Aldnoah Zero The Knights of Earth

Chapter 8

Behold a Pale Horse…

A/N: please read and review, I enjoy feedback.

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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle-

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Technician Styles' days working in Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle were long, boring, repetitive and he often had to deal with the residing knights throwing their weight around everywhere they went, acting as though they were gods among men. It was an irritating feeling to say the least but they were his liege lords and he was by law required to obey their every command without question. Complaining about it out loud would only serve to make his life even more miserable than it already was.

At least Count Cruhteo was more subdued in comparison to some of his fellows in the Orbital Knights. He at least wasn't prone to spectacular displays just to show off how great he was by simply by being one of the chosen few of Emperor Rayregalia.

Pushing those complaints out of his head the technician continued to focus on his task at hand. The rest of his team had turned in for the evening after spending most of the day going over the encrypted transmissions on the Nilokeras' black box. He however hadn't given up yet, and decided to go at it from a different approach. Instead of focusing on the encrypted transmissions from the beginning he would try to look through some of the non-encrypted recordings, despite Cruhteo's explicit orders to only focus on what was encrypted. Perhaps there would be something there that could provide a clue as to how to decode some of the encrypted transmissions.

True it was a snowball's chance the burning pits of hell, but it wasn't like anything would be lost by at least looking through them.

Eventually he started listening in at a point where the battle started to really turn around for the guy and while he wasn't entirely sure what was going on but judging by the audio the Terrans managed to blind the Nilokeras' cameras somehow. Styles skipped ahead slightly and when he started playing the clip again he heard something that he never expected to hear.

The very words being uttered almost caused Styles' heart to stop beating for a second before it started to beat far more rapidly than ever before. Listening to it a second time to confirm that he just hadn't gone completely insane only confirmed the horrific truth to him. The Orbital Knights were the ones who were behind this entire war.

There were always stories about how members of the royal court would play there little power games in order to elevate their status, even if it came at the expense of the population in their own territories. But this, this was something else entirely. A member of the Orbital Knights was openly admitting to being part of a conspiracy to kill Princess Asseylum and start up a war with the Terrans.

Immediately, Styles copied all of the files from the black box onto his personal laptop and a data packet. He had to make sure that he had some kind of an insurance policy in the event that someone decided he was a loose end to tie up. If this conspiracy ran the risk of exposure then it was more than likely that they would think twice about killing someone who had everything in place to expose them if he suddenly died.

For several long, agonizing seconds, the data was copied onto his laptop and a data packet that he could carry with him. Once it was done, Styles let out the breath he didn't even know he had been holding and began to make his way towards his quarters.

As he walked through the illuminated corridors of the landing castle the technician began to wonder about who he could truly trust with some of this new information. He obviously couldn't just tell anyone onboard. It was clear that he couldn't tell anyone on his team. For all he knew they could also be in on the conspiracy. If someone like Trillram was in on it then literally anyone could be in on it. Hell all of the bigwigs in charge could be part of it.

There had to be someone, someone out there that he could trust with this information. Someone who could stop this now unjust war.

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-Wadatsumi, Bridge-

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Within minutes of the general alarm going off, everyone aboard the Wadatsumi felt the impact of what could only have been some kind of missile slamming right into the deck. The bridge shook from the impact, along with the rest of the ship. Immediately Magbaredge demanded a damage report, while Mizusaki ordered the anti-air weapons online. "We have a hull breach on Block 18, but there's no detonation! It appears to be a dud!"

It didn't take so much as two seconds for the officer's face to take on a look of confusion and utter horror "Wait…no this is impossible! It's moving!" He cried out even as the Wadatsumi began to lurch back and forth again. As the object that impacted the ship began to pull back out and for the briefest of moments, Magbaredge thought she saw a giant metal fist flying back out of the side of the ship.

Under any other circumstance, the Wadatsumi's captain would have operated under the assumption that the stress of combat was finally starting to get into her head. However given everything that had happened recently, she figured that it was safe to say that she wasn't hallucinating. They couldn't stay here, they had to fall back and get some distance from the enemy.

Immediately she turned to the new helmsman and ordered "Pull us out of here now! We have to fall back and-" Magbaredge was unable to finish her sentence as Braddock who had since arrived on the bridge, immediately interjected "Belay that order soldier, full speed ahead. Get us into that dock!" he commanded.

At first Nina looked conflicted even as Magbaredge looked over at Braddock "Colonel have you lost your mind we need to-" she started but once again found that she was unable to get much in before the colonel turned to look directly at her, a focused, piercing glare "If we fall back now then we will lose our best chance at winning this war, and we may as well slit our own throats right now than let the Martians get their hands on us!"

He then turned back to Nina with the most intimidating look that the girl had ever seen on a person. "I gave you an order soldier! Now I strongly suggest follow it and head for that island at best possible speed!"

Nina gave a gulp before complying with Braddock's order, even as more giant metal hands began to impact into the carrier's CIWS turrets and quite literally tear them clean off the ship. The noises the arms made with every impact was nearly deafening.

"Get any available Kataphrakts on the deck immediately!" ordered Magbaredge while Braddock yelled into one of the comm. headsets "Babylon, I'm on a ship that is currently under attack! If you don't have that gate, the defenses and project up and running by the time I'm at the dock, then you better hope that I die because I will do far worse to you!"

Nina didn't hear what the response was or if there even was one as one of the metallic fists impacted the hull and into the ship before it flew right back out again. The replacement helmsman attempted to steer the ship away from the walls that were forming a kind of outer dock to the main gate but found that the controls weren't even responding "The controls aren't working we're going to crash into the wall!" she cried out.

Magbaredge pressed the transmit button on the shipwide intercom "All hands brace for impact!" she all but shouted.

A few seconds later the ship partially collided with the wall. Fortunately for everyone on board the ship the impact it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Instead of a head on collision it instead impacted in the area between the bow and starboard side but eventually settled on the starboard area and began to scrape along for several dozen meters before Nina managed to get the ship to finally stop.

While the impact was not nearly as bad as it could have been it was clear they were still in a very, very vulnerable position. They could not continue forwards as Braddock had ordered, but they also could not retreat either. They were dead in the water and if they didn't do something quick, it was likely that saying would take on a far more literal meaning.

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-Wadatsumi, Hanger Bay-

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The instant that Inaho had heard the alarms, he and the other members of Mustang Platoon rushed to sortie in their machines. Of course there were more than just a few of them that were still in the middle of mandatory maintenance checks and even if they stopped it would still take some time for them to be brought back online. This was also something that Inaho encountered when he was about to board his assigned Areion. Every attempt he made at powering up the machine met with utter failure.

Immediately Inaho climbed out of the cockpit and looked down at the mechanics who were going over their computers with long cords that were hooked up to the machine "Calm, my Areion won't power up."

Calm was still typing furiously at his laptop when he heard his friend call out to him, "We're still using a system's check, could you give us a minute to finish this?" he asked. Inaho shook his head. There wasn't enough time for him to just sit and wait. It would have been nice if there was, but there simply wasn't.

Without missing a beat Inaho climbed down from the Areion's cockpit and started sprinting towards the nearest Sleipnir training unit. As he ran towards it his teammates looked at him with confused expressions from their own machines and wondered why Inaho was choosing to pilot an outdated Kataphrakt when there were more modern ones available. Still though they didn't really question it when he boarded the machine.

When he was on board and powered up the Sleipnir he almost immediately received a radio transmission "Mustang 33 to Mustang Leader, how copy?" The voice of his sister asked. "I copy, Mustang 33 are you sure you're okay to pilot with your arm-" he started.

Yuki gave a smile at her little brother's concern over her wellbeing. "I've been cleared for duty, besides I can't let little Nao outshine me no can I?" For the briefest of moments, Inaho was sorely tempted to shake his head as he had seen several people react similarly when it came to his sister's antics "Fine but if I tell you to eject you will eject."

Yuki muttered something about troublesome over ranked little brothers but still gave an affirmative. Disregarding his older sister's mutterings, he opened another comm. channel to Inko "Mustang 55, this is Mustang Leader, you'll be one of the designated marksmen, take one of the DMRs I'll take the other."

"Ah, okay…uh I mean, affirmative Mustang Leader." It seemed that Inko still needed some time to get used to how to address people properly in the military. Then again she had just been conscripted so it made sense that she wasn't used to it yet.

"Rayet, you take a standard combat rifle."

"Understood!" Rayet however seemed to have been adapting remarkably quickly judging by her response. The teenager did as she was told and retrieved one of the rifles.

With that having been done Inaho and the others then retrieved their weapons before they headed directly for the elevator where another battle awaited them.

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-Tanegashima, Martian Kataphrakt-

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When Saazbaum had requested that the Countess Femieanne secure the same island that his betrothed had perished on, she had wanted to protest such an order. True she had already secured the area around her Landing Castle but still she had fully intended on expanding her borders of her newly acquired lands ever further. She had been making good progress in the land formerly known as Seoul of South Korea and now she was to go off to some remote pile of dirt she couldn't care less about?

Unfortunately given Saazbaum's extremely high standing within the Imperial Court made him the de-facto leader of the Orbital Knights, and until that changed it would be in her best interest to comply with the orders she was given. Besides if she could curry favor with someone as powerful as Count Saazbaum by securing an abandoned island, then all the better. At least now she would have at least some modicum of entertainment before she planted the flag of the Versian Empire into the ground of this backwater island.

She watched as the carrier slammed into the side of the dock with an expression that was a mixture of indifference and boredom. "I truly pity you as an inferior race who does not possess the glorious power of Aldnoah. So I will simply have to put you all down like the sick primates you are."

Femieanne then began the activation sequence to fire the six arms of the Hellas, an amused smirk appearing on her face as she observed the Terran Kataphrakts spread out across the vessel's deck and get into defensive positions. "Now, kneel, cower before me, despair and then die!" she declared as she fired off all six of the Hellas' arms.

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-Wadatsumi, Deck a few moments earlier-

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It had only taken thirty seconds for the elevator leading up from the hanger bay to the deck to reach its destination. Inko, Rayet, Yuki, Marito and Marcus had all opted for the Areion while some of the other pilots were going in Embarrs equipped with shoulder mounted missile launchers and arm mounted miniguns.

In less than a minute the elevator had stopped at the Wadatsumi's flight deck and the two platoons' worth of Kataphrakts immediately began to spread out onto the deck. Each one aiming its weapon at the open sky or areas on the island as they searched for any sign of the quite literally flying metal arms or their source.

"Attention all forces, this is Captain Magbaredge the last we saw of the enemy projectiles were them converging towards Tanegashima. It's likely that the enemy is firing these projectiles from that location."

At that point, Marito's arms began to shake as he looked at the familiar landscape that he had set foot on all those years ago. The man began to start gritting his teeth as he fought back images of Humeray burning to death inside of his own tank. He clenched his eyes shut as the images continued to assault him for a few seconds. It wasn't a full-blown flashback, in which he was grateful as he hadn't had one of those in almost seven years but this was a close second.

Damn it all! What were all those fucking therapy sessions with those damn shrinks even worth if he couldn't even focus when his people needed him?!

To Marito's immediate relief, he was broken out of those thoughts of the past when he heard Marcus' voice "Hey, Marito, you there?" he asked over the radio. Marito shook his head for a moment or two before answering "Y-yeah, it-it's nothing."

Judging by Marcus' response it was clear that he didn't buy so much as a word of Marito's reassurances. "Your Kataphrakt has been standing completely still for the last couple of seconds are you sure you're alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'll be okay. Besides I have to be here for this, no, I need to." Marcus still didn't seem very convinced but at the very least he decided to let it go for the time being. However it was very clear that the two would probably have a chat with Doctor Soma about this later. Marito could do this, he'd been going to his damn therapy for years, he had a handle on this damn thing!

Marito began to scan the immediate area and did everything he could to focus on what was going on now, not what had happened in the past. As they continued to spread out scan the immediate area Marito heard one of the other pilots all but snarl into his mic "Come out, come out you little bastard. Come out so we can fill you full of lead."

The Embarrs took up the outer perimeter while the Areions remained mostly in the inner portion of it. As they continued to scan the surroundings eventually Inaho spotted something on one of the hills of the island. More specifically it was something that was close to what looked like a very old and unused radar array. "I've spotted the enemy," said Inaho in that same stoic tone he always spoke with "I'm sending the grid coordinates now."

As if on cue the twenty-two meter tall machine launched all six of its arms in unison. Each of the arms flew off in completely different direction before they began to circle the ship for several seconds even as the Areions and Embarrs fired their weapons to seemingly no effect whatsoever. The oversized AP rounds pinged off of the armor in such a manner that they may as well have been using airsoft guns.

Within seconds three of the arms smashed into the mecha. One slammed into an Areion from behind as it was opening fire on the enemy with such force that it was launched into the air for a brief second before being grabbed by another one of the flying arms. When the arm full encompassed the Areion it squeezed the machine until it was completely crushed.

"All units spread out, and switch over to explosive ammo as AP rounds are having no effect!" Mizusaki ordered. Immediately those that had been firing swapped out their magazines as quickly as they could. Unfortunately this lull in the firing allowed the oversized arms to smash into another Areion and an Embarr, destroying the former and heavily damaging the latter.

To make matters even worse, the arms that weren't going after the defenders struck once again into the hull of the Wadatsumi. Unlike the last time however, the oversized arm punctured an area that was far too close to the water, allowing the ocean to start flooding the lower decks of the ship.

"Hull breaches in Block 24! Blocks 23, 24 and 25 are taking up water!" one of the newly recruited bridge officers said over the radio. "Evacuate those decks immediately!" Magbaredge ordered before she addressed the pilots defending the ship "All Kataphrakt forces, listen up! You need to buy us some time until the evacuation is complete!"

As if to punctuate that statement the loud boom of engines filled the ears of everyone in the area. It was obvious that the enemy wasn't going to wait very long. Four of the arms could be seen heading straight for the ship. More specifically though, the bridge.

It was clear from the radio chatter that someone was shouting orders for an evacuation even as the island instillation's CIWS defenses finally appeared out of spots on the ground and opened up on the arms sending dozens of armor piercing bullets downrange at the oversized mechanical fists. Of course just like before, the rounds either missed or simply bounced off their intended targets.

Marito's Areion aimed its rifle downrange at the closest arm and fired off two bursts. Several of the explosive rounds missed their mark but enough got through and struck the arm in just the right spot, sending it careening off target and into the ocean. Marito heard another boom from nearby and recognized the sound as a DMR being fired. Less than a second later another arm was sent flying off course as well.

Inaho's voice could then be heard over the radio "One of the arms has been blown off course."

At that point, one of the Embarrs opened fire with its shoulder mounted missiles at the last remaining arm that was heading straight for the bridge. The missiles that the Embarrs had on them were more a little more potent than the explosive rounds that the Areion's rifles fired, but the effect was exactly the same.

It seemed as though even HE rounds and missiles wouldn't do any damage to the arms but at least the blast pressure caused by the explosions were enough to send them off-course.

However there was no time for any sort of celebration as the remaining two arms that weren't going for the bridge began striking once again at the defenders. While there were several who were able to get out of the way in time Rayet was struck in the right side by one of the arms. By a bizarre stroke of luck Rayet had already engaged her Areion's thrusters to move in such a manner that the impact's damage was minimized but it still send her careening into Marcus' Areion causing both to fall onto the deck, with Rayet's mecha laying directly on top of Marcus' own machine.

"Rayet are you okay?" asked Marcus. "Yeah I'm fine, are you alright?" Rayet replied as she started to get her Areion off of Marcus' machine.

Marcus looked at the machine's status and saw that its armor had managed to hold out but it was clear that it had still taken some damage but it was negligible. "Watch your spacing kid, this can't happen again!" he declared as.

As the two got their machines to properly stand upright again, Marcus saw that Inaho was opening fire on the final arm that was descending downwards towards the bridge. "Damn it!" he yelled into his headset as he aimed his own weapon up and fired it on full auto despite the fact that it was very unlikely to even hit at the range he was firing.

The Embarrs were too busy with the other arms that were keeping them too pinned down to be of any real help so it was just up to them. He and Inaho continued firing at the oversized mechanical fist but either the rounds missed or they were deflected before they could properly detonate and the cries that Inko was crying out that they were all about to die. Of course given how some of the other defenders were talking it wasn't like she was alone in that assessment.

As if to punctuate that point it was then that Inaho's DMR ran out of ammunition while Marcus' 75mm rifle did the same. Immediately Marcus began the process of reloading his weapon despite knowing that it was a useless gesture at that point. 'I am not going to die here, I'm not going to die here, I am not going to fucking die here!' repeated in his mind like a mantra.

The arm continued its downward descent for another three seconds, and everyone was awaiting their end when a loud boom filled the air. The next thing everyone knew was that the arm was knocked right out of the sky and was sent straight into the water. For the briefest of moments it was like god himself had saved them all. Of course however, that was not the case as the one who was operating the ship's radar station called out again "All forces, we have a new contact on Radar, heading from the sector twelve in the northeast!"

Immediately everyone turned to look at the newcomer and what they saw was nothing what they had expected. It was a Martian Sky Carrier.

Inaho looked at the Sky Carrier and muttered two simple words to himself "That's interesting."

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To be continued.

A/N: I know it's a short chapter but I thought that it would be better than nothing after the long wait for the previous one.