The Knights of Earth

Chapter 4

Evacuation

A/N: I'm sorry that this isn't as long as it should be and that it took me so long to write it but moving literally to the other side of the country plus having to deal with other real life issues has been rather difficult.

Disclaimer: I don't own Aldnoah Zero otherwise this would be canon. There you happy you copyright Nazis T_T

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-Japan, Shinagawara, Amphibious Assault Ship-

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Today it seemed as though had flown by for Inaho Kaizuka. When he had left the relative safety of his sister's apartment complex earlier in the day it had been roughly seven in the morning. Now it was almost three in the afternoon. For Inaho it was always strange how the passage of time seemed to the individual. When there wasn't much going on, it seemed as though time had slowed to a crawl. If there was much to do, then it felt as though time went by much faster.

This made it seem strange that just yesterday there was supposed to be a goodwill visit for peace and prosperity for both the UFE and the Vers Empire. But in less than twenty-four hours it had turned into an all-out war with an assassination attempt on the princess' life. The Martian's hadn't even bothered to conduct an investigation into who was responsible. At first it didn't make any sense. Were the Orbital Knights so idiotic that they just assumed that everyone on the planet was to blame for her death? Or were they simply so bloodthirsty that they were simply looking for any excuse to attack Earth.

Only just a short while ago did things start making some sense to Inaho. Princess Asseylum was still alive and well, despite the assassination attempt. This led Inaho to come up with two theories. Either the assassination attempt was caused by a group of Terran extremists who wanted to send a message by killing the princess, or that the assassination attempt was perpetrated by either a small group of conspirators within the Orbital Knights or the group as a whole was involved. Judging by how the Orbital Knights reacted after the death of the princess it was probably the latter.

Not only did they not even attempt to conduct an investigation into what had happened, but they automatically declared that the entirety of Earth was to blame for her apparent demise and launched an assault on the planet. Inaho wondered if the Orbital Knights were really willing to kill the grandchild of their own monarch just so they could get a chance to claim Earth for themselves.

He never really understood why but most Martians viewed those who were born and lived on Earth as somehow being inferior so it was possible that they considered the princess to be something akin to a "race traitor" for trying to associate with them. Add to the fact that there were many on Vers who felt as though they were entitled to take Earth for themselves and it would probably cause a serious divide between several members of the upper class and the princess who wanted better relations.

"I know that look," the voice of Inaho's older sister declared breaking the young teenager out of his thoughts. Inaho turned from the view of the city and looked directly over at Yuki who was walking towards him, her arm still in a sling. The younger of the Kaizuka siblings looked over at his older sister and asked "Huh, and what look might that be? Everyone I've met seems to think that I only have one look on my face all the time."

Yuki pressed her uninjured hand against her waist and cocked her head to the side with a smile. "Oh, a sister knows. Right now you have your 'I'm thinking about important things,' expression on." Inaho gave a nod "I was thinking about the Orbital Knights and why they decided to commence a full scale invasion without so much as investigating the cause of their princess's death," he explained.

There was a small scoff causing Inaho and his sister to look over at Marcus who was standing nearby, his arms were crossed at his chest and there was a deep scowl on his face "I think that it's pretty obvious why those Martian fucks have done what they've done," he declared.

"No matter how you slice it they are and always have been a cancerous tumor at the best of times. All they do is take and take and take until there's nothing left to take and then they move onto a new source of resources for them to leech off of, probably killing the people who own whatever they want because they're somehow inferior in that they weren't born on the same planet."

Inaho noticed that as Marcus continued to rant on about the Martians, "Annette" started to look more and more crestfallen. Before Marcus could continue with his rant, Marito walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder "Marcus, we get it you don't like the Martians. Could you tone it down a little?" Marito asked having grown a little exasperated with the ranting. Marcus nodded before letting out a bated breath.

"Fine," he said although he clearly wanted to let out more of some of his anger towards the enemy via ranting especially since he wasn't able to kill any more of them for the time being. Seeing as how there wasn't much else for him to do at the moment, Marcus started to make his way towards the inside the landing craft.

As Marcus went back inside Inaho looked over at "Annette" again and saw that she was very crestfallen. It was understandable, after all Asseylum was trying to act as a bridge between two worlds only now it seemed as though that that hope had been just been destroyed thanks to the Orbital Knights.

Inaho wondered briefly if he should say something to the girl later but he knew that if he tried to talk about it with her now and someone overheard him it would only make things more complicated. True they probably wouldn't come to the conclusion that she was the Princess of Vers but they would be under the impression that she was either someone from Vers who was visiting Earth or was sympathetic to Vers. None of those impressions would end up leading to a very good for the girl.

Maybe he could talk to the girl after they got someplace a little more private. After all, Inaho knew he wasn't very good with interacting with other people as his friends and older sister had almost always described him as being "as blunt as a sledgehammer" or something similar when it came to interacting with other people in a social setting.

Inaho was then broken out of his thoughts when he heard one of the crewmembers of the ship make their way towards him and his sister and gave her a respectful salute. "Warrant Officer, Kaizuka. We just got a transmission from Colonel Braddock, he said he wants to speak with you, Warrant Officer Graves, Lieutenant Marito and your younger brother personally the instant that you return to base."

Both siblings looked at each other even as a sinking suspicion developed Yuki's gut about what the good Colonel wanted to talk to them about.

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-Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Bridge-

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Cruhteo was not a very happy man at the moment, though granted happiness was something that he hadn't really felt in recent months. But now he was exceptionally displeased. Cruhteo had been on his way to report to Count Saazbaum on the status of the invasion of Tokyo when one of the Landing Castle's lower ranking officers ran up to him and informed him that Slaine was on his way back with an update on the assault on Shinagawara.

The Orbital Knight immediately headed for the bridge. As he walked he felt a slight sense of concern course through him. Cruhteo knew that Trillram would never allow a lowly Terran to report to him in his place. For Trillram and to a lesser extent Cruhteo himself it would have been an insult if one of the other members of the Orbital Knights had used a Terran to deliver a message. Something that Trillram would have preferred to have avoided, especially considering how he was so eager to repay Cruhteo for being able to stay at his Landing Castle these past several years.

When Cruhteo had finally arrived back at the bridge, Slaine's face was on the main monitors. The boy looked nervous about something, more so than was normal anyways. Cruhteo gave Slaine the same intimidating look he always gave him and demanded "What news do you bring to me, Slaine? And why did Trillram send you instead of simply contacting me himself?"

If it were possible Slaine actually looked even more nervous than he already had been "I-I was ordered to return to the Landing Castle by Lord Trillram sir. Shortly after I brought him to the battlefield he was engaged by several groups of Terran Kataphrakts. I offered my assistance him in eliminating them but he stated that he 'didn't need help from that of a lowly Terran' and ordered me to return to the Landing Castle. I was also instructed to inform you that he would contact you the moment that the city was secure for our main forces."

Cruhteo supposed that made sense. Trillram would never have accepted help from a lowly Terran while in combat. His pride as an Orbital Knight simply would not allow it to happen. In fact many amongst the Orbital Knights had made the claim that they would rather die than allow a Terran to come and rescue them. Still though he would talk to Trillram as soon as he could to confirm the situation at Shinagawara.

Still he couldn't very well punish the boy (at least not until he could confirm whether or not he was hiding something) "Very well Slaine, land at once and return to your normal duties in the Landing Castle unless I have further need of you." Oddly enough Slaine still seemed rather nervous even though it was obvious that he wasn't going to be punished. Cruhteo's instincts told him that there was something else going on, but what, he didn't know.

Perhaps it would be for the best for Cruhteo to keep a closer eye on the boy, at least for the time being. With that having been done, Cruhteo cut the transmission to Slaine's Sky Carrier. As he turned to leave the bridge he looked over at one of the officers. "Have Trillram's Argyre and several Orcus units ready to sortie within the next few hours. If Trillram sends no word in the next four hours they are to move in and continue where Trillram left off."

There was a crisp; "Yes my lord!" from the officer as he went about informing the Orcus teams that they were to remobilize within the next few hours.

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As Slaine disembarked from the now fully docked Sky Carrier, he saw several maintenance crews going over several of the other Kataphrakts in the hanger. He saw the Argyre and most of the Orcus units that loyal to Count Cruhteo. In the case of the latter Kataphrakts, they were all being repaired or rearmed. It was obvious to the blonde that they were getting ready to go back out into combat again sometime in the near future. Where they would be deployed to, Slaine was not entirely sure but it was more than possible that at least some of them would head to Shinagawara once Cruhteo realized that they would not be hearing anything from Trillram again.

Slaine just hoped that Cruhteo would buy his explanation for the lack of communications between Trillram and the Landing Castle would work when they finally found what was left of the bastard's Kataphrakt. In the meantime though, Slaine had to try and find a way to get a message out to Emperor Rayvers about how his granddaughter was still alive and that the assassins were among the Orbital Knights not the Terrans.

When that happened surely the Emperor would order an end to all hostilities on Earth. At least until an investigation showed that the Terrans were completely innocent of any wrongdoing. Still though it would be a good idea if he could figure out who he could or couldn't trust with the information that Princess Asseylum was still amongst the living.

After all Trillram was a seemingly loyal vassal of Count Cruhteo and he had been part of the plot to assassinate Asseylum. Did that mean that Cruhteo was in on this plot as well? Maybe he was simply one of the more opportunistic Orbital Knights and was taking advantage of her highness' death. Then again Cruhteo could also be genuinely loyal and was simply seeking vengeance for her death.

For now he would have to continue to play the dutiful servant towards Cruhteo, at least until he was sure of the man's loyalties. If Slaine could find some sort of evidence proving that Cruhteo had nothing to do with the attempted assassination on Asseylum then he would have to try and think of some way to convince him to try to speak with Emperor Rayvers and get him to order a ceasefire.

It wasn't an easy task that was for sure, but Slaine had to do it. He had to stop this war and save Asseylum no matter the cost.

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-Shinagawara Docks, Hanger 12, Sometime Later-

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A few hours ago, the docks at Shinagawara were completely abuzz with activity as the refugees were trying to get into the ships that would take them to some safe haven as far away from the battle lines as possible. Unfortunately for them, there probably wasn't a single piece of land that wasn't being contested by the Orbital Knights. Their hope of getting somewhere away from the Martians was little more than a pipe dream.

However there was at least one individual that wasn't thinking about their own safety.

For the past several minutes, Yuki had been pacing back and forth angrily gripping herself in a vice. The young woman could scarcely remember a time when she felt so angry at another person. Just a few meters away from her, Marcus was leaning up against a cargo container, a neutral expression about him while Marito was sitting down nearby drinking a little bit of booze from his flask. The two had been watching their friend seething for the past several minutes and to be honest, he was getting a little bit tired of it.

"Yuki, could you please try and relax a little bit?" Marcus requested. When Yuki responded by sending him a heated glare his way, Marcus wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut. Her glare didn't last long as she started ranting "I can't believe that Braddock would do that, he promised me that he wouldn't!" she all but shouted.

"Braddock is a colonel in the military and right now he needs capable soldiers under his command. Besides that promise was only good when there wasn't a massive invasion going on and you know that."

"Don't tell me that you're defending that kind of decision!" Yuki shouted. "I'm not dammit! But I understand his reasoning and like it or not there is nothing I can do about it! He's a Colonel and I'm just a Second Lieutenant again, remember?"

Yuki did remember, and she didn't like any of it.

Flashback

It had only been a few minutes since Inaho and the others had returned from northern Shinagawara. Most of the city had been evacuated by that time but there were still some evac teams going throughout the town to see if there were any stragglers that hadn't yet made it to the evacuation zone.

Upon arriving at the docks Yuki and the others had been escorted by a group of MPs to one of the warehouse management office. Colonel Braddock had been using this as his own temporary office until the UES Wadatsumi arrived to evacuate the civilians and remaining military personnel.

When they arrived at Braddock's temporary office, the man himself was sitting down, going over some paperwork with a calm and rather neutral expression about him. It looked as though he was treating this invasion as nothing more than a standard day at the office. When Braddock heard the door open he looked up and saw Yuki, Marcus, Marito and Inaho standing in the doorway even as the MPs held it open for them.

"Please come in," said the Colonel but by the way his tone sounded, it seemed more of an order than a request. When Inaho and the others did as they were told and entered the small office, the MPs closed the doors behind them with a rather loud creak followed by a dull 'thud'. Once they were fully shut, the Colonel looked directly at the four and spoke again "Inaho Kaizuka I have received some rather interesting information regarding the incident at Shinagawara and I would like to clear a few things up."

The way the colonel spoke was cold, calculating and completely devoid of any emotion but there was something hidden underneath it all, a kind of curiosity. "During the attack on Shinagawara by the enemy Kataphrakt you and your friends decided to take it upon themselves to try and destroy the enemy unit. Using the data you yourself had managed to gather from observing the enemy unit and after you managed to 'liberate' the training Kataphrakts from the academy you were able to create a workable strategy that would eliminate the enemy machine. Is this accurate?"

Inaho gave his answer with that same stoicism he almost always displayed to everyone "Yes sir that is all accurate." With that the colonel gave a smile that reminded Yuki and Marito of a hungry predator looking for its prey. "I see." He said his smile widening before turning his attention to the other three individuals in the room. "Instructors please remind me. What is your opinion on Inaho Kaizuka's performance in Kataphrakt training?"

Marimo, Yuki and Marcus looked at one another for a second before Marcus spoke "Well, he was always managed to score the top marks when handling a Sleipnir, even when he was starting out he already seemed to have an idea on how to pilot one and within a couple of sessions was handling it like he was born to pilot it."

Sure enough each of the instructors gave a similar view of Inaho's talents inside a cockpit of a Kataphrakt. After a few minutes of recounting Inaho's successes during the training exercises at Shinagawara Academy, Colonel Braddock signaled for the three instructors to stop.

The colonel gave all four a glance before he said with an air of finality "I'm enacting the Conscription Act: Article Two. From this moment forwards Inaho Kaizuka is now a Second Lieutenant for the UFE. As for you Second Lieutenant Marcus Graves, you are now being reinstated to active duty along with Warrant Officers Kaizuka and First Lieutenant Marito."

At that moment, Yuki's desire to speak out against this decision, to beg the colonel to reconsider conscripting her younger brother into the military was overwhelming. While the military side of her wanted her to keep her mouth shut about the whole thing but there was another part of her, the concerned older sister who didn't want to see her only remaining family member get hurt wanted to object, to try and get Colonel Braddock to reconsider his decision.

It seemed as though the good colonel had noticed how…off Yuki's posture was and decided to address it before it got out of hand. "Is there a problem, Warrant Officer Kaizuka?" the man asked in an icy tone. For a moment, Yuki gritted her teeth but managed to bite back anything that would be disrespectful to her commanding officer "No sir," she said, her anger still managing to slip into her words like water through a crack.

Thankfully though, Braddock just ignored that little slip up on Kaizuka's part. "Good. Now Warrant Officer, Lieutenant I want you both to report to Doctor Yagarai immediately and have your injuries looked at. I won't have my soldiers working if they're incapable of doing so."

End Flashback.

After speaking with Yagarai, he had cleared Marcus fit for duty and had attached an exoskeletal arm brace to Yuki Kaizuka's broken left arm. Now Yuki could move her arm just as easily as when it wasn't broken but if she did anything too overly strenuous to her left arm then it would slow the healing or even do permanent damage to her arm. As a result she was put onto a backup piloting roster. Of course being able to move her left arm again was a joy that was smothered by the fact that her little brother had just been conscripted into a war that he shouldn't have any part in.

"It's strange though." Marcus muttered to himself, looking rather thoughtful and breaking everyone out of their thoughts. By this point, Marimo had long since taken a swig from his flask and had been watching the whole exchange with

For a few seconds Marcus was silent but then he let out a bated breath and spoke "If someone told me that he conscripted a couple of kids a while back, I would have told them that Braddock would never do something like that. It just wasn't in his character. But he's changed significantly since I last saw him. It was almost like I was looking at a completely different person."

"Still though, he must value your input on some level at least don't you think that you could try talking to him?" Yuki asked. Marcus scoffed "Even if I were to try and talk to him out of it, it wouldn't work. Whenever Braddock makes a decision on something, nothing can dissuade him from it."

There was only silence from the rest of the group as Yuki desperately tried to think of some way to get around letting Colonel Braddock conscript her only remaining family into the military.

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-Shinagawara Docks, Landing Carrier-

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Roughly fifteen minutes earlier, Inaho had gotten out of that meeting with Colonel Braddock and began heading back to the Landing Carrier that his friends and the other refugees from the Academy had been herded onto. Inaho was very eager to go and check on his friends, including that "Annette" girl. The young pilot had more than a fair number of questions that he would need her to answer.

As he entered the landing carrier's secondary storage area which had been turned into a makeshift living quarters for the Shinagawara refugees. Countless cots and sleeping bags had been set up for the refugees who were trying to reassure their family and friends, that this hard time would pass by soon enough their lives would return to the way it was before the war started.

Inaho however continued on his search for one particular person.

As he walked he also looked around for his friends, he would want to speak with them as well, to see if he could discern how they were doing. While he had always had a lot of difficulty expressing his emotions, Inaho did feel genuine concern for the wellbeing of his friends and honestly wanted all of them to be as safe as possible.

But he knew that they probably wouldn't be safe for quite some time. The only thing he could do was make sure that his remaining friends survived the battles to come.

Inaho refused to let any more of his friends die, and he certainly wasn't about to lose the only remaining family he had left in this world.

Eventually Inaho found "Annette", "little sister" and Rayet, they were near the edge of one of the cargo holds and were talking with one another. About what, Inaho couldn't really say as he was too far away to hear the trio talking. So he quickly made his way over there to see what was going on. As Inaho approached, the three girls quickly noticed him and approached.

When they were close enough so they would be able to hear one another over all the other people that were talking (loudly) in the cargo hold. The one who spoke was "Annette" she said "Please, come with me, we need to speak, in private."

From there Inaho was all but dragged out into a nearby corridor that was located well enough away from any foot traffic. That way it was unlikely that they would be stumbled upon by anyone. Besides the corridor was between two bulkhead doors. They could close both of them easily if necessary for added privacy, which was something that they would no doubt need if the fact that "Annette's" "sister" was already starting to close them was anything to go by.

Once the two bulkhead doors were closed, a bright light enveloped "Annette" and in an instant, the brunette was gone, and instead stood Princess Asseylum of Vers herself. While Inaho had already seen the girl in her true form earlier it was still somewhat surreal to see that he was nearby royalty of what was effectively an enemy nation. While the girl who had been accompanying the princess seemed reluctant to let her liege reveal herself to what were effectively commoners.

"Let's try this again," Asseylum said with a warm smile "My name is Asseylum Vers Allusia, the granddaughter of Emperor Rayvers." Asseylum then gave the two teens a respectful curtsey, "It's a pleasure to meet the two of you."

At that point Inaho tilted his head to the side slightly "So this is the real you?" he asked. Asseylum nodded "Yes, from what I've been told this is an optical camouflage that uses holographic imaging." Inaho had already surmised as much considering everything but it never hurt to have some kind of confirmation on the matter.

From there it wasn't all that hard to deduce what had happened with the princess the day before. Rayet gave the blonde princess an almost aloof look "So then the Princess Asseylum that everyone saw killed yesterday was a double." It was more a question than a statement but for some reason Asseylum had a rather guilty expression on her face.

While Asseylum was reluctant to say anything, her ever faithful attendant, Eddelrittuo decided to elaborate further on the matter "Her highness wasn't feeling well the day of the parade. She had been having problems adjusting to Earth's gravity so the head of the security detail decided to use a double instead."

It was probably the luckiest break a person could receive but it was obvious that Asseylum felt very guilty about how an innocent had been killed in an attempt on her life. Anyone with even a shred of a conscience would feel at least slightly saddened that someone else had gotten killed in a case of mistaken identity. Of course that wasn't to say that it was her fault. No one could have predicted that something like this would happen as a result of a goodwill visit.

"So it wasn't a hypothesis after all," Inaho muttered mostly to himself.

A look of desperation was on Asseylum's face "W-when my grandfather learns that I'm still alive, he's sure to call an end to this insane war without delay."

At that point Inaho decided to point out the obvious problem with that plan "That won't work," he stated making everyone around him look at him strangely so Inaho decided to elaborate a little further.

"There is a massive jamming unit that has been put into place by the Orbital Knights. It's likely that they are attempting to keep the UFE military from communicating with each other. We can't use telecommunications either as they've destroyed most of the satellites in orbit along with the ground based cables, so using the internet to try and send a message is out of the question too."

At that Asseylum seemed even more crestfallen than she had earlier, "But it is possible we can get you to a facility that may be able to get a message out to the Vers government. I'll see if I can talk to my sister or one of the other officers here." Inaho was about to leave and do just that when Eddelrittuo exclaimed "You can't do that!"

Inaho stopped himself from leaving to hear what the youngest of the group had to say "There is a Vers spy hidden amongst the Terrans! The spy is in league with the assassins and doubtlessly wants nothing more than to see her highness dead!"

Even as the princess' handmaiden spoke, Rayet's eyes widened slightly and she wondered how they could have possibly known that there was a Vers spy involved in the assassination attempt.

Asseylum gave a bow to the two that she had just entrusted with her secret. She seemed to be on the verge of tears regarding the entire situation but when she spoke she still managed to remain very calm "I deeply apologize for bringing you into our problems. I beg you to please keep this matter between us for now."

While Inaho was reluctant not to bring this matter to Colonel Braddock or even to his sister he would for the time being keep his mouth shut regarding the princess. Rayet however had no real problem keeping quiet on the mater. She still couldn't risk anyone tying her to the assassination attempt at the moment.

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-Outside of Shinagawara Docks a short while later-

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The sun had already finished setting on the city of Shinagawara, both literally and figuratively. There wasn't a soul left in the city proper making it little more than a massive ghost town. Besides given the Orbital Knights' casual destruction of almost everything that they laid eyes upon when they arrived on Earth it was doubtful that there would be a building even left standing by the time they had achieved complete control over the city. Those that were now hold up in the landing craft waiting for the Wadatsumi already knew that they would probably never see their homes intact ever again.

Just outside the docks, several platoons of Kataphrakts had been patrolling since mid-day, keeping any unwanted guests away from the harbor and the civilians that had gathered in the ships nearby. However given that they were still under heavy jamming anything other than short range communications was nearly impossible so they were unable to go very far out with any of their patrols. The same went for their sensor equipment as well other than the visual equipment. At best all they were able to pick up were little more than a mass of ghost readings.

The only way that they would ever be able to find any hostiles is if they saw them with their own two eyes beforehand.

This fact was one of the main reasons that a full platoon of Orcus Kataphrakts and their leader an Orbital Knight by the name of Vlad was able to get so close to the docks without being detected by the Terran forces. Vlad himself had no doubts however that he would be able to get this close without someone noticing their approach even if there hadn't been any jamming at all. Terrans were such simple, pathetic creatures that it was actually quite surprising that they had managed to put up this much of a fight up until to this point.

While Vlad hadn't managed to get into contact with Sir Trillram as of yet it was likely that the man had simply decided to amuse himself while hunting down straggling Terran military forces. They would look for him as soon as they had scoured the last remaining group of Terran filth from the city. Which as luck would have it, seemed to be very close by.

Vlad turned his head to face the rear monitors of his craft and saw the Orcus units waiting patiently behind him. The pilot of the Argyre wasn't one to make fancy speeches like many of his fellow nobles so he said a few simple words that would carry the meaning well enough "Take control of the docks, and leave nothing in your wake!"

With that having been said, the Argyre charged forwards to the enemy lines along with a full platoon of Orcus Kataphrakts following close behind.

To be continued.

A/N: What is an Orcus you may be asking yourselves? Well you'll find out just what it is next chapter.

I will however tell you the origin of the name. It, like most Vers Kataphrakts is named after a real live Martian geographic location. As for why I put them in, the answer is very simple. I didn't think that it was very realistic that the forces of Vers would be able to take control of large areas of land using only ONE mecha. No matter how powerful their units may end up being, it's still just a single machine and therefore can't take over large amounts of territory so it only makes sense for the Orbital Knights to have some kind of support machine like the Stygis fighters from the anime only for ground combat.