Chapter 7: Upgrades

Zero sat on his couch, in front of the chess board he was playing by himself. If he, Zero, was black, then Infinite would be white, and at this point the white side was winning. At this point it was Lelouch's turn, so what would be his next move?

"I'm not in a favorable position. I haven't been from the start." Suzaku said underneath his mask.

"Well if your always waiting for your opponent to move," The attendant spoke behind him. "There's no way to get in a favorable position. Staying on the defensive is never the best option."

"Hm, maybe your right." His attendant was more or less speaking in terms of the chess game rather than the war, but it still worked both ways.

And she was right, staying on the defensive wouldn't get him anywhere in this war, he knew two places the Reverse Knights were. Infinite had a few pieces on the board. He just had to go to one of them rather than wait for him to come to him.

"If I'm going to turn the tables, We're going to have to make some upgrades." Zero stated.

Just then something popped on to his T.V. screen, which did work as a communicator between place in the building.

It was Lloyd, Cecil was behind him. "I'm one step ahead of you Lord Zero, now if you would please come down here I will demonstrate for you." He said and cut the transmission off as quickly as he had started it.

Zero got up and left the room, then took an elevator down to Lloyd's floor. When he arrived, Kallen, Cornelia, and Xingke were also there.

"Professor Lloyd, do you really have something that can help us beat the KnightCrawlers?"

"I believe I do, allow us to explain." Lloyd says and turns to Cecil.

"Yes, the biggest advantage the Reverse Knights have at this point are their number of energy winged machines, and their Hydron cannons." Kallen remembered just how good their cannons was, somehow, they had found a way to twist the beams mid flight and round back at them. "So during your previous battle with them, we had a Knightmare with cloaking technology scan the Hydron cannons to try and see how it worked."

"Wait, I thought that we could only move around while using cloaking technology, wouldn't using the scans turn the cloaking off?" Zero asked as a reference.

"Scanning is actually the only thing that doesn't take too much energy that it would shut down the cloaking." Lloyd answered.

"What we got from this scan was that their Hydron cannons were infused with some form of nanotechnology that allowed them to control the direction of the beam."

"So what have you made to counter this?" Xingke asked.

"It's a bit of a displacer machine mixed with a Gefjun Disturber." Lloyd answered.

"Yes, with it, you can emit a vibration at a frequency that shuts down the nanotech in the Hydron cannons."

"Wouldn't that still leave us with the regular cannons to worry about?" Cornelia wondered.

"On the contrary You Highness." Lloyd said.

"We thought that at first as well, which wouldn't make this machine of any use because for now, it only works at a range up to 2 feet away from where its source. However when we ran it through the simulator, the Hydron cannon would break apart along with the deactivation of its nanotechnology."

"Really, why is that?" Kallen couldn't help but wonder.

"It works that way because the nanotech is completely infused with the cannons." Lloyd said.

"Exactly, because the nano technology is directly infused with the cannons, anything that happens to them, happens to the cannon itself, which is what causes it to bend." Cecil concluded.

"Then there are the Energy wings, we have given a second frequency not much different from the first one we just mentioned that is closer to a Gefjun Disturber that will almost completely shut them down if you can get close enough to them."

"Almost?" Zero clarified.

"Yes, how their speed will be turned off, It will still work as a float system, so they won't go into a free-fall." Cecil answered.

"And it only works for 10 minutes after turning the frequency off." Lloyd added.

"This is indeed very helpful, but may I ask what the chances of these being successes are?" Zero asked, knowing that Lloyd could not be 100 % certain on these things.

"Yes, how the energy wing De-Charge is sure to work, The Hydron Break Down, or HyBreD, has a 20% chance of not working like it did in the simulator."

"It's better odds than you usually get." Zero says, though he doesn't like the chance of it failing.

"As of yet, this is all I have to offer, but I am working on other projects to upgrade the Knightmares." Lloyd says and the four people leave.

Zero goes back to his room, where a lunch is waiting for him next to the chess board. Suzaku removed his mask, as his attendant had left the room. He began to eat and looked at the chess board. He smiled as he now had a chance to go on the offence.

"Well it looks like everything is going according to plan so far." Lelouch said, twirling a white king piece in his hand.

"As far as the rebellion goes," C.C. commented. "What makes you think Suzaku can destroy the Code anyways?"

"It's not that someone else couldn't do it just as easily as Suzaku, but it's that Suzaku is the only one I can depend on to do it."

"What is your plan for destroying the Code my Lord?" Jeremiah asked.

"I'm not completely certain on that, but I'll figure it out." Lelouch answers then someone knocks on the door. "Come in." Lelouch say and puts his mask back on.

A young boy about the age of 14 comes in. He had shaggy brown hair and brown eyes.

"Ah, Bai, how have things been coming along?" Infinite asked the boy.

"I've already done what I can for today." Bai answered.

"Good, I'll wait another week before going to the next stage. That should be enough KnightCrawlers right? To take the Shinjuku and Saitama Ghettos?"

"I believe so." Bai replied.

"One more question, how id it feel piloting the Tolecnal?" Infinite asked, as Bai was the one fighting Cornelia yesterday.

"It felt almost natural, since I know it inside and out."

"Good, that's exactly what I wanted to here, now go get some rest, your Geass needs to be at full power tomorrow when you use it again."

"Of course." Bai says and leaves the room.

"What is that boy's Geass my Lord?" Jeremiah pondered.

"You mean you haven't guessed yet, how else would I have gotten so many KnightCrawlers?" Lelouch answers. "The boy's power is to be able to copy anything he sees, or has the knowledge of how it looked and worked. All he would need is some material which to make it out of."

"So we told him exactly how we wanted the KnightCrawlers made, then gave him a few junk yards of metal, and he did the rest." C.C. added.

"We call his Geass the 'Ultimate Factory' Geass. However he has a limit, he can make up to 50 things with his Geass, anymore and he would exhaust it and die. Just like Rolo did a year ago saving me." Lelouch explained.

"Yes, and we can't have that happening, at some point we will run out of energy packs if that happened." C.C. says.

"I see, and what was the boy working on today?" Jeremiah asked.

"A modified version of our opponents Cloaking technology and Perfect Barriers." Lelouch answered. "If we have what they have, the battle becomes even more to our advantage."

"It's strange, up to now, anyone who obtained Geass in some way affected people, but not this boy's, how is that?" Jeremiah wondered.

"It is a mystery to us as well, we just lucked out when we got him, as to why his Geass has been the only one not to affect people, we may never know."

"All I ever knew was that the Geass' abilities changed depending on the user. But I myself have never seen a Geass quite like his." C.C. said.

"We just need to be thankful we have him and hope he doesn't betray us." Lelouch ended the conversation.