Chapter 53
Leila was true to her word. She swiftly began to organise the construction of their house on the island.
Just north of the central mountain that was a volcano long ago, she marked an area that she deemed as their private land.
Once that was done, she ordered the Legion bots to start laying foundations with Roman Concrete. This concrete is what people call 'self-healing' when it is exposed to water erosion.
Truth to be told, it's not healing, more like triggering another hardening when erosion is deep enough. This works, it works very well, as Roman concrete buildings are around 2 thousand years old.
It's incredible, though after finishing the foundations, Leila decided to use natural found materials, like the trees. Since this is an equatorial tropical forest climate, European-style houses have no place here…it would be simply too hot.
That is why she went with many open areas and large windows. However, some of the areas have actual concrete walls for stability purposes.
One could say she got inspired by Japanese buildings.
"...Not bad… You took this to another level." Marcus walked in as he inspected what his girlfriend was doing.
"More and more resources are available for me. I already connected the basement to the new workshop." Leila said from her side as she wasn't surprised to see that Marcus was here.
"More importantly, you have more people—"
"He kidnapped them again." Kallen chipped in.
"Of course he did." Leila wasn't surprised anymore. That's his calling card by this point.
"Regardless, let me show you the things I designed." The girl began to show around this tropical retreat, which had fully functioning access to the workshop via the basement.
Though Kallen swiftly realised that the house was too small for everyone to fit. In fact… it was just enough for two people.
The blonde would even give Kallen this look, telling her that this place was a lovebird nest and it doesn't include her or any other female.
Still, it was not finished, as Legion bots were working like carpenters, and after checking the place and giving a loving kiss, Marcus and Kallen returned to the workshop.
Now that Cornelia is working with him, the Inventor Prince doesn't need to go around to transport resources.
He began to take shipments in bulk, and quite quickly, he built an additional two Blackbirds that could allow transportation of even more resources.
With extra birds around, Marcus began to develop JLF's base.
He scrubbed its existence from any database and slowly began to turn it into a factory.
As days passed, he slowly removed his first-generation Fusion Reactor from underneath the academy. In its place, he left a battery storage facility.
By this point, his old workshop is slowly becoming nothing more than a storage area.
Midway through working in the Narita base, Marcus got a notification that everything had been prepared for the trip to collect resources in the asteroid belt.
"If you think that I will let you do this alone, then you are severely mistaken." The Inventor's older sister popped up from nowhere!
"...How did you…" Marcus, who was overseeing the installation of massive assembly lines in Narita, looked at his sister, who was smirking at him.
"I am part of your faction. If I need a lift, I can get one of your birds to pick me up." She explained with a shrug.
"And I noticed that you are planning for a space voyage, and if you think you can do it alone, then you are mistaken."
"I wasn't thinking of going solo. Kallen is coming with me… oh, and Suzaku is coming along."
"That reminds me." She looked a bit pissed.
"You caught Schneizel's scientists. I was thinking of letting them be around for a while longer, you do know that they must give periodical reports to him?" She sighed while saying that.
"I did this move after doing an array of calculations. It was a perfect move because our brother is busy with North Africa and the Middle East." The prince stopped working and faced her.
"Once we bring back the asteroids for mining, we can begin accelerating our actions." He said as he was thinking about what he would do next.
"...you only gave me an overall idea, but not specifics, Lelouch." She raised her eyebrow at him.
"Well, it will be a synchronised orbital bombardment around the world."
"...Syncronised? You mean…"
"We will bombard around 12 to 15 places at once. Erasing most of the Thoughts Elevators. I am planning to keep one for myself to study.
Most specifically, one at the South Pole. It's ruins that most likely have been frozen in place for thousands of years. A perfectly preserved ruin."
Cornelia's eyes trembled; he was truly the Emperor's son! His brother will cripple the Emperor's work from space! No need for armies or battle!
"...You will make him guess who did it."
"Doubtful, if I were certain that he is blind to what we are doing, then I wouldn't be doing this."
He looked at the large assembly lines that were being constructed. Now that the retrofitted Fusion reactor is in place, his Legion bots can work without breaks.
"What I am expecting is him snapping and sending a bulk of forces to Japan.
We can expect all of his Knights of the Round Table and a bulk of Homeland's forces."
Cornelia's eyes trembled as he said something that she was a bit fearful of.
"That reminds me… where is my machine?" She asked.
"You do know you need to run simulations to get your machine." He said with a sigh.
"I know. I visited your place several times now." The Viceroy complained with a frown.
"Then let's return to your workshop. I can give several more hours." She suggested.
"Fine. Though this reminds me of something." Marcus smiled as he looked at her.
"You haven't seen our Solomon's base."
"...I know."
The pair walked away. They were shadowed by Princess Knight.
~~~
As the Blackbird was taking them to the base in the comfortable passenger seats, Marcus decided to share what he had designed for her so far.
"I already have a general idea what kind of Mobile suit it will be."
With a hand motion, a hologram appeared before him. He went through projects and assessed the mobile suits.
There was a new suit in the KK-unit list.
KK-41 Morrigan.
"A close-quarters mobile suit that focuses on lance/jousting type style of a weapon."
Marcus showed her a frame similar to classic Gundam style, not too bulky or slender, just right in the middle.
"It's not complete, obviously, but Legion already concluded that you prefer a direct and brutal approach.
That's why the lance will have a completely new deflector technology designed and employed.
For a while, we thought of utilising our nano-metal technology, but it would look too bulky.
Instead, we will use energy-based deflectors. There will be projectors dotted throughout the machine."
He showed her how the machine would operate.
Basically, it will rush towards the enemy… that's it.
As the mech gets close, it would deflect everything in its path with this tech. Once close, it nails the enemy.
"Obviously, this is not the only thing it will have. These deflectors are not the only thing it will have.
No one likes a one-trick pony. The back of the machine–"
"Is that a cape made from…energy?" She commented because she didn't expect to see anything like that!
"Indeed, the cape is like an indicator of excess energy the machine absorbs. While deflectors will do their job, there will be blows that you can't deflect.
That's where the excess energy will go."
"...I can assume that this energy will be released in some sort of form?" The 2nd Princess realised that this energy has to go somewhere.
"Precisely. It's the next system that we are still in the early stages of." He approached the most exciting part of this machine!
"It augments the machine; it allows you to use a Magnetic Particle Accelerator Cannon."
He showed her how the lance splits up and becomes a big bazooka-like gun.
Now it made sense why the weapon was a bit bulky.
"The amount of energy this thing will release has enough firepower to blow up an entire city block.
Compared to the size of machines, it's decent, and you can shoot it several times."
His sister nodded several times; she had several questions.
"Isn't it powered by a literal sun? Doesn't it have greater explosive capabilities?"
Part of her already is thinking of committing patricide with her new mobile suit.
All she needs is to fly over and use her big cannon, and it will end their father's whole scheme of world-ending.
"Indeed. The thing is, we need a balance with such a thing. The machine has purposely installed limiters.
You can't push your mobile suit beyond a certain amount, because it would use more power than it can generate. These machines don't have batteries." Marcus explained to her.
"...I assume it's because of the size?" Cornelia reasoned.
"Indeed. That's why Legion developed a machine to fit your style.
Your deflectors would work against other KK-Units. It's a form of precaution. If someone develops a method to bypass our nano-metal technology, it would mean they can, in theory, destroy our mobile suits.
But the deflectors are energy-based; only heat could potentially damage nano metal, and heat is energy."
"...hah, so I have KK-Unit killer?" The Princess snorted.
"All KK-units can destroy each other. Only yours has the means to defend against beam technology." He shrugged.
"Since it's like that, why can't other machines have these?"
"Because of limited space. My frame can't even have these because of the transformation mechanisms. Not that I had this technology until we had your combat data." He didn't mind telling her the limitations of his machines.
After its only second-generation machine ,which was built with mobility in mind.
He doesn't have technology which he can put everything inside one machine.
"...So this…was developed through those skirmishes I had inside the sphere?" Cornelia asked after hearing something absurd.
"Indeed. I developed infrastructure first, that means the self learning AI, and that can do all of this." He explained the designs to her as he showed her the machine.
"Even after the machine is finished, it will be only a second-generation suit. The installed AI will continue to gather data that will be used to create a third-generation machine.
We already have theories for the next technologies that will be used in the third generation. But first, we need you to use the second generation and perfect this model." He explained how his machine development works.
"...I haven't even set foot inside this machine, but you already have an advanced model in plans? You scientists are more extreme than soldiers." Cornelia commented with a bit of awe.
"It's a normal part of the development process, my dear sister. We still need to bring Euphemia in."
The moment Marcus mentioned his pink sister, the older sibling twitched.
"I think it's your fault that Euphemia wants a weapon of mass destruction for protection." She gave him a hard stare, implying that it was his fault.
"Is it? Well, I can't deny such a thing, after all, my creations are hard to resist." He joked for a second.
"Hmph, and that is your fault as well." Cornelia didn't let up.
"If it makes you happier, my dear sister, then yes, it is my fault."
He chuckled; one can't argue with a woman on a mission.
"You still haven't told me the name of this machine." For now, she shelved the whole Euphemia thing and asked how her machine would be called.
"It's KK-41 Morrigan."
"...Isn't that the witch from Arthurian Myths?" She commented with a raised eyebrow.
"No, that's Morgan, and it's most likely Welsh, but Morrigan is a Goddess of War in Celtic myths."
That immediately made her satisfied.
"Acceptable name, you done well." The Princess nodded as, before long, the plane landed in Solomon's Base.
It was time for her to see what he was doing in this place.