Hokkaido is a special place in the Holy Britannian Empire. It was a special administrative zone from the very beginning of the occupation.
The reason for it is very simple, this is the living place of the 1st Imperial Princess, or was. Since the Princess by the name Sherry me Britannia left the Imperial Family and married into the Sumeragi family, she lost her claim.
However, Charles turned Hokkaido into a special administrative zone, simply because it was a small island, and it's not that well populated, followed by a climate.
This place gets a lot of snow and has longer winters than any other island in Japan.
Yet… this place has something very important.
It has Sakuradite, the second-largest deposit recorded in the world. The first one is Mount Fuji, and the second is in Hokkaido's volcano chains.
Marcus' first course of action, the moment the speech was done and the world had fallen into chaos, was to rapidly expand his territory.
The newly formed first three battalions left at 2200 a clock. At the death of the night. When it's dark.
While Sutherlands and Gloucesters are decent at nighttime, with their fact spheres and cameras, they are no match for Setantas.
~~~
"My Prince, Kaguya Sumeragi wants to speak with you."
"Moh! I can approach on my own!" Kaguya dashed around Jeanne, who was just doing her job.
"I heard that you have sent armies to capture Hokkaido." She said with a knowing look.
"Yes. I did." Marcus replied, but then an annoyed voice said from the side.
It was Kallen who was dressed for war.
"I wanted to join!" The crimson-haired girl wanted to dash to the frontlines!
"You can wait. Our machines need to be upgraded. Schneizel's interruption messed up our upgrading schedules." The Inventor Prince explained.
"I see. Though I want to speak to you about Hokkaido." Kaguya looked at him.
"Have you heard about a Britannian Royal marrying into the Sumeragi family?"
"!"
"!"
"!"
The Kallen and even the scientist girls stopped and looked at Kaguya.
"Around ten years ago, Emperor's oldest daughter, Sherry me Britannia, married my… second uncle? I think his name is Jugo Sumeragi; he has been living in Hokkaido ever since then." Kaguya explained to everyone gathered in the workshop.
"You mean… something like that happened?" Kallen was the most surprised. A royal ditching its titles and claims? It was wild to her.
"...Huh… does that mean I am an uncle?" Marcus stroked his chin.
"...is that what you think about?" Kallen deadpanned at him.
"Hey. Being Royal is a pain in the ass. I want some normalcy, too. I want to be an uncle! Bribe my niece or nephew. Spoil them rotten while parents have to deal with the consequences." The Exiled Prince commented with a wishful voice before returning to the matter at hand.
"To your question… yeah, Jugo has a daughter by the name Sakuya," Kaguya explained with a small smile.
"However, Sherry died from a disease a while back. The reason why I am bringing this up is that Hokkaido can be managed by Jugo. After all, he has a connection to both sides." The Princess of the Sumeragi family explained what she had on her mind.
"If this is what you want. But first, we need to conquer that island."
He smiled at her.
"I doubt that will be an issue for your troops." Kaguya smiled back at him.
"True."
~~~
In the pitch darkness of the night, blue beams began to rain on a Britannian military base that was on high alert.
Sutherlands melted away like it was made of tissue paper; the conflicts didn't last longer than 5 minutes, as soon enough, blackbirds landed vertically in this base and ramp lowered, revealing soldiers in black tactical gear.
This time around, all of them had the new Anaheim flags marked on their shoulders and chests.
Blue banner that had Earth's image, with Roman golden laurels, with the word 'Anaheim' sewn in Earth's Image.
It was the new banner that Marcus hadn't even created, but his people had.
Anaheim was no longer a simple company but an entity that connects people regardless of their nationality.
Britannian didn't have a huge garrison in Hokkaido. Once Knightmares were down. There was a token of regular soldiers who were terrified shitless when they saw these heavily armoured troops who had strange tactical gear.
Regular bullets bounced off when they opened fire. Tight corners in barracks didn't mean a thing when plasma was what fired back at Britannian soldiers.
Before long, the soldiers gave up.
In fact, many of them gave up immediately, because they are fighting Britannian Royals anyway.
To many of the regular troops, this conflict is an internal matter; dying pointlessly is not necessary… It's not like they are fighting a foreign country.
"The base is ours." The commander of the troops contacted the HQ.
"2 and 3 regiments to return and prepare for Equatorial conquest."
"Understood."
The commander motioned to the other two captains, who nodded and went back for pick-up; meanwhile, the 1st regiment stayed to take control of the island alongside the 1st mobile suit regiment.
Before long, another set of Blackbirds landed and revealed Legion Bots who began to work on modernising the Hokkaido base.
All in all, it took less than ten minutes to capture this island, as the military will begin checking in the morning to see if there are any stragglers left behind.
Marcus had already put this on the back burner, as he was joined by Cornelia to plan the acquisition of Indonesia's islands to consolidate his control over the equator.
The equator is essential for him as it controls access to space. He is planning a space elevator before orbital rings.
All of the elevators will be on the equator. While Ion Technology allows for seamless transit between space and the planet's surface, it could transport more goods if there were linear trains that connect orbit to the surface.
It's one of the reasons why he took Solomon Islands, so that he could build a space base in the equator.
"Chinese Federation is a mess, it has been 1 day since your speech, but from the looks of it you will acquire portions of the Federation without even fighting." Cornelia highlighted sections of the Chinese Federation.
When Marcus saw that the mainland was breaking apart, he frowned. He doesn't care about the mainland at the moment.
"Jakarta? How is it?" He asked her.
"...The government is still holding it. No news about live ammunition being used." The Princess didn't have any concrete news since the scale of these riots blew her away.
They are processing the information and trying to follow things as closely as possible, but they don't have boots on the ground to follow things closely.
"I see. Then I guess it's time to spray some gasoline on the fire."
"...What do you have in mind?" Cornelia looked curious at him.
"Speak."
With that in mind, he walked away from the command centre, though his sister and an array of people walked after him.
Marcus used Legion to set up where he could broadcast to the world.
An image of the world appeared behind him. Such an image was symbolic for a reason.
"Citizens of the world. This is Lelouch vi Britannia. I was quite moved by how many people desire the stars just as I do.
But before we move towards the last frontier, we have to deal with the ugly elements of our past.
Chinese Federation and their greedy upper echelons, E.U and their Politicians, and of course my father and his relic mentality…"
It was the beginning of a rant at the Emperor as well!
~~~
"Now I am certain that he is very angry with the Emperor." Cornelia's lips twitched as she heard an array of veiled jabs at the Emperor from Marcus.
Before this, she had only heard a couple of jabs from the Exiled Prince. But now, she can hear it directly from his lips.
"He should! What the Emperor did to him is cruel!" Kallen replied, and the other girls nodded in agreement.
"Instead of helping him, the Emperor sent him away to a foreign country," Leila added her comments.
"That's precisely why. With Special Forces going rogue, sending him away was the right move." Cornelia wasn't blinded by rage; she thought logically.
"However… It's clear that Ragnarok Connection is above Lelouch's well-being." The Princess concluded.
"...Hmph, we shall see how long he can think like that." Kallen's hands trembled. She can't wait for her machine to get its upgrades! Once it's done, she will crush Britannia and its Emperor!
"I feel the same way. But all things have their place and time; we can't rush, Kallen." Cornelia smiled at the crimson-haired girl.
The Beast's Pilot slightly stopped; it was the first time that the Princess spoke like that to her.
"Indeed." Kallen calmed down a bit. She decided that she would follow Marcus' lead and focus on his goal.
And it was the right thing to do, as the moment her machine was finished with improvement, she had her first mission.
~~~~~~Jakarta~~~~~~
The Federal Guard was at a standoff with thousands of people around the government building. All of the people were chanting slurs and slogans at the corrupt Federal Government.
While the Chinese Federation was a 'Federation'. The power was concentrated in its capital. The further from the capital the worse people are living.
This was especially obvious in Indonesia, the country joined the Chinese Federation to secure itself from Imperialistic Britannia, but it was pretty much the same.
The only benefit they had was that they were allowed to keep their identity, unlike in Britannia.
But that patience was running thin by the time Marcus' speech was broadcast.
Now, they want freedom from these 'relics'.
And so people march.
Leading to the current standoff.
However, such a stiff standoff led to people snapping. Constant pushing against riot police led to that one single spark.
A nervous federal soldier couldn't keep his cool.
With reckless motion, he pointed his rifle and shot a defenceless youth.
That single action caused the world to stop for a second before everything exploded. More gunshots erupted, people screamed, and fear morphed into rage as rebellion began.
Before long, Knightmares were deployed. Chinese Gun-Ru rushed through the streets to stomp out the rebellion.
But their efforts were in vain as blue beams began to rain from the sky as the 2nd and 3rd Setanta regiments arrived.
The Mobile Suits descended on the garrison as the much taller machines began to stomp and shoot the primitive Gun-Ru models.
"S-Shit, what are they doing here!?!"
The few remaining machines looked petrified at tens of machines simply flying and landing on the streets.
How are they supposed to fight that!?
Before any of them could get a reply from the HQ, an object like a meteor slammed into the Government building, exploding into a pyre of flames.
"!!!"
The knightmares stopped and looked in the direction of the explosion.
What they saw was a red machine with golden horns for a visor standing up from the crater.
It was a bulky machine with thick handles. This machine's blue eyes glowed like flames as it slowly turned around and looked at the remaining Chinese Federation machines.
"T-This is one of those machines Anaheim has! W-What is it doing here!?"
The Federal Soldiers were in panic mode; they didn't remember Anaheim waging some sort of war against them!
"People of Jakarta! We have answered your call, we shall assist you in fighting against the tyranny of the Chinese Federation!"
Lelouch's voice spread through the whole city as the Exiled Prince hacked the loudspeakers throughout the entire city.
"Fuck! First, he galvanised everyone, and now he takes action!"
The soldiers realised that it was on purpose.
Not that it mattered as 'The Beast' lunged at the Gun-Ru machines.
The Mobile Suit ignored the walls, fences and even distance as it only needed a fraction of a second for the machine to appear before the terrified soldiers and the Knightmares.
The soldiers screamed from primal fear as the Beast's fangs revealed themselves, red claws made from pure energy. With a single slash, the Gun-Ru was sliced into four parts.
The energy filler blew up the next second, taking the soldier beside the Knightmare.
What happened was pure chaos as the Chinese Federation's garrison soon ceased to exist.