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 30: Aw, Ship
- The Knight -
Suzaku muttered a curse, the Lancelot's Landspinners stuck to the dock's surface by the nano-adhesive applied to it, the MVS grinding against the Morrigan's glowing red katana as both Knightmare's Landspinner motors whined with the strain.
He sliced the other MVS in from the right, aiming to slice the Morrigan's head off its shoulders. This was rudely interrupted when another Morrigan grabbed the Lancelot's wrist.
"Uh, Jeremiah? A little help here?" Suzaku shakily said, as the latter Morrigan drew a very familiar tachi katana from a cockpit-mounted sheath.
The Knight wordlessly aimed one of the Bors' launchers at the offending Knightmare, firing a cannonball at it. Said projectile was a little bit off-target, but nonetheless managed to hit the Morrigan's left arm at the elbow, smashing said joint to pieces and freeing the Lancelot's arm.
"Hmph. Still so inexperienced." The older knight commented, bringing up the other arm and firing a barrage of cannonballs from both launchers. The Morrigans swerved about his firing line, most of them disappearing into the maze of warehouses while the one with the glowing katana and the one with the big katana merely dodged what was fired at them, accelerating towards the two Seventh-Generation frames.
- The Dragon and The Queen -
Learme grinned as another Sutherland rushed him, its pilot more than likely screaming at the top of his lungs over the Britannians' communications channels, brandishing a Gloucester's lance. A double-tap sent two bullets blasting into the Sutherland's torso, detonating the Liquid Sakuradite and scattering the remnants around for at least ten meters.
Some of the scraps pinged off of the Guren's leg armor, as Kallen used the red Knightmare's clawed limb to rip one Sutherland's limb off while slicing out the Factsphere of a Gloucester with the knife. A blast from the gun built into the arm finished the Gloucester, while she used the afore-mentioned Sutherland's arm to trip it up before clamping the claw onto the Frame's chest. A scintillating scarlet flash of radiation made the Sutherland boil and bubble until it blew up rather spectacularly.
A glance around revealed the torn-up or simply blasted apart remains of the entire unit, with most of the Britannains dead, dying or retreating, and Zero having scattered the Burais into the extensive maze of warehouses.
And the two Seventh-Generation Knightmares fighting with two of the Reikoku, specifically Yamato's with its new Oscillating Radiation Katana and Kojiro's with its tachi katana.
"Kallen," He prompted, highlighting the pair of Knightmares on the HUD, "Deal with them. I'm moving to Stage Two."
Kallen, for her part, didn't respond with a word, instead launching the Guren forth as the Ryūō crouched and leaped towards the outskirts of the docks. Instead, a hard look of determination settled on her features even as the Guren body-checked the Bors as the heavier Frame was gripping the hafts of its axes.
Enough momentum transferred to force the Bors to stumble forward, and it would have fallen completely if not for the wide and stable stand of its feet and Landtracks. A brief torso rotation had an arm launcher aimed and firing at the Guren. But even as the rotation occured Kallen was already revving the red Knightmare's Landspinners before darting forward and to the side, at the Lancelot.
Whoever the White-Head's devicer was, he was good. A duck, and a side-ways slide implemented by split-second precision Landspinner control allowed it to avoid the Guren's arcing claw and bringing Alex's Reikoku into the path of the deadly limb. Of course, unlike a sword, the claw's deadliness was completely variable. Kallen simply had the appendage grab the 'Tempest's' Reikoku, before tossing the Sixth-Generation aside towards the Bors as she bull-rushed the Lancelot again.
- The Tempest -
Alex groaned a bit as he shook the stars out of his eyes and righted his Reikoku. Behind him, Kouzuki and the Guren pursued the Lancelot with single-minded precision, while before him, Kojiro swapped out his Tachi Katana for a shorter but easier to handle tanto. The samurai had quite the collection of blades.
The Bors stamped its feet down, cracking the concrete as the Sakanade's still-burning flames cast shadows and green light over it, cooling rivulets of metal running between its legs as the imposing Knightmare faced the two. It hefted an axe in each hand, and the shadows cast by the fires on its face made it seem like the Bors was glowering at the two.
"Well..." Alex muttered. "You ready for this?"
"Should be simple." Sasaki replied. "He is rather slow after all."
"You have one arm."
"That is all I will need."
Any further conversation would have to be delayed, seeing how the Bors launched itself at them. Both MVA swung out to either side for quick and clean killing slices, aimed to slice either Reikoku in half along the cockpit seams. Kojiro ducked to his right, the very tip of the MVA aimed for him scraping lightly by the rounded shoulder of his Reikoku, while Alex brandished his OR Katana, actually slicing at the axe hurtling towards him. Were the hand gripping it that of a weaker Knightmare, the clash would have wrenched the weapon right out of the hand and allowed Alex to easily slice his blade sideways to eliminate the Knightmare.
It was the Bors handling the axe though, which meant Alex's Reikoku almost lost the (rather expensive) katana, and the mercenary actually thought the blade was bending under the strain for a second. Things quickly became much worse, as the Bors swung its left-hand axe towards Alex's cockpit. Alex had to edge sideways and angle his katana, catching the left axe on the upper half while the lower half of the blade still held back the right axe. During all this, the katana and axe blades screeched in unison, the super-oscillating edges scraping against each other as many as a million times per second. Sparks flew rather enthusiastically.
These events also accorded Kojiro a nice opening at the Bors cockpit, the standard large, boxy Britannian model. His Reikoku's hand arced in, tanto held to stab into the precise point where the pilot sat.
- The Demon -
On one hand, Lelouch was pleased that the plan was working. On the other, he was irritated that his brother had intervened in it. Originally, Lelouch was just going to blow up a bomb on the underside of the JLF's tanker, igniting the Sakuradite and then assaulting Cornelia's forces, killing off any competition for leadership of the Black Knights, and securing the loyalty of surviving JLF forces for his attempt to 'aid' Katase, despite the latter's 'suicide'.
Learme had intervened the moment the eldest Lamperouge had said 'bomb'.
"Lelouch, bombs leave traces. Even if the Sakuradite in your bomb is indistinguishable from the Sakuradite Katase is carrying in his tanker, the incendiaries in the detonator will leave traces."
"Well what do you suggest then?" Lelouch had asked.
"Simple: use a method with such an obvious source that no one will bother to investigate." Learme had replied archly.
Lelouch had grinned at that. Looks like I've been rubbing off on my brother. "And what would that method and source be?"
"We have Jeremiah, don't we? And he pilots a Knightmare specifically designed for the deployment of heavy weaponry. Besides, a 'murder' rather than a 'suicide' plays a bit better with the military crowd, don't you think?"
Lelouch flicked a switch on his communications controls, then hit the transmit button for a brief instant, and then two, longer presses.
- The Orange -
Jeremiah winced as static shrieked on his radio. One short, two long screeches of scrambled sound, produced by an especially powerful radio jammer. The Morrigans lay toppled before him as Kururugi fought what the knight personally thought of as 'Silver-Hand Red'.
He opened up a channel to Cornelia.
"Your Highness, I request permission to destroy the tanker."
"What's your reason?" The harsh tone of the Princess's voice crackled over the recovering radio. "Despite the interference of these Black Scum, Katase himself is still within our reach."
"Those jamming bursts milady," Jeremiah explained, "They're part of a code that was only recently cracked. This particular sequence refers to outside submersible support."
"What? Why wasn't I informed of this!" Cornelia seethed, outrage spilling over the airwaves and into Jeremiah's cockpit.
"Well, this code was cracked by myself and Villeta, and while we filed reports...I don't wish to malign his late highness...but..."
"I see. Very well. Destroy them."
"Yes, My Lord!" On the Bors' cockpit, the MLRS pods rotated into position as It's legs slammed into the concrete, planting itself firmly. Rotating on the turret-mount of its waist, the Bors tracked the JLF tanker's progress. For this mission, the missiles were loaded with a napalm-based incendiary explosive, while not quite as hot as the horrific flames of the Zippos, it was still enough to ignite Liquid Sakuradite.
A brief moment connected the Bors to the UAV in the sky, keeping an eye on the ship. Between the GPS coordinates of the UAV and the Bors, Jeremiah was able to acquire a suitable lock. The rockets fired, alternating on either side to keep the hot fuel exhaust from quite literally melting the pods on their mounts. The glow of their motors arced quickly into the sky, before puttering out.
Jeremiah knew that the JLF was made mostly of veterans of the war of conquest seven years ago, and was probably also made up of those who'd been lucky enough to survive the Britannian Army's artillery and rocket barrages. Jeremiah himself, having suffered under similar assaults in his brief stint in an Italian theater of war, knew how they felt. The shock of seeing the dots of light fly into the air and then disappear...and knowing that death approached silently now.
Impact.
The waters lit up with the bright, nearly fluorescent pink-red of Sakuradite, mixed with the red and orange hues of the napalm flames. Columns of steam rose from the water, the heat flash-boiling the surrounding seawater and any who had jumped overboard in the final moments of the rockets' fall. The lucky ones were the smart ones, who had simply sat on the deck and stared.
- The Demon -
Lelouch nodded at the sight of the flames and the steam, the boiling water. Very straightforward, and with a source quite a bit more obvious than his original 'Katase killed himself, taking some Brits with him' idea, but in a way that helped rather than hindered.
The communications lines were screaming with the cries of the Black Knights, especially those former JLF members Lelouch had swept up in Narita, as those who saw the rocket attack quickly spread the news to those in the morass of alleys that consisted of the dock's pathways. The outrage was rapidly reaching its peak, and Lelouch could tell from his display that the Knights were taking it out on the closest Britannians they could find.
Which was all well and good, but an enraged soldier was less careful tactically and strategically than one who kept a cool head.
"Silence!" Lelouch barked into the radio. The noise stilled almost instantly at the sound of Zero's light baritone command. "Katase's death is tragic, yes. But maintain your composure!" The lines were quiet for a moment before a wave of affirmatives sounded from the individual teams, their voices much calmer now. "Direct your fury towards those more deserving of it. Now, report."
"Zero Squadron, Team one is in position." Mischa's steady voice reported, even as the bickering of the rest of his team continued.
"Zero Squadron, Team two is missing Alex and Sasaki, but also in position." The Red Viking growled.
"Ryūō in position." Learme's augmented voice hissed.
"Guren currently engaging the Lancelot." Kallen reported.
"Sakanade advancing towards target." Tanaka grunted, the sound of screaming and the occasional explosion coming in over the radio.
Burai assault platoon holding position." Ohgi said, rather unnecessarily considering the rather roughshod unit was in fact right in front of the Akuma. The reports continued, each unit giving their individual situation updates, enemy sightings, and other miscellaneous data until done.
"Very well. All variables are accounted for." Lelouch stated, regal in his tone. "Commence the second phase."
- The Dragon -
Learme tuned out of the channel as soon as the word 'commence' was uttered, grinning sharply to himself as the Ryūō hefted the Raikou Kai in its battle rifle configuration.
With the barrel folded as it was, two thirds of the barrel rested on top of the remaining part of the barrel and stock, blocked the guncam's view. Not that it was necessary, as with the laser designator and the Ryūō's advanced Factsphere, Learme was more than perfectly capable of blasting any target within five kilometers to scrap, although he couldn't manage a repeat G-1 performance.
A flash of blue-purple spotted out of the corner of his main monitor cued Learme to a speeding team of Sutherlands heading for the two Sakanade's backs smack in the middle of a four-way alley in between warehouses, just outside of the cliche container maze every dock seemed to have.
A quartet of shots blasted into the Sutherlands, ripping the cockpits in half and reducing the pilot within to chum.
Learme hopped the Ryūō off of the warehouse, sprinting down a few blocks before leaping onto another warehouse. The Knightmare's head swiveled side-to-side, searching for more targets.
Learme saw...
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me."
- The Author -
Yeesh, it's been a while.
Sorry for the...extremely long wait, but it's not likely to get any better anytime soon, for several reasons.
First, World of Warcraft Cataclysm, gotta level my warlock you know.
Second, other writing projects, including the S2 of the 00 fic, the rest of Killer's Realm, and several other things including a story and a World of Warcraft fic (seperate from the one you were talking about Alex)
Third, Christmas. Video Games, books and all that.
After all that though, I should be able to get back on my normal schedule around February.
Review Replies:
Alex Yamato: Still not sure about it...
He should get a good point in a future chapter...maybe. Dunno, butt-monkeys are pretty rare you know (unless you're Bruce...)
Jeremiah still has a long way to go before he renounces Britannia openly. Or secretly. After all, you should never trust a masked man.
I'll probably just skip to showing Alex/Ouka. There really wasn't that much Alex/Kallen interaction after all...although I probably won't show much, since Alex really isn't a main character...
Good Bad Feeling...er...wait...huh?
p0p-ViRg097: Well, the Fable series is great, not to mention Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. And the Knights of the Old Republic games are frickin awesome.
Kojiro Kun: Still have to get a proper Lelouch/CC scene in though...
Shock and Awesome.
Bigger explosives than conventional HE rounds?
Omegadramon2: Yep.
Robby Cartwright: Sorry for the long wait, and the short length.
Knightmare Frame Razgriz: Thanks.
Really? I always find such things amusing...I wonder if my sadistic switch is stuck in the 'on' position...
I stopped getting notifications! I figured it died. That said, I've been thinking about starting up my own tech development forums, just for designing stuff though, no RP.
SpartanCommando: Trying to think of a scene were she can feature in greatly. Probably the Mao arc.
laz15bm: Weirdest thing: I actively tried to get demon wings this time around... and I still got angel ones! I wonder what I'm doing right...