Zero the One to Bring Chaos to An Unjust World
It was nearing morning when I finally found myself out of my Knightmare and inside of a relatively comfortable and large tent. A pleasant rain drowned out most other noises and set me at ease, it was the harbinger of a larger storm soon to set on us.
I was sitting on a foldable metal chair and twirling a white king piece in my hand as I stared at a chessboard with only one other piece on top of it, the black king piece I usually held onto.
I placed the white king in front of it and leaned back into my chair. The technicians should've begun rearming and rearmouring our Knightmares by now but there wouldn't be any further attacks against the Chinese forces, my men were too tired now after conducting such risky manoeuvres all day and night, the short rest would do them much good.
Instead of attacking it simply made more sense to let the Chinese force march themselves into Euphemia's forces. But my own work wasn't done just yet, I still had to contact Euphemia, who must've surely been running herself ragged trying to hold her forces together against the sudden Chinese aggression and the spearhead currently unknowingly making its way towards her own position.
So surely, I would have the upper hand if I were to begin the talks now. But that was not the true reason I was contemplating calling her now instead of in the morning when her forces would be locked in combat with the advancing Chinese forces.
Instead it was the odd feeling of irritation I was feeling, I couldn't exactly tell what it was, but it felt like Nunnally was in danger, but the feeling I got wasn't focused on Nunnally. It was focused on Suzaku!
For some reason if I didn't act now it felt like something terrible would happen to Suzaku! If that happened, who would I even trust to take care of Nunnally?!
Just what was this terrible premonition? Would Suzaku fall into the line of fire if I let the Chinese reach the Britannians? But that wouldn't make any sense, Suzaku was a damn mechanic for a research division, what the hell would they be doing here of all places?
A rustling noise coming from the entrance of my tent came caused me to flick my head towards the source. Red hair and a face hidden by a new, crimson face mask along with the Black Knights visor greeted me. I relaxed as Kallen stepped in and closed the tent flap behind her. She walked up to the chess board and sat down across with one leg over the other and her arms crossed.
"Zero? Are you alright, are you tired?" Despite her almost confrontational posture the concern in her voice was genuine. To be fair I couldn't imagine Kallen ever being non-confrontational, it seemed embedded into her personality and made the mask she wore around in school much more jarring.
I liked this version of Kallen much more and secretly enjoyed it that she didn't bother to keep up the sick-girl persona all that much around me while we were alone at school anymore, despite how rare those times were.
"Not necessarily tired…" I began but stopped myself. Should I confide in Kallen so deeply? I already exposed myself to C.C but to also let Kallen see weakness like this… It went against the instincts drilled into me from my youth.
But another glance at her veiled visage shattered that hesitation. Kallen, despite her fierce nature had always been on my side, this wouldn't shatter her faith in me and might even bring her closer. "I have a bad feeling. It feels like if I don't contact Princess Euphemia right now something is going to go terribly wrong." I confessed and picked up the black queen piece lying to the side of the chess board.
Kallen – Or should it be Lotus when she veiled her face? – leaned in and snatched the queen piece from me. "You should listen to your instincts." She said simply as she spun her stolen piece around her fingers.
I made a noncommittal noise. "It feels irrational, I know for sure that if I wait until morning my hand will be stronger. All conditions will have been cleared and Princess Euphemia will completely be at my mercy in any kind of negotiations we engage in. Yet this feeling of mine urges me to make contact right this instant."
The soft laugh coming from Kallen made me give her an unimpressed stare. I was being serious!
Kallen placed the queen on to the board close to the black king. "I never imagined you'd have a problem like this, Zero."
"Only the mask and what it represents are a messiah. Underneath I too am human." I replied with an unamused intonation. Kallen tilted her head like a cat.
"It's not a bad thing, really. It's nice to now you have problems like this too." She began as she leaned back onto her chair.
"But more importantly, right now you need to be decisive. So trust your instinct and strike the iron when it's hot." She finished as she rose. She grabbed the queen piece from my chess set as she did so.
Raising it in front of her eyes she inspected it. "Mind if I keep this?" She asked. I looked at her curiously, I didn't quite follow why she wanted the piece.
"Do so."
"Thanks, I'm sure It'll bring good luck." I hoped it would.
"Well, I should probably go make sure Weaver hasn't killed her groupies yet." She said offhandedly as she turned to leave.
"Huh?"
"Well, she was lecturing them about the "Kishidō" thing that's been going on, setting rules and such. Last time I was near them the bugs around were buzzing really loudly."
"You can tell her mood from those?" I asked with genuine incredulity colouring my voice.
"Once you get used to it, yes."
Something to consider for the future, it would be advantageous to learn how to read Weaver better, she reminded me far too much of Miss Hebert already… She couldn't be Miss Hebert, right?
The body types matched, the hair almost matched with Weaver's being longer than Miss Hebert's, certain tells like speech patterns matched. But even then, Weaver could use her arm way before Miss Hebert got her cybernetic arm. Could Miss Hebert perhaps have hidden the new arm to throw people off from linking the two together?
No, she had said her arm was based on the one she made for Suzaku. Though she could have been lying I hadn't seen any signs of that.
It all matched to an extreme degree, there was just one thing that made me still doubt it. What would the damn chances be that three different people from Ashford Academy, a notably prestigious if a bit too open minded for Britannian Society school, were all involved in actual terrorism.
Armed resistance. How miniscule could chances be? But those chances were never zero, and Miss Hebert was ideologically opposed to Britannia. So certainly there was a motive for her to engage in such activities.
I almost slammed a clenched hand onto the chess board but stopped myself once I remembered Kallen's presence. Abruptly I looked for her in the tent only to notice the tents flap closing shut. She must've just left.
Damn it. How could I not have seen it? Weaver was trained professionally or had a vast trove of experience, something which I suspected Miss Hebert had too, that was another clue. No matter how I looked at it, it made sense for them to be one and the same.
It would also explain why Miss Hebert behaved so oddly, if Kallen could notice her emotions from the bugs but even I couldn't decipher them from her own face it might've been some kind of price related to that Not-Geass -going by C.C's words- of hers. Maybe she felt emotions in a muted way?
My own Geass had no such issues but that might have to do with how hers is so odd…
Now that I think about it them being the same person also explained why C.C tended to remain as far away as possible from the Student Council room during school hours. She must've been able to sense Miss Hebert and her odd Geass. Which she already knew and didn't tell me… Of course, why would I expect my partner in crime to inform of such things?! It's not like that was important information or anything!
Damn it, it made too much damn sense but… I needed confirmation. I was almost certain she was Miss Hebert but the consequences of getting it wrong were far too serious. I didn't want to waste the use of my Geass on her either. That is if I even ever got the chance to use it on her.
I would need a way to find some confirmation… I could try to engineer a situation where she is injured, or maybe where her right arm specifically is injured. But still… that left a terrible taste in my mouth if she did end up being Miss Hebert, I didn't want to hurt her unnecessarily.
Seems I would have to use my Geass after all. Maybe during school…
No… No, I can think about that later. I can deal with Miss Hebert later, right now I can't afford to confront her at such a critical juncture. After the Chinese are pushed back, that's when I'll get to the bottom of this.
With a sigh I got off my seat and made my way over to the desk that held atop it a laptop and a camera.
After a few moments of fiddling with the computer I properly set up the camera so that only my upper body would show when I sat down and sent an encrypted message to the Britannian G1 through the encryption keys and secret channels I had gotten my hands on through both use of conventional spies and my Geass's special touch.
I had to wait for a long time, probably because they had to check my calls authenticity. But eventually the line I had provided them connected and Euphemia's irritated face appeared on the screen. I looked at the only half-sibling I didn't completely despise with irritation of my own. Her recent reforms had been forcing me into bolder acts to convince the Japanese to fight on.
She was more successful at quelling the rebellion with ink on paper than Clovis's pleas of false friendship or Cornelia's martial might. I didn't doubt she was doing it out of the genuine altruism. Euphemia had always been a bleeding heart.
Yet it was still a fact that her promises to the Japanese of jobs to feed their families and public services to tend to them combined with the deliverance of aid to the ghettos had dispelled the fight in many of the Japanese away quicker than any form of senseless violence ever could.
She was without a doubt the largest obstacle to freeing Japan totally from Britannia. So I found myself frustrated that she was stonewalling me. I could also understand her own irritation, I had been depriving her of vital supplies and that have been the cause of this invasion in the first place.
"Zero, I hope you can convince me that this call isn't a total waste of my time." She spoke.
I almost flinched at just how cold she sounded. Her tone was downright cutting! I hadn't expected Euphemia to be fiercer than Cornelia especially going from my childhood memories of her as. I suppose almost eight years could change anyone radically.
"Why, I thought you might appreciate some help with the coming legion of Chinese troops. If you truly don't require nor appreciate my assistance ending this call early would save both of some time." I replied with conversational tone, she was the one who needed my assistance after all.
Euphemia didn't react outwardly to my words, but I could see as she picked apart the meanings in my words.
"I assume you don't take kindly to the Chinese invaders presenting themselves as the Japanese then?" She asked with an irritated but even tone, she reminded me far too much of Cornelia.
"Very much so I'm afraid, I aim to create a free Japan. A place where the Japanese can call themselves "Japanese" with pride, not another slave for the Chinese Federation."
I saw her eyebrows twitch, it was such a minor movement that most would not have seen it. But I had become very good at reading miniscule expressions both thanks to Nunnally, who had become frustratingly good at hiding what she was thinking, and Miss Hebert.
"Perhaps you could've waited a few more years so that I could've fixed this place instead of demolishing my supply lines and opening Japan up to an invasion by the Chinese?"
Hidden in her polite tone there was a vast amount frustration. Though I noted how she used "Japan" instead of "Area 11", seems she was sympathetic to the Japanese's plight.
"Had it not been for my efforts you wouldn't have been able to take control of the Viceroyalty of Area 11 in the first place. I find myself hard pressed to believe that any changes you make could remain permanent once the Britannian Homelands attention turns back to Japan."
Euphemia's face muscles tensed in a way that hinted at fury, but the polite half-smile stayed on. Impressive, though seems I had made her a bit too angry for my aims. Better tone it down a little.
"As you and the Chinese have so wonderfully demonstrated the Homeland is in no condition to interfere with the affairs of Japan. I have years to make this place hospitable for the Japanese, to make the Numbers System nothing but history." She said with some irritation leaking out.
"I am not here to debate this with you "Acting-Viceroy", the Chinese are nearing you and our time runs short if we are to cooperate and throw these parasites off Japan." I cut through our argument; all humour had left my voice it was all business now.
I parted my cape to bring my left hand up almost as if asking for Euphemia's hand. "If you are to save your people from a long and brutal battle in the coming hours this is your only chance." I intoned.
I saw Euphemia contemplate my offer, surprisingly not with the disgust or trepidation I had expected but rather with total neutrality and a calculating gaze. Odd, with the way she was acting I had thought she had some disdain for me and the Black Knights. Maybe she still did but could put it aside for the sake of the good of the people she led.
That already made me rank her far above most of my other half-siblings.
"You're asking me to put my trust in you to come to my soldier's aid. That is a gamble, plain and simple. You have been truthful thus far Zero, but I am not so naïve that I would trust you fully. Give me a reason to trust you beyond "It would be advantageous."."
"Why that's a simple thing, I gain nothing from just betraying you after going through all this trouble. Truly it would be a terrible play for me to strike against you after helping you fight off the Chinese. Why not just let the Imperials grind you down and then swoop in to crush you just after the battle?" I paused letting the words hang for a second and then continued.
"But in reality, the explanation is that I am a miracle worker, not a con-artist." I replied neutrally.
Euphemia laughed. "The only miracle that has anything to do with you is how you've managed to survive so long despite going out in that gaudy machine of yours every single time. Really, I am surprised at how you haven't been killed in battle until now with how easily identifiable you are."
"But of course, I can't just stand back. After all, If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" I spoke with a taunting tone.
No reply came from Euphemia, I stared at her wide-open eyes and dawning bewilderment. I didn't understand what had had made her so shocked. She recovered quickly but I could see some of that wild emotion hidden beneath her eyes, which roamed all over what she could see of my form.
I didn't understand how that motto of mine had triggered such a reaction. For a moment I thought she had figured out my identity somehow, but that should've been impossible. She thought me and Nunnally dead, I had specifically asked Cornelia what she knew of our fates with my Geass. So that couldn't have been possible.
"Very well, Zero, I will take part in this gambit of yours." Euphemia spoke with that cold neutrality she had before. Yet I couldn't stop myself from noticing her softer eyes.
Lieutenant General Zhuan Ruogang
The line disconnected and I threw the receiver in my hand to the corner of the Command vehicle with enough force to shatter the plastic thing. General Cao had once again called to "check up on my progress" and I had forced to entertain the fool as he berated me for falling behind schedule.
As if he could've done better with the damned terrorist hounding his steps and the weather being as horrible as it was. I sighed as an attendant ran up to me and saluted. I motioned for him to speak.
"The 54th battalion has made contact with a Britannian battalion, sir. It seems to be made up of Gloucester Knightmares." He spoke crisply.
"Send the 57th Armoured battalion to support them and tell Lieutenant Delan to bring his regiment around the hill at point seven. I doubt those Knightmares are alone in the middle of nowhere, there must be something important near here for the Britannians to keep so many of their newer KMFS around."
"Yes, sir."
With those words the attendant ran off to convey my orders and I went over the terrain. I truly couldn't see anything important enough for the Britannians to be guarding here, our objectives such as the railroads and their major supply hub were still almost fifty kilometres away.
"Order, the 8th and 24th mechanised regiments over the hill and tell them to send out scouting parties. After that tell Lieutenant Hanying to bring his regiment to crush the Britannians." I spoke to a nearby officer, and he began relaying my orders as well.
But this situation is certainly curious, what are a bunch of high tech and expensive KMF's doing in the middle of nowhere? Shouldn't they be busy raiding our lines along with that White KMF of theirs?
Although… That White KMF hasn't been spotted anywhere in a long while as well. I had thought that it must've been resupplying or resting but it might have just moved here. Hm...
"Move the 34th and 36th regiments to the front as well." I spoke only for another colonel to dispute me.
"Sir, that would leave our rear weakened."
I waved him off. "The Black Knights won't bother attacking us now, they pulled back hours ago and we are striking their enemies. What reason would they have to attack us?" I said to the officer.
He bowed his head and returned to his duties. I was about to give more orders when the radar operator shouted.
"Britannian Aircraft! They're right on top of us!" I didn't even have time to give orders before a cacophony of shells slamming into the armour of my command vehicle shook me to my core and even threw some officers onto their backs as the vehicle shook.
Yet I noticed something, there weren't any missiles or bombs. It was a strafing run. That didn't make any sense… unless the Britannians had no more munitions to throw at us. Despite the casualty reports of the more lightly armoured IFV's and Gun Ru's around us coming I couldn't help but smile.
Some officer explained that the planes had flown through the mountain range to avoid our radar. Impressive and almost suicidal in the current rainstorm but all together not important.
"Sir! Lieutenant Delan reports that his regiment has spotted a Britannian G1 Land-cruiser!" An officer reported through the shouting of the other officers.
My smile threatened to sunder my face in two. Getting rid of whatever officer is in that G1 should certainly make things much easier and bring more than enough glory to get Cao off my back.
"Order the 78th regiment to help push through those Gloucesters. Seems fortune smiles on us."
As the chaos in the command centre calmed and the 78th regiment separated from the column and pushed forward I relaxed into my seat.
However as nothing on this damn island could go my way a terrible report came.
"Sir! We've lost contact with the back half of the column! They've been covered by chaff smoke, our radios can't reach them, and visibility is zero!"
Then another.
"Black Knights are emerging from the mountains!" "Lieutenant Delan reports more Britannian forces including Knightmares and the White Knightmare!" Two different officers screamed over each other. I slammed my hand onto my chairs arm.
Damn it! I despise this accursed island!
Princess Euphemia Acting Viceroy and a Younger Sister
I watched as a veritable horde of Chinese war machines surged towards the 283rd Knightmare Battalion's new Gloucester frames I had gifted to Lieutenant Colonel Earl Herrington.
"They took the bait, just like Zero said they would." I commented to the Corporal next to me.
"They… They did your highness." He said slowly.
"There certainly is a lot of them, isn't there?" I mentioned.
He nodded in awe at the sheer number of Chinese signatures on our surface radar. Zero had warned me and I had known of it theoretically but to actually see it was… something else.
"Begin bombardment, tell the crews to keep up the bombardment regardless of the ammo cost." I ordered and kept watching the Chinese forces surge forward. At least more of them had stopped coming, probably because Zero was busy distracting them.
But still, this many of them could've been problematic if I had to take them on merely with the forces the G1 carried, the 283rd Knightmare and the 392nd mechanised infantry battalions. Veterans these troops might be but even they couldn't take on a force nearly six times their size through sheer grit alone. Thankfully I had the two kings of the battlefield with me. Artillery and Air support.
Though their ammunition was quite limited… No thanks to my current "ally".
I let my mind wander as the sound of howitzer shells raining down upon the massed Chinese formations produced a savage orchestra.
Schneizel had called me before to warn me of possible supply shortages as everything had begun to go to hell in the Homeland.
He had mentioned dissatisfied Nobles, that had lost their children and wealth to the Empire's war machine. Angry mobs forming in the Homeland as counter insurgency operations in the areas became more and more costly as Zero's legend spread. The Navy and Army quarrelling as the budget became tighter and tighter every day.
A faltering economy as the war with the EU truly kicked off in North Africa and the European Mainland, that could only be salvaged thanks to our already immense industrial base and wide territories.
And most importantly The Emperor's mysterious "archaeology" projects that sucked up manpower and money alike. With a recent one causing an entire army group to simply disappear into nothing.
The homeland was falling apart, and the emperor was the cause. His stupid extremism had forced us into countless wars and overexerted the Number System, which from my understanding had been implemented during the Emblem of Blood to stop the empire from fracturing.
Certainly not intended to be kept up when the empire was now twice the size it was back then. The emperor was in many ways a brilliant man, but he was also radical and quite frankly possibly senile by now. And now his insane projects were dividing us and causing the people to suffer.
And suffering people would naturally rebel, causing more suffering. This damned loop was the cause of all the Empire's problems. Yet despite this the nation still went along with it. No true rebellion led by a claimant to the Throne had appeared. For a simple reason, Britannia wanted this.
I loved my country. I loved many of my siblings. Well… I loved some of my siblings. But I could see their shortcomings easily, this current situation all of it, the Black Knights, Area 11's material shortages the unrest in the other Area's and even this Chinese invasion had all happened because Britannia couldn't stop and consolidate our gains and safely integrate the Local people and give them a place they could belong in the Empire.
"Greed and Arrogance, they are the foundations of Britannia. But they are also our greatest weakness." Schneizel had said.
I agreed with him in that regard, but he believed that he could fix it once he rose to the throne. I didn't believe that so much. He was a creature of order, a good administrator, and a good diplomat but he couldn't lead people. And even if he could his own ideas were not things I agreed with.
I knew he tried to keep it a secret from me, but Cornelia never did keep their conversations to herself. They both had the opinion that peace could only be achieved once Britannia controlled everything and no one dared oppose it.
I cringed inwardly, such a blunt and simplistic view of things from some of the smartest people I knew. What were they going to do? Kill everyone that tried to resist? Force the other Peoples of the World to believe that Britannians were a superior race? What stupidity! We'd have to kill half the World's population then!
No, those two couldn't be trusted with the Throne of Britannia but I knew who could… Theoretically at least.
Lelouch… was alive, Nunnally was too. The letter I had gotten from Nunnally delivered by that old agent of Clovis's certainly confirmed that. I wouldn't have thought to ever put him on the throne by myself, but Suzaku had opened my eyes in that regard and Nunnally had supported the idea.
However there was something bothering me about Lelouch. Simply put, the fact that he might just be Zero…
It sounds a bit odd, but it would somewhat line up with what I knew of him. He hated Britannia so much so that he had promised Suzaku, he would destroy it… Check one, Zero certainly seems to be trying to do that.
Zero's mannerisms also seemed to line up with what I remembered of his, dramatic, a showman, almost obsessed with being a spectacle but also oddly honourable when it came to certain regards. And I mean real honour. Not what passes for it in the military these days.
And most importantly what he had said to me hours before. "If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" What a thing to say, especially when I distinctly remember Lelouch saying that same thing to me in one of our chess matches long ago.
From what I remembered that failed attempt had been a bet for him to come and play with Nunnally and I outside. He had told me that if I could beat him, he would've done what I had said for a whole week. The same thing went for me of course, I had been forced into being his gofer for the entire week, it hadn't made sense to me. We already had maids, why had he even bothered?
But that's not the important part. When we were playing Lelouch had constantly played his King forward, not for any reason I knew of. He just did. And that had frustrated me to no end I had felt insulted, so I had asked why he had done so.
He had said "If a king does not lead, how can he expect to be followed?". Not exactly a one for one quote but it was similar enough that Zero saying those words had been stuck in my mind. I had teased Lelouch over those words back then and asked him if he had wanted to become emperor in the future.
He had blown me off saying it was impossible, but those words did not belong to someone who had no ambition. Now he hated me and the rest of Britannia. It somewhat hurt to acknowledge that, but I was done fooling myself. I had known it would be difficult to convince Lelouch to go along with my schemes already but if he was truly filled such hate that he would create the Black Knights despite the risk it brought onto Nunnally…
It made me worry that nothing I said would be enough. Though Nunnally's support might end up being able to convince him.
"Your Highness. Warrant Officer Kururugi reports that he has routed with the regiment to our western flank." An officer broke me out of my thoughts, and I felt an eyebrow raise.
"Already?" I asked.
The officer nodded. Huh. I had expected the Chinese regiment to hold out longer, I guess the Black Knights must've done more damage with their harassment than I had thought. A glance at the surging Chinese assault against the 283rd. They were getting slogged down by the artillery barrage but from how the explosions started to become less and less frequent I could tell that my guns were starting run out.
I suppose this far was enough. "Order the 283rd to fall back to the second line and get me a line to our… "leant specialist"." I ordered and watched as Earl Herrington's infantry abandoned their position and scattered into their IFV's followed shortly by the Gloucesters. A frantic yet orderly retreat, meant to give the enemy the illusion of our forces breaking in sight of their sheer numbers.
It would lure them in deeper and allowing us to safely strike them and obliterate them before the column Zero was currently distracting could react.
But for us to do that without exhausting the limited troops I had I was forced to borrow something from Zero, namely his "Demon" as some of the superstitious soldiers called her.
A screen to the side blinked on showing a dark cockpit and two red glints shining off of sinister opaque lenses. I resisted the urge to shudder as a spider's limbs briefly passed over the camera.
"Weaver, I trust you are in position?" I asked while making sure to keep both my posture confident and voice even.
The shrouded and unnaturally still form of this "Weaver" didn't answer me for a bit to long for it to not be intentional and then spoke in an almost monotone voice.
"I am, the Chinese have entered the Zone you asked me to cover. Are you ready, princess?" Though the tone did not change I could clearly tell that the last part was intended to be a taunt. I didn't rise to it and the taunt itself didn't seem to have that much intent behind it. I'd guess Weaver had thrown it in for the sake of it rather than any desire to belittle me.
Odd, you would think someone that joined a terrorist group and is the rumoured leader of its more extremist portions would be more spiteful at a princess of the nation she opposed. Regardless I answered her.
"Conditions are set, you may begin when you wish." I replied neutrally.
The woman moved in an almost mechanical way and reclined into her seat as if some tension had been released. "Acknowledged." She said with that same monotone voice that never failed to make chills run down my spine.
The line cut and noticed a spider move across the map I was standing in front of. The G1 was far away from the place Weaver was hiding in and definitely farther out than what we theorised her range was, but I still eyed the spider suspiciously as it scurried away.
Weaver wasn't imposing in a conventional sense yet her mechanical movements and unnatural stillness still managed to unnerve me. I heard the colonel near me let out a held breath. Seems I wasn't the only one unnerved by our ally.
I focused on observing the battlefield instead of dwelling on Weaver's creepy behaviour. A moment passed as the Chinese finished climbing over the bodies of their comrades and out of the craters made by Britannian shells and rushed forward emboldened by the retreat for my forces. Their vehicles found an advantageous position and their KMF's rushed along returning fire to my own forces.
But they overextended and just as they had been fully ready to strike against my troops a swarm of insects rose from the ground like black smoke chittering and malicious, they punished whatever few infantry tried to exit their IFVs and blinded what optics were in range.
There must've been millions of them each guided by malicious intelligence. So great were their numbers that they obscured any and all visibility rendering all efforts to shoot into or out of the black clouds virtually moot if it wasn't massed like the volleys of the 18th century.
Shortly thereafter targeting solutions came from Weaver's hidden Knightmare and were acted upon not only by the 283rd and 392nd but also by the long-ranged cannons of the Tanks that served as my G1's protection detail. I motioned at an officer for him to give the go ahead to our CAS as well and seconds later their guns swooped in from above and targeted the obscured forms of enemy KMFs, Tanks and IFVs alike.
I would've rathered they also brought ordnance to bear as well but we had spare all our heavy weapons for the fight at see if the cordon around Kyushu broke and the Chinese managed to land more units this entire thing would've been pointless. Moreover I was already risking enough by telling the planes to fly in the rainstorm.
The barrage of munitions flying into the clouds lasted for around a half a minute as my men chewed through the Chinese inside. A few of the Chinese KMFs managed to manoeuvre out of the cloud but met their ends at the ends of Slash Harkens coming from among the trees launched by Weaver's odd customised KMF.
I could call Weaver a lot of things but neither inefficient nor careless were one of them. She did good work.
Now then, with this vanguard force annihilated it should leave the centre of the Column where the opposing general's command vehicle is relatively vulnerable. I began giving orders.
Weaver A Different Perspective
I gently made my machine rise from its crouch as messages flew to and from it to my Britannian "allies". I didn't trust them as far as I could throw them, but needs must when the Devil drives.
Still I felt distinctly uncomfortable right now not because of any perceived danger from the Britannians, I was sure I could easily retreat from them and for that very purpose kept a large enough distance from the battalion that had come near me and Suzaku's Lancelot, who positioned himself between me and the rest as if protecting them.
No, my concern was that my… followers, whom I had just a few hours ago tried to beat the radicalism out of, were now unleashed upon a confused and disorganized Chinese force without my supervision. Especially now that I had lost sight of them since the IFF signals the Black Knight's should've been broadcasting refused to show up on my display.
It made me worried. Not about Lotus or Zero. Okay, that was a blatant lie. I worried about those two as well, but I knew for a fact that they could both handle themselves. But since I couldn't get a hold of the IFF signals I couldn't tell what the Black Knights and specifically the "Yatsukahagi" guys were doing.
Who knew what those extremists would get up to in the middle of combat if Zero or Lotus weren't able to keep an eye on them?
It was an irrational fear but my reputation as Weaver was already terrible enough with even that Britannian princess being distinctly uncomfortable after barely talking with me through a screen for less than a minute. Such a reputation was very useful but only in moderation.
My days as the Warlord of Brockton Bay had thought me that. Too little fear and random no names would think they can cause problems near you or attack you directly. Too much fear… Well, then important people get drowned in bugs and a bunch of other problems start cropping up.
I sighed but continued funnelling the bugs around into the compartments build into my Machines frame. In the forests and mountains my swarm had no limit to its reserves other than only being forced to choose the bugs that could at least try to keep up with the Knightmares. Even that was only a soft cap, I could easily draw more bugs from the environment if some fell behind.
Yet I still filled the compartments not only to ensure that my sense of balance remained secure but also to potentially serve as an emergency smokescreen. Never knew when a few hundred thousand extra bugs could help.
My eyes flickered to the corner of my KMF's display as the Black Knight's IFF finally showed up on my Lidar. They were buried deep into the back of the Chinese convoy and the reason why the signals had refused to show up from farther away was blatantly apparent. Our own chaff smoke.
It was dissipating by now but that explained why Zero had warned me that I wouldn't be able to contact them. He must've popped it to get into the Chinese lines safely where their extreme numbers advantage and artillery compliment would've been difficult to make use of.
I pushed ahead of the Gloucesters and the Lancelot with the Akashita's ludicrous speed and launched my slash harkens into the mountain side and reeled my Machine in. Once I was up high enough I pinged my Lidar. An accurate mapping of the battlefield soon came to the bottom right of my screen.
That was a lot of dead Chinese soldiers. Wrecks littered the surroundings of the Black Knights who had engaged in melee with the Chinese KMFs where our more traditional KMFs had the advantage over the bulbous almost frog-like machines the invaders favoured.
The sheer number of wrecks had turned the already muddy ground downright treacherous and difficult for the KMF's landspinners to navigate, yet despite that the Burais and Gekkas of the Black Knights along with the sole vibrant red form of the Guren Mk. II danced through the burning and hallowed out wreckages of short and round KMFs, stout IFVs and squat tanks as they used the wreckages and remaining chaff smoke as cover against the invasion force's blistering firepower.
It had been well executed. The column seemed to be fractured between trying to manoeuvre to get a shot at the Black Knights or turn towards the incoming Britannians. Of course with the added bonus of leaving what was clearly the command vehicle of the Chinese forces relatively exposed.
But of course to actually be able to do anything against the heavily armoured "land cruiser" I would either have to get in range so that my bugs could finish off whoever was leading this force or if that was not possible carve a way into it with the Akashita's pile bunkers.
Now that I had gotten a quick look at the larger battle, I dislodged my Slash Harkens and slid down the muddy valley so that I was only slightly ahead of the main Britannian force and threw a cloud of insects in front of us to provide cover against the guns that had been pointed our way. I marked the barrels of the Chinese guns that were pointing near enough to me that it would matter.
I prepared myself for the first volley and jerked the controls around to dodge the shots whenever they came taking special care to not drive into any spots of mud created by the rain. As I jerked my machine right to left and back right again to dodge the massed blind fire of Chinese KMF's the Ygdrasil Drive of the Akashita started to make that terrible noise again.
I reluctantly slowed down to not endanger a rupture like last time. But the thing about slowing down is, is that it lets your enemy have a whole lot more time where they could shoot at you. Thus more time I would need to dodge and less time I could spend shooting back.
I wasn't a particularly skilled Knightmare pilot, I just had very good reflexes and cheated with my bugs. So in this instance I couldn't just accurately transmit targeting solutions to the Britannians who were just as busy not trying to get ripped apart by the blind fire of Chinese guns, while also dodging and shooting back with my own weapon.
So I used a little bit of high school physics and a lot of trust in the quality of Rakshata's work. I fired my two shoulder mounted Slash Harkens into the ground further away. Then I spread the legs of my KMF and angled its Land Spinners horizontally and reeled myself in using the centrifugal force to propel myself further.
Just as I was about to breach my cloud of bugs, I retrieved the Slash Harkens and jumped. My red and black Knightmare briefly sailed over the ground before I slammed feet first onto a Chinese KMF. Metal sheared and I barely retained my balance after momentum carried me to the ground. But I had no time to waste, if I stopped for a second, I would've been surrounded by the squamates of the KMF I had just demolished.
So I surged forward and rammed into another group of Knightmares. The first one I took out with a controlled burst. The second one I dodged its fire and launched the cockpit mounted Slash Harkens to shear through it. The third I slammed a pile bunker into. And finally the fifth and last one in my way received another Slash Harken to the cockpit.
I hadn't truly thought about it before, but this way of combat was such an impersonal way of killing. I could see how so many Britannians had become accustomed to bloodshed and even grown numb to killing.
It wasn't your hands that did it and even then when you fought only against vehicles you would rarely see any actual humans other than desperate devicers or tank crews escaping their vehicles. This lack of infantry was something which most Militaries of this World had apparently almost accepted as doctrine at this point. It seemed odd to me, the Black Knights used infantry and we used them quite often but for most professional armies' infantry only seemed to do guard duty.
It hadn't been that way seven years ago, I remember the Britannian infantry raiding and pillaging through the Japanese cities quite clearly. Perhaps the widespread use of Knightmares had convinced them to stop using infantry…
Even that didn't really make much sense, infantry could easily punch up their weight class. But "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." was a well-known quote for a reason.
I evaded a burst of machine gun fire from a KMF behind me by jerking to left and returned fire with my Knightmare Assault rifle without turning to face it. I was already in too deep to let up my assault for even a second.
I trusted Suzaku, who was busy tearing through the Chinese KMFs I had rushed past, to keep the heat off me until I could reach command vehicle and cut the serpent's head off.
I threw a cloud of bugs over a section of tanks that had turned their turrets towards me. I couldn't get a lock on for my Slash Harkens through the bugs, so I shot at their top armour as I passed by them.
There was only half a kilometre between me and the command vehicle but the sheer amount of vehicles between it and my KMF was problematic. It wasn't like I could stop though and spend wearing them out, we needed a fast victory otherwise this current chaos would eventually pass and the overwhelming numbers of Chinse war machines would bury us into the mud.
I pinged my Lidar and launched the Slash Harkens at another squad of in my way. It was getting tiring having to destroy or blind so many KMFs and neither my ammunition nor the durability of my Slash Harkens would hold out for much longer even if I ignored vast majority. I needed something big that would let me through.
I dodged another shell from a tank and rushed up to it to impale through its turret. A "pftunk!" noise and a small sonic boom announced the destruction of that Tanks cannon and most likely the deaths of its crew at the end of the shrapnel that had been scattered inside.
I used the tank as leverage to jump over another squad of KMFs and rushed forward before they could turn to face me. The advancing Britannians soon attracted their attention off me anyways.
I spotted another KMF squadron this one made up of nearly ten machines that I had no way of getting around of, my only option was to blind them and pierce through their flank.
But just as I had obscured their vision by sicking a swarm on top of them my radio crackled.
The crisp voice of a Britannian officer came through. "All units be advised, this is Lieutenant Colonel Herrington. Our CAS has spotted the beginnings of a mudslide on the mountain to our west. Projected impact zone is D8, D7, D6 and D5. I repeat, projected impact zone D8, D7, D6 and D5 stop the advance and try to find a hard ground to anchor yourself to."
I looked at the map on my display and cursed silently. I was directly in the middle of the zone but so were the Chinese. If I could just find a way to survive it would clear a path to my objective.
I spared a glance at the mountain the mudslide was coming from. I was at the skirts of a portion with few threes and what seemed like very soft ground unlike the usual rocky parts. It was prime mudslide recipe in the rainstorm. I could already see the first few hints of it as the few threes there were at the began to get barrelled over and joined the mud in flowing down the hill.
I clicked my tongue and threw a cloud of bugs around me. Pushing forward or backwards was out of the question there was simply no way I was getting out of the zone in time that way. That only left one option, East.
There were a few Chinese units that were blocking my way, but they had finally spotted the incoming Mudslide and were in the middle of panicking.
I looked behind me and through a hole I had made in the bugs surrounding me noticed that the mudslide had picked up speed much faster than I expected.
I breathed out and resigned myself to the lecture I would receive from Rakshata after this. I gunned the Ygdrasil Drive and spun up my Land Spinners. A moment passed as they kicked up some mud and then I was sent crashing back into my seat. The Akashita picked up speed in a rather incredible way going from the relatively sedate Seventy kilometres an hour it was doing before into a blistering 130 in less than five seconds.
I struggled to control the Land Spinners as the treacherous terrain filled with rocks, mud and the bits and pieces of destroyed vehicles threatened to throw the Akashita off its landspinners and me into a fast track to getting brain damage.
But the sounds of threes being ripped out of the ground and thrown down the hill along with hundreds of tons of mud flowing down the mountain squashing anything that wasn't fast enough served as encouragement enough for me to continue despite the risk.
Truly if I couldn't perceive those dangers in the ground through my bugs I would've been screwed. As clearly exemplified by the screech of tearing metal and rumbling of the earth coming behind me.
I didn't stop even as I passed others trying to escape the tide of mud that faltered and fell behind. I didn't stop as I saw KMFs frozen in fear at the sight. I simply didn't stop until I was out of the column and as far away as I possibly could be.
I had gone so far that the Land Spinners of the Akashita made a terrible squeaking noise every time I moved and the frame of my machine-made groaning noises at the hips indictive of metal fatigue.
I sighed in relief as I saw the mud settle and stop flowing. "What a terrible way to die." Said Lisa's ghost from my screen.
I couldn't help but agree. Just imagining it made me shudder. Trapped in the small cockpit of a Knightmare or the cramped insides of a tank counting breaths as you waited for death or rescue without even being able to move. And that was if your machine had managed to protect you from being crushed under the immense weight of mud.
"Chin up Taylor, you still need to finish this." Spoke the Ghost breaking me out of my macabre rumination.
I looked at her oddly but nodded, nonetheless. She didn't often speak in the middle of combat, it was a bit odd.
Regardless I searched for the command vehicle with my machine's suite of sensors. I spotted it quickly embedded just beyond the lake of mud that had formed and with its guns turned towards the Black Knights. It was wide open.
I was trying to make my way there when my radio crackled. "Weaver, are you alive over there?" The voice that had warned of the mudslide asked. I rose an eyebrow, shouldn't they be able to see my IFF? I flicked a glance at its status.
Ah… Seems I had forgotten to turn it on. I flicked its switch on and then answered the radio.
"Yes, I am unharmed. Not for Mother Nature's lack of trying." I replied with perhaps a bit more emotion than normal. That was excusable, there was so much adrenaline coursing through me that the more emotions I shunted off to the bugs more yet was generated to take its place.
"Good to hear, we are unable to cross the mud and are making our way to you to go around it."
He seemed oddly polite for a Britannian officer and likely a noble. Especially considering that he's talking to a hated terrorist. I guess there are all sorts of people out there, I wasn't particularly normal myself.
"Yeah, I was just about to say that. You probably shouldn't judge people for their weird actions, Taylor." Lisa lectured.
I chose to ignore her and responded to the Britannian Officer. "Understood, I am proceeding to the objective." I replied from the radio and began making my way towards the unaware command vehicle.
"I would advise against going on your own Weaver, the Lancelot is moving to link up with you. Please wait for him." The man started to say but I had stopped listening, I'd rather finish this quickly before the Black Knights began lost more people than necessary. The mudslide might have annihilated most opposition over here but at that side there was still a whole lot of Chinese KMFs and Tanks.
I spun up the landspinners and began rushing through the rough ground at a far sedater pace than before. The distance between me and the command vehicle had increased but the way was clear. But of course nothing can be easy. Someone on the Chinese Landship spotted me as I saw a multitude of CWIS turrets begin to turn my way.
The moment I registered that a cloud of bugs formed around me and then split into eighteen different smaller clouds each more than large enough to contain three Knightmares on their own.
I placed myself in the edge of the one furthest to the right and slowed down so that my bugs could keep up. I was almost in range of the Command vehicle but until then I was totally blind as to where it was shooting.
But I didn't stop. I didn't flinch as I heard the high calibre rotary cannons tore through a nearby swarm and ripped into the ground. I didn't flinch as the buzzsaw-like scream of the cannons announce rounds coming my way and as I finally reached range and felt one of the cannons directly pointing my way, I dodged to the left to avoid the burst and fired back. By now I had gotten close enough that my 25mm could clear the way for me.
I could fight back.
I fired burst after burst diving into different clumps of bugs to avoid the fire of the point defence weapons. One cannon fell silent moments later an explosion announced the destruction of another six barrels. The full might of the land cruiser was now turning towards me, it's squat but angled armoured surface shifted on massive tracks to give more guns line of sight to me.
Shit. The Black Knights were busy with the remains of the Chinese vehicles, I was alone.
I unloaded my coil gun taking down turrets with each precise burst but with every single shell launched I was coming closer to running out of ammo and the command vehicle wasn't about to run out of ammo.
Then it happened. My gun clicked empty and as I reached for another ammo magazine, I found only empty ones. I was out and now my only defence was my bugs and speed, I couldn't even rely on my Slash Harkens they would expose my position for too long and I'd end up shot to pieces.
The huge cannon mounted on the front of the bulbous command centre began to turn towards the clump I was hiding in, and I knew for a fact that I would have to get out if I was going to dodge and that would leave me exposed to the other guns!
I desperately looked for a way out but could see none that wouldn't leave me exposed. I got ready to dodge and then the moment the gun had turned to aim directly in the middle of my swarm. I held my breath and braced myself. A flash of light and the disruption of the air flinging my bugs around alerted me to the danger and I threw my Knightmare to the side with a leap.
The absurdly large howitzer's shell the size of a washing machine impacted the middle of the cloud I had been in. The now unobstructed cameras of my KMF captured the moment the shell detonated.
A flash of red light bloomed and flames spread annihilating all bugs in the cloud and a bit more even than. But the moment I saw the fireball I knew for a fact that my leap hadn't taken me out of the danger zone.
The fireball continued to expand stopping barely short of my Knightmare but the concussive force behind it didn't stop. The shock wave hit my Knightmare with all the force of a freight train shunting me off the ground and throwing me into the rough, muddy ground.
I tried to roll the Akashita back on its feet as I fell but the impact jostled be in my seat and I smashed face first into a nearby maintenance panel. I heard a cracking sound but couldn't tell what it was in my daze. Fragments fell from my vision.
Ah… one of my mask's lenses had shattered. I tasted blood in my mouth but forced myself to look at my KMF's display. The cannon was turning my way and there was no swarm around me to obscure my machine's form. I tried to force my Machine to move but the leg servos were sluggish and made a terrible noise as they moved. Must've been the mud.
I stared at the barrel pointed at me. I frantically forced the controls forward and back forward and back trying to make my KMF do anything. But it was in vain. The cannon stopped moving a second passed. I closed my tired eyes. The shot I and burning pain I expected didn't come.
No, instead a shell covered in a green glow raced barely five metres away from my KMF and hit the large cannon square in the middle producing a satisfying green explosion. The VARIS!
I turned my machine's head backwards to get a look at my saviour. The white and gold frame of the Lancelot with its hand outstretched and holding onto its VARIS rifle was beautiful sight. A trio of shots followed, and more explosions followed tearing into the armour and weaponry of the land cruiser.
I breathed a sigh of relief and focused on getting my Knightmare back on its feat. The servos protested with violent groans, yet they obeyed. The six-tonne ultralight-frame of the Akashita rose from the ground with mud and water sloughing off its armour plating. I breathed a sigh of relief as a swarm covered me and I began moving again.
I began assessing an angle of attack. The front of the vehicle was currently facing us, so most turrets had a good angle on me if I were to engage. I was still moving enough bugs over there so that I could form an effective cloud over all its sensors so I couldn't risk just getting out of my cover just yet.
More fire support from the distant Lancelot came and took out another trio of turrets to the land ship's left. And then I heard the screech of jet engines coming from somewhere nearby. The turrets still facing me began to turn to engage the fighter craft.
There, there was my chance.
I banked hard to the right where the least amount of turrets was and picked up speed. Afterwards with a press of my middle fingers I launched my two-shoulder mounted Slash Harkens into what I presumed to be the "bridge" of the land cruiser.
Some turrets that could still point at me began shooting into the cloud I was in, but the heavy harpoons had already made contact and sunken into the armour. I reeled myself in and let my machine be taken off the ground. A feeling of weightlessness followed but I didn't let myself rest.
I began to adjust my machine's stance in the air so that I could immediately land a hit on the bridge as I came in.
A second passed and I saw a distinctly bright Lancelot rushing forward from my peripheral vision. That thing was incredibly fast to be able to keep up with the Akashita.
But of course it was, it was Lloyd's pet project.
I still arrived earlier than it did and immediately slammed a hand into the bridge as I fell. Then with press of a trigger my left pile bunker was unleashed. The sound barrier was once again passed, and the heavy metal spike pierced straight through the thick armour of the bridge. I didn't let up with just that though.
I dug my machine's fingers into the armour and clung onto its surface. The right hand came up and another terrifying boom followed by the sound of armour plates denting and shattering followed soon after. With the initial hole made I stuck my hands in and began ripping open the Bridge letting my swarm flood into the place.
What I saw was a massacre. The fragments my pile bunkers had scattered around the room had mauled bodies and shredded limbs as if they were the blades of a blender. Some bodies were ripped apart by fragments the size of rocks and whoever wasn't dead was dying rapidly at the hands of blood loss.
Their vitality coated the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. I felt nauseous but supressed it easily. I needed to end this battle now, I could be horrified later.
A gaudily dressed figure caught my eye. He must've been the force's commander. I knew just how to end this battle before more blood was spilled.
I reached inside and wrapped my hands around the flashily dressed figure that sat on what looked almost like a throne.
I ripped the dying figure from their throne. I climbed onto the top of the command vehicle, whose guns had gone silent and turned towards the now surrounded and outnumbered Chinese soldiers. I raised their commander into the sky displaying him like some gruesome banner or trophy.
It was not a surprise when they began to surrender one by one.
An: Hello everyone bit of a late chapter this time. Sorry for the delay, I kept wanting to finish the chapter then another thing to add came to mind and I had to rewrite an entire section. So yeah… It took a while.
Anyways surprisingly the makeshift alliance hasn't ended up in betrayal and a bunch of people ended up starting to suspect other people. Overall the best result possible, of course Lelouch is up to no good despite starting to suspect that Weaver is Taylor. So naturally he will do as early Lelouch does and use his Geass. Which will end up fine I'm sure.
Anyways, I didn't end the alliance in betrayal because Euphemia isn't the type to do that so openly (She absolutely would make someone disposable betray though, if she didn't suspect Zero was Lelouch.) and also isn't the type to keep people who would do that around her. Why Lelouch and the Black Knights didn't betray the Britannians is simple: Why would they?
Anyways, the Chinese invasion is essentially over for the Black Knights and I am going to end up doing brief POV's of other people on the ground of the battle the next chapter, than that'll be it for the "onscreen" folks.