Chapter 29: Battle of Narita.

The ground beneath them was still unstable. His units struggled to find stable footing, which they were paying for. Even from within his cockpit, Dalton could hear the concussive force of explosive shells and rockets landing around them while the JLF's forces ahead of them on high ground poured machine gun fire onto their forces.

It would do nothing against even Glasgow's armor. Still, with reports of hidden tunnels and other entrances coming into play all around the affected area, he knew that their infantry had been caught without armored support, confused and isolated, ideal targets.

They couldn't even head over to help them, not when their numbers on his part of the battlefield were too low to spare. If they did, then the entire right flank would collapse. 'Not that these bastards will let us disengage.' Dalton gripped his controls as he fired at a JLF tank, destroying it with his recoilless rifle. But another appeared along with a Burai, the later quirk to target him and force him to cover.

“Status report!”

“My Lord, I can only confirm the signals from 20% of our forces.” His subordinate replied.

"20%? That's it?" Dalton asked, starting to sweat, as things couldn't get worse than this. "Our command structure can't sustain this." With so few spread over a wide area, it wouldn’t matter that they had superior equipment or vastly more experience than these terrorists; they'll be overwhelmed. Hell, they were already overwhelmed as he couldn't contract General Alex, so what was happening with their centre forces?!

“Sir, I just got word from command. The 2nd division has been wiped out. General Alex was killed by an unknown armored vehicle of the Black Knights.” The bad news just kept on coming.

Dalton cursed as he looked over his cover. He fired his recoilless rifle but missed his mark as the Burai shifted out of the way, returning to cover before he could shoot. He looked towards the unit that had given the report.

"How the hell did Alex get himself killed? And what do you mean by an unknown armored vehicle? Did Zero get his hands on a tank?" Dalton asked.

“Command isn’t sure, my Lord. The reports from the 2nd division's remnants didn't clarify." Dalton didn't have a map of the battlefield, not a complete one, but he knew where everyone was meant to be. They hadn't seen any Black Knights yet, but General Alex had been killed by them, so they had to be either striking dead center or-

'They're heading right for Viceroy Cornelia!' Dalton realized as his blood boiled, dread pooling in his stomach. With their centre collapsed, the ground suspect, and a resurgent JLF, he couldn't re-direct his men to reinforce the princess, not without a slow, dogged fight, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try.

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"This is Benson unit; we're pinned down by JLF knightmares and machine guns; we need reinforcements and can't make it to General Dalton's position. I repeat, we need reinforcements; General Dalton's forces are cut off!" Lloyd smiled as he did some light scans on the Lancelot's systems, vaguely listening in to the reports coming from their forces. Cecile was much more bothered by them.

Suzaku looked out of the Lancelot's open cockpit. "Lloyd, what's going on?" he asked, as he could also hear this. However, with the Lancelot currently de=powered, he could only hear parts of what was happening from Cecile and Lloyd's terminal.

“It’s quite peculiar. There seems to be unconfirmed reports that the Black Knights have appeared.” Lloyd replied, Suzaku’s attention rising.

"Zero," Suzaku uttered, as if he were here. Was that chaos earlier his doing? Was he to try and kill another royal?

"Congratulations, this is our chance to get some data." Lloyd perked up, though he was only in a happy mood.

"Lloyd!" Suzaku called him out, knowing his boss was…odd, but this was pushing it.

“You’re so rash.” Cecile firmly agreed with their devicer’s statement, though as she had come to expect, when Lloyd turned her way, he seemed confused.

“What? Why is that?” He asked, to which she gave him a bubbly and open smile.

“Would you like a detailed explanation?” She asked, but Lloyd had enough experience to know one of her traps when he saw one.

He turned back, his mood dampened. "No thanks, anyway. We can't really do anything without permission. So, the best we can do is wait for high command to finish gathering data. If they think we can deploy, then we will, but until then, we're on standby."

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"Can we confirm the viceroy's safety?" Euphemia listened to the commanders, men she was sure had earned their ranks and had never given her demanding sister reason to demote them, all but panic as they tried to get a clear picture of the situation.

“Yes, she and her royal guard were outside the mudflow, but the units guarding her flank were lost. They’re isolated.” Another confirmed that what units remained of the center were isolated, damaged, or engaged in a fighting retreat, with those close to Cornelia’s position taken one at a time, their signals continually going out like lamps being blown out.

“What are those Purebloods doing? Can’t they handle a few terrorists in their cheap units?” another asked as Jeremiah's loss was embarrassing enough for a man who held the noble title of Margrave, but did he command fools and recruits as well?

"They're reporting that the Black Knights are using a unit far outside their Sutherlands' specs and that Zero's been targeting the survivors in our central forces with a long-ranged cannon." Euphemia frowned harder at that, as she could only imagine what these new machines were like, but to best a knight like Jeremiah, who, for all her issues with him, she couldn't deny was an exceptional pilot…

“How? How could terrorists have such weapons?”

“Can’t we use our artillery?” she asked. The commanders turned to her, but one shook his head.

"We have no spotters, and the enemy is spread all around the area; even if we wanted to launch a full-scale strike, we don’t have enough pieces.” The mountain, while damaged from the landslide, was still a fortress, and they had no idea how many hiding spots and other dug-outs the JLF had. Shelling them wouldn't be nearly as effective as they wished it could be, and they couldn't damage the structure too much; otherwise, they inadvertently destroyed evidence of who the JLF's supporters were.

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With those Purebloods, they were being forced back as Kallen kicked the gun of a Sutherland aside, twirling her unit around to grab onto her enemy’s head before firing off a blast from her radiant wave surger. The poor bastard tried to eject but found that the RWS had fried his ejection seat, leaving him screaming as his unit was bathed in so much heat and radiant that it bubbled and boiled before bursting.

“Lord Gower!” Villetta cried. The third unit had fallen to this red menace, leaving her with just three others to fend off the Black Knights.

Spotting Kallen’s latest victory, Zero glanced at his map of the battlefield, along with the time before he gave his order: "Q-1, move to the planned point. We'll break through the enemy lines here and strike directly at Cornelia." As he gave the order, C.C. targeted a Britannian tank trapped in the mud with only its turret out in view.

“Right!" Kallen confirmed her orders as she turned away from the fight and dashed into the forest. At the same time, C.C. pulled the trigger, sending another shot down range. The Nemesis duo confirmed the kill when the tank's turret blew up. If they were anyone left alive in that, they wouldn't be fighting anytime soon.

“Seeing Zero taking another shot, Villetta ordered them to close ranks. "Fight to the death!" She yelled as she fired her gun, scoring a hit on one of the Black Knight Sutherlands, which fell over as its systems fried.

“Sugiyama, are you okay?” Tamaki asked, rushing over to offer him cover as his comrade and friend managed to open his cockpit.

“Yeah…" The man groaned, hurt, but he didn't feel anything broken. He was one of the lucky ones, as, despite the surprise attack and the diminished Britannian forces, the Black Knights were taking casualties. From within his unit, Zero was kept up to date with all of it. Many had to take to the field as infantry, leaving them exposed to Britannian sniper fire, machine guns, grenades, and armored units.

On the surface, he appeared calm and unphased as he handled their operations. He sent out additional orders or passed along information to his men in the field and let them handle their problems as they saw fit.

But beneath the man, it was a struggle to remain anything close to calm as he grimaced, as if fighting against an incessant piercing headache; in a way, he was. He didn't wish it, but his mind worked to create the images that had to be happening all around the battlefield. The sight of limbs flung like broken branches. The wet crunch of bone beneath shrapnel and from bodies thrown about like ragdolls. The stench of scorched pork as flesh burned. The heat of explosions as people and machines caught alight. He was in his cockpit, yet he could taste the iron of blood and the ash on his tongue.

Every injury sent a feeling of cold steel through his heart; every death sent burning fire through his soul as he heard them struggling, fighting, and dying; he'll never forget them, not when their tormented souls would only be added to the maelstrom that waged on endlessly in his mind and soul.

He didn't want to forget them, for this was the cost, this was the weight of his actions—the price of war he would pay time and time again, but he would never shame his men, nor would he ever allow himself to think less of their lives and deaths, to look away from the carnage his orders and their willpower brought.

It was maddening, and perhaps a more righteous man would break and call for an end to the fighting and death. But Lelouch wasn’t righteous, but merely a sinner who wished to bring meaning to their deaths and ensure that the world his men fought for would come to be.

So, he took a breath, shifting his core to remain at the eye of the storm of hate, and got back into things.

“Fight. Fight my Black Knights, for those who survive shall be baptized in fire and blood…and forever wear this terrible sin on the sleeve till we may join the fallen as ash.” Lelouch closed his eyes before opening them as he shifted their unit to face the remaining Purebloods.

“Get ready, C.C.," Zero called out, moved to engage the remaining enemies.

His co-pilot had been curious about his first statement but focused on the battle. The cannon still housed a dozen rounds, but their secondary weapons were around 70 rounds a piece. "Just keep it steady, and I'll handle the shooting." She called to him as Zero shifted the controls, directing the Nemesis to speed up and lower itself to reduce drag.

Having been focused on Tamaki and Ohgi’s Sutherlands, the Purebloods were quick to spot Zero dashing out from cover. “It’s Zero!” One called out.

“Destroy him before he can get past!” Villetta ordered as they turned and let loose beneath the helmet. Lelouch smirked as he effortlessly pulled on the control sticks, his feet thoughtlessly pushing and releasing the pedals at his feet.

In response, Nemesis danced as it swayed side to side, moving far faster than its enemies as its landspinners, built into the legs, could rotate on a dime while Lelouch's trial and error tested programs translated control movements and sent the commands to the limbs in milliseconds, each shifting precisely as it needed to execute a maneuverer, individually shifting to ensure the best traction, rising and lowering, bending and relaxing so much that Zero could command a drift behind trees and the unit would deliver.  

“What the hell?” One of the Purebloods called out as they struggled to hit the damn thing; one fired their slash harken to try and trap it, forcing it to crash into the line only for its legs to pull in and with the force of all 6 legs, propelled it over the line like a jumping spider. As they soared through the air, C.C. had the secondary cannons fire, sending the Purebloods into a scatter move to evade the shots.

Nemesis's immense weight made landing hard, but shock absorbers and weight being spread across 6 legs rather than 2 meant that it recovered in seconds and was already off, evading the next stream of fire from the Purebloods.

Ohgi and Tamaki weren't firing anymore as they watched Zero and his co-pilot in action. “How can it move like that?” Tamaki asked as Zero leaned the unit heavily onto one side, the opposite legs stretching out as far as they could go, dodging an attack but keeping him level as C.C. pulled the trigger and sent a shot from their main canon dead center of the enemy Sutherland’s chest.

The shot tore through their armor and slowed down just enough that it detonated within the cockpit, causing an explosion that left nothing but the Sutherlands' legs. C.C. was loading another shot when the machine let out a warning sound.

To the side, one of the Purebloods had managed to get a bead on them, and filled with fury at the humiliations they've suffered because of Zero, to the deaths of their comrades, the young pilot wasn't hesitant. “Right open!” She fired both slash harkens, hoping to knock out that main cannon and remove a leg to throw the unit off balance.

“Not quite.”  Nemesis' front leg swung back and batted the slash harken to the side. At the same time, its middle rose as high as it could, tanking the second slash harken meant for its cannon and sending it off course, taking damage. Still, their durability meant that damage could be ignored.

With their opponent open, Lelouch swung them just enough that C.C. could fire their autocannon. The shots struck Sutherland's leg, toppling it.

“Crap-!” The pilot cried in pain, only to get an alert as she saw the Nemesis leaping towards her. Wait, nononono-!” Her pleas would go unanswered as the mechanical arachnid crashed into it, its legs striking at the unit enough that its ejection triggered.

“Lady Corbyn!” Villetta was sweating, as she was now alone against this…thing thing, and she couldn’t stop. "Command, we can't hold them off; Zero's unit's too strong-!" She spotted the unit moving. On instinct, she shifted, trying to get out of the line of fire. This saved her life as the shot tore through her unit’s shoulder and the top of her cockpit.

The impact tossed the woman around in her machine, causing her to hit her head on the side of the cockpit, blacking out as the ejection failed, leaving her unit to fall over, its hatch malfunctioning, opening up to reveal her dangling by her seatbelt.

With the fight now over, Tamaki and Ohgi approached. “Holy crap, Zero," Ohgi uttered, his shock getting through his typically more reserved vocabulary.

“I thought that thing was a piece of junk, but you totally demolished them.” Tamaki laughed, C.C. rolling her eyes at the loud one, but he then pivoted, aiming his gun towards the down Sutherland and its pilot, who now posed no threat. “What do we do with her?”

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“They’ve been wiped out?” Euphemia was just as surprised as the rest when they got the report.

"Yes, sir, but we lost contact with Lady Villetta.” The controller confirmed, having been the one that Lady Villetta had been in contact with when she had gone radio silent, much like many of the Purebloods.

Hearing that, Euphemia bit her lip, thinking to that machine, that red menace which seemed to greatly outmatch the Sutherlands; perhaps it was even greater than their Gloucesters. Was…was it something like the Lancelot? Was that even possible?

"She's probably dead like General Alex, but now there's nothing between the Black Knights and the Viceroy's position. Order the artillery to target the area between them and have air units move in to cover the fire. That should buy her enough time to retreat." One of the men yelled, but she would have preferred they retreat.

With over 80% losses, their two flanks isolated, and a resurgent enemy coming down the mountain like the mudslide from earlier, it would surely be better to pull back now. Any victory could only be pyrrhic. But she doubted these men would listen to her. They were her sister's commanders, and unless she ordered it, she knew that they'd rather fight until they couldn't fight anymore.

As she wondered how she could convince them to order the retreat, she noticed something on the map. "Wait, what's that unit approaching the Viceroy from behind? I thought that Zero was coming from her flank.” Coming up from the east, well outside the battle area, were two dots that didn't match up with either the JLF, the Black Knights, or their forces.

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Those unknowns were the two trunks that Tohdoh and his sword traveled in, the vehicles closing in on the battlefield. "All units, are you ready?” Tohdoh asked.

“Yes, sir!” All four of his swords replied.

Inside the leading truck, the cab was empty, and the vehicle was set to self-drive. The same was true for the back one Tohdoh and his swords had boarded into their custom Burai. "Then deploy the custom Burais.”

The tops of the trunks opened up, platforms rising into the open air. Atop each was one of the Burai in question. Each of them looked nearly identical to the rest of the Burai currently participating in the battle, with the sole difference in appearance being the pair of long, trailing antennae mounted on the back of their heads. Each also carried a blade with them.

Four of them had a slightly darker shade of green around their limbs, while the one at the front's color pallet was much lighter, marking it as distinct from other Burai. Inside this one sat Tohdoh.

“Listen carefully; if this was a man-made landslide, it should allow us to hit Cornelia's from the rear. Don't waste this moment; capture the Viceroy and take revenge for what happened 7 years ago.” He ordered his Holy Swords, who responded in one strong, solid voice.

“Yes sir, by the honor of the 4 Holy Swords!”

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Having just received the warning, Cornelia looked behind in time to spot Tohdoh's Burai leap from behind the hill. Its sword was held at the ready as it brought it down onto the back of a Sutherland, its blade's edge being a chainsaw made up of superheated teeth so hot they glowed a bright orange.

Such power meant that Tohdoh’s strike easily cut through his first target, and with a backhand, he slashed another across the chest as it rushed to intercept him. Both units fell in flames as the Holy Swords caught up with him.

“Surround them!” He ordered as they advanced.

"The Japan Liberation Front? But how-?" They couldn't have come from the mountain. Was this a detachment returning to base? Why was it not flagged by their checkpoints?

Her royal guard didn't care about the why, only that they were there and moved to defend their princess. Firing down onto them, Tohdoh evaded their gunfire, keeping his eye on the target, whose machine made it impossible to miss her.

“Slash and encircle!” Tohdoh called out as he drove by another Sutherland, his blade slicing through its mid-section, not destroying it but doing enough damage that the unit fell over, inoperable.

“Theses’ aren’t just any Burai.” He wasn't one to boast, but he could take some pride in that fact as his enemies tried to attack him, perhaps thinking their lack of guns made them weak. They had no idea that he and his Four Swords had drilled religiously in close-quarters knightmare combat, and that was being paid in full now.

“This reminds me of 7 years ago.” Asahina smiled as he swung around the thrust of Sutherland's lance, taking its head with a near-casual slash.

“But this time, it's different. We have knightmares as well.” Chiba smiled, feeling invigorated as she clashed with another, proving whose weapon was stronger when her blade started digging into the lance; her opponent saw it as well and tried backing up, their focus on her left them open for Urabe who carved through their chest and cockpit, taking unit and pilot out in a single strike.

"Your Highness, leave them to us! Please, you have to withdraw for now!" Guilford, the dutiful knight, rushed in to defend his princess. His golden lance clashed with Tohdoh's blade, its superior quality to those the Sutherlands were equipped with proving its worth. Even as the superheated teeth spun, creating a shower of sparks, his lance did not yield.

“Very well, I know how to turn this around. Guilford, after you've handled things here, meet me at point 9," Cornelia replied without a fuss.

“Point 9?” Guilford asked but accepted it without question. “I understand.”

“Cornelia!” Urabe and Senba charged at Cornelia as her forces were occupied by Tohdoh, Asahina, and Chiba. Cornelia fired both slash harkens at them, which they deflected with their blades, but it allowed Cornelia a chance to strike.

“Weaklings!” Cornelia declared as she thrust her lance at them, the first dodging, but the second Burai wasn't so lucky as her lance pierced its hand, mercifully not the one equipped with its sword. Charging through them, she placed her trust in Guilford and the rest and raced off to the new meeting spot, her royal guard stepping in to keep anyone from chasing her.

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Having dealt with the Purebloods, the Nemesis led his forces toward their target, but he got a report from Inoue that complicated things. “Zero, Cornelia’s under attack down below.”

“Which team made the move?” he asked, as he had not given such an order, and no one should have been close enough to even make an attempt.

“It’s not us, it’s the JLF.” C.C. hummed at Inoue’s response.

"How odd. I didn't know they had forces that were close to her." She mused, only with Zero, his hands tightened around his controls.

“They don’t.” He reached out to the General, hoping the man would have a good explanation for this.

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The man in question was busy leading their evacuation efforts while managing their battle lines when he got a call from someone he was more than happy to see. “I’m sorry for the late arrival, General.” Tohdoh’s face came up on one of the screens.

“Tohdoh, you’re a sight for sore eyes," Katase remarked.

“When did you cause the landslide, and are you using it to evacuate the Narita base?” Tohdoh questioned, having caught on quick. The old man appreciated that his best soldier had such faith in him.

“We are, but we didn’t cause the landslide. That was Zero." He couldn't take credit for this, but he had to take responsibility for what came next. “Tohdoh, there’s too much to explain now, but know that we’re fighting alongside the Black Knights, with our current battle plan being Zero’s design.”

As they spoke, he got word of another call coming in from a familiar source. “Speaking of,” he allowed it through, a second window opening on the screen showing Zero, also broadcasting this to Tohdoh as he continued his battle with Guilford. Zero, I assume you want to know who’s attacking Cornelia’s position.”

“Correct.” The masked man kept it short.

“That would be Tohdoh, who just returned from Kyoto with their new custom Burais. So, they aren’t on the system yet.” Katase explained as he would bet the masked man thought he was trying to pull a fast one on him.

Zero only took a few moments to think this over; his suspicions against the general diminished. “I see; well, that's a boon. Greetings, Lieutenant Colonel Tohdoh Kyoshiro. I trust that you’ve managed to catch on to things?” Zero directed his question to the man in question.

Tohdoh, on his part, was suspicious of Zero, from his happenstance of being there to having brought the means to cause a landslide on a stable mountain. But if the General worked with him, he wouldn't cause any issues. “You lured them into an advanced, putting the bulk of Cornelia's forces into the line of fire of your landslide. Now, you plan on striking at the Viceroy.”

Both JLF soldiers felt that the masked man was smiling as he spoke. “As acute as the stories claimed, you’re right on the money. Aside from eliminating enemy forces, our secondary objective is to capture Cornelia.”

“You'll have an easier time at such, as we're keeping her royal guard busy, but she's escaped," Tohdoh reported, also transmitting the direction that Cornelia had gone down.

Katase wondered why she would head in that direction. But Zero only chuckled. “Yes, that would be the logical option, but also the predictable one. Rest assured that I’ve already sent units to cut her off and will head over to reinforce them.”

“Then I wish you luck," Tohdoh stated.

“As you I you. General, continue with the evac. This will be a victory for us; it wouldn't be wise to remain longer than necessary.” Zero nodded, the two watching Tohdoh sign off to focus more on the battle before him.

“We're already 60% complete, and I'll be ordering our forces in the center to pull back as well; not enough of a threat there to justify their continued deployment," Katase replied, as they had focused on getting the wounded out first, along with damaged equipment as even if Kyoto couldn't supply them with such numbers for a while, having them around meant spare parts they could salvage.

“I expect nothing less from a man with your experience, but we all should get back to it.” With that, Zero signed off as well. Leaving Katase to continue directing things so that come evening, they would have pulled out and destroyed anything they couldn't carry.

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Backing off from his fight, Guilford frowned as he eyed his opponent, who, despite his best efforts, hadn't taken any damage. The same was true of himself, but he was in a superior model and thus should have had the edge. Was it just the skill of this foe? ‘I heard that Area 11 has a formidable commander, their shining knight.’

Pulling his gun out, he fired on the Burau, which dodged around his fire, closing it to strike with its blade, which he blocked with his lance. Again, both units showered in sparks as the chain blade tried to cut through, but his lance wouldn't be so easily countered. The Burai fired his slash harkens, pointing back at him, which he evaded as he picked up their movements moments before they fired.

‘Is this him, Tohdoh?’ This would be difficult. This man was not known for being weak, but even so.

"Fine, let them try me; I, Gilbert G.P. Guilford, shall face any challenge in the name of my princess, Cornelia li Britannia!" Guilford declared as he changed, ready to impale the Burai and end this duel so that he may head to point 9 as asked of him.

Re-directing the strike to the side, Tohdoh kept his wits about him, as he found despite his skill and their units built for their fighting style in mind, he couldn't land a decisive blow, only minor grazing strikes, which he could never try and build on. "Who would have thought that I'd clash against the Spearhead of the Empire.”  He had heard the man's declaration and knew that he would sooner die than lose to him. “No matter, just as you fight for your princess, I fight for Japan!”

With Dalton, he peeked over their newly ruined cover and spotted the enemy units pulling back. Waiting in case it was a trap, he ensured that not a single foot had stepped forward. When nothing happened, he checked his map of the area, and according to IFF, the JPF was pulling back. “Finally, they’re letting up.”

“My Lord, what do we do?” one of his men asked. Their Gloucester was dirty and damaged, and Dalton wouldn't be surprised if his unit looked even worse. His energy filler levels weren't good either, as he had just a little over 40%.

“We head to the left flank! We need to link up with Princess Cornelia as soon as possible!” He ordered, as even with the Purebloods holding their own, it was only a matter of time before the Elevens sent all they had against the Viceroy.

“But sir, their main base is right in front of, and there's no cover across the center area; we'll be sitting ducks!”

“You fool, if Princess Cornelia is taken by these Elevens, this entire battle is lost!” he yelled. As soldiers, they fought and died for the empire and the crown. That meant that these terrorists couldn't claim another royal, especially their commander.

“Forgive me-AAAAH!” The ground beneath the Gloucester gave off, the pilot not having time to try and escape as it quickly buried him.

“Sir Johnson!” AS one of his few standing pilots cried out to the surely dead man, Dalton only focused on the central flank, knowing that even without resistance, they'd be bogged down and just barely make it; some might even need to take the chance to slowly made their way down the mountain to refuel all the way back at the G-1 if their backlines resupply points were as damaged as they were.

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"Subviceroy Euphemia, you must act now to prevent a disaster; you must send in the G-1!" Euphemia did her best not to let her panic show, but that was hard when the professional soldiers around her were getting more desperate and demanding.

“No.” She kept firm.

"But Guilford is completely pinned down; he can't get to Viceroy Cornelia; her life is at stake!" Did he not think she knew that?! She saw the same tactical screens and heard the same reports. Did he think she didn't care that her sister's life was on the line?!

She snapped back. "We can't! There's a field hospital here, along with civilians who've been evacuated from all over and are gathered at this point. If we leave, we will take all our forces with us."

"Surely we can leave a smaller force to protect them." One tried to offer a compromise to get them into action, but she shot him a withering glare that silenced him.

“And thus leaving the G-1 vulnerable, or do you think this facility has the firepower to withstand an assault should the Black Knights or JLF strike." She demanded an answer from him, but neither he nor the rest could give one.

She feared that Zero would assume she would be in the G-1, and with his agreement with her sister long expired, her life would be on the table, the same as the rest. With no means of knowing how or when he or his agents snuck into Clovis' G-1, rushing into battle would only turn them into a target, and while she didn't care so much about her life that she would run, she wasn't dumb enough to assume her opinions on that were shared. All these soldiers, all these people would die for her if they needed to, and she was trying hard to prevent that.

"I refuse to endanger any more lives; just find me someone to send to reinforce her position." She ordered, and as if as a reward or a boon from on high, a window popped up on their tactical screen of the collapsing battle situation, displaying a cockpit with three people, but only one who she focused on.

“Well, hello there! The A.S.E.E.C. crew reporting for duty." Lloyd's cheery demeanor at this time wasn't so well received.

“Insolents!”

“Your irregulars, your orders are to keep silent and observe!” Another yelled though Euphemia’s gaze lingered on Suzaku, who remained steadfast and respectful in the sight of his superiors.

“Well, yes sir, normally we would but-”

Lloyd cut off Cecile's attempt to be polite. “But all of this waiting around is boring, wouldn’t you say?”

“Sub-Viceroy Euphemia, I beseech you. Please order us into battle.” Suzaku got to the point of things, to which one of the commanders scoffed.

“How transparent, you just want the glory of rescuing the Viceroy.”

"Our whole army is out there. Do you think one unit is going to change things? And with an Eleven pilot?” They could all hear the distrust and distaste for Suzaku's position in the commander's voice. Still, she didn't see Suzaku so much as flinch as his honor was called into question.

“Right, but there's not much of an army left in the field. Else you wouldn't be so up in a tizzy?”

“What?”

“But what's the harm in trying? If everyone's giving their best, why not send one more unit into the fray, right? If we lose, it won't look bad for you.” She was barely listening to Lloyd, trying to convince the stubborn soldiers at her side. Her gaze remained on Suzaku, and she could tell from the moment the call started that he focused only on her.

Because of that, she was the only one who caught him mouthing something. Even without words, she could read his lips and see him saying, 'Euphie'. He wasn't asking the princess, but the friend he made while they traveled around the settlement.

She made her decision: "Yes, I understand. You have permission to join the battle. Your mission is to rescue the Viceroy and return to friendly lines." She didn't care how the commanders gasped at her choice and were already asking her to reconsider.

Lloyd certainly didn’t question it, leaning closer to the Lancelot’s cockpit camera with a big smile. “You got it!”

“Thank you very much.” Cecile nodded, smiling, and she and Lloyd quickly moved out to let their devicer set things up for launch.

Suzaku’s expression remained serious and yet sincere to her. “Right, I won’t fail!” Regardless of their characters and actions, he refused to let Euphemia lose another sibling to terrorism, not when he could do something about it.

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“Dammit, he’s fierce." Tohdoh pulled back from a failed attack, avoiding Guilford's counter. Around them lay the remains of a couple more of Cornelia's royal guard, but it was only those who had been in Sutherlands. The rest fighting in Gloucesters had remained battle-ready, having shifted into a close-knit formation that ensured neither he nor his swords could get close enough without another seeing them.

Guilford reached for his unit's side and quickly equipped a chaos grenade, throwing it toward the Burai. "Scatter!” Tohdoh ordered as he shifted hard to the side, evading the rain of piercing red hot needles; a glance showed that his swords had done the same.

“Lieutenant Colonel Tohdoh, what about Cornelia?” Senba asked.

“Zero’s moving into position, so we’ll keep her royal guard here and leave the Viceroy to him," Tohdoh replied, hoping that Zero did intend to capture the Viceroy as he claimed, the amount of information they could get out of here was worth far too much to kill her outright.

“Understood.”

Guilford, on his part, was just informed of something worrisome. “What? The Purebloods were wiped out? When?” Weren’t they keeping Zero and his Black Knights at bay, if they were already destroyed then-

The controller nodded before sending him a map of the area with routes highlighted. “Shortly before you were attacked. Based on their position, these are the possible routes that could take if they were attempting to strike at Cornelia’s last known location.”

One of which would put Zero right where Cornelia was, but no, there was something else. Zero couldn’t get there in time, but hadn’t that red unit broken off from Zero? "No, the princess was trying to trap Tohdoh, but there's a knightmare waiting to get her."

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“Princess Cornelia!” Cornelia heard Guilford's cry through the radio loud and clear and could guess what got him so anxious as she stood in the middle of a small valley, high rocky walls to either side and right in front of her lay an unknown unit.

"I got the message, Guilford," Cornelia replied, coming to the same conclusion that Guilford had to. They had been had, and now she was trapped, either smash through this unknown or return to Guilford despite her royal guard's efforts to keep the surprise assault from the JLF from getting close to her.

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As she starred down the Guren, the Lancelot was being prepared for launch. When prompted, Suzaku slotted in the activation key, input the password, and closed the cockpit. Cecile came over the radio as the unit's Yggdrasil drive came to light.

“Advanced weapons system Z-01 Lancelot, you are to utilize the sand panels, climb up the liquefied slope at max combat speed, and rescue the Viceroy." She relayed to him, as they had just finished attaching the aforementioned sand panels, an experimental kit based on the designs that the former Middle Eastern Federation had used on their Barmides.

"Yes, my lord," Suzaku replied, looking over the slope. The Lancelot's trailer had been moved to be as close to the dangerous terrain as possible. Still, it gave him a direct path to the Viceroy's position.

As he shifted the Lancelot into a starting position, Lloyd came on his screen. “Suzaku, there’s one thing I want to ask you.”

“What’s that?” Suzaku asked as he looked over the ruined mountain. One that housed the largest terrorist cell in Japan, the same one who had nearly killed his friends. He couldn’t understand it. Why? Why was Zero helping them? Didn’t he kill Kusakabe? Or was he trying to take both the JLF and Cornelia out to satiate his blood lust?

“More than anything, you hate when people die, and yet you're in the military. Why is that?”

"I'm in the military to stop people from dying," Suzaku replied.

“And that self-contradiction will get you killed one of these days. I'm sorry!" Lloyd's retort shifted when Cecile grabbed him by the scruff of his collar, the man immediately changing tune as she pulled him off-screen.

Suzaku ignored that and focused on the mission. Once he was given the clear from the system. “Lancelot, now launching.” His land spinners spun to life, launching him out of the trailer before he dived onto the liquefied terrain. The sand panels doing their job, spreading his weight enough that the Lancelot didn't sink or lose speed as he shifted it to face where Cornelia was and raced over as fast as he could.

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“Cornelia!” Kallen yelled as she charged the Viceroy, aiming to disable her unit and capture her.

But her opponent wouldn't make that easy. "Low-born scum!" Cornelia called out as she tried to stab her with her lance, to which the Guren evaded. Still wary of that right hand, Cornelia chose distance over a follow-up, launching a Slash harkens not at the Guren but above and behind it, jumping as she retracted them, sailing over the Guren and shifting so that her unit’s legs hit the cliff face first.

Kallen only ticked her teeth at the move, as she didn't have much for range besides a grenade launcher. Cornelia looked back at her. "A new model? Was that the unit that destroyed Carius and smashed the Purebloods?" She asked but got a warning before she could think more about it.

Quickly dropping, she just barely avoided being shot from the other side of the cliff. Having just arrived, Zero switched on his speakers. “Can you hear me, Cornelia? This is checkmate.”

“Zero.” Cornelia glared at the cliff's edge, where she spotted another unknown, along with a Burai. Immediately, she recognized which Zero had to be piloting.

“Who else? It has been a while since the hotel jacking. How things have changed since then.” Under the helmet, Lelouch was smiling at the situation. “But just like then, you have but one sensible choice, one I would advise you take if for no other reason than I imagine you have some questions about Code-R.”

Bashing the end of her lance into the ground, Cornelia moved her unit to stand at its full height. “Oh, I have questions, and I’ll force you to answer each of them. All I have to do is defeat this one unit.” She turned and fired on the Guren, but the unit jumped and skipped around her fire. When she fired a slash harken when its back was to the valley wall, instead of diving right as she predicted, Kallen caught the Slash Haken with her knife, dangling its cords in the blade.

“You got some moves.” Cornelia could admit that, but she wasn't done. He thrust her lance towards it, forcing the Guren to catch it with its right hand. That proved a detriment to Cornelia as Kallen quickly fired the surgery, flooding the golden lance with radiation and heat that quickly spread through the weapon and into Gloucester's hand.

Cornelia, seeing this, acted fast and quickly detached the lost arm, preventing radioactive rot from spreading to the rest of her unit. With the smoke from her destroyed arm still thick, Nemesis fired its autocannons at her other hand, specifically her rifle; C.C.'s sharp shooting destroyed the weapon with only a few well-placed shots, the rest going wide and hitting Cornelia's leg, forcing her to kneel.

“Coward! Attacking from behind?” Cornelia decried him, only for the masked man to chuckle in amusement.

“I wouldn’t have imagined I would such a hypocritical statement from Britannia’s Goddess of Victory.” He countered, C.C. keeping the main cannon loaded and aimed for Cornelia, a fact she knew well as she weighed her options, and with no lance, no weapon, and one arm against such odds, she would be a fool if she didn't realize that she was trapped, with two options, but one she could stomach.

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As they trekked through the ruins of the central attack area, a place filled with ruins of machines and bodies of soldiers half buried in the blood-soaked soil, Dalton's force march of his forces remnants was hampered by fire from the high ground as JLF turrets that survived the landslide, were being turned on them by the demo crews ordered to plant charges who figured they might as well exhaust their munitions before blowing them up.

Seeing what few forces he had left be whittled down further only infuriated the man and compounded his trepidations. "Dammit, at this rate, we'll never reach Princess Cornelia's position." An alert drew his attention to the fact that his unit was down to just 20% power, and they weren't even halfway. Dammit…all forces with 30% and below pull back. I repeat, pull back! We'll never reach with power this low!"

“Understood, my Lord." One of his soldiers, at least one of those still standing, confirmed, sounding just as defeated and furious as he did, but he had to face facts. Even if the JLF assault just ceased, and the terrain was half as unforgiving as it was now, they'll have, at best, a couple of minutes of power once they arrive at Cornelia's position.

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“Lieutenant Colonel, General Katase just contacted us. They've managed to evacuate 75% of our forces into the base interior, and it seems that the Britannians have given up the assault on the right flank.” Urabe reported, which got a nod from the Tohdoh.

“Then we've nearly achieved our objectives. Switch to spinning life or death formation." He ordered as Chiba, engaged with Guilford, quickly pulled back.

“Yes, sir!" She and the rest confirmed as they started encircling the 5 Gloucesters, moving closer and further, seemingly at random. This kept the Britannians on their toes, but they could not tell who was going for the attack and who wasn't.

In his cockpit, Guilford felt dread pooling at his core, his hands shaking as he tried to remain focused and calm. But he wasn't with his princess, and with things as they were, neither he nor anyone could get to her when she needed assistance. “If this keeps up, then Princess Cornelia…"

 “Guilford.” That dread became viscous and heavy when he heard Cornelia over the radio; as that voice, it wasn't right. It didn't sound anything like the woman he had served and respected. There was no fight in it, just tired resignation.

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"Guilford…my night." Still kneeling, Cornelia kept the line open with her knight, her voice calm, quiet, and accepting. "You and Dalton protect Euphie."

 “Your Highness!” Guilford yelled, already knowing what she was about to do.

"I won't surrender," Cornelia forced her damaged unit to stand, facing the Guren before her with nothing but steel in her heart. "As an imperial princess, I'll fight to the last!"

“Princess Cornelia!" Guilford's cry went unanswered as she charged the unit, determined to do something and, if not, then to die on her feet.

“So predictable." Zero's brow creased with annoyance, but he closed his eyes, having seen this coming. "Mk II, you know what to do.” He ordered as Kallen was quick to jump in, moments from doing just that when the valley wall exploded out of nowhere.

With a surprised cry, she was thrown back. The Nemesis and Tamaki found their footing disrupted as the wall collapsed, C.C. cursing as they fell into the valley.

Kallen was the fastest to recover and scanned the area for everyone. She quickly found Cornelia, her unit seemingly right where it had been a moment prior. At the same time, she picked up the new positions of the Nemesis and Tamaki's Burai. But through the smoke, she saw something when, as it cleared, the Guren's sensors picked up a familiar white and gold.

Kallen's eyes widened. The Lancelot had arrived in style, its V.A.R.I.S. still pointing up, its barrel elongated from its explosive entrance.

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I'm writing this on the last day of May, mainly because I was in such a pleasant mood last week that I was able to write the next chapter the very next day. So, I took my time with this, even taking a break to work on that other WIP, whose first chapter was posted last Monday.

Also, this chapter, or what I should say, the battle went through some changes, partly because I changed Saitama to have it that the BK didn't appear, which meant that the Nemesis didn't get a proper debut. The other reason was that on a second reading of my notes, the scenes felt…dry, so I swapped things around in a way I hope is just as entertaining, if not more so in some regards.

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And done! The funny thing about this was that it wasn't even all my notes for what was meant to happen in this chapter. It's a little over a third because I got into a groove and stayed there for the two days it took to write this. With the prospectives, I jumped around a lot with things, from fractions and people all around the place, which came to be a big reason why things ended up like this, but I didn't want to remove stuff…so it remained.

A big change made was that the Nemesis got more screentime for Lelouch to display what the unit could do. As I said up top, it was meant to debut in Saitama, where he would even score 2 kills off Cornelia's royal guards. However, as that never happened, I compensated by having it both act as a sniper by taking out Alex and then demolish 3 of the Purebloods in combat, including Villetta.

Another change to canon, not my plans, is the fact that with Katase and Zero working together, they've both managed to do more damage and lose less with the JLF already pulling out, so next chapter will be the final chapter is less the battle and more the closing shots as the BK have a limited window to capture Cornelia, while the Lancelot's going to have a limited window as well, considering it can't rely on any back-up that can't fly.

Because of that, so much happened that I didn't even get to show Minami's led assault on the second Code-R plant. Oh well, that'll come in the next chapter.