Chapter 24
The Edge of Temperance
As there was no telling when the JLF would launch their attack, Suzaku and the Glaston Knights had been forced to remain at high readiness all throughout the day and night. Not that they stayed up all night either, going into combat completely exhausted and sleep deprived would have rather defeated the purpose of their deployment in the first place, but the machines had to be kept ready at all times and there was always the prospect of them getting roused from bed with no warning.
That was not to say all of them were just sitting around doing nothing waiting for the JLF to act. A pair of UAVs officially requisitioned to provide an overhead view of the training exercise had been flying over the area surrounding Lake Kawaguchi, searching for where the JLF might have secreted their machines. Thus far however they had not been able to find anything, which indicated if nothing else the JLF were extremely proficient in the art of camouflage.
As it happened, all six pilots were already awake and tucking in their breakfast when the alarm sounded. They spared perhaps a moment to stuff one last bite into their mouths before hurrying to mount their machines.
"Be careful out there, Suzaku," Cécile cautioned.
"I will, Captain," Suzaku assured her as his cockpit closed up.
The inside of the Lancelot's cockpit was distinctly different than that of other knightmares. Whereas other frames had their pilots seated as if they were driving a car, Suzaku was actually leaning back at a significant incline, with the monitors mounted much closer to his face as well. The joysticks that he gripped also did not control the knightmare's locomotion, instead serving to provide tactile feedback to complement the neuro-link for when he needed to do something with the Lancelot's arms and hands. Not that Suzaku himself was even aware of just how different this configuration was, seeing as he had never been inside the cockpit of a conventional knightmare.
"Knights, move out!" Claudio ordered. "Kururugi, take point."
"Yes sir," Suzaku obeyed.
In the tactical sense, there were both pros and cons to having Suzaku take the lead. He technically had the most capable knightmare, equipped with both cutting edge weapons and defenses. At the same time, Suzaku was the most inexperienced of the knightmare pilots. All his past time in the machine was either in simulations or in controlled environments. That lack of actual field experience meant he was much more likely to miss something crucial while in the lead. Then again, if anyone might survive such a mistake, it was probably Suzaku inside the Lancelot. Assuming all its systems properly worked.
Additional telemetry was fed to the Lancelot and a detailed layout of the landscape before him was projected. While the drones had been unable to definitively pinpoint where the insurgents might be hiding, they had at least found a few discrepancies that warranted further investigation. Looking at his options, Suzaku frowned. The briefing about the Raiko indicated that while it was officially designated an artillery piece, it actually was not capable of performing the sort of indirect fire that other cannons were. Specifically, the velocity of the Raiko's projectiles was too fast, meaning it took a really, really long time for them to curve back down to the ground. That actually made sense, considering the Raiko was actually designed as a potential counter to the flying shields fielded by the Empire, and its designation as self-propelled artillery had more to do with the clumsy translation between its Japanese designation and English.
The pertinent thing however was that in order to use the Raiko in a purely ground bound artillery capacity, one needed to site it so far away that you absolutely had to have radar or other spotting elements ready to help direct its fire, or you needed to have direct line of sight of the intended target. The JLF certainly did not possess anymore the infrastructure needed to pull off that sort of fire control, so they almost certainly would need to pull off a line of sight shot. Assuming that was the case, then one of the possible positions drew Suzaku's attention. If was just behind one of the large hills surrounding Lake Kawaguchi, meaning one could quickly move around it to get a clear view of the resort hotel. And since the hill was in the way, unless one was actively looking, there was little time where one might notice the movement before the shot was fired.
"Captain," Suzaku said into the radio, and began explaining his conjecture.
"Makes sense," Claudio said, to Suzaku's relief. "We'll head to sector B6 to check it out first."
"You sure we should be listening to the newbie there?" another voice broke in.
"His reasoning is sound and the drones did spot something unusual there," Claudio stated matter-of-factly. "Unless you can come up with something equally convincing, there is no reason for any of us to doubt the specialist's judgement, not even you, Alfred."
To hear the captain say that was quite heartening, though Suzaku understood that being given the benefit of the doubt was not the same thing as being outright trusted. He would need to be right for that meter to budge. Still, it was clear that Claudio at least was a decent enough sort, willing to keep an open mind instead of being reflexively dismissive. That was probably why he was appointed the platoon commander above his brothers.
As the knightmares advanced, more information flowed in, some regarding the unfolding battle at the hotel and others more pertinent to their immediate situation. Amongst all that came perhaps the first confirmation that Suzaku might be onto something.
"Captain," Cécile's voice sounded over the radio, "we've spotted three Eden Vital knightmares on the move, they appear to be approaching the same target location as you."
"Acknowledged," Claudio said, then on the squadron channel. "Looks like your hunch was right, Specialist. No time to waste now, all advance at speed."
The landspinners on each knightmare revved up as the mechs picked up speed, foregoing their previous discretion. Even accounting for having to work around the foliage and undergrowth, they should be converging with the Eden Vital knightmares shortly, or were supposed to at least.
"Glaston Knights," a new voice, that of a young woman, cut in, "stand down and refrain from advancing any further. This operational area is under the jurisdiction of Cardinal Lamperouge, and you have no authorization to engage."
The immediate reaction of the pilots was utter befuddlement, and Suzaku was no exception. That the Eden Vital force might have spotted their approach was not that unexpected, they were hardly being particularly subtle in their movement. That Eden Vital, or Lelouch, might be a tad annoyed with Cornelia's backhanded intervention, was also a given, seeing how firmly he had insisted upon dealing with the JLF on his terms. That the cardinal might outright not want any involvement by the Glaston Knights, to the point of his subordinate trying to order them to stand down, that seemed a bit excessive of a reaction.
"This is Captain Claudio Darlton of the Glaston Knights. With whom am I speaking to?"
"I am Sister Lucretia, direct adjutant to His Eminence the Cardinal," came the response. "It is under his authority that I am ordering the Glaston Knights, and Specialist Kururugi, to stand down and return to your muster zone."
The name was not unknown to Claudio, seeing as he had even seen the woman a few times while on duty as one of Princess Cornelia's guards. Lucretia had been seconded to Cornelia by her brother, ostensibly to help coordinate between their two offices, and unofficially to lend some sort of protection that Cornelia's own guards were not capable of providing. Exactly from what Claudio had never been clear on, and simply presumed that that was simply one more excuse to cover for Lucretia's true purpose, to keep an eye on Cornelia so she did not do anything that might inconvenience the cardinal.
That Lucretia was taking to the field was more than a little unexpected on Claudio's part, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered was that the young woman most certainly would understand whose hand was behind the deployment of the Glaston Knights, even if it was Andreas that issued the official orders that sent them to Lake Kawaguchi. And if Lucretia really was adamant here, things could get very sticky.
"I am afraid I cannot obey that order, Sister," Claudio stated firmly. "As you are well aware, as a direct vassal sworn to the Princess Cornelia, the only chain of command I am accountable to is the one she sets."
That was entirely true, as armsmen sworn to imperial scions were even outside of the chain of command of the emperor. Even so, disobeying the emperor without sufficient cause still came with consequences, if not for the armsman in question than certainly for their liege. And while Lelouch was not the emperor, he did possess a significant degree of delegated authority as his chosen agent, as did Cornelia. Getting into an open confrontation as to whose authority trumped whose was not a dogfight that Claudio wanted to get into, especially not here and now. Hopefully Lucretia felt likewise.
"Sister Lucretia, we are genuinely here to assist with the neutralization of the JLF's heavy ordnance," Claudio tried. "Surely it would be better for us to combine our forces than to be at odds with each other."
"None of you are equipped to deal with the potential contingencies that may arise," Lucretia gave a rather brusque response. "Should you choose to defy the cardinal's orders, know that our priority will be the fulfillment of his charge, regardless of what circumstances may befall your forces."
The channel closed, indicating Lucretia did not intend to spend any more time or effort trying to dissuade Claudio.
"Rather stuck up, ain't she?" one of the other knights remarked.
"This makes no sense," Claudio groused. "Why would the cardinal be so resistant to being lent aid?"
Hesitantly, Suzaku spoke up. "Captain. I think Sister Lucretia was being entirely serious about us not being equipped for, something."
"Explain," Claudio ordered.
"I, can't, sir," Suzaku answered. "Not without violating orders of my own." After all, he had been told very, very firmly to keep his mouth shut about everything that happened down in the Shinjuku tunnels, from Kallen not actually giving Lelouch her dose of atropine to whatever the cardinal did to freeze the Purist knightmare that came charging in. "All I can say is, if Sister Lucretia is that worried about us not being equipped, we should believe her."
"Surely you're not suggesting we actually withdraw?" Claudio said somewhat incredulously.
Suzaku's jaw tightened. "No, I'm not, sir. But if we're going in regardless, we're going to need to be very, very careful, so that we don't get blindsided by whatever Sister Lucretia is worried about."
"Your concern is noted, Specialist," Claudio said, though he sounded far from convinced. "We press on nonetheless."
"Yes sir," Suzaku acknowledged.
Not that they had slowed any during the exchange. Indeed they would be reaching the site of interest in mere moments. Approaching from a perpendicular angle were the Eden Vital knightmares, which seemed to strongly indicate they were on the right track. And yet there was still nothing visible from the drone's feed or their own sensors. They were able to watch the actions of the Eden Vital knightmares closely however, so when one came to an abrupt halt and braced itself, they knew something was up. The next moment the large cannon it mounted fired and a shell raced through the air. The explosion from its impact swept aside trees and earth, revealing the previously hidden form of a knightmare. A badly mangled knightmare at that, the cannon shell having carried enough explosive force to actually rack the armor.
"What the hell is that knightmare mounted with?" one of the other knights wondered.
"Engage at range," Claudio ordered. "We might be on the same side, but something that powerful won't discriminate, and Sister Lucretia has already made clear they're not going to be mindful of us."
"They do realize we're on the same team, right?"
"Probably, but whatever's got them spooked we probably also need to worry about," Claudio said.
More movement could now be seen in the forest, this time as two other knightmares and a colossal, quadruped walker rose, pushing aside the foliage and undergrowth that so artfully hid them.
"Damn, these bastards don't kid around with the camo. We could've walked right past them without noticing a thing!"
And yet the Eden Vital knightmare had been able to localize one accurately enough to knock the enemy mech completely out of commission. That perhaps explained why the Glaston Knights' offer of help was so blithely dismissed.
The enemy knightmares opened fire, clearly seeking to buy time as the artillery piece lumbered up to crest the hill.
"Oh no you don't!" Claudio said, opening fire.
And scoring a direct hit on one of the Eden Vital knightmares.
"Wha!?" Suzaku exclaimed. "Sir! What are you doing!?"
"Engaging the enemy! Weapons free!"
"Stop!" the Japanese youth cried out. "You're firing on-"
Friendlies, who were not oblivious to suddenly getting shot metaphorically in the back.
"You bastards!" an enraged voice cried over the radio. "What the hell are you doing!?"
Before weapons fire swept through the Glaston Knights' positions. The firefight immediately devolved into a chaotic three-way.
"Sir! Stop!" Suzaku cried out as he crashed into Claudio's knightmare.
"The hell are you doing, Kururugi!?" Claudio demanded.
"You're firing on the Eden Vital knightmares!" Suzaku tried to explain.
"What the hell are you talking about!? Those are JLF frames!"
The claim was ludicrous, but Claudio sounded entirely sincere in his declaration. Why, Suzaku could not begin to fathom, though in the back of his head Lucretia's warning gnawed at him. If there really was an enemy out there that could make the Glaston Knights misidentify their targets this badly, then them walking into this fight could have cataclysmic repercussions.
"Get your head in the fight, you goddamned Eleven!" another of the knights, this one Suzaku recognized as Alfred, screamed. "Either start shooting or get out of our damn way!"
The Glaston Knights were clearly not buying it, and short of opening fire on them himself Suzaku had few options with which to stop them. Gritting his teeth, Suzaku focused on the real enemy. If he could take them out, maybe whatever was confusing his compatriots would also be dealt with. Then, another voice cut through the radio, even as static washed over the words.
"Priority target is the Raiko!" A cough sounded, the woman speaking clearly having gotten banged up in the fight. "I repeat, priority target is the Raiko!"
She was right, Suzaku immediately realized. The enemy knightmares did not matter, if they took out the artillery piece, then they won. But could they make it in time? Suzaku grimaced. The time lost to the sudden infighting had allowed the Raiko to actually climb the hill. It was even now lining up for a shot. The Eden Vital knightmares were shifting their attention to it, but thanks to their angle of approach were now on the wrong side of the hill. The only ones with a clear shot at the Raiko, at least enough of a shot to try to stop it, was Suzaku or one of the Glaston Knights. The knights were not listening though, so Suzaku charged forward just as the Raiko's barrel spun up.
"NO!"
The Lancelot was not equipped to fly. No knightmares were, and even if they were ever equipped with a float system, the power draw and overall unaerodynamic shape of the knightmare meant they were never going to be terribly maneuverable in the air. What the Lancelot could do however, unlike previous generation knightmares, was to actually jump, on account of the more complex leg design that more closely mimicked the musculature of a human leg. The leap saw Suzaku stare right down the barrel of the Raiko. He opened fire, just as the artillery piece let loose as well.
The VARIS rifle was not the first railgun weapon produced by Britannian, the navy had put together a working version to mount atop the Empire's flying ships years ago. It was however the first railgun that was small enough to be equipped on a ground combat vehicle, which a knightmare certainly counted as. The rounds it fired were small, dense shells of tungsten alloy, accelerated to several times the speed of sound. Against any conventional target, it was more than enough to assure a kill.
The coilgun mounted by the Raiko was similar to a railgun, both relied on the usage of magnetic fields instead of chemical propellants to accelerate their projectile. Both could also achieve similar magnitudes of projectile velocity, it all depended on how much power one pumped in. The difference lay in what manner the fields were generated. Railguns, as their name implied, used a pair of rails on which the projectile slid over. Coilguns however used a series of rings through which the projectile passed through. A coilgun was actually more complex to build, on account of the very high switching speed one needed for the electromagnetic rings that formed the coil. Indeed Britannia, while capable of building them, had elected to go with railguns due to their greater ease of manufacturability. Even if the rails needed replacement after a prescribed number of shots, the entire assemblage was still mechanically and electrically simpler and thus more robust, not to mention cheaper.
There was of course a certain difference in magnitude between the tungsten shell Suzaku fired and the artillery shell the Raiko unleashed. Indeed the difference was quite akin to firing a bullet at an oncoming tank shell. If the tank shell was a high explosive round, you might get lucky and detonate it. If it was a solid metal slug, well, conservation of momentum being what it was, you were still looking at a hole in whatever the tank shell was fired at.
As it was, Suzaku's shot actually managed to hit dead center on the Raiko's shell. It was certainly not enough to stop it, but by sheer luck the shell fired by the Raiko was an anti-building shell. It thus detonated in spectacular fashion, launching thousands of shards of shrapnel carrying the initial velocity imparted by the Raiko in a cone shape from the point of impact. A cone that had the Lancelot squarely at the center. Any other knightmare would have been perforated and utterly gutted. As it was, the Blaze Luminous shield held perhaps a second, absorbing a tremendous amount of kinetic energy, before overloading and failing outright. The shrapnel that thus slammed into the Lancelot was not quite as lethal as they otherwise would have been. They were still more than enough to shatter its armor and even snap off some of the limbs. In a way, it was actually fortunate that the Lancelot did not possess an ejection mechanism, for trying to eject in that storm of metal would have simply seen Suzaku's cockpit shredded. Instead the Lancelot itself absorbed the bulk of the metal shards, saving Suzaku's life even as the knightmare itself was smashed to pieces.
"Suzaku!?" Claudio exclaimed.
The suicidal charge by the Japanese youth was finally enough to stun the Glaston Knights into a momentary pause from their duel with the Eden Vital knightmares. Taking advantage of the opening, Alice charged up the hill and drove the long blade her knightmare wielded into the Raiko. She then unloaded on it point blank, easily cracking its armor and slagging the cannon barrel. A moment later its munitions touched off, the explosion tearing the artillery piece apart.
Anya on the other hand had repositioned and opened another explosive shell, catching a second JLF knightmare right in the center. The frame actually broke in two from the blast, leaving only one enemy knightmare left. With a cry over its speaker, the last JLF pilot made one last charge for glory, but now that the Glaston Knights could actually properly differentiate between friend and foe, they immediately turned their guns upon it. The enemy knightmare got perhaps a handful of steps before the incoming fire pierced its armor and lit it up just like its compatriots.
As the Glaston Knights tried to take stock of what had happened, the hulking Eden Vital knightmare turned to face them, and pointed its cannon at them.
"Glaston Knights," a young but undeniably authoritative voice sounded over the radio, "drop your weapons now, before I am forced to neutralize you."
"Wha-what's going on!?" Claudio demanded.
Alice's knightmare rolled up, gun also leveled at them.
"Drop your weapons now," Anya demanded again. "I will not ask a third time."
Despite his clear confusion, Claudio recognized an ultimatum when he heard one, and this one decidedly did not sound like a bluff. If Anya fired her cannon at them at this close a range, she was liable to take out more than one of his brothers.
"Glaston Knights," he thus said, "drop your weapons."
Claudio's knightmare was the first to do so, and one by one, his brothers reluctantly followed suit.
"Alice, check on Lucretia," Anya ordered. "And one of you. Go check on the Lancelot's pilot."
"Edgar, do it," Claudio reinforced the order with one of his own.
The lone Gloucester peeled over to obey. Surveying his surroundings, Claudio tried to understand what had happened. He was certain they had been engaging the JLF knightmares, he had even scored a disabling hit on one with his opening barrage. As he looked over in the direction of his shots however, what he saw was not the distinctive shape of the modified Glasgows he had been briefed on, but a sleeker, more angled frame that shared more of its aesthetics with the Lancelot. How could he have possibly misidentified that?
Zooming in with his cameras, Claudio watched as the cockpit from one of the Eden Vital knightmares popped open and a girl, one that could not possibly be older than adolescence, hopped down. Claudio immediately recognized her as one of Cardinal Lamperouge's attendants that seemed to assume a protective posture when following him. He had been somewhat doubtful that someone so young was actually a bodyguard of any sort, but seeing her apparently taking to the field in the knightmare was forcing him to reassess that particular preconception as well. And when Alice popped open the downed knightmare's cockpit, Claudio's eyes went wide.
Clutching her side and a trickle of blood clearly running down her forehead was the blond-haired young woman that not so long ago had tried to warn Claudio off. For her troubles, Claudio had apparently fired upon her and so wounded her. The young man felt his heart freeze.
The crack that sounded was not the conference door breaking apart, but of its hinges being tore clear off the doorframe. Lelouch's kick had sent the door flying straight at Kusakabe, with the cardinal charging in straight after. To say that he was not adhering to tactical procedure was a bit of an understatement, but from the sheer rage radiating from him, no one was going to quibble. They simply followed, and rained hell upon those that so evoked the cardinal's anger.
Kusakabe swung his katana in an attempt to cleave through the door, but the blade was hardly of a quality to cut through the solid wood. All he achieved was to slightly divert the flying door's trajectory, enough to keep from being knocked over outright, but still becoming entirely open to the oncoming charge.
"The bastard card-"
Gunfire erupted, but not from the JLF soldiers. Kallen was second through the doorway, right behind Lelouch, and the moment she had a clear line of fire opened up with her rifle. Two JLF soldiers staggered back, their eyes wide and empty. The soldiers holding onto Kaguya released her to draw their weapons, but Dalque was on them before any succeeded. She might not have possessed Alice's speed, but the tanned girl was capable of ample fleetness herself. And the power she did pack was more than enough to send one right through the window, screaming as he plummeted to his death. The other's demise was a bit quicker, but no less gruesome as his head smashed into the wall, cracking his skull.
"Dalque! Extract Kaguya!" Lelouch ordered. "Fireteam, cover and exfiltrate!"
"Gotcha!"
Picking the curled-up girl, Dalque made a mad dash for the exit, the Eden Vital soldiers quickly interspersing themselves to cover her and pulling out in the process. That left Lelouch and Kallen all by their lonesome to face off against the surviving JLF soldiers. One might almost be inclined to pity the latter had they not been preparing to behead an innocent young girl out of fanatical zeal.
At such close quarters, guns were quickly proving too slow and cumbersome to respond to the flow of combat. Kallen had already dropped her rifle, switching over to her combat knife to slash and stab her way through the enemy. Lelouch's motions, no less deadly, were less expansive in comparison. Taking full advantage of his longer weapon, the cardinal sliced and pierced, killing his foes while advancing implacably forward. The goal in his sights, the frantic JLF officer that finally succeeded in wrenching his katana free. Throughout all this chaos, the dim sound of a distant explosion went entirely unnoticed by the combatants.
"You will die here, dog of Britannia!" Kusakabe screamed, lunging forward and bringing his katana swinging down.
It was a classic kendo move, a strike aiming at the head, and executed with passable competency. Lelouch swung his own blade, and severed Kusakabe's into two. The lieutenant-colonel was still gapping at his broken weapon when Lelouch's sword arced back and swept horizontally across Kusakabe's neck. A gush of blood spilled out and Kusakabe clutched the gaping wound, trying to stem the bleeding even as he struggled to breathe. Lelouch however was not done yet, bending his knees and then launching himself in a mighty leap. With a swift thrust, Lelouch's sword pierced right through Kusakabe's hands and impaled them upon the very neck they grasped. The blade burst out through the other side, having punched right through bone. Kusakabe fell to his knees, but was kept from toppling outright by Lelouch's grip on his sword. Planting a foot on the man's chest, Lelouch gave a mighty pull and wrenched his blade free. The JLF officer was dead before his body hit the floor.
By the time Lelouch was done with his brief duel with Kusakabe, Kallen had also finished off the last of the JLF soldiers. Close to a dozen bodies were strewn about the room, which itself was stained heavily with blood. And while Kallen and Lelouch were physically unharmed, they too were splashed with crimson color. As Kallen took deep breaths to steady herself, Lelouch walked over to the webcam and calmly turned it off. Kallen glanced over at it, then frowned.
"Wait, were they recording something?" she asked.
There had been no time to inform Kallen of what Kusakabe was trying to do, or why they had been forced to hurry to stop him, beyond that Kaguya was in grave danger. As such Kallen was still blissfully unaware that the entire rescue and subsequent rampage had been streamed live across the internet.
"Kusakabe was hoping to get Kaguya to read a statement condemning Britannia and calling for the Japanese people to revolt," Lelouch said. "He was broadcasting it live via the internet, as he likely knew he would not escape alive. Kaguya however instead used it as an opportunity to declare her faith in me, and denounce Kusakabe and his compatriots. Her actions so enraged him that Kusakabe apparently intended to execute her, which would also have been broadcast."
"That sick son of a bitch," Kallen said. Then her eyes widened. "Wait, was that entire fight streamed live!?"
"Annoyingly so," Lelouch said with a sigh. "This will require some careful handling."
"Oh bloody hell, if I'm recognized from that stream, that's going to make going to school really awkward," Kallen winced.
"Yes, that is likely to compromise your ability to serve as discrete security for Ashford," Lelouch said, sheathing his sword. "But we can worry about that for the future. There are still JLF soldiers that need to be put down, and that heretic contractor is still at large."
Kallen grunted but gave a choppy nod. "What do you want me to do?"
"Abacus, are you still tracking the heretic contractor?" Lelouch called over the radio.
"I am, Legate."
Lelouch glanced over at Kallen. "Up for a rematch?"
That saw a fierce scowl cross the girl's face. "You better believe it."
"Abacus, put together a kill team to assist Sirius, and guide her to contain and eliminate the heretic contractor."
"Wilco, Legate. Sirius, proceed down to the second floor of the western wing. A kill team will rendezvous with you there."
"On my way," Kallen said, picking up her rifle and trotting out.
Lelouch followed at a more leisurely pace, getting caught up on the other tactical developments that occurred during the rescue. Kaguya herself was well on her way to the shelter now, with a considerably heavier retinue guarding her. The girl was clearly badly shaken by her close brush with death, and someone would need to sit down and help her come to terms with it once this was all over. For now, all they could do was try to make her comfortable and keep her otherwise safe.
"Legate," Sancia's voice sounded again, "we've had a development with Cartographer's team. The Raiko has been neutralized, but there was a misidentification incident with Her Highness' royal guard that resulted in Cartographer's knightmare getting disabled by friendly fire."
Exasperation mixed with a fair bit of anger flitted through Lelouch's head.
"Is Cartographer alright?" the cardinal asked.
"Zephyr reports that Cartographer has been stabilized, but they will require medevac for Cartographer and Specialist Kururugi."
The frown deepened. If Lucretia had actually been hurt, there would be hell to pay when he got back to Tokyo. That being said.
"Kururugi was also injured?" Lelouch inquired.
"Due to the confusion from the friendly fire, the Raiko was able to position itself for a shot. Specialist Kururugi appears to have intercepted the shot with his knightmare. Mordred indicates he survived, though the Lancelot itself did not."
Lelouch's jaw tightened. He had known Cornelia, or more likely Andreas, had masqueraded Suzaku and the Lancelot's evaluation as cover for their semi-discrete deployment to Lake Kawaguchi, so mention of the Japanese youth was not completely unexpected. The context in which he was brought up however was cause for plenty of concern. Recalling the distant explosion he heard while engaging Kusakabe, Lelouch supposed that was when the Raiko managed to get off its single shot. And, had Suzaku not been there to take the literal bullet, he might have been forced to extremis to deal with the artillery shell.
"Understood," Lelouch said. "Keep an eye on the situation and notify me as warranted."
"Wilco, Legate."
Lelouch looked out the window and caught sight of the smoke rising in the distance. It was too far to actually make out the source, but it seemed obvious enough that was where the destroyed artillery piece lay, along with the wrecks of the other disabled knightmares. A spike of anger coursed through Lelouch. He had explicitly requested Cornelia to let him handle the situation in Lake Kawaguchi because Eden Vital was taking at least some countermeasures in case heretical geass contractors put in a showing. There was already confirmation of one running around the hotel itself, and now this friendly fire incident heavily suggested another had been covering the Raiko. Had Cornelia left well enough alone, Anya and the others could have probably neutralized the artillery piece without any difficulty. Instead, they were down two next generation machines with both pilots as casualties.
Trust, the lack thereof was at the root of this fiasco. Specifically, Cornelia's lack of trust in him. Well, that lack could go both ways, as his sister had now given him ample reason to reciprocate. He had humored her concerns, genuine as they were, quite long enough. Now it was Cornelia that needed to prove that she was the one that could be trusted.
"Alright, I've rendezvoused with the kill team," Kallen said. "Where's our target at, Abacus?"
"Headed towards the basement, likely to attempt an escape through the service tunnels," Sancia said. "I only have partial camera coverage down there. If he makes it, and without Cartographer, he stands a good chance of eluding us."
"Then let's not let him get that far," Kallen said. "Lead the way."
Following Sancia's instructions, Kallen and her squad made their way through the hotel, trying to reach Mao as expeditiously as possible while avoiding getting drawn into any of the still raging firefights. By now Eden Vital clearly held the advantage, but the remaining JLF soldiers seemed determined to go down fighting. Eden Vital was perfectly willing to oblige, so long as it was the JLF did the bulk of the dying. Another explosion rumbled.
"Bloody hell, is any of this place going to still be standing when this is over!?" Kallen exclaimed.
"The hotel will need considerable renovation, but structurally it should still be sound," Sancia answered nonchalantly.
Kallen gave an exasperated sigh. "I really did not need to know that was a literal concern."
"Fear not, I am restraining the Black Knights to refrain from using heavy ordnance at places where the structural integrity of the building might be compromised."
"I'm starting to think you're doing this on purpose," Kallen murmured.
"Take a left and then a right," Sancia issued more instructions instead of confirming or denying Kallen's assertion. "You should be about fifty meters-target is moving away. He has likely detected your presence."
"Oh he is not getting away," Kallen said, breaking out into a sprint.
Turning the two corners, Kallen saw a figure hurriedly push through a doorway on the other end of the corridor. Her gun was already up and she squeezed off a quick burst. A tight cluster of holes punctured the door, but the target seemed to have avoided being similarly perforated.
"Is he running or holding tight?" Kallen asked as she herself started moving again.
"Running," Sancia said. "He appears to be aware that at least some areas of the hotel are being monitored and recognizes that ambushes are likely infeasible."
That was a shame, as that sort of mistake would have made things so much simpler.
"Kallen, take caution, the heretic is moving closer to a major engagement between JLF and Black Knight forces. He may be trying to draw you into the crossfire."
As powerful as Kallen's geass was, she was still not bulletproof, or at least not against concentrated gunfire. Working their way around the skirmish would take time however, especially if the heretic could find some way to weave through the firefight quickly. Considering the type of geass he was suspected to possess, that seemed quite probable.
"Options?" Kallen asked.
"You may have to force your way through," Sancia stated. "The JLF forces are slightly dispersed, so you should be able to cut through those immediately barring your path without drawing the entirety of their force down upon you."
"Fine, let's do it," Kallen said. "Tell me where to hit and I'll hit them with everything I've got."
"Thirty meters ahead, JLF forces are on the other side of the wall. They are not presently engaged."
"Hold tight," Kallen ordered her squad.
She proceeded alone, moving to the designated spot and coming to a halt when Sancia called out stop. One advantage of her geass was that she could passively absorb kinetic energy from simply running and walking from the impact force of her feet touching the ground. By this point Kallen had quit a bit stored up, and when she threw herself at the wall, she barely felt any resistance as she plowed straight through into the unsuspecting JLF soldiers. The one in her immediate path became a bloody smear as the force Kallen projected plastered him against the opposite wall. Even those to the side were sent toppling, the wake of her shockwave slamming into them. Kallen spun about, putting rounds into all of the momentarily incapacitated soldiers. Once they were permanently so, she called back to her squad.
"Clear! Form up!"
The intensity of gunfire was also growing louder, Kallen's squad now skirting the very edge of the firefight. Glimpses of JLF and Black Knights both were caught, but unless the enemy soldiers were directly in their path, Kallen refrained from opening up on them. Then again that was hardly necessary, as the assault upon their flanks was already enough to disrupt the JLF force's position, and Black Knight units were quickly moving in to exploit the openings. Kallen may not have intended to turn the tide like so, but the effect was nonetheless decisive. Perhaps that was also intentional on Sancia's part.
"The heretic is presently in a blind spot of the cameras," Sancia informed Kallen as she got past the JLF soldiers. "I do not believe he has progressed further, but I cannot tell what he might be attempting either."
"Noted," Kallen said, then to her followers. "Flash and clear, I'll be poinit."
"Understood, Sister," the squad leader said, readying a flashbang.
Suddenly shots punched through the door, striking the soldier and sending him toppling over.
"Shit!" Kallen cried out.
She had no time to think, only to react. With a kick, Kallen sent the door flying much like Lelouch had when they breached the conference room to save Kaguya. Kallen was through immediately, and came face to face with the heretic that had so bedeviled her before. The sneering youth was lunging forward with knife in hand, but Kallen was faster. Bringing her rifle about, she blocked the thrust and swept her leg out aiming for the shin. The heretic sensed her intent and tried to withdraw, but again Kallen was simply faster. Even if he could read her thoughts like they suspected, that did him little good if his body could not keep up and react quickly enough.
It was only a glancing hit, but it was still enough to crack the armor strapped to the heretic's shin. He let out a howl of pain, which was quickly eclipsed by the blast that erupted from the flashbang. Kallen felt the burst sweep across her back, immediately absorbing and reprojecting it at the heretic. The force snapped her rifle in two and carried forward right into the heretic, sending him flying right through the wall behind. It also sent him crashing into a tangle of JLF soldiers, who now suddenly had Kallen in their sights.
Kallen did not even have the luxury of cursing this time around. With her primary weapon gone, she had no choice but to dive out of the way as she scrambled to draw her sidearm. The JLF soldiers opened up, but so did the Black Knights that had recovered from the flashbang going off in their midst. Bodies fell on both sides, and with the JLF attention shifted to her squad, Kallen smashed through the wall a few feet down to flank the enemy. Her pistol barked, catching another JLF soldier in the side, while one that lunged at her was unceremoniously clocked on the head.
As gunfire slackened from Kallen's escorts, the girl took that as an opportunity to close in and finish the remaining JLF directly. At such close range, none of them could bring their guns to bear quickly enough, at least not the rifles they were still hefting. With little choice, they tried to use them to either spear or bludgeon Kallen, but she was obviously disinclined to be so obliging. The first JLF soldier she reached barely got his rifle up before Kallen's fist struck him in the chest. The next found his gun sliced in half, though Kallen's blade also shattered as it finally gave out from all the impacts she had put it through. Spinning about, Kallen simply fired pointblank with her pistol, putting the stunned soldier down before he could recover.
The others lasted perhaps a few seconds longer, until only carnage surrounded Kallen. With a slightly disgusted look on her face, Kallen wiped her hands of the blood that had been splattered over her. Hopefully it would come out, as otherwise Eden Vital would need to replace a very expensive uniform for her. Looking around, Kallen saw no sight of the heretic, so she hurried over to the soldiers that accompanied her. One was down, permanently so, but the others looked like they might make it with some prompt help.
"Abacus, I've got wounded at my position," Kallen reported over the radio. "I need medical assistance pronto."
"Reinforcements are inbound," Sancia responded.
"What about the target?"
"I regret to report that he has made it into the service tunnels," Sancia said. "Pursuing him further by yourself is unlikely to yield any fruit, so for now hold position."
"Understood," Kallen said with a weary sigh.
Letting the heretic escape was more than regrettable, since he was sure to return to bedevil them in the future. And being a likely geass contractor, well, it was almost a certainty that the entire JLF attack upon the sakuradite conference had been instigated by him, so the danger he represented was quite clear-cut. Still, the day was undoubtedly a victory for Eden Vital, and for Lelouch as well, in his capacity as both cardinal of the Order Militant and viceroy of Japan. They had defeated the first open attempt by the heretics to move against Eden Vital while also crushing the most fanatical elements of the Japanese Liberation Front.
End of Chapter 24
I debated whether to drop another snippet after the last chapter instead of actually putting up the proper continuation. I decided to spare all of you the frustration, this time.
Much as with the decrease in the number of Charles' wives, there's a proportionate decrease in the number of children. Remember, if there is a discontinuity between something in my story versus how canon portrays it, it can be presumed that I've elected to ignore something from canon. And until I start introducing those other children, it's not necessarily a given who made the transition and who just got outright dropped because I didn't have a narrative use for them.
Mao was the one that ordered the charges be planted. The one that spoke after the order was the soldier that actually set the charges, and he was reporting that he was done. That soldier didn't give any orders about detonating, he was just saying the detonator was ready.
To presume that a mere conversation between Lelouch and Clovis could have averted the Shinjuku Incident is to attribute to the two far greater import than is warranted. The Shinjuku Incident was the result of at least four separate factors colliding, of which Lelouch and Clovis were only two. Ohgi's cell after all launched their attack quite independently of any decision Lelouch made. And that attack more than anything Lelouch did was the actual instigator of the Shinjuku Incident.
Don't attribute to Lelouch more power than he actually has. Even more importantly, don't attribute reader hindsight to Lelouch. And finally, do not presume that achieving something in the story is as simple as saying it should be done. Every event and every consequence is the result of multiple factors at play, only some of which Lelouch has any influence over. Lelouch cannot just snap his fingers and dictate an outcome of his choosing, his successes are a result of significant amounts of preparation having been done beforehand. Spontaneous, unexpected developments can be handled up to a certain extent, but the more extreme the divergence from what was prepared for, the less likely that his original objective will be accomplished, or at minimum the cost to achieve it will shoot way up. Even eventualities he does try to account for can still be handled poorly and result in a suboptimal outcome. Lelouch is not omniscient. He can, and will, fail. Otherwise this would be a pretty crap story.
So I'm seeing a couple of misconceptions that I need to stamp out now before people become too invested in suppositions that rely upon them, so apologies if the next section comes off a bit brusque.
First and foremost, it appears that some readers are misapplying the criteria I mentioned a long time ago about any prospective partner needing to possess sufficient political or economic standing. Too many people are treating this criteria as if it were a positive check, when in fact it is a negative check. The absence of this criteria explicitly precludes the possibility of a relationship, but the presence of it does not serve as some sort of automatic qualifier to engage in a relationship with Lelouch. Indeed because anyone that does end up in a relationship with Lelouch will possess this criteria, it's about as useful of a metric of selection as saying Lelouch's partner has to be a woman because he needs to leave kids behind. As such this criteria is only useful for letting readers figure out who is simply out of consideration, but a woman possessing this criteria is no more or less likely to end up with Lelouch than any other woman that meets this criteria if this is the metric people are trying to assess them on.
Second, I'm seeing too many instances where the first order evaluation of whether a polygamous relationship is feasible or not is down to what assets a prospective candidate might bring to the household. This is absolutely not the case. A marriage is not an inherent holistic union, it is a balancing of the different interests held by the partners involved. The more partners there are, the more difficult it is likely to be to balance all those interests. If those interests cannot be balanced, it doesn't matter how many assets each partner brings to the table, since those assets won't end up complementing each other and are more likely to be wasted competing with each other. As such if a prospective partner's interests do not complement the interests of the current partners, any assets associated with that prospective partner become not a boon but a potential threat, and will be treated as accordingly, especially if that prospective partner refuses to back off despite being warned off.
Third, it is not a given that the assets a prospective candidate brings are actually necessary or even desirable. Taking Kaguya as an example, while many readers have advocated how the symbolism of a union with her would be a boon, others have rightly pointed out that there are associated downsides. I won't rehash what other readers have brought up, but I will list one of my own. Lelouch is in Japan to do a job, pacify the Area and ease its integration into the Empire. But that is not his only job, nor is it even his primary job. His primary job is to command Eden Vital's forces in the war against the heretics. Once his duties as viceroy are completed, he'll leave and probably spare no more than a passing glance back. Any baggage that he takes with him afterwards cannot be allowed to constrain his future endeavors. Milly, as a Britannian noble who does not have a personal, vested interest in Japan beyond some sentimentality and some business-related interests, can easily pick up stakes and follow Lelouch as need be. The same emphatically cannot be said of Kaguya. As such, whether Kaguya actually provides a net gain is not nearly as clear-cut as some readers seem to believe, even before any complications arise from Lelouch already being in a committed relationship with another woman.
Finally, and this is arguably the most crucial point, there has been a tendency to presume that the default posture of Lelouch or Milly would be to be open to another partner entering their household. This cannot be presumed. Before either even bothers to consider whether some person's assets might or might not be useful to the household, Lelouch and Milly would have to reach a conscious decision that they are interested in sharing their union with someone else in the first place. If that decision is not reached, it genuinely would not matter how advantageous bringing that person in might be, whatever wealth or power they possess becomes wholly irrelevant and plays no further part in any decisions made. Furthermore, Lelouch and Milly are entirely capable of deciding to forego any advantages inviting another person would nominally bring, as both are powerful enough in their own right that they can swallow the opportunity cost such dismissal represents and not be hurt much if at all by it. Only one, maybe two people in the entire story world possesses enough power and wealth to buy their way into that marriage without Lelouch and Milly's prior consent, and even then the marriage is liable to collapse if their consent is not obtained post-facto. And I can say for absolute certainty that Kaguya is not one of those people with that much power or wealth. She arguably doesn't even come close.
It is highly unlikely that I would ever write a Code Geass story that followed the path of the canon where a resistance movement was as successful as the Black Knights were, for the simple reason that due to how much I hew towards realism, that would be flat out impossible. We know in the real world how to put down insurgencies of the like that Lelouch ran as Zero, and it's to commit basically wholesale genocide. From a purely logistical perspective, Britannia has more than enough resources to do just that, if they had actually employed them in anything remotely like proper military tactics and strategy. And from a pragmatic standpoint, Britannia, both canon and the versions I've written, is ruthless enough to employ such means.
While I have conceptualized how a Lelouch that possessed the actual canon geass might topple the Empire in a more realistic setting, it is an extreme divergence from the canon and would amount to Lelouch suborning parts of the Britannian military by mind controlling various officers to kick off what would essentially be a massive civil war. That would be the only way to do it from "inside" Britannia, the resistance movements are just completely irrelevant in terms of viability and would be crushed far too quickly to ever reach the scale needed to actually threaten the Empire at large. Forget about the UFN, it's doubtful if even the Black Knights could come into existence in a more realistic setting.