ChimaTigon: Okay, I'll look into them but I can't really bring Godzilla into this, it's already a crossover. Maybe if I write another Pacific Rim Story down the line.
Vein Bloodborne: The show was written like a Shakespearean drama(just not as stupid). That's why I thinking of writing an idea of where after all that, Lelouch goes from Rebel Hero, to a more world weary, apathetic person, one that challenges the morals and convictions of other much like C.C. did to him. Thanks for the compliments, I took the saying 'Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb'. Soldiers will naturally form close bonds with fellow troopers as on one end, you need to trust them to watch your back and on the other, if you go through mess up shit like warfare often it, you tend to bond with those who share your experiences. Yes, Charles geass as made itself known but not in the usual way as Viktoriya is the only one who knows of this, she'll bring it up soon but not now.
Blaze1992: As stated, knightmares of that level haven't even been conceived yet as though Lloyd and Rakshata(the geniuses behind FLOAT tech) appear in this chapter for the first time, they will clearly have other things to deal with. Though that doesn't mean that their ideas for knightmares won't blend into the ideas for Jaegers. Yes, the truth will eventually get out, so the two siblings will learn what really went down, but that's years ahead as unlike cannon, they don't have the time to investigate it nor the situations as C.C isn't in Japan, sure she might have been present to watch over them for Marianne in the expanded material for the show but once the Kaiju attacked the war ended, she would have left the country as she would feel nothing for these two children, if they died, lucky them(remember her wish). As for the movie ending, yes they could of but they didn't know that till just before Gispy reached it. They believed that the increased traffic would allow them entry.
YuukiAsuna-Chan: Thanks for the tip but the link did not work. Try sending me a PM with it instead.
Pkd: It's still on the table BUT….on the other hand, your idea for RaleighxKallen is also under consideration. I have plans for Marko so she'll make her appearance maybe round chapter 7 or 8.
ewertondragon10: I made it so people interpret his issues with his family as they would in the real world since unlike us, they don't have the full story, knowledge that their world is fictional and have their own sources of info, namely the news. Sadly for those who ship them, this will NOT be a KallenxLelouch ship in any way, shape or form. They will become close friends down the line, be willing to die for the other but not due to romantic feelings or lustful urges, only because they're good friends. Gispy made her appearance but due to it going down like the movie, her fight with Knifehead isn't here, just the aftermath with Raleigh.
Perseus12: First the Geass Order and now the Kaiju Cult, the cast will have a lot of cults to deal with as both are dangerous in their own ways, though the order more so(or are they). I have ideas for how and why Geass works in this story which will be surprising. I won't spoil anything but I hope you find it surprising.
Chapter 5: The Changing Times
24th April 2019
Anchorage Shatterdome
"Where the hell am I?" Was the first thing to leave Raleigh's lips as he found himself waking up, pain shooting through his leg side, most notable, his left arm.
"Raleigh?" He heard someone calling out to him, yet he was still trying to get out of the haze and couldn't identify the voice.
"Who's there?" He asked as he blinked his eyes a couple of times to clear his vision before the first thing he could focus on was the light over the bed he was in, and damn it was bright, or maybe he's eyes were still sensitive to brightness. "Would you turn the damn lights off Yancy?"
"I'm not Yancy." This time when the voice spoke, he could place it as definitely not his brother, it was far too feminine, but it did finally click in his mind as to who the speaker was.
"Kallen?" Raleigh asked as he turned his head away from the light towards his bedside where like he suspected, Kallen sat in a small chair.
"Hey, how you holding up?" Kallen asked him, relieved that he was finally conscious enough to identify her. She had been visiting whenever she had the time to visit him. Since she was in between missions, she was still in her red Ranger uniform. The Main colour as previously stated was mainly red with the jacket stretching just past the pelvic areal. The style was angled at the bottom of the uniform with a thicker white band down the chest and a thick and mechanized belt that was black in colour, like the shoes. The angled white cuffs on the sleeves are long, coming nearly to the elbows. Lastly, she wore her red side cap on her head. The markings of her rank as a corporal clear as day on her shoulders and the left side of her chest.
"Like I just got it by a bus. What happened?" Raleigh asked as he realized that they were in some kind of medical facility, most likely PPDC as there were no windows which meant in a shatterdome perhaps.
"You don't remember?" Kallen asked him slowly, leaning in while placing a soft hand on his own.
"What are-!" He begun to ask before his memories all came back at once. The drop, the fight, Knifehead severing his jaeger's arm….Losing Yancy. "Oh."
"They found you ashore over 67km away from here. Some local treasure hunters found you and reported it. Good thing they did otherwise you would be dead." Kallen told him once she could see that he could remember the how he got so hurt. She felt her heart squeeze when he looked at her with a desperate, pleading gleam to his eyes and could already guess his question.
"….Wher-where's Yancy?" He asked, praying that by some miracle, some act of God, that what he remembered wasn't true, that he would see his older brother again.
"I'm sorry." Kallen simply answered, not being able to meet his gaze as he started to tear up, starting to cry at the truth laid bare before him.
"No…" Raleigh whimpered as he started to cry, with Kallen moving in to give him much needed support in the form of a hug, not minding the stains on her uniform.
"They were able to locate and retrieve his body about two weeks ago." Kallen relayed to him as Gino had been one of the people searching from the air for any floating remains of Gispy. He was the one that found the slowly sinking remains of the head unit that Yancy's….Yancy's body was still attacked to. They didn't need a medic to know that he died from slamming into the cold water and both freezing and drowning.
"My brother…..my brother's dead?" Raleigh cried in her arms, his wails only growing in volume as it felt like he had lost a piece of himself, which in truth was accurate.
"I'm so sorry." Kallen did her best to soothe him as she let him cry, he needed to get this out of his system with people that cared with him there.
(Later)
"Can you bring my up to speed?" Raleigh requested after he had some time to deal with the shock of this tragedy.
"Of course buddy. We were relieved when they found you alive but it's been some time since you were taken in for treatment." Gino, who didn't say anything about the tear marks on his face and his partner's uniform, answered, having been out of the room when the guy woke up getting snacks from the mess hall.
"How long?" Raleigh asked, vaguely recalling how Kallen said they found his brother's remains two weeks ago, had he been asleep for two whole weeks since the fight?
"It's been close to a month now." Kallen told him as Gino took a seat on the other side of the bed and passed the guy a small cup of water.
"That long?" Raleigh asked him, having not taken the water otherwise he would have spit it out in shock.
"Raleigh. You had to pilot a damaged jaeger, kill a Kaiju and then walked your unit to land. That kind of stress that puts on the brain is no joke. Doctors don't know how you didn't get a stroke or something like that." Gino reminded him as the only other person to have ever done such a feat was Stacker, which was one of the reasons he was a legend amongst their ranks.
"Guess I was lucky. It…it felt like he had Yancy with me," Raleigh answered we he couldn't quite remember what happened after he killed Knifehead, only that he swore he could hear his brother urging him….directing him to land where he then crashed, or so he was told. "Helping me one last time."
"Maybe he did. I know my own brother would do everything he could for me, maybe he wanted to make sure you live." Kallen let out a small smile at that one, thinking back to Naoto and all the crazy things he did when they were younger, all in the name of helping and/or 'protecting' her from harm.
"Yeah." Raleigh answered, not really committed to the conversation. Something the other two understood. "What's the status on Gispy? He asked them, having a good idea of the state of the multi-billion pound metal monster.
"Yeah…about that…." Now as that point, Kallen rubbed the back of her and looked away, not wishing to be the bearer of bad news.
"How bad?" Raleigh pressed, if she was not in a chatty mood, then it must be bad.
"It's a wreck. The entire left arm is gone, they found it but the damage is really bad. The core was also damaged along with about two dozen other things. Command is still thinking about retiring the thing or repairing it." Gino told the guy, getting the truth out there as Gispy looked like crap the last time the two had seen her, laying on the frozen shoreline.
"But there is some good news." Kallen told him, reaching for the bottom of his bed where he couldn't see and pulling out a rather expensive looking woven basket filled with everything from cards to candy.
"What's this?" Raleigh asked as Kallen passed him the basket, allowing him to pick out a closed card to which, when he peaked inside, showed a hand written short thank you passage, nothing like the store bought ones.
"A large gift basket of flowers, get well card, fish and money. All in all, the money alone it about 6,000 pounds." Gino chuckled as he saw the confused look on the injured pilot's face at the fish part, he was surprised too, luckily they weren't in danger of spoiling, having been kept right for the most part.
"Wait, fish?" Raleigh asked as he looked through the other goodies in the basket and sure as rain, they were around 4 packets of packed fish near the bottom.
"It's from the fishing crew you and Yancy saved. They wanted to visit but you were still in ICU, so they got together and sent you this little thanks." Kallen informed him as she had been leaving his room when she ran into one of them the other day.
"They made it?" He asked her, having completely forgot about the boat and her crew in all the craziness.
"Yup. Boat's wasn't even that damaged. Nothing they couldn't fix in an afternoon." Gino replied, having seen the footage that the boat captures of the fight when they came forward.
"I suppose that's one good thing." Raleigh muttered to himself, at least they had managed to save them from a watery end. Yancy would be happy about that. "What does command think?" He asked them, thought they caught the real question he was asking. That unspoken question being 'What does Lieutenant Colonel Stacker think?'
"Stacker was….well Stacker. You know how he is." Gino replied, having never been able to read what the guy was really thinking.
"He says that once you woke up and had time to rest, that they would send someone over to interview you." Kallen relayed to him what Stacker had told them.
"Command is curious as to why a simple mission went so…." Gino paused as he searched for the right word here, not wanting to come off as insensitive. "Sideways."
"That's one way to put this. We never even saw that move coming." Raleigh stated, thinking back to how the fight went.
"What move?" Kallen asked him.
"That thing….Knifehead….I think that it used tactics." Raleigh threw up in the air, the idea sounding the same as saying that pigs could do advanced mathematics.
"Tactics? A Kaiju?" And clearly, they shared his opinion as Kaiju were many things, but smart wasn't one of them. Hell more than once, their behaviour had been compared to lizards, even their brains didn't show signs of advanced thought.
"It played dead when we shot it, and we were dumb enough to fall for it. Then it went for my side, the plasma cannon." Raleigh informed them, seeing that in hindsight, they had been played.
"The cannon?" Gino asked him while Kallen realised where he was going with this.
"I think it purposely went for my side because I was charging my plasma cannon." Raleigh told as he replayed that particular part of the fight in his head over and over.
"You think it went for a disarm?" Gino asked him before both looked at him like he was an idiot. "Right, sorry, bad choice of words."
"Crude but accurate." Another spoke up as they entered the room.
"Sir!" They all saluted as Gino and Kallen even got up to greet their superiors.
"At ease, we just came to check on you." Tamsin spoke up from her place next to Stacker. "As for your theory, it holds water…for now."
"How so?" Kallen asked as she lowered her hand much like the other two.
"We just got word of a Kaiju attack in Lima. The kaiju was defeated but the jaeger was lost. Both pilots KIA." Stacker informed them, having just been informed of their loss in South America.
"What's so special about it?" Raleigh asked, wishing to understand more of what was happening.
"The fact that the Kaiju seemingly planed it's attack, aimed for weak points and purposely fled into the city, where the jaeger wasn't able to use most of its weaponry in fear of destroying the infrastructure." Tamsin answered as she crossed her arms, having seen the footage first hand. That damn thing moved like it knew what it was doing.
"Granted, it's just a theory at the moment but it appears that out enemy…is adapting….evolving so to speak." Stacker laid the theory out there, something that they hoped would never occur, their enemy adapting.
"What's the plan then?" Kallen probed, hungry to get back into the field and beat the ever loving crap outta these invasive monsters from another world.
"You," Stacker stated as he pointed over to Raleigh. "Will attend a hearing on Friday, where you will tell us every little detail about your encounter as you can remember. We need as much info on this as we can possible get."
"Sir." Raleigh replied with a nod, already planning how he'll present this to command.
"You two," Tamsin said as she gestured to the two able bodies pilots. "Will return to active duty tomorrow. Your new jaeger is being transported to Tokyo as we speak."
"New jaeger?" Gino asked.
"Tokyo?" Kallen asked at the same time Gino did, since when were they being transferred to Japan? And with a new machine to boot?
"A third generation. Just like Gispy." Tamsin explained with a smile, noting that both looked quite pleased about the fact they were being upgraded. "As for Tokyo, your request got approved, pack your bags, you're heading to the land of the rising sun." She finished as she told them that Kallen request for transfer had been approved.
"Thought I would be wary of the locals, they don't take kindly to Britannians. Watch your back." Stacker told them as he turned on heel and left the room.
"Speaking of," Tamsin said as she turned her attention to the only person in a bed right now. "We're see what we can do about getting you some time off. You need time to deal with this and say your last goodbyes. Don't worry, the funeral will be covered in the PPDC, it's the least we can do for a fallen protector."
"Thank you." Raleigh started before he paused, looing unsure of himself before he spoke up. "Can I have a phone? I would like to speak with the family."
"Of course, use mine." Tamsin gave him a small smile as she handed over her smartphone so that he could make the call.
"Why don't we give him some privacy?" Tamsin suggested as she lead the other two out of the room so that the guy could make the call in peace.
"Ma." Raleigh said over the line once he put in the number and let it ring for a couple seconds as the call connected.
25th April 2019
Port Moresby Shatterdome, Papua New Guinea
"So who were you talking to?" The now Major Hercules Hensen asked as he approached the payphone area of the base where Viktoriya had been making a call. Like Kallen and Gino, both wore their full uniforms with the main difference being that they both had the badges and strips of a higher ranking solider and in Herc's case, his was black and he opted to not wear the side cap.
"Sir! I was speaking with some pilots I happen to know." Viktoriya replied as she turned around to salute the man, who just chuckled at the girl and waved her off.
"About?" He asked as he came to a stop.
"A friend was injured by a Kaiju, they went to check on him." She answered as she had just been on the phone Gino who had called to inform her of the news.
"Lima or Anchorage?" Hercules asked her, surprising her that he knew that he knew about that. She only had heard about it through Gino. "Don't be so surprised. News travels fast amongst the ranks, especially when it's something like this." He reminded her as all one needed to do was either have sharp ears or ask around and you could find out stuff about the happenings of other Shatterdomes or world news that otherwise wouldn't spread so fast.
"Anchorage." Viktoriya replied, giving him a clue as to who she was speaking of.
"The Beckett boys? Is Raleigh alright?" Herc asked, having heard that little incident wasn't pleasant.
"He just woke up yesterday. He's…doing as well as one could expect." Viktoriya responded as she looked away, feeling empathy for him, having lost family in the past but to things like accidents or disease.
"So long as he has a support system, he'll pull through. The boy's a fighter, much like my own son." Herc replied, having full faith that the lad will make a rebound soon enough. Sure he may bot stay as a pilot but he'll recover.
"Chuck, right?" Viktoriya asked, having heard that his son was in fact in the facility but not having had the chance to meet him.
"That's the name, don't you forget it." They both heard someone call out to them as they turned their attention to the young and rather arrogant looking(and she knew arrogant, having seen nobles from her partners memories) strut up to them as if he owned the place, despite the fact that he wasn't even a ranking officer.
"I'll try my best." Viktoriya said with a small smile as she reached our hand towards him once he was close enough. "First Lieutenant Viktoriya Serebryakov."
"Corporal Chuck Hensen." Chuck replied in kind as he gave her a firm handshake, noting that her grip was stronger than he thought it would be, she was a fighter. "Gotta say, you have quite the reputation."
"I do?" Viktoriya asked hi, a bit confused.
"Not many people our age can boast to a kill count of 4 kills and 9 assists. The advance in rank is also quite the achievement." Chuck stated as he gestured towards her rank symbols, to which she chuckled light heartedly.
"Well what can I say, we do our best. But I'm sure that you will catch up, you only joined in year, right?" She answered, having full faith that he'll rise through the ranks soon enough.
"Not just catch up, pretty soon, we'll be the ones in the lead." Chuck was clearly one to brag as he gestured himself and his father, who looked like he wanted to give the boy a smack upside the head.
"We?" Viktoriya asked, was this what she thought it was?
"Didn't the old man tell you? I'm his new partner. His old one retired, something to do with cancer." Chuck revealed as he moved to stand by his father, who was taller than him but he didn't seem to mind.
"He has cancerous growths appearing on his spinal cord. Doctors wanted him out of the program till he is cured or at the very least, they wanted him away from danger." Herc explained as it was quite sudden for them all, one day James was there alongside them, then he had problems moving around but got better then, he was gone again. This time for good it seems.
"Oh, that's unfortunate. I'll make sure to pray for him." Viktoriya stated as she gave them her condolences on the matter.
"I'm sure he'll appreciate it, come on, son. We need to look over the final prep notes for our jaeger." Herc said as he turned and started to walk away.
"Whatever you say. See you later." Chuck said to her as she also turned and walked off, following his father down a different path.
"See you later." Viktoriya called out to them both before she too turned and walked off, heading towards one of the hanger bays to meet up with her own partner. "Well better get down to the launch area."
(Later)
'What the?' Viktoriya thought to herself as she approached the hanger bay and with the blast door open, she could make out arguing. But what she as confused about was the why and how.
"I don't see why you of all people are here!"
"I fail to see what you have issue with-"
"You fail at a lot of things, but I refuse to allow you to taint my work!" There were the things she picked up as she got closer and closer to the bay and once she entered it, she saw her partner standing next to a group of what appeared to be scientist, watching as two others argued back and forth like a couple about to get divorced. She picked up that some appeared to be Indian while others were Caucasian like herself.
"What's going on here?" She asked as she walked up to the larger.
"Vicky, meet two of the smartest people employed for jaeger design and construction. Dr. Rakshata Chawla and Dr. Lloyd Asplund." Lelouch said tiredly as she gestured to the two arguing scientist, pointing to the above average height, skinny pale guy with short lavender hair when he said Lloyd and then to the slightly shorter, rather buxom dark skinned women with much longer blonde hair who looked like she was about to blow another gasket.
"Chawla? Isn't that Indian?" Viktoriya asked as they just stood there and hoped that the confrontation wouldn't get bloody.
"Hindi, she was the brains behind our new jaeger. But apparently, not all of it." Lelouch replied as he gave her the data-pad that he was looking over.
"I would have been if command wasn't so pushy about him of all people having a part!" Having heard that last comment, Rakshata jumped into the talk as she pointed at Lloyd as if he had killed her puppy and used the fur to make loafers.
"Nice to meet you, this is my assistant. Cecile Croomy. She's working on her doctorate now so I think Ms. would be a good title." Lloyd, seemingly not caring for her scorching anger towards him, walked up to the group and gave the two pilots a handshake.
"Yes, that would fit in a normal setting but we do have our ranks. I'm captain Croomy. Those two both share the rank of Lieutenant Colonel." Cecile spoke up to correct their behaviour before she turned around and led them towards where they needed to go. "This is what they have been….debating about."
"The Mk IV Jaeger," Cecile introduced as she gestured towards the state of the art machine being carefully loaded into an empty spot. "Your new machine." She finished as they both looked on in wonder at the new jaeger that they will be piloting. Sure it had taken several delays and setbacks but from looks alone, it seemed to be worth it. Unlike Burai Black, it was far more streamlined, seeming to match Gispy Danger in that regard if not surpass it. Another thing is that the unit seemed to be slightly hunched or maybe the upper torso was simply larger than the norm. It was painted in mostly black with orange finishing here and there along the joints and fingers. The head piece visor was also different and like the finishing, a dark orange in colour. All in all, it looked great.
"And what have they been arguing about for the past," Lelouch started to ask but paused as he looked at his watch to confirm something. "40 minutes?" This was a waste of time as far as he was concerned. If those two weren't as talented as they were, he would have ask they be redeployed somewhere far away from him.
"Well you see, your new jaeger was built in India to replace your old one. Our government wished to establish friendlier ties with Japan and believes this would help facilitate that." One the Indian scientist begun to explain.
"I'm sensing a but." Lelouch cut in, already figuring how the issue.
"The but being that not all the systems are of Indian origin, or more accurately, weren't designed by us." The man finished as he gestured for Viktoriya to give him the data-pad, which she did. Allowing him to tap on some options and bring up the plans and designs for the systems in question.
"Those systems being?" Viktoriya asked in the mean time before he found what he was looking for and gestured towards one of them.
"Two of the weapons systems and the armour. One of which being the three cannons mounted into the unit." He explained as he enlarged the images for them to see. Those images being that there were two high power energy cannons built into the jaeger itself. Two in the forearms kept hidden under armour and etc, the third and largest of the three placed in the chest, directly in front of their main reactor.
"Allow me." Lelouch requested as he looked over the document and clicked on the link which led to another document which went into detail about the new weapons. Along with their name. "Hadrons cannons?"
"They're energy based weaponry which are much more powerful than even anti-ship missiles. It's a beam weapon so it works like a laser, point and keep on target." Cecile explained to them in simpler terms, yet still sounding like she wasn't making it so simple that she was speaking with children.
"I assume the good doctor wasn't the brains behind this?" Lelouch asked as she noted that everything about the plans was in English, not a lick of Hindi or any other language associated with the sub-continent. Something that told him that Rakshata didn't draw up these plans.
"That's…complicated." Cecile answered as she rubbed the back of her, wondering how she would explain this without setting off the other two.
"How so?" Viktoriya asked, unlike the R&D members present, they were in the dark as to why those two seemed to mix as well as puppies and fire ants.
"Well you see, Lloyd was the one that built the prototypes but we couldn't get the beams to converge, which basically meant that rather than fire one beam, it was fire off a short ranged burst of weaker energy akin to a shotgun." Cecile explained to them, recalling how for months they were stumped on the why they couldn't get the thing to work.
"Not much use against Kaiju, according to this, it couldn't even defeat a couple metres of rock." Lelouch nodded his head in agreement to that. Shotguns were only really effective against unarmoured or lightly armoured targets and the hide of most Kaiju was extremely thick.
"Yes but Lieutenant Colonel Chawla looked them over and solved the issue, making it a sort of collaboration between the two." Cecile answered as it took the women only three days to solve their issue.
"Something I can see they both aren't too happy about." Viktoriya pointed out as she gestured towards the arguing pair who looked even closer to violence then before.
"To put it mildly." One of the other Indian scientist muttered to himself, having dealt with this type of thing were a while now.
"And the other new weapon is….are swords? I thought such weaponry was a bad thing since it increases chances of Kaiju blue spreading." Viktoriya asked as she noticed that blades had been added to their armoury, but there were reasons why jaegers didn't make use of such weapons. The kaiju's blood was extremely dangerous to living organisms to using weapons that spilled literal dozens of litres of the stuff with every swing and cut was considered stupid.
"They still are, however these blades are different. They-"Cecile started but like before, the pair arguing caught that last one but unlike before, it was Lloyd who cut in.
"Master Vibration Swords my good rangers!" Lloyd jumped in, not at all concerned about decorum or manners as he invaded both their personal spaces to speak. "They use a combination of extremely high oscillation rates and temperatures in order to increase the cutting effectiveness of the weapon, turning that dull grey blade to see in the description into a wonderful deadly red." He explained as he gestured to the picture on the data-pad.
"Wait, if it uses heat as a component wouldn't that mean…" Lelouch was able to put two and two together.
"That it cauterizes whatever wound you inflict, letting you lob off an arm or tail without worry of the mess." Lloyd finished as that was the selling point they made to command to secure funding to develop them. Sure it cost a quarter of a billion pounds but it liked to believe that it was worth it.
"I still don't see why I was forced to add it to the design, I had much better blades in the works-" Rakshata started but found herself cut off for once by Lloyd, who looked like a cat who caught the canary.
"Yet you're still in the developmental stage with them, while mine beauties are ready to go!" Lloyd jumped in, not at all scared of the glare she was shooting him.
"Why you little-!" She now really looked like she was going to murder him but now Cecile had to actually step him and hold her back.
"Alright, before someone losses a head, I got a question. It says here that there is another system installed, a defensive called a 'blaze luminous'. What the hell is that?" Lelouch asked as he held up the data-pad for the two to see what he was talking about.
"It's a shielding system of my…." Lloyd started to brag but paused when he caught the smouldering look in Cecile's eyes as she made sure he could tell from his gaze that she was the only thing keeping Rakshata from ripping him a new one. "I mean developed by the Britannian Jaeger development corps A.S.E.E.C. It was originally supposed to be mounted on knightmares, in theory anyway. The shield themselves can absorb a massive amount of damage from both projectiles, missiles, explosions, energy based and even a kaiju attack….in theory." Lloyd explained as he had dreamt up the concept years prior, along with a shining example of what a knightmare could become but alas, there wasn't anyone willing to fund the project or any real use for his Lancelot other then ceremonial.
"In theory? You mean this isn't even tested?" Lelouch asked the man, now wondering if he was all there in the first place. The last thing he wanted as mad-man designing their gear.
"It was, but you can imagine that testing anything for Kaiju is a bit of a challenge, with every single one killed in combat. However, our experiments and math shows promising results." Lloyd replied, not at all concerned about the lack of actual proof to back up his claims, having full faith in his designs.
"There's just one drawback, the shields draw upon energy from the jaeger itself to create a sort of barrier equal to the force of the attack, cancelling it out. Meaning that the stronger the blow," Cecile jumped in again after it seemed like Rakshata wasn't itching to kill.
"The more power is needed to sustain it. And since jaegers have a fixed amount of fuel, that means we should use them sparingly." Viktoriya finished the statement, it was a downside but it wasn't a bad feature…at least in theory. They could save themselves a lot of damage if they made correct use of it.
"I couldn't agree more. Anything else we should be informed of?" Lelouch askedas he looked at the scientist that made up a portion their K.B.A.J.R.D.(Kaiju Behaviour Analysis and Jaeger Research and Development) unit.
"Two things," One the Indians spoke up. "The first being that the OS is a upgraded system to what you're used to, so expect controls and other functions to be much smoother."
"And the second?" Viktoriya asked, turning to look at their newest addition to the jaeger corps.
"The name of my youngest child," Rakshata spoke up, sounding proud of herself as she took a puff from her pipe.
"Obsidian Knight."
28th April 2019
Los Angeles Shatterdome, Holy Britannian Empire
"They're going through with it?" Cornelia asked her brother, at present she was in her personal quarters in one of the larger Shatterdomes on the Britannian coastline. Like any other officer, she wore the full uniform of the PPDC, hers being green as she hadn't been a member long enough to really rank up but she was on the short list of people to take the officer course.
"Yes, it's official. Kaguya Sumeragi will become our sister-in-law on the 7th of September. The day she weds our rather free willed little brother." The person she was speaking with over the video call, the current Prime Minister of the Holy Britannian Empire and her elder brother, Schneizel el Britannia.
"I can't believe it….of all the girls he could bed, he takes a foreigner?" Cornelia muttered, showing her distain for her younger brother unprecedented choice in bride. She loved him, that would never change but dammit, she wished he chose a girl from a respectable Britannian family.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it, besides, it wouldn't be the first shake up from the vi Britannia, Marianne was a outlier herself, remember?" Schneizel who heard her comment chuckled as he responded.
"I never forget, but she was still Britannian through and through. His bride to be, isn't." Cornelia shot back, forcing down the instinctive retort against his comment about Marianne, he wasn't mocking her, just pointing something out.
"Well these are details we have no control over, even as a little boy, Lelouch was strong willed to say the least." Schneizel reminded her as they both recalled how he was as a child, just as strong willed as his mother, not as athletically gifted sure but he made up for it being quite intelligent for his age and in Cornelia case, being an adorable playmate for Euphie. "For now, all we can do is show our support."
"Show our support?" Cornelia paused at that comment. Did he mean sending letters of approval or something? They couldn't even be sure he'll read the damn things.
"That's right. I was on the line with Prime Minister Kururugi the other day and I was able to acquire some invites to the wedding and reception. Purely for diplomatic purposes of course." Schneizel told her, growing a smile on his face she had seen many times before, the one he always got when he won some game against her.
"How in the hell did you get your hands on those?" Cornelia asked him, this was news to her! The last time their two countries had such friendly relations was two days prior to their invasion. She would have suspected Schneizel would have made big news by having such a talk with his Japanese counterpart.
"It took some haggling and negotiating, but it wasn't anything I wasn't used to. I have four tickets to the event, one for myself of course and assistant. The other two I was hoping you and Euphie could have." Schneizel gave her the details as she could have guessed he would wish to attend, he may be a snake most of the time but she could at least she with absolute certainly that he loved his siblings(some of them at least, the rest even she didn't even care to remember their names) she of course he would wish to attend the wedding, the first one of their family oddly enough.
When she thought about it, it made sense, Guinevere had a history of going from one young man to the next like some harlot, which she had told her to her face.
Odysseus was too mild mannered for most of the court ladies though he was seeing the daughter of a Altgrave so maybe he was next on the wedding list, something she would be happy about as he had only ever been nice to her.
She herself couldn't care less for such things and avoided dates set up by her mother like the plague.
Euphemia generally wasn't interested in boys at the moment, something she was happy about as she wasn't around nearly as much as she would like to make sure they kept their distance from her.
Schneizel himself….well she didn't know about that one as she knew he wasn't gay, so it wasn't like he had something on the side with Kannon, that was just something they hinted at to screw with people out of some childish sense of humour. He certainly ticked all the boxes for desirable in the eyes of most of the female population, from high court ladies to commoners so like their estranged brother, he was spoilt for choice.
"I don't know what to say." Cornelia spoke up, feeling like she owned him something back, maybe a better birthday present? No, that was lame.
"How about a thank you? And no," Schneizel cut her off before he continued. "I have no hidden motive for this, even we need to be siblings every now and then, so I thought it would be a good present for the two of you."
"You have my thanks, I'm sure that Euphie will call soon enough to give you hers once she hears of this." Cornelia told him, already seeing the picture in her mind of how ecstatic her sister will be with the news.
"Speaking of which, how is she? I haven't heard from here in quite some time." Schneizel asked, having gone a while without a call or letter from his pink loving sister. Sure he was Prime Minister but he always managed to make time for her.
"She is quite busy with you duties, she graduated high school and hit the ground running after all." Cornelia told him, having attended the graduation event personally. She thanked God that she was able to talk her sister out of joining the PPDC as well in some bid to close the gap between their siblings. She instead found something that though Cornelia herself wouldn't like, Euphemia proved to love it and was quite skilled in it.
"Oh yes, she started up that humanitarian project of hers, I have heard it been quite the success with the numbers." Schneizel responded, having been the one that granted her the approval for it. Now almost a full year later, Euphemia's project had only grown in size and influence, assisting hundreds of thousands with food and medical aid in several ghettoes across the eastern shoreline while also offering employment for tens of thousands.
"I don't like it, brother." Cornelia gave her honest if not racist opinion.
"Say what you will but the fact is that her efforts are keeping them in line, productivity is up and terrorist activity is down for the first time since the Kaiju appeared, but there is the one group I'm worried about." Schneizel pointed out, as in those areas, reports of number criminal and/or terrorist activity had dropped by 30%. There was also the issue that he himself didn't see the point in their policy of discrimination, Social Darwinism was an outdated and discredited notion to run a society, never-mind a nation. The only reasons that nobles held on to such notions was due to the fact that many, weren't that great….having done nothing worthy of mention in their lives.
"You mean those lunatics that actually worship the damn things?" Cornelia asked of him, having also noticed that the group was growing in number from a few on the dark web, to having small demonstrations across the board. "They're just a bunch of idiots, they are no threat to us."
"That's what the Romans said about the Christians before Nero used them as a scapegoat. You should be wary of them, especially since for a lack of better term, have a bone to pick with the PPDC." He warned his sister, having heard that some members of the PPDC get death threats from this group, or at the very least, some of its members.
"Let them try, they'll taste my steel." Cornelia brushed aside his advice, they had all dealt with these kind of things in the past, having someone out to kill you was nothing new to her.
"Be careful sister, you're a member of the PPDC, meaning that you don't have the same privileges you enjoy as a princess. You can't just cut a man down because he annoyed you." Schneizel joked, having foreseen her counter argument in advance.
"I'm well aware of that, brother. How have things been in the capital? I heard some unsavoury rumours as of late." Cornelia changed the topic to something she had heard around the base.
"Things have been quite eventful, to say the least. And no, there was no secret plot against the emperor, at least, not one that stands out from the rest. It was merely a group of fools with weapons causing trouble, they've been dealt with." Schneizel assured her as it was been quite the loud event for an assassination attempt on their father life. They were so unorganised and ill prepared that Bismarck didn't even have enough time to kill any of them before they were all defeated and arrested.
"Pendragon has been quite the buzz over the years, what are you plans for dealing with this?" Cornelia asked him as this wasn't the first attack in the capital but they have grown in frequency, which was troubling to say the least.
"For now, Odysseus and I have been doing our best to placate the masses. Some of the nobility have been rather difficult to deal with but things may begin to cool down soon." Schneizel replied smoothly, sharing her concerns but not to the same degree. "But anyway, about the wedding…."
Done and done! Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review and we'll get some jaeger action in the next chapter, along with a wedding. The original plan was for Nina to be introduced this chapter but I decided to push that back to the next one. I don't really like her character so don't expect for her to have all that much spotlight. Like I told another writer on this sight, I don't really care about her masturbating to Euphemia, she's gay and Euphemia was her crush and his quite attractive so it's completely normal behaviour, especially from a teenager.
My issue is one, she chose to do it in the council meeting room and two, her unexplained racism/xenophobia as we don't even know why she so scared of Japanese and then she goes on to create a WMD just to kill one one…while they were fighting over a population area under Britannian control, like why? IF it were the ghettos, sure it makes sense, Britannia doesn't care about the numbers but over the heart of Tokyo settlement? That girl had some serious issues as she isn't the only cast member to lost someone precious throughout the show yet she has the most….crazed and body bag filling one of them all.
Lastly, Obsidian Fury has made her debut….in part. As Fury is a Mk 6 unmanned Jaeger, I couldn't really bring it in, not without setting the groundwork for it in the form of the Mk 4 model in the same manner that Gispy Danger set the groundwork for Gispy Avenger, it's not as good as Fury, that much is obvious but it's still superior to Gispy and even Crimson Typhoon in terms of combat performance as I was able to add in details and equipment we see in R1. The Lancelot got its mention and while Lloyd may very well make a jaeger version of it, that will be down the line as I plan for it to be a Mk % like Eureka. The only problem is that I don't know who I will have pilot it.