Nunnally of the Insurrection
Chapter 33
Emperor Charles of Brittania frowned as he studied footage of an award's ceremony in Area 11. The footage had only aired in Area 11, but his spies had gotten the video out to him. Charles didn't care about the Japanese pilot being honoured, instead studying the woman 'terrorist' that was receiving a civilian honor. A terrorist that, clearly, was a Britannian.
The sunglasses hid too much of her elfin face, damn it. But SOMETHING about her was annoyingly familiar. He knew her... from somewhere.
"Brother?" the voice said from the shadows.
Charles closed the file as he looked up, "VV."
Once his brother Victor, the ageless blond boy was now VV, the head of the country's Geass order and the power behind the throne. And, occassionally, a real pain in Charles' ass.
"You called me?" VV asked calmly.
"No news on where CC has disappeared to," Charles informed him. "Indeed, she seems to have vanished in Area 11."
VV nodded, "Then raze the Area to bedrock until she's found."
"We need the Sakuradite," Charles noted mildly. "And taking such steps would trigger full rebellion in other Areas."
VV scowled.
"For now, we carry on as planned," Charles said calmingly, "when the time comes, our actions will bring her out of hiding."
"Hmm," VV actually sounded dubious.
Charles wouldn't have tolerated that from anyone else, and had to hold his temper. "We WILL succeed, and make all our sacrifices worth it," he said flatly.
The doors banged as a voice called, "Father!"
VV disappeared into the secret passage in the wall, even as Charles hid his irritation as his daughter walked in unannounced. Guinevere du Britannia strode up to his throne, her long purple hair flowing down her back.
"Why has my allowance been cut?" Guinevere demanded.
Charles sighed, silently wishing more of his children were like Cornelia or Euphemia...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It was one officer on the western boarder with China that set things off.
Artur Grant was a Lt, and was on guard duty as he looked across the border at China. He was tired, it was early morning after six hours of guarding, and he just wanted to go to bed.
"Sir! Movement on the east!" one ensign reported.
The procedure was to investigate, then contact command. But they'd been sitting out here for weeks, watching the enemy move forward, back up, move again... He would swear they were taunting them. Taunting the EMPIRE!
"Fire a warning shot," Artur ordered.
"Sir?" the voice replied, surprised.
"Warn them off! It's about time we showed them not to mess with the Empire!" Artur barked.
"Yes sir!" the ensign barked.
Outside, the chief non-com raised his eyebrows at the order. However, he didn't disobey as the small squad advanced. "Okay, aim high," he instructed the others.
"Why? The Lt clearly...," one started.
"If we kill one of them, even justifiably, it could start a war," the older man cut him off. "Do YOU want that on your head?"
The boy subsided, "No, sir."
"All right, move into position," the old man said.
They acted with the best of intentions. They fired over the intruding patrol, bullets whizzing by the enemy to scare them back. But a young soldier tripped, he tried to recover and his weapon went off towards the enemy.
"Shit!" the senior yelped.
They heard nothing from the soldiers in the distance. But they didn't really expect to.
Turned out, the unlucky young man had managed a kill shot. The Chinese government seized on it as a declaration of war, functionally. Though they didn't choose to act on it, still engaged in negotiations with Odysseus.
As soon as command found out what happened, Artur Grant was recalled to home in disgrace. He would eventually be court marshalled... though that was little comfort to everyone that his actions splashed onto.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Within hours, updates were flying, and orders were coming to bring the majority of Britannian forces to alert. The Areas bordering China began to reinforce their defences, while watching for China to move.
Her taps on the military let Nunnally know almost as soon as Cornelia heard.
"So things are finally moving," Nunnally murmured, seeing the message on her phone.
"Something interesting, Miss Lamperouge?" Alessandra DeWitt asked, the sexy blonde teacher looking at her archly.
"Sorry, ma'am," Nunnally apologized even as she thumb locked the device. All the 'covert' stuff on it went away, and could only be accessed by her code and prints.
"Please bring your device up here until end of class," Alessandra ordered calmly.
"Yes ma'am," Nunnally obeyed.
As Nunnally was leaving her phone at the teacher's desk, Alessandra's own phone chirped loudly. She clearly wanted to check it, too, but instead carried on in class.
"Busted," CC teased, the green haired girl posing as a normal student.
Nunnally just ignored that, as she waited for class to end.
"Here you go," Alessandra handed the phone back.
"Again, sorry ma'am," Nunnally said as she took it and left.
Kallen had texted her, as well as Ohgi and Todo. She made a decision and texted Milly, saying that something came up and she would be away from class.
"What's the situation?" Nemo asked not long after as she arrived in the base.
"A Britannian unit killed Chinese forces, no one seems sure how many," Ohgi told her, "not much details other than that."
Todo added, "All forces bordering China have gone on alert, and China is mobilizing everything they have to add to their border forces."
"And their communications security is awful," Rakshata Chawla gleefully noted, smoking her elegant pipe.
"That might be deliberate," Kallen noted as they plotted where the various Chinese units were going on a wall map.
"Oh?" Ohgi asked.
"China presumably knows that Britannia can intercept some or all of their communications," Kallen shrugged. She explained, "They might be trying to scare them off by revealing how much they've reinforced."
"There's likely some disinformation being released as well," Todo noted, the older warrior studying the print outs.
"Huh?' Ohgi blinked.
"At least some of these troops movements are fictional," Nemo noted. She added a 'red flag' to certain units, "They literally didn't exist until recently."
"Might be some emergency conscripts," Rakshata pointed out.
"Which is why we're not completely ignoring them," Todo nodded, "but unless they produced Knightmare Frames out of thin air..."
(Ironically Nemo and the others would eventually find out that China HAD produced them. They had bought long out of date Knightmares from the European Union, and deployed them with half trained pilots. They would likely stand no chance against any modern unit, but at least appeared to inflate the army's numbers.)
"They're moving troops as we expected," Nemo noted, studying the map.
China knew they were in trouble, so they were pulling forces from everywhere they could. They also knew Area 11 was functionally crippled, militarily, even if China had lost fighting them. So they had stripped out every spare troop they could from the south coast, leaving just a skeleton force.
"We're ready to deploy, though I do NOT like relying on the Viceroy's help," Todo noted.
"Which is factored into my plans," Nemo said.
"Nemo, can I see you a moment?" Rakshata asked.
"Get everyone to point Sigma," Nemo told Ohgi and Todo, "I'll be right with you."
Rakshata lead her to the Knightmare repair bays as she said, "I haven't had enough time to finish a new unit for you."
"Uh huh," Nemo said impatiently.
"I have, however, extensively retrofit an existing Knightmare," Rakshata uncovered a glossy black Knightmare that stood slightly taller and had better armor. "It's not on the same level of the Lancelot, but your superior piloting skills should make up the lack."
"What's it called?" Nemo asked.
"X-Calibur."
To be continued...