Turn IX: With Fire and Sword part III.
(Excerpt from the 2090 Kenneth Burns the Third documentary: The Century of War)
"After Gettysburg we began marching back to West Bengal to return home to Japan and we were jubilant, we had just won a great victory and with minimal casualties."
"We were convinced that the only thing left to do was to get back home and enjoy being heroes."
"It was calm, peaceful and everything was going according to plan, little did we knew that this calmness was the calm before the storm."
Private First Class Infantry Naoto Kan 761st regiment, 501st division, 42nd corps Black Knights.
Excerpt from the Diary of Naoto Kan
(Schneizell's office 12th of January)
Schneizell was not surprised when he heard of Lelouch's great victory, after Fukuoka he knew just how great his younger brother's military abilities were.
What did surprise him was the chaos it resulted, the Chinese Federation was now ready to fall apart, reports from their spies said that separation movements within the Federation where ridding the coat tail of the victory, riots in major cities, civil unrest, etc.
Just then Kannon Maldini came into the room.
"My Lord, the Chinese High Eunuchs are on line two." He said.
"Tell then we are busy with important issues and to call again latter…..oh and have the Avalon brought here, we may have to do travel to Japan and perhaps China soon." Schneizell calmly replied and returned to his 'important issue' and namely reading the book "Of Mice and Men".
(20 miles short of the evacuation area, Black knights convoy, Sarmizegetusa)
January 13th. 12: 32 pm,
Lelouch was sitting on the command seat on the bridge of the Sarmizegetusa and was mentally going through battles against Xingke, who he knew was preparing the ground near the evacuation zone to his advantage.
Lelouch knew that up until now had fought battles by maneuvering the enemy into a position which gave him the advantage, choosing the terrain and dictating the flow of battle; now none of those factors which helped him win would assist him now.
What was even worst now he had to face none one, but two enemies, namely Todoh and Xingke which had proven that both are master strategists and tacticians.
"Walking knowingly into a trap, I only hope that I can evade it once I spring it." Lelouch thought to himself remembering the counter measure which he had done, he knew that around the evacuation zone in West Bengal there was a danger of flooding and his knightmares could get bogged down in mud, the Chinese knightmares who were lighter and the E.U knightmares who had wider land spinners could maneuver more easily on mud.
"My Lord we have just received word that Xingke army has position itself ten miles short of the evacuation fleet, I am sorry to say but we will have to fight our way through him to reach the ships" Jeremiah reported to his liege.
"Thank you general, I am going to retire now, I suggest you all do the same, tomorrow we will have a fight on our hands and this time we will be facing real generals not toy soldiers," Lelouch replied and went to his quarters.
There he sat in a rocking chair which was in the room, he now usually slept in that chair since C.C occupied the bed and as he sat there the following thoughts haunted his mind:
"Tomorrow or the day after we will face Xingke and the fate of the war could be decided then…should I maneuver around him and reach the ships at a different point?... No how could I, Xingke would claim victory and without losing one man, if he claims victory like that, he could use his still intact army to stabilize the Federation and the victory at Gettysburg would be in vain….This campaign was started so we could destabilize the Federation and level the playing field, I cannot run away today so tomorrow the Empire and all the work Suzaku and I did in Japan be destroyed, no sir I cannot…, also the boys are all in high spirits from Gettysburg, they will want to attack the enemy the moment they lay eyes on him….no matter what I do I have no choice but to fight this battle…..no matter how much I wish to avoid it or how ill fated it may be…this battle is inevitable"
(January 14th 5:54 am, West Bengal, Dragon army position, a rice field ten miles short of the evacuation zone)
Todoh had gotten up half an hour ago and was preparing to mount his knightmare, last night the Black Knights had stopped just two miles up the road.
For a normal man this seemed quite a great distance, but to a military man like Todoh it was comparable with the distance between the two eyebrows on the face, separated only by the small neutral region of the nose.
Todoh along with Laksharta and the rest of the Slayers didn't like what they were officially suppose to do and namely quench rebellions and kill their leaders, when in fact they would use this opportunity to unite the rebel armies and leaders under their banner and then along with Xingke launch a coup and reform the Federation. But in order to do that they had to prevail today, they had to….
"Todoh-san, the sun will rise up soon, when morning comes you will launch as the second wave on my signal, I will act as the first wave along with General Frederick and we will draw Lelouch into the trap." Xingke said over the communications radio.
"Understood!" Todoh replied and he watched as the night started to fade and the dawn was approaching.
"This sunrise floods the field with Crimson light…..the same color as blood." Todoh lamented to himself of the great carnage which will follow here, despite being a soldiers and one who was good at his job, Todoh hated war and battle with all his heart and now once more he would have to produce that which he hated.
Meanwhile….
Lelouch was also awake and had just finished assembling his army.
In front of him the sun was rising and Lelouch could see that with the Rising Sun enemy knightmares appeared on the horizon.
As the night gave way to the day, Lelouch could hear the sounds of fighter jets and choppers, both allied and enemy engaging in battle flooding the sky with a deadly light show, behind him and in front of him Odysseus's and Xingke's cannons began firing at each other completing the show above them with their macabre symphony.
"The fireworks have begun, the band has started its symphony, I guess it is time to start dancing" Lelouch thought to himself.
"Sarmizegetusa calling all units, this is Zero to all my commanders, the battle has started, all commanders maintain position until new orders" Lelouch said to his men, the Colgrevance was currently undergoing maintenance and could not be deployed, so Lelouch had to be careful to keep the army from attacking until they could hit them hard on all fronts with their full force.
A minute later the two armies' vanguards clashed and what history would call "The Battle of The Two Dragons" had begun.
(The Forbidden city, the Empresses private room)
"Lady Kaguya this is what you call a pajama party isn't it not?" Tianzi happily said to Kaguya.
"Yes, Tianzi-sama, this is strictly a girls only affair and no men allowed, so it's alright to gossip!" Kaguya replied with a chuckle which Tianzi replied with one as well.
They had become good friends over the past year and they both enjoy each other's company.
"You also said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Tianzi asked curiously.
"Yes! I couldn't say this to you until we were alone; tell me what you think about this proposal?" Kaguya said and then whispered to her the issue.
"The U.F.N, the United Federation of Nations?" Tianzi replied as Kaguya went into details of her plan.
(West Bengal rice field)
The battle had started and Xingke and Todoh had started with a powerful attack on Lelouch' centre
"The terrain doesn't offer any advantage and considering the difference in design between the frames of the two armies…" Lelouch said to himself as he watched the battle commenced.
"…. In order for us to win we must use the Shen Hu to break the enemy formation and encircle them with the Gun Rus and Panzers." Xingke said to himself as he prepared to fire his Baryon Cannon at the enemy formation.
"Eat this!" he said as he fired, but before the beam hit the Black Knights, Viletta in her new Lancelot rushed Xingke and with her sword pushed the cannon upwards avoiding a direct hit on her army.
"Impressive…I'd expect nothing less of Viletta Nu, the Anvil of the Black knights!" Xingke said he clashed blades with Viletta.
(Ikaruga Bridge)
"Humhhh….it seems Kalius managed to finish our frame and he did a rather good job at it before dying of old age." Laksharta said to her research squad.
"You said that the Shen Hu was built years ago, why haven't we seen it in combat in the Chinese armies before?" Ohgi asked curiously.
"The physical strain on the pilot was too great so that prototype Shen Hu was put in storage." Laksharta replied indifferently as she continued to watch the battle.
(Battlefield)
Xingke was feeling the strain of what it took to maintain control over the Shen Hu, but he could not falter if they wanted to win the day.
"Colonel Todoh, bring the second wave in now!" Xingke ordered and Todoh complied.
(Sarmizegetusa command bridge)
"A full scale attack on the center, using shock and awe to prevent us from outmaneuvering you, normally that tactic would worked against green troops, but this is an army which has went through training ten times more rigorous than what commandos face and it is battle hardened!" Lelouch thought to himself.
"Jeremiah,, Omar and Suzaku, take 10 divisions and encircle them on the right, Kewell and George will do the same on the left, all the center reserves forward to support Viletta!" Lelouch ordered his men.
"Yes sir!" they all replied.
(Rice field)
"Hey yaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Jeremiah yelled as his blade clashed with Todoh's, Todoh deflected the blow and tried to slash Jeremiah, but he skillfully dodged the blow, but Todoh unintentionally slashed one Sutherland which was next to Jeremiah.
Omar, along with his personal guards clashed with the Asahina and Urabe.
Suzaku slashed one enemy Gun Ru and the with his VARIS shot another, just then his alarm went off and he immediately rolled and dodged a incoming energy beam, he looked up and he saw the Guren.
"Kallen!" he said and he immediately flew up to clash with her.
On the left Kewell and George and their knightmares engaged the enemy led by Chiba and Senba.
Things were going well for the Black Knights, they had encircled the main force and where about to move in for the kill.
Just then water started visibly streaming down onto the battlefield from the nearby irrigation system.
(Sarmizegetusa Bridge)
Upon seeing the water starting to appear on the field Lelouch let out a breath of relief.
"So this was your trap after all, to turn the terrain into a giant mud pit…..but I send men ahead to close the water ways, so this trickle is all you will get Xingke!" Lelouch said to himself as he thought the battle would now be his.
But a minute latter to his horror he saw that the small flow of water turned into a stream and another minute latter he saw that his knightmares where starting to sink in the mud.
"Impossible! I took countermeasures for this scenario!" Lelouch said to himself panicking at the recent turn of events.
(Bridge of the Ikaruga)
"The water ways where poorly build?" Ohgi said to Zhou Xianglin.
"Yes, we did detect Zero's countermeasures, but what he failed to anticipate was the true scale of the corruption within the Federation, the water pipes simply burst open when we gave them a good hit" Zhou Xianglin replied, she then received orders from Xingke.
"Yes sir! Master Xingke says all reserves to bypass the enemy center and go for the Sarmizegetusa; the Ikaruga will use its cannons to destroy the reserves." She said to Ohgi.
"Understood! All cannons charge and target the reserve corps on both wings!" Ohgi ordered.
(Rice field)
"All units forward! Ignore the trapped enemy and focus your attack on the center of the enemy formation!" Todoh ordered as his duel with Jeremiah continued.
Just then Viletta gave a slash at Xingke head, he dodged it and in retaliation sliced her torso, badly damaging her new Lancelot, seeing that her army was bogged down, the enemy was moving around them to attack the command ship and she was about to lose the duel, she did what any soldier would do, she requested orders.
"Sir, this is Viletta, we can't hold them o ff for long, request orders sir!" She said as she desperately parried a blow from Xingke with her sword in her right arm, as she covered her damaged torso with her left.
Suzaku wasn't faring any better, he attacked Kallen with his harkens, she blocked and destroyed them with her Radiation wave, he then did a spinning kick towards her, but she blocked it using both her arms.
Just then a blast came from Bellow and Suzaku saw the Shen Hu coming towards him, he also saw Viletta's now disabled knightmare, he saw that her cockpit had ejected so she was safe, but they where loosing the fight.
"Commander, this is the Conquesta, I am coming under attack from both the Guren and Shen Hu, I don't know how much longer I can hold them!" Suzaku said as with both swords he blocked the attacks of Xingke and Kallen.
(Sarmizegetusa command bridge)
"Tactical brilliance on par with me, chivalry on par with Suzaku, did the heavens bless you with both these gifts Xingke? Lelouch thought to himself as he saw the tide turn in the favor of the Dragon Cavalry and the Slayers.
*BOOM* Todoh's Slayers started firing on the Ikaruga.
"All units fire, it doesn't matter if you run out of ammunition, hit their command ship with all you got!" Todoh ordered and they complied.
"Todoh! You God damned poltergeist!" Lelouch spat out.
"Order the reserves to launch another envelopment maneuver, we will turn the enemies trap against them.*BOOM* Lelouch tried to say but was cut off when his reserve corps were hit by the Ikaruga's Hadron cannons which where salvaged from the Gawain.
"Give me manual control over the Sarmizegetusa!" Lelouch said in his captain seat as controls popped out from it, controls similar to the ones on a fighter jet.
"Lelouch to all units, when I say now, you all dive in the mud!"
"I repeat: On my signal you will all dive in the mud like diving under water!" Lelouch ordered his men and prepared for what would surely be the craziest stunt anybody had ever pulled.
(Bridge of the Ikaruga)
"How long until we can fire another volley?" Ohgi asked.
"About fifteen minutes." Minami replied.
"Zero, with this victory is ours….."
(Bridge of the Sarmizegetusa)
"….Now! All units hit the dirt!" Lelouch said as he fired all of the Sarmizegetusa slash harkens into the centre of the encirclement, he then activated the left side thrusters of the Sarmizegetusa and like a giant spinning mace he spun around his anchored position plowing through the enemy encirclement.
His own men were mostly undamaged by the maneuver since he had ordered them do dive in the mud.
The maneuver also caused the dry ground which surrounded the mud to kick up dirt from the surface scratch, and the battlefield was now a blur.
Back on the bridge the crew felt the Shockwave off the maneuver, most of them had been tossed out of their seats and some where even injured, Lelouch himself was at the foot of his command chair, as he pulled himself up, and he issued the following orders:
"Jeremiah, Kewell get the men out of there so we can regroup at the following coordinates, Bradley you go and retrieve Viletta, George you will provide the rear guard for our retreat, Suzaku get down here and assist George with that, Odysseus and Kuribayashi give us covering fire".
"Yes sir!" they replied.
(Skies above the battlefield)
"As expected of the Niddhog." Xingke said to Lelouch maneuver, he wasn't shocked, just a little surprised.
Just then Suzaku received Lelouch's orders and retreated to George's position.
"Come back here!" Kallen said as she tried to chase him.
"Stop! Our forces have been damaged and are in confusion from the Sarmizegetusa, we must regroup and then pursue" Xingke ordered and both he and Kallen went to their own lines to do so.
(Bridge of the Ikaruga 40 minutes latter)
"What is the status of our forces?" Todoh asked over the comm.
"We have 18.000 injured and 2.400 dead and we have lost 10% of our knightmares, our reports say the enemy has 40.000 injured and 3.800 dead and 30% knightmares lost." Ohgi replied
"Ha ha! We have those sons of bitches beaten!" Tamaki said from his Gekka.
"Not quite, Lelouch has lost a battle but his army is still not fully defeated, it still has fighting capabilities, we must pursue and give the death blow!" Xingke ordered and they all complied.
(Black Knights regroup position, Bridge of the Sarmizegetusa)
Lelouch had just finished explaining to his officers of his plan to turn the tide of battle and now finished with one last address to his men.
"Now listen up, we may have done badly in the first round, but the fight is still on! Xingke has no choice but to pursue us and finish the job and we will use that to our advantage…however if you consider this army cannot sustain the maneuver that I am proposing, then I will order a withdraw southwards so we can use another port."
"Commander we may have a bloody nose, but we still are good for battle, we still have a change of victory and I say we use it!" Suzaku said which was uncharacteristically of him, apparently the confrontation with Kallen got his blood up and he wanted to finish the job.
The others assembled agreed with him.
"Very well then! Also General Nu your knightmare was disabled during the fight, I suggest you coordinate your men from one of your corps mobile command centers." Lelouch said to her.
"Begging you pardon sir, but right now we will need all the good pilots we can get, I will just borrow one Sutherland from our men and if not I will go into battle with a M16 rifle if I have to!" Viletta replied which didn't surprise Lelouch since he saw the desire on all his men for 'revenge' of what they just did to them.
"Very well then! Everyone mount your frames, in half an hour we finish this!" Lelouch said and he and his lieutenants went to mount their frames.
(Xingke's army position)
The army was assembling for their final attack against the Black Knights and Chiba noticed that a small group of Japanese Black Knights prisoners were being transported to the rear.
She got out of her knightmare, stopped the group and went to question those men.
"What unit are you from?" she asked them
"42nd corps, 501st division, 761st knightmare battalion, 'Patton's Wild Wolves'" a Japanese knightmare pilot squad captain said to her.
"Why do you fight for Zero? Have you no shame or no pride at all?" she angrily spat out at them.
"Why do you fight for Colonel Todoh and Commander Ohgi?" the captain calmly asked her.
"Because he brings us victory!" she angrily replied to him.
"That's why we follow Zero as well, but you see he doesn't just bring us victory, he keeps his word, these days a lot of people say they will give you this or that if you follow him, but when it's time to pay up they never do, Prince Lelouch is one of the few who does, he gave us back our livelihood, made it possible to rebuilt our homes and with Euphemia-sama created the SAZ's of which 50million of our people joined and regain their rights, so why shouldn't we follow him?" The captain calmly replied, unfazed by her anger.
Chiba felt all of her anger and hatred for these men dissipate, she couldn't approve of them joining with Brittannia from her soldier's point of view, but from her civilian's point of view she could understand why…she couldn't approve….but she could understand.
"Where were you guys captured?" she now calmly asked.
"On the left flank of the mud pit, I was with General Patton when it happened, I feel ashamed to say that he held his ground against you guys, all I could do was avoid being kill by getting disabled, a lot of good people died in that mud, some whore black, some whore green, I suppose I should be thankful I got lucky…see you in hell Samantha Slayer!" the captain said and he along with his men saluted Chiba.
"See you in hell Billy Black Knight." Chiba calmly replied, saluted them and went back to her knightmare in anticipation for the final battle.
(Ashford Academy)
"Stop!,,,,, Right there!" Rivals said to Millie who was manning a video recording of Lelouch post-Gettysburg speech.
"Did you guys see that? To think Lelouch could turn into something so scary and one moment shift back… It's like we never knew him at all!" Rivals said to his class mates.
"What are you so frightened about?" Millie asked and Shirley and Rivals turned their heads towards her.
"What do you mean president?" Rivals asked confused.
"Lelouch is just acting that's all, like he did a year ago when we had a Shakespeare week at Ashford." Millie replied.
"That right!" Shirley said moving from a frighten state from Lelouch's performance to one of sudden realization and relief. "Remember when we all dressed up as characters from Romeo and Juliet juts how great he did his part?" Shirley added.
Hey you're right!" Rivals said and gave out a breath of relief and he mentally replied in his mind Lelouch performance that day and thought to himself the following:
"Lelouch's was just acting like he did a year ago, that's a relief!...also Shirley's right….we never had someone play the part of Juliet as great as Lelouch did back then!"
(Bridge of the Ikaruga)
"The Black Knights have moved beyond that hill which lies in front of us, probably to avoid our Hadron fire, their center is a mile behind the hill, and their flanks aren't covering the hill, but are the same distance beyond the open plains that surround it." Ohgi gave his report to Todoh and Xingke who were in their knightmares.
"He probably wants us to occupy the hill, but the question is why would he give up the high ground?" Xingke asked.
"He has taken all of the knightmares from the center except his and General Nu's personal squadron and moved them on the flanks, I suspect he wants to entice us to attack the center with the hill and his weakened center, the hill will prevent our own flanks from supporting the center and he will try to envelope our center from his flanks reserve force." Todoh replied.
"He give us the high ground and then use's it against us, I'd expect nothing less of him, this is what we will do: The Slayers will be on the left and attack their right flank, the Dragon cavalry will to the same on the right, the E.U force with the Ikaruga will occupy the hill, bombard the center from this position and support the flank assaults also we will transfer 50% of the centre's panzers and tanks and guns to the two flanking assaults" Xingke told them.
"Won't that make our center vulnerable to a counter attack?" Todoh asked concerned.
"Besides only having two squadrons of knightmares Lelouch only has his own knightmare frame which according to our battle data is just a custom Sutherland with flight capabilities and the Sarmizegetusa in the center along with Viletta's tanks and guns; the Sarmizegetusa's main function is that of a command center, it does not have heavy fire power like the Ikaruga, the Lancelot's have been moved to the flanks, he doesn't have enough strength to assault the center" Xingke replied
"Do not worry Todoh-san, there is a clean line of fire a mile long in front of the hill, if he tries to come to this slope, we will cut him to pieces." Ohgi replied and General Frederick ho was on the bridge agreed.
"Also if any of them manage to come up the slope, my Ikaruga guard Battalion will chop them up!" Tamaki proudly proclaimed.
To everyone present is seemed that the only thing left to was strike and victory would be assured.
But that was what unsettled Todoh and Xingke, Lelouch was losing the battle, but he was not beaten yet, but they could not see what other maneuvers they could make besides those stated above, they could only hope victory was truly theirs now.
(Black Knights Center)
Lelouch was in the Colgrevance Shinkiro and was watching as the Dragon Army had started its attack on the flanks.
"He he..Xingke …Todoh, you may have won the first round, but I will win the fight." He said to himself as he saw his flanks come under assault.
The last dance of the day had begun in full strength.
(Black knights right wing)
Jeremiah watched from the center of his formation as his first line of defense was being hit hard.
"That flank! Hold it!" Jeremiah said as he looked to the right, the main thrust was aimed there and they had to hold it.
"Sir complements of General Devin, he is being hit hard on the right, but is holding, his reserves have not yet been deployed, and he asks what he should do next?" Jeremiah's aide said to him.
"Tell Devin all reserves forward; we have to hold the line at all costs!" Jeremiah replied.
"Left flank maintain the pressure on them, right flank continue to demonstrate, but do not engage, third division along with the fifth will join the attack on the left and the second brigade move to prepare to reinforce the left flank" Todoh ordered his divisions.
"If they do not break then myself and the four of you along with the reserve brgadewill rush there and reinforce the attack" Todoh said to the Shiseiken.
(Black knights left wing)
The right flank of the left wing.
"Heeeiiiyaaaaaaaa!" Kewell said as he slashed one gun Ru and the launched his harkens to destroy another.
"Hold the line lads, we must hold the line at all costs!" he ordered his men.
Just then a beam of energy came from the enemy and hit Kewell's Lancelot, fortunately for him his shields barely managed to hold together.
"Xingke!" he said as he saw from where the beam came from and charged him knowing that he could not hold against a second beam and he had to disable that monstrosity.
The left flank of the left wing.
Suzaku now attacked a squadron of Gun Rus, he gave a right high slash, a left jab, a right stab, he then rolled his body to the right and gave a left downward midsection slash and with this he destroyed another enemy squad.
"Sir, we have spotted the Shen Hu on the right flanks, General Kewell has engaged it in combat" One of Suzaku's squad captains informed him.
"Alright, we break the enemy's assault here and then we go and help the General with the Shen Hu" Suzaku turned to him and replied.
"Understood, look out sir!" the captain replied, he saw danger coming from behind, so he pushed Suzaku to the left and out of the way and the Guren's radiation wave arm which was launched from a distance grabbed his head, started its radiation surge and destroyed the Sutherland, killing the captain.
"Captain Panaka!" Suzaku shouted as he saw the Guren retract it's claw.
"Suzaku! I am sorry but this is where you die!" Kallen loudly proclaimed.
"Kallen!...You just won't accept the fact that your fighting the wrong fight won't you? You still keep fighting even though we showed you , you could change the world without bloodshed!" Suzaku angrily spat back.
"An enslaved country is still an enslaved country, no matter how benevolent the masters may seem, for our freedom I will fight for it until I die!" Kallen said and she charged Suzaku.
"Over half of our people have joined the SAZ and our free already, so I will grant you wish and kill you!" Suzaku replied and he too also charged Kallen.
(Black Knights center)
"Give us a report Viletta" Lelouch said to her.
"Yes, sir! The enemy has launched a full scale attack on both flanks, our scouts report that there are no more reserves behind the hill, and what you see is what you get in terms of enemies present up there" Viletta replied.
"Then it's time for checkmate! All center units the infantry will move up the slopes and engage the center, the Sarmizegetusa will run parallel with us on our left flank." Lelouch ordered and they all began to move at full speed.
While they moved across that field Lelouch had in his hand that king's chess piece and he squeezed it hard, he was nervous and unsure if his plan would work this time.
(Bridge of the Ikaruga)
"The enemy's center is moving across the field?" Ohgi asked.
"Yes! What should we do?" Sugiyama asked.
"Fire the Ikaruga's cannons, after they hit, the Panzers will mop up what's left of the enemy center." Ohgi replied.
"Understood, opening protective shielding, charging the cannons….cannons charged!" Inoue replied.
"Fire!" Ohgi said and the Hadron cannons were fired upon Lelouch and his formation.
(Black knights right flank)
"Sir, General Vincent is badly wounded, got hit a few minutes after the enemy reserves started joining the fight. We've been reinforced by Weed's brigade up front, this is what they tell me, but Weed is dead. And so they moved Hazlet's battalion of artillery there, but Hazlet's dead... also we have reports that Todoh and a enemy brigade our flanking us on the right…the lines is read to collapse sir!" Jeremiah's aide told him.
"The Line will not collapse sir, George and Omar and what's left off our reserves we move to stop that flanking assault, we either hold this line or die trying, do you all understand?" Jeremiah ordered.
"Yes sir!" they all unanimously replied and they went to play their last throw of the dice.
(Black knights left flank)
The right flank of the left wing.
Xingke blade clashed with Kewell's and the Shen Hu rolled its land spinners pushing Kewell's Lancelot backwards with brute force.
Kewell moved to the left and tried a thrust to the Shen Hu's head, Xingke diverted it with a left swing of his sword, and then tried to cut off Kewell's head, but he squatted down avoiding the blow and tried to slash Xingke abdomen, Xingke jumped, flipped in the air and landed behind Kewell.
He immediately gave him a downwards slash of the sword which Kewell managed to black with his left arm shield, but the force of the blow sent such great shock waves through his frame that Kewell spat out blood, and the sheer muscle power of the downward blow pinned him down.
Kewell immediately rotated his body to the left, slashed with his sword cutting off the Shen Hu's right leg and pushed with his left hand the blade off him, making the Shen Hu backup a few feet.
Kewell's left arm was now ruined, his energy filler drained, and his legs became week and he fell to his knees and had to use his MASSER sword to support his frame from falling forwards, the shockwave form the Shen Hu's last blow really took its toll on him and his machine.
"Surrender, you are now beaten!" Xingke said who was also coughing up blood, part of the reason was from the physical stress the Shen Hu was asking of his body and part was from his own illness.
"Then come and get me" Kewell spat out defiantly as in his cockpit he had to embrace his abdomen with his left arm to ameliorate some of the pain he was now experiencing.
*BAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG*
A massive sound of two objects colliding was heard from the hill in the center.
"What in God's name?" Xingke said as he looked towards the hill in confusion.
"That sound means we will win the battle!" Kewell said to himself as a smile crept up his face.
The left flank of the left wing.
Kallen and Suzaku both charged each other and Suzaku tried an upper slash with his sword, Kallen cough that with her Radiation wave arm and activated it, Suzaku seeing this tried to stab her with the other sword in his free right arm, and she blocked it with her dagger.
Suzaku then squatted down, pulled both arms back and he head butted the Guren's stomach, which propelled Kallen backwards ,Suzaku then jumped, did his signature spin kick, Kallen blocked it but it sent her flying even more backwards and she rolled and recovered in a defensive sitting position.
Suzaku charged with his remaining good sword, Kallen blocked the blow, grabbed Suzaku by the forearm, leaned and rolled backwards and threw Suzaku over herself making him land on his back and on impact he accidentally dropped the sword and his VARIS rifle
Kallen then jumped on him, tried to stab his chest with her dagger, but he managed to block it and now it was a competition of strength.
*BAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG*
They both heard the same sound as Xingke did and this momentarily distracted her, Suzaku diverted her dagger into the ground to the left of his head, he then punched the Guren's head and pushed her off of him, he then rolled to the right to where the VARRIS rifle was and grabbed it.
"!" he screamed as he fired shot after shot of the rifle's bullets at Kallen who was blocking them with her Radiation wave.
After a few minutes Suzaku ran out of bullets and Kallen out of radiation cartages.
Both Knightmares where now warned out and their energy fillers drained.
"It's over Kallen, that sound means your side lost." Suzaku replied to a Kallen who was uneasy about the confidence with which the Black Knights had won the battle.
(Black knights right wing)
"All units stand firm, First corps will continue to demonstrate, second corps keep up the pressure on their flank, Shiseiken and the reserve brigade will follow me and outflank them" Todoh ordered and he charged the right flank.
The first, second, companies who were on the extreme right of Jeremiah's command quickly had their formation shattered from the assault.
"Colonel The enemy is starting to break formation!" Senba said to him.
"Very well! All units forward, we will…" Todoh tried to give an order, but was cut off by Jeremiah's harken which he blocked with his sword.
"Why you!" Urabe said as he moved in to intercept Jeremiah, Jeremiah Blocked Urabe's side slash, he then crouched down, put his free right arm between Urabe's knightmare crouch, lifted him into the air, and then raised his knee and smashed Urabe's frame on his knee forcing him to eject.
"Urabe!" Asahina said concerned for his friend.
"I'm clear but my fighter is down!" Urabe replied over the radio.
"You shall not pass!" Jeremiah said to Todoh and the two forces clashed.
Jeremiah gave a right slash, then a lower body jab, he twisted his body to the right and gave a powerful chopper slash, Todoh blocked the first two, dodged the third move and then attacked Jeremiah with his triple thrust.
Jeremiah evaded, blocked and trusted and managed to counter Todoh's attack.
*BAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG*
"What the?" Todoh said looking back to the hill from where the loud noise came.
"You hear that sound Todoh? To you it is the sound which spells your destruction, to us it is the blessed bells which ring our victory!" Jeremiah said to him.
(Black knights center)
"Fire!" Ohgi said and the Hadron cannons were fired upon Lelouch and his formation.
And the units remained undamaged, Lelouch had extended the Colgrevance druid system shields to protect the Black knights from the Hadron Cannons at the expense of half of his energy filler power reverse.
"They…they weren't even scratched by the cannons!" Ohgi said in shock at what he was witnessing, snapping back to it he ordered the following:
"All Panzers fire at will, and get the Hadron cannons charged again!" but before the Panzers could fire Lelouch threw his shield above the Ikaruga and fired his chest mounted energy beam at it, the shield dispersed the energy beam into hundreds of smaller ones which decimated the infantry and Panzers which were stationed on the hill.
The Ikaruga which tried to get it's shields up had one breach in it courtesy of Lelouch shield who could fly by remote control, Lelouch penetrated the shield through that point and went to the Ikaruga's right wing and with the Shinkiro he raised the ship to a 60 degrees angle.
"Sarmizegetusa now!" he ordered and the Sarmizegetusa who was on the Black knight left flank made a 90 degrees right turn and rammed the Ikaruga, that combined with the 60 degrees angle and the shield which was active and was of round shape made the Ikaruga role down the hill to the left and went into Todoh' formation like a bowling ball throw pins.
Lelouch used the same gap created by his shield to exit the Ikaruga's shield before it came rolling down.
"You got to be kidding me, can nothing stop this guy!" Tamaki angrily said as he fired and the Black Knights center which by now was occupying the hill, while what survived of their center was decimated by the Black Knights, before his frame was disabled and he was forced to eject, while cursing Lelouch and the Black knights.
(Excerpt from the 2090 Kenneth Burns the Third documentary: The Century of War)
"My regiment was transferred to the centre group"
"I was part of the infantry assault on the hill that day during the Battle of Bengal Rice fields, and to tell the truth I was afraid, running up a hill through open country, with no knightmare support would under normal circumstances had been a doomed charge, if we had been under any other general we would have died plain and simple, fortunately we were under Lelouch and with him we could turn what would normally be doomed battles into stunning victories."
"After we dislodged the enemies protecting the hill, the Iron Prince popped open his cockpit, raised his mask in his hand and said: "Black Knights always move them!".
"I would have gone through fire and brimstone for the Old Man.
Private First Class Infantry Naoto Kan 761st regiment, 501st division, 42nd corps Black Knights.
Excerpt from the Diary of Naoto Kan
(Tokyo, Governor's palace)
Nunnally and Euphie where in the main office and where pacing around the room in unrest, they had received reports that this morning that Lelouch had engaged the last remaining enemy army in India, it was now half past midnight and after more than a day of fighting they did not receive any news of Lelouch and Suzaku.
Just then the phone rang.
"Hello! Yes…yes…oh thank God….thank you and goodbye!" Euphie said after answering the phone.
"It's all right Nunnally, their all fine!" Euphie said as both she and Nunnally had tears of happiness stream down their thoughts.
(Excerpt from the 2090 Kenneth Burns the Third documentary: The Century of War)
"We thought that taking the hill would be the hardest part, but we where proven wrong, once we took it, the enemy disengaged half of his own forces which were attacking our left and right wings and redeployed them to the hill to retake it"
"We had plenty of infantry , tanks and artillery and the Sarmizegetusa to provide a shield for us from enemy artillery, but we still had to do with the infantry and Knightmares coming up the slopes, and we only had the prince's and general Viletta's personal knightmare guards to protect us"
"-Stand fast you boys from Honshu, for never in a thousand years the fate of so many had rested on sow few-,The Old man said to us as he readied himself for the enemy's assault"
"The hit us hard, at times I saw more of the enemy than my own men, during one such time we saw the Shen Hu breach our formation and it immediately charged the Prince's frame, General Viletta upon seeing this lunged herself at the Shen Hu, pushed it like a sumo wrestler by the abdomen and both frames now tangled in each other went tumbling down the hill"
"After the battle we learned she survived and was captured, but back then we didn't have time to worry about that, that incident with General Viletta was just the beginning, for the following nine hours the tanks and infantry with what few knightmares we had hold of the counterattacks, while uncle Odysseus cannons hit the enemies which were attacking General Jeremiah and General Kewell and pummeled them from the side and rear"
"And that was how the battle went for the remainder of the day, it continued in that bloody manner with no tactics, no strategy, and no organization; by that stage it was just one big giant schoolyard brawl which lasted for nine hours"
"To us who where manning the hill those nine hours felt like nine years, after the second stage of the battle was over we had a name for the place which it happened… we called it Devils Den".
Private First Class Infantry Naoto Kan 761st regiment, 501st division, 42nd corps Black Knights.
Excerpt from the Diary of Naoto Kan
(Black knights center, hilltop)
The battle was finally over, Xingke had given the withdraw order when he realized that he could not retake the hill.
After more than eighteen hours or ferocious fighting the battle was finally over, Lelouch sensing that the vicinity was now safe exited his knightmare to let the cold spring breeze of the night hit and revive him.
He looked at his palm and had realized that he was so nervous that he had squeezed the chess piece hard enough for his hand to start bleeding.
"We really where that close to destruction!" He said to himself.
He then took a few steps forward when Suzaku and Jeremiah came up to him.
"Sir we have the final reports: Viletta has been captured, Kewell is injured but will recover, George and Bradley have fainted from fatigue but are all right."
"We have the following casualties: 18.000 dead, 100.000 wounded and 48 % heavy equipment destroyed, in all we have 48 % casualties and most of our ammunition is now depleted"
"The enemy has 24.000 men dead and 110.000 wounded and 52% heavy equipment destroyed, in all they have 60% casualties" Jeremiah reported.
"Where is the enemy now?" Lelouch asked.
"The reports say they are in full retreat to the south, we've won Lelouch, we did it, you did it!" Suzaku happily said and he hugged his friend.
"We've won the battle, but at a heavy cost, I want the wounded collected and the dead cremated, we do not have time to rest, we must reach the evacuation ships now….. Oh and Jeremiah tell the men to fill their pockets with rocks."Lelouch told them after Suzaku broke the hug.
"Rocks sire?" Jeremiah asked confused.
"If they come at us again, we must have some kind of ammunition to through at them, mustn't we?" Lelouch replied and under normal circumstances it would be received as a joke, but after what they had just been through Jeremiah and Suzaku could tell Lelouch was being serious.
(One hour later, Ikaruga detention zone)
Viletta was with her hands handcuffed behind her back and in a jail cell, she heard her jail cell open and with her head bowed down from exhaustion said:
"So you've come for me already? You certainly don't waste time, so what will it be interrogation? Torture? Execution? Whatever it is I will tell you nothing!" Viletta calmly and determinately stated.
"I figured as much, so I came here just to talk to you." The man replied and Viletta raised her head to see who it was.
It was Ohgi, who came to talk to her and brought two food trays.
"Hello General Nu, my name is Kaname Ohgi, it's a pleasure to meet you" he said to her.
(Sarmizegetusa command bridge)
Odysseus was finishing up on the rear guard deployments when his cell phone rang.
"Hello?" he said answering the phone.
"Hello big brother" Schneizell said on the other line.
"Schneizell? You have the wrong number, I will get Lelouch right away" Odysseus replied.
"Actually it's you I wanted to talk to." Schneizell replied.
"Me?" Odysseus replied a bit confused
"Yes brother, tell me how do you feel about marriage?" Schneizell asked him.
Excerpt from the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.
The Battle of Bengal Rice Fields.
Results: Inconclusive.
The Battle of Bengal Rice Fields or the 'Battle of the Two Dragons' as it was called by the population of India was the culmination of Lelouch vi Britannia's Indian Campaign.
After the battle both field commanders would benefit from its results.
In the Chinese Federation there was a great fear that after the Chinese defeat at Chungthang or Gettysburg as the Empire called it there was mass panic among the Federation and there was the great fear that the Iron Prince would cross the Tibetan Mountains and march on the forbidden city itself.
General Xingke after the Battle would become the hero who stopped Zero in his tracks, he would gain power, prestige and influence in the Federation which would prove useful in the future.
Prince Lelouch vi Brittannia performance would be called a mastery of military genius, since in his short two week campaign he inflicted two million casualties on the Chinese and this would consume their resources and force them to stop sponsoring the E., shifting the balance into Britannia's favor.
This battle would also be one of the main reason for the Vermillion incident which would occur soon after this.
Authors note:
*panting** panting* Read and*panting** panting* Review *panting** panting* Let me know if I should continue *panting** panting*