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 29: Ominous Tidings
- The Crush -
7:21 AM
Wednesday
Fenette Residence, Master Bedroom
"Jeez papa!" Was the muffled cry of a certain strawberry blond high school student, startled by her moderately injured and heavily bandaged (and slightly drugged) father, hugging his daughter in a deathly grip in celebration of his survival.
Mr. Fenette had been in the town near Narita when the Black Knights had triggered the landslide. Luckily for him, and many of the other people in the town, the landslide had lost momentum a short distance from the base of the mountain, resulting in little more than a few falling rocks and several browned trousers. Shirley's father, escaped with a broken leg and a rather mild concussion, and even then only because he'd been near the outskirts.
"I'm alright Shirley!" The noble laughed, patting her on the head. "Just a little rest and I'll be good as new?" This elicited a short snort and pout from the girl. "Alright, a lot of rest. Now go to school, I'll be alright...after all, your mother and the rest of the staff will still be here." Pouting again, Shirley accepted a softer hug from her dad, pecked him on the cheek, and then dashed out, gathering her bag from next to the door.
Relieved by her father's continued good health (Honestly, he acts like nothing happened at all...) Shirley was now free to consider a very, very confusing mystery, involving a chocolate-skinned, white-haired Knight, her...crush, his twin, and quite possibly the Black Knights.
- The Dragon -
12:32 PM
Wednesday
Ashford Academy, Men's Restroom
"No, damn you, I wanted four Sakanade and a platoon of Burai fitted for close-combat, and a Sakanade-led platoon for support!" Learme hissed into his cell phone.
"B-but, Draco, sir, there are only two Sakanade present at the base right now, the other eight have been deployed by Lord Zero to our other facilities for re-tuning, and to test those new weapons we received from Mischa's contacts in the EU."
"Damn it, I guess it can't be helped. Alright, get Tai's platoon and tell them to ready for urban warfare conditions. Tell the two Sakanade we have to kit themselves for medium-range support fire, and get our best Burai marksmen in." Learme replied surreptitiously, before he snapped the phone shut and replaced it in his pocket. Closing his eyes, he leaned forward onto the sink counter, cradling his head in his hands, and just stood there for a minute.
"I really, really hate that little prick."
- The Black Knights -
Tamaki sighed in relief when the comms officer flashed him a thumbs-up. His bladder still wasn't quite up to the task of deal with either of the Black Knights' masked leaders after both the budget fiasco and the Kyoto meeting, and he couldn't find any brown pants.
"Alright, Suzuhara, get on the phone with the guys posted in Tokogawa. They're the ones with the heavy sniper rifles, let them get up here." The red-headed baka sighed. "Jeez, I don't know why he can't just get Zero Squadron. They're the bigshot elites..."
"Zero Squadron cannot deploy for this specific operation because Zero Squadron is already deployed." The radio hissed at him, in Tony Bellaci's Italian-accented Japanese. "We've been staking out the port since yesterday, cretino."
"Ah, alright..." Tamaki said, leaning over to Ohgi. "What the hell is a cretino?"
"A moron, idiota."
- The Demon and The Dragon -
"...square of Earth's orbital period divided by..."
Lelouch looked up when the classroom door open, Learme coming in quietly as usual, to try and avoid interrupting the lesson. His twin slipped into his customary seat next to Lelouch, the only sign of his earlier irritation being a grimace only somewhat distinguishable from an aloof expression.
"...equal to the cube of the quotient of the Earth's orbital radius..."
And then the bell sounded.
Quite thankful to be out of the class, for various reasons including boredom with the topic at hand and a desire to return to their less-than-legal activities. To that end, they started speaking Ersatzprache again.
"Man, Tamaki's still out of shape." Learme grumbled. "Idiot should have mentioned the reassignments you did first before wasting time with saying 'we can't do that'".
"Ah, well." Lelouch sighed. "He's only human. Give him time, and he'll come around. The victory at Narita was a great factor in consolidating the Knight's loyalty, but Tamaki and the other, more suspicious will take a while. In the mean-time, what do we know?"
"Well, thanks to Kyoto and a few of the survivors we picked up, we know that the JLF leadership's fleeing the Area." Learme said, hands behind his head as he assumed a rather stereotypical mask of an easy-going teen walking to his next class. "They've gathered all the Sakuradite they had, stolen a large transport ship and are going to head to the Chinese Federation to join up with the splinter Japanese faction there, as per the contingency their mutineers told us."
"Yes, but our little informant tells us Cornelia's on to them." Was Lelouch's fake-yawning reminder. "She's briefing the Twenty-Fifth Aquatic Knights platoon, and setting up an ambush just outside the port. The moment their ship's in range, the Aquatic Knights pop up, smash their engines and rip holes in the hull while the land-bound Knightmares take out the troops on the decks."
"You trust this Diethard guy?"
"Do you remember the man who ran up during the Orange Incident?"
"That was him? Hmm...typical reporter. Always after the story...So...what's the plan?"
"Oh, you'll like this one, I assure you brother..."
"Do tell..."
- The Bone-Snatcher -
Port Yokosuka
"Goddamn little - gargh!" Tony growled, yanking his Knightmare's combat knife out of the stilled, corpse-like frame's cockpit. Swearing in Italian, he clamped his Reikoku's free hand on the Portman's shoulder, dragging it along the relatively shallow seabed towards where the rest of his team waited.
"Trouble sir?" Eris' voice hissed over the radio.
"Nothing worth mentioning, bello." Tony replied with a grin. "Just some idiota who stuck his nose into someone else's business."
"He's got Britannian markings." Alex grunted. "Probably a patrol."
"Naw, it's policy not to operate within port waters" Eric countered. "The higher-ups don't want to risk losing one of their extremely expensive frames or one of their exponentially more expensive ships."
"In other Areas, I'd count you right Eris." Qilin said. "But other Areas don't have Cornelia in them."
"Yeah, that's true."
"Hacked his IFF." Ouka squeaked. "Yeah, he's one of the ones tagged for tonight's mission."
"Fottere. Draco's not going to be happy about this...although what he doesn't know won't kill us..."
"A bit late for that." Mischa growled over the radio.
"Dammit."
- The Brits -
A.S.E.E.C Trailer
1:52 PM
"HOORAY!" Lloyd cried, spinning about in his chair. For a moment, all activity in the A.S.E.E.C trailer stopped just long enough for all of the workers to eye the mad scientist, before shrugging and continuing their work on the Bors and Lancelot.
The three with Lloyd on the catwalk just sighed at his enthusiasm.
"Finally, another chance for my machines to show their worth!" Suzaku turned to the face-faulting Cecile.
"Uh...Cecile-san, what's he talking about?"
"Oh, well...We just got orders from Cornelia's personal unit..." Jeremiah turned to her as well.
"Yes? And?" The knight growled, fingers tensing until they curled into claws that mimed wrapping around the hilt of a sword.
"They want you two to participate in tonight's operation." Suzaku tensed up at this, while Jeremiah visibly deflated in disappointment. "You'll be aiding the ground forces in containing the JLF in Port Yokosuka."
"Hmmph. Just another clean-up." 'Orange-kun' groused, slumping down along the catwalk's low railing/wall like a teenager told he's not going to the dance tonight.
"How can you act like that?" Suzaku muttered. "We're going to be killing people!" Jeremiah turned a harsh eye on the Honorary Britannian.
"Boy," He said, the Knight's face taking on a grim aspect. "These are enemies of the Empire. The only mercy you show them is the mercy of a swift death. That's final. For if you let them escape or live, there will be no such mercy accorded to you."
"My, my." Cecile sighed, "It seems like I have to teach you how to socialize too."
"NO MA'AM!"
"Jeez, can't you people go for once without this conversation?" Lloyd sighed.
- The Black Knights
Port Yokosuka
5:29 PM
They were all gathered in and around the warehouse from which they would be conducting their operations. Command and control consoles had been smuggled in, unpacked, and set-up in anticipation at the far side of the building, Knightmares lined the walls, from the foreboding Sakanade to the common Burai. Interspersed among them were Zero Squadron's Reikoku, and at the end were the lithe form of the Guren, the Akuma's stout frame, and the Ryūō's grim shape. About a fifth of the Burais had large cannons that could very well have been ripped out of a main battle tank's turret, modified for use as a rifle with a high-power gun-camera, and the Reikoku were modified with thicker, rounder hulls and painted with various shades and hues of light and dark blue, with splatters of seaweed green in random places. One of the Sakanade hoisted the deadly and dangerous Thestalos with a Fuzeiyari stored on the pilot pod, while another cradled a Kemva mark I cannon in its arms and boasted the Tandem Aden cannons on its back.
In the center were gathered the principal players in this operation. All twelve members of Zero Squadron, from Draco and Kallen to Qilin and Ouka. The original members of Kallen's former resistance cell, formed into the First Burai Assault Squadron. A team consisting of the best Burai marksman. And two of the Sakanade team. Zero himself stood before a Britannian man, blond and dressed in a dark suit.
"I have to thank you for your assistance in this operation," Zero said, "Diethard Reid. I confess, I was somewhat surprised to find such a venerable reporter as you delivering information such as this to us."
"The Empire is old news." Diethard replied.
"Ah, the quintessential reporter." Draco hissed. "Always after the newest story."
"Quite true, Lord Draco."
"Feh." The serpentine-helmed man sighed, before turning back to the gathered crowd. "The operation begins at 1900 hours. Prepare your Knightmare Frames according to your individual assignments, and be strapped in and ready by 1845. We don't want to be late and arrive only to see the JLF dead." The Black Knights came to attention, saluting briefly before scattering to their individual duties, the command staff rushing to their consoles while the mechanics and pilots started towards their Frames. Kallen, having already finished with the Guren's maintenance, noticed Draco and Zero conferring shortly, before the lizard-skulled trooper left, heading to the rented warehouse outside where Zero Squadron's temporary barracks were.
- The Dragon and The Queen -
Learme sighed in joyous exultation as he exited the shower. The contrast between the heated interior of the rather crude, field-erected stall and the chilled exterior made him feel so very refreshed. He toweled off quickly, dressing in his boxers and pants before wrapping another towel around his head and sitting down, in the shadows at the far wall.
He, quite simply, didn't trust Ried. Maybe it was a hold-over from his week-ends messing around with guards in the Royal barracks, or simply a common distrust of anyone whose job description entailed them to rude interrogation and general nosiness, but he didn't like the reporter, useful as he is. Still, he wouldn't shoot the guy...well, not yet.
"Draco?" Kallen called, startling Learme. He looked to the doorway, seeing Kallen standing there, tentatively, rather like Shirley did whenever she was trying to ask Lelouch out.
Kallen, for her part, saw only a tan, lithe man with his head concealed by a combination of the warehouse's shadows and the towel, next to the tall suit of armor that, to her, was Draco. For the first time she saw it with the coat off, and was startled by the gleaming black scales that covered it, before she composed herself.
"I-I wanted to ask-"
"Are you having doubts?" Kallen looked to the side, and clenched her fist.
"I've fought for justice, because I've believed it to be the right thing to do. That's why I've killed so many people. But can what we're doing really change the world!" She took two steps towards the end, shouting that last sentence.
"Of course." Learme answered. "It must. And it will."
"But-"
"The right person, at the right place, and the right time, can change the world by merely being present." Learme said. Then he chuckled. "Of course, so can the wrong person, at the wrong place and time. The world changes everyday. Change is constant, from the change of winter to summer, to the change of a thriving district to a blood-smeared charnel house. The key is to change things according to our ideals, our plans, our needs and desires. There will be sacrifices. Soldier and civilian alike will kill or be killed in such a wide change as war."
"But in spite of, or because of the sacrifices, we cannot stop. Even if Zero's orders cheat others out of property and life, I will not flinch from my duty. Even if, in the end, I become a hated and reviled specter of death, walking on the path of war, blood and carnage. More blood will be spilled so that the blood we have already shed will not have been shed in vain..." The man once called the Knight of Deception stood, shadows devouring his shoulders and torso, keeping his secret face. "Kallen, if you cannot abide the mountains of corpses that will come, I would suggest you turn back now, for the sake of your sanity and soul." Kallen looked taken aback, eyes gleaming with the shine of unshed tears, for reasons Learme couldn't tell. Then a small, sad smile grew on her face, and she stepped forward again.
"I think, Draco, in that event, I will walk with you, at your side, and Zero's."
Learme smiled, not the half-mad grin of the killer, or the humorous, beaming smile of a fool besotted, but somewhere in between the two extremes.
"Thank you, Kallen." And he bowed, the towel hanging off like a death-shroud from his head.
- The Knight and The Orange -
6:30 PM
The two, Honorary Britannian and disgraced Knight, waited in their respective Knightmares with nearly equal amounts of tension. Suzaku, due to being forced to participate in this operation where he was going to have to kill his countrymen, and Jeremiah, for knowing what was to come.
"Commence operation!" Cornelia growled.
"Underwater units, launch." In front of the two and the squadrons of Sutherlands that flanked them, Portman Aquatic Knightmare Frames slid from their launch units into the water of the berth in front of them. Both Knights accelerated their frames along the side of the docks as the Portmans entered the water, the other Knightmares following as the door to the berth was blown open by the torpedoes launched from the Portmans' shoulders. "Each of you are restricted to one clip of micro-bullets. Fire when ready."
"Remember your orders." Andreas growled to the Seventh-Generation pilots. Suzaku swerved the Lancelot around, the borrowed Sutherland assault rifle came up to center on the figures skylined against the silhouette of the tanker and the horizon. Jeremiah halted a few meters away, the MLRS pods on the Bors rotating into firing position.
Suzaku hesitated while the Sutherlands opened fire.
"Damn it." He swore. "This isn't a fight."
"No. It isn't." Jeremiah's grim voice replied. "It's a massacre. And it's what every career soldier does in time. Now fire." Suzaku hesitated still, before gritting his teeth and squeezing the trigger.
- The JLF -
"Damn them! The Britannians are here!" The JLF watch officer screamed over his shoulder, seeing the Sutherlands on the docks.
"Look! They're in the water!" Another of the troops called, pointing down as the Portmans oh-so-briefly breached the water, foaming water behind them marking their trail. This before his head practically exploded.
The Britannian's so-called 'micro-bullets' were basically .50-caliber BMG rounds, with enlarged cases and corresponding amounts of gunpowder to fit in the assault rifles their Knightmares used. This allowed them great range and anti-infantry utility while retaining small capability against light vehicles. This was, of course, not good for the JLF soldiers.
In the bowels of the tanker, General Katase slammed his fist down on the desk, as his guards and advisers panicked.
"There's been a leak! Gods damn it, where's Tohdoh!"
"He and the Four Holy Swords are still missing!"
"Where's Kyoto's help!"
"We don't know! They didn't give us any contact information!"
"Are we to be sacrifices!"
- The Black Knights -
Twelve shapes, ten of them completely smooth in their armor and of average Knightmare size, and two large and blocky, stood underneath the Portmans assaulting the tanker, awaiting orders. Their radios hissed.
"Go." Was the short hiss.
The Reikokus acted swiftly. Twenty Slash Harkens fired, slicing into the Portmans above just as they themselves fired their Harkens to hook into the tanker. The Sakanade stomped forth, weapons stored and pile drivers, finger-claws and toe-claws slicing into the dock walls as they climbed up.
The Sutherlands stopped dead in their shooting when the Ogre-masked heads of the Sakanade breached the water. Too far to either side for the Seventh-Generation Frames to see at once, one Sakanade unloaded the Dual Tandem 30mm Aden Cannons into the platoon in front of him. The Adens were intended for three-kilometer ranges. The scant few meters between them and the Sutherlands combined with the four-hundred twenty RPM firing rate allowed the Sakanade to tear apart the Sutherlands with ease. In the chaos, the Sakanade clambered onto the docks with ease, followed by the Reikokus' Harkens arcing over the docks to anchor to the ground.
The Britannians were already terrified, as any thinking, competent soldier would be under the circumstances. Then the Sakanade revealed their hand weapons. One had a cannon. The other, however...
- The Brits -
"ZIPPO!" Some ensign screamed, just before the Zippo's sheet of green-tinged azure flame smothered him, the Sutherland melting and crackling and and the poor fool ejecting. The cockpit block flew out on the rockets flame, a shadow against the blue brilliance that engulfed it. The block smashed into a warehouse, mercifully ending his cries. During that, the Zippo swept its flame wide, immolating the dock around for five meters. Concrete bubbled and cracked, metal melted and ran like lava. The panicked Sutherlands, veteran and fresh-out-of-boot-camp alike, fired full-auto, forgetting the micro-bullets they had loaded. The result was a few pathetic pings and the occasional spark as the bullets skipped off of the Zippo's armor.
The other Sakanade lifted its cannon, firing, each shell smacking into a Sutherland and sending it careening back for the instant before it exploded, sending shards of the Frame flying everywhere.
By now the Reikoku were atop the docks, and the Seventh-Gen Knightmares were starting to react to the Black Knights' presence.
The Suzaku tossed his rifle aside, drawing both MVS when a Reikoku charged him, katana slicing out. The Lancelot blocked the slice, but instead of the super-heated, vibrating sword slicing through the katana as it did on Narita a week ago, it was halted by the scarlet-blood glow and hum of an Oscillating Radiation weapon.
At the same time, the back-up Sutherlands that were scrambling began to suffer casualties, being picked off by sniper fire. Specifically, sniper cannon fire.
And as if the day wasn't bad enough, a small transport ship crashed onto the docks, its prow dropping to reveal, what else, the Dragon, Red and Devil Knightmares, alongside a host of Burai. The host of fire, from the Dragon's highly explosive, armor piercing handgun rounds, to the rather more standard armor-piercing bullets of the Burai, weathered the Sutherland squadron before them into the metallic equivalent of ground meat, exacerbated by the detonation of a primed Chaos Grenade whose owner had failed to throw before being dismembered. The super-heated flechettes lost momentum the further out they were, merely bouncing off of the Dragon Knightmare's armor.
One of Princess Cornelia's Gloucester teams roared into battle, capes flapping behind them, one arm holding out lances while the other aimed an assault carbine. The fire from the carbines raked the group, the Devil Frame ducking behind its shield while the Red and Dragon Knightmares leaped up and over, landing in the midst of the Gloucesters. The Burai were substantially less fortunate, only two escaping unharmed, while the rest suffered minor to extreme damage.
The Gloucesters were rent apart in moments, the Dragon's blades slicing two apart upon landing while the Red's claw crushed another into the concrete, a scarlet glow melting the Frame into a puddle before the Sakuradite detonated, by then the Red had twirled about, smashing the final Gloucester in the face, the monomolecular tips of the claw carving deep furrows into the forward armor.
Port Yokosuka stirred into battle, secondary Knightmare units that had been stationed there by Cornelia more as an after-thought than real support scrambling to deploy, even as the Black Knights carved into her forward forces.
- The Demon and The Dragon -
"General Katase." Lelouch said, even as the Akuma hunkered down behind its shield, "The Black Knights are here to support you." The link, minus the traditional video function that usually accompanied radio communications these days in high-tech military units, was silent for a moment, and Lelouch briefly entertained the image of the aged Katase with a dumb-founded expression on his face, complete with hanging jaw.
"Z-Zero!" Yes, that is indeed my name. Lelouch thought of saying. But, that was a rather coarse and sarcastic remark that he would rather see attributed entirely to his twin.
"Indeed General. Kyoto requested our aide in assisting your escape from Britannia's clutches. They have given me instructions to pass over to you. I assume your tanker is capable of receiving tight-beam radio communications, and am sending the data now." The process itself on Lelouch's end was quite simply, plugging a small flash drive into a socket designed for purposes just like this, and narrowing the broadcast diameter of his radio system before hitting 'Enter'.
That done, he returned the majority of his attention to the battle. A few dozen meters to his left, the Sakanade and Reikoku held off the Lancelot and the Bors, as well as three teams of reinforcing Sutherlands, all of which kept as far away from Tanaka's Sakanade as they could. To his immediate right, the damaged assault Burai crouched in between warehouses, taking potshots at a platoon of Sutherlands, in the midst of which Learme and Kallen in the Ryūō and Guren danced.
"Just as planned." The revolutionary grinned.
- The Shifter -
The spy, mercenary, what-ever one would call him, waited in the alley.
"So nice to see you here, Ian Karloff." Ian turned, with more than a little disgust.
"Mao." He muttered, glaring at the white-haired, Chinese man.
- The Author -
My sincerest apologies for the delay. You see there was an essay and...aw, hell who am I kidding. I got Fable III, RPG geekdom reigned, and a few villages worth of people were slaughtered so I could level up by Inquisitor sword. Time passed, and I eventually remembered the quarter of a chapter I had rotting in my save files.
That, and I got a 30-day account on EVE Online, so yeah...
Nontheless, I apologize for keeping all of you waiting.
That said, this next arc sounds really promising in my head. That's in my head, of course, so it may turn out differently when I write the next few chapters.
As you may guess the JLF may actually survive my version of events. Then again, they may not. Jeremiah does have twin MLRS pods bolted on. I'll flip a coin.
Review Replies:
Alex Yamato: Oh yes. Yes it is.
Perfect pitch!
Yep. And Kyoto, if I might say, has some very interesting things.
omegadramon2: I decided to not do it. Don't worry, Shifter's still going to get a lot of screentime.
Kojiro Kun: I dunno, the original episode was pretty exciting...well, the last five or ten minutes were.
Mao is working for whom?
I'm thinking an automatic drum-fed crossbow, like the one in Van Helsing. Still not sure how that worked, but hey, Rule of Cool.
Well, I have been taking a long look at Universal Century and been thinking about replacing Amuro with an Avatar of myself...
Robby Cartwright: Thank you!
p0p-ViRg097: It's slow to start, alright? Look, there was a slight intense moment in this chapter!
Mikuloid Fan: Thank you.
sakurahanaalice: I've seen some pretty accurate looking artist's renditions in my time...there's this kid in my AP Literature class so good you'd swear it was a monochrome photograph.
Actually, it's a phrase I picked up from some of Tom Clancy's novels, and I think it may be a version of F your mother.
Okami Princess: Sort of like the Lelouch-Euphemia relationship, except neither side has any idealistic ideas and love military subjects.
Yes, they both liked to mess around with the Royal Guards.
Pretty dang close, although not quite as lovey as Lelouch and Euphemia are.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni