A/N… or is it mini-rant?

Sorry 'bout the wait but I have had a massive session of writers block… This little A/N is in response to a P.M. that I received 2 weeks ago. I won't say the name of the person who wrote it, but basically it went: Your story, Quantum Shift, is complete {censored}. Not one part of it is canon. The Hammond was not even completed when the Wraith attacked, not too mention the characters were completely out of character. You are a {censored} who shouldn't have even started writing in the first {censored} place. I will not be reading this {censored} {censored} any longer and shall not read any of your {censored} stories again. *Sigh* I have to respond to this. This site is called FanFICTION for a reason. Of course some of the stories here are non-canon, if not most. If you want Canon stories 1) don't read crossovers, or 2) don't read stuff from FanFICTION.net. Try FanCanon next time… ya, I made that site up… I swear, write one thing wrong, and the Hounds of Canon will descend on you… any way… Mini rant over, please enjoy this chapter considering I wrote it all last night after I beat down my writers block with a sledge-hammer… I had to rewrite it from ground up.

Disclaimer: If you know it, I don't own it. If you don't know it, I still don't own it. The only thing I own is my own warped mind that created this.

Chapter 3: Confrontation

Lloyd and Suzaku watched, silent, as the grey warship slid out of the vapor haze that obscured their vision. Beside them, young Viceroy Nunally sat silent in her motorized wheelchair. Finally Lloyd's assistant spoke, "Where were they hiding that thing?" she asked.

Suzaku shrugged his shoulders, "We'll probably never know, but what I want to know is this; Why didn't the Black Knights, or Zero for that matter, use it?"

A beeping sound started emanating from a communication designated console. The technician operating it turned around and said, "Sir Kururugi, we are receiving a message from the Eleven vessel." Suzaku nodded, resulting in the technician returning to his station and pushing a few keys.

Static, similar to the static from before, radiated from the speakers; then, a crackle. "This is the Japanese Space Defense vessel Siranui. Unknown vessel, please halt your advance and respond."

"Siranui… that name sounds familiar…" mused Lloyd.

"It was the name of an IJN Kagerō-class cruiser from the invasion of Japan in 2010 A.T.B. It was one of the first Eleven vessels destroyed." Replied his assistant (AN1). "Do you think that it's named for that vessel?"

Suzaku indicated to the radio operator to open the same channel. "Eleven vessel calling itself Siranui. This is Sir Suzaku Kururugi, Knight of Seven aboard the BBAF-1001 Avalon. I order you to stand down and surrender. If you do, I will personal see that you and your crew are treated fairly."

"I'm afraid that we can not do that." The voice replied. "We have our duty and that does not involve standing down."

"I see. Then you will not take offense if we attack." Suzaku said.

A brief chuckle emanated from the speaker, "Not at all. At the very least, we can test our systems in a battle scenario." That brought Suzaku to a start. Test their systems? Did that mean that the ship in front of them was brand new? Turning to Lloyd, he said "Have the Tristan and Mordred launch. They are to disable the Siranui. I will see what they are protecting in that steam cloud."

Aboard the Siranui, Colonel Yamato watched in amusement as the floating vessel in front of him launched three robot-like machines, one of which turned into a fighter. Seeing the three robot-like machines confirmed his current theory. They were definitely in an alternate dimension (AN2). He motioned for the shields to be raised, which was carried out instantly. One of the machines broke off from the attack and circled around, making its way towards the steam cloud that still hid Atlantis from view. The Siranui started to turn to follow the droid when a huge red blast hit the 304. The shields took the blunt of the attack, but didn't fall. In that instant, the white and yellow machine disappeared into the steam. "Call Colonel Sheppard," He instructed. "Tell him that he is about to have a guest." The Siranui turned back to face the pink machine that just fired the beam at them.

The Avalon shuddered as it started to fire its missiles at the Siranui, the smoke from the exhaust washing over the top of the vessel. Looping over the main cannon, they quickly closed the distance between the two warships. They closed to within ten meters of the hull, when they exploded in a brilliant fireworks display. An elliptic energy barrier shimmered into view for a brief second, and then disappeared.

"Okay. First impressions?" Yamada asked, his gaze sweeping across his current bridge crew. A Major manning a sensor station spoke up.

"Sir, sensors show that the vessel in front of us - even though they are about the same length as us - only has twice the power of an Al'kesh bomber."

"Weapon fire indicates only standard projectile weapon, no energy weapons of any kind. The only energy weapons witnessed so far is from that pink machine." The weapons officer said, after a brief pause.

"Threat assessment? How much damage could they cause us?"

"Insignificant, sir. If the Odyssey could take several Ori Pulse Cannon blasts point blank without a shield and survive…" The weapons officer trailed off as the implications sank in.

"Very well, bring the rail guns online, suppressing fire only. Aim to take out their main cannon and anti-air batteries."

After hearing the message from the Siranui, John leaned back in the control chair activating his link with Atlantis. Sensor data flowed into him, miscellaneous data removing itself, until he could 'see' what the city 'saw'. The small contact, only five meters high had entered the cloud of steam, which was given off when the extremely hot shield impacted the very cold ocean surface. Even though the shield was down, heat still radiated from the thrusters lining the bottom of Atlantis. It would be at very best, 10 minutes before the steam would ebb. Immersing into the link, John took control of one of the drones and launched it. Rather than just having it rely on targeting data, John did something that had never been done before. He literally took control of the drone. What he wanted, the drone performed. It was like he was the drone. He could 'sense' the air currents as he sped through the air, weaving between the towers and sped past the machine making it pause and spin around, just short of impacting one of Atlantis' many towers. He grinned, this should be fun.

Just seconds after entering the cloud of superheated water, Suzaku cursed. The cloud was way too dense to see properly, infrared sensors were useless, and to top it off; he was under attack. The motion trackers picked up a small contact just seconds before it hurtled past the Lancelot's head. Small whispers of steam flowed like water around Lancelot's head, marking the passage of the projectile. Then, turning faster than should be possible, the projectile made a second pass. Cursing again, this time in Japanese, Suzaku pushed his throttle to full. The Lancelot raced forward, and then ducked beneath the projectile. Once it had passed, Suzaku headed back the way he came. He had to get out of the haze, lest it get him killed.

The Lancelot burst out of the steam cloud, flares of vapor pouring out after him. He promptly turned around, bringing his VARIS to bear; ready to fire. A glow like that of a firefly, darted around in the steam, and then shot upwards. It exploded out of the cloud and looped around towards Suzaku, its glowing seeker head just missing the left float unit of the Lancelot Conquista.

Lloyd watched as the Avalon fired round after round from its main cannon, only to have the shells strike an elliptic barrier that seemed to operate on the same principles as the Blaze Luminous system. The only difference was that the enemy vessel was able to fire through the barrier without having to lower it. A shudder rang across the Avalon as the Siranui's weapons destroyed yet another turret. Thankfully the turrets aboard the Avalon were automated, resulting in no deaths as her offensive weapons were destroyed.

"Earl Apslund, the Lancelot just reappeared." He looked up as the Lancelot narrowly dodged a squid-like projectile.

"Oh dear," he muttered.

"What is wrong?" asked Nunally, who was worried for Suzaku.

"It seems that Suzaku is on the defensive." Cecile Croomy said as the Lancelot continued to dart around. A beeping caught her attention, and a flicker appeared in front of Lloyd. It resolved itself to show a man, clearly Japanese, sitting on a command-style chair.

"Wha~?" Lloyd drawled out. He was tempted to reach out and touch the person but refrained from doing so. "I am Colonel Shiji Yamato, commander of the Siranui." The image said. "I see… Are you calling to surrender?" Lloyd asked cautiously. Oh god, he hoped that was the reason. The repairs to the Avalon were going to be astronomical. The man chuckled, "No. I wanted to wrap this up before Colonel Sheppard destroys that white and gold machine. Tell me, can your vessel float in the water?" "It can…" "Good. Fire Byakurai at 1%."

A narrow, high-intensity beam of energy lanced out from the side of the Siranui, striking the Avalon on the starboard float-unit power substation. After burning right through, it barely missed the Tristan in its fortress mode. The starboard float-unit flickered as it lost power, and then died completely. With only one working float-unit, the Avalon quickly leaned on its side and started heading towards the ocean surface.

"What was that?" Gino muttered to himself as he made the Tristan barrel-roll around the beam.

"This could… be a problem" Anya said in her usual monotone voice as the Avalon gently hit the water.

Suzaku cursed as he saw the energy beam strike the Avalon. He quickly turned around and headed back towards the now water-bound vessel. The projectile behind him seemed to falter when a voice came on over the air waves. "Colonel Sheppard! What the hell are you doing?" The projectile quickly swung back around and re-entered the steam cloud. The Lancelot quickly reached the Avalon and took up a position directly between the two ships.

In the distance, the vapor cloud slowly started to ebb; first among the edges, then creeping towards the center of the cloud. A massive metal pier was the first to appear, behind which stood a great many buildings. Suddenly, a sunbeam burst through the clouds, spearing through the air behind the Siranui, where it hit one of the towers. The sunlight was then reflected everywhere, like it struck a piece of crystal quartz. Light seemingly burned away all the steam, revealing more and more buildings, which in turn reflected the light. A single tower, rising above the rest, easily 800 meters high (AN3) stood like a shining beacon. A glowing squid-like device slowly circled the tower; in fact it was the same one that had almost destroyed the Lancelot. Then, 4 more squids emerged from one of the piers, each one veering off to circle a section of the massive city.

"Okay~…" Lloyd drawled as the Avalon rose and sank with the waves, courtesy of the Siranui's 'low powered' attack. If that was low-powered, he wasn't an Earl. "Without a shred of doubt, that was not an Eleven vessel. We might have just attacked a neutral party…" How he hoped that it wouldn't come right back around and bite them in the ass.

Authors Notes:

AN1: The IJN Siranui is derived from a Kagerō-class destroyer from WWII, the Shiranui (不知火, Phosphorescent Foam). And yes, the Shiranui was an actual vessel.

AN2: Someone (not mentioning any names here) asked me in a P.M. if the Wormhole drive turned into something similar to what was used in SGA 5-4 (season 5, episode 4) "Daedalus Variations". My answer is no. In that episode, the variant Daedalus was out fitted with a "Reality Drive", sending it to variations of its own universe. In this story, the wormhole drive operations shifted from moving the city through space, to moving the city through dimensions. Here, there are an infinite number of dimensions, each consisting of an infinite number of realities for that dimension. I will, (or Rodney will) be explaining this in a later chapter. This version of Code Geass is not the original (anime), so there will be bound to be a few (not many) differences.

AN3: I'm just going by what I have read on various sites… why do they always have to be different . If someone has a definite dimensions for Atlantis that is not the same as the ones that I using, that would be great… I'm using 5000m diameter by 800m high (central tower).