I. The Onslaught

War and Politics in the 21st Century by Albert Kennedy

The First Atlantic War

"The conditions for the First Atlantic War had been brewing for years prior to the actual declaration. Leaders of Europia United had grown uneasy with the rate of Britannian expansion into South America and, later, the Pacific. But, due to the dual threats of the Berlin anti-parliament demonstrations, and the secession of the nations that would comprise the Middle Eastern Federation, the EU was left powerless to act during the Second Pacific War.

Subsequently, tensions rose to new heights when, upon discovery of the mass production of the Panzer-Hummels by the EU, Prime Minister Schneizel el Britannia declared a blockade on all exports of Sakuradite to the member states of the EU. Since Sakuradite mined from Area 11 matched the output of the rest of the world put together, the blockade immediately dropped Knightmare production rates in the EU by approximately 60%.

In retaliation President Gebhard and the EU parliament speedily passed a bill declaring a general cession of trade with the Holy Britannian Empire. Future historians have criticized the move, stating that it made war inevitable due to the billions of dollars of lost economic activity as a result, but at the time the EU happened to be quite willing to do anything to harm Britannia, even if it meant harming themselves.

As a result, decision makers in Pendragon determined that military action must be taken to restore trading relations and to humble the EU. And so, on February 2nd, 2016 a.t.b, 227 RY, the Holy Britannian Empire declared that a state of war existed between the two global superpowers.

While the war kicked off with small skirmishes in the Atlantic between EU and Britannian vessels, the disastrous First Invasion of Gibraltar, and the subsequent Invasion of Morocco, led by Second Imperial Princess Cornelia li Britannia, began the war in full.

The war would end with official Britannian victory, although, later historians agree that the real winner of the First Atlantic War was the Chinese Federation…"

Morocco - February 21st, 2016 a.t.b, 227 RY - Operation Sea Hammer.

Lelouch vi Britannia - Eleventh Prince, Seventeenth in line to the throne.

The interminable hum of gunfire in the background had become white noise for Lelouch, broken up only by the occasional thunderous sound of yet another Sutherland being obliterated by the shore batteries lining the Moroccan coast.

Lelouch pushed his own Knightmare frame up the rocky shores and hoped that he wasn't the next unfortunate target of the Coastal artillery. With a sudden flick of his wrist and a press of a button the young Prince let loose a barrage of gunfire that laid waste to infantrymen that strayed too far past their armor wall.

'It's fortunate that this terrain doesn't lend itself to entrenchment… Still, we need to take out those shore batteries, we're being torn to pieces…'

The armor wall that stood in front of the artillery was primarily composed of antiquated weaponry such as tanks and mobile trucks carrying tens of thousands of infantrymen. Only a couple dozen Panzer-Hummels, the European answer to the Sutherland, were seen amongst the hundreds of other vehicles.

Lelouch had to give props to whoever led this defense, it was wise not to use too many Panzer-Hummels in this rocky terrain where their lack of mobility made movement hard.

Lelouch proceeded to move his knightmare into a crouching position where he'd be safe behind the more captivating, standing, targets in front of him. He used the lull to observe the battlefield. The beach gradually grew steeper the deeper you advanced and the enemy was positioned on top of these semi-hills. The slow down of the Sutherlands as they advanced up the slope gave ample opportunity for the enemy armor to position their guns and blast a hole in the attackers. At first glance, there were no weaknesses in the line, but Lelouch had learned to disregard his first impression. The second impression was the one that counted.

Lelouch saw Cornelia and her Glaston Knights spearheading another direct assault on the enemy lines, but the line seemed just as full and stable as half an hour ago when the attack had begun. That meant that reinforcements were funneling in, but from where? Lelouch had a guess and, if correct, he might manage to tear apart the entire enemy line himself.

"Jeremiah. I want you and everyone else to follow me. Stay along the water where our reinforcements are being launched from, it'll provide us some cover." Lelouch didn't bother waiting for a response, he needed to enact his plan as soon as possible to minimize losses.

His Sutherland's land spinners, which were adapted for the Moroccan beach, hummed as he sped along the sand towards the far right of the assault. Lelouch and the other officers had discussed how best to launch the assault and it was the consensus that while the terrain they had chosen wasn't ideal, it was preferable to the only other choice. The other choice happened to be a steep wall of rock that climbed up fifteen feet from the sand. It proved impossible for the Britannian infantrymen to scale and any concentrated attack on it would have resulted in the enemy putting just as much focus into the area, dooming the assault to disaster.

However, this wasn't a concentrated attack. Only 20 Knightmares made up Lelouch's entire unit, a drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds deployed in the entire assault. If Lelouch's assumption was correct, that the reinforcements were coming from their forces stationed atop that rocky wall, then it might be a hole to be exploited.

It took a couple minutes for Lelouch and his troops to make it towards the rock face and he noted with a smile that the area was sparsely defended at best. He spotted maybe a dozen tanks and perhaps a few hundred infantrymen, or in other words, nothing for a Knightmare company.

"What's the plan your highness?" The voice of Jeremiah asked from his Knightmare besides Lelouch's own.

Lelouch proceeded to think about it for a few seconds and then tapped a button to ensure he would be broadcasted to his entire unit.

"Listen up. As you can see the Europeans have left this spot badly deprived of firepower. As we speak our friends and comrades are being torn apart by the dozens by these EU cowards who sit atop a hill and refuse to give open battle. If we can break through here we can roll up the entire line one by one, man by man, tank by tank."

He didn't need rousing cheers to know what his men thought about this. He felt the excited energy in the air, this was what they were looking for. They could avoid the meatgrinder that all the planners had been worried about if they were just able to pull this off. This was their chance.

"Monica and I will take units I-10 through I-20 and scale up that wall with our slash harkens. I want you all to spread out evenly along the wall so they can't cluster their fire once they spot us. Jeremiah, you take the remaining half of the unit once you see that we've secured the cliff and back us up as a second wave. Got it?"

A round of 'Yes sirs' met Lelouch's words.

Lelouch and his half moved up towards positions at the base of the rock wall and aimed their slash harkens.

"Initiate phase 1." Lelouch spoke calmly, though his heart was beating fast. This was his first real taste of combat aside from minor peacekeeping missions in the Areas or training simulations back at boot camp.

Ten pairs of slash harkens fired simultaneously and latched onto the rock, beginning to pull them towards the top. A tense 15 seconds passed as they eventually cleared the ledge and got their first good sight of the enemy.

It was not a pleasant one.

Instantly half a dozen shells came blasting out of the tanks and shore batteries. Fortunately they hadn't had a great idea of which directions the men were going to be coming up from, or even how many were scaling it. Unfortunately 3 Sutherlands immediately became KIA after the first salvo.

It wasn't enough.

Once the remaining seven had found purchase on the cliff they sped towards the desperately reloading tank crews. Monica Krushevsky raced ahead of the rest of the unit, avoiding the next salvo of the remaining half dozen fresh tanks with ease. She weaved through the shells with the grace that only comes from the meeting of natural talent and constant practice. A missile shot out of each of her Sutherland's shoulders and turned two of the reloading tanks into burning husks of metal.

Her daring assault had taken the focus off of the remaining six and they quickly began unloading on the tanks and infantry teams before them.

Lelouch unleashed his own missiles before mowing down a row of outmatched infantry with his chest mounted anti-personnel gun. He lost himself in the adrenaline rush as he moved about the little battlefield, tearing apart tanks, men, and after several minutes of carnage, compelled the operators of the coastal batteries to abandon their posts and run.

He had no remorse or hesitation as he shot the fleeing soldiers in the back.

"Pathetic." Jeremiah's voice spoke with disdain as he observed the fleeing soldiers. "There is no greater disgrace than dieing to a wound in the back, the mark of a coward."

"Lucky for us though, wouldn't you agree?" Lelouch said with a chuckle as he observed the aftermath of the battle with satisfaction. By the time Jeremiah's second wave had arrived all that remained was cleanup. The tanks were destroyed to a man and most of the fleeing soldiers lay face down amongst the rocks.

Jeremiah scoffed. "I would have preferred a real battle your highness. I gain no satisfaction as a soldier of the empire facing off against rabble like this."

"The battle's not over yet Jeremiah." Commented Monica besides them.

"That it isn't." Lelouch agreed. He looked around and did a quick headcount. They still had 16 operational Knightmares which meant that aside from the initial salvo, only one other had been killed.

"Very well then. While I'm sure the enemy would love nothing more than to send half their army here to repel us, they're too preoccupied with my sister. This is our chance, the shore batteries can't swivel around like the tanks can, and those tanks and few Panzer-Hummel frames are going to be too busy with the Glaston Knights."

Lelouch smiled as a feeling of pride welled up in him as he spoke the words, "Phase one complete. It's time to initiate phase two."

The remaining sixteen members of the unit raced deeper behind enemy lines, heading towards where the main battle raged. The line had yet to move although Lelouch saw some of the tanks desperately trying to reposition as news came of the imminent assault coming from their left flank.

Too little, too late. The lack of flexibility in the European defensive plan had proven to be their folly.

The pilots of Lelouch's unit slammed into the already under fire defenders and began annihilating tanks and trucks that suddenly found that they were being pressed from two sides.

Lelouch raced towards one of the shore batteries and split a man's body clean in half with a slash harken before wiping out the rest with his gun. Several Panzer-Hummels pulled back from the main line towards their interior to try and deal with Lelouch. However, Jeremiah and Monica rushed forwards alongside other members of his unit and made short work of the less mobile Panzers.

In a matter of minutes many of the most dangerous shore batteries found themselves deprived of their crews who came down with a sudden case of death.

After they had been dealt with Lelouch rallied up the members of his unit that weren't destroyed or focused on flanking the tanks. He charged head on into the back of the enemy's main line. This was the schwerpunkt, what the Prussians called the decisive point, and Lelouch had found it. Cornelia and her forces in front of the enemy were the anvil and Lelouch's remaining unit would be the hammer that smashed the line.

The panicked tanks were utterly unable to maneuver in the clustered clash of metal and made easy prey for Lelouch's forces. One of the Panzer-Hummels swung around to challenge Lelouch's knightmare and the Prince gladly accepted.

The machine fired off the two auto-cannons on its arms but both were simple to dodge at such close a range. Lelouch seized the opportunity of the missed shots and pressed in even closer with his Knightmare so that he could blast the cockpit apart with his assault rifle. However the Panzer suddenly released its chest mounted missiles that Lelouch had not expected it to still have. His quick reaction time saved him the humiliation of defeat as he fired off his slash harkens directly into the missiles, causing them to explode prematurely. Unfortunately this resulted in his slash harkens being completely blown to pieces. But that seemed to be the Panzer operator's last shot as the machine rushed to fall back from Lelouch. He didn't give it the opportunity as he finally unleashed his gun which tore the cockpit apart.

Lelouch moved past the now lifeless machine and prepared to engage another Panzer behind it, but he didn't get the chance as a spear suddenly protruded from its back, causing the machine to explode before him.

Once the smoke had cleared Lelouch saw the purple Knightmare and cape that signalled that this happened to be the personal Gloucester of the Witch of Britannia herself, Cornelia li Britannia. Looking around Lelouch noted that the enemy between his unit and the Glaston knights had been utterly annihilated and now the remnants of the Panzers were in full retreat as they powerlessly watched the slower tanks and infantry surrender en masse.

Lelouch reclined back inside of his cockpit with satisfaction as he realized that his flanking attack had been the coup de grace that had decisively broken the enemy. Phase 2 had been completed.

He couldn't contain himself and began speaking. "Hello there sister."

Cornelia's Knightmare seemed to freeze as she recognized the voice and the unit of his Knightmare. "Lelouch! Is that you?" The disbelief in her voice was so great that for a moment Lelouch thought she might drop her lance, luckily Knightmares aren't as vulnerable to emotions as humans seemed to be.

"The one and only." Lelouch responded triumphantly. During his operation Lelouch had briefly wondered if perhaps he should have asked permission for his little detour, but he decided that possible chastisement from his sister was worth it to win the battle. But his fears were unfounded as a hearty laugh rang out from Cornelia and her Knightmare clasped Lelouch's on the shoulder. He winced as he heard the metal of his machine crumpling under the powerful grip.

"That was damn good! Better than I'd expect from a scrawny little brother who used to have trouble wrestling off Euphemia!"

Lelouch scoffed at the teasing. "If I remember correctly you couldn't wrestle her off either."

Cornelia laughed again. "Couldn't?" Lelouch imagined her raising her eyebrow at him inside of the cockpit. "For me it was a lack of will to do so, I somehow doubt that's your excuse."

Lelouch sighed from inside of his cockpit and rubbed his forehead in annoyance. It seemed like no matter what he did or where he went he had no escape from teasing sisters.

IMPERIAL BRITANNIAN ARMED FORCES

KNIGHTMARE CORPS

31ST KC UNIT "INVICTUS"

FORMATION: 2015 a.t.b

STATUS: Active

PART OF: 2nd Imperial Army under Second Princess Cornelia li Britannia

COMMANDER: Eleventh Prince Lelouch vi Britannia

BIO: The 31st KC Unit "Invictus" was formed in the build up towards the outbreak of the First Atlantic War. It consisted of cadets from the recent graduating class of Knightmare pilots with the only veteran being Major Lord Jeremiah Gottwald, who was placed in the unit at the request of Prince Lelouch vi Britannia. The average Pilot rating of the unit is slightly above average, although the only Ace level score is that of Lady Monica Krushevsky.

Prior to the outbreak of the war, the 31st participated in peacekeeping missions in Area 6 without incident or distinction. After hostilities were initiated, the 31st was placed into Princess Cornelia's 2nd Imperial Army for Operation Sea Hammer to invade Morocco and North Africa. More veteran KC units were tied down in fending off the Invasion of Gibraltar by EU forces and so the 31st had to be used in the counter-invasion.

The unit served with distinction in the initial landing when it flanked the enemy lines, allowing Princess Cornelia's forces to break through. As a result the remaining 11 pilots, as well as the 9 casualties (7 deceased, 2 crippled), were granted the Imperial Cross for bravery. Prince Lelouch vi Britannia was also elevated to the rank of Colonel by Princess Cornelia li Britannia following the battle.

END REPORT

DATE: February 28th, 2017 a.t.b

REFERENCE

a.t.b - Ascension Throne Britannia, the Imperial Calendar.

RY - Revolutionary Year, starts with the Storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789.

Area 6 - South America

Sutherland - Primary Knightmare frame mass produced and used by the pilots of the Knightmare Corps in Britannia.

Gloucester - More close combat oriented version of the Sutherland, used famously by Cornelia's Glaston Knights.

Panzer-Hummels - Knightmare Frame used by the EU and its member states. Answer to the Sutherland. Less mobile but possesses more long range firepower than the Sutherland. Heavier armament but more fragile armor as a result.

A.N

I hope you all enjoyed what I have so far. I certainly enjoyed writing it. Please bear with me, this story is both to finally contribute to the fandom of my favorite anime, as well as to improve my own writing abilities. I hope, and expect, to get better as the story continues.

If you have any questions or constructive criticism feel free to drop a review and let me know what you think. I'll probably respond to ones that need responding here at the bottom of the next chapter.

Speaking of next chapter, expect an update soon unless something wild happens, I already have ideas in mind and plan to have it ready over the weekend.

Review, follow, favorite, and most of all, enjoy.