Dark Prince Chapter 23, a code geass fanfic

Chapter 23

Dark Prince

Helltanz's notes: Skidbladnir is the ship, which belongs to Norse god of Fertility... I'm sure gets that symbolism.

Disclaimer: I don't own Code Geass.

Chapter begin

"The Day was August tenth, of the year two thousand ten of the imperial calendar the Holy Britannian Empire had just declared war up on Japan. Confronted by Britanian's newest weapon the formidable Knight Mare Frame Japan fell to its enemy in less than a month the conquered nation was stripped of its freedom, its rights, its culture, its dignity, and finally even its name was taken away. Eleven the name of Japan and its people was replaced with a mere number."

It was already cold here in Russia, the teen tightened his heavy fur coat. Vladvostik home of the Russian Pacific Fleet, and as well as the EU Pacific Fleet. The last of the Black Knight non standard, as they were termed being they weren't Brittanian looking designs, Knightmares.

These were Pytor's favorites even if they were weaker than the Edinburgh, they were named in the man's native tongue; wiedźmin.

It was slightly larger, height wise, than the 'armor butterfly' but it was definitely faster, and more than that it had proper hands. Its upper torso was very similar to the Panzer Hummel though its legs and head were different, rather it only had one of the red visor observation cameras, instead it had two laser guided cannons slung overs it shoulders, and its legs incorporated the treaded landspinner design of the Bamides.

"I take it you are pleased, Generalnovo," Lelouch inquired as the pilots of the EU member nation inspected their frames.

"Indeed nephew," remarked the Tzar's brother.

Political marriages were not as common as they used to be but still occurred with some frequence.

Of course that wouldn't stop Britanania from invading if they thought they could win agaisnt the Russian Forces.

It didn't hurt the Russian General had earned his commision, well as much as one could, but to digrees he also had an issue with the heir to be, then again Lelouch didn't like his Russian cousin, who was a great deal worse than Oddyseus, in fact like the first prince and princess's attitudes combined.

The wind blew across the bay.

Lelouch shrugged off the cold, the wind chill was making it feel twenty degrees colder than it really was. The Orel class Pobedonosets sat in the middle of the port, the prince didn't envy any one who fell in the Bay.

"You of course realize EU is at war with Britannia," Inquired the Russian.

"But Russia isn't supplying troops yet to them," The chess master replied, "Besides I'm less than concerned about the EU and more concerned about the Chinese Federation being a problem."

"Confidence in Schneziel then?" Remarked his contact within the EU member state, "Not surprised he is doing well, but with Panzer Hummel he is beginning to stall, yes."

"Yes," Lelouch agreed, "but Schneziel alsways keeps an Ace up his sleeves." The blonde prince was up to something Lelouch had been reviewing the information about the Gawain, of course they didn't have the Hardon Cannons completed as the Black Knights, which he was sure would continue to grate the puddin earl, and then their was also the matter of the Float System and whether or not the White Prince did make an airship with the technology.

His return to Hokaido was fairly expedient, he had needed to complete his initial proper meet and greet with the Indians anyway.

Rakshata Chawla; this woman was the builder of the Guren.

"I have heard much about you," Lelouch stated, his outfit was simlar to that of the Black Knights 'dress uniform', if a tad more royal, as he extended his hand.

They shook hands.

"Oh I don't like dwelling on the past." The woman commented.
"We recovered the Custom Burais." He remarked, "And we are supply the best parts," The prince stated, the frames had been easy findings Todo and his compatriots had little choice but to abandon them when they made their escape.

"So your returning my children?" She asked tapping her pipe.

"Yes," The prince responded.

She looked a bit happy about this, she was however a bit annoyed about the fact was that the Guren's hand had been damaged. Especially when Pytor had suggested they upgrade certain features.

It wasn't so much she didn't mind the upgrades she just didn't want them to do it to her 'baby' with her being their to supervise.

Lelouch had returned to the Ashford club house well; just in time for dinner actually, not bad considering he had missed the whole day of school. Clovis had come a few times, but this was Cornelia's first visit.

Nunnaly was happy about it.

Though it did concern the prince, Clovis despite his flair for the theatrical in the majority of day to day situation was a good at managing to not cause attention to himself when it didn't suit the situation, the fact he had kept his experiments secret from every one proved the fact.

The prince was reaching for a pilow. "What are you doing?" Cornelia questioned from behind him,
"Its late," the teen responded, managing to grab the pillow as he turned to face her, "a little late for you to be returning to the headquarters, I'll bunk on the couch."

"You most certainly won't." She replied considerate enough to keep her voice low enough since Nunnaly had already gone to bed, the witch of brittania snatched the pillow away.

After a few minutes of fruitless argument Lelouch conceeded, but only after he was sure the green haired witch hadn't been present... that would certainly have been an issue.

The eleventh prince of the empire rolled on to his side.

Lelouch's eyes opened, "Cornelia let go," He grumbled before he reached over and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from his face.

She asked about his nightmares.

"Nothing," He responded as he stood, "just ill memories," The Dark Prince acknowledged.

The master of the black knights ignored her concerned look he didn't need the pity he'd long grown used to the haunting not just of his mother's murder, but of the cold resolve of the lives he had taken face to face, and of the men who were lost. Nunna didn't know of his nightmares and she didn't need to know so he made sure to hide the effects.

Cornelia did not seemed convinced that he was as fine as he claimed to be much to the Lelouch's annoyance.

General Cao came bumbling through the door.

This must be important, mused Lelouch, the Chinese man's eyes widened in surprise and immediately bowed head scraping the carpet.

The Dark Prince resisted the urge to scowl as the man stammered apologies for interrupting… people really shouldn't assume things.

The second princess of the Empire pulled her jacket on whilst the Dark Prince dealt with Cao, who as expected was the bearer of bad news.

The invasion was expected to be in November, a month. That was bad, not as bad as it could be but still very troubling, he'd need to make preparations.

The purist Faction may as well have been dissolved, morale was in the toilet throughout the regular military, for the most part that was soon to be the case.

With the faction fractured and soon to be dissolved to better suit the remaining forces Lelouch was rather at an impasse.

Jeremiah's loyalty was unquestionable, of course his only request up to this point had been asking Lelouch to help Viletta to join the nobility, the prince was of course loathe to refuse the request.

The leader of the Black Knights however did have slightly more pressing issues.

So until then with all those Sutherlands in enemy hands…. And he also needed to crush the rather creepy cult like reverence and obsession for zero that had popped up amongst a large portion of the Japanese civilian populous, the best he could do for the major was contribute to her chances for survival which in this case meant giving her an RPI 999 Edinburgh.

Speaking of that model of Knightmare he needed to have a word with Ogi and one of the others of that group about using the available Edinburghs.

"Your Highness," She began, "What's this for?" The major questioned, after all she like the majority of the purist faction loyal to Jeremiah had not been at Narita and had thus not sustained damage to her Sutherland.

"It's the key to an Edinburgh, yours," He responded, as much as he had and indeed still was adverse to supplying Britannians with the Edinburghs he hadn't expected this situation, of course he'd rather have them in the hands of people whose loyalty he could depend upon.

For now Britannian could do little though Kyoto was backing the 'Black Knights'.

"Your highness!" it would seem the leader of the soon to be disbanded Purist faction had arrived.

"Hello Jeremiah,"
"Lord Jeremiah," the major greeted respectfully

"Prince Lelouch, Viletta." Greeted the Margrave in return. "The Edinburgh has been transferred as ordered," He informed the prince, and the woman.

The machine was painted much in the same vein as a purist faction Sutherland, the RPI 999's heavier shoulder pauldrons did mean a larger area of orange.

"The pudding earl is raging still I take it," Inquired the Teen.

Jeremiah confirmed this, "The Lancelot sustained heavy damage in the battle and the loss of the club is also frustrating, and impairing repair procedures."

"So that makes three seventh generation frames in his arsenal, even if one was made of spare parts," Viletta remarked, even now the Club was being repainted, even if they didn't have a devicer to use the Knightmare.

Only the fact the JLF had been effectively crushed had prevented some fallout, and some had not spoken out for fear of drawing the witch of Britannia's wrath, still others did speak out against the fiasco.

"My lord about Princess Cornelia?"
The dark prince nodded, "With the Japanese Liberation Front defeated; the Chinese federation is assisting the rebels in certain regions,"
"What about the NAC?"

As per Imperial tradition numbers had some degree of self rule, if it could be called that, this group was in fact controlled by Kyoto so yes Cornelia was right they were supporting terrorism, supplementing the lesser black knights since the JLF had now collapsed.

She's sharp, Lelouch mused. "Them," The eleventh prince of the empire remarked in mild amusement, "Perhaps they do unofficially support them as a whole perhaps not, but Chinese Gun Ru have been used by the terrorists particularly in southern Japan not that they aren't using Sutherlands as well," That was still a sore point for Britannia, not only had the terrorists acquired the fifth generation Knightmares so had organized crime in area eleven and unintended consequence. "Besides there is a difference between an internal and eternal threat with dealing with native terrorists just deny them the support of the public" He stated, "But those getting help from foreign powers well Britannia's forces in area 11 are ill equipped to deal with a Chinese Federation invasion, the human wave tactic isn't something we can defeat right now." Lelouch remarked.

Since his appearance as Zero three months earlier terrorist attacks had spiked. Contact between factions increased and while these were those who opposed the mandate of the Black Knights success had brought acceptance for the ideal, though there were still people who disagreed other terrorist groups were rallying to the cause.

"Zero," The prince began, "can rally the terrorists to fight the Chinese if they were to invade, after all there the people who hold the Japanese down by supplying refrain, and of course their own internal injustices," He commented to the surprise of the two military officers. "The Black Knights mobile command center will be finished hopefully before the Chinese can act." The prince noting the expressions clarified he meant the main stream Black Knights. "Admittedly the RPI 603 has a clear advantage over the Edinburgh in that it has a hover system,"
"Naval surface Combat," Viletta exclaimed, "Your talking about intercepting the Chinese invasion fleet before they can make land fall."
The Dark Prince nodded, "The Skidbladnir is also equipped with the same hover system, though obviously on a larger scale, in addition to carrying weapons of ship size that came from the sixth and seventh Knightmare generations."
Jeremiah's eyes widened with an almost childish look of happiness. "Those cannons on the Cardoc,"
"Ten of them, three sets of double turrets, four in single turrets plus VARIS batteries,"

Of course there was the main weapon based on the Black Knight's own research, Pytor had insisted that since they still hadn't been able to scale it down to a usable Knightmare frame's size, they included it, that had been decided at the meeting when they had commissioned the project almost two months prior.

Four years earlier the Black Knights or rather that which would become them seized control of Hokaido and began to restore the shipyard, up to this point what they had built had been mostly commercial in nature and fairly average at most being merchant marine vessels that changed with this project and they were prepared after all the base design had already existed they simply had not built it because the technology hadn't been ready and the desire to conserve resources.

IN another two months the vessel would be totally combat worthy, but if the Chinese acted before then, which he feared they would with this latest report, well Nemo had taken the lion share of the Manchester and the Eastbournes were too few in number to fulfill such a task alone if a full scale invasion was launched, though Cornelia was likely going to push for a tour of the Hokaido facility if for no other reason but to further grasp the available assets.

Time was the critical that was what mattered.

Of course her, Cornelia, insistence to see the Hokaido facilities were becoming more annoying, heaven forbid if she found out about the ship, just yet, or the Tiger, or worse one of the other projects.

She already was paying to much attention as it was the Knightmares of his he had shown her, and now to his main battle tanks.

If she wanted him to hold a test for that and the RMI 18 he'd really be annoyed, at least for the tank he'd already conceded a test for the Eastbourne.

Considering that the Tank was nearly as maneuverable as a Glasgow perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised with her interest but if she told the army before he was ready, that was what he would truly be annoyed with.

No one else needed to know he was alive thought the Ashford's and begun their recovery and Lelouch reluctantly allow some of the more important industries to be constructed in the county with in the Britannian homeland, after all Charles likely knew he was alive, but wouldn't announce his survival unless it suited him or Lelouch was tremendously blatant about something.

Viletta and Jeremiah noticed Cornelia and her Knights, who were trailing her approaching as the prince was occupied with his personal computer, his thoughts and an email.

Lelouch walked into the main student council room. Not only was Cornelia in an ill mood his own forces were hardly in any state to stop an invasion of Kyshu with out tipping his hand or recalling forces, both of which were out of the question.

What was more annoying was the report from Hokaido the Birmingham, a possible ace to this situation was behind schedule though he didn't expect it to be ready any way given the integral float system still its delay would affect his plans.

Cornelia was severely pressuring him as well to return to the public eye, and as well as attempt to convince Zero back off of his operation, or just outright kill him. There was also the continued expressed desire to analyze the primary Hokaido military research facilities something he would acquiesce to soon enough but he still needed to hold out a bit longer.

There were also the questions about Cao, and by proxy pestering him about his intelligence network.

"So how do you feel about –" Millie ceased speaking, she did know him to well, noticing the indicators of his annoyance. "Oh problems, family?"

He nodded.

"Lulu I thought you were absent?" Shirley exclaimed.

"I was caught up in something," He grudgingly conceded, the prince wished he had stayed home seeing as there wasn't much he could do at the moment, Clovis was watching over Nunnally so at least he had some assurance.

"Is everything all right?" the orange haired girl pressed.

"Its fine," he grumbled, scooping up the files his vice presidency required him to sort and catalogue.

"Don't forget were going to be meeting at Kallen's house," Reminded Millie, Lelouch frowned wondering how the president had arranged that.

"I am aware," He called back as he walked out of the room.

Shirley came running after him a few minutes later,

"What is it?" He asked.

She stammered for a moment. "Uhm is my dad's letter mixed up in that paperwork?"
The Dark Prince looked down, frowning he removed the envelope, "Sorry," The student council vice president handed over the blue envelope. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, Lulu," She exclaimed looking up

"Yes Shirley?"

Chapter conclusion

Helltanz's notes: hehe Lelouch is in trouble plan wise.