valuable set of trade routes for shipping goods by sea.

Of course, just as there were those in the UN advocating military action, there were those who objected to military action against the nation.

Kaguya of course was the leader of that faction, a faction that was interested in preventing conflict.

Ogi considered it a better idea to go ahead and launch a pre-emptive strike; given the support in the region, Lelouch could mobilize an army and infrastructure far too quickly for his tastes.

"Alright back to the matter of the conference. We probably should expand the cordon further."

Protests against the UN summits were an unfortunate fact of life, and a major bother with regards to concerns of security. It didn't help matters that the 'Modern' UN was seen as propping up the upper-crust despite more-or-less direct democracy being used for referendums.

Of course, there were rumors of ballot tampering, and to be honest, only nations who could organize votes did actually participate in the referendums. During those world-wide votes, Britannia's common people held a lot of sway, and where their loyalty laid could be seen easily.

Ogi could handle the logistics issues of the meeting, it was by far what he excelled at. But expanding the cordon for security, and having additional troops,was going to raise some problems with the civilian sector.

Japan was finally on the road to recovery, but there were problems. No doubt Britannia's launch of the Albion-class would stir people up. Unfortunately, it would be nothing in comparison to what would happen if Lelouch's survival, and the report of the European orange machine, got out into the public eye.

If word got out about a fully stealth capable aerial battleship of that size under the Demon Emperor's command, there would be pandemonium in the streets all across the world.

"Alright, here is what the plan is, since we can't get a hold of Chiba and Kallen…"

Rakshata's research had only recently been permitted to resume at full funding. Most of this effort had been directed towards the New Day Knightmare Frame Program. That project along with the new Gurren had taken precedence over other research.

No one in the Black Knights had commented on how the New Day and Lelouch's Eon and Epoch's were related. They shared a common lineage of development, and Rakshata could recognize that fact easily enough.

Lelouch has solved the problem of power consumption for knightmares it was an astounding accomplishment. The Emperor's sons were agile, in addition to further integrating the flight systems to increase efficient consumption of power.

The Indian scientist's recognized in addition to this that the European's orange machine had been designed for high mobility. It was a design that took advantage of the energy wing system and hadron weaponry advancements of previous generations to full effect.

They had been loosing because they'd been fighting it on a battlefield of its choosing not because it was that much more advanced than the Gurren. The Britannian Tristan was not capable of such acceleration. It was true that while the new Gurren did like the SEITEN posses the Energy Wing Flight System it also wasn't capable of such acceleration either.

The latest incarnation of the Gurren was designed for closer range support, and to fight nearer to the ground alongside mass production units at closer range. The inbuilt radiation cannons were close range to mid range weapons unlike the Orange machine's hadron rifle, which could easily strike targets kilometers away.

For the last few years Rakshata had been conceiving another Knightmare, more advanced than previous models she had built. Both the Shenhu and the Shinkirou had played a part in its design, though the new machine's design did away with certain features of both machines.

The key flaw in the design was its power consumption. To address this would require at the very least a purpose built power plant.

Rakshata had contemplated the matters of her homeland, and specifically the fact that Lelouch had an ongoing development program there. While it was unlikely that Lelouch maintained his higher generation knightmares at the location their might be something to gain.

Right now India was at odds with the China over land, that didn't particularly concern the scientist.

Chapter conclusion

Helltanz's notes: Who wants me to make a list of who has what in regards to Knightmares, it'll include which militaries are using what, and which pilot is piloting what?

Shorter I know this is probably more or less going to be the standard length from now, also give it up for my beta Song of White Crow.