Chapter 9
God's Sword
Helltanz's notes: as a note I'm using US state names Kansas and Nevada, Kansas because hypothetically it should still apply to Code Geass, and Nevada, because it too would probably apply given that Britannia had to conquer the region from the Spanish at some point during the 1800s
Anyway I'm going to go back to previous chapters and fix the formatting or attempt to since FFN keeps deleting my scene breaks.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass understand?
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Chapter begin
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Thus far everything was going well. While Lelouch's part in relaying messages and such was not mentioned it was true tensions between the EU and Britannia as a result of the little mess were reduced, and both powers agreed it had been a mistake. This of course however had one issue, Lelouch could not go and relay messages directed towards the the UFN's Peacekeeping Forces, for reasons that were obvious. For those same reasons Lelouch's diplomatic service was kept quiet by Britannia, and the EU.
As things stood while the consequences for the mess off the east coast had not vanished some of the pressure had been let off, which lead to addressing other things. "Alpha's size is an issue. The fact remains," Admiral Luther Caldwell began addressing the assembled delegation, "is substantially more massive a vessel than modern vessel, and we believe we have thusly determined how. The following is purely speculation, but is a speculation we advise to be strongly considered." The hologram shifted projecting a three dimensional representation of the solar system. "We believe he has moved the HIMSF," His Imperial Majesty's Sky Fortress, "Damocles behind the moon, and from there taken the process of mining," A line formed, and began to stretch toward Mars, and then past it, "the asteroid belt," it settled in a collection of three dimensional rocks floating above the delegations head. "For raw metals. We believe that given speculation about the reactionless drive that powers Alpha and Damocles's size, he would have minimal difficulty in this process, especially if he could locate and mine sakuradite from off world sources."
"So the UFN's embargo on space technolgy has merely allowed the Britannian Emperor a further advantage over us," The represenative of India's independent government remarked. "By this point we could potentially assume it suicide to contest his control, would you say this is so?"
The admiral paused, "No, not at all. Breaking out is possible there is no way he's got the resources to blockade us entirely, but he could conceivably intercept, or destroy anything that isn't properly defended, which brings us to our next issue."
Rakshata altered the hologram, expanding it to focus solely on Earth, and the moon, plus surounding emptiness. "Flight technology advancements aside breaking orbit is power intensive, and right now only the advanced Logres, and the Damocles had the propulsion necessary to reach orbital heights." This was well known it had been the greatest complaint about the Advanced Logres remaining under the Britannian control, both before and after the repeal of Paragraph 17. Lelouch during his reign had used Damocles, and the Imperial Guard controlled Advance Logres to lead the war against fragmented UFN forces, and the EU remnant. It was the well known strategm during the Ascension War, one all the history books talked up. Lelouch exploited aerial dominance and equipped his Imperial Guard with the hadron armed Gareths, which were more than a match for any other mass production knightmare that could be fielded in similiar numbers at the time. With that kind of capacity Damocles had never needed to be used, as the mere threat of it kept any troop concentrations light enough for the Guard to destroy piecemeal.
Still everyone remembered Damocles, surprisingly Schneziel had managed to escape post war repurcusions, despite creating that monstrosity, to an extent at least. Following the enactment of the Zero Reqiuem the former second prince had been exiled for the destruction of Pendragon, and in the minds of some treason for raising arms against the crown, for a time he'd served as special advisor of the UFN's Black Knights, for a time. Still the consequences of the Betrayal on the Ikaruga, and Damocles stood, which directly impacted their current situation.
Rakshata began her own discourse. The suspension of spacce research did give Lelouch time to prepare, as had other embargoes on technology it did not mean he was invincible for all the power his children, knightmares, could wield on the battlefield. Space around Earth was too large an area for him to control with limitted forces. This being said while Flight Systems on Knightmares were now fairly common the modifications to make knightmares effective space combats was a completely different matter. Lelouch's children, his knightmares, were no doubt larger to accomadate not simply larger power plants, but also additional protection, and life support systems. She speculated. "There is also the fact we know his forces are diversified, militias are equipped with one set of equipment while the Eowyn carried two seperate models of knightmares, something that must complicate his logistics base."
"Yes but can we exploit this fact if it comes to it?" The French captain remarked inquiringly, "If as you say we cannot reseasonably contest the area around his space facilities in the short term he may have time to correct that oversight, yes?"
Cornelia frowned, and Rakshata voiced her response, "Yes, most likely Damocles's production and repair facilities have been refit as that would be the most logical step."
"Given his genial actions in the first war," The Frenchman remarked,"we could potentially be fighting another conventional war. Despite Damocles's monstrous armament it saw no use after it was seized by forces of the Empire." That was the truth of the matter Damocles had been Lelouch's sword to dangle during the last war, but he'd never had to use it after taking it. "A conventional fight would be-"
"Is that the French opinion?" Cornelia snapped, "Wait for a mechanized battalion of Imperial Guard to drop into Paris from orbit, and fight things on the ground. What kind of defeatist strategy is that?"
"What would you suggest go charging into the Lion's den? We can at least bolster our defenses here just as he can in space. Fighting on the ground conventionally at least means we could possibly hold our positions."
Kaguya brought her hands down on the table, "Enough, Rakshata has a potential solution, but it will require international cooperation, and a repeal of the ban on space technology."
"What kind of solution?" Someone demanded, as clamoring erupted through out the room at the announcement.
The holograms faded, only to be replaced by the projection of various float units. "Over the last few years improvements have been made to flight systems aboard both knightmares and airships. Airships are already pressurized, and prepared for such changes. The issue however is not simply having a powerful enough engine, we need a ship capable of holding a position." A golden pyramid formed, "The Chinese design properly refit carries enough material, and has the possibility to carry sufficent avionics, and onboard weapons to be lifted into space."
"Presposterous!" Exclaimed the French captain, "Madame chairwoman, your supposition is absurd. There is no way the hull of the vessel will be sufficent to withstand sustained combat with enemy forces. His preference for Hadron weapons, and the Eowyn make this seem ridiculous."
Kaguya sighed, "A normal vessel yes, but there is currently one that is under construction at Chinese shipyards that Rakshata can refit with new armor. If we can lift one into orbit it proves the concept works."
"And if one works we can build more, which means using float systems we can put a collection of them in orbit, even if we might have to rely on refit Longdans with less performance,"
The hologram had already changed back to Earth and the moon, but this time with a pyramid over Japan, "but it doesn't change the fact resupply is a problem. Does it?" The German officer from earlier spoke up, "If it was such a simple thing you'd have done it, or started, there is something that is a problem."
Rakshata spoke up, "Not as big of one as you might think, if Britannia is willing to cooperate."
"The Albions. You want Britannia to commit our Albion-class, and Advanced Logres ships to resupplying those ships while fortifications are being built."
"Exactly. Britannia is the only nation with the technological understanding of those ships, and reproducing them. With you reusplying them we would be able to greatly alleviate supply programs." Kaguya acknowledged. "That way we could build outside the gravity well, we'd need to create work suits for space, but with shielding in place we could also launch pre built modules."
Noboru fidgeted, Ogi nodded, "Its pretty bold," the commander of the UN army remarked, "but she might even convince the Britannians to do it. They've wanted the space treaty scrapped anyway." He whispered.
"Yes, big step forward." The man responded.
It'd take some wrangling, but Kaguya had finally been able to convince Lihua about the deal. Now if she could convince Cornelia then they could potentially avoid a war dividing the UFN members. A combined effort between the two, and if they could get Europe to help, they could conceivably bootstrap their space program and play catch up to Lelouch at a reseasonable pace as opposed to having individual members research the technology in the face of the international ban on space technology.
Since the UFN was convened though it made this conference ideal to put the measure to repeal to a vote, as well as handle the issue of sakuradite extraction. While there were less effecient alternatives to Sakuradite it would be, and remain, the best option of this project. The destruction of the Fuji mines had resulted in a massive blow to ready access to the material, which had in turn had a negative effect on research. The destruction of Fuji had also resulted in the early UFN establishing the multinational directorate responsible for developing Sakuradite extraction in member nations. The aforementioned concern controlled the bulk of new Sakuradite mine that had been established in the last four years.
"We put it to a vote then supreme chairwoman, we are going to need Sakuradite even with the Fuji mines coming back online. Demand for Sakuradite has only increased in the past few years, this project will require an increase in prices."
That was true, and she hoped everyone could accept that.
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Located within the Andes's mountain range were a series of military bases, but the largest of these was rather blandly titled the 7th Command Center. Command Center 7 was built deep inside the mountains, litterally from hollowing them out. This was done to allow for the extensive concealed KMF, and other factories, as well as testing ranges, inside the roughly 300 kilometer sized region the facility operated within. Command Center 7 in the present day was served as the prinipal hub controlling the majority of lesser South American installations, particularly those responsible for observation of the shipyards on the Falkland Islands.
"The Black Hand screwed up," A man remarked. "The Avatars were meant to be heavy combatants, now we've got to worry about the UFN poking around."
His friend turned away from his console, "Don't let them hear you say that." He responded, "Still we're on hightened alert for a reason." That was true, Lelouch had upgraded their alert status in the even someone did try and take advantage of the UFN summit in Tokyo. The Britannian Shipyards at the Falklands were, bluntly put, the most vulnerable of the Empire's homeland shipbuilding facilities in the era of flying warships. Under Charles's reign he'd authorized, upon learning of Float System technology, and its potential applications to warfare, the creation of the yards, along with others elsewhere. It was a construction project the EU paid no attention to at the time. So when the concept of such warships was proven Britannian was able to produce dozens of flying warships from the multitude of completed yards across the Empire's home territories across the American continents.
It was thus during the Ascension war that the EU's last, offensive, hurrah had been targeted at striking the shipyards. A move that had largely been a foolhardy descision made by the politicians, and blundered largely due to the technical difficulties of the early block EU air cruisers. The battle for the Falklands had cost the EU's fledgling air fleet dearly, who were outgunned by the more refined Logres-class, including the advanced variant, in Britannian service.
Still Cornelia had rebuilt the shipyards for her Albion-class, as well as the other three yards for the purpose. That was the problem, or rather why Lelouch was increasing security for the Falklands. Cornelia had four shipyards outfitted to produce Albion-class vessels the Falklands, the former Imperial Guard prototype yards in Kansas where the Pendragon had been built, the yards in the Pacific Northwest, and the yards in the south west in Nevada. A fifth yard, in Virginia, was being constructed as well but they wouldn't come online for several months.
The issue with the current yards was that the Falklands were the only ones with ships even remotely approaching completion after the launch of the Albion herself. Thus any assault on the Falklands would slow Britannian production of the new warships. Such a move would most likely force Cornelia to rely on Advanced class Logres, which would have repercussions.
Lino, the first speaker, gave a shrug. "Between the Gareths in service with the militias, and the Eons stationed here we can respond in force." While relying on the Royalist Militias was hardly ideal they were luckily already ready, as there scheduled parades all day. Still direct control from the Emperor would have uneccessarily esclatated things in the present enviroment so it was easier to let the militias parade about. The Black Hand should have been another matter entirely being the elite of Lelouch's forces, but for their being elite they were also fanatics.
Lelouch was letting them run loose to a certain point because to start issuing orders directly was something that could not be hidden for long. Once such a fact got out Ogi would flip his lid, and he'd have an excuse, and worse he'd have legitimate support. Thus for the time being it was better to let them cause a little bit of trouble.
Still... "Still an attack on the Falklands would be stupid. It'd turn Tokyo into a bloody mess, besides there are Phalanx-class ships here as well, the enemy, whoever they are, don't know that obviously, but once word got out who ever did the shooting would be fighting in Tokyo."
"The Black Knights would have to intervene. They'd drop an Eowyn on the scene, and coupled with Britannian forces it'd turn our way." Lino stated, assuming that Cornelia would be sensible enough to side with their forces.
His friend, Adel, nodded, "Yes, but we're not ready for war, despite what the Black Hand seems to think. While the Eowyn's outmass multiple Traitor Knight ships there are only so many of them, and only so many escorts. We've too many bases to defend as it is." For all the talking of loyalist strength of arms it was spread out over the whole planet that was the issue with the empire it spanned the globe even in its 'reduced state'.
"So do you think the EU will attack?"
The question was one constantly being debated by everyone in Britannia, would the EU attack, or would it be the UFN Peacekeeper Army. "The Traitor Knights under Kaname are more likely, I think." Adel responded, "Especially now that the EU and Britannia have addressed the issue, but we're on alert just in case. Its the guys in the Arabian I'm worried about."
"Yeah they've got the Atlas for terrestrial testing as well, still they're well equipped." Lelouch had ordered 3 large commands to elevated status because they were the only ones that were overly at risk of a potential attack, or involvement in military action. The current strategic thinking of Loyalist forces was any conflict in Britannian dominions in Africa would ultimately draw support from the Britannian Army due to pressures at home, of course a direct attack on the Britannian homeland would render that all moot anyway.
The base's Druid System chirped announcing inbound priority cominque, "On schedule secure laser contact with South African Black Hand Command Post."
"Think they're calling with bad news?"
"Do you think the Emperor intends to tell Cornelia about our operations in Africa today?" Adel responded rhetorically, "No, if they had bad news they would have already alerted us."
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The meeting had adjourned for a short recess. "What do you think of the UFN's proposal, your Majesty?" Guildford inquired as the Britannian delegation settled into their chairs
"It seems to easy, Lelouch has somehow negotiated an agreement with the EU to alleviate tensions, and then the UFN come up with this solution. He's plotting something,"
Guildford nodded, "It does seem convinient, but thus far we've seen no evidence of Lelouch controlling the EU, especially regarding the factory in East Africa." He remarked.
Cornelia had considered that, but given the EU's willingness to suddenly relay things through her supposedly dead brother, and the fact it negatively impacted the Black Knights was overly convinient. "Chairwoman Sumeragi's proposal covers the new Sino-Nippon arms agreement, which means a bolstered Chinese military, which would result in a stabilization of the balance of power once again existing between the EU, Britannia, and China, which in turn benefits the UFN in maintaining the status quo. Lelouch's plan has to someway benefit from the EU being able to exploit the UFN."
"They're getting to openly use space technology, if they are subordinate to him then," General Lancaster began, "well they can act publically and pretend technology he developed is their own once the measure passes, and it will pass, presuming you votes affirmative. Its readily apparent everyone benefits from the repeal, most likely he gains more than he looses by letting it go forward."
Cornelia nodded, "Rochester gets to call it a victory back home, outside of those afraid of another Damocles there have been demands that treaty be scrapped for years. The chairwoman is right the Advanced Logres can reach orbit, and of course Lelouch knows that."
"We can get concessions out of this, letting Japan and China hold the technology at the beginning is out of the question, especially if it will be dependant on us to resupply."
Of course if they did that the EU would want the date on the 'station' plans as well, but if the EU was producing parts then that wouldn't be such a bad trade off, and everyone admitted such. "We could always ask Schneziel his opinion on current-"
"Not happening ever." Cornelia growled. "We're not asking Schneziel advice."
Never mind the political fallout of asking Schneziel 'I nuked Pendragon' el Britannia was effecctive suicide to begin with. Especially considering their was a sizable chunk of the population demanding his head on a platter.
"There is always the chance his plans hinge on international peace, that could be why he's working with the EU. 2 of the great powers united could easily overwhelm the third if it came down to it."
"So your thinking is that he's playing us off in case one power gets to problematic he can make his move to fix things." She responded, "Still the Reqiuem plan resulted in disarmament, but if it has failed then a cold war between three powers he has infiltrators within each would be another way to control things."
"Do we dare bring this up before the UFN Council, though."
The answer to that question was obvious, yes. They couldn't leave the space matter unaddressed either, but if Lelouch was playing them all off they needed to make sure everyone knew, even if some probably already did. Cornelia had made up her mind on the matter. One way or the other the world was going to develop space technology. It was in Britannia's interst of course to maintain a formidable military.
Cornelia gritted her teeth, and started walking around the hologram projector, "Lelouch I need to talk to you." Nothing, "damn it Lelouch I want answers."
The machine produced a hum and a flicker of light started to establish a connection. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" Her brother grumbled as the hologram formed, "And more importantly that I might actually have obligations to deal with."
"I want an explanation about what happened in South Africa."
"Ogi's peacekeeping detachment picked a fight with my subordinates and got killed. All evidence indicates the skirmish was a misunderstanding and neither side chose to disengage and fall back when such a choice was possible." He remarked blandly activating a console, "There your explanation neither side chose to withdraw so they got into a fight, resulting in the destruction of the peacekeeper squadron."
Cornelia grimaced, "Right because your subordinates routinely kill UFN Troops in knightmares," She snarked, "What were they doing there?"
"Live fire training excercise, hardly unusual" Lelouch remarked blandly, "Hardly any concern of yours. The UFN troops were overconfident and ill suited to combating heavy knightmares directly. What else did you want to bother me with Cornelia?" Lelouch leaned back in his own chair, "Perhaps spare a couple knights of the round to show the flag? Or maybe an engineering battallion I understand that the 4th ship is behind schedule." He remarked, "So then Cornelia what is it you wanted propping a hand under his chin?"
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The difference between Kaguya Sumeragi's office, and Kaname Ogi's own was just about location. Not that that contrast really mattered at the moment, "Is this going to work? Ogi asked, "I mean the arms deal will let us increase Japan's defense force along side the Chinese military, but they want us to design a modern KMF and equip two divisions with it as soon as possible."
"Its not just the Chinese the EU we definitely got their attention with this space project," Minami remarked.
Ogi nodded, "He's right, and thats what I'm worried. Lifting these things into place is, Lelouch could attack while we're doing it, and for a while we're going to be dependent on the Britannians for most resupply missions."
"Thats not necessarily a bad thing Ogi. Britannia isn't our enemy, even Lelouch isn't necessarily an enemy."
Minami frowned, "She's got a point, avoiding having to fight Lelouch is probably the best thing we could do."
"And if we don't have a choice but to fight him?"
"Then we fight him Ogi, if their isn't a choice, and Lelouch wants a war, then it'll be all of us against him. I'm just saying Lelouch, and Britannia haven't invaded anyone." Yet. Still for all the chatter world wide there hadn't been any offensives launched by anybody.
Kaguya settled into the leather chair behind her desk, "Lelouch's current agenda is mysterious. As it stands drawing him out into the open would most likely be counter productive," She remarked, "On the other hand if he assumes control there will be a great deal of political fallout to deal with." The head of the UFN activated the projector mounted in the ceiling directly above her desk, "The current situation isn't something we can continue. As it stands the pressure will just keep building until it explodes, and we'll simply have to deal with a fight between member nations. Something that is completely unacceptable, especially at the current juncture."
"The Black Knights don't have the resources to intervene in a full scale war," Ogi remarked, "We'd have to draw up secondary units from national militaries," That was the way things worked now, the Black Knights now had their permanent force, but also since the repeal of Paragraph 17 were able to draw military units from the reformed national militaries that were on secondment to peacekeeping forces. "Which would be a security nightmare."
She knew all of this, it wasn't likely he didn't bring up the fact the peacekeeping force had been shrunk from the size he would have liked, "Thats why you're getting a bigger budget this year, and the deal with China will help. So you can thank Lelouch, and the EU. Everyone admits the Black Knights are good for peacekeeping in some areas, and if Lelouch is around they're willing to increase funding to the Black Knights. After the conference ends Rakshata is going to take the time to brief you, and the other officers on the space program initiative. What I said at the end of this session was one hundred percent accurate to our knowledge, in six months we can have a space station by using information salvaged from the Toromo Agency, and working in cooperation with all member states. Still the fact remains that data is years old, and will only let us reach space."
"In other words Lelouch has if speculation is right the capacity to evade any pursuit beyond orbit." Rakshata announced, "of course assuming his children are already acclimated to zero gravity combat, which I think likely, we will have to do that as well."
"What did we get from the Toromo Agency's research exactly, all I ever saw were the plans for the Damocles Lady Sumeragi?"
The project presented multiple schematics. "Schneziel's Floating Fortress was the most grandiose design of theirs, but the basic technology doesn't have to be fitted to such a garish beast," Rakshata announced, "We are going to give birth to a city in the sky, using modifications to an existing facility design left by the Toromo Agency. This design is immeniently suitable to our needs, and is modular, we simply are going to replace this bulkhead with a docking port for that Longdan." "Which in the short term is what we're going to be using in space?" Minami asked,
Kaguya nodded, "We will be replacing the majority of the weapons, even though our linear cannons will work in the vacuum its going to be too problematic to resupply. However we're going to lift as many of them as we can make in the short term to protect the facility while its under construction."
"We're going to have to tell the world about Lelouch," There he'd said it.
"Yes, there is no choice on that matter," The sole Britannian in the room admitted grimacing, "Her Majesty has already made plans, still its not to be an easy announcement."
Kaguya nodded, "Perhaps if we all came together and released a statement it would be the best choice?"
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The rebuilt metropolis that was Tokyo remained the impressive city it had been. There were no more ghettos to deal with, not with the way land prices in the city were, but the influence of Britannian remained in the form of Britannia's former settlement even after the destruction inflicted by the detonation of the FLEIJA weapon launched from the Lancelot.
Right now there were hundreds of flying Knightmares patrolling the city. There were more knightmares flying over the city than had been involved in the entire second battle for Tokyo. Not that it made her feel any better. Downtown Tokyo was filled with demonstrators chanting.
Kallen sighed within the Gurren's cockpit, Cornelia's, expanded, Glaston Knights in their Agravains had spread out. Theoretically, and most likely in practice, dramatically increasing the firepower available to patrolling units with their hadron weapons. Still, she reminded herself, these were Cornelia's elite troops, a combination of her surviving Royal Guard, and other supporters with enough experience to be useful.
Right now they were spread out all over Tokyo just flying around in case of trouble, which right now didn't seem likely. As it was there were military units from all over the world, the EU even had unveilled another new unit for defending Tokyo, probably the machine they had been reportedly building in Somaliland. To add on to that contribution the Britannian Military was here in force, in addition to the expected Black Knight force.
A burst came over the radio, "Hold on might have something in sector four,"
Kallen bit back a curse, damn it, "Roger that Gurren's en route," The red knightmare turned easily pulling into formation along side the knight of nine's personal frame. "Any idea what it is?"
"No, just reports of a disturbance." Claudio responded "Still things aren't exploding yet so we might not have to worry. On the other hand this could be a distraction."
"Yeah," The red head muttered, "could be." Still if it was a distraction wouldn't it have made more since for to do it while all the delegates were convened. Instead making a move while all the delegations were elsewhere meant it could be something else. It could be a targetted attack against one person.
The radio crackled. "This Black Knight command, rioters got through one of the barricade," The voice on the other end announced sounding tired, "No sign of knightmares though keep alert."
Kallen flew over the crowd, "Roger that," She zoomed in on them, as a molotov cocktail smashed into a wall of shields. Anti Globalization riots were bad, it wasn't the first time she'd seen rioters break the security line.
"What are they rioting about?" Claudio asked as his knightmare hovered over an officer building's roof.
"Who knows," She responded watching as the police units pressed the rioters back, "maybe they just like breaking stuff." Kallen paused, "Claudio did you pick up that shift on the radio?"
Inside his knightmare the knight of nine nodded, "Yes, so did everyone in the Glaston Knights as well, even with our druid systems we're getting no where with breaking the encryption even though its on our frequencies."
"Its a Black Knight frequency though, we should call it in, its supposed to be emergencies only." She remarked, "Ikaruga, this is Gurren encrypted message sent from priority only channel."
The operator on the Ikaruga took a minute to respond, "Stand by Kallen patching it through to Intell department. Keep alert."
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Chapter End
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Helltanz's notes: finally getting the plot moving along, and part I ends next chapter, and for the record writing mature older Kaguya is hard. :(
Yes for the record Nunnally will show up next chapter, she's been busy with school and stuff