Chapter 12
Dark Prince
Helltanz's notes: Chinese Knightmare corps will get an upgrade courtesy of the Black Knights, albeit the first one will be a larger still not 'Britannian' style frames, more in line with what the Chinese already had though slightly different and with upgrades.
By the way, seriously what the hell is with the black knight's mobile base at this point, uh its strange, oh well; whatever here's chapter 12.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass.
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Chapter begin
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Lelouch pressed a button. "Looks like their pretty encouraged by Zero," The prince remarked, a ten minute response time, by now of course the purist faction had probably scrambled, and of course Cornelia's royal guard.
Besides it was unlikely the terrorists would get very far, even if all of them were participating, despite supplying them with Knightmares Lelouch knew that due to his 'ideology' this group of terrorists would be a thorn in both Britannian and his side, no matter what occurred, best for them to do some good.
Besides the danger they posed was minimal; the power of the king was a wonderful tool, mused the dark prince.
"Good thing Clovis and Euphemia aren't here," He added vocally.
Cornelia nodded it was fortunate that Euphemia and Clovis were at the art gallery. The forces of Britannia were not expecting the elevens to be so brazen as to attack in broad daylight in the settlement.
The eleventh prince estimated the military, a large explosion was heard as the two made their way through the shuddering G1 mobile base, there goes the ammo dump, would respond in three minutes at least as far as to the point where they could effectively suppress the terrorists.
Lelouch frowned if everything followed his scenario the kokoro no bushi's attack would coincide with another terrorist attack against a transport of Sutherlands arriving from the eighth area of the empire. That really was the more pressing goal, this was just a distraction.
The objective was to acquire as many or destroy them as possible, or sinking the transport in the middle of the harbor would also disrupt Britannia's sea going merchant ships, of course the fact he had some one making an appearance as Zero while this attack was going on should keep suspicion off of him.
Beyond that it would encourage Japanese terrorists to become bolder, even in face of Cornelia's arrival. That'd hopefully convince Cornelia to go after the terrorists who operated out of the southern, and central parts of Japan even more fiercely.
A text message arrived… 'Forces enroute your highness - E B.
"Lelouch you're smirking." Cornelia chided, the prince's smirk faltered as his elder sister snatched the mobile phone away from him.11
He scowled and seized it back, "We should be on our way." The eleventh prince commented.
The G 1 mobile base internally was more or less intact, however externally was another story entirely, one of the treads had been completely destroyed.
About the distance of four or five football fields to the east the reinforcements were exiting from transport trucks.
Edinburgh Knightmare Frames deployed their shields and land spinners charging across the base turned battlefield to join the forces already engaged. Their right arms gripped one hundred twenty millimeter linear rifles. The weapons were knightmare scale versions of rifles in the caliber of the main guns of modern Britannian tanks.
The Sutherlands on both sides were outfitted, as were the Burais, with machine guns. A blue painted Edinburgh arrived with the purist faction Sutherlands.
'So he decided on a paint scheme,'
The other Edinburghs were different than those supplied to Kallen's and her compatriot Ogi, as well as different than the other participating Edinburghs from the previous battle, they were primarily black, obviously, though each also sported a Dark Purple, coincidentally the same color as Lelouch's eyes. Further difference included larger communications and sensor antennae, which increased its electronic capabilities both for communication and jamming significantly.
They also had heavier shoulder armor with missile pods equipped; these pauldrons featured a series of dark purple lines running vertically. Though the central Edinburgh was further different in that it was a command model. Oh he hadn't lied when he said to Jeremiah that there were none available. The truth was Nemo had taken the completed command variants produced at Hokkaido with him for Operation Chevalier. The Factories located in Hokkaido simply weren't their only production centers.
"Prince Lelouch," Two voices suddenly greeted,
Well that was odd,
"Who is that?" The two voiced shouted simultaneously again, one was Jeremiah Gottwald. The other was the Black Knight Burke, one of the few people as fanatically loyal to the eleventh prince as the Margrave was proving to be.
Cornelia snatched the radio, what was with her and taking his thrice damned electronics, Lelouch wondered irritably.
"How many enemies are there?" She demanded of their reinforcements after an extremely hasty introduction.
Jeremiah answered, "We estimate about twenty one enemy knightmares remain engaged in combat, thirteen, no twelve," He amended as one of the Knightmare Frames exploded, "Are Sutherlands your highness," The Margrave stated.
The rest were those pseudo Glasgows, Burais literally meaning rascals, thankfully whoever had been in charge hadn't sent in infantry or they would have been butchered by the torso mounted machine gun.
Oddly though the enemy seemed to be moving away.
Lelouch seemed to pale as he realized something was wrong, this was not part of his plan, he pushed Cornelia to the ground, the radio clattered across, and the crippled G 1 mobile base exploded spectacularly as a silver ball impacted it only being behind a warehouse shielded the two royals from the shrapnel.
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"Status?" Demanded Cornelia as the two royals entered the command center for Britannian forces in the Tokyo settlement. The attack had started just fifteen minutes ago, but it'd gone from bad to worse.
"Princess," The mustached man bowed to the consternation of the two royals, now really wasn't the time for kowtowing. "Approximately thirty percent of our frames in the field have been destroyed in the attack or will be unable to continue action."
Darlton crossed his arms over his broad chest, "The enemy is currently escaping on what appears to be a captured G 1 mobile base,"
Lelouch's eyes widened, when had that occurred, how had the terrorists done it he wondered. There was also that weapon they had used, was it an EM shot cannon on the scale of battleship gun, certainly not a pleasant thought.
So yes the attack by the Terrorists had worked, to well they were escaping, however this would further exasperate the situation with knightmares in area eleven.
"Lelouch," She groused rounding on him, "I presume you have a knightmare,"
The eleventh prince nodded, "Yes, why?" where exactly was she going with this, he wondered.
"Good we need all available pilots," The second princess stated.
'This is not going as per my plan,' Lelouch turned,
"We'll have the Edinburgh prepared for combat," Responded one of the Black Knights from Burke's unit. It took three minutes to deploy the unit, thankfully Cornelia didn't ask where they had flown it in from, that would have been problematic. They didn't have time to hide any of the other knightmares that were there, and dear gods that would be something that would be difficult to explain.
Lelouch's Edinburgh custom was like Burke's a built from scratch Edinburgh Command type. Of course there were improvements of course present over the regular 999/X namely in addition to the two shields on the arms there were arm mounted blonde knives, further improved with MVS technology, in addition to those ones on the shoulders. Further more it possessed other features notably an improved power system and higher Sakuradite concentrations, and like the Lancelot featured the equivalent of the Core Luminous. The other feature was the inclusion of a third MSV shield on the torso of the Knightmare Frame.
There was also the color scheme, it featured the majority of it black, with the same dark purple color used as a secondary color scheme.
"Will you be taking a lance?" Cornelia's knight inquired,
"No," Lelouch responded.
"We're coming up on the terrorists," Darlton rumbled over the Radio.
The big transport opened up and fired another of those silver blasts, which shredded the first group of aerial knight mare carriers.
"Lets move out,"
The ground transports opened and as it did the Edinburghs accompanying the eleventh Prince shot out tearing across the highway.
Jeremiah detached from his airborne transport and sped after them.
Burais and Sutherlands exited their mobile base.
They fired and when they did the Black Knights deployed their arm mounted improved MSV particle shields, improved because they incorporated the data from the Black Knights own shield project, particularly the magnetic containment system.
The two command models leveled their VARIS rifles impacting the back of the mobile base and shooting straight through; effectively hamstringing it.
The other Edinburghs fired their more normal weapons.
"Relics of a forgotten age," Cornelia snarled, starting into her usual rant, charging in along with the Gloucesters that made up her royal guard.
Lelouch sat back as his sister ranted dramatically, rubbing the bridge of his nose; he sighed.
'Well none the less that eliminates them,' He thought, 'but why did we have to get dragged alone, Suzaku got sent to deal with the harbor incident, damn it that means I should probably expect the mission to fail.' The prince thought.
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"You look tired Lelouch," Suzaku remarked concerned.
The eleventh prince opened the door. "I'll be alright," He assured seating down, before shushing the prime minister's son,
"Hi Lelouch I've returned home," Nunnaly announced, which thankfully got Suzaku not to ask what'd he'd been doing.
"Hi there welcome back, Miss Sayoko" He stood up, "I've got a special present for you today,"
"Really what could it be?" She ask as Lelouch put his fingers to his lips and gestured Suzaku to approach.
The son of Japan's last prime minister looked over to the dark prince, who nodded, the pilot of the Z 01 sat down, placing his hand in Nunnaly's.
She gasped feeling it. "This hand, thank heaven." The crippled girl said emotionally. "I knew it, I just knew that you'd be all right,"
Suzaku smiled, "It's been a long time Nunnaly,"
"So tell me you will stay the night, won't you?" Inquired Nunnaly,
"Suzaku is enrolled as a student at Ashford academy, now." Lelouch commented. "So you can see him anytime you want to," He announced
"Is that true?" She exclaimed,
"Well yes but I'm also apart of the military," Suzaku admitted, "So I can't be here every day,"
"You're in the military?" Nunnaly asked,
"I was recently reassigned to the engineering corp." He stated, "Its not very dangerous,"
Lelouch pretended to perk up, "Schneziel's engineering corp.?" he remarked standing to go refill the tea pot.
"Yes," Suzaku stood up, "Here let me help you with that."
"You just sit down unlike seven years ago, we get to be your hosts now," The prince stated, "Its funny you're a lot more mellow than you used to be,"
"And you're a bit more ruff,"
"I suppose," Lelouch admitted leaving the room. He paused turning his head to glare at the witch. "I thought I told you to stay in my room,"
CC made no signs of paying attention; again, continuing to lean against the counter arms crossed against her chest "that boy out there he's the Britannian soldier from Shinjuku isn't he?" She commented, "Is that wise?"
"Don't worry its fine," He said setting the tea pot down, "He's a friend,"
The evening had continued on CC thankfully stayed in the room, and out of sight. "You should come by again, Nunnaly would enjoy it," He remarked,
"Sure but, Lelouch," Suzaku started, "I, don't think we should be seen together at school,"
Lelouch frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Think how would you explain it, being friends with an eleven." Suzaku said. "We have to guard your secret no one can know your royalty, and the same goes for Nunnaly, I don't want to cause you any trouble,"
"Don't be foolish," snapped the dark prince. "Don't go putting everyone's needs but your own," he growled, "you can be a little more selfish."
Suzaku recoiled at the scolding, "Uh thanks for having me, it was a lot of fun. I'll uh see you later,"
"Right," Lelouch muttered,
"I'm so glad you know, I never thought we'd get another chance," Suzaku headed back to the boys dorm.
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Lelouch had spent the better part of the next day in a fairly unpleasant mood. Ogi's phone call did not help matters. In Lelouch's opinion he was getting far to familiar with 'Zero'. To add to the annoyance Suzaku was enduring the racist tendencies of some students.
Cardoc would be finished today though, humph and then not even that seventh generation frame Suzaku was using could hope to oppose his plans at least in a direct fire fight, though in truth Lelouch really hoped some one else would be assigned the frame, after all Cornelia was not exactly number friendly. Of course that did not mean her Royal Guards necessarily held that same tendency.
Nemo, or as known with in the order of the black knights White, had reported he may have found a potential pilot amongst area 18.
As for the Chinese Federation mind controlling the eunuch and beginning to subvert the second of the world's three major powers' military was proceeding smoothly.
On the other hand CC continued to use his credit cards for her weird desire for pizza for every meal of the day.
The cat incident had only compounded his bad day, of course that still left the rest of the day was likely going to be very problematic as far as the prince was concerned.
Cornelia, and Clovis's repeated phone calls had not helped matters, nor had Jeremiah coming to pick him up from school, with Villeta in tow.
"What is so damned important," He complained in a hushed voice to Clovis, "Does she actually think were part of the military,"
"I don't know buts she's being really scary, I mean really the way she is ranting and carrying on, is disturbing." The blonde prince confessed nearly stammering. "The elevens are causing quite a number of problems, and with them seizing or destroying so many of our knightmares, were unable to equip all of our troops since so many have been stolen."
The eleventh prince nodded, he was quite aware of that fact; it was kind of the point.
"There are also reports of some new Frame based off our Sutherlands. Those Burai things of there's have already been concerning them,"
"I can understand," Lelouch admitted, "They are not like the other nations Knightmare frames, those are closer to Britannia's designs, because they are based off ours," He remarked, "The Burai has an advantage in that it is superior to the Glasgow, being basically a fifth generation frame in and of itself. There is also that conference that will be coming up, she doesn't want to look bad,"
"You think she's going to try and pull something off?"
"Probably," Lelouch confirmed, of course if she did try something well he did need combat data for the MMI 101 Cardoc.
Those Gloucesters, the RPI 209, would be of little matter those things were more designed for combating other knightmares, against captured Sutherlands, they could win but with a high performance unit she would lose at long range.
The prince was sure of that fact, the weapons would rip her Gloucesters to scrap, after all the Sutherlands had proven she, her unit, could be beaten, even if it had cost the Blood of the Samurai their lives.
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"You know my prince if you keep giving us new assignments were never going to finish?" Three commented amused.
"Its just that G 1 means we'll have to do something, what ever they equipped it with, if they could do that, they could do it again"
"Oh rest assured my Prince," Roland commented, "We'll have the appropriate countermeasure made, in the mean time, perhaps a submarine should be captured, and unless you want to ah do something about recourses that is, I mean this kind of-?"
Lelouch laughed, "Don't worry so much," He remarked with a smug expression, "We have the Chinese, though you will need to get the Sakuradite, though we should have a good bit from the raids on Britannia's stores, and our own mining ventures."
The man also chuckled, "So what is it you want this to do," His second in command, at least as far as management, inquired, "I hope you aren't expecting a Float System?"
The dark Prince shook his head, "Nothing so dramatic, use something we already have working system just apply it, a Hovering mobile base, something that can travel by sea or ground, and also include places for Hadron cannons and VARIS weapons."
"Include my lord?"
"Get the basic frame ready and Knightmare positions ready first have it mobile first, then arm it when we can get around to it," He clarified, "How is the new Chinese fifth generation special frame doing?"
"The tiger, we'll be finished shortly General Cao is immensly pleased by them."
Lelouch grinned, "I can imagine." The frame in question was something that could be mass produced, but at the same time be much more dangerous on the battlefield, of course it would sacrifice some amphipious capability.
Yes, things were beginning to look well, Cao would meet with Eunuchs and bring them to him, and voila subsuming China's power was progressing.
"Put a rush on the mobile base if you don't mind," The eleventh prince commented, he paused, as three spoke up,
"And the other one,"
By which he meant the one Zero was going to use, "We'll leave it as it is, modifying it unnecessarily would draw attention."
"About the X?"
Before the acquirement of seventh generation technology only one machine had been in the works it was a sixth generation, as far as the MMI series went, prototype but unlike the Mark Nemo it had been left alone after the new information was acquired seeing as it was already complete. With the way things were going he almost wished they didn't have to worry about Area 18, but there wasn't much of a choice.
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Chapter conclusion
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Helltanz's notes: The terrorists refit their mobile base with a cannon from the Raikou, the thing that Suzaku destroys at the Lake.
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