Helltanz's notes: My beta seems to be MIA so I'm going to post this, and then when they get back to me I'll replace it with the beta-ed version. So excuse any mistakes if you will, thanks ahead of time.
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Ogi looked around the hall. He could remember walking down this hall, he'd done it plenty. This was Tokyo after all. He couldn't remember why he was here. Unsteadily he looked around turning and turning, and turning wondering if he was going to fall. Something was wrong so he kept walking down the hospital hallway, and it eventually came to a waiting room.
Then he caught sight of the date. No, he told himself, that was wrong. It was all wrong. Kanami Ogi stumbled into the wall of the New Tokyo General Trauma Surgery ward. Originally built in 2014 to service the Britannian population of the Tokyo Concession it had been touted as one of the most advanced intensive care facilities in Asia. It had been here Prince Clovis's autoposy had been performed, not that an autopsy had really been needed given the readily evident cause of death. It would also be here that months later Princess Euphemia would be brought for treatment of her fatal gunshot wound.
This hospital had been appropriated by Japanese forces after the liberation of Japan. Some of the Britannian doctors had stayed on, even if most had done so to tend to the still large Britannian population of Tokyo. What was commonly called the Ascension war came and with it the Battle for control of the Sky Fortress Damocles. Li hadn't died here.
Li had died surrounded by well wishers, and friends, as well as politicians in a hospice in the Chinese capital. There was someone who had died here not long after the Zero Requiem though, a person who'd been vitally important to the Japanese people during the rebellion. A person who after the country had finally been liberated should have assumed a key position in whatever government was formed in Japan.
Kyoshiro Todoh had passed away on cool spring morning at 9:17 am all attempts to revive him had failed. He'd been pronounced dead at New Tokyo General's Intensive Trauma ward not long after Lelouch had died. The 'friendly' papers had spun it as his warrior's soul passing on to follow their great leader in the aftermath. Todoh had died with his reputation from the resistance shielding him from the debacle that had tainted the BK after Diethard's broadcast. The official story was that Todoh had died of complications from a wound sustained during the war. No one could be sure what his final words had been because he'd been put on a respirator days before he slipped uncouncious, and then finally passed on.
Ogi gripped the guide rail as he watched them wheel out Japan's last great hero. This couldn't be real, which was what he'd told himself repeatedly when it had happened. Kaname Ogi snapped back to the land of the living inside New Tokyo General as a nurse adjusted his pain medicine.
"Oh your awake,"
"Ah Noboru," Ogi fumbled for the coffee the man offered him, "What happened?"
The Black Knight frowned, "Two bombs went off, one went off in the car deck, but the other one went inside the main lobby. Your wife's in the waiting room."
"What happened? Who did this?' Ogi asked more insistently after sipping the coffee.
The other man shook his head, and Ogi repeated the question, so he answered. "We don't know," It was the truth too, even Lelouch sitting in orbit of the planet didn't know who the culprit had been when the bombs had gone off across the world. "at first we thought maybe it'd been Lelouch, but when there were no Knightmares descending from the sky to wipe us out we kinda guessed that it wasn't him."
"You haven't got any leads?"
"We've got too many leads to chase down." The other man remarked, "and Kaguya has us running ragged with this Asian Sphere thing she's pushing."
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An autocannon round pinged off the angled, dark blue, 'breastplate' of the knightmare. The attacking Panzer Hummel exploded violently as the thick short ranged missile slammed into it. Both knightmares were European in make, but the old panzer was just no match for the newer Wild Goat. The other Panzer Hummels on the field weren't having any luck either. The goat was larger, and more heavily armored and that larger size let it incorporate heavier weaponry, which was saying something, because for a fifth generation frame the Panzer was rather heavily armed.
Both knightmares had design similiarities, though the Britanian influx on Knightmare design was readily clear even though the standard 15 cm anti knightmare Rifle was based on a European design. It was distinct step up from the older 10.5 cm, or the later 120mm that Late, Ascension War, Hummel's had been equipped with in an attempt to match the advent of shielded KMFs employed by the Imperial guard. The Wild Goat standard rifle could be fitted with an eighteen round magazine, which while heavy was a useful advantage in combat.
Overall though it wasn't much of a fight. The goat was more modern, bigger, better protected, even slightly faster thanks to continued development of technology even during the comparatively slow after war years. Really the best the older hummel's could do was take pot shots behind cover, get lucky, or hope to exploit the local area to do something. In this situation the Goat's larger size, was both to its advantage and a disadvantage. Even so the new knightmare was precisely the kind of refinement to readily existing technology that would make it popular with down to earth commanders.
About half of the EU Rapid Reaction Force, who were just arriving on scene, turned down the corner to basically be glorified spectators as the Wild Goats dealt with the Panzer Hummels. Hell the entire RRF was still equipped with Panzer Hummels. Created as a part of a classified research initative as they were the Wild Goat had not been planned to be publicized until their production models had been delivered to far more units than they were at present.
Both rebels and, which ever classified branch of the Joint EU Military Command, or National Military Command, the newer frames belonged to were roughly mechanized battallion sized. In short if this kind of fighting spread into the civilian portion of the city's dock they could do a massive amount of damage in collateral in a very short window of time.
For a major city that was precisely what the EU wanted to avoid. Case in point were what happened to one of the waterfront side warehouses when a burst of autocannon fire from a Wild Goat's Knightmare scale machine gun went wide. The warehouse exploded nicely into confetti sized bits as the HEI rounds went off. The Hummel didn't wait to try and stop that from happening to his own mech, but the Hummel had always had a weakness towards close quarters.
The European's mass production fifth generation had accomplished self well when it had fist debuted, but as long as you could get close enough those deal big guns were a lot harder to use effectively. With the increasing trends towards armor, and of course the advent of energy shields, the machines guns also saw a drop in effectiveness.
Lelouch clicked off the footage, that had been some time ago. He'd watched it repeatedly, the scowl never quite fading. The events of a couple of weeks ago had critically undermined attempts to slow disarmament, which was oddly convinient for certain elements of the EU Military. That the attacks had been so carefully coordinated spoke of at least one, most likely more, high level traitors. Either way the attack at the EU Naval Facilities in Marseille had been handily repulsed, which in the long run meant little. The attack had still gotten the world's attention, which had probably been the point all along. The tactical response of the EU regimental commander did give an insight into the new EU warmachines though.
The warmachines would be a definite problem. They were solid heavy kmfs, and would be exceptionally dangerous to his Djinn in anything but close combat, which was ironic. The Avatar series would be better off, with their heavier energy weapons at least. It didn't change the fact that technological progression meant... gods Lelouch would have loved to have a handful of current KMFs during the rebellion.
Either way until the EU could vastly expand their aerial warship fleet, and particularly with something that could break orbit with a complement the fighting looked to be a prologned one. As it was they'd be playing cat and mouse with the rebels, but then perhaps that was the point. It was relatively convinient that slavic separtists would have picked now of all times to come out of the wood work and start attacking. Then again that would be too easy to write this off as a conspiracy simply because it was a convinient response.
The current situation was going to be an issue either way. Lelouch glanced at the Executive Intelligence Officer, "How is Ogi precisely?" By all reports the bombing of the Tokyo headquarters had been a rather miscalculated flop of an attack. At least as far as attacks went with a variety of conditions factored in. As far as the attack went most the damage was cosmetic to the build, though with a massive number of injured.
"He's not going to be able to walk without a thorough round of physical therapy, but he's already reassuming his normal duties." At Lelouch's bland look the IO continued, "Thats to say he's already pushing for a UFN intervention into the situation in Eurasia."
Of course he was, because gods forbid the UFN not do something about the clusterfuck that was coming out of eastern Europe. Then again there was a good chance Ogi was just going stir crazy from being confined to bed for so long, and not being able to do anything about the attacks. As it was it didn't matter. Whoever was responsible had basically gotten away with it scot free, which was why Lelouch had initially suspected geass after the evidence was accounted for, but that was looking, unfortunately, increasingly unlikely.
Lelouch's main man in Beijing saluted, "Development of the new Knightmare system is on schedule, but I have reservations over a number of shared border areas with the EU, particularly given existing tensions." the holographic projection activated shifting into a room consuming map of the continent. Dozens of pinpricks, "We've confirmed an increasing number of Panzer Hummels, and more concerningly," A new image appeared Uralvagonzavod's 7th Generation mass production knightmare, which was a little too convinient for a frame that had only been, officially, in full production for just over a year now. "the prescence of machines that shouldn't be anywhere near the border."
"That is a problem," and far too soon for the UFN lead knightmare program to be anything useful if things went sideways. Unfortunately this was probably going to be one of those situations where there were already plans in place and they'd be forced into a reactionary stance. Contrary to the worst fears, and estimates of hostile powers organizing orbital insertions was not something that was easy to do at the drop of a hat. Lelouch had always kept that information close to his vest during the war."The border is long, but we could prepare to land. There are only so many targets they'd pick when they choose to attack." Kings should lead by example. It had been a tenant of Lelouch's philosophy that had been used to justify Cornelia assuming the throne as something other than the Army supported it. Behind the scenes Lelouch had encouraged his political supporters to accept this. "We'd need an invitation."
The Chinese official bowed, "An invitation will be issued as soon as we know that the attack is underway." Lelouch nodded. Between this and the Western European frame he was wondering how many factions were vying for influence inside the EU. The EU had grown over its history an ideology of French Dominance had faded to be replaced with an ideology of opposition to Britannia as the industrial age had begun. Both Industrial powers had rushed for resources, and the wars helped keep the EU together as opposed to falling into infighting. Britannia's wolves were no longer howling at the gates, and China was a shell of what it had been a quarter of a century ago.
With the Chinese official gone Lelouch turned to his subordinate, "Ah I must admit the reports on European frame development are nice." Britannia's General Staff had used the phrase 'a distinct refinement over their previous systems', but Lelouch liked to avoid using terms like dignified when describing war machines. "However I do believe you said something about armored vehicle development?"
"Yes my lord, tanks, IFV, APCs, modernizations for all."
The Emperor frowned, well it had been unavoidable he supposed. This had been bound to happen eventually. "Well that can't be helped, and air power?"
"Ground assets seem to be the current priority."
Well that was a little bit of a relief... he supposed.
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Tamaki leaned his chair back as he waited for Mamoto, and Kurosawa to show up from the technical briefing. The technical briefing he was technically supposed to be at. Not like he wanted to listen to briefings about the so called 'Vincent III', which was really just a slightly modernization, and variation of the current Vincent II, with a greater emphasis on modular attack packs. Hell in Tamaki's opinion it wasn't even worth calling it the III, and besides the machine had been known about for months as it was well before Lelouch had shown back up. It was thus in Tamaki's opinion they shouldn't even have bothered with the modifications to the standard Britannian mech, which had been in service since the last war. It would have been completely different if the briefing had been on the Aggravain, or so Tamaki told himself.
In truth Tamaki was hardly the only, just the most vocal, about having to attend such. Lelouch had founded the Black Knights primarily through appropriating resistance groups, even counting the JLF veterans, most hadn't had previous military service. Most people could manage interest to willingly attend Knightmare briefing sessions things like IFVs, or tanks or other mundane military equipment got far less interest. On the opposite the briefings on the Pendragon had had record numbers for attendance just because it was a brand new capital scale ship.
"Eh whats up guys?"
Minami sighed, exasperated, "Damn it Tamaki you were supposed to be at the meeting."
"Meh, relax guys the Vincent can't compete with our knightmares, and besides we know all about them already." Neither statement was entirely accurate particularly since the Britannian Army had enough Knightmares to, in theory, swamp any UNBK Force deployed in Britannia's proper territorial boundaries. Not that there was any chance of either of those things happening, ever, or at least any time soon.
He rolled his eyes, "Thats not the point, its knowing what the other guy has." Minami grabbed a chair and wheeled it around, and lowered his voice. "Look we still don't know how those bastards managed to pull that off. That was Zero-grade shit when it came to preparation. People don't just decide that at the drop of a hat."
"So what do we do?" Tamaki shrugged, "Cause last I checked we didn't have a clue who pulled those bombings off, and other than the EU being shifty bastards we've got nothing." The EU knew something that they weren't sharing, but no amount of talking, and trying to get it out of them since the attacks had gotten them to fess up. "So what are we supposed to do?"
Minami dropped a packet on the table. Now technically briefings were supposed to leave the meeting, but it was okay he figured. "We're supposed to be preparing. Okay so the EU is hiding something, and Lelouch is back, which is why we're helping the Chinese, and the Indians arm up, if this shit goes sideways we need all the frames we can get. If a real war-"
"A real war, yeah because last time wasn't a real war." Tamaki interjected, "okay so I get it Britannia could throw a bunch of knightmares at us, so could the EU. So we have to work with the other guys in the neighborhood," He grunted picking up the folder and flipping it open. Nothing he didn't know before Britannia good at melee, EU not so good at melee.
Seeing his disinterest Minami rolled his eyes, "Keep reading," It wasn't like he disagreed the reports always started out with the general summation of facts that everyone already had heard a dozen times before. Half the bullpen turned around at Tamaki's outburst a few minutes later, while the rest just played it off... such things happened.
"Thats, thats a lot of people, thats a lot of mecha too." Maybe he should have gone. Everybody had heard how Kaguya was pressing the security and technology development with China, but that many engineers from New Fuji Heavy Industries, and 'letting' China reopen and repurpose, or rather upgrade might be more accurate, the Gun Ru lines in Inner Mongolia. "Is the Hi- chairwoman really sure about this," He'd almost called Kaguya hime, which was pretty common, but not something you were supposed to do inside the office, just to avoid setting anyone off. "I mean,"
Minami shrugged, "The guys in accounting say its actually a pretty good deal, the zaibatsu guys go over there, and China will be sending plenty of guys to handle construction over here. Its good for both countries." Some of the others nodded listening in, it'd been the same during the meeting. At first sending that many engineers, and personnel seemed a bit much, but reconstruction was a pretty important matter. Any help that wasn't Britannian would be good, just because it ducked over that sensitive issue of what had happened over the last generation for Japan... of course right not the Black Knights had other issues.
Ever since the attack Ogi had been on edge, and it wasn't just because of the physical therapy. The whole office knew he'd been visiting Todoh's grave a lot. Once or twice a year might have been one thing, even normal. Todoh had been a major political figure for Japan even dead. There was a point when visiting the dead became macabre, and Ogi had crossed that a while ago. No body could even say what the issue was, because no body else was acting like this. All they knew was Ogi had come home from the hospital, and he'd been silent as the grave. The monday after he came home from the hospital though he'd been at headquarters barking orders, and it'd been like this since. Japan had gone through plenty of changes in the aftermath of the war, and rebuilding had involved social changes as well, but Ogi's change?
Saying it was dramatic was an understatement.
"Whats Ogi got there?" Tamaki asked, "I mean I didn't miss anything important right?" The slacker asked as he watched Ogi fiddle with the projector.
Minami shook his head, "I don't know, nothing else was supposed to be on the books for today." Then again this wouldn't be the first time since the attack Ogi had kept something off the schedule and calling a meeting at the last minute.
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Colonialism, that was to say the Colonial Policies of both the EU, and Britannia, were the primary cause of the World Wars. It had also encouraged its share of colonialism from other minor powers as alliances jockeyed for influence. The advent of the present dynasty in China's found allowed them to jump into the game. While they'd never shattered India's native rule they had suceeded in installing puppet regimes that kowtowed to the Vermillion city, likewise China had frequently butted heads with Russia who'd always been at the fringe of the EU.
The seventh generation of knightmares had begun with the belief that such frames would almost certain be high mobility units. Just as the fifth generation, up until the release of the Panzer Hummel, had proscribed that 5th generation frames in pursuit of the anti-kmf role would emphasize melee capacity. Post seventh generation frames did tend to be faster than older models, but the defining trait of them was the idea of specialization. With the sixth generation dozens of new technologies started to be pioneered and these matured under successive generations. When people talked about new knightmares most did think about speedy machines.
Speedy a Gun Ru was not. It wasn't slow, but the machines were not agile. They were however stable so with proper gunnery support they made decent improvised artillery support if you didn't have actual artillery systems available. It was that usability that explained the devestation throughout the border town... not that that was entirely the fault of the Gun Ru detachment who was engaged in fighting. The local garrison was doing its level best, which wasn't really up for this kind of fighting.
When the Panzer Hummel had first rolled out it'd been a nightmare on the battlefield. Even during the Ascension war after Lelouch had taken the throne they'd been dangerous enough when employed properly. The A2 variant, more commonly known as Late Panzer Hummels or Ascension War Hummels, were even worse news because they'd been introduced in 2018 to counter, or attempt to, Britannia's relentless advance. The most notable change was the replacement of the 10.5 cm gun with Rheinmetal's larger 120mm version, and changes to the body structure, which eliminated the 'anemic stomach' appearance of the early Hummels. The fact the knightmare accomadated missile, or mortar systems on its back as part of the update was intended to further help it survive against the advent of shielded knightmares.
The advent of the Hummel A2 however had its downsides, and besides the fact it was heavier, Xingke had managed to acquire several before the Damocles Disaster. Oh China had quickly started intending to switch to human designs, like the Akatsuki, but the A2 had inspired a retrofit, and later refit of Gun rus with larger caliber weapons, including similiar missile and mortar pods on the back, which did reduce to the point of negligible amphibious capacity on the new models.
Mortars were cheap though, and effective, which made it a cheap way to 'favor' commanders who couldn't be supplied imported knightmares. "Where is our support?"
"We were only able to raise the regional headquarters for a moment, our AAA systems are tied down in the foothills." The radio operator announced, before shouting a little too late warning.
At roughly the same height as the Gawain, and a bit more massive Uralvagonzad's mass production knightmare frame took the lessions from the Mk3 A2, and its post war A3 streamlined successor, and applied them to an updated frame with further. It also added melee capacity as the glowing red melee weapon came down on the barrel of one of the mortars. Still the Russian frame had made a mistake in his choice, closing to melee range for the kill? Even as ammo cooked the Gun Ru's guns rippled through the morning mist in the foothills of the battle ground.
Even a nearly 8th generation frame didn't do so well against point blank fire massed like it was. The gun ru's auto cannons it might have been to shrug off this close... maybe if it was straight across the heaviest torso armor belt, but it wasn't just the auto cannons. The Russian mech didn't so much as explode, as the shells impacting it, and the ones cooking off, just blew the war machine into several pieces.
"Box them in, if we can bracket them with fire we can take them out!" The lieutenant shouted assuming command, "Divide into fire teams," It'd work for the defenders, because that attackers just didn't feel the need to try something like that. Why would they, after all it was apparent who had the equipment advantage.
Seventy miles above the surface of the planet, and rotating fast around to position itself a Black Knight Light Dock was moving into position. It majorly reduced stealth capacity but at this point that wasn't really an issue since a fast orbital descent would was impossible to hide anyway. Within half an hour the Chinese border radar had flipped its shit, as had the Russian operators on the other side's radar installations.
It was entirely possible to do a slow descent that didn't light up military radar, but it required carefuly adjustments and took hours to transistion between surface to orbit, or orbit to surface. It was the kind of thing that made for good stealth attacks, not the thing you did when responding to an attack. Lelouch could afford unsubtle in this case.
"Final descent phase initalized." Oscar 2 reported over the radio, "We've burned off most our speed, and our course is steady."
"Roger that Oscar 2, we're updating your NAVCOM now with current way points," Command responded back, "Be advised Russian Plato-class had been spotted in the area. No word on intentions at this time."
"Affirmative command, Oscar 2 TOT seven minutes." Theoretically they could have punched out of the landing craft from further up, but it would have meant the knightmares built up additional heat for no appreciable advantage. It was why 'drop ships' were used for these kind of maneuvers. Also it kind of helped the 'droppers' were armed. Not that an armed drop ship would do much in a direct shooting match against a Euro Plato-class, or emplaced AAA systems.
The Russian, local, Radar Control had been squealing for the better part of the hour to the Slava Federation knightmares, well before the dropships were visible. Chinese command had been doing the same, but neither really knew what to expect.
Sergei's avionics package warned him about the dropship closest to his position, and he knew enough about Ascension War tactics to know his squad was probably about to fight hadron armed Gareths, or worse. So when his squadmate's knightmare exploded from enemy fire he knew to order the rest of his men to satuarate the hell out of the enemy position.
Stupid Britannian Knightmare and their God damned shields.
Though smaller than the Eon, which had supplanted them the frames were still larger than the Galahad. Lelouch would have deployed his newer Eons had he been able to spare them, but logistics was a bit an issue, and this whole thing had come up far to quickly to expedite such a material transfer. Still it was the issue of pitting an eleventh generation assault frame against something three generations below it.
Ural's design classed as an Assault weight frame as far as ratios went. Not that everyone agreed on those ratios. What this meant it practical terms was that an assault could kill mediums by the bushell but two assaults against each other and it boiled down to skill and equipment. The Ural would have been a good match up against the medium weight Vincent, and certainly did well against Gun Rus however modernized.
"Pull back, and fan out." Sergei growled, against shields though they were going to have be a bit more creative. "and watch out for others." He ground and teeth and put his knightmare in motion watching his HUD for any sign of enemy targetting systems locking on. If they could manage a dead lock he'd be fucked before he could react; hadron weapons didn't play.
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