Chapter 18: "Check"
As the fight that would decide Japan's fate continued between Zero and Infinite's forces, Kallen launched her Knightmare to join the battle. Following her launch Nonette also came out. "Time to show these guys who's in charge!" Kallen shouted as she headed toward the enemy line.
"You got it, no mercy." Nonette agreed.
The two flew at a pair of KnightCrawlers and Kallen grabbed its head with her energy pulsar arm, destroying it instantly. At the same time Nonette fired a Hydron cannon from her Knightmare's right hand at the other, also causing it to explode.
Meanwhile Xingke was having difficulty as he was forced into battle with three KnightCrawlers at once. And if that wasn't bad enough on its own one of them was Jeremiah's Deirfgeis, whose ability piloting a Knightmare was increased with the special system where he linked his nervous system was linked with the mechanics of the KnightCrawler, allowing for more precise control.
One of the regular KnightCrawlers came at Xingke's Shen Hu from the side, but he reacted by immediately swinging the Shen Hu's arm and its electronic Slash Harken, which cut strait through the machine and destroyed it. However when Xingke fell back to avoid the explosion the other KnightCrawler came up behind him and began to swing its M.V.S. at him.
But just in the nick of time some laser shots were fired at the KnightCrawler from behind destroying it. "Now we're even." Gino's voice spoke out, apparently having returned to the battle in the Tristan's fortress mode.
Gino must have returned to battle without waiting for his Knightmare to be fixed, because the repairs would have taken much longer. "Thanks Gino," Xingke replied gratefully anyways.
"Do not celebrate just yet; you still have to get through me!" Jeremiah reminded the two pilots and flew toward them.
Infinite's original task was now stalled with the arrival of both the Corneli MK and the Lancelot. "Take this," Cornelia yelled as she fired off all eight of her Slash Harken and moved them around so that they would attack Infinite's Gawain from different angles, and giving little room to avoid them.
However Infinite used his improved version of their Perfect Barrier which was capable of blocking the attack easily and without being pushed back as theirs would have.
Once Cornelia retracted the weapons, Infinite dropped his barrier and the two Hydron Cannon's on his shoulders charged and fired at her. Cornelia did not know whether this Hydron shot was integrated with nanotechnology or not, as if it were the regular type their HyBreD would not work against it, so she dodged by flying upward.
It had been a good move too, because the Hydron Cannon continued on instead of turning. Given the opportunity, Zero took out his M.V.S. and swung it at the Gawain from the side, but he wasn't fast enough as the Gawain still managed to fly up and out of the way. "Get back here, Infinite!" Zero shouted after the Gawain.
"Come and get me!" Infinite shouted back.
Anya shot some of her proximity missiles at a small group of KnightCrawlers in front of her, annihilating them and then speed past. She continued to fly forward toward her actual target that was currently locked in combat with Gino and Xingke: Jeremiah. As she neared him, she fired off more missiles that would then lock on to his KnightCrawler.
However, Jeremiah must have noticed the missiles incoming, because his Deirfgeis suddenly jumped into the air and spun toward them. The missiles flew up toward Jeremiah, but then small cannons opened on the sides of the Deirfgeis and shot a sheet of electricity, which short-circuited the missiles and they blew up before reaching him. "Anya Alstreim now as well, huh? I certainly am drawing quite the crowd." Jeremiah told the three in a mocking voice.
"It's only natural." Anya said. "This past year we had all come to trust you, and had believed all of this kind of stuff behind you. Yet you still went and betrayed that trust."
"The only person I serve is Lord Lelouch. Infinite is truly a man who understands his wishes; so why would I not follow him?" Jeremiah asked.
"Then this will be where you die!" Gino shouted at Jeremiah and charged him with his M.V.S., but Jeremiah easily flew out of the way and launched two of his lance Slash Harkens and Gino would have been caught if it had not been for Xingke who flew in front of him and blocked the attack with his electronic Slash Harken using their new whip function. And then Anya prepared the Stark Hydron Cannon and fired it at Jeremiah, who then activated the Perfect Barrier which blocked against it completely.
"I will not die! With this incredible machine linked to my nervous system, there is no one who can stop me!" Jeremiah boast as he continued to fend off all three fighters with little problem.
At this time, the pilot of the Tolecnal faced Nunnally in her Guinevere. He made the first move of their fight by pulling out his M.V.S. and slashing her at high speed. But with the Guinevere's advanced Energy Wing System, she flew up and went right over the Tolecnal and then turned herself around and struck its back with her wrist blade, but the machine was barely scratched.
"Don't be such a fool. Right now you are looking at the inventor of all these incredible machines. Surely you don't think I would make my personal KnightCrawler so weak just any attack could pierce me?" The Tolecnal's pilot said.
Nunnally became shocked. Not by the fact her attack could not sufficiently damage the KnightCrawler, but because this person who sounded to be so young just told her that he was the person who created the KnightCrawlers. "Just who are you?" Nunnally asked.
"I am no one of consequence, not yet anyhow." The pilot replied.
"What… does that mean?" Nunnally asked.
"You don't need to know, because before this battle is over and Japan is under Infinite's control, you will be dead." The pilot responded and put his machines hands together, having them shift to be some sort of cannon.
The cannon fired off consecutive rounds of the Hydron Bullets the Utsuri's had used. Nunnally operated the Guinevere and flew up and out of the way, but then she gasped at what happened next. The perhaps 20 Hydron Bullets that had been fired suddenly shifted direction. These Hydron Bullets must have been using the nano technology for the same bend-fire effect as the first Hydron Cannons used by the KnightCrawlers.
But the Guinevere had yet to be equipped with a HyBreD defense system, and so was forced to continue dodging using her superior speed. However the Hydron Bullets were faster than even her speed and she had to continually spin, twist, and shift her Knightmare to avoid being struck as the orbs of energy continued to turn around each time they missed to try and strike her again. Even if she did have the HyBreD system, against multiple attacks coming from different angles, it would not help her.
Finally worse came to worst, the pilot of the Tolecnal got the many Hydron Bullets to surround her in a way she could no longer run. "You're mine!" The pilot yelled and all of the Bullets shot inward at the Guinevere at once, exploding on contact.
The pilot waited a moment but suddenly reacted to what came the next second. The Guinevere emerged from the explosions dust unscarred and charged at him, plunging her wrist blade strait for the head of the Tolecnal to sever its sight capabilities.
The Tolecnal however grabbed onto the Guinevere's arm and kept it just out of reach. "You… had a Perfect Barrier didn't you?" The pilot discerned.
"That's right; now take this!" Nunnally shouted back and then before the Tolecnal could react, energy like the kind the Lancelot had once used for his M.V.S. energy slash attack gathered on the Guinevere's wrist blade and extended out, cutting through the Tolecnal's neck and cut off its head so he could no longer tell where anything was.
The Tolecnal flew back, but without being able to see he wouldn't be able to fight anymore. The pilot clicked his tongue in frustration and used his main compartment as an escape pod, launching out of the Tolecnal's body and flying away from the battle field.
Cornelia and Zero managed to get the Gawain backed against a wall. "You're done for now, Infinite!" Cornelia shouted and launched all of her Slash Harken toward him.
However, instead of striking the Gawain, four of them stuck into the wall behind it and the other four floated in place in front of it. At that moment an electric fence stretched across the Slash Harken, incasing the Gawain inside. "It's over!" Zero shouted and flew at the Gawain, ready to pierce it with his M.V.S.
"I don't think so!" Infinite retorted and opened up cannons in the palms of the Gawain's hands, and he used the Shock Sheet that was used in the Saitama and Shinjuku Ghetto battles to severely short out the Knightmare's battery power.
The Shock Sheet was used in a small burst so as just enough to render Cornelia's electric cage useless and fly up and out of the way of Zero's attack. But instead of coming back to continue the battle Infinite continued to fly upward and then stopped in front of the Knightmare launching pads. "This battle is mine!" Infinite shouted and fired his shoulder mounted Hydron Cannons at the exits, using the nanotechnology in order to curve them to the sides to make sure all exits for the Knightmares were destroyed.
Cornelia and Zero looked on with shock, they had just cut off any more reinforcements coming for this fight, and the difference in numbers had not yet been made up. With the KnightCrawlers advantage, everyone who noticed this had happened knew Zero had lost.
The Gawain floated and turned back to Cornelia and Zero. "Admit it, you have lost this battle." He told them.
Inside the Lancelot, Suzaku clenched his teeth. Every fiber in his body was telling him to press on and keep fighting. But he knew what Infinite said was true. Just then, a radio transmission came on. "Zero," it was Xingke's voice. "We need to fall back." He told him. "We have nowhere we can run to in Japan anymore; we need to retreat to the Chinese Federation."
"But what about the others still inside?" Suzaku responded as Zero.
"We can't save them, there's just no time; I'm sorry." Xingke replied.
Zero was silent for a moment, but knew what he had to do. He opened up radio transmission with everyone and sounded the retreat to the Chinese Federation. As Zero's army retreated, Infinite made no attempt to stop them, and instead focused his troops to capture anyone remaining inside the Government building.
As Zero retreated, Cornelia spoke to him. "We had no other choice, Zero. Once we're within the Chinese Federation, we will at least have some time to prepare before Infinite comes to get us. This war isn't over, not by a long shot."
"I know, but out numbers have been severely cut, and we will still be handicapped without Professor Lloyd and Rakshata's technical skills."
"You rang?" Rakshata's voice was suddenly heard. "Don't worry, the Pudding Earl, Cécile and I all got out safely."
"But… how?" Zero asked.
"We had a secret escape unit ready in case worse came to worse." Cécile spoke. "But I'm afraid we are the only ones who got out."
"That's alright, we'll need as many as we can get. If three can make a difference, I'll take it." Zero responded, and they all continued on to the Chinese Federation.
Infinite walked though the Japan Government building as his troops rounded up anyone inside. Eventually he came to Zero's quarters, and entered the room. As he looked around he saw a chess board on the table, and laughed at the sight. "Interesting play…" He said to himself and stepped up to the chess board. He examined the placement of the pieces and could tell which side was who. After a moment Infinite moved a knight piece from his side so that it was in position to take Zero's king placing it down firmly. "Check; your move."
AN: Here we go, the virtual half-point of the story. This is where the story really starts getting good. Keep a look out for the next chapter!