"She sooo knows." Lisa's ghost said petulantly from her spot on the screen of my new Knightmare Frame.
No, she doesn't know. I thought as I properly seated myself on the seat of the 'Akashita' with Kallen leaning over me so that she could point things out as we went.
"With the look she gave you, there is no way she doesn't know. Just go and talk to her about it once you can!" Despite the Shadow's attempts at convincing me I remained steadfast, I truly didn't think that Rakshata had recognized me.
My cybernetic arm was hidden underneath the bodysuit, my hair was longer with hair extensions, and she hadn't seen me in seven years. There was no way she could recognise me.
Common sense dictated that she wouldn't recognize me, so approaching her now would only create another possible leak of my identity. There were no unwritten rules here -flimsy as they were- to protect me, it would be best to protect it as best as I could.
"You're just thinking that because you don't want to talk to her about how you finished the project without her and instead with Lloyd and Cecile. I know how you think Taylor!" She called out from the blackened screen. I didn't respond to her and instead turned the machine on like Kallen instructed.
A boot up sequence began with automated diagnostics flashing through the screen. I heard Lisa complain about how turning the screen on wouldn't make her go away.
I chose to focus on Kallen's impromptu lecture instead. After a she explained few more buttons, switches, and modes I noticed something concerning about the operating system of my new frame.
"Kallen, I can't read Hiragana." I said as she was about to begin explaining things on the heads-up display of the screen, almost all of which was written in Hiragana.
From my spot underneath her I could see her blink owlishly at me. (We really should find her a bandana so that she could at least cover her mouth and nose, this angle makes the entire visor completely pointless.)
"Oh, okay that is a problem. Give me a second." She leaned in and grasped one of the joysticks I had been grasping. She fiddled with it for a few seconds but eventually the screen rebooted and when it turned on it was all English.
"Thanks, I should probably get to polishing up both my spoken Japanese and start learning the alphabets." I said as positioned herself back into a comfortable place.
"I could help you with that." She said suddenly with excitement. I turned to look at her questioningly. She somehow got the message.
"I mean… It would be useful for my cover if we could explain some of my disappearances as extra lessons with you and if we ever need to talk about something privately without raising suspicion, they would be ideal." She explained or rather made an excuse, I could clearly tell that she had an ulterior motive.
I hummed in assent but didn't stop looking at her. After a second of staring Kallen gave up. And shyly explained. "I was hoping that I could get some hand-to-hand instruction from you as well…"
"Huh, well of course. But what brought this on?" I asked. I was somehow surprised Kallen had asked for something like that, I didn't think that she thought she would ever fight outside her Knightmare Frame.
"If we are going to be fighting more people with powers, it probably won't be while I'm inside the Guren, will it? I don't want to be helpless when the time comes." She said earnestly. I could very easily sympathize.
I gave her a nod. "Sure, you're already fairly in shape we just need to work on some technique." I said and Kallen's tense expression transformed into a relieved one.
"Yes!" She said excitedly. I let the smile I felt form on my face. "Anyways we still have the linkage system to go over, so you need to strap in." She said. I remembered the linkage system it was a topic I had gone over back in university with Rakshata.
I placed my feet on the pedals of my KMF and I buckled the belts made out of a thick wire over each of them binding them onto the pedals. They were a way to control the lower joints of a Knightmare Frame that worked by reading the users pull and push motions with motion sensors. They were a remnant of the KMF's partial origins as the 'Frame'.
The 'Frame' itself wasn't a success for its intended purpose as an aid for hindered people but it had been the perfect thing to turn the then solely ejection mechanism purposed Knightmare into an actual war machine. It was without a doubt what would eventually happen to the nerve connection interfaces that Code-R had invented as well. They too would become tools of war.
But that was the way of this World. No, not just the way of this World, it was a result of human nature. The greed that found a way to turn well intentioned inventions into weapons.
Nothing I could do about that. No one had the power to change human nature like that. So instead of worrying about something I had no power over I followed Kallen's instructions as she ran me through the IFF transponder, the Slash Harkens and finally the Fact Sphere.
"Hmm? That's odd." She muttered and I sent her a questioning look.
She leaned in and pressed some buttons to check for something but apparently couldn't find what she was looking for. "You don't have a Fact Sphere… I mean you do, but it doesn't have the same output as a normal one, no Radar or short-range motion detection. I guess you don't need those all that much, but the Radar would've still been useful." She said with confusion
Seeing as a Radar would have way more range than my power it would've been quite useful. So why isn't it there?
"What do I have then?" I asked. She gave me a shrug.
"Let's find out. Push the thumb trigger to your left." She ordered and I grasped the joystick and pushed.
A short ping came from my KMF's head and the vision my main screen was giving me of the outside world changed, it became remarkably high definition and a bar indicating zoom appeared up above, furthermore a topographic map of that was in front of me for kilometres on end appeared on the bottom right corner of my screen.
Well it was supposed to go for kilometres judging by the measurements on it, but it was blocked by the support columns and the bridge we were under. "I've never seen something like this on a Knightmare before, usually it's just a standard radar." Kallen said.
Where had I seen something like this before? Aha! Cecile used to talk about using a Lidar for finding imperfections in components back in university. It was supposed to be some kind of alternative to Radar that used lasers. Was this one of them? The map on my screen looked like it could come from one.
I glanced at my screen to see if anything else was different. A red rectangle had appeared over a news helicopter passing far away. Oh… The rectangle turned orange and a small text appeared underneath. 'Lock Confirmed'. Oh.
It probably was an oversight that this can lock onto civilian craft.
"Kallen, we need to call Rakshata. The Lidar just locked onto a news helicopter." I saw Kallen go still from the corner of my eye. I shut the Lidar down with another press of the thumb trigger and breathed a sigh of relief as the rectangle disappeared.
She breathed a sigh of relief in sync with me. "I'll get someone to come and deal with this." I said and Kallen nodded.
"Sure. Zero should brief us soon. Make sure you're there." I hummed to signify that I heard her and rappelled down with the tow line bound to the cockpits. I didn't have much time and the technicians probably had even less time to fix this issue till the operation, so I would have to find Rakshata as fast as possible.
Thankfully, I always knew the locations of everyone within around three hundred metres, thus could very clearly see Rakshata in the massive luxurious car we used as a mobile command base looking at a series of photos. I couldn't tell the expression on her face with my bugs, but I imagined it was beyond serious.
"She knows~!" sang the shadow of Lisa from the shining surface of my brand new Knightmare Frame.
I gracefully ignored her and fast walked towards Rhakshata.
Thankfully Rhakshata didn't bring anything up, the only unusual response she gave me was when I knocked on her makeshift offices and her face twisted into an annoyed grimace the moment, I told her about the issue. With a frustrated look she quickly dashed off without a word.
After a few embarrassingly long seconds where I just stared at her leave. But I relaxed once it became apparent that she wasn't going to suddenly turn around and demand to talk to me about my identity.
Whether it was that she didn't want to question me right before the operation or that she genuinely didn't realise who I was I had no clue. With somewhat lighter steps I followed after Rhakshata down the steps and into the first floor of the absurdly large luxury vehicle.
What served as the senior officers all sitting on the couch greeted me when I descended the steps into the lounge section. Zero and Kallen were also there positioned so that he and Kallen stood as if to give a presentation to the Black Knights.
"Oh, you're the reason the Indian gal was running away. What did you do, throw spiders at her?" The obnoxious one of their number, Tamaki, greeted me.
I tilted my head slightly and stared directly into his eyes. He averted his eyes first. It was petty but well… being petty over stupid things felt good. I walked towards the couch where Tamaki was sitting and sat fairly close to him.
I knew I creeped him out and I normally would've just avoided him, but he seemed like the guy who would push things further if I avoided him. Best to just face him head on, to convince him not to do anything stupid.
Once I was comfortably seated among the Black Knights Zero cleared his throat.
"Before I start, Weaver what did you talk to Rhakshata about?" He asked with some suspicion. His own feelings were reflected on the faces of everyone other than Kallen in the room.
"My IFF wasn't adjusted correctly it locked onto civilian IFF's." I said evenly, despite the amount of tense stares directed my way.
Said stares grimaced at my words. They must've been imagining the potential fallout of that little error. Ohgi, Zero's second in command, replied to me.
"Good thing you got that checked out Weaver, we don't want any more innocents getting mixed up in all of this than necessary." He said. I had to admit his tones were comforting and the praise felt genuine. I could see why he was second in command, he complimented Zero's aloof and cool leader persona well.
I decided I marginally liked him. I gave him a short nod. He smiled weakly at me.
"Well then, I suppose it is best I explain what I expect from you today." Zero began with his usual theatre kid flair. The day Lelouch decided to become a rebel instead of an actor and playwright the world lost a great talent.
"After the remaining forces of the JLF were scattered and their command perished in the sakuradite explosion, I investigated to see if there were any that could potentially be convinced to join us. Particularly Lieutenant Colonel Kyoshiro Tohdoh." The moment Zero spoke the name with respect that I had almost never heard from him the room suddenly began paying more attention.
Even Tamaki looked more attentive. That man must've been quite important to cause such reactions, I wish I knew why. The Black Knights all waited with bated breath for Zero to continue.
As the showman he was Zero took advantage of this. "Sadly I have received word from Kyoto that Kyoshiro Tohdoh and his Holy Swords have been captured by Britannia." Though he wanted to continue explaining the situation the rest of the room's occupants had another idea. Namely shouting their surprise very loudly.
"What!?"
"No, that's… That's impossible."
"Surely they must be mistaken, him and the Holy Swords?!"
"No, we've been smashing the Brits into the ground how did those guys even manage to get captured? I mean he's Tohdoh of Miracles, right!?"
I could see that Kallen was shocked too, she had clenched her fists and was staring resolutely at Zero. Waiting for orders I reckoned.
Despite learning of his identity her faith didn't seem to have been shaken up. She turned her head towards me and despite not being able to see her eyes due to her visor I could clearly tell she was looking directly at my eyes as if asking for a go ahead.
Who are you taking cues from? You probably know how to handle this lot better than I do. Still having to be the responsible authority figure I was to Kallen I discretely made a get on with it motion at her.
"So, what are we going to do, Zero?" She cut through the raised voices of her comrades with ease. Authority filled her voice which despite her confident tone she was clearly not used to having.
The shouting and stopped immediately after that.
Zero panned his gaze around the Black Knights judging them for their sudden outbursts. They had the grace to be ashamed of it judging by the way they shied away from his gaze.
"I have been able to locate the prison where they are currently being kept, this would be in any other circumstance a good thing. However, the prison he and his subordinates are being kept in is most often also used as an execution ground for high value prisoners." His tone had suddenly gone deathly serious.
The tone of his voice had also spread to the atmosphere of the room, even I felt the sudden feeling of tension and urgency in the room despite having no clue who the guy that was on his way to execution was.
"Tonight might be our only opportunity to break them out, as such I have devised an entry plan using the new Knightmare Frames Kyoto has sent us. The location of the prison will make it difficult for us to sneak our equipment in, therefore I along with a team of our best devicers will break in retrieve the prisoners and quickly make our getaway to ensure that the Britannian military won't be able to react on time." He explained with utmost graveness.
Of course the resident idiot had to annihilate the solemn atmosphere. "That means I'm coming along, right?" Said the man sitting next to me with a cocky expression on his face. I saw Ohgi rub his temples in frustration.
Zero turned towards Tamaki and answered simply. "No."
Kallen chuckled from his side at Tamaki's sudden shocked expression. I also almost lost my composure at how the usually brash guy was left speechless for a moment.
Zero naturally didn't give him time to recover.
"I will naturally come with my own Burai and Matsumura, Toyada, Ogawa and Yamakawa shall accompany me in the new Gekkas as bodyguards. Furthermore-" Zero tried to speak but Tamaki interrupted him.
"That's just Kallen's squad combined with your usual bodyguards! Couldn't you have given me one of those fancy new Knightmares and tacked me along as well?" He whined.
Zero sighed softly but answered his whining seriously.
"That is the point. Both squads you mentioned were picked for their personal skills in combat rather than squad warfare. Something which you do not specialise in Tamaki. I trust you to lead a squad and keep them focused, but not to beat back four Sutherlands and still have the time to warn me of another." He said with finality.
It did have the effect of shutting Tamaki up, the Japanese man had a satisfied smile on his face from the half compliment he had received from Zero. I shook my head slightly, what a simple man.
"Moving on." Said Zero and pointed directly at me with flourish of his cape.
"Weaver shall accompany us just in case Kalle-" He stopped in the middle of his own words and glanced at Kallen. "Pardon me. She will come with us in case there are too many garrison units for Lotus and the newly established Zero squad to take care of. Weaver's power will cover us along with the Gekkas chaff smoke as we retreat." He continued with all seriousness as if he hadn't purposefully teased Kallen with that name.
Though I couldn't guess at why he had decided to do that suddenly I could see that he was very successful if his aim was to make Kallen react.
The poor girl had gone stiff as a rod with a blush so fierce her cheeks had turned pink. This interaction did not go unnoticed, I could see Ohgi forcing down a grin to the side and Tamaki didn't even bother hiding his grin.
The meeting went on. I listened to them talk about what the Zero squad was, how they would breach the reinforced wall with explosives, what route to take to get to the prison. Contingencies in case everything goes to shit and more. I paid attention.
But… there was this odd feeling of wrongness welling from the back of my mind. And sometimes a prickling sensation overcame bits of my body. Oddly the sensation felt… incorporeal, phantom; like it didn't fit in my body. My breaths became shallow, something was happening.
Yet nothing was.
Something was wrong.
But it wasn't here.
From within my lenses my own eyes looked into eyes that were not mine.
I felt something shift, the sensations became lighter.
Then as if a crescendo was reached somewhere elsewhere a spike of not quite pain but rather discomfort stabbed right into my jugular. I held my screams and barely managed to stay motionless amidst the Black Knights. I noticed they were leaving now, scattering to do whatever they needed to do before the operation.
I should too.
But my legs did not allow me to stand up, they listened to the warning coming from elsewhere. I clenched my teeth as the discomfort washed over me once more and then…
A string snapped, I heard a terrible shattering sound come from deep within and the screams of hundreds of men echoed inside my ears.
The sensations faded.
I found myself still on the couch breathing fast with both my teeth and hands clenched. My entire body felt tense as if it was ready to spring into action. I felt a hand on my shoulder and had it not been for the familiar voice of Kallen talking to me, I might've acted rashly.
I forcefully relaxed myself. Whatever that fit was it had passed, hopefully to never return. Whatever that just was definitely came from my Passenger.
"Weaver! Hey Weaver, are you okay?" Kallen's concerned voice broke me out of the spiral I was about to go down. I turned my gaze towards her, her mouth was stretched thin with worry.
"I'm alright." I said but she looked unconvinced.
"You've been sitting there unresponsive for the last two minutes there is clearly something going on." Kallen insisted.
Oddly enough, I felt like a kid being scolded by their elder sibling.
"I was lost in thought, Kallen. It won't bother me during the operation." I tried to reassure her.
Judging by her expression it only partially worked. Come on Taylor don't make your student worried about you, you need to be better.
I weathered her concerned gaze and rose from my seat. "Let's go, we still need to go over a few more stuff on the Akashita, no?" I said. It wasn't my best attempt at shifting the topic, but Kallen didn't bother me for it.
"Sure, let's get to it." She said weakly. I felt her desire to push more, to make me answer truthfully but she refrained. A small, dissatisfied frown was stretched across her face.
I followed her as she led me back towards my Knightmare. But a single thought was stuck in my mind the entire way through.
That feeling came from my Passenger… So what was happening wherever it was?
Though the… event had shaken me I had no excuse to retire from the operation. I hadn't experienced another episode and felt mostly fine.
So I sat on the uncomfortable seat of the Akashita which was currently in the back of a truck going through the old subway. The massive swarm I had gathered as we went along covered every inch of my truck, the sheer volume was one I hadn't gathered since I regained my power. I felt that I would need it for this fight.
I had feeling in my gut that said this would not be a simple operation.
As I was contemplating whether to call Kallen to at least talk about something to stave off the boredom the large trailer carrying the Gekkas in front of me came to a stop and mine along with the one housing Kallen and Zero also halted next to it.
Another Truck holding another Knightmare I had not seen before was here too, it didn't have a pilot, so I supposed it was to serve as a getaway vehicle for the prisoners we were saving.
The radio crackled. "Disembark from the trucks, we're commencing the operation." Zero's voice came. Seconds later the doors hiding our machines opened and I turned the ignition key of my Knightmare.
From the underside of my cockpit's interface towards the waist of my KMF a whirring noise slowly intensified and eventually evened out into a soft back ground noise. The Core Luminous of the Yggdrasil Drive had fully shifted gear. The brief maintenance window that popped up in my vision showed all systems nominal.
I made my machine climb out of the truck and rose to its full height once I was outside. The Gekkas, the Guren Mk-II and Zero's Burai also emerged from their crouched positions inside the transports. I didn't necessarily tower over them however despite the height difference being barely a metre it was still noticeable.
I moved the hands of my frame to get used to the controls again and deployed the Landspinners once I was comfortable with the way it moved again.
"Lotus, grab an extra energy filler, we'll use your Radiant Wave Surger to bust through back wall and grab Tohdoh and the Holy Swords. Weaver and Zero Squad you will bust through the front gate on my signal to divert attention. Use the breaching ram inside truck 2." He ordered and the Black Knights followed immediately.
I was not so eager. For the simple reason that truck 2 was my truck, I was going to be the one to smash the damned explosive ram into the gate.
I sighed but picked the long spear like thing up after waiting for the guy in the front of the truck to unlatch it.
It was a simple contraption, a rod that was appropriately sized for a KMF with a wide cone shaped charge meant to blast open the gate if not with the explosive force than by melting the interlocking mechanism inside with the HEAT warheads copper jet so that we could bash through with our Knightmares.
It looked crude but its principles were sound. That didn't mean I wasn't uneasy as I grasped the somewhat off balanced spear.
I held the spear carefully and unscrewed the protective plastic cap arming it as I got into position. I watched Zero and Kallen leave down a different tunnel to encircle and breach through the wall.
With a sigh I tuned onto the channel of the Zero Squad.
"Are you ready to go?" I asked into the radio.
"Yes Ma'am!" Two voices enthusiastically chorused and another two joined them after a slight delay though with less enthusiasm.
Despite not having been told to do so I took command. "Once Zero signals us I will form a screen with my bugs to shield us from the defensive emplacements on the perimeter wall. Do not worry about the visibility problem, I will be transmitting movement orders in real time, form a line behind me and follow me to the gates."
"Once I breach them, I want you to rush in after me, I will disperse my swarm for you to shoot out of once we are inside and keep it centred around myself. If you need a screen to hide behind request it, I may also act on my own if I believe you need it. Any questions?" I ordered rapidly, it felt oddly like instructing students.
Upon hearing no questions I continued. "Good, now take positions." I finished my orders and readied myself to charge up the subway tunnels and through the street towards the prison complex.
"One question Ma'am" A slightly accented voice spoke. It was Matsumura one of the devicers of the Gekkas. She had no rank, as far as I was aware of no one in the Black Knights had any official rank.
I turned my machine's head towards hers. "Yes, Matsumura?" I asked.
"Zero told us to cause a distraction but what exactly will we be doing?" Her question made me chuckle.
We were in five-metre-tall death machines. There wasn't much we could be doing, was there?
"We'll burst in kill all of the guards and garrison forces in there, if possible, also bust out whatever inmates we can. No need to make things unnecessarily complicated." I replied with some amusement left over in my tone.
The Gekkas lined up behind me and I began to pull my scattered swarm into a cohesive whole. It would've been wrong to say the bugs emerged from the woodwork. Instead they emerged from everywhere.
Tendrils and waves of chitin and wings crawled from deep within the tunnels, from underneath the trucks, from cracks in the concrete and the dirt. The driven mass of insects roiled and gathered around us like some demented fog.
Two of the Zero squad, the less enthusiastic ones swore in Japanese, I couldn't understand what they had said but I knew that tone. I kept drawing more in, as much as I could without rousing suspicion.
With the violent black cloud around us that clung onto our Knightmares I felt safer, secure.
"Conditions cleared begin operation!" Shouted Zero from the radio. At his command I threw the gathered swarm into the street as a smokescreen and gunned the pedal. The tires of the landspinners screeched as my machine accelerated insanely fast.
I was forcefully pushed into my seat as my KMF took off through the streets. I felt the Zero squad take off after me with their Gekkas. Once I saw that they could keep up with the location data my machine was transmitting I picked up the pace.
The feeling of speed felt exhilarating as we neared the prisons gates, I felt a smile stretch across my face in response. It felt exiting to turn corners at near a hundred kilometres by leaning and drifting, leaving marks on the asphalt as I did so.
The careful balance I required was given to me by the Bugs on my machine allowing me to make minute adjustments to keep my balance almost instinctively. I rode the Knightmare not with grace coming from long hours or natural talent, instead with an almost cheating ability to feel the entire Knightmare like it was my own body.
The emplacements above the wall began firing into my swarm missing by a wide margin and creating new potholes in the asphalt with their autocannons. Still I didn't feel comfortable with how thin my swarm was right now as it cowered the entirety of the street.
I divided it into six different columns each large enough to hide our convoy with ten or so metres of empty padding.
The decoys did their job wonderfully as we neared the walls, they absorbed almost all the shots headed our way, I purposefully made them slow down when hit and pretended like they all housed Knightmares so that the enemy would keep shooting at them despite the lack of corpses behind.
Though saying that, the explosive autocannons of the defenders were ripping through the numbers of my swarm, had we not been so close to the gates I might've worried. But as we were there was a much more prominent thought on my mind.
Was I actually going to ram this spear into the gate?
The answer was naturally no. There was no way I was fucking ramming a gate with an explosive spear. So I took aim lining up the trajectory with my swarm and threw the spear as fast as I could.
I tracked the improvised projectile as it sailed through the air. It wobbled a bit and went slightly off course from its intended destination slamming into the lower right gate instead of directly in the middle.
Thankfully despite my risky decision the weapon still exploded as planned… It exploded a little too well, in fact. The explosion shattered the gates flinging them inwards, it seemed it had been a good decision the throw the spear instead.
Now fairly relieved I charged forth into the prison with Zero Squadron following right on my heels. I expected to see some garrison Knightmares to meet us once inside, but I couldn't spot any with my bugs. Odd.
Once inside I dispersed the swarm to both look around as much as I could and to scan with the modified fact sphere of my KMF. Nothing only the buildings of the prison complex…
"There's no one here." A Black Knight said, Ogawa I believe. I didn't answer his statement of the obvious with anything. This was suspicious, the alarms should've been rung already so where were the garrison forces?
I moved to let Zero know that something was wrong. But fate had other plans. A cluster of my bugs touched upon something on the very edge off my range on top of the wall to the left. The barrel of a Knightmare carried cannon pointed straight at us. Specifically Yamakawa.
"Yamakawa evasive manoeuvres!" I shouted just in time. The Gekka he was piloting threw itself backwards without hesitation and the shell that had been fired that very second impacted where he was creating a new smouldering crater.
"It's an ambush" Captain obvious screamed.
I clicked my tongue. Seems they had guessed we were coming.
My sensors showed enemy Knightmares emerging from behind buildings way further than my range covered, they had been prepared for me. I counted their numbers as well as I could. Seven of those new Gloucesters not counting the sniper up above with ten Sutherlands to support.
The Sutherlands must've been the garrison forces of this place but who the hell are the Gloucesters
"Scatter and fight defensively, hold out until the objectives are completed or until we can retreat." I ordered the Zero Squadron and radioed Zero himself.
"Zero, we've been ambushed enemy numbers at least eighteen. I can't promise we'll hold out long." I reported as I made my Knightmare grab the 25mm assault rifle attached to its back, the enemy was almost in effective range.
"We've also encountered resistance the white Knightmare is here, Kallen will try to occupy it as I break the prisoners out. Hold out as long as you can but retreat, if need be, our escape route remains open we can make our way out alone." His voice came from the radio, calm but strained.
"Understood." I said and returned to my squad radio as I watched Toyada dodge another shot from the sniper above.
A glance showed me that the rest of the enemy Knightmares had already almost closed the gap. Shit.
"Deal with the ones on ground level, I'll be dealing with the sniper." I ordered and gunned the landspinners before the Black Knights could answer.
The lightweight frame of my KMF darted across the ground picking up more and more speed as it did so. I activated the factsphere and got a lock on the sniper. A purple Gloucester with a cape and wielding a cannon. Whoever they were they looked like a big shot.
I pulled the trigger and two large Slash Harkens mounted on my cockpit launched towards it guided both by my aim and the guidance software.
The harpoons zoomed through the air towards the cannon wielding Gloucester, but its devicer spotted them easily and dashed along the wall further into the prison. Despite the high-speed movement he managed to line up a shot and fired.
Alright, here we go. I dashed to the side close to a short but sturdy looking building to avoid the first shell and recalled my larger Slash Harkens. The sniper stopped his Knightmare to steady his aim and fired a salvo, one I tracked with the bugs I aligned along his barrel.
My Knightmare didn't dance as the dodged the shots, I lacked the skill for it to be anything other than a wild dash. But it worked, each devastating shot that showered shrapnel and scattered brickwork was evaded with nothing more than raw speed.
I gathered my swarm around myself and shortly afterwards split into five different clouds to divert fire, I needed just a bit more time to catch up.
Predictably the sharpshooter -could I even call them that when they were firing a 105mm cannon? - dashed further to gain more ground as they fired into my clouds barely missing me with one shell.
Thankfully this Knightmare was more than fast enough to catch up. Though the Yggdrasil Drive made a very concerning high-pitched whine as I pushed the engine to its limits.
A mere hundred metres away I dispersed the cloud of bugs and formed a screen with them to protect myself from any shots as I attempted something stupid. I made my Knightmare take a runner's position and with one last burst of speed bent the knees and sprung from the ground.
The long and powerful legs of my Knightmare were specifically built for powerful bursts of speed, so their servos where without a doubt several times more powerful than a conventional frame. This combined with its lightweight chassis gave it some real airtime.
My machine rose nearly twenty metres into the air, even higher than the wall was. I sailed through the air and felt a moment of dread as gravity began to reassert itself and my flight arc turned downwards.
I fired all my Slash Harkens right where the Gloucester was not in hopes of hitting him, but instead to anchor and reel myself in. They broke through the hastily erected wall of bugs and all four of them flew straight towards the enemy Knightmare.
Somehow the pilot managed to dodge the first three that made it to the Gloucester, and they stroke the wall embedding themselves within. The last one however managed to clip his left arm and threw off his aim saving me from getting shot like a clay pigeon as I myself broke through the screen.
I reeled myself in onto the wall and landed with a thunk intent on finishing the job. I sprayed the assault rifle I held at the off-balance Knightmare.
The enemy devicer barely managed to get cannon he was holding in front of his cockpit as an improvised shield. The shots that would've hit centre of mass and punched through the cockpit pilot were stopped at last second. His weapon was ruined, filled with holes. Yet somehow it had managed to slow the rounds enough for his front plate to deflect them.
The Gloucester threw the remains of the weapon at me to cover my vision and rushed me intent on pushing me off the wall. Sadly for them I had bugs tracking every movement of their Knightmare.
I emptied the rest of the magazine into the improvised projectile throwing it wildly and dashed backwards to make some space. Predictably the Gloucester kept charging my way.
I holstered the empty assault rifle and brought as much of my swarm around myself to hinder the enemy's vision and prepared myself to act fast. The Gloucester charged in regardless of the black cloud around me and launched both of its Slash Harkens despite the lack of visibility.
One sailed over the left shoulder of my Knightmare, and I dodged the other by dashing to the very edge of the wall. The floor beneath made a terrible sound as I skidded to a stop right at the edge and dashed forward with the hands of my Knightmare extended to the sides as if it was taking a grappling stance.
If I could just push them off this'll be over, and I could support Zero Squad. My Knightmare dashed towards the enemy intent on smashing into them. The pilot unaware of my sudden change in course kept trying to catch up.
I moved in close, just close enough to get my hands on the enemy Knightmare. One of my outstretched hands flew forward and grabbed onto the descending arm of the Gloucester, I pressed trigger and with a 'vrrrrum' the wrist mounted pile bunker activated.
The crude weapons coils accelerated the hardened spike straight into the arm of the Gloucester. A resounding bang rung out and with the sound of tearing metal the entire lower arm came off. I quickly threw another punch straight towards the front chest plate of the enemy from underneath.
Just as the hand was about to reach the front of the cockpit block the unoccupied arm of the Gloucester slammed into the shoulder of my Knightmare.
Due to the swarm of bugs obscuring vision it was glancing hit so thankfully the entire arm wasn't ripped off, but it still threw the aim off, and the arm landed below its intended destination just at about the middle of the hips. Right where the Yggdrasil drive was supposed to be. Good enough.
I pressed the trigger and with the explosive noise of an object breaking the sound barrier the spike of my other pile bunker punctured through the thin metal sheets in the way and ripped into the Core Luminous.
The cockpit of the Gloucester ejected, and I pushed the now extremely volatile Knightmare off the wall. It burst with an explosion as it fell. Now that threat removed, I dispersed the bugs covering my head and pinged the factsphere.
The battlefield situation did not look good, I could see one of the Gekkas smoking and lying on the ground thankfully without its cockpit, it looked like it had gotten hit with thousands of shrapnel. A Chaos Mine then, unfortunate.
Of the other Gekkas only two were visible the last one was missing and the two that remained looked in bad shape with plates of armour missing in one case an entire arm was shorn off.
To be fair there were a fair few of the enemy smoking on the ground as well, but eight Sutherlands and a Gloucester were by far not nearly enough to stop the numbers disparity.
The two Zero Squad members left alive were being slowly but surely beaten down by the Gloucesters, who were clearly better at fighting as a squad.
They did not have much time left, the Gekkas technical superiority could only carry them so far.
I reloaded my assault rifle as I got a lock on the last two Sutherlands that had stayed behind and were providing supporting fire. There was a building near them only a hundred metres or so away from me. I aimed my Knightmare at the blocky building next to those two and jumped towards the four-story building.
I fired my two smaller Harkens into it and reeled myself in. My machine hit the concrete and brickwork with resounding force shaking me to my bones and making my body jerk on the seat I was in, regardless I retrieved my Harkens and slid down demolishing the face of the building with my empty hand to slow myself down as I did so. Dust and rubble hid my frame as I slid down.
My descent had not gone unnoticed by the Sutherlands, they turned to face me but didn't have time to fire their weapons. My two back mounted Harkens launched into each of them caving in the cockpit of one killing the devicer instantly and bisecting the other forcing them to eject.
I radioed the rest of my squad as I gathered my swarm back to myself and rushed in towards the desperate melee.
Once I was close enough to detect everything with my swarm, I gathered most of it into a large cloud around me and split off into five different smaller clouds. Two of the Gloucesters turned towards the clouds and dashed in with their lances.
"DIE Witch!" Screamed one of them from his speakers as he thrust his lance through an empty cloud. That one isn't very bright, is he?
I flanked from behind him with my speed and gunned him down, somehow the ejection mechanism still worked as the cockpit was being riddled with bullets, fools have all the luck in the world.
The brighter of the two naturally tried to take advantage of the fact I had announced my position and fired his Slash Harkens. I jumped out of the cloud to dodge and sicked one of the clouds on his Knightmare to blind him. After intervening with another of the clouds to save one of the Gekkas from a flanking Gloucester I dashed in close to the first Knightmare I had blinded and fired all my Harkens at it.
Though I was aiming for the cockpit my unfamiliarity with the Harkens made them mostly miss. Unfortunate but the two that did hit had destroyed the legs and the head of the Gloucester. Enough for a mission kill, I still gave it a kick in the chest as I passed by.
"Matsumura, report." I demanded as I regathered my swarm to split into decoys once again.
The radio crackled and laboured breaths came from the other side.
"Ogawa had to eject and Yamakawa is keeping the escape route open by killing all the V-TOLs out there. You came back just on time Ma'am, Toyada and I can't hold much more." I hummed in acknowledgement and evaded a burst of machine gun fire from one of the Gloucesters it turned towards another cloud and left itself open to the one I was in.
I fired my Harkens at the ground near it, reeled myself in and slammed my right pile bunker into its shoulder as I passed annihilating the front section of the cockpit. There was no ejection and the machine crumpled down to its knees rolling along the ground as it bled momentum.
"Any word from Zero?" I asked. I would've heard it as well if there had been but best to be sure.
"Command says his escape route has been cut off, he'll have to come here with Lotus after defeating the white Knightmare." She said. Shit, that is bad. Than we can't just then, we'll also have to wait for those two.
Moved to regather my swarm to distribute into decoys again but suddenly a massive chunk off my swarm dropped off, dead.
I dispersed the bugs covering my head and flicked the factsphere that way. There was a slightly turquoise tinted gas covering the area, some kind of fast acting bug poison. I'd imagine Cecile's work.
Its source was readily apparent. Another Gloucester with a cape holding a red glowing vibration sword. Capsules along its body let out the oddly tinted gas blowing its cape like wind.
I could feel danger coming from this one.
"You…" It spoke from its speakers, the voice filled with hate.
"You masked freak! You will pay for what you've done to Princess Cornelia!" He screamed and rushed towards me. Even though this was a dangerous combat encounter, I felt somewhat offended. I hadn't done anything to any princess, in that regard I was practically innocent. I could be blamed for a lot but nothing about any princess.
It really didn't seem fair to be blamed for something someone else did, but well… You can't expect a soldier following an ultra-nationalist regime to be rational, can you?
I activated my fact sphere and locked onto the Knightmare charging towards me. Once I trained my assault rifle onto him, I first launched all four Slash Harkens and then let loose with the rifle.
The enemy devicer dashed out of the way of my initial burst and deflected the first two Harkens that came after him with his sword, cleaving through one and severing the cord of another. One of the other Harkens he dodged at the last second with a sudden jerk that had to have hurt, but the last one found its mark smashing into the head of the Knightmare.
The factsphere along with most of the cameras flew off with a crunch eliminating most of the Gloucesters sensors, but the man's mad charge didn't stop. He had thrown all caution to the wind.
I would answer his reckless courage with all the due honour it demanded. That is to say, I was going to kill him by shooting at him. I pointed my rifle at the Gloucester and lined the front of my rifle up directly on the chest plate of the Knightmare.
With the distance now almost closed I steadied the 25mm rifle my machine held and emptied the rest of the magazine. The magnetically accelerated sabots left the coils one after another at immense speeds, breaking the sound barrier and producing terrible booms.
The Knight, half blind and in the middle of a berserker rage still had the capacity to attempt to dodge. He flung his Knightmare to the side and my aim tracked him, I shot where I predicted he was going and tried to account for my own counter movement to the other side.
It felt ridiculous attempting something I had seen on a WWII training film for fighter pilots against a ground vehicle but without my bugs to guide my aim I could do nothing but hope the videos weren't lying.
Shell after shell flew as the Knight tried to dodge and close in on my faster frame while I moved to the opposite side as him forming a circle. The sabots I was sending his way rarely found their mark either being sent off course by my dubious aim or simply being dodged as the enemy devicer adjusted his speed.
It was a stalemate I was bound to win, but of course I couldn't keep it up. My gun clicked empty. I cursed and launched my remaining two Harkens in hopes of keeping the Gloucester back as I reloaded.
My hopes of an easy victory were however dashed. The Gloucester dodged my Harkens and cut their cords as it did so and turned directly towards me despite the small cloud of bugs I had gathered around myself.
"I have you now, cur!" The LARPer shouted with actual hate behind his words.
He fired his Slash Harkens at me which I dodged easily. I felt them with my bugs as they stabbed into the ground behind me. The mad devicer didn't retrieve them… Oh shit. I tried to act fast and sever the cord, but it was too late, the Gloucester reeled itself in with the winches.
The seven-tonne death machine flew towards me with its cape billowing in the wind and its feet off the ground. The devicer had raised his sword ready to plunge it down like a spike once he was over my Knightmare.
Yet despite the grim situation I was determined not to die against this nationalist LARPer, not after everything I had been through. I threw my gun at the approaching Knightmare to no effect, now with milliseconds left before contact I felt my bugs around me all perishing rapidly.
My vital sense around my Knightmare gone I felt trapped and blind. I had once again come to rely on my power to feel everything around me especially when I was piloting this Knightmare.
I couldn't feel the limbs of my Knightmare like they were my own, I couldn't get a sense of balance just with the screens in front of me. I was trapped inside a metal box with only screens to tell me what was going on outside and nothing to orient my Knightmare with.
I felt terror. How did people pilot these like this? This was so much more difficult now. The stance I had begun to take to intercept and divert the incoming attack had become loose without the awareness my bugs provided me of my Knightmare exposing my core.
That gas had taken away whatever piloting skills I had cheated into and made me what I actually was:
A total amateur going up against a master, driven mad as he was.
The sword above began descending towards me aimed right at my cockpit.
Shit. Shit… Shit! Not like this! I threw a desperate punch at the opposing Knightmares sword and pulled the trigger of the pile bunker. With a sonic boom the spike launched ahead of the fist and clashed into the vibration sword knocking it slightly off course somehow not shattering it.
The sword stabbed into and through my Knightmares left arm destroying the shoulder and activating the auto jettison. I barely managed to push the Gloucester off myself before it could collide with me and steadied my Knightmare.
The enemy devicer recovered from the shove and landed gracefully on his Landspinners. Fucking hell, even when half blind this guy was something else. I didn't have anything else I could throw at him.
My swarm was almost entirely gone and useless now that I was also within the gas pouring off the enemy Knightmare. I had thrown my gun away in that last gamble and my Slash Harkens were all disabled. As if that wasn't enough, I only had one arm remaining.
Could I eject? No, the remaining Zero Squad Gekkas were still losing to the other Gloucesters. If I also lost this operation was beyond FUBAR. I prepared myself for one last move, if I could somehow trick the Gloucester into committing above, I could destroy his legs with my remaining pile bunker and dash off.
Clumsily I raised my Knightmares arm up above with the fist facing towards the enemy. The weathered Gloucester grasped its sword with both hands and pointed the tip at me with an inside guard to his left.
With our Knightmares barely five metres away from each other and moving at highspeed we waited for a second to see who would make the first move. He did. With extra power from his machines leg servos the Britannian soldier dashed towards me intent on running me through with the tip of his sword.
I prepared myself to duck down and attack when a burst of gunfire came from behind the Gloucester riddling its legs with shells. The entire frame wobbled and began toppling forward with its momentum, but the cockpit didn't eject despite the pilot probably being alive.
The sword it was holding flew out of its grasp and stabbed into the ground behind me.
I panned my Fact Sphere to the way the shots had come from and breathed a sigh of relief. The forms of Guren Mk-II and Zero's Burai were marred with battle damage. The left arm of the Guren was entirely missing and the Burai had deep scars all over its hull. It was also holding the assault rifle that had just possibly saved my life.
It was 'Lotus' and Zero, looking worse for wear but alive. A relieved smile stretched across my face though a different worry took its place. I hope Suzaku made it out alive.
As if the fates themselves had heard me a white shape burst through a building scattering brickwork and dust everywhere and began pursuing the two. About ten Sutherlands followed through the hole he had made in the building after him. Great…
I joined Zero and Lotus as they passed by me.
"The operation is beyond recovery. We will regroup and exfiltrate using route three. Zero Squad release chaff smoke. Weaver cover our escape." Zero's voice ordered from my radio. He sounded tired and beyond furious.
A chorus of affirmation came from Zero Squadron.
"Got it." I replied simply and got to work. I didn't have much of a swarm to work with and the amount I did was currently occupied blinding the two Gloucesters for the Gekkas to deal with.
Matsumura ran her chainsaw in the shape of a sword through middle of one cleanly bisecting it and freed up a bit more for me to use. Nowhere near enough though.
The other Gloucester was gunned down by Toyada and Zero combined. With the way open and the remains of my swarm freed I gathered every bug I could find and created a cloud between us and our pursuers. I didn't doubt that those Knightmares would be upon us soon and I didn't have any kind of ranged option to throw at them, obscuring us from their fire was all I could do.
We passed by the two Gekkas, who promptly began releasing their chaff smoke and following after us.
"Weaver, direct our fire towards their land spinners." Zero radioed.
I immediately picked out the closest Knightmares including the white one, Lloyd and Cecile's Lancelot. After placing bugs on the barrels of the Gekkas and Zero's Burai I radioed in.
"Turn around and raise your guns I will call out over radio when you do." I spoke into the microphone of my communicator.
The three with guns immediately did so without slowing down.
"Toyada aim seven degrees down and five degrees to your left, Matsumura five down and seven to the right. Zero, aim to the left ten and nine downwards adjust to the right slowly as you shoot." I rapidly spoke into the radio without breathing.
As soon as they heard my directions three bursts emerged from our line. Two of them found the Legs of the two lead Sutherlands. The burst from Zero's rifle aimed at the Lancelot missed due to Suzaku suddenly changing directions right as I spoke. Bad luck.
The Gekkas and Zero turned around as we exited the Gate. There were V-TOL wrecks littered about everywhere and a few APCs also dotted the open street Yamakawa's Gekka was further along the street with Ogawa's cockpit grasped in its grip.
"The white Knightmare dodged the shots, it's still following us." I reported to Zero.
"Damn it, we'll lure it out and deal with it. We can't risk it following us to the trucks." He said with frustration.
I was about to ask what he was planning when the Lancelot suddenly stopped as it came by the gate. Had Suzaku realised we were going to ambush him if he followed us? Whatever the case it didn't matter. He and his cohort had stopped following us.
"They stopped." I said.
"Repeat that, Weaver." Came Zero's voice.
"I said they just stopped." I said again with incredulity.
Zero made an affirming sound but he sounded just as confused as I was.
A moving target appeared on my lidar, and I immediately turned my sensors towards it to see what it was. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was just a news helicopter. The damned factsphere didn't lock onto it, though it still showed up as an enemy.
I almost laughed as I relaxed. The operation had failed and the people we were here to rescue were probably going to die but we had somehow managed to get through that disastrous situation.
This was probably going to have terrible consequences, the Black Knights had been defeated. The Acting Viceroy could use that to strengthen her position and properly consolidate her position. The main advantage we had gained by capturing Cornelia and destabilizing the government was gone.
Still we were alive. Alive and still capable of dealing with the problems this chink in the Black Knights armour would produce.
An: Hello, I'm a bit late this time. Sorry for that. Anyways about the chapter. Weaver obviously is almost entirely relying on her swarm to pilot, instead of relying on technique and experience. Which she essentially has to, she has neither the experience required nor the talent at piloting a Knightmare. She can keep up with good pilots by using her swarm to both help her pilot and use trickery to win but the moment that swarm disappears what talent she does have just goes away.
I think that made sense at least. More importantly the Black Knights lost and Euphy gets to shut a whole lot of nobles up since she displayed that she was 'strong'. I thought about her announcing Suzaku here, but it felt a bit too early for it, he's still just a good pilot not something like a war hero. So though she wants to just declare him her knight she can't just yet for his safety.
Fanfiction broke my formatting again I am going insane.