Here goes Chapter 7. Note that I am making Renesmee to be badass, at least to a sense. Although she'll have lots to learn later on...
Turn 7
"Borusu Ichishiki"
Lelouch's arrival at the command room was marked by an exclamation of complete awe on behalf of the colonel in charge, and judging from Colonel Havoc's tone, he could blurrily understand how the battle was going on. And battle progress, as the sign showed, was anything but bad.
"Great! Great! Great! Go Renesmee!" exclaimed the Colonel ecstatically. "That's the way to go! Kick their ass!"
Lelouch found out for himself only a split second later when he faced the main screen.
Confirmation was indeed awesome. To put it short, Renesmee was indeed trashing the Xin Kuomintang's assault Guan Yunchang Knightmare Frames by the dozens and hundreds.
The horizon was filled with explosions – Renesmee's Lancelot was dashing across the badland, spinning its Slash Harken around, impaling, slashing, cutting, piercing, and punching its way through the mass of Chinese Knightmare frames. As her mech swiped all over the place, down fell the Chinese frames by the dozens. Behind her, the trail of destruction was more than obviously marked with the charred, dismantled remains of both men and mechs she had wasted in the last few minutes, forming a pile of wreckage as far as the main base's camera could still follow.
Lelouch had apparently missed the most dramatic phase in the battle, when the Chinese were caught by surprise, their morale freefalling at the sight of the goddess of devastation. By now, their entire rank was in shambles, the pilots in the first line breaking ranks and trying to make the run for it, only to be mercilessly cut down when the Lancelot artfully glided through them. Even for those in the second and third offensive line, still relatively calm enough to brandish their assault rifles and rocket pods, their presence were now completely made fun of, as their weapons failed to even graze, let alone damage the extremely agile Lancelot. Renesmee was basically waltzing through the lines of fire in a manner that the world had only known of via the legendary Suzaku Kururugi.
For the first time in his life, Lelouch actually felt a little sick in his stomach from the blatant waste of human life. Judging from how the Chinese never built their Knightmare Frames with escape pods, Renesmee was apparently racking up her kill count at a lightning-fast speed. Even without looking at the statistics, Lelouch could tell for sure that in the last few minutes, Renesmee had killed more men and women in the Army of the New Republic of China than her entire family had in his entire life. As for the helpless cream from the mass of enemies that Lelouch heard on his way up the chamber, it had actually gotten worse, and now thoroughly sounding as if thousands were wailing in unisons. It appeared that the girl he had taken in was a much, much more efficient and much less remorseful killer than his dear Kallen could ever hope to be.
Surprisingly enough, Renesmee was doing all that with just the quadruple Slash Harkens and the MVS, or a cleverly calculated combination of both. Had she knew how to operate the more advanced functions of the Lancelot Mk-II, she would have been able to claim a much, much higher kill count.
Or maybe she did.
As soon as Lelouch's eye lost count of Renesmee's kill count, the girl seemed to have made up her mind to start doing something dramatic. The next thing Lelouch heard was a loud boom, when Renesmee activated all of the Knightmare Frame's boosters, tossing her Lancelot into the sky with such speed as if ripping through the clouds and wind themselves, positioning herself some thousands of feet above the enemies. Before Lelouch could come to understand her motive, her next action was especially gasp-inducing. Renesmee was spreading the Lancelot's energy wings, for what purpose, every Knightmare pilot worth his salt could have known.
Massive overkill in the form of a rain of green energy bolt filling the battlefield.
As energy bolts rained upon the Chinese rank, the screams of terror, pain, or both seemed to have covered the entire horizon, only to be drowned out by the sound of hundreds, or even thousands of Knightmare Frames going up in massive blasts that filled the space of several kilometers with the flashing color of flame and explosions. It was similar to what Suzaku would usually do with his Albion, but only much more devastating in size and range, over a field much more tightly packed with enemy Knightmares. What the implications were, as in how many lives were obliterated in that attack, one could only hope the number wouldn't rise too high.
But it was only when the entire series of explosions has died down that Lelouch realized the full extent of the destruction. If anything was to prove that war is hell, that mass killing was the finest example. The devastation her energy wing charge had caused was such that it completely overshadowed the pile of Knightmare remains that she herself had left behind her MVS and Slash Harkens, evaporating anywhere from a third to half of the Chinese division and tossing what little fragments of morale the rest had down the drain. Perhaps it was the largest-scaled massacre of Knightmares that history had ever known, and disturbingly carried out by a little girl no older than ten.
"What the…" Lelouch felt like biting his lips as he stared upon the battlefield filled to the brim with brutally incinerated Guan Yunchang frames. "What is she doing?"
"Obliterating the enemies, of course!" Colonel Havoc said, his eyes dominated by ecstasy. "In my whole life I have never seen such a spectacular curb-kill battle! Not even a full-fledged GDI commando can unleash all that havoc on the enemies!"
Lelouch felt like swallowing something especially bitter without being able to spit it out. Of course he wanted Renesmee to succeed his unfulfilled Zero Requiem by force. Of course he wanted Renesmee to become an able pilot capable of both defending the Britannian Empire and then free his sister from the uneasy weight of her crown. But what she was demonstrating was clearly taking it too far – she was proving far too efficient a killer for her own good.
And that wasn't the only anxiety Lelouch had. Another, immediate matter came to his mind as soon as the explosions died down.
"The Lancelot Mk-II's Yggdrasil Drive hasn't yet been fully perfected to match the energy wing's power output," Lelouch mumbled as his eyes glued on the screen. "With all that attacks… she's wearing out the energy supply far too fast for her own good!"
Lelouch's anxiety was proving true faster than he thought. Renesmee's killing streak was suddenly brought to an end as the killer frame suddenly turned into a statue, with no warning. Apparently the last attack had drained the entire edifice of Renesmee's, or rather, the Lancelot's reserves. The result was obviously deadly to the young pilot – the Lancelot was frozen in place as a result, having been obviously deprived of even the basic energy to move, especially when the fact become known to friends and foes alike.
"Wait… what?" Colonel Havoc gasped as he stared at the Lancelot's motionless form. "Why is she standing still like that?"
"Damn… the energy supplies must have been depleted!" Lelouch rolled his eyes at the screen.
"That's insane! Standing in a battlefield completely paralyzed like this is…"
Colonel Havoc didn't even have time to finish his speech. The Chinese seemed to have understood the situation faster than Lelouch's lot, as they, first slowly and trembling, gradually picking up the pace and becoming more reassured, regrouped for a next attack when they realized that the scourge of the Lancelot was no longer functional. The fact that they were still somewhat frightened of the Lancelot didn't quite help Renesmee in this case, as they uniformly distanced themselves from the motionless hulk, drawing their heavy duty artillery pods for the long-range kill. Being the target of a multi-thousand-man-strong firing squad was not a comfortable sight, even less so when you are thoroughly disabled and couldn't even bulge a muscle.
It seemed that Renesmee's fate was sealed…
Or not.
"Borusu Ichishiki, Kenzan!"
The booming, fully spirited voice from a massive, industrial-scaled amplifier over the distance all of a sudden brought the entire background to a standstill. Before anyone could realize what was going on, from behind Renesmee emerged another Knightmare Frame, at least twice the size of the usual standard-issue Sutherland, and infinitely more imposing. The next thing to happen was the newcomer activating the Landspinner, gliding towards the enclosed mass of Chinese Guan Yunchangs at top speed, ignoring the thousands of artillery pods pointing at his direction.
And then there was a blinding flash as the new Knightmare Frame produced its own MVS, a shining weapon of the usual material, but with a blade three times the breadth and around six times the length of the usual MVS. When the Chinese rank of executioners realized what was going on, it was too late for any evasive maneuvers. The fact that they were so closely packed in the usual Human Ocean formation was definitely not helping, making it much easier for the newcomer to cleave through them by the dozens. When the huge Knightmare passed right through their ranks, it managed to leave behind a trail of Knightmares, or rather, Knightmare halves, in its path, all of which spectacularly exploded in the next second or two. The rescuer revealed itself behind the Chinese rank behind the explosions, the flaring flame shining upon its designs.
At first sight it appeared that the rescuer was one of an older model, judging from the size, lack of ceremonial designs, as well as the lack of a revolutionary Slash Harken launcher. But then, when Lelouch saw the extremely heavy-duty shields covering it from back to front, especially the humongous plate on its forearm, going so far as to completely block out most of its chest when it was in full stretch, he realized that he was observing the most powerful Knightmare Frame ever designed in action.
"What is this… hulk?" Colonel Havoc asked, still pretty much paralyzed from the suddenness of the appearance.
"The Bors Type-1," Lelouch replied, his eyes still glued on the overwhelming size of the frame. "The only known Tenth-Generation Knightmare Frame model. It's been developed for the past two year, but most of the research details were state secret of the highest level of clearance. As a result, the only thing we know about is its size, shields and the pot-helmet, decorationless-styled head."
"So it is supposed to be more advanced than our Lancelot Mk-II?"
"Much more," Lelouch nodded. "Only God knows what new technology they have incorporated within this frame..."
"Mind the odds, my king," Colonel Havoc returned to reality. "That is quite a huge rank of enemies – highly advanced technology may not be enough to win this batlle…"
"Round them up, boys."
The booming voice of whoever piloting the Bors Type-1 interrupted the colonel's train of speculation, before derailing it and knocking it completely off-track. Apparently the pilot wasn't alone in whatever he was doing. Behind him, or rather, behind where Lelouch's base was, suddenly churned up another row of Knightmares – Britannian ones – though still significantly smaller in size than the Chinese.
Vincents, but improved. Vincent Mk-IIs. Lesser cousins of Lancelot, revved up such that they out-firepower the generic Chinese rip-off five-to-one. As the noise of mass-charging Landrollers filled the air, signifying the total advance of the Britannian Knightmares, even the mentally challenged would realize that the Chinese invaders were in a big mess…
******
The battle was over before it had even begun.
No sooner than the first rank of the invading division, thoroughly battered by Renesmee before, crumbled under the renewed assault by the Vincents, than the remainder of the second and third line broke rank to flee the battle. The rout was devastating – apparently the Chinese engineers had underrated the mobility of their Guan Yunchang design, and theat mobility inferiority was being repaid with the blood of their men. Outrun by the pursuing Vincents, the escaping Guan Yunchangs were taken down, one by one, with relative ease on their attackers' side.
The Bors Type-1 was playing a pivotal role as well – holding one end of the valley firm, the already slow Chinese frames were cluttered together at the chokepoint, falling prey to both the Vincents and to one another. A large number perished only by trampling upon themselves – in Knightmares, unfortunately. All those who were fortunate enough to escape death were captured by the Britannian forces. The overall result was devastating for the Chinese: Out of the division-scale invasion wing, less than a hundred escaped with their lives and frames. The remains of frames and men and abandoned war equipment stretched as far as the eyes could see all over the battlefield.
The best thing to have happened was not only did Renesmee survive, but the Lancelot Mk-II suffered almost no damage at all. Renesmee's condition, however, was nothing to be celebrated. Only when the battle ended did it turn out that the Lancelot's malfunctioning was not because of an energy shortage, but rather because the pilot had fainted in the cockpit in the middle of the action. Whatever Renesmee was doing, the rigorousness of the activity was sufficient to knock the girl, previously not used to the experience of war, out cold, in exchange for the massive kill count she had racked up.
At least, Lelouch's base was saved with a close call of a battle. And Renesmee was not the only one he should thank. The second person responsible was being given due thanks, personally, by the ex-emperor of the Holy Britannian Emperor, in his command room – a certain officer of the Britannian Empire, contradictorily.
"We would have been killed had it not been for your timely arrival, Major Ingham," Lelouch said gratefully as he himself poured the said officer's drink.
The Britannian officer nodded, bowing respectfully as he received the cup from Lelouch's ghastly hand. The person addressed was a rather special member of the Britannian Imperial Army, Major Jack Ingham, the only member of the ex-emperor's personal guard unit, who, by his distinctive service in the war as well as his selfless dedication to the monarchy, been promoted from Master Sergeant to Major within the duration of a year, going so far as to be given a whole battalion-sized unit to command. An extremely skilled pilot who, had his skills not been overshadowed by the Knight of Zero, could have earnt a well-distinguished position in the Round Table. And perhaps the only one to still be loyal to Lelouch's ideals, even after all the purposefully terrible things he had done.
"It is our duty to defend our motherland," replied the officer humbly. "As well as it is a pleasure to serve Your Majesty."
"I'm not an emperor any more," Lelouch said. "Although I do hope that you know where your loyalty lies."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the officer replied with a military salute, as if cementing his statement, "I am forever loyal to the Holy Britannian Empire and its rightful rulers, not the usurpers of the Witenegamot."
"Very well," Lelouch nodded in approval. "I hope, then, there wouldn't be too much problem should you take Renesmee Cullen into the ranks of your subordinates, would there?"
"Not at all, Your Majesty!" reassured the officer. "I've seen her in action, and from the way she claimed so many kill counts just in an hour, I am sure she's bound to be the next Suza… Knight of Zero! Not to mention, the analysis of her other statistics were overwhelmingly favorable."
"Hopefully," Lelouch smiled. "Personally, do you think she can handle the Bors Type-1?"
"If someone can utilize the Lancelot Mk-II to such an extent," agreed the officer, "she would have no difficulty at all taking control of the Bors. To tell the truth, Your Majesty, even I am unable to carry out such awesome maneuvers with the Lancelot as she did."
"Her kill count was extremely favorable," Lelouch said, displaying a certain degree of anxiety. "Albeit, too favorable."
"Two thousand kills within an hour," the officer replied. "Maybe this is a blessing for Britannia to have recruited such a fine pilot at this pivotal stage of the war."
"Let's hope so," Lelouch answered. "As far as I know, she is quite…unstable, as you have seen. As well as being a psychological kid. You and your men may have a hard time trying to keep her under control, I suppose."
"Everything for Britannia, Your Majesty!" reassured the officer. "You can leave her with us – I swear upon my honor that she will become the best Knightmare pilot Britannia has to offer!"
"In the name of the sovereign crown of Britannia, I thank you for that, Major Jack Ingham," Lelouch said ceremoniously. "You are dismissed, Major – I entrust you with this difficult task."
With another firm salute, a military stature, and a serious look of one in responsibility on his face, the officer bowed to Lelouch, as he left the room, leaving the ex-emperor with himself, an empty teacup, and a lot of ponders in the room.
"She's just a kid," Lelouch thought. "Just a kid… Not an excuse in war time, is it? But why… why doesn't it feel… right?"
******