Chapter 17: Winner Take All

"All KnightCrawlers ready?" Infinite voiced out to all of his Reverse Knights.

"We're all set, Lord Infinite." Jeremiah answered.

"Ready for launch," C.C. said.

"We're good to go." Bai replied.

"Alright, Reverse Knights, launch!" Infinite shouted to all his warriors at the Tower of Babel, and thousands of KnightCrawlers launched and flew out and followed their leader, Infinite.

"You're playing a dangerous game Lelouch," Suzaku muttered to himself while alone in his room. He was staring at the chess board which represented the war between them.

The two kings were facing each other; Lelouch's being at E4 and Suzaku's at E7. Lelouch's side had many more pieces than Suzaku, and therefore more options with what to do next.

While trying to figure out what to do next, someone knocked on the door. Suzaku put Zero's mask back on. "Come in,"

The door opened and Kallen rushed in. "Zero, come quickly, Infinites forces are on their way!" She shouted with urgency.

"You mean they've commenced their attack on Ashford?" Zero confirmed as he stood up.

"No," Kallen corrected him. "We just got confirmation that their coming here!"

"What!" Zero was surprised at this. The way Infinite had been acting thus far, they all assumed his next target would be the Ashford Academy, and after that would they come here.

"We need to prepare everyone for battle, Zero." Kallen said.

"You're right," Zero replied and left the room with Kallen, heading for the Knightmare Hangers; he pushed a button on the side of his helmet and activated a loud speaker for the whole building. "Attention everyone, we have received notice that Infinite and his troops are coming here. All Knightmare pilots are to head to the hangers immediately and prepare for battle. Anyone else still here is to evacuate the building as soon as possible." And at this he cut off to comm.

Kallen and Zero took an elevator down to the Knightmare hanger, where everyone else was already waiting. "Status update," He requested.

"Infinite's troops are less than ten minutes away. We don't have enough time to everyone ready by then." Cornelia was the one who answered.

"I know; that's probably what Infinite was betting on. In any case we need to get as any people out there as soon as possible, give the order for all Knightmare pilots to get into fighting positions as soon as they can take off." Zero said.

"Understood Zero," Cornelia replied, and walked off.

"Professor Lloyd, are our Knightmares all in good condition." Zero inquired.

"Ship-shape and ready to deploy!" Lloyd replied with glee.

"Excellent work," Zero said and made his way to his Lancelot.

As per Zero's orders, any Knightmare pilot that was prepared for launch did so without waiting for everyone to get prepared. Normally doing something like that would cause too many gaps in defenses, but given the circumstance, right now it was probably the better choice. If they lost this battle, everything would be over, so sending out as many troops as fast as possible to slow the enemy down until the main forces were prepared and deployed was the better option. Once that could happen, the real battle would begin.

Infinite's forces now arrived at the Japanese Government building. What forces of Zero's were currently deployed stood ground as to wait out as much time as they could so they would have the best odds once the fighting broke out. In the front of Zero's currently deployed forces were Gino Weinberg and Anya Alstreim in their Tristan and Mordred Knightmare Frames.

Luckily for them, Infinites already low number in troops had been spread out quite a bit in order to defend the Babel Tower as well as the Saitama and Shinjuku Ghettos, so the number left over to fight here were even smaller. However, that did not give any of them the luxury to underestimate their opponents. Infinite's forces had proven themselves to be more than enough to handle their Knightmares; but this was for all the marbles, they had to win.

Infinite was upon them now, the battle that would decide everything was about to begin. The instant Gino saw Infinite's troops go for their weapons, he cried out. "Attack," And both sides rushed forward and locked each other in combat.

As the two war forces clashed, it was clear that Infinite currently had the upper hand in numbers. The KnightCrawlers power was also nothing to scoff at either, so even if they could stand out here long enough for the difference in numbers to be in their favor, there was still no guarantee they could pull off a victory.

"Here we go!" Gino called and shifted his Knightmare to its fortress mode and fired its guns at the KnightCrawlers as if fly over them, taking out quite a few.

It was then Gino noticed something coming up fast on his radar and switched back to Knightmare mode and pulled out the Master Vibrations Swords to block the very same kind of sword swung at him from an Utsuri. But the powerful KnightCrawler piloted by someone who betrayed the Britannian army did not stop at that; the machine pulled a trigger on the hilt of the sword and it fired of like a Slash Harken, scratching the Tristan's armor and causing it to fall back.

"You're mine, Britannian dog!" The Utsuri's pilot shouted and pulled the hilt downward, and the blade still launched in the air came crashing down on the Tristan's shoulder, rendering the Knightmare's left arm inoperable.

"Damn it," Gino scowled and attempted to fly away and escape for a moment.

The Utsuri did not hesitate to charge after Gino to take him down for good. It was then however that a radio transmission linked with the Tristan. The one who called was Xingke, who must have just launched. "I'm heading toward you, get down now!" He told Gino, who redirected the Tristan's flight and dived down, taking the Utsuri slightly by surprise.

But while his focus was still on the Tristan, Xingke's Shen Hu flew toward it and flung its electronic Slash Harken at it, rapping around its main body. "Take this," Xingke shouted and activated the Hydron charge to destroy the machine.

"Thanks for that one." Gino told Xingke with the still open radio transmission.

"Go back and get your Knightmare repaired; you won't be much help with only one arm." Xingke told Gino, who did as he was told.

Now Cornelia and Nunnally launched their Knightmares together and flew toward the battlefield. "Nunnally, focus on taking out the lesser troops using your speed; taking down their number advantage will help greatly even if the main forces are still left." Cornelia ordered.

"Understood, good luck," Nunnally replied and they flew in opposite directions.

With the lesser KnightCrawlers being slower, preoccupied with their own troops, and their pilots having little experience, Nunnally would be able to quickly take out a great number of their forces. But with the trail of destruction she would leave, it would only be a matter of time before the main forces took notice.

Nunnally flew to one end of the battlefield and took out the wrist blade of the Guinevere and flew in a strait line across the backs of the KnightCrawlers, aiming for their radar heads, so even if they weren't destroyed from her primary attack, they wouldn't be able to see their attacks, and be eliminated soon thereafter.

Once she flown through about 100 meters she veered her path to fly up and began simply taking out any KnightCrawler she came past. She even came at an Utsuri and destroyed it before it had realized she was heading toward it. But near that point had been one of the main forces, the unknown pilot in use of the Tolecnal, and they took notice of her.

Immediately the KnightCrawler took out a M.V.S and swung it for her cockpit; but with her superior speed she was able to block it with little trouble. "You're the Britannian princess Nunnally, correct?" The pilot asked, his voice sounded very young.

"That's correct," Nunnally replied.

"Lucky me, if I take you out, your army will lose much of its moral. Taking out that Knightmare of yours will help no small part either." The pilot stated, and charged at the Guinevere again.

Instead of mixing in with the fray, Lelouch had using the advanced cloaking he had Bai make a while back to sneak past the enemy lines. If he could attack the Knightmare hanger before the majority of troops could launch, this battle would be ended instantly, and he would have seized control of Japan.

Lelouch did not truly expect this war to end there. In fact to accomplish his goal it couldn't end there; he would allow Suzaku and his troops to be able to retreat, and they would probably flee across seas to the Chinese Federation. They would be unable to travel all the way to Britannia, and in fact many would already be too low on battery power to make it to China, but so long as he accomplished getting them out of Japan, it mattered not how many of the regular troops made it through as long at Suzaku got away.

However, for this to work, Lelouch first needed to wait for Suzaku to deploy into battle before commencing his attack; and he would not be able to keep the cloaking on for that long a stretch of time, less sacrificing his own battery power, so if anyone noticed him lying in wait, they would strike. "Hurry up, Zero. I can't wait all day."

And in fact Lelouch didn't need to wait, as soon after that he recognized the Lancelot launch from the Knightmare hanger. Now all he had to do was attack the hanger. Lelouch activated the Gawain's energy wings and flew up toward the hanger; but it seemed luck was not on his side.

His radar detecting an approaching enemy, and when Lelouch took a better look, he realized it was Cornelia. "Infinite!" Cornelia screamed and launched four of her eight Slash Harken and controlled them with the nanotechnology. So they came in around him from different angles.

"I don't think so!" Infinite shouted back, and shoot of the Gawain's finger Slash Harken, swinging them to knock away Cornelia's, which gave him just enough of an opening to get out of the way before Cornelia could reroute the attack to get a hit.

(Damn it, if I get stuck fighting here I won't be able to attack the hanger, and if that happens I may not win this fight!) Lelouch thought to himself as he faced Cornelia.

But Lelouch's misfortune didn't end there. "Infinite!" A cry was sounded from the distance and Lelouch looked to find the Lancelot had already spotted him and heading to attack.

Lelouch would be able to take them both, even on his own with the advanced systems of the KnightCrawlers, but the problem was the now if he wasn't careful fighting two opponents, he could end up killing Suzaku, and then all his endeavors would have been for nothing.

Lelouch was soon forced to put this out of his mind as the Lancelot came upon him, forcing him to fly back before he was hit by the Lancelot's M.V.S., and now had to focus on the battle at hand as it evolved into a true war.

AN: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but for all of you who have been eager for more, I promise there will be more updates coming soon!