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 25: Emperor Demon and Darth Dragon
- The Dragon -
Ashford Academy
Saturdy Morning, Two Days After Narita
Learme groaned as he woke, reaching out for a mug of coffee he'd left on the stand next to his bed.
The party last night with the Black Knights had been...lively. Much alcohol had been drunk, although Learme and Lelouch had kept their helmets on, and thus didn't drink anything. There had been much shaking of hands and slapping of backs done though, with both trying not to break the hands they were shaking, and being more the target of the latter.
Groaning again, Learme got up, navigating through the junk to get to his computer. There, he powered it up and checked the schedule.
And his eyes popped open wide, as his mouth stretched into a predatory grin.
- The Demon -
Lelouch sat at his desk, looking over at C.C, the witch sleeping peacefully, with the Cheese-kun plush firmly hugged to her. He'd been doing so ever since he'd woken up earlier, to find her in bed with him.
He remembered how she'd saved him from the Lancelot.
Narita Mountains
Two Days Earlier
The glowing red-pink sword didn't waver a millimeter away from his helmet. Lelouch gritted his teeth. This was not as planned.
He'd been so close to getting Cornelia! Then this idiot and Jeremiah intervened! Only a few more moments, and Cornelia's Gloucester would have been disabled by Kallen, and the cockpit cut from it, with the Black Knights escaping through the gap Learme in his Ryūō and the Sakanade would have created in the Britannian's line! Instead, Jeremiah distracted Learme, and the Lancelot chased him all the way up here.
Then there was a flash of green in the corner of his eye. Lelouch turned his head to the side...and saw C.C! She walked, stately, up to the Lancelot's leg, with the pilot not moving the frame beyond craning the head to watch her. She placed a hand on the metal, and turned slightly to him.
"Get away from here, now." She said.
He frowned, moving up to the witch and asking. "What are you-" Then he'd placed a hand on her shoulder.
Images...of...things flashed through his mind, such as when he and Learme first encountered her, when she'd 'died'. But these images were...different.
Strange shadowy figures...the Geass symbol, made of stained glass...and then, strangely, Suzaku.
The Lancelot went berserk as Lelouch returned to reality. The blade slashed away, felling and igniting a tree, while the Lancelot drew its VARIS and fired randomly. One shot struck the Akuma, detonating the still-active Yggdrasil Drive, shattering the earth and sending large shards of stone scattering everywhere. Most of the shards scattered off of the Mephisto's surface, but a number of them struck C.C in vital locations.
Cursing, Lelouch hefted her in a fireman's carry that Learme had taught him during the war, and ran away from the Lancelot. Later on, he found a cave, where he started to clean and dress C.C's wounds, in order to get her conscious earlier. It was a good thing that Learme had insisted on the medical pack strapped to the powered armors' backs.
It was strange. The wounds, while still bleeding, were rapidly closing. Which didn't stop him from bandaging them. Laying back, and removing the Mephisto's helmet, Lelouch studied the witch. She was...enigmatic at best. She'd made this contract with him and Learme, giving them the powers of Geass in return for them to fulfill her 'wish', whatever the hell that was. But, she'd done very little up to this point, aside from piloting the Io. Still...Lelouch trusted her for some reason. Aside from the contract...she seemed familiar somehow.
"..." She whispered, startling Lelouch. He leaned closer, and she continued to murmur. "...my name is..." Lelouch smirked. So that's what it is.
"Lelouch?" Called a voice. The former prince recognized it, rose, and turned to face the entrance. There was Learme in his armor, removing his helmet.
"It's about time you got here." Lelouch said irritably.
"Sorry, I thought you'd grouped up with the others." Learme retorted. "Anyway, we should get moving. Ohgi and the other Sakanade have cleared a route, and Zero Squadron is holding it open...is that C.C?"
Lelouch looked back, and saw the witch stirring.
"Yes...and no..."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"I'll tell you later." Learme stared at him, before shaking his head and replacing the Draconian helmet and going back to the Ryūō. Lelouch put his helmet back on as well, and went back and picked C.C up, bridal-style. Carrying her, he moved towards the cave entrance.
Now
Lelouch had told Learme what he'd discovered, and his twin had nodded at the information. It made sense after all, for C.C to have such a name.
"Hoy! Lelouch!" Learme burst through the bedroom door, excited. "Guess what today is!"
Lelouch thought for a second, before grinning maliciously.
"What is it?" Came the somewhat irritated question. C.C, woken up by Learme's entrance, rubbed at her eye. Both of them turned to her, still grinning, and answered:
- The Crush -
"Welcome to the Star Wars Festival!" Milly crowed, standing next to Shirley. The crowd, excited, cheered as Milly, dressed up like Leia from when she was in Jabba's clutches, bounced up and down waving at all of them. Shirley, for her part, was dressed up as Leia in her princess/ambassador outfit.
"This is great! Attendance outstrips any and all other festivals!" Milly sang.
"Well, yeah...it's Star Wars!" Rivalz replied. He was, of course, dressed in a perfect replica of Han Solo's outfit, down to the modified DL-44 heavy blaster pistol that was the irascible smuggler's sidearm. Standing next to him was Suzaku, dressed in Luke Skywalker's outfit from Episode IV, who was frowning.
"Where's Lelouch and Learme?"
Then, the Imperial March began playing.
"Here's your answer." Kallen said sourly. She was dressed up as Padme, from Episode III. Minus the pregnancy. Then her eyes bulged out as Stormtroopers, fully outfitted and holding their blaster rifles across their chests, marched out from the main building, formed into five rows of ten. These were almost indistinguishable from the Stormtroopers in the movies!
"Wow..." Nina said, dressed up as C-3PO. "I think that's the entire Star Wars club."
"D-dd-d-do you think they ss-s-stole those from the 501st?" Rivalz stuttered, not sure of the answer himself.
The Stormtroopers, numbered fifty, halted, and about-faced as five people dressed as the Emperor's Royal Guard emerged from the building. They were carrying a throne, which they set down about twenty steps from the door, before moving to the head of each row of Stormtroopers.
Then, a shadowy figure emerged from the doors, congealing into a robed man, straight-back and standing erect, who moved to and sat down on the throne.
"Greetings, my Imperial subjects!" Everyone present shuddered, for the voice sounded like the Emperor, only much, much younger! "Today is a great day for the festival, hmmmm? But we cannot start the festivities yet! First, you should all meet my apprentice!" The crowd was murmuring when-
Clunk. All conversation stopped. Eyes focused on the doors.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. The footsteps grew in sound, and the crowd still didn't utter a sound.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk...
They stopped. Even now the crowd stayed almost completely still. The Stormtroopers held at attention, the Royal Guard was unmoving, and the Emperor gazed at the scene with amusement.
Haaaaaaaaaa-brrrrrrrrrr. The crowd stopped breathing.
Haaaaaaaaaa-brrrrrrrrrr. He emerged from the doorway, each footstep quite audible, and his every breath chilling the crowd. The helmet gleamed in the sun. A few steps took him next to the Emperor's throne.
Haaaaaaaaaa-brrrrrrrrrr. "What is thy bidding, my master?" Darth Vader asked.
- The Brits -
Tokyo Settlement Imperial Army HQ
The leaders of the Army in Area Eleven were, again, gathered around a table. Cornelia again headed the meeting, and this time she was calm.
The officers were practically shitting their pants.
"Casualties." The officer assigned to that task stood, papers in hand, at Her Highness's order.
"213 military dead, 472 injured in combat with the JLF and the Black Knights. 103 civilian dead, 229 injured from the landslide. 98 Sutherlands destroyed in combat, 107 lost to the landslide. 42 Gloucesters destroyed, 10 heavily damaged. Almost all armor destroyed or damaged beyond repair."
Cornelia sat for a moment, and the officers held their breath. To either side Darlton and Guilford shifted uneasily.
"Analysis."
The officers shifted just like Darlton and Guilford. It took a few seconds before one, a Brigadier-General, cleared his throat and started.
"The JLF was caught off-guard, as we planned. Their defenses were woefully unprepared, and we defeated them easily. The Bors' artillery wiped out a significant portion of the JLF's forces, and it seemed that we caught them without Kyoshiro Tohdoh present, judging by their tactical deficiencies."
Another officer took up the slack.
"The Black Knights appear to have learned of the operation. They set up at the summit of the mountain under which the JLF headquarters was stationed, presumably without knowledge of the latter, for reasons we cannot guess at this time. They somehow initiated a landslide, which eliminated or incapacitated Alex and Darlton's Knightmare companies."
The officer who had been in charge of the mechanized infantry spoke.
"A portion of their forces, seemingly their elites, advanced down the mountain on one side of the landslide towards your position, Your Highness, dealing with the vanguard forces that Sir Guilford placed there. On the other side, Black Knights infantry, armor and support Knightmare units held off our mechanized infantry units with snipers, guerrilla tactics and shifting minefields, as well as sporadic artillery fire from what we ascertain to be Type-55 self-propelled howitzers and Knightmare-mounted mortars."
The G-1 commander began.
"JLF reinforcements, in the form of five strangely modified Burai, attacked your section from the rear. The Black Knights trapped you when you attempted to use yourself as bait to trap the JLF reinforcements, and Her Highness Euphemia diverted Warrant Officer Kururugi and Leftenant Gottwald in the Lancelot and Bors to aid you. The Black Knights were driven off, but the majority of the JLF's command staff, as well as those modified Burai, escaped."
Cornelia was, again, silent. The officers sweated under her stare, and the G-1 commander gulped.
"Lloyd, your analysis?"
The A.S.E.E.C head was barely subdued by the events, instead actually seeming happier. He had been standing off to the side, with his assistant.
"Cecile, the projector, if you would?" She set up a small digital projector, hooked up to her laptop. The first image the device shone onto the wall was that of the A.S.E.E.C's tactical display of the battle just previous of the landslide.
"Arara, the landslide was caused by a high-energy excitation of the water table underneath the surface of the mountain. The expansion of the water into gas opened up faults in the surface, allowing the steam to escape and condense upon contact with the cooler air. As this went on, with more of the water escaping, it formed into a small flood, and along with the soil, formed a mudslide, which quickly cascaded as shown." During this, the projector flipped through a series of stills of the display, showing the landslide as a purple tide over the green-digital landscape, flowing over the collection of dots that each represented a Knightmare in Alex and Darlton's companies.
"We hypothesis that this is the tool by which the Black Knights initiated the landslide."
The projector switched to a revolving 3-D representation of the Red Knightmare that appeared shortly after the Black Knights were discovered on the mountain, reconstructed by computer analysis of the data recorders from the Knightmares that had encountered it. "Contained in the right arm of this Knightmare is a device called a Radiation Wave Surge Emitter, originally developed by Rakshata Chawla, an Indian scientist and researcher. It uses a series of microwaves to cause a reaction in a tight collection of specific isotopes, generating immense energy in multiple forms. The effects of which are shown here." The projector flipped through another series of stills, showing Olivier's Mabon bubbling under the Red Knightmare's grip, before exploding. "The microwaves overly excite the Sakuradite in the Yggdrasil drive, causing a contained ignition and explosion that destroys the Knightmare."
An officer stood, and asked:
"What else do you know about this...this...monster?" Lloyd replied:
"It is apparently a Knightmare designed around the concept of speed and agility, as with our Lancelot. It seems to use the same concept of a Sakuradite-scattered frame. It's agility actually-" Lloyd frowned. "-matches that of the Lancelot's, and its radiation waves, when released into the air, create a localized electromagnetic field by way of extreme ionization of the air, capable of blocking the VARIS projectiles and the MVS." Sharp mutters came from the officers.
"Now, these Knightmares-" The avian-looking, apparently customized Knightmares that had been seen with Zero on the field flashed up onto the wall, in the same revolving image as the Red Knightmare, only each a fifth of the size as the Red Knightmare's size to make room for the others. "-are apparently an analogue of our Mabinogion Knightmares. At first glance, they seem to be a different model with slight customization, but after some studying, I've concluded that they are all modified versions of the same Frame."
"So..." Guilford interrupted. "These are their equivalents of our Knights?"
"I have no clue. All I can say, is that the base frame would apparently be a relatively high-mobility Knightmare. However, for some reason, these Knightmares sound an astonishingly loud and shrill tone, remarkably like the cry of a bird."
"Yeah, and this is causing our rank-and-file soldiers to call them 'Morrigans'" One of the Knightmare officers grumbled. Everyone stared at him. "Morrigan is an Irish goddess of war and death on the field of battle, often represented by a murder of crows." The others made some sounds of understanding, while Lloyd ignored him and continued on.
"These Knightmares-" The projector showed a single of the 'Ogres' that had terrified the majority of those present. "-are optimized for heavy fire support and assault purposes. It's main body is armored by a form of the same Chobham armor that most nations use on their main battle tanks, and its limbs seem to use some kind of titanium-based material that can endure quite the pounding. Of special note are its hands, which are drastically different from those of our Knightmares." The projector switched to a slide show of the Sakanades dismembering the Knightmares upon their first appearance. "The hand is designed with four digits, each enlarged, and ending in a sharp claw made of an extremely hard material, enough that it easily penetrates Sutherland armor. Additionally, where our Sutherlands have their stun tonfa, these 'Sakanade', as Her Highness' conversation with Zero dubs them, have pile drivers made of the same material." The officers looked a bit queasy when the slide show went on to show the sixth Sakanade stabbed the surviving Sutherland. "Their armaments and equipment, as a whole, seem to be heavily modified variants of Euro Universe weapons and equipment. And then there's the flamethrower."
The projector showed video this time. Those present were thankful there was no audio.
"It seems to be modified to give somewhat longer range than most flamethrowers, and judging by a thermal layover, uses a plasma torch rather than a pilot light. Now, the fuel this flamethrower uses does not seem to have any equivalents among our own forces defoliating fuels. Cecile, here-" She smiled, vaguely. "-discovered a matching substance in the EU black market, called Napalm-C, also known as 'Satans' vomit, Ultra Napalm, and Liquid Plastic Fire'. Apparently, it burns at over eighteen hundred degrees Celsius for at least fifteen minutes." The officers present blanched, and each scribbled down notes on a pad. "I don't quite know the composition of this, but I'd suggest you avoid these Knightmares whenever you see them with a flamethrower."
"Agreed." Darlton muttered, before raising his voice. "And what of the Dragon?" Lloyd's mood soured notably.
"Ah yes...that thing." The projector switched to an image of the Dragon Knightmare. "This Knightmare appears to be based on the frame of the Red one, with similar body structure for the most part, although with drastically different performance." The projector, again, went through slide shows of the Knightmare in action. "This Knightmare is drastically slower and less agile than the Red one. However, it seems to make up for this with a ridiculous increase in strength." The officers flinched as the slide show went through the Bors' data recording of the Dragon beating on a Sutherland with its own arm. "This Knightmare is apparently, also heavily reinforced on a structural basis, as it has been seen quite literally leaping in excess of several hundred meters with no impediment. No Knightmare actuation system in existence is known to have such strength."
"So..." Cornelia said. "You have no idea how the Black Knights have accomplished this and have no way to replicate it."
"Sadly, yes." Lloyd nodded. "To continue, this Knightmare seems to be equipped with a linear rifle, similar to that used in the Saitama incident." Relevant slides flashed through, including the wrecked G-1 from Saitama, and the Gloucester destroyed by the initial firing during the Battle. "Judging by footage from the Bors, it seems to have access to ammunition similar to that used by the coilgun deployed by the JLF at Kawaguchi."
"And what of it's melee weaponry?" Guilford prodded.
"I was getting to that! Ahem. Cecile, if you would?" The projector showed a wireframe of the Dragon's pistol sabers. "These weapons appear to be a combination of a high-caliber Knightmare Handgun and a single-edged saber. The latter part, the saber, uses an analogue of our Maser-Vibration technology. Close analysis and comparison suggests that it instead uses a reaction similar to that of the Wave Surge Emitter to generate the energy heating the blade. The oscillators, on the other hand, operate at a lower frequency than the ones in our Maser-Vibration weapons. Overall, this suggests that the sabers' edges are somewhat less physically durable, but more than three times as thermally resilient. The handgun component is built behind and into the upper surface of the blade, in the more stable portion." Slides showed the Dragon using the sabers, and firing the handgun.
"Now, this is where things get veeeerrrryyyy interesting." Cecile switched the projector back to an image of the Dragon, this time in thermal imagery. "This Knightmare seems to generate a surplus of heat, beyond that of anything else we've studied. In addition, comparison of the thermal readings to those of our Knightmares reveal that the Knightmare uses a power layout very different from ours. Instead of using a central generator, like the Yggdrasil Drive, the Dragon Knightmare uses a diffused energy generation system. This explains the excess heat, and possibly its actuation system." The officers in command of Knightmare units were very interested in what he was saying.
"This Knightmare's main weapons are, unusually, based in its head." The projector showed video of the Dragon using its beam weapon on the two Sutherlands, followed by its breathing flame onto Kewell's Sutherland. "The first, would appear to be a variant of the Radiation Wave Surge Emitter, designed to fire a short, two-second pulse of a beam. Judging by its effects on Knightmares, and frequency of use, it uses the same generation system as the Emitter, but focuses the energies into a tight beam. The other weapon would appear to be a miniaturized version of the Sakanade flamethrower. It seems to be radically reduced in range, but hotter. And...that's the end of it."
Cecile packed up her laptop and the projector, then went back and stood away from the table with Lloyd.
- The Author -
Two chapters, in two days, for two different stories. I feel better about myself.
Now, tell the truth. How many of you would've guessed I'd do the first part of this chapter (before you saw the title)? Huh? I hope I broadsided at least one of you.
I actually don't have much to say here. I already ranted a bit about my summer in the Killer's Realm note...I could do a diet rant. I'm frigging starving here. Nah.
Anyway, all of you should guess which Lamperouge is which Sith Lord, but I'm stumped as to who Nunnally should be. Suggestions?
Review Replies:
Alex Yamato: I work with what I got. Sometimes it turns out different.
Thank you.
I'll work on it. What Star Wars character would Alex dress up as?
Robby Cartwright: Thank you.
Kojiro Kun: Heh, I worked on that acronym. Wasn't easy.
It is at that.
00virtuezero: Thank you
Your welcome.
Cool.
Not quite perfect, or else I wouldn't be able to improve on it later on, would I?
Kay.
Yes, I have and they are indeed awesome. Now I wanna see some gameplay footage.
It does sound that frustrating.
Knightmare Frame Razgriz: Hah! Coffee pun!
I see.
I will.
lordmarik: Sure.
sakurahanaalice: Nah, that was just needed to engineer the initial strain. Now they just need dirt, and a lot of shit...er, fertilizer.
That is funny, and yes, the air conditioning returned!
Omegadramon2: I'll work it into this arc.
p0p-ViRg097: Thank you.
Working on it.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni