Code Geass: The Demon and the Dragon
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. If I did, then what you see below would be the show, instead of a fanfiction on the Internet.
Stage 17: Raid Refrain
- The Demon and The Dragon -
Learme felt a chill run up his spine when he opened the file Mischa sent him. He'd expected some minor technological details, a few captured images of their equipment, and maybe even a parts schematic. But this.......
He had everything! A list of alloys, cermets, and polymers used in their frame and armor! A report on the VARIS' acceleration mechanism! Studies on different Sakuradite allotropes used in the Yggdrasil Drive and scattered throughout the frame! Details on the construction of their Blaze Luminous Shield Emitters!
Just what the hell was this Shifter and how did he get direct access to the A.S.E.E.C unit's data?
"So, how good is the info?" Lelouch asked, only half-listening due to his occupation in planning the next day's raid.
"He got us everything." Learme whispered.
"Pardon me?" Lelouch said. He could have sworn Learme had just said this random merc had obtained all of the A.S.E.E.C's data.
"He got us everything!!!!" Learme fairly shrieked, shoving his laptop's monitor in Lelouch's face. Lelouch went cross-eyed as he read through the rapidly scrolling files. M-PAC construction, Slash Harken composition, Factsphere System modifications, Main Camera specifications, Energy Consumption records......it was, indeed, everything. Lelouch left off of his planning to scan through the files, Learme hanging over his shoulder and drinking (or, chugging) in the information flashing in the screen. There was more aside from data on the Lancelot and the Bors. There were files on the Mabinogion Frames, the development process that took A.S.E.E.C from Sutherlands and Gloucesters to Arawns, Hafgans, and Mabons to Lancelot and Bors. There were specifics on the Maser Vibration technology that would now save Learme countless hours of picking through his pilfered MVS's parts, and electrode schematics that would surely aid in his studies into magnetic acceleration technology currently aided by the Sukur's battle data and the Raikou cannon. There were even records of e-mails back and forth between the head technician and his assistant going on about some experimental technology that they were working on.
"Holy Shit." Lelouch muttered, the uncharacteristic swearing drawing a glance from his traditionally fouler twin even as Learme agreed with the assessment.
"This is gonna reduce the Reikoku and Onigami's development by months!" Learme hissed. "And the Factsphere alterations could aid the Akuma's C3 system."
"I don't think you paid this mercenary enough Learme." Lelouch muttered.
"Definitely not." Learme replied, even as he pulled up the developmental schematics for his main two projects.
- The Black Knights -
The Next Day
0327 Hours
They moved quickly and silently, which would be a surprise for most of those uninformed, as it looked as though the Black Knights should be making all sorts of sound in their throwback armor from the time of the Samurai.
However, the ballistic coverall worn under the main parts of the armor prevented them from making any noise, and the Black Knights progress was helped by a source not entirely normal......and one that their leaders would kill them to keep secret.
Draco led from the front, while Zero was in the middle of the primary assault platoon, armed with his usual handgun while Draco made do with his own ridiculously powerful magnum and katana. around them, the warehouse was surrounded by the stereotypical piles of containers one could find at every and any shipping dock around the world, and on several of them were two-man sniper/spotter teams armed with 12.7mm Type-22 bullpup sniper rifles and MP7A1 SMGs. Hiding in the maze created by the stacks was a back-up platoon, consisting of Knights armed with light machine guns and anti-Knightmare launchers, ready to charge the structure at the signal.
Hopefully though, they wouldn't have to, and the entire raiding force could be in and out without a problem.
With a single hand motion from Draco, they started. The leading fire team set breaching charges on the door, with the rest taking up positions well back from the door. Draco had all of the charges set to one of his numerous remote triggers he had in his coat, and could set them off with the press of a button. He did. A number of the breaching charges were also packed with a volume of tear gas, that would prove ineffective to the Knights, what with their full-face masks and gas filter masks. On the dealers and their guards.....
The platoon entered the building through the newly-made hole in the wall, HUD set to show their infrared cameras' view. The coughing of silencers was hear throughout the building as the Black Knights fired on the dealer's guards, which were presumably the ones holding the weapons. As he went, Draco fired off several shots from his magnum, blasting off entire heads or limbs with his personally-made rounds. One guard had the presence of mind to cover his mouth to try and resist the effects of the gas and fired off a burst from his sub-machine gun (a far inferior one to the Black Knights' MP7s). Unfortunately, he fired at the wrong target, the bullets flattening themselves against Draco's armor before dropping off.
For his efforts, the guard got rewarded with a single decapitating swipe from Draco's katana.
"Fire Team One, secure the center storage area," Draco began barking out over the radio, "Fire Teams Two and Three, proceed to the offices on the second floor and restrain or eliminate any targets found there. Fire Team Four proceed to set high-explosive charges around the complex." The Knights rushed out to obey, leaving Draco and Zero in the middle of the room.
Mischa was leading Team One, while Tony had his cackling command over Team Four, perfectly pleased with their respective roles in this operation. Each of the Zero Squadron candidates were also on this mission, with the slight exception of Kallen and the one who was supposed to be in a Britannian prison.
Alex and the other close-combat specialists were assigned to Mischa's Team One, including among their number Sasaki Kojiro, who was fairly a bit of an enigma to the Knights at this point, capable of matching Alex in hand-to-hand and melee weapons combat. Qilin led the heavy weapons-using Team Two, and the infiltration-oriented Team Three were joined by Ouka. Unfortunately for her, Eris' skills with explosives had gotten notice, and she'd been tasked to help Tony in rigging the warehouse to blow. Outside, the half-German Akito Yamamoto was part of one of the sniper teams and Kiryu was entrusted with the command of the entire secondary platoon.
The teams moved quickly, having run through the training course again the previous day, this time set up to simulate the warehouse. Mischa led his team forward, with his balaclava, ballistic glasses and dressed in his normal 'suit', albeit with O-yoroi plates over his important spots, with a silenced MP7 in his hands. Alex and Kojiro had been equipped with combat knives and shotguns, albeit with more than a little grumbling at having to leave behind their preferred katanas.
Orders were to 'apprehend' unarmed dealers and eliminate armed ones. The unarmed ones condition was left to be decided by the commanding 'officer' present.
Which made it real simple for Mischa when his team found over two dozen dealers shivering in the central area, surrounded by crates that the Russian would bet his family fortune were packed with Refrain. The drug itself was nothing new, and had been pushed by Britannians in every Area they owned, even marketed presumptuously in countries that they had yet to conquer. Mischa's team bound the dealers, using flexi-cuffs provided by Draco before moving to secure the area.
On the second floor, Qilin led his team against a more stubborn and better prepared guard contingent, having stacked crates to create an impromptu barricade and defensive wall. Sustained suppressive fire from the light machine gunners allowed two of the team members to close within a meter of the wall and toss tear gas grenades over it, before mantling over it and helping the guards to a judicious serving of steel bullets.
Back on the ground floor, there was a guard with a SWAT helmet on his head sneaking around the perimeter of the room where the Knights had blasted in. He was, of course, hoping to get a decent shot on Draco or Zero from behind, where there armor was presumably weaker. However, he had the singularly great misfortune to be traveling along the same path as Tony's team was, just in the opposite direction. he was just to the side of the Black Knight's leaders when Antonio's enormous bowie knife spun end-over-end directly into his stomach, sending the guard to the ground writhing and screaming in pain.
"This is why you should be afraid of short people." Tony said, approaching the tortured guard. Unlike Mischa, Tony had the audacity to dress in nothing but his usual 'work' clothes, designer clothing and his kangaroo jacket. "We can hit the spots that hurt the most without bending down." He continued, placing his steel-tipped boot on the guard's stomach and inducing even more pained shrieks even before his hand was on the knife. For no reason other than his amusement, Tony twisted the knife harshly to either side before yanking out, getting another scream out of the young - maybe twenty - guard before he passed out. The dirty blond Italian took out a stained rag and wiped the blood and digestive juices off of the blade, before replacing it in the sheath on his left hip. Immediately after that, he wrapped his titanium-platinum alloy-ringed fingers around his revolver and whipped it out, firing off a single round. The custom-made 12.7mm Raufoss Mk.211 round, generally used in large-caliber sniper rifles, easily penetrated the SWAT helmet and blasted into the guard's skull, the high-explosive detonating and igniting the incendiary chemical mix in the tip. The tungsten carbide penetrator in the core of the bullet pierced all the way through the Britannian's brain and embedded itself deep in the ground.
Tony turned to see his team staring at him apprehensively.
"What?" He asked indignantly. "Tweedle-Dum gets jealous if Tweedle-Dee gets all the fun." This was said while he stroked the revolver with his hand.
Eris led the others in taking a large step back from the Bone Snatcher.
- The Demon and The Dragon -
Lelouch stood impassively by his brother, handgun in fist but lowered by his hip. Thus far, his only role was to stand around and provide psychological support for his men. Learme on the other hand was inspecting one of the SMGs the druggie guards used, having holstered his magnum.
"I didn't think anyone used this crap anymore." He muttered, tossing the weapon to the side. "A Mk.9 Hale. Thing couldn't fire more than half of its clip on full-auto before jamming."
"However, it is significantly cheaper than manufacturing your own firearms." Lelouch said. Indeed, they were rapidly reaching the limits of their own personal restricted weapons budget.
"Shut up, Mischa's bringing in the dealers." The 'conga line' of hand-tied Refrain dealers was escorted by the six members of Team One through the still-smoking hole, led by Mischa with his CZ 75c handgun to the head of the 'leader' while he scanned the room with the MP7. They stopped in front of the two leaders of the Black Knights, as Teams Two and Three rejoined them and forced the dealers to their knees.
"Just where you said they would be Lord Zero." Mischa reported, moving to take his place next to Zero's left side. "Hiding in the middle of the Refrain crates."
"Why did you think they'd hide there? Matter of fact, why did they?" Learme muttered, marching up to stare at the dealers. As he passed by, one of them shuddered and fainted, liquid staining his pants. Learme chuckled at that, voice modulators twisting it into a purely menacing sound that gave pause to even his brother.
"Because they're cowards, and cower at the merest hint of violence that surpasses their own." Lelouch replied, walking to stand before a specific dealer. "Mr......Camile Ray? You've been peddling Refrain to the Japanese population."
"Yeah, and so?" Unlike his less-than-sturdy subordinate, Camile Ray, called 'Death Ray' by his underlings and equals, kept a strong facade to the array of Knights, with their Samurai-inspired helmets and Oni-fanged masks. He was tall, such that he would've been only a few centimeters short of the twins in their power armor, and had rust-colored hair, with features that wouldn't have been out of place on a college rugby player. "It's their own fault. If they're stupid enough to buy and use it, then I'm more than happy to market it to the stupid assholes." All around him, the Knights bristled at his tone, with the native Japanese actually raising their weapons at the insult to their people.
"So....it's their own fault?" Lelouch said, a conciliatory tone in his voice that caused the Knights to glance at him. "It's their fault that you and all the other filth decided to grow and market this reprehensible drug, taking advantage of the fact that it uses their good memories against them to increase addiction, and ignoring the severe side-effects? Tell me, my Knights," He continued, raising his voice and subtly activating the comm system. "Do you know the full effects of Refrain? The fact that it can induce comas, rob reason, and reduce perfectly healthy individuals to gibbering wrecks?"
"Hah! You don't care about that!" Ray guffawed. "You just-" Lelouch did not let him finish his insult, instead interrupting him by shooting the man next to him in the forehead. While Lelouch used the 10mm handgun most Britannian officers had, the ammunition was decidedly nonstandard and designed to expand even more drastically than normal hollow-point ammunition (although it sacrificed armor-piercing capability to do so). The result of this was splattering the blood and brains of the unfortunate dealer all over the side of Ray's face.
"Phhbbbttt! Ugh! You got it in my mouth!" He complained.
"Unfortunately, you don't seem particularly repentant of your regrettable trade." Lelouch noted.
"Hah! Princess Cornelia is going to tear your head off!" Ray snapped back.
"Our current conflict with Cornelia is merely a stepping stone." The masked leader replied. "And it's funny you should mention heads. Do it."
With a grin matching the one on his helmet, Learme stepped behind Ray and gripped his skull, the claw-like fingertips digging into his skin. Impressively, Ray didn't cry out. Then Learme surprised all attending by sheathing his katana. Instead, he brutally twisted Ray's neck to the side, generating a sharp crack before wrenching it back to the other side with similar results. He finished by tugging once backwards, harshly, with strength no human could muster. Ray's head parted from his shoulders, ruptured vessels briefly sending a spray of blood to cover the Draconian armor before all pressure was relieved.
"Finish the rest." Learme ordered, tossing the head to the side. As the twins moved to stand next to each other, Mischa and Team One lifted their respective weapons, albeit Alex and Sasaki had disgusted expressions, and fired, swiftly executing the remaining drug dealers.
Then the wall crashed in, as four Knightpolice Frames bashed through the reinforced concrete.
Learme was already on the line with their back-up.
"Now, Kallen."
- The Queen -
On Draco's signal, Kallen smashed her Burai's arm through the wall, causing the structure in her path to crumble as she moved the Frame into the warehouse, full-speed at the four Knightpolice Frames in front of her. When they aimed their machine pistols at her, she ignored them, instead drawing the Titanium Nitride Dagger that Draco had equipped her frame with. Kallen flinched when they fired, and grinned when the bullet bursts passed by her, all either above or to the side, or even into the ground. This was due to the ECM components Draco had built into her Burai's Factsphere guard, scrambling the Knightpolice's targeting systems.
Kallen drew her Burai's arm back, with the dagger held in a pickaxe fashion, before striking at the lead Frame, the dagger stabbing through its Factsphere before she withdrew it, and sliced away at the partner's cockpit, cutting through with minimal difficulty. By this time, the other two Knightpolice were reacting, dropping their pistols and extending tonfas.
- The Author -
Refrain arc is starting, heads are ripping, and Kallen's are stabbing.....ah, it's good to get back to the action. It's in this arc that we should also get the last Zero Squadron member on the team.
Review Replies:
Infinite Freedom: Yep.
Kojiro Kun: Sounds good. I thought 25 was middle-aged? Or is it 40..........
Oh.
Many scary things (10 of one type, 1 of another, to be exact)
Kojiro Kun(2): He doesn't, does he?
Alex Yamato: For the last part of that, expect Draconian reactions.
Like Vietnam it was, only with Gun-Rus.
Well, they do say morals have a place in warfare. And I think chemical warfare is considered immoral.....
Here you go!
aznblackhowling: thank you, and I do.
00virtuezero: I do feel better now.
Okay.
Re-read Tony's part in this chapter.
Maybe he ought to have a Logos connection?
Well,.....was I supposed to?
I'd say you did great.
Velshard.
Okami Princess: Thank you very much.
I personally think it's military ruthless, but I have heard military people described as insane.
It shall get better.
That is a good point, although I believe I should point out that the problem with training medics and other medical personnel is that it's really hard to simulate injuries.
Velshard: I don't see why. Learme's acting just like I would.