Schneizel was surprised; he didn't anticipate that Cornelia would have such a machine at her back call.
Though he quickly accepted such a development, since it was related to their little brother, it made sense that she would have one of these advanced machines.
The blonde Prime Minister and his followers swiftly retreated the moment the building shook. The missing roof and walls were a great indicator that they should get away from here.
The combat soon began as they began to lose Sutherlands and Gloucesters at an absurd rate.
The 2nd Prince couldn't watch this anymore when he heard that they lost 30 machines and counting.
"Deploy our special weapon."
"Understood, my prince, deploying railguns."
At that moment, custom Sutherlands were launched.
These were a combo machine. One Sutherland's right hand is modified to hold a large linear cannon while another Sutherland operates as a gunner.
While it's no longer effective mobility-wise, it can now blow things up!
The first one to experience that was a Setanta who was advancing to take over the California base.
The mobile suit moved in, but then from the mountains… a considerable distance away, a yellow lightning blast slammed into Setanta, causing it to explode.
"They do work… this is a relief." Schneizel was a bit sceptical, but he lost his Camelot… Lloyd and Cecile were gone.
Millions of pounds in development were lost. Those two spearheaded many of the projects. While he salvaged many of them, they couldn't continue without the brains behind them.
But Schneizel didn't despair, he simply rerouted his money somewhere else, and that was to other think tanks.
Like the one who developed this railgun, the weapon is bothersome, but it delivers.
And it's not the only one, as from the mountains several more of these custom Sutherlands came out and began to rain yellow lightning beams and blow up several more Setantas who swiftly began to do evasive manoeuvres.
"Those machines… while nearly double the size… they are that agile!" Schneizel's assistant commented with a surprised look.
"There are most likely reasons why they are bigger than most Knightmares." The blonde prince observed the situation critically.
Now that he was in a secure location, he could issue commands more calmly.
However, that soon changed as Cornelia and her machine rose into the sky.
"My Prince… electronics are going haywire!"
"I expected that. Switch them off and focus on your radios!"
"Understood."
'That machine's power source is different from those mass-produced ones. If what Lloyd said is true, then powerful radio signals should work around this phenomenon.'
As he thought about keeping systems online, Cornelia's machine lunged towards the mountains.
"Concentrate fire on that machine!" Schneizel ordered his troops.
"...But…" the Prince's assistant looked worried, that machine is piloted by Cornelia!
"I know, but this is war, we need all the advantage we can get."
With the Prime Minister's command, the custom Sutherlands opened fire on the rushing mobile suit.
But to the Britannians' surprise, the blasts were deflected one by one. The KK unit threw its lance at first Custom Sutherland, shredding it before stomping with its foot and taking the lance from the nailed knightmare.
The mobile suit began to dance around the custom Sutherlands and their security forces.
'What a monster…'
The Britannian forces began to waver around Cornelia and her machine's might as she crushed everything in her path.
That was until she finished the last custom Sutherland and flew away.
The Britannians soon realised that the docked fleet was sailing away, and her forces were already stored away.
'She is leaving? Couldn't she hold the grounds here?'
Schneizel wondered why the strategic retreat.
He pondered for a second. The mountains do give an advantage; any invading force that would invade California have to deal with the mountains.
'Cornelia will return; she is not one of those to take this retreat lightly.'
"...Collect the destroyed enemy Knightmares, collect all the data you can. We need their technologies reverse-engineered immediately!" The Prime Minister issued his orders.
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
Cornelia had a frown on her face as she recalled the weapons used by Schneizel's forces.
'As expected, he didn't take this lightly. He was already working on weapons that could try to take on KK-units.'
"Contact Lelouch for me."
[Understood, Princess.]
A few moments later, Marcus appeared on her right side. He was in his mobile suit; from the location, she could tell he was in space.
"Cornelia, how was the fallout?" He asked, sounding curious.
"As you would have expected. Branded a terrorist for treason." She said in a sarcastic tone.
"As expected."
"Indeed. However, I am calling you because I lost three Setantas."
His expression was one of surprise.
"How?"
"A new weapon. Schneizel's forces combined the two Sutherlands for this. One holds a huge rifle-like weapon while the other, Sutherland, operates it like a gunner."
As she explained, Marcus downloaded the footage from Cornelia's machine.
"...That's a railgun. Never expected to see this." He sounded baffled, confusing the Princess.
"You know of this weapon?" The newly branded terrorist asked him.
"A concept of it. It uses electromagnetism to accelerate slugs of metal at absurd speeds.
However, what we are looking at is more than just a slug of metal. I suppose there is Sakuradite involved in this."
"...it bypassed Setanta's armour like it was tissue paper." She commented with a bit of anger.
"That is to be expected. We designed these armours with beam technology in mind. The Nano-Metal of KK-units and the carbon alloy Setanta is using are good at taking in heat from Beams, but the response we got from Schneizel is Railgun, something that could even bypass Nano-Metal.
My technology was designed to work as a dam to keep heat away, not protect from knives that fly several times the speed of sound." He concluded from his observations.
"You did well with that tactical retreat. We need to regroup before doing an orbital drop invasion."
*Snort*
Cornelia snorted at the praise before ending the call.
'Like they say… no plan survives the first contact.'
~~~~~~Later in California~~~~~~
In the temporary office of the Prime Minister, the Prince was gazing at the destruction that Cornelia and her men had caused to the California Base.
"My Prince, he is here." Schneizel's secretary and assistant, Kanon Maldini, introduced a young man dressed in a Britannian mechanic uniform.
"...Did you get anything while aboard Cornelia's ship?" the blonde Prime Minister went right to the point.
He lost far too many forces in that skirmish, including all of the custom Sutherlands that were created for the defence against those 'Alien' Machines.
"Yes. Not everything, but a decent amount, their security is absurd. I couldn't even get close to that Morrigan machine."
"Morrigan?" Schneizel turned around and looked at his spy.
"Yes. The Exiled Prince named the machines after Celtic Gods."
"...Classic Lelouch. He didn't change much, even if he is a genius at Knightmare development." The Prince chuckled at the Inventor Prince's naming sense.
"Indeed. Here is everything that I acquired from the Setanta mobile suits."
"...Mobile suits?"
"Yes, well, they are built on a completely separate platform. Not related to Britannian machines whatsoever.
Such technologies…Prince Lelouch is one of the century's geniuses! From the armour to joints, even the Software that the machines run on!
Everything is beyond what our Empire has achieved to this day." The spy sounded extremely impressed by what the prince was able to do.
"Indeed. It would seem my little brother is something else." Schneizel thinly smiled for a second. "But, this time, he is our enemy."
"Precisely, My Prince. Prince Lelouch's goals are not simple world conquest. He is planning a complete space conquest!"
"...Space?"
For a second, even Prince Schneizel was baffled; he didn't expect Lelouch's ambition to be so… grand! He is not satisfied with Earth alone. No, he wants the entirety of space itself!
"...Now it makes sense."
At that moment, the Prime Minister realised why these machines are so advanced. Lelouch wasn't building them to conquer the Earth.
No, he didn't even register the threats on Earth. The Exiled Prince's true enemy was always the cosmos.
'I don't know how to feel when I am not even considered a threat but a stepping stone.'
With such a realisation, the blonde Prince frowned, and a bit of anger washed over him. It has been a while since he felt anything like that.
"...If this is the case… Lelouch, then I will have to lower you down from the clouds where you are flying right now."
He mumbled that under his breath before taking the flash drive and the booklet offered by the spy.
Schneizel handed those to his secretary.
"Take these to my R&D, I want an update in a day."
"Understood, my Prince."
Once Kanon was gone, the blonde Prince began to grill the spy for all the details.
The KK-Units, who are pilots who, according to rumours, have their own plans, whatever strategies they have, politics, and dynamics in Anaheim. What kind of connection does the company have with the military?
How deeply is Cornelia in all of this?
He wants to know all of it!
~~~~~~Around the Same Time~~~~~~
Meanwhile in space, Marcus was leaning into his seat as he was pondering what he had just learned from Cornelia.
"I should have known that Britannia wouldn't just roll over and surrender to him.
They have a considerable number of talented people and a few royals who are competent.
Well, mostly Schneizel, who is dragging the rotting body of the Holy Britannian Empire." He chuckled at the last part as he was feeling a bit annoyed.
'I shouldn't underestimate Schneizel. They stopped using the Britannian network entirely.
However, that makes them vulnerable to invasion.'
With that in mind, he turned his mobile suit around and looked at SWORD.
The space station is being assembled at a rapid pace.
Sections A (Fusion Reactor and Legion Bot Maintenance) and B (Refinery and Assembly lines) are finished.
The station is rapidly deploying new Legion Bots that are preparing the construction of Section C (Magnetic Particle cannon at the tip of the station) and Section D (the transition hub and systems to support life).
The last piece will be section E, which will be the rotation part, where gravity will be a thing, and people will be able to live here.
He needs to finish this part as soon as possible, as a worst-case scenario, they could end up being pushed out of Earth and live in space.
That, of course, would open a set of cans that he has no time to think.
"That reminds me."
"Legion contact, Anna."
[Contacting Anna Clement]
A few moments later, he could see one of his darling nerdy girls. The moment the girl saw him, she began to smile with rosy cheeks.
"H-How can I help you, Marcus?"
"How good are you with vegetation?" He asked her, and his question confused her a bit.
"...How good? You mean growing? Or?" She asked, wanting some more details.
"I am talking about self-sustaining space stations, kind of vegetation."
"Oh… you want me to work on Section E?" The girl immediately knew what he was talking about.
"Yes. I need plants, farms and all that stuff. Worst-case scenario, we could end up forced to leave Earth itself."
"Do you think that could happen?" Anna looked concerned when she heard that!
All Marcus needed to remember was that Schneizel was ready to kill his siblings and blow up the capital with 35 million people in it.
The guy is ruthless, and who knows what kind of things he is researching to power the war machine? Now that Marcus has acquired the best scientist in the world, making Schneizel desperate to keep up with Anaheim.
"It could. Our enemy is my older brother, who could keep up with me when it comes to certain things." The Inventor Prince frowned as he looked away.
"That might be so, but with the people you collected, there are not that many people who could keep up with Anaheim."
"Indeed. That is what is allowing me to sleep soundly….that and my hug pillows."He said the last part with a thoughtful gaze, recalling all those soft hugs.
His comment made the nerdy girl blush hard enough for her to end the call!
~~~
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