There have been retcons:

the FIR knightmares will have less edgy names now:
FIR-02 'Michael' is now 'Ferrum'
FIR-05 'Gabriel' is now 'Vindicta'
FIR-09 'Uriel' is now 'Cito'
FIR-10 'Sachiel' is now 'Pilum'
FIR-11 'Ambriel' is now 'Galea'
FIR-12 'Kushiel' is now 'Fortis'
FIR-13 'Samael' is now 'Dolus'
FIR-14 'Azrael' is now 'Sanus'
FIR-18 'Faust' remains the same

All messages will destruct in T-? day(s).

The Kings Cometh 32: Defeat in Victory

Before her knightmare could hit the ground Cornelia shot into the air, a yellow afterimage trailing behind her from the Fortis' Air Glide pack. She checked the minimap on her HUD and scaled it up to full size, her entire cockpit being bathed in blue and green light. Hundreds of blue dots were appearing all over the map and her comms were alive with status reports as the entire Britannian garrison mobilized around her, and just as quickly even more white dots, representing her Australian allies, were appearing as well.

"Western flank," Cornelia addressed over her radio. "Report."

The lights of the city around her were cutting out to avoid drawing attention from the enemy, and the shrill cry of air raid sirens was everywhere, masking the screaming of orders on the ground and the hum of knightmares taking off. There was another boom of thunder and a wave of static over Cornelia's comm, then she got a garbled reply.

"This is 6th RAA Terrier Squadron, reporting! We've got multiple contacts incoming!"

"Have you heard anything from 2nd Fleet?"

"No, Ma'am. I'm not picking up many signals from them either. They've taken heavy casualties."

Cornelia scowled in her seat and considered her options for the battle ahead. Besides 2nd Fleet, 3rd Fleet was the closest allied presence to the north, but they were dedicated to protecting Sir Kururugi's lane of retreat from Riau, and couldn't risk moving in to cut off the enemy's reinforcements over the sea. That was of course assuming they could even hear any call for help with the storm hampering their communications. And as for the other Round Table Knights, they were all on assignment and were quite certainly too busy with their own struggles to come to the garrison's rescue. So that just left Cornelia and the forces she had with her.

More white and blue dots were appearing on Cornelia's map, and dozens upon dozens of Xs began to appear as well, marking stationary surface-to-air-turrets coming online. There was a beep of warning as a large formation of blue dots circled with gold zipped up on her HUD, and Cornelia finally began to relax, noting off-hand that her Royal Guard was more than enough for her to win any battle.

Scores of Vincent Command Frames and Gareths had fallen into formation behind her, purple and white and edged in gold, and with them was their leader, her Knight of Honour, Gilbert Guilford in his new custom frame, the Z-M10-01, reusing the name of Galahad.

The new Galahad was similar in appearance to the Lancelot, as all the Z-MXX series were, having been based off the original Z-01's design. It flew up beside Cornelia, tall and proud, a silverish grey with gold highlights across its armour and chilling blue eye lenses, an MVS halberd in its grasp. It included the usual hip slash harkens, and one built into its right forearm as well, topped with a glinting Blaze Luminous projector. Integrated into the left forearm was a discreetly-sized anti-knightmare machinegun, and hanging from a sheath on its back was a single MVS sword.

She hadn't been afraid, nor was she ever concerned that she'd lose the battle, but Cornelia felt a lot more confident with Guilford by her side, and with a renewed sense of purpose she shot forward through the rain, moving due west to reinforce the first line of defense.

"Confirmed, 6th Terrier Squadron," she finally answered into her comm. "Deploy to point B-2. Let the Wards handle the enemy charge."

"Roger that."

Cornelia set her eyes on a few more units near the city limits and readjusted her radio frequencies.

"Terrier Squadrons 7 through 10, can you hear me?" The static over the comms was unbearable. "Take up defensive positions behind the outer wall. Britannian Ward squadrons attached to Wilfrim Group, form up to either side of the western bridge."

Another crack of thunder echoed outside, and at first Cornelia wasn't sure if her orders had gotten through. Quickly enough though, a cracked chorus of affirmation blared over her cockpit radio, and the dots on her tactical map began to rearrange into more meaningful formations, making the most of the brief seconds before the enemy arrived.

Before Cornelia came to occupy the city as her new frontline HQ, the Chinese Federation had started on a several meter tall, fortified wall surrounding the western outskirts, gun platforms eventually to be built on top of it, and though damaged during her invasion, it was still in useable condition and would provide some cover against the enemy KMFs coming over the sea. There was however one major weakness with the wall in the form of a long bridge across the river that flowed through the city center, the reinforced concrete partition only starting to its either side.

The bridge was a physical gap in her defences, wide and open enough for fifty knightmares to pass through at a time, and would no doubt be the first point the enemy would attempt to seize. Early on Cornelia had noticed this weakeness, even taking advantage of it herself during her own invasion, focussing her troop concentration there rather than splitting her breakthrough advantage on the charge by attempting to go around the wall to the north and south. Once the bridge was under her control, her army had been able to bypass the entire enemy Chinese outer perimeter with ease.

And now, herself on the defensive, Cornelia believed it safe to assume whatever force was attacking would unflinchingly attempt the same tactic.

With this in mind, the Purple Witch-Princess believed she could turn her weakness into a strength, positioning the heaviest KMFs available to her at the river's banks, using the beginnings of the wall as cover. Though a massed assault on the bridge would be difficult to repel, for her it simply meant she wouldn't have to spread out her own troops. The Britannian Vincents would turn that hole in their defence into a chokepoint, bringing concentrated fire down upon all that tried to pass through.

Of course, the enemy had access to Float packs, and though they wouldn't dare fly too high with the storm raging around them, they could still climb high enough to go right over the wall wherever they wished, and for that, the Australian Terriers would be most useful. The smaller Vincents couldn't stand up to gunfire the way the Wards did, so would be positioned less tightly and take full advantage of the thick concrete barrier and aim their guns high, shooting down swaths of enemy frames as they came over the top, leaving only handfuls of survivors for Cornelia and her Royal Guard to clean up once they arrived.

Tense seconds passed, brief, static-filled updates on Cornelia's comm from various KMFs getting into position being accompanied by the constant, pounding rain, punctuated by uneven thunder. All the while she flew at top speed over city buildings surrounded by lush vegetation, Guilford and her Royal Guard behind her, and just as she spotted the lights of Air Glide packs from her front line, the first round of contacts began coming in.

"Enemy units sighted," came the calm and professional voice of a Britannian Vincent pilot amidst a crackle of interference, Cornelia's comm IDing him as Sir Curth. "They've opened fire."

Beyond the city's wall was a legion of lights against the backdrop of rain and dark, glowing blue Float units each carrying a KMF into battle. But contrary to what everyone might have expected, they weren't Chinese Federation frames. The knightmares coming now like a swarm of death were oddly shaped - not humanoid at all - many of them stocky little things with short legs, or slightly larger and rectangular, while almost as many were giant hunks of metal without any legs at all. Yet all of them shared one thing in common, and that was that their arms had been replaced with weapons.

Nevertheless, just as expected the bulk of the strange knightmares were flying low over the river, heading straight for the bridge, the little ones keeping in tight formations while the largest ones flew by themselves. As they came closer they split up into even smaller teams and poured hails of suppressing fire at the gap in the wall, keeping the Britannians guarding it in cover and tearing the bridge apart, the center crumbling into the river and the rest of it screeching and bending under its now unsupported weight. Stray rounds blew chunks of concrete from the wall, adding new pock marks across its already cracked and uneven surface, but it held firm.

The Britannans raised their rifles, many of them staying behind the wall and aiming around the edges to lay down a withering returnfire, while the rest of them dove out of cover and formed rank upon rank of purple steel. Each row of knightmares drifted up into formation slightly higher than the one in front of them, forming firing lines and bringing all their guns to bear upon their foes at once.

A storm of bullets to match the downpour flew in either direction, the discharge of weapons and tracer rounds lighting up the night and blotting out every other sound. The attackers were swift, and they weaved over the river as they charged, but the concentration of their force worked against them, and despite their evasive manoeuvres they still took massive casualties, entire squadrons of knightmares being blown away and exploding. The Britannians hardly fared better, clumped together and providing an easy target, relying on the weight of their heavy armour to protect them from the incoming fire. Many fell or exploded, but many more endured, the vast majority of bullets sparking off their armour plating.

The enemy continued to approach, dodging around falling pieces of scrap that once were knightmares and flying through the flames that fought against the rain, machineguns blazing. And as they came, they split into two strategic formations. The main enemy thrust was a charge on the gap, and the Britannians lowered the points of their spears to meet them, still never letting up with their own hail of bullets. But the expected moment when the rest of the attacking force soared over the wall to be ambushed by the Australians never came. Instead there was a roar from beyond the wall, south of the Britannian defence, and an entire section was blown open by a volley of heavy cannonfire, destroying a dozen Australian Terriers both from the force of the explosive shells and from the shrapnel of the now ruined fortifications. Time seemed to slow, and the first enemy frames surged over the dying bridge and through the breached wall.

In her cockpit Cornelia raised a brow in dull surprise as a number of white dots on her map were replaced with that damning message: LOST. She pushed her knightmare to go faster as she soared ever closer to the scene of battle then touched her controls, her screen magnifying what was in front of her until she grunted in realization at what she saw.

The enemy knightmares were European frames, the largest ones being the mobile artillery known as Panzer Hornissen, explaining how they'd so easily crushed the barrier she'd hoped would corral them into a killzone. Ahead of them were Panzer Hummeln, and the ones now flooding through and overwhelming her first line of troops were Panzer Wespen, lightly armoured KMFs specializing in fast-attack.

Like the Hornisse, Wespen had their cockpits in their almost-triangular torsos, factspheres built into the front like headlights. For armament, three light machineguns were positioned evenly around the outside of the torso, and instead of arms with hands, their limbs featured Revolving Blade Swords, making them especially swift and deadly in close combat.

Cornelia had planned a stalwart and unmoving defense, perfect against Chinese Federation Akatsukis, but the EU Panzers forced her to switch strategies, her mind going into overdrive to account for the unexpected enemy. At the back of her thoughts she briefly wondered why EU forces would even be so far south, interfering in China's theatre of war, but the warrior princess quickly pushed that distraction aside to consider the more pressing issue of how to repel them.

Over the river the first Wespen buzzed, swinging their blade-arms wildly and pouring gunfire from their torso-mounted machineguns at the Britannian Ward defenders. The Wards in turn fell out of line formation, the first ranks charging to meet the attackers with their lances and the rest drifting to either side to continue firing, catching the Panzer reinforcements in a deadly crossfire. More of them came over the wall sections though, starting at the river's banks, and even the Britannians safely in cover had to bring their lances up as the Wespen descended upon them, their chainsaw blades screeching against lance and armour plating.

At the broken section of wall even more Wespen made it through, flowing like an upstoppable tide as the Australians struggled to regroup into a more effective formation to fight them back. They were too spread out, and scores of Panzers simply passed them by, shooting down many as they swarmed past and cutting through any brave fools in their way with their sword-arms.

Cornelia scowled in her seat, watching everything happen on her HUD, seeing exactly what the enemy intended. The breach in the wall had thrown the Australians behind it into disarray, and now was letting in a huge force of knightmares, curving north to flank the Britannians still managing to hold the area behind the bridge.

"Gareths to the fore!" Cornelia screamed in fury, and behind her the Gareths of her Royal Guard fanned out, moving ahead of the Vincents. "Fire Hadrons!"

Cornelia and her men were still approaching the scene of battle, and as they all flew, the Gareths raised their arms, firing off dense rails of red and black plasma that melted through the flanking Wespen and vapourized the rain around and in front of them instantly. The other Royal Guard in their Vincents raised their rifles and joined in, and Cornelia lowered her lance and brought her shield into position in front of her, the light of its golden Blaze Luminous shining in the night. Inside her cockpit she clutched her controls, her knuckles turning white, and her face twisted into a sneer contempt. She howled into her comm:

"CHARGE!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Cornelia and her Royal Guard behind her charged, flying straight at the center ranks of the flanking Panzers. The Gareths launched a simultaneous barrage of missiles, blasting the enemy and shocking them before the full weight of their assault descended. Those who managed to escape the salvo swerved in turn to meet their Britannian assailants, coming at them from either side to catch Cornelia in a pincer.

With a roar of violence, the Witch of Britannia carved into her foes, catching what few stunned survivors of the missile attack that hadn't fallen into the new formation with her lance, driving it through one Wespe then another, causing them both to explode on the point of her weapon before she met any kind of resistance. A team of Wespen spun to face her, and they fired their hull-mounted machineguns while quickly falling back. Cornelia simply circled to the right, around the incoming fire, then went in straight for the kill, leading with her shield and launching all four of her slash harkens, each one piercing a Wespe and destroying it in an explosion of shrapnel.

Guilford continued straight on with his MVS halberd, slashing two distracted Wespen apart with a single strike then taking another with the backswing. Behind him the Royal Guard Vincent Command Frames had maglocked their rifles to their thighs and drawn their double-bladed MVS swords, and like a tide they crashed against the EU Panzers, some of the enemy blocking with their own blades, but many more being taken by surprise and being completely hacked apart by the more powerful, glowing red melee weapons.

Cornelia kept going, intending to plow right through the enemy and come out the other side, and she adjusted her shield arm to bring her rifle to bear as she advanced, shooting randomly forward with quick bursts of automatic fire, using her lance more as a club to block enemy swords before launching her slash harkens at them. Guilford flew up beside her, swinging his halberd like a farmer scything down crops, and as they got closer to breaking through, the broken ranks of Panzers came down upon them to either side, reforming to encircle them completely.

Sensing the flow of battle turn against them, Cornelia and Guilford turned to face the two formations of Wespen, throwing their knightmares together, back to back, Cornelia raising her shield in front of her once more and Guilford holding his halberd with his right forearm prominent in front of him, his Blaze Luminous flashing ghostly blue as bullets panged ineffectually against it.

The rest of the Royal Guard were caught just the same as their leaders, and as the enemy opened fire on them and swarmed to their left and right, they braced themselves, dodging as best they could, the Vincents raising their double MVS swords. The Gareths returned fire with their machinguns and Hadron cannons, spraying lead and beams of molten plasma into the enemy, but before long the Wespen closed the distance and lunged with their blade-arms.

The enemy crashed against Cornelia and her Royal Guard, just as fierce as they, a buzzing wall of saw-tooth swords and whining servos, but it still wasn't going to be an easy battle for them. The first Wespen to approach the Second Princess of Britannia hammered down with their chainsaw arms in a flurry of blows, only for them all to be blocked by her powerful shield. They flowed around her as they struck, attempting to do some damage and move on before she could retaliate, their light frames specializing in quick assaults rather than prolonged duels, and most of them did, but not all. Cornelia lashed out, bashing her shield against the first Wespe in sight then thrusting with her lance, skewering another enemy frame and causing it to explode before the first wave of steel wasps had even ended.

More Panzers were coming for Cornelia, and before she'd even pulled back her golden weapon she launched all of her four slash harkens, the small ones on the Fortis' hips and the tall spearblades mounted about its shoulder joints. Each one pounded into an enemy KMF about to catch her while she was overextended, and she spun left, firing the rifle in her frame's left hand underneath the shield, taking out a flanking Panzer with a burst of rounds then plunging her lance down through another one.

From her right another couple of Wespen came at her, their Float packs buzzing lightly beneath the squeal of their chainsword arms and the rush of pelting rain, and Cornelia pulled up her melee weapon to squash one of them unceremoniously aside. She followed through with her mid-air turn to ram the edge of her shield into the next one, pushing its arms aside and crunching its front armour to send it tumbling away.

Behind her, Cornelia's most dedicated soldier was putting up a ferocious resistance to the Panzer KMFs crashing like waves against him. Guilford hefted his MVS halberd through an incoming Wespe, splitting it down the middle for each half to fall harmlessly to his either side before exploding, then lowered his weapon into place like a knight about to joust. The enemy had all but abandoned distinct unit formations in favour of throwing the weight of machinegun and sword at the Britannians, so Guilford barely had to aim or think as he pressed the Galahad onward through the air, thrusting his halberd at the first opponent in sight, a Wespe marked with yellow highlights that seemed to shimmer under each crack of lightning overhead.

The Wespe pilot was no fool though, and reacted quickly, parrying Guilford's strike with his frame's right sword then following up with a slash of his left. Guilford twisted his halberd, catching his enemy's blade and redirecting it to block the next blow, sparks flying as the Wespe's two chainsaw arms collided, then bounded left and around, raising his forearm-mounted gun to fire off a hail of rounds, blowing his enemy away and freeing his own weapon for use again.

He swung his halberd up one-handed, putting a deep gouge in another Wespe, then fired his forearm slash harken, the harpoon piercing through the enemy frame's center and causing it to explode. He spun in the air, slashing through two more of the buzzing EU Panzers with his halberd before stopping just in time to see a Hornisse off to the side, its heavy rotary cannon poised to unleash a concentrated stream of rounds at him.

Guilford reacted without thinking, dodging back out of the way as the Hornisse he'd spotted opened fire, missing him with its initial spray of bullets but shooting off the legs of another of Cornelia's Royal Guard that hadn't noticed the threat until it was too late. The Hornisse continued firing, pouring hundreds of rounds in Guilford's direction as the rest of the EU forces buzzed around him, not engaging, staying clear of the incoming fire.

Guilford was forced back, holding his right arm before him, the Galahad's blue Blaze Luminous sputtering beneath the Hornisse's automatic fire. In such a defensive position Guilford could do little to retaliate, and he attempted to disengage, dropping down through the air hoping to charge the enemy heavy knightmare before it could target him again. Two Royal Guard Vincents surged by as he escaped the withering attack, MVS double swords in hand, but before they could reach the Hornisse it raised its anti-tank cannon left arm and fired, destroying one of them instantly. The other one continued on, unbothered by the loss of his companion, and struck down with his blades, slashing the enemy's nearest factsphere with one end of his weapon then taking off the rotary cannon arm at the elbow with the other.

With the Hornisse now weakened Guilford charged again, halberd high above the Galahad's head, and fired his two hip slash harkens, the first taking out the giant enemy frame's other factsphere and the second knocking its cannon arm away. With a just a small grunt inside his cockpit to emphasize the point, Cornelia's Knight of Honour thrust his polearm through the middle of the Hornisse, its heavy armour barely putting up a resistance to his MVS weapon. He pulled his halberd back, sparks showering from the Hornisse's open wound as he did, and it slowly began to lose altitude, drifting back down to earth. The point of his blade was coated in a thick layer of blood, blending with the glowing red steel underneath, but it was quickly washed away by the constant pelting downpour.

There was no time to rest though as a unit of Hummeln swooped around the Galahad, no longer concerned about friendly fire now their ally was down. The muzzles of their arm rifles flashed as they circled by, bullets clanging against the Command Vincent that had helped Guilford take out the Hornisse. Most the rounds bounced off the KMF, though leaving its armour covered in deep gouges, but the sheer volume of fire took its toll, and before the Hummeln had completed their flyby the Royal Guardsman was forced to eject, his Vincent exploding hardly a second later.

They turned their guns on Guilford next, and he raised his Blaze Luminous to protect himself from the deadly barrage. He pulled on his controls, the Galahad responding instantly and dashing backward through the air. No sooner had he escaped the first wave of Hummeln did an alert appear on his HUD, yet another swarm coming from the other direction and a squadron of Wespen charging him from the front. He was caught on both sides, and if his knightmare hadn't been able to fly Guilford certainly would have been doomed. But in the air he could move any direction, and he quickly checked above and below his position in the sky for a path of escape. Before he could dodge the incoming attacks though, he noticed a blue blip on his minimap just behind him, marked with a yellow crown icon.

Cornelia threw herself between Guilford and the Hummeln strafing run, the Fortis' back against the Galahad's, and she raised her shield, its Blaze Luminous shining golden light in the dark and fizzling as bullets pattered against it.

"Guilford!" her voice erupted from his comm amid a wash of static. "There's too many of them. Let's go!"

Inside his cockpit Guilford nodded, his face set with a grimace. He turned and dove, the Galahad's right arm up to protect against incoming fire from his Blaze Luminous, Cornelia mirroring him to his left. The rest of the Royal Guard followed after them, levelling out to parallel the earth and flying north for the bridge, where the battle to defend the river access to the city still raged. To their west, the Australians guarding the wall were in complete disarray, dodging back and forth and shooting wildly as they tried in vain to retake their already overrun position.

Behind Cornelia and Guilford a beam of crackling black and red from a Royal Guardsman's Hadron Cannon flashed in the night, providing covering fire and melting several enemy Panzers instantly as they attempted to pursue the Britannians. He turned to follow after them only for a flight of Wespen to descend on him, slicing his Gareth apart with one swift blow each.

Inside her cockpit Cornelia spat in fury as she took in the situation playing out on her tactical map. This was Suzaku's fault. He'd taken the bulk of her forces away at the very worst time! True, he couldn't have known this attack would happen, but if only she'd had more men at her disposal Cornelia was certain the battle would be playing out far more in her favour.

"All forward units," she commanded, "fall back immediately!"

As she flew forward, bullets whizzing past her, she listened to her comm and watched the map on her HUD, but got no response, and saw no particular compliance with her orders. With a consternated intake of breath she tried again.

"The first line of defence has fallen! Fall back! All units fall back!"

Once again there was no response. Inwardly, Cornelia cursed. The storm was disrupting the communcations from her knightmare more than she'd first thought. But Guilford had heard her, hadn't he?

"Guilford, do you read me?" she tried desperately, spinning in the air to fly backward, raising her rifle and firing off a grenade to fend off the pursuing Panzers.

"Princess?" His reponse was garbled with static. "I ... barely hear ...!"

"Damn it!"

The Fortis and the Galahad, as well as other frontline KMFs, weren't equipped with long-range radios capable of dealing with excessive weather. That had always been Zero and Lelouch's specialty. She hadn't forgotten this little detail, but battle was upon her either way, and she'd only been able to hope communications wouldn't get too bad. Luckily, the enemy would be having the same problems, but with more knightmares and the initiative on their side, it wasn't likely the shared trouble would be enough to stop their overwhelming advance.

Cornelia couldn't do anything but try again.

"Any allied unit, respond! Respond, damn you!"

And again she was only met with silence. Until...

"All units fall back immediately!" A feminine voice came through on Cornelia's comm, just a tinge of static behind her words. The Britannian and Australian soldiers had clearly also received the order, and recognizing the voice's owner, began to act at once, the blue and white dots on Cornelia's map drifting east, back to the city.

Cornelia also recognized the voice.

"Euphemia?! What are you doing!?"

"Sister," Euphemia's voice came back hurriedly, "the storm is interfering with radio transmissions. Nobody in the field can get through to each other! The G1's communication array is still getting messages back and forth though, if only barely. I can give orders to our soldiers from here."

"Absolutely not! Patch me through to the bridge officers!"

There was a pause, and shouting could be heard before Euphie finally responded.

"The situation here is frantic! They're too busy relaying messages that aren't getting through to take command!"

"Euphie, you couldn't possibly-!"

"Cornelia! You can't command and fight at the same time!"

At this, Cornelia scowled, still capable of feeling a bit insulted despite her predicament. She fired one of her slash harkens, cutting down a Wespe that had somehow gotten ahead of her and causing it to explode. She replied into her comm, low and dangerous, as she soared through the fire and shrapnel of her latest kill.

"Don't be so sure."

"Even if you could, that isn't an option right now!" Euphemia's voice was pleading. "Please, Cornelia! I can help!"

For just a moment Cornelia hesitated. She couldn't say no when her sister used such a tone with her. But she had no practical military experience! As Sub-Viceroy of Area 11 she'd never had to worry about anything more than the logistics of fighting Zero. And even after joining Zero she'd never played anything more than a tertiary role in the war effort against Charles. She'd only been a symbol of the royal opposition to the former emperor, her voice carrying around the world and moving others to fight against him as well. Maybe she'd received some lessons on strategy from Darlton, or Suzaku, or maybe even Lelouch when Cornelia wasn't paying attention, but still, there was no way she could command an entire army during a real-life battle!

Cornelia squeezed a fist and bit at her bottom lip, then spoke into her radio.

"Tell everyone to deploy in depth. They'll know where to go."

"Ah...?" Euphemia gasped, momentarily surprised Cornelia was giving in. Then her tone darkened, and Cornelia could just imagine the serious look of determination that had formed across her sister's face. "I mean... Right! All units deploy in depth!"

Again Cornelia noted the change in behaviour from the allied blips on her tactical map. The units that hadn't fully deployed yet were spreading out, taking up positions around and within the city, congregating in tight clusters. She checked her visuals, seeing the river fast approaching before her and dozens of Britannian KMFs charging through the air toward her position.

"Forward units," a new voice reported from the G1 on Cornelia's comm, "squadrons Jacquin, Davin, and Nikki are sallying over the river now to cover you."

Cornelia could make out flashes of gunfire as the allied knightmares rushed in to protect her retreat, their number comprised mostly of Vincent Wards and a few Sutherlands. Contrary to her brothers Lelouch and Schneizel, who each favoured a highly diverse force, she was a firm believer in specialization, and built up the armies under her command with this in mind. In terms of raw power, Cornelia was completely unmatched, having more medium to heavy-class KMFs in her army than any other general in the Britannian military. So, upon seeing the reinforcements, she felt a wave of reassurance flow through her, knowing well that her men were equipped and trained to stand up to direct enemy fire, and would without a doubt hold the line long enough for her and the forward units with her to fall back.

As she flew past them, followed by her Royal Guard and scores of other retreating allied knightmares, they formed a wall of steel between her and the oncoming tides of enemy Panzers, slowly drifting back as they fired their rifles on full auto. The enemy force seemed to still be divided into two main thrusts, the main one chasing after Cornelia and her men along the river, and the second being the one she'd plunged straight through to the south. They'd apparently fully regrouped since her assault and subsequent withdrawl, and now were splitting into two smaller formations to hit the defending forces on the outskirts of the city from either side.

Cornelia barked into her radio once more.

"Euphie, the primary enemy target is going to be the G1. I'm heading there now. Once everyone is in position I need you to coordinate an elastic defence."

"Oh! I know what that is!"

Despite the dire situation, Euphemia couldn't help but exclaim proudly. Indeed, she did in fact have a vague idea what Cornelia was asking of her, the strategy being just one of several basic terms the Pink Princess had heard in passing and devoted herself to researching. She would never be useful in combat, she knew, but during the years of fighting against Charles she'd become acutely aware of how out of place she was standing beside Cornelia or Lelouch. Even Clovis had held himself proudly, and inspired loyalty from their soldiers by, admittedly only in show, leading from the front. Nunnally had still been underage at the time, and had no expectations placed upon her, but Euphemia had to make appearances and portray herself as a leader, and it nagged her inside that she was lying to everyone. She couldn't recall at what point it was - perhaps after Zero captured Tianzi and fought the corrupt Eunuchs attempting to use her for their own ends - but Euphemia resolved to herself, no matter what, at the very least she wouldn't be a burden during battles.

After a moment to compose herself, Euphemia's voice came again over Cornelia's radio.

"You can count on me, Sister. We'll work together!"

Cornelia knew her sister, and knew she would do everything in her power to help, and for a moment she was almost convinced their arrangement could work. While Euphemia guided her from afar, she could fight without concern for the big picture. They each could perform an individual role and play off each other, and Cornelia could always tell Euphie what orders to give if the younger princess seemed to be faltering. They'd been caught with their garrison mostly depleted and their comms barely working at all, but they still had a chance. Still though, just a shred of doubt ate at the corner of Cornelia's thoughts.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

It wasn't safe to be out in the current weather, but with the prospect of all-out warfare taking place in their already gutted home once more many civilians were taking a chance and fleeing. Thunder boomed, occasionally drowning out the howl of the wind and rain, and the constant scream of air raid sirens was everywhere.

At Euphemia's command, all Britannian and Australian units in the area began to dig in, finding cover wherever they could and spreading themselves unevenly around the city. With as few men and knightmares as they had available, they couldn't provide a full defence, so instead began establishing many individual points of resistance that could move to reinforce the others at a moment's notice, depending on where the enemy concentrated their attack.

On the south side of the city Cornelia's forces didn't have much to work with, pulling back from the suburbs to take up the more defensible urban areas. The scavenged surface-to-air turrets had been set up there as well, and as the blue lights of the enemy's Float systems just became visible in the distance, like pale ghosts beyond the curtain of rain, the defenders readied themselves for the incoming assault.

"Turn on the lights."

Floodlights from around the city flashed on, piercing the downpour and illuminating the night just as the EU Panzers entered the city limits, flying fast and low over houses directly toward the town center.

"Turrets, fire at will."

There was a moment of hesitation before the enemy was in range, but a second later the guns on the ground opened up, twin-barrelled streams of shells blasting into the sky from several directions. The turrets were outdated tech, open-topped and stationary, Britannian redcoats peaking out from behind thick front-armour plates, but were still useful. Every weapon they could bring to bear would be needed before the night was over, and these at least had some stopping power behind them.

As the the EU forces approached the inner city, staying just above the buildings to minimize the wind's effect on their flight, turretfire spewed up at them, and they dodged in the air, easily avoiding the concentrated attacks and descending to engage them. The stationary guns were placed out in the streets at intersections, allowing them the most line of sight, and were surrounded by sandbags and other debris, making up weak barricades to protect them. Vincent Wards huddled around them on the ground as well, providing another layer of protection with their reinforced knightmare armour, and, mostly hidden behind rubble or taking cover within bombed-out or abandoned buildings, blue Vincent Terriers raised their rifles as the Panzers divided up, moving to engage the Anglo-Franco strong points.

The two sides traded volleys of gunfire, the Panzers avoiding the majority of what was thrown at them while the defending Vincent Wards took up position in front of the turrets, bullets ringing against their metal frames as they raised their own weapons and returned fire with a vengeance.

"Squadrons Nolson and Argent, move in to reinforce Point Three-dash-nine, um, forty... Uh... Reinforce Turret Number 27!"

The first ranks of Wespen descended in tight squadrons, firing their hull-mounted machineguns at the defenders, Hummeln behind them, arm-rifles blazing. Turret 27 adjusted its aim as the Panzers came down from above, compensating for their quick movement and shaking them with every missed shot that exploded around them. By luck, the turretman even managed to hit one of them directly, the anti-air shell crashing through the EU knightmare's front armour and turning it to scrap.

The Vincents on the ground were loosing hails of rounds too, and the sheer volume of fire forced the Panzers to weave out of the way, their advance halting instantly as they dove back through the air and into alleyways or behind the cover of cars parked along the street. Charging in against fortified positions was always costly, and the EU troops were trained well enough to know wasting their lives at this moment wouldn't be worth it. Still though, it was a major shift from their initial strategy of frontal assaults and overwhelming the defenders with numbers. They clearly hadn't expected the Britannians and Australians to adopt this form of defence. After all, it was never Cornelia's specialty.

As the other Panzers found cover the Hornissen kept on course, firing all their weapon emplacements simultaneously and descending straight into the defensive fire. Knightmare rifles proved to have almost no effect against them, but the turret's heavier shells hammered into the hulking frames, leaving deep pits in their armour but otherwise not seeming to have an effect. The Hornissen's guns, meanwhile, tore through the defenders easily, the Stiche cannons blowing huge chunks out of the street while their rotary cannons shredded anything thrown out of cover by the artillery's concussive impacts. A stray shell from one of their anti-tank cannon arms plowed into Turret 27, destroying it in a wash of fire and killing its operator instantly.

As the Britannian position held out defiantly against the Panzers new KMFs rushed in over the roofs of buildings from farther into the city, purple Vincents Wards and a Command frame to one side, and blue Vincent Terriers and another Command Frame on the other. They flew at top speed and swerved around the main fighting around the street intersection, opening fire on every Panzer in sight. Though many of the EU knightmares had found some cover at ground level, many more had held back in the air, waiting for the Hornissen to clear the way for them, and as the Vincents flanked them, rifles blazing, they turned in alarm, ready to repel the reinforcements.

With the Hornissen distracted they had little fire support, allowing the Wards to charge in with their lances and plunge into the enemy formations. The Wespen had the speed necessary for most of them to dodge aside, but the slower Hummeln had no such advantage, and entire squadrons were run through by the Britannian counter-attack. The Terriers stayed clear of the fighting and hovered just above the buildings around them, showering their foe with deadly rounds, taking down many of the Wespen who'd been able to dodge the close-combat assault.

Soon enough though, the Panzer force was able to react in full, and the remaining Wespen swooped at the Terriers, matching speed against speed, lashing out with their Revolving Blade Sword arms between bursts of machinegun fire. The Terrier Squadron split up and dove away from their enemy, never showing them their backs, keeping them in their crosshairs and firing away with their rifles.

"Point, uh... Turret 27 is down! Nearby units, fall back to, um, Turret 19."

Those still alive and defending against the Hornissen's implacable advance ignited their Vincents' Float packs and turned to skim along the street, hurrying to the next line of defence as their reinforcements held off the rest of the Panzers in the air. As they escaped, the Wespen and Hummeln in cover fired after them, almost entirely missing, but a few of the Britannian-model KMFs were caught by the Hornissen's rotary cannons, their knightmares exploding in an instant. The rest of them continued on, not looking back even as flashes of tracer rounds hissed by them, fixated on following their orders in hopes if they did they wouldn't die as well.

The Wards and Terriers that had come to the rescue turned to withdraw as well, turning and flying toward Turret 19's location just as quickly as they came, firing their rifles behind them blindly to disuade the enemy from following. Unfortunately the Panzer teams weren't at all frightened by the unfocussed attacks and turned after them, chasing as fast as they could.

On their way to the safety of the next strong point, the Vincents came across the first ranks of Wespen and Hummeln, and they turned their fire on them, shooting several of them to pieces before they could respond. That however still left the Hornissen that had overtaken Turret 27, still following after the fleeing defenders and pouring rounds and shells in their direction. The Ward and Terrier squadrons joined into an ad hoc, underpowered air wing, and at the front of their formation their respective Vincent Command Frames charged out ahead of them. A second later the Hornissen began to turn, bringing their weapons around to face the new threat, but before they could line up their sights, the two Command Vincents closed the distance, each of them halting to jam an elbow into one of the monstrous artillery Panzers. They activated their Needle Blazers, the bizarre hammer weapons pounding into a Hornisse each and crushing through their armour like it was nonexistent and blasting through the other side, accompanied by a gout flame. The Hornissen weren't fully destroyed, but their pilots had been pulped by the concussive blow, removing the knightmares from the fight with one swift attack.

The two Hornissen began to fall, and the others raised their weapons to fire on the retreating Vincents, but they were already too late. The two Command Frames had opened a pathway through the heavy-Panzer formation, and their squadrons easily exploited it to surge forward and escape right past them, flying low to the street and scattering into the labyrinth of buildings. The remaining Hornissen turned again, trying to track them with their weapons, but their KMFs were too slow, finding by the time they were facing the right direction again that the last of their foes were completely out of sight.

With the area clear of enemies the Wespen and Hummeln on the ground hovered out of cover, being joined by the rest of their airgroups a mere few moments later, landing around the Hornissen to secure the area and briefly take stock of their situation. They'd lost dozens of their number, but scores more had survived, and they were only one of several plunges into Cornelia's southern flank. They had no way of communicating with the rest of their number with the storm hampering their radios, but they could tell from the basic information on their radars and tactical maps that similar battles had been fought and won by their side, and they were one step closer to taking their objective and winning the day. So, taking a brief look at the remains of the abandoned Britannian and Australian position, littered with shrapnel and ruined knightmares, the Panzer teams took off once more to continue their push deeper into the city.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

Cornelia breathed long and slow in the cockpit of her Fortis, using the time while her energy filler was replaced to steady herself. She was just outside the G1 at the center of the city, surrounded by her Royal Guard and several utility lifters manned by grim-faced redcoats, drenched by the rain and getting their knightmares back to full combat-efficiency. From her frame's direct visual feed she could see men everywhere, rushing about as they transported spare parts and ammunition for her elite soldiers, as well as driving enclosed jeeps full of supplies and readying makeshift barricades and anti-armour positions around the HQ. The few APCs brought along for sporadic infantry-based operations had been arranged in a protective circle around the main area, forming a wall of steel and tank-turrets to help protect their command vehicle, and in a passing moment of frustration Cornelia acknowledged that if her forces really were backed all the way to this point then these few defences would hardly last an hour before being overrun.

'Well,' she thought to herself, 'they just have to hold out until more troops are freed up to reinforce them.'

The knightmare wings available to her, scattered as they were throughout the city, she figured, could definitely crush any small to medium-sized assaults, but their combined might would be necessary if their EU foes managed to break through any one side of her defence. Based on the number of active units on both sides showing up on her tactical map, and the unfolding situation as she watched dots of green, white, and blue disappear or be replaced with a message of LOST, Cornelia decided she had to revise her predictions for the outcome of this battle. It wasn't a pleasant observation, but she had to be realistic, and by her estimation she might just be able to eke out a hard-fought victory, bordering on pyrrhic. Meticulous micromanagement might be able to improve that result, but unfortunately it wasn't an option right now. Cornelia had to personally fight to keep their front lines strong, and Euphemia was only able to give the most general of directions to the units even now fighting desperately against this unexpected attack.

But no matter if they could win or not, this was the forward base of Cornelia's operations. They couldn't just pick up and leave. And there was always the threat of the enemy controlling a Geass too, removing surrender as a viable option with one fell swoop. Lelouch had already confirmed certain elements of the enemy were utilizing Geass-possessed soldiers, and if the one controlling them were among them then Cornelia couldn't risk being captured. It might be possible for her to escape on her own, but that would still leave Euphie...

No. The only option if this battle took a turn for the worst would be to fight to the death. Better that than be turned to the enemy's cause - the perfect, brainwashed double agent.

There was a series of beeps from Cornelia's HUD, informing her that her energy filler had been replaced, and checking around her she saw an enclosed-cab forklift raising a fresh rifle up for her to grab. That was definitely her favourite aspect of using standardized weapons. If the one she was using was damaged a new one was always readily available, unlike the VARIS Kururugi and C.C. so heavily favoured.

Cornelia adjusted her controls, her knightmare reaching down and dropping her current rifle onto the forklift in exchange for the fresh one. She turned her frame's vision back and forth and saw the rest of her Royal Guard were resupplied as well, and after one last deep breath she bellowed into her mic, allowing her external speakers to convey her message without need to relay it via the comms.

"Now, men! Knights of Cornelia li Britannia! Forward into battle! Forward and never stop! Forward until the sun rises over this god-forsaken land and the stormwinds finally cease! Forward unto dawn! Follow my lead and charge the enemy!"

The Royal Guard around the warrior princess raised their weapons as one and chanted, their external speakers booming:

"ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!"

LLLLLLLLLLLL

While Cornelia was regrouping, a fierce battle raged on the outskirts of town to the west, Britannian Vincents leaving their defended positions along the riverfront to hit the enemy Panzers from every side before they could penetrate their defences any further. The sheer numbers and firepower of the foreign KMFs would always overwhelm the Britannians, but before they could make a sweeping advance more Vincents would arrive to lay down a storm of suppressing fire to match the gale around them. The first attacking units would retreat and regroup, and the Panzer units would splinter, some turning to fight the new arrivals and others deciding to pursue those still escaping.

"Kensington Squadron move to cover Basil Squadron."

On the northern shore of the river the shells of several bombed-out homes, previously owned by wealthy individuals but now appropriated by the defending forces of Cornelia li Britannia, had been converted into fortified positions, and as the rain pelted against the painted metal hulls of the various knightmares battling or fleeing over the rippling water, the largest mansion lit up with green as a dozen more Vincents ignited their Air Glide packs. As they rose into the air, flashes of tracer rounds darted over their heads from an anti-air turret hidden within the house itself, and with the small protection of the covering fire they raised their lances and rifles and took off.

The lawn outside the mansion leading to the river formed a shallow hill, and the Britannians fanned out as they jetted along and down the terrain, past the dock and a tethered yacht, and charging out over the shore, parting the water beneath them as they skimmed its surface. Ahead of them was the main fighting in the area, where the EU Panzers were fending off constant hit-and-run sallies by the Britannian and Australian defenders, and while they'd taken some losses their forward momentum hadn't slowed in the slightest. Their number was beyond counting in the chaos of movement and gunfire, but for all their knightmares they still didn't seem able to cover ever angle of attack, and before very many of them could turn to face the fresh squadron of Vincents coming to harass them, the purple frames had closed the distance, crushing into them with a volley of slash harkens then the point of their lances, sending them even further into disarray.

Despite how few and vague her orders were, Euphemia's command over the various battles around the city was much needed and appreciated, the little coordination it provided giving the defending Britannians and Australians just enough of an edge to stay in the fight. The EU forces meanwhile were beginning to make poor decisions the longer they fought without higher direction from their commanders. They stayed in formation easily, their team leaders maintaining discipline even under fire, but their carriers were too far away - all the way off the coast and presumably still fighting the Britannian navy patrols - and that left them mostly on their own.

As the new threat came from the side and pierced into the heart of a Hummel squadron, the Panzers split up again, several flights of Wespen moving to attack the newcomers while a number of Hornissen accompanied by Hummeln dove through the air, moving to eradicate the mansion strong point and find some cover. The river, though the most expedient route toward the city-center, was also a death-trap, with bunches of knightmares along either shore, protecting powerful stationary turrets that lit up the night with their constant, pounding fire.

As the Hornissen and Hummeln approached the closest riverfront home, Vincent Wards crouched outside the walls of the mansion dropped their lances and shouldered their rifles, aiming carefully and firing in controlled bursts. Behind them a few Vincent Terriers rolled into view, hiding behind the outer walls and the uneven row of Wards to prop their guns against broken windowsills before joining in, taking potshots at the incoming EU Panzers.

The Panzers zipped up over the waterfront and over the dock, firing their guns into the defended position without bothering to aim, their every round tearing the lawn apart in puffs of rainsoaked dirt and chewing into the remains of the mansion, blowing holes out of the little cover the defenders could find. They wove back and forth as they came past the dock and up the shallow hill of the lawn, and as the first Panzers rose over its top the two sides of knightmares began to get more accurate with their weapons, bullets scraping against armour and frames exploding on both sides.

The EU forces rushed through the gaps where their comrades fell, and the Hornissen levelled their Stiche, five of them altogether, firing in uneven succession, two of the artillery shells blasting craters out of the lawn and staggering some of the front line of Vincents. Another of the bombs landed against the still standing wall along the mansion's second floor, turning it to splinters instantly and raining debris down upon the defenders on ground level. The other two shells went long, and detonated within the house itself, flattening entire rooms and sending the bodies of soldiers armed with RPGs flying up into the night.

"Verdant Squadron, defend Turret Number 9!"

The Hornissen hummed as they hovered up the hill and over it, lowering their arm-cannons into place and sending waves of rounds and shells into the defending Britannian and Australian position. A Ward in front of the mansion wall was blown apart from an anti-tank shell, and the frames behind it ducked as their position was raked by spurts of rotary cannon gunfire. The anti-air turret was still firing out from its place in the house, and now it turned its attention to the attackers directly, blasting straight through the now wrecked cover, its defenders dead, and scoring hit after hit on the first Hornisse in sight. After only a second of concentrated fire, it exploded.

The Hummeln swarmed around the Hornissen ahead of them and opened fire at the house, most the shots from their arm-rifles missing, but still having the intended effect, suppressing the defenders and keeping their heads down to protect the advance. A red-helmeted head appeared round the far corner of the mansion, checking to see if it was clear, then the Britannian soldier jumped fully out of cover, an RPG mounted over his shoulder. He fired, and the warhead fizzled and screamed through the air before impacting against one of the Hummeln, shredding its front armour and downing it, the pilot jumping from the frame's exposed wound in time before it exploded behind him. The other Panzers turned to fire on the soldier but he was already gone, back into cover the second he'd fired his weapon, not waiting to see if it hit its mark.

"Verdant Squadron, Cornelia says get right up close."

As the Panzers advanced on the mansion, spreading out into flights and surrounded it, a dozen Vincent Terriers sped into view from the next house along the street, turretfire coming from behind them to cover their advance. They didn't stop as they came, charging straight into the enemy formations despite their smaller size, firing all the while with their guns on full auto. Though they were better-suited for strafing runs and dogfighting, the Terriers were still equipped to engage enemies in close combat, following in the footsteps of previous generations of Britannian-model frames and being outfitted to perform any role at a moment's notice. The EU Panzers meanwhile were specialized to a fault, and without any Wespen currently nearby to engage the charging Vincents, they could do nothing but turn and fire back at them, hoping they could shoot every one of them down before they closed the distance.

At last Verdant Squadron closed with the Hummeln, almost all of their number surviving long enough to get in range and launch their slash harkens, the harpoons crashing into the Hummeln forces with deadly results, ten Panzers exploding before the Terriers opened up with their rifles again. The Hummeln dodged back, scattering into pre-assigned flight formations while the remaining Hornissen moved in to defend them, though once again coming under fire from the anti-air turret inside the house.

The two forces of knightmares opened fire within mere meters of each other.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

The Panzers trying to take the river were in a dire position, taking fire from all sides and being harrassed by constant assaults by the Britannian and Australian defenders. Their force had spread out considerably since meeting resistance, making them less susceptible to concentrated firepower, but similarly weakening their ability to combat the enemy, their frames being too specialized to deal with such varied threats. The large squadrons of Wespen were still holding their own in close combat though, duelling against yet another team of Wards that had swooped into their northern flank and taken them by surprise, the fewer Vincents having enough armour and firepower to tie up the huge numbers of Panzers single-handedly.

Along the center of the river came a formation of knightmares from the east, a caped custom frame in the lead, its head a T-shaped helm and armour a darkened shade of purple and shining gold, illuminated by the gold of its Air Glide pack and the occasional bolt of lightning cracking harmlessly overhead.

"Euphie," Cornelia began into her radio as she and her Royal Guard sped over the river toward the fighting, "Guilford and I are moving in. It looks like-" she paused to review her tactical map "-most the enemy here is divided. Send another squadron of Terriers to keep them split up so we can defeat them in detail."

"Um, okay. How about...? Gallant Squadron is close."

A squadron of Wespen had escaped the chaos of close combat, and seeing Cornelia, rallied together, firing their hull-mounted machineguns and falling back to regroup. The Witch of Britannia however would not allow them to escape.

"No. Send..." Cornelia's eyes darted from her visuals to her map for half a second before flitting back to the battle before her. She raised her Blaze Luminous-covered shield. "Send Morrows Squadron."

There was a small sound of acknowledgement from Euphemia over Cornelia's comm before she gave her response.

"Right! Okay, Sister!"

Cornelia and her Royal Guard caught up with the fleeing Wespen and crashed into them, lance, polearm, and double-swords felling the first rank of steel wasps before the rest of them raised their sword-arms and retaliated. There were more than twenty of them left in this Panzer unit, and as they stopped their retreat to push foward once more, twin Revolving Blade Swords screeching, the Britannians braced themselves for the buzzers to close the distance.

At the front of the Royal Guard, Cornelia to his left, Guilford twirled his halberd defensively as the first enemy Wespen rushed through the explosions of their defeated comrades, half their number bearing down upon him at once. He launched his hip slash harkens at the first EU frame in sight and it swerved, the harpoons missing its torso and only taking off one of its legs. He brought his weapon down just in time to block a deadly blow from the Panzer's blade then countered, lashing out with the long handle of his polearm and shoving his opponent aside to bring his forearm slash harken to bear, launching it almost point-blank into the next closest Wespen coming for him.

Guilford paid no mind to the first enemy he'd batted aside, confident that the rest of the Royal Guard could handle him, the discipline impressed upon him during his training and subsequent years of warfare focussing his attention only on the next opponent. Once his slash harken had pierced into that foe he grunted and hefted his controls, and the Galahad threw out its right arm, slinging the Wespe straight into another one and causing both of them to explode.

Before he could pull back his slash harkens though, another of the damnably fast little wasps was on him, and Guilford dove to the side, hefting his halberd one-handed as he did. The uncoordinated swing took the Wespe's right arm off, but wasn't enough to finish it, and before he could bring up his weapon again it had turned and was in range with its second blade-arm. His slash harkens were still coming back, and if he tried to shoot the enemy while it was in sword range he'd probably lose his arm, so Guilford only narrowed his eyes and took a calculated risk. He reached up with the Galahad's left hand and grabbed the Wespe's saw-blade arm in his metal fist.

Sparks flew everywhere as the Wespe's Revolving Blade Sword screeched against the Galahad's fingers and palm, and its pilot attempted to pull back to attack again, but to his dismay he couldn't dislodge his blade. They two knightmares struggled against each other, one trying to free itself and the other refusing to let go, and after a moment the chainsaw's rotation ground to a halt in the Galahad's hand, the Lancelot-spinoff exerting just a little more force to crush the weapon in its grip before twisting and breaking it cleanly in half.

With his other sword-arm now completely loose from the Galahad, though wrecked, the Wespe pilot was finally able to escape, but instead of darting away back into the rest of his squadron, he charged, slamming into Guilford before he was able to react and pushing him straight out of the fight and toward the shore.

Warning lights went off in Guilford's cockpit, and he became suddenly quite aware that he was losing altitude from his foe's unexpected maneouvre, so he threw his controls forward to avoid being body-slammed into the ground, but no luck. With the momentum so fully against him Guilford didn't have enough time or room to push back against the disarmed Wespe, or even roll out of its tackle, so he did the only thing he could and turned his Air Glide pack's thrusters to redirect their fall.

The two KMFs fell through the air toward the line of houses along the shore and barrelled through one of them, wooden beams and furniture splintering against them as they crashed through the roof and bounced against the floor, tumbling through a bedroom and then a dining room and a kitchen before finally busting through the dwelling's other side in a heap. Dust and debris covered both knightmares, though it was quickly washed away by the incessant rain, and Guilford immediately brought the Galahad up to a standing position from muscle memory alone, the tumble shaking his thoughts and blurring his vision behind his glasses, thankfully still in place despite the struggle.

Within moments the Wespe was up too, and it charged again, firing its hull-mounted guns in sporadic bursts, something about them damaged during the fall. Guilford in turn raised the Galahad's right arm and activated his Blaze Luminous, the particle shield shimmering into existence, ghostly blue and translucent, protecting him from the incoming shots. As his opponent came at him Guilford was about to bring up his halberd to impale him, but a quick dart of the eye over his HUD informed him he'd lost his weapon at some point, probably after crashing into the house. Instead he reached the Galahad's left arm back and drew his sheathed MVS sword.

The Wespe tried tackling Guilford again, and at the last second he grasped his blade with both hands, flashing red and sizzling under the rain, and dodged to the side, swinging it into the EU Panzer with a snarl of rage and bisecting it in a single stroke.

The enemy frame fell and exploded, leaving Guilford alone. Over the river the battle still raged, and gunfire was still pouring from some of the houses nearby, but Guilford took a moment to steady himself and regain his senses. Blood was rushing behind his ears, drowning out every other sound - the rain, the explosions of battle, even his own staggered breathing - and he gulped down hard before dropping his head into his hands, the cool feel of his flight gloves soothing the ache at the front of his brain.

Swallowing one last time, Guilford checked his minimap and confirmed his location before taking hold of his controls and steeling himself once more. He wasn't feeling in perfect condition, but according to his HUD all the KMF systems still seemed to be working, at least. He breathed deep and exhaled long, and activated his Air Glide pack, the device slowly lifting the Galahad into the air, then shot up into the rain-drenched night and back toward the battle.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

With a whir of abused servos Cornelia ran her knightmare's lance straight through the cockpit of decorated Wespe, standard green but trimmed with silver, destroying it in an instant. She was still with her Royal Guard fighting over the the surface of the river, defending the water route to the center of the city, grinding the enemy slowly down, but for all the effort, hardly seeming to make a dent in their numbers.

At first glance she couldn't be sure, but the longer she fought, and the more she saw of her enemies, personally wading deep into the EU formations, the more certain she became every second - this wasn't just a single regiment of Panzers. There were just too many - a fact that became abuntly clear within seconds of the battle beginning as they split their force in two and still managed to push back Cornelia's dug-in troops at every turn. And even now as they slowly began to lose their forward momentum, just as Cornelia expected to happen eventually, there were simply too many Panzers in the fight for her to shut their advance down completely.

Either Cornelia was fighting several vaguely associated regiments of Panzers or a full Airborne KMF Division, the number of frames easily reaching past 1000 in all, not including the air and seaborne knightmare carriers, and other vehicles and support personnel, no doubt holding just outside close-range radar detection out to sea. No matter which was actually the case though, the enemy's numerical superiority was absolute, and they were using it to tighten a noose around the warrior princess's depleted garrision.

Also worrying, the EU's mere presence so far south in Chinese Federation territory, for the sole purpose, Cornelia presumed, of taking her out once and for all, suggested the UFN nations were working more closely than anyone, with the probable exception of Lelouch himself, could have expected, which in turn raised a whole host a new concerns...

Cornelia didn't bother thinking about any of that though. Her attention was squarely upon the battle in front of her, none of the factors surrounding it even occuring to her conscious mind in the heat of the moment.

She raised the Fortis' shield-arm and fired a grenade from the rifle in its hand, not landing a direct hit but blowing off a Wespe's arm, and sending it and another buzzer into a panic, falling back and giving her just a moment of peace long enough to look away from the carnage on her KMF visual feeds.

"Euphie," she addressed hurriedly into her comm, consulting her minimap, "send Paramount Squadron to Turret 17's position."

"Right!" The Pink Princess's voice came back quick and serious. "What about-?"

"And Point H-9 is lost! Tell them to get the hell out of there!"

"Right."

The squadron of Wespen fighting Cornelia and her Royal Guard had been swiftly reduced to half their number in hardly a breath's time, both sides trading lightning-fast blows and volleys of armour-piercing rounds, and while the Britannians hadn't taken any losses from this particular exchange, their heavier frames absorbing or turning the blows aside easily, they were still soundly outnumbered. Behind the main line of engagement over the river several flights of Hummeln strafed around, encircling Cornelia and trying to line up a shot, and two fresh squadrons of Wespen fell out of formation to reinforce the first faltering wave.

Cornelia's eyes darted to the left and right once each, years of experience allowing her to quickly tally the number of enemies around her and their positions with but a glance. Two flights of Wespen were approaching her from her either side, and they barrel-rolled in near-perfect synchronization as they came, four Panzers each, firing their hull-mounted machineguns all the while. Without wasting even a second to think Cornelia spun and shot towards the closer team, the Panzers to her left, and raised her shield, bullets sparking off its golden Blaze Luminous-protected surface. She tugged her controls, and the Fortis jerked to the right and turned, bringing her lance into position. She threw out a deadly thrust at the closest Wespe, but its pilot managed to react in time, parrying the attack and following up with its other sword-arm. Cornelia brought her shield up again, crashing up into the shrieking chain-blade and pushing it aside, then fired a hip slash harken, not waiting to see if the blow landed, instead dashing back and pulling her shield protectively in front of her once more.

The other flight of Wespen had caught up with her, and they whirled their blades in front of them as they closed with the Fortis. Cornelia fired her other slash harkens at once, calling back her first one and registering that it had found its mark and destroyed it. The Wespen deflected all three of them with a quick flourish of their swords then swung down at Cornelia, spreading out to attack from multiple angles. The other flight of Panzers flew at her at the same time, mimicking the moves of their fellows from the other side, intent to cut her down while her back was turned.

There was no way to dodge, so Cornelia only snorted in contempt in her seat and spun her frame in place so her lance was front and center. She brought it up and blocked the every single sword strike of one of the teams at once, the chainsaw-arms screeching as they bit into the huge weapon from the very point of its blade to its butt end. On the other side she threw up her shield, holding it perpendicular to her knightmare and blocking the other team's swords as well.

Time seemed to stop as they hung in the air above the river and under the pouring rain, one KMF holding back seven pairs of screaming swords at once, all of them momentarily too astonished to move. Then, as one they remembered where they were and what they were doing, and the Wespen skitted backward to charge Cornelia again.

Cornelia in turn dodged back, lance up and grim expression tightening against her face. She howled in her cockpit as the Wespen sprang at her, whipping her lance in front of her defensively. One buzzer wasn't fast enough to react and was smacked aside, but the heavy spear, too abused during this battle to hold together, shattered in the Fortis' hand upon contact. Cornelia didn't so much as blink, simply releasing her knightmare's grip on the now-useless piece of haft and grabbing her sheathed MVS sword with one fluid motion.

The Wespen circled around her, cut off from her Royal Guard and now surrounded, then shot straight forward, attacking from every side at once.

"PRINCESS!" Guilford's voice boomed from the Galahad's external speakers as he raced, seemingly out of nowhere, into the formation of Panzers, slicing one apart with his own MVS sword and disrupting their attack.

In her cockpit Cornelia's face softened, and she breathed her Knight's name.

"Guilford...!"

The veteran warrior spun so his back was to Cornelia, and she did the same, the both of them drifting close for mutual protection and facing their opponents down, swords at the ready.

The Wespen didn't attack though. Instead, they parted to either side and retreated, leaving Cornelia and Guilford alone, back to back and slightly confused. Then they realized what was going on.

A Hornisse drifted into view and took aim with its Stiche cannon. There wasn't enough time to dodge. As soon as it was in sight, it was already too late. It fired, the heavy artillery shell whining against the wind as it sailed at Cornelia and her Knight of Honour.

Cornelia's eyes went wide, and with a frantic gasp she hammered her controls, turning in the air and shoving the Galahad, and Guilford, out of the way to face the shell alone. She raised her shield and braced herself.

The bomb impacted against the shield in a burst of fire and concussive force, overloading its Blaze Luminous projectors and splintering the reinforced steel behind it. The Fortis' arm bent unnaturally inward and the frame crumpled as it was flung backward, tumbling over in the air, eventually crashing into the shoreline and bouncing and rolling over several times before sliding to a fiery halt in the churned-up dirt of a ruined house's backyard.

It was over in less than a second. Guilford was blown back by the explosion too, but the Fortis had absorbed most of the force, leaving the Knight shaken, but ultimately unharmed.

"Princess..." he murmured in horror, blinking rapidly and clutching at his controls. "Princess...! CORNELIA!"

He glared at the Hornisse that had attacked them and pounded his thrusters, the Galahad blazing forward and leaving a trail of pale blue behind it from its Air Glide pack. Seeing Guilford was getting too close to use its ordnance the Hornisse raised its other guns and opened fire, spraying bullets and lobbing anti-tank shells at him, but he weaved too quickly out of the way, closing the distance before the Panzer could catch him in a target-lock. He stabbed his sword into it with both the Galahad's hands, ripping and melting through the heavy Panzer's armour and pushing it back and down.

He kept pushing, pushing the blade all the way into the Hornisse up to the hilt and more, driving the behemoth artillery knightmare back. Feedback alarms began to chirp in Guilford's cockpit, but he knew they were just warnings, not the sound of true danger, and he kept pushing down.

The Hornisse and the Galahad were beginning to pick up speed, and Guilford kept pushing until he was in full control of the other frame's descent. They plunged into the water of the river, the Hornisse first and the Galahad second, pushing it down and forward.

Underneath the water it seemed almost calm, the rush of the rain overhead a mere echo, and the explosions and gunfire distant booms blending with the thunder of the storm. Guilford was tense and his eyes were glued open, every muscle around them taut with rage. He was a professional, so would not lose his disclipline, but he was angry.

Shifting direction, Guilford rounded down under the Hornisse and began to fly up, both knightmares shooting out of the water, the Panzer hoisted on the Galahad's sword. Then, with one deft movement Guilford twisted his grip on the blade and yanked on it, slicing cleanly through one side of the Hornisse and continuing on, the larger knightmare starting to drop then exploding behind him.

Cornelia's Royal Guard were slaughtering every Panzer in front of them, outdoing their opponents easily in direct combat and forcing them to break off their assault, but even as they began to retreat, fleeing south, Guilford raised his arm-mounted machinegun and fired after them, destroying a Hummel, then another in quick succession before the majority of targets were out of range.

Guilford relaxed, just a bit, and checked his minimap. It seemed the Panzers were trying to link up with the rest of their forces breaking through on the southern flank. If they managed to regroup together they'd have more than enough force concentration to sweep right through the scattered defenders.

Guilford glanced at his HUD, seeing every system was still in working order. Then, without a word, he sped off to the shore where the wreck of Cornelia's knightmare still smoldered in the dirt.

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At first there was only blackness and stars and stabs of pain, but eventually Cornelia began to regain her sight. Her cockpit was in ruins and little bits of fiberglass and other small debris covered her uniform. She looked at her HUD. It was shattered. She checked around her. Wires were loose and sparking, and everything in front of her was misshapen, like her cockpit had tried sucking in its own gut.

Every part of her body hurt, but with an effort Cornelia tried moving, surges of pain running just under the skin from every limb up to her brain, and she cringed and gasped through her teeth at the feel of it. A quick once-over indicated she at least still had all her limbs, and upon carefully testing every muscle she concluded nothing was broken. At least, not too badly anyway. Her uniform was pretty torn up though, and she noticed red stains were beginning to soak through it.

Straining herself, Cornelia reached out for her controls. She didn't honestly expect them to work, but she had to try something, otherwise she'd be stuck without medical attention in her cockpit and unable to escape. She grabbed one of her yokes and pulled, and it broke loose from the machinery behind it, a tangle of sparking wires spouting from the now ruined controls.

"Just great..." she growled, no force behind her voice.

A few seconds passed in relative silence, just the sound of battle outside and the heavy pattering of rain on the crushed metal that protected her from the Stiche blast, and Cornelia let out a breath and sat back, letting her aching body rest. Seconds become minutes, and the sound of battle grew less forceful, and then there was a screech as a red blade plunged through the ceiling just above Cornelia's head.

Slowly, almost delicately, the ceiling was cut away by an MVS sword, and heavy droplets of rain began to fall on Cornelia, the cool water soothing her pain ever so slightly. Within moments she was looking up into the ghostly blue eye lenses of the Galahad, and she groaned a tentative query.

"Guilford?"

"Princess!" Guilford's voice came right back, distraught and amplified from his external speakers. "Cornelia... Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Cornelia blinked then shook her head. There was a haze over her eyes, and she couldn't get the sound of blood rushing behind her ears to go away. "Give me a status report."

Guilford didn't answer immediately, but when he did his voice was hushed and his tone was soft.

"It looks like we've routed their advance along the river, but the survivors are regrouping with the forces attacking our southern flank. If they break through..."

He may not have finished his statement, but Cornelia knew exactly what he was implying, and her face went pale.

"Euphie...!" With a small moan Cornelia sat up, her body resisting her, wanting to do nothing more than lie still with the rain falling against her, to ease the swelling of new bruises and cuts. Still though, she forced herself up despite her body's protests. "Guilford, take me to the G1. Hurry!"

"Yes, Princess!"

The Galahad was already bent down and now it stretched out an open hand for her, and Cornelia eased herself onto its massive palm.

"Send a message to Euphemia," she said, the steel slowly returning to her voice and the Galahad lifting her up to hold carefully against its chest. "Redirect all available forces to the southern flank. Throw more men at them! We have to hold the G1 at all costs!"

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With the western flank now secured Guilford was able to fly straight back to the G1 following the river. It was a short trip without interruptions, but for Cornelia it still felt interminable knowing how little time they had to prepare for the enemy's arrival at their center of operations. Soon enough though the fork in the river came into sight and the G1 beyond it, resting on a cleared plot of land that might have once been a park. Dozens of knightmares surrounded it, Vincent Wards and Terriers both, and even a number of Sutherlands, back from the front lines with more still arriving, deep gashes from enemy rounds, shells, and shrapnel covering their armour. Scores more men were on foot, as before, but now they were erecting barricades out of broken pieces of cement, scrap metal, and anything else they could get their hands on, doing everything they could to secure their perimeter. APCs and standard tanks rolled into place between the gaps of the barricades, and the knightmares filed in behind them, propping their rifles on their hulls.

The Galahad touched down in front of the G1 and knelt, letting Cornelia step out of its embrace and back onto solid ground. The pain from her crash hadn't really subsided, but she felt able enough to move, and until Euphie was safe there could be no time for rest. She pointed at the closest redcoat to her, mounting a heavy machinegun over a pile of sandbags, and snapped.

"You!" He stood up and faced her immediately. "Get me a radio!"

In quick response he pounded a fist across his chest and darted away. Cornelia turned to the next closest man and pointed again.

"You! Bring me my sword."

There were blue lights in the distance, twinkling specks against the black of the night and the red and yellow of fires in the city. The EU forces were coming, by now almost completely unopposed. She didn't say it, but Cornelia couldn't help but wonder if she and her beleaguered troops even had a chance.

"Your Highness," the first man announced his presence as he ran up to her, a small headset in hand.

Cornelia took it without comment, fumbling it into place over her drenched, matted hair and nodding, allowing the soldier to resume his work. She turned a dial on the side and brought the microphone around to her mouth. Luckily the thing was waterproof, or at least mostly, a strange static filtering through on every channel she tried above the general chatter.

"All units," she tried, "this is Cornelia li Britannia. Sound off!"

Amid the static there was a chorus of replies in Cornelia's ears, voices both male and female, distinctly Britannian and nearly as many Australian, confirming they could hear her. The signal must've been weak, but it would be enough so long as they stayed together.

The lights of the Panzer Air Glide packs were glowing bright in the distance and growing closer every second, and were accompanied by flashes of yellow and booms just after. Then there was a whine of incoming shells and the ground just outside the allied lines exploded.

Cornelia fell prone against the rain-drenched dirt, her hands over her head, and Guilford draped the Galahad's arms around and over her to shield her from the spray of mud thrown up in the blast. In an instant everything fell into chaos around the G1, and everyone not fortunate enough to be relatively safe inside a knightmare or tank dove behind whatever small piece of fortification was closest to them.

"ARTILLERY FIRE!" came a shout of warning from somewhere around the camp. "GET DOWN!"

The bombardment continued, more bombs dropping closer and closer to the defenders, keeping their heads down, but just as it might have started accurately hitting anything, the shelling stopped.

The Galahad stood up and Cornelia got to her feet. Nobody seemed hurt, but then, the purpose of the barrage hadn't been to kill. It was only to throw them into temporary disarray while their enemy advanced. No matter what the reason for the fighting, it still had to be remembered that the EU army was made up of professionals, and would not waste an opportunity to capture the defenders' leaders. Too bad for them, though. Cornelia would never let them take her alive.

"Knights of Britannia!" Cornelia called into her headset. "Soldiers of Australia! If you hear me, then rally! Rally now! In the name of Grand Marshal of Britannia, Second Princess Cornelia li Britannia, I order every one of you now: Rally and prepare for attack!"

"Your Highness!" A redcoat ran up to Cornelia, an elegant saber with blood-red jewels encrusted into its guard in his hands.

Cornelia took the ceremonial weapon from him quickly, letting him salute and run back to his own affairs, then unsheathed it, testing the familiar weight in her hand. She turned to look up into the Galahad's pale blue eye lenses, so like its pilot's.

"Guilford," she began softly, "take me to where I can oversee the battle."

Guilford's gentle reply of affirmation came through on her headset and he knelt down again for his princess to step onto the Galahad's open palm. The sound of static in her ear was becoming more intense for some reason, but Cornelia shrugged it off, bracing herself against the Galahad's arm as it lifted into the air and floated over the top of the G1, depositing her on its roof.

"This is it, lads." Cornelia raised a brow as a wispy male voice rose above the ambient chatter humming on the main radio frequency. After a moment of sifting her memory she recognized it as the Grand Marshal of the RAA, broadcasting from the G1 right below her feet. "There's nowhere to run, and I don't think the Brits are gonna surrender. What'dya say? Are we just going to let those crazy bastards die by themselves?"

This casual acceptance of death from their commander seemed enough to bolster the resolve of the Australians, at least, and the talk over the comms changed to reflect it.

"At least we can make a go of it, eh?"

"Shoot their asses straight t'Hell!"

"Don't stop fightin' 'til you're dead!"

Cornelia couldn't help but smile. Looking out at the sea of blue lights coming fast from the south she was pretty sure this would be the end for her, but rather than dread, she only felt a thrill run through her body, the same as every time she looked imminent death in the eye and spat on it.

'Is this really where I die?' She wondered to herself. 'Hmph! No matter!'

With deliberate precision Cornelia raised her sword above her head to point at the heavens and puffed out her chest to deliver her own final statement, bold and defiant in the face of overwhelming odds; the only way to die with any sense of pride.

"If this is to be our final hour," she roared so all could hear, "then let us stand together, shoulder to shoulder, until the last gun falls silent! Glory for the first man to die! All hail Britannia!"

This was just what the Britannians needed to hear, and the familiar cheer went up, every one of them chanting with one voice:

"All hail Britannia!"

"All hail Britannia!"

"Heh..." Again the Australian Marshal decided to comment, no less informal over the comms than before. "Britannian! Australian! In the end, what's the difference between us? All hail Britannia and advance Australia!"

"All hail Britannia and advance Australia fair!"

Cornelia brought her sword down to point at the enemy, now close enough to make out the decals painted on their knightmares, and bellowed.

"Now, men! Brace for their charge! Fire at will!"

Strangely though, despite her command, nobody pulled their triggers. The enemy Panzers dashed in through the air, close to the ground, to simply go up and over the barricades, but just as unthinkably, didn't fire their weapons either.

Not a second later a hail of green sparks fell from the blackness of the night sky, shredding through the enemy advance, the crackling bolts of energy turning the rain in their path instantly to vapour.

"Your Highness!"

The static in Cornelia's ear finally gave way to a new voice, and a stupified expression found its way onto her face as she realized who it was.

"Kururugi!?" Her head whipped to up to glare in stunned disbelief as the gold, white, and shimmering green of the Lancelot Albion appeared above her, raining energy bolts from its wings and bringing up its twin VARIS. "What in the hell...!?"

"Princess, couldn't you hear me? I've been trying to reach you! After we took the south port we got a distress message from Princess Euphemia. It just barely got through. Are you alright?"

While Cornelia might have seen better days, she was still alive, and that had to account for something. However, rather than feeling relief at the sight of the Knight of One coming to her rescue, Cornelia felt a twitch of resentment start at the corner of her eye.

"We're fine!" she declared, holding as much of an even tone as she could. "Are you alone?"

"Half the knights I took to Riau - about a minute behind me. Any idea why EU knightmares are here?"

"I have some ideas."

"Right. Moving in now."

With that, the Albion zipped forward, shooting down Panzers by the squadron and sending them into a panic. Cornelia knew. It was because of his Geass that nobody could shoot their guns. None but him. That was his power: Absolute Pacification. No one in range of his Geass could attempt to kill anyone else. And the knowledge that she'd been saved by that despicable sorcery ate Cornelia up inside.

'Damn it all...!' With teeth clenched tight and rain dripping down her furrowed brow, Cornelia internally raged. 'Can I not win a single battle without that damnable power to fall back on? Am I really so weak?'

Out ahead of her the Panzers had turned to flee, unable to fire their weapons, completely boggled why not, and absolutely terrified at the revelation. Behind her she was able to make out the first green lights of Britannian Wards riding in to clean up the mess she was unable to deal with herself, and she huffed, forcing her mind back to the task at hand.

"All units: Form up on Sir Kururugi and push the enemy back once and for all! ATTACK!"

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"they were only one of several plunges into Cornelia's southern flank." - Honestly, I didn't intend that to come out that way when I wrote it. Although, I wouldn't mind plunging into Cornelia's southern flank too, if you know what I mean. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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