A/N: this arc might be a little longer than I thought, although this chapter is going to be shorter only because I thought it was an excellent point to end it. However, this is building up to another battle coming Lelouch's way, which will cement his reputation as a Knight of Justice or rather a Demon of Justice.

After all, your enemies will define you.

But I would like to thank those who reviewed the last chapters as I greatly appreciate the feedback and support.

I might continue this Black Knights Rising Arc for a while longer since I have been coming up with more ideas than I thought for it.

Thanks once again to Grey Wolf4 for his help with this chapter including helping me some information about the Sunrider's universe that is a huge help with some characters for this chapter.

Special Thanks to Greatkingrat88 for his work on the chapter and the overall improvements upon it.

Chapter 7

Independent Actions

Ongess was universally known as the most hellish planet in the galaxy. Centuries of unregulated, ruthless mining had stripped most of the planet's surface down to bare rock, and especially since the New Empire's control of the class seven world, it had been left with catastrophic environmental damage. It was a filthy place, the air dark and heavy with smog. Its thirty-eight billion strong population was packed in claustrophobic ghettoes, the lack of public planning, technology, medical aid and education having turned Ongess into an overpopulated, impoverished, disease-ridden world.

Even after becoming independent, its impoverished state left Ongess vulnerable to exploitation from other nations and corporations, keen on mining the precious Ongessite. It was no surprise then, perhaps, that many of its people were involved with criminal syndicates and pirate groups to get away from the hell of their homeworld.

Inside a hidden room large enough to accommodate fifty people, a gathering of pirates and crime bosses was taking place. It was the largest the planet had seen for some time. At the head of a meeting sat a muscular man wearing a black trench coat with a white dress shirt underneath. He was surprisingly clean, and kept his appearance decent as well. Nobody at the table would mistake the relative neatness of his appearance for weakness, though. Everyone knew that Captain Miguel Kidd was the most bloodthirsty and dangerous pirate of them all. His reputation and sheer number followers he commanded made him the most powerful of the gathered crime bosses and pirate leaders.

Swiping a gloved hand through his blonde hair, his blue eyes scanned the gathering as he rose from his chair, gesturing with his hands for his fellows to quiet down, allowing him to speak.

"My fellow pirates and friends," he began, "we are gathered here today to talk about a problem plaguing us, and if we leave this problem unchecked, it will become a serious threat to us."

His voice was calm and polite, which made him stand out among a room full of dangerous individuals yet no one would dare speak out of turn because of his reputation as the most dangerous space pirate of them all.

"It's about Zero, isn't it?" The man who spoke up was a crime boss, an obese man with a bald head and green eyes, wearing a white business suit with a black tie and red undershirt. "He is just one ship and a few Ryders who have gotten lucky. I don't see any real reason to worry."

"Lucky, my ass. He has taken out Edward's group and a dozen others in the last six months. Not even the fucking military of the Neutral Rim could have done that." Another pirate captain snapped, before an argument began to erupt between the gathered pirate leaders and crime bosses.

Before it could escalate any further, Miguel fired his pistol into the ceiling, silencing everyone immediately.

"That is enough!" Kidd roared, the assembly falling quiet at the sight of his furious, bloodthirsty gaze. "Consider this. I am not only speaking on behalf of those of us concerned when I say this, but there is someone who wants Zero dead. The person who has contracted me is has offered the accumulated plundered wealth of the New Empire and seven worlds to make Zero's death happen."

"What the hell are you talking about, Kidd?" A crime boss known as McKillian, a corrupt corporate mining executive who dealt in illegal goods, slaves, and narcotics demanded. "So Zero knocked off some chumps, big deal! Why would anyone offer that much for his head?"

"Does it matter?" Kidd asked the gathered crowd, "Many of us are paid to kill someone or more for outrageous amounts of credits at least once or twice a month, so why should it really matter in end? However Zero has destroyed a dozen pirate groups, which is something no law enforcement agency or the Solar Alliance has managed in decades, so I believe we should deal with Zero before he becomes a bigger issue!"

"So this reward for his head is real?" McKillian asked.

Kidd nodded.

"What I am willing to share is a very hefty reward that will go to those who help me find and destroy Zero. We will crush him completely, and those of you involved will walk away wealthy men." Kidd said, a smile appearing on his face.

He had the attention of everyone in the room now.

"My sponsors have been very generous so far, and I would like to extend what they are offering in the future to you. Although they have asked to remain anonymous for now, I think this offering they are giving us might prompt you all to consider it."

"Why should we believe you?" Another pirate leader demanded.

"Because if we don't do something about this now, then it is only a matter of time before Zero is going to start wiping out more and more of us until nobody is left," Kidd said gently, but with a severe tone.

Listening to Kidd's suggestion was one boss in particular, a girl who looked much too young for her profession. She didn't age, never had since an unfortunate accident with Ongessite poisoning. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chosen attire, a purple Ryder pilot suit with black trim. Cosette quietly listened to the assembly, including the arguments and threats that were beginning to fly around. Her sour expression made it difficult for any outside observer to tell if she was interested in the discussion or not. Her own pirate group had managed to stay below the radar of the Black Knights so far, due to both its size and reputation.

And the reputation of Cosette Cosmos has become mixed over the last two years.

She was an Ongessian native, who had joined a pirate group like countless others to get away, but even her own crew knew little else. People knew better than to ask. The air of mystery around her had led to all sorts of rumors floating around her, something Cosette didn't really mind. Unless it was about her height; her own crew had learned the hard way what happened to those who dared to mock her height.

"So Cosette, are we going to get in on this?" Another pirate gang leader asked her.

"No, fuck that shit," Cosette replied bluntly before adding, "Bringing that many pirates together is like painting a fucking bulls-eye on your back. If Zero doesn't end up killing them, I'd wager three hundred credits whoever Kidd brings together will end up backstabbing one another when it's over."

With that, Cosette decided to leave the gathering. It was going nowhere else that would justify her remaining.

The meeting went on for some time after Cosette left, but soon after it was over, some pirate gangs and even some of the criminal syndicates offered to pledge their support to Kidd and his assembled forces to hunt down the Black Knights.

But one of their own sent out a coded transmission once he was alone, aboard the ship he traveled in with his fellow pirates.

In the field of asteroids near the Black Knights' hidden base, Jeremiah, Lloyd, and Lelouch were observing the training of their combat pilots, rookies and veterans alike. In the coming conflict, it would be vital to improve and sharpen all their skills. Even though the observation deck of the base gave them a good view of the asteroid field where the test was taking place, it was too far away to see what was going on. Thankfully, a dozen different holographic screens provided the observers with plenty of opportunities to watch the test.

As Jeremiah supervised the combat testing and training of the new Black Knights, Lelouch and Lloyd were going over information on new possible recruits the Black Knights had been scouting out. Jeremiah was observing the testing of a new unit designed to be a new kind of Ryder, explicitly intended for both reconnaissance and long range precision fire. The Knight units out there now were supposed to find the sniper ship to stop him from shooting more targets.

Once the pilot got seven scored hits without getting caught, he would win the exercise and prove the effectiveness of the unit.

"His name Robert "Bob" Ritter, a former member of the Cera Military Intelligence Division. He left due to growing disillusionment with the military over its lack of expansion and improvement," Lloyd explained as Lelouch read over his profile, which ironically was provided by one of their contacts on Cera with ties to its military.

"I presume this is due to PACT's recent movements?"

"Naturally. He's not the first ex-military we've picked up from the armed forces of other neutral worlds that dismissed them as paranoid warmongers. Some were made to resign, others left on their own accord, but they all came to us."

In the last year, there had been more signs of PACT building up its military forces and stationing a concerning number of their troops along the borders of the Neutral Rim. Officially this was to increase border security against pirates. This might have been an acceptable excuse once, but the numbers of forces have been steadily growing over time, well beyond what was needed to secure their borders.

It wasn't so much out of ignorance the governments of the Neutral Rim were turning a blind eye to PACT, but the truth was they didn't want to risk war by stirring a hornet's nest. Lelouch suspected some worlds would likely try to stay neutral to avoid drawing PACT's attention while others would take up appeasement policies to avoid becoming a target of PACT. Still some were more outspoken with their concerns to their respective leaders, but so far they had been either ignored or dismissed from service, like Bob had been.

Somehow, it wouldn't surprise me if PACT was paying off certain leaders of those neutral worlds to sabotage any preparation efforts or preventive measures before their invasion of the rim, Lelouch thought, given what he had already discovered surrounding events with Versta.

It was more crucial than ever for Lelouch to build up more of an intelligence division within the Black Knights.

They had a decent number of information brokers they could turn to, and agents. But it wasn't enough, especially if they wanted to examine planetary leaders. They didn't just need more people for their division, but they needed people familiar with said planets, and access to the people needing to be investigated so they could quickly gather enough evidence to prove their corruption without tipping them off.

Furthermore, once the war begun with PACT's invasion, there was no telling how many information brokers and contacts would be lost as PACT began conquering worlds. Having an Intelligence Division would mean being able to work to collect information using alternative means, should their information brokers and contacts be lost.

Naturally, they would also play a hand in screening new recruits before allowing them into the Black Knights.

"Investigate his background a little more before we recruit him. If it checks out, assign him to one of our bounty hunter sub-groups until we can test his loyalty and rule out him being a spy." Lelouch said. Like most new members, they were usually assigned to a bounty hunter group as a way of testing them in both skill and character to determine if they were trustworthy enough to join.

"Sure thing," Lloyd said, filling Bob's file under approved before moving onto the next recruit, "Here is the next one."

The next person for Lelouch to review was a young woman in her early twenties with long, lush pink hair that hung over thickly on her shoulders. She had a fair skin tone, and a beautiful face with violet eyes. Lelouch raised an eyebrow under this mask, because unless Lloyd was playing a joke on him, he could have sworn he had just been given the profile on a supermodel instead of someone who was Black Knight's material.

"The next one is Claude Triello. She was a certified doctor, but at present, she is something of a freelancer. I thought we could expand our medical staff."

"What do you mean was?" Lelouch said, studying the image of Claude a little more closely.

There was something about that girl that reminded him of Milly somehow. He didn't get the feeling she was into weird costumes and parties like Milly was, but rather the happy expression he saw on Claude's face was something he recognized from Milly as an early warning sign that trouble was to be expected.

Expanding their medical staff was an idea Lelouch was more than open to, but something about Lloyd's comment struck him as very questionable.

"Oh, nothing much. She had her medical license suspended due to malpractice," Lloyd answered causally forcing Lelouch to look further into Claude's profile and review the information himself using his holo.

"WARNING: this individual is known to masquerade as a medical practitioner. Her skills fall well below the standards of modern medical care. Patients are advised to seek the advice of a professional medical practitioner and not this individual." Lelouch said, reading the warning that had been attached to her long list of crimes. She was wanted for in five neutral rim planetary systems, including Alliance Space, which included gross negligence, and multiple counts of improper conduct, many of which involved molesting her own patients.

As a result, Claude Triello has been banned from every medical licensing agency in the known galaxy.

Lelouch read over the summaries of some of the reports and charges against Claude, he found that the woman had been charged with inappropriately touching her patients, the vast majority of whom were handsome men, with an occasional victim being a beautiful woman, sometimes with some relation to the male victim. As Lelouch read over these reports, his face paled as he came to a single realization.

How has this woman escaped police custody, and furthermore if I recruit her she would just become more a problem than an asset.

Whatever reason Claude had for becoming a doctor had to be at least partly to indulge in exercising her perversions.

"Lloyd… just no," Lelouch said unsympathetically, hitting the REJECT button without hesitation.

"What's the problem, Lelouch? We're all considered outlaws, and you have done crimes much worse than that woman did. Besides, don't we need doctors to help supplement our forces?" Lloyd argued. The prospect of having someone like Claude in their ranks hardly bothered him.

"True, but I doubt the men would appreciate having a woman of her very questionable work ethic on board. I am even certain we'll have problems and complaints from our female members as well if what I gleaned from her criminal record is anything to go by," Lelouch said, fearing that this Claude would be more trouble than she would be worth.

Before Lloyd could offer a counter-argument, Lelouch quickly said,

"Anyway, I think the exercise should be coming to a close soon."

He continued to go over the rest of the recruitment applications and intelligence on the new members considered for recruitment to the ranks of the Black Knights.

Some time later, Lloyd and Lelouch joined Jeremiah at the observation deck, to see what was probably the closing minutes of the exercise.

"The new recruits have improved," Jeremiah commented as he noticed Lelouch and Lloyd having joined him in watching. The three observed two teams of Knight Ryder units using specialized training guns that fired dummy rounds to simulate real combat in realistic conditions, as they were hunting down the new Ryder Lloyd had designed as part of training for the pilots and a performance exercise rolled into one. Although they had simulators, Lelouch and even Jeremiah felt that simulators could only teach so much, and sometimes a taste of the real thing would go much further than combat in a simulator.

"Two shots left until our sniper wins the match," Lelouch reported checking the scoreboard on the live exercise happening outside via his holo on his wrist.

The Ryders outside continued their search to find the sniper, but thanks to the asteroids their quarry had plenty of hiding places. They had to find the sniper before he would shoot down the remaining targets, which were sheets of metal cut and arranged to look like a Ryder with a bull's eye painted upon them while positioned throughout the training area.

But that is not the only problem.

Lelouch smiled smugly under his mask as he knew that aside from actually trying to spot the marksman Ryder.

In conjunction of being able to operate for much more extended periods on its own, the new unit was designed with advanced electronic warfare and countermeasures package, inspired by the remains of a Ryuvian Scout unit they had recovered. They couldn't salvage its weapons, but they were able to study and reverse engineer the long-range scanner dish and optical scanner equipment. From that, along with some creative input and ideas from Lloyd, the new Ryder called the BKR-03S Cherubim had been created. Its weapon system was a long-range type Super VARIS rail cannon, explicitly designed for long-range.

At that moment, the second to last target was hit. Unless the team found the sniper before he shot the final objective, they would lose and the marksman would win. Under the mask, Lelouch was smiling, both at how successfully the test was proceeding and at the skill of the pilot handling the Cherubim. Jeremiah spotted what appeared to be the sniper's location, and ordered the Black Knight Ryders to converge upon it.

"Rush him now!" Jeremiah commanded furiously, but Lelouch already knew the sniper was not there, because through his holo he saw what the sniper saw.

Instead, all they found was an old abandoned alliance Ryder, which had been suspiciously moved to pose in a way to look like a machine in a sniper position.

Smart. These asteroids were used by the previous Alliance occupants to mine for materials for the war effort against the New Empire. They left behind some Ryders too damaged during the war to bother with, which our sniper used to set up as a decoy. Lelouch thought with a smile, impressed by the pilot's resourcefulness and ability to think outside of the box.

"Sir, we found nothing but an old Ryder," The lead pilot replied over the open comm.

"Damn it… he's good." Jeremiah said. Although he was pleased the sniper had outmaneuvered him, he did feel a little sore from loosing.

At that moment the last shot rang out, and the final target was destroyed.

Jeremiah sighed in defeat, before calling out on an open communication channel.

"Alright, you win this one. Come out, soldier." Jeremiah ordered, and to the shock of Jeremiah and Lelouch's concealed amusement, the sniper emerged from a small asteroid drifting close to where Lelouch and Jeremiah were observing the mock battle.

The BKR-03S Cherubim was streamlined in design with a slightly lanky flame painted mostly black with some purple trim, but it had a specially designed head with optical scanners and sensors capable of tracking long-range targeted based on light-reflections and more. It had a long-distance communication's package with two scanner dishes equipped on the back of its shoulders, one for each shoulder, capable of detecting small targets from astronomical distances. The same dishes could transmit data and invade the enemy communications and networks of a ship to hack or compromise its systems.

For weapons, it had a specially designed VARIS rail cannon and a pair of MSV combat knives stored within its forearms that it could use the blades in the event of melee combat.

"How the hell did you get so close to us?" Jeremiah demanded, as the image of the pilot appeared on the screen.

He was young, in his early twenties with dark brown skin, a Denari native of the planet Gestalt from the Denari Expanse. He had bright blue eyes, and a military-style buzz-cut black hair, and he wore the black and purple trim pilot plug suits of the Black Knights.

"Sniper got the commander by being a sneaky bastard, SIR!" the marksman pilot replied, with an amused smile on his face. "Lieutenant Domingo Clark reporting in, commander Jeremiah, commander Zero. I hope I did not disappoint?"

"Well done. I am very pleased with your performance," Zero said, giving a short applause.

"Thank you, sir!" Domingo replied, before Lelouch dismissed him with a nod, ending the transmission.

"I am happy to see the Cherubim prototype perform beyond the expectations we had for this mock battle," Lloyd commented joining the conversation while the pilots outside began returning to the hanger to disembark their machines.

"That is because we have chosen an excellent pilot for it." The former Emperor noted.

"That too," Lloyd answered dismissively, "but onto the real subject at hand. The data from these mock battles are going a long way in developing new units and improving the current ones." Lloyd exclaimed happily. "I'll begin plans to produce more Cherubim units as soon as we can after I go over the combat data to make some improvements."

"We can't get ahead of ourselves," Jeremiah cautioned. "We are nowhere close enough to match PACT's numbers, even if our forces are technologically superior to them."

"I agree," said Zero, "so we must work on expanding our forces and numbers, but we'll need more resources to pull off such an expansion."

"We will need some money too," Lloyd added severely, "because there is only so much the bounties we have been collecting on these pirates, and the donations we have been receiving will do for us."

"Are you suggesting we need something along the lines of a steady income?" The former emperor asked turning his head towards Lloyd who stood onto his left while Jeremiah was on his right.

"Or a vast slush fund to help cover our expenses," Lloyd said with a nod. "Whatever the source, we need more money and soon if we are to continue expanding at our current rate. Any method will suffice."

"Are you suggesting we start robbing those pirates?" Jeremiah asked. There was a mixture of annoyance and curiosity in his voice.

"It would help, but I doubt they would have enough to cover our expenses properly."

"Please forgive the interruption, commander Zero."

Lelouch turned and saw a middle-aged man with blonde hair, with glasses over his blue eyes. He wore the standard Black Knights uniform.

"What is it, Donald?" said Zero.

"We just received some information from the sleeper agents you planted among the pirates," Donald replied, before handing Lelouch a small holo containing a copy of the information he had just received. Lelouch opened the holo and began reviewing the info quickly before taking a moment to consider his options.

"Did something happen?" Jeremiah inquired noticing Lelouch's silence to mean that something big must have been going on.

"It seems the pirates are taking us more seriously. This is sooner than I had expected." Lelouch said, forwarding a copy of the information to Jeremiah's holo. "Captain Kidd, head of the most powerful and dangerous of the pirate groups, is trying to put together a fleet for the sole purpose of hunting us down."

"Pirates are notorious backstabbers… if you pose a big enough threat to unite them under one banner, they must be taking you seriously," Jeremiah said, thinking out loud. It was rare for most pirates to work together due to a variety of reasons, which usually revolved around getting a better cut of the spoils, seeing a chance to eliminate a competitor, or both.

"It seems Kidd is offering a very considerable amount of credits from his sponsors," Lelouch added.

"You believe PACT has a hand in this makeshift pirate fleet, sir?" said Jeremiah.

"Yes, and more than likely they are providing him with the credits to do so. The amount he must be offering must be substantial. The reward is probably secondary, and more likely to coax as many pirates as possible to join under his banner so they could try to overwhelm us with sheer numbers."

"Then what is the plan?" Lloyd asked, adjusting his glasses. "Those pirates will probably tear through smaller, barely defended sectors to draw you out since looking for you blindly is obviously out of the question."

"Then we'll need to give them some bait," Lelouch answered as a plan was forming in his mind. "It is said that all warfare is based on deception, so instead of meeting and fighting them on their terms they will fight and meet us under my terms."

"It sounds as if you already have a plan in mind?" The blue haired cyborg said.

"Yes, and we have much to do in preparation alone. But if this works out and the proper conditions are cleared, we can possibly tend to some of our other issues."

A week passed, spent in careful preparations. Unbeknownst to captain Kidd, the Black Knights had already discovered the pirates' location, and were already moving to intercept. Miguel Kidd seemed intent on assembling a pirate fleet with more ships and even Ryders than the entire sector had ever seen before. Since he was using a remote part of the Neutral Rim as a staging area, he was currently awaiting the arrival of even more pirate ships. The fleet was still taking shape.

Kidd was standing on the bridge of his flagship the Queen Mary's Revenge, an old Solar Alliance Battleship he had managed to get his hands on and refit into a heavily armed pirate cruiser with as many kinetic cannons the vessel could carry, including some newly installed laser banks.

"How much longer until the rest arrive?" Miguel demanded.

"In one hour, the last of the ships should be gathered," said a rugged pirate sitting behind a navigation terminal. A few moments later, another one sitting behind a communication's console spoke up.

"Captain, we have a private transmission coming in for you on channel 14-Omega."

Captain Kidd rose from his chair.

"I'll take it in my cabin. The rest of you will oversee the gathering of the last arrivals."

Miguel hurried through the corridors of his ship until he reached his cabin. Upon entering, he made sure to lock the door. He knew who was calling, and it was important that no one outside of his cabin would be aware of the caller's identity. Such was the agreement between them, which had been a very beneficial one for him, one he sought to continue, not just for more riches for himself…

It was to ensure his survival for what was to come.

After making sure he was alone, he activated the FTL transmitter. The holographic visage of Veniczar S. Arcadius appeared before Miguel.

"We do not like waiting, Captain Kidd," Arcadius said firmly.

"Forgive me, Veniczar," Kidd said, bowing respectfully on one knee before adding, "I merely took a moment to ensure that our partnership remains unknown to everyone but you and I."

Even though Miguel could not see the expression of Arcadius's face beneath the mask, he assumed by the calmer tone she spoke in that the masked leader of PACT had understood.

"Are your preparations nearly complete?"

"They are," Miguel answered quickly, "we are only waiting for the last of the ships to show up."

"Excellent," Arcadius replied clearly pleased, "and you will proceed to hunt down Zero?"

"Yes. We plan to begin our attack in the northern sector of the neutral rim. We will strike against a few outlying settlements, and pre-warp planets to draw Zero out. Once he makes a move, we'll converge on him… and if he doesn't, he'll lose support among the Neutral Rim."

Arcadius took a moment to consider this, before saying, "We approve of your plan Captain Kidd, but we shall be expecting results from you soon."

"I will not fail. Just give me time to smoke Zero out, and I promise he shall be dealt with, one way or another."

"Very good. If possible, we would like him delivered to us alive."

"You want Zero alive?" Kidd inquired with a curious expression.

"We want to know who his supporters are. There is no way he could have built a ship and those three machines on his own," Arcadius explained before Miguel realized what she was getting at.

"I understand, and I'll do what I can to capture him alive if an opportunity presents itself."

"We will be awaiting your word on this, Captain."

With that, the avatar of Arcadius vanished, leaving Captain Kidd alone in his cabin.

"And so my hunt begins for you Zero."

A/N: So how will the Black Knights respond to this?

Will Garibaldi and C.C. prove Lelouch correct and find another world that would make a more suitable home base for them especially given the war that is coming.

Next chapter its Lelouch and his group will be preparing to face the biggest pirate fleet assembled, at least until much later in this story when a certain someone will end up topping that.

As for everything else the next battle will be a difficult one because there will be an unexpected visitor that neither Kidd nor Lelouch will be expecting.