Chapter 22: The Secret Weapon
Moving as fast as they were able, the three 10th Generation Knightmares – the Corneli, Guinevere, and Lancelot – flew out and began to attack the Utsuri KnightCrawlers. But they knew already it would not be easy; the Utsuri KnightCrawlers were piloted by people who betrayed the Britannian Empire and had experience piloting these machines unlike the rest of the pilots that joined the rebellion.
But that was the purpose of their speed. Speed was the single greatest weapon a 10th Generation Knightmare possessed, so it always had to be used to its fullest. As they came closer to Infinite's army, they noticed that his Gawain had been made into a 10th Generation model, as Nina had expected, although surprisingly the Gawain was the only one, none of the other KnightCrawlers had been upgraded. Suzaku wondered if there was a reason for that or if something else had caused them to be unable to do so.
But he didn't have time to think about that now, all that mattered was that since they didn't have a multitude of 10th Gen.'s that they had the advantage in that aspect. Suzaku, Nunnally, and Cornelia were far ahead of the rest of their army and were now right up to Infinite's army's front line.
The battle began.
The Gawain increased its speed to try and intercept the Lancelot, but it was too late to keep him from going straight past him and attacking the Utsuri. The Lancelot swung one of its Maximum Energy Blades at the closest Utsuri, but he managed to react just in time to bring up its Perfect Barrier to block.
But even the Perfect Barrier was no longer enough to stop these new weapons completely. The blade of pure energy extending from the hilt began to cleave straight through the bubble that could even block a Hydron Cannon, but was deflected enough to where the blade only cut off the machines arm instead of destroying it completely. But he didn't stop there; the Lancelot suddenly turned its whole body around like it used traction on the air to stop its amazing speed and stabbed straight at the Utsuri, which didn't even have time to turn around itself before it was impaled and destroyed.
At the same time, the Guinevere flew toward and Utsuri, who like the other, immediately put up his Perfect Barrier. However, instead of attacking, the Guinevere flew strait past it and then curved up over it. The wings of the Guinevere suddenly bent around its body in a circle and held its arm over its head so the points met. In this position, the Guinevere began spinning at high speed like a drill and span down right on top of the Utsuri, drilling though its Perfect Barrier and destroying it.
The Corneli however seemed to have a harder time. Not just because she flew toward two of the deadly machines, but their reaction time seemed to be faster. The Corneli had always specialized in combating multiple enemies with its many Slash Harken, but now even with the incredible speed and improved weapons; it couldn't take just two down. Because there was Slash Harkens on both its arms and feet, the Corneli's systems were more complex than normal machines; but Cornelia's experience with it allowed her to move the machine fluently and gracefully like it was a ballet dancer.
Using that widened range of motion, the Corneli flung its 4 Electronic Slash Harken one after another almost none stop at the two Utsuri. However with their Harken Vibration Swords, they both continued to block each attack. They couldn't get in an attack of their own, but Cornelia was unable to destroy them.
The Lancelot and Guinevere were having similar problems with their next opponents, who somehow had better reactions and more effective defensive means. Just then, behind each of them, another of the Utsuri flew in and attempted to attack them. Since they were alerted to their presence by their radar systems, each one reacted to the opponent behind them.
The Lancelot flew up and then dove behind the one that attacked him, holding one of its sword backhanded and cutting it in half straight down, then using the explosion it caused as cover, flew through the obstructing cloud and stabbed the second Utsuri, destroying it as well. The Guinevere used its drill attack a second time and ran through one of the Utsuri, but the other got out of the way. The Corneli flew overhead of the three Utsuri she was fighting and then threw three of its Slash Harken at them. But instead of aiming for a kill shot, the axe shaped blades dropped by the Machine's sides, and then they were almost immediately retracted again to sever the KnightCrawlers' heads so they couldn't operate the radar systems and become easy prey.
However, only the one that attacked the Corneli from behind was caught by this, and the other two flew to the side to avoid it. Corneli ignored them and then swung her fourth Harken at the Utsuri that was caught by this tactic and destroyed it.
"Regroup with the rest of the troops." Zero suddenly told Nunnally and Cornelia, who both followed his orders and used their speed to get back to where the rest of their army had gotten.
The two armies were just about to clash for the real battle, and once that happened there was no telling what would happen. Finally, the two armies met each other and Knightmares and KnightCrawlers began clashing left and right. Every soldier there on the battlefield fought with all the power their machines had. And while all that was happening, Kallen stayed at a safe distance from the fighting.
Kallen's Knightmare held the most important weapon that could lead to a crushing victory even over Infinite's incredible army in its left hand. Looking at it right now, no one would see anything unusual, but that was a ploy to keep the enemy from noticing the weapon and understanding its threat.
They had to wait for the perfect moment. They needed to create the perfect opportunity to use this weapon that was on a whole other level from the devices they used on a regular basis. Even the Hydron Cannon was a small feat when compared side by side to the destruction this secret that was tucked away would bring when unleashed.
As she waited, Kallen kept her hand poised on the activation lever. She broke out in a nervous sweat at the thought of actually unleashing that weapon. Even if it was Nina Einstein that created it, and even if it was Suzaku who was giving the order to use it, the final responsibility for its use now rested on Kallen's shoulders. Whatever result came from the use of this weapon, Kallen knew she would be the one to bear the responsibility of its use.
But that was not even her biggest concern. Her biggest concern was the person she was now aware was piloting the Gawain. "Lelouch…" She muttered to herself the name of the person she once fell in love with and still loved in her heart. "One way or another Lelouch; I'll get an answer out of you." She swore this to herself.
She didn't care about anything else anymore. The result of this war, the use of that weapon, the lives that were lost because of this all meant nothing to Kallen as long as she could just ask Lelouch why he had done this.
As long as she could understand his reason behind starting this war and accept it, she would be able to go on as she had before. Because of that resolve, Kallen held her left hand firmly on the activation lever and waited for Suzaku's signal.
On the battlefield, blows were exchanged, blasts were fired, and explosions were triggered constantly at the destruction of a machine. The main force of the Reverse Rebellion also clashed with those of Zero's army. Before Suzaku could do anything more, The Gawain flew out in front of his Lancelot and raised its hand.
The hand of the 10th Gen. model Gawain was coated in energy. With that deadly hand, the Gawain struck the Lancelot's shoulder. At the same time, The Lancelot swung its blade up and cut into the underarm of the Gawain. Neither attack was heavy damage; neither would cause the other to falter. And so, both charged right back in for their true struggle.
Suzaku knew he was attacking Lelouch. And of course Lelouch knew he was attacking Suzaku. Despite those truths, neither one would hold anything back in their fight. They would not need to; nor would they have the luxury to.
The Knightmares and KnightCrawlers fought. And on the inside, the people piloting them struggled. It was a fight for the fate of the world, and neither side would give.
Anya's Mordred met Jeremiah's Deirfgeis. Cornelia's Corneli was attacked by the Nerug. Nunnally's Guinevere among others was faced by Utsuri, and then the rest of the troops faced in their own combat.
In the Knightmare Hanger, Lloyd Asplund, Rakshata Chawla, and Nina Einstein monitored the signals of the troops, keeping an eye on how many troops were lost and how fast. They would tell Zero when the best moment for the secret weapon's deployment was. They calculated when it would be most effective and waited for their opportunity to strike.
The fighting went on, and then they saw it. The exact moment they were looking for when that weapon Nina and Lloyd went to such lengths to ensure would not cause a horrid amount of destruction on the battlefield to be used had finally arrived.
With the goal in sight, Lloyd alerted Zero. "Zero; it is time!" He shouted into his receiver, and his message was radioed to the Lancelot's radio system.
Immediately and without hesitation, Zero then shouted out to his entire army. "The time is now; everyone, scatter!" He told them, and just as they had been instructed beforehand, every single troop flew as far away from Infinite's army as possible in the least amount of time they could manage.
They signal was seen. Kallen saw the Knightmares scattered to give her the line of fire she needed. "Goooooooo!" She screamed out to herself and pushed forward with all her strength on the activation lever of the weapon that was so secret it would have driven someone who knew it was there but not what it was crazy from wondering.
As the lever was pushed, a change immediately occurred in the Guren's left arm. The arm's pieces came loose and moved, it turned upside down to allow the weapon hidden inside of it to flip out into full view for use. The weapon fixed itself into position and its name was finally shown to the world.
In wonder, Lelouch focused his Gawain's video screen onto the arm to understand what was going on. However, upon reading the golden letters on the inside of the Guren's new arm, his eyes opened wide in complete shock. "RUN AWAY! GET OUT OF THE WAY OF THAT WEAPON IMMEDIATELY!" He warned his army of the danger with the upmost importance.
However, many of those troops had automated pilots. They would not understand this warning or the threat well enough to dodge, they would likely attempt to use Perfect Barrier to protect themselves, but it would never work against the weapon.
One of the Utsuri's pilots wondered what on earth could have been so dangerous, and so sought to see it for his own eyes. But when he scanned the arm, he was overcome with overwhelming fear. As one who used to fight for the Britannian Empire, he knew more about the destruction it held then the civilians who piloted the lesser KnightCrawlers would.
Once revealed, Kallen readied her finger of the button that would fire it. As she came to press it, she shouted out the name of the weapon at the top of her lungs. Its name was… "F.L.E.I.J.A. -BEAM-!"
As the name was called out, a pure white beam of absolute destruction rang out that covered a radius of 5 meters despite the cannon it came from being much smaller. Escape was possible, but they had to react fast enough and be far enough away. The F.L.E.I.J.A. would suck anything within a certain radius of its blast and then completely incinerate anything it touched. The auto-piloted KnightCrawlers did not understand this and so became incinerated without resistance. Many of the lower models of KnightCrawlers simply did not react fast enough and sere sucked in to vaporization.
That was why everyone was so apprehensive about the weapon's use. Suzaku especially, who had once unleashed the first use of it because of Lelouch's Geass and vaporized the Tokyo Settlement, killing millions of people. He knew its destruction better than anyone, and so naturally felt the most apprehensive about its use.
The main forces scattered before the beam was turned to get closer to them. It was almost impossible to believe they had made a weapon like that, which focused the destruction of F.L.E.I.J.A. into a beam. The beam soared across the battlefield and wiped out almost half of Infinite's army. With this kind of set back, victory seemed assured for Zero.
The F.L.E.I.J.A. -BEAM- ended and Kallen froze from the surprise of its actual release. However, the weapon could only be used once a battle, if she wanted to use it a second time, she would have to get the arm exchanged for a new F.L.E.I.J.A. shell at the hanger, but they didn't have the time for that, so she rushed into the battlefield to continued fighting.
Inside his cockpit, Lelouch gritted his teeth and clenched his controls. He had gone too far for his plans to be overturned like this. Thinking that way he did the only thing he could. He looked around and found the Lancelot flying above. "ZERO!" He shouted out and Suzaku reacted and turned to see the Gawain flying strait at him at top speed. "We end this now!" Lelouch told Suzaku and struck one of its energy coated claws at the Lancelot, who put up his swords to block, but was then pushed back to a location of Lelouch's choosing.
"Zero!" Kallen noticed when this happened and changed her course to try and help, but she did not have the speed of a 10th Generation Knightmare, she would never catch them.
Just to compact that sense of helplessness, a surviving Utsuri flew out in front of her. "You will not disrupt Infinite's battle." The pilot told her before engaging her in battle.
The battle outside went on, but now Zero's forces were given the advantage. And flying away, the Gawain dragged the Lancelot out of the way so that they could have the final showdown that everything had been leading up to. He would finish this now, he would end everything with this fight.