Codegease: Air and Land Warfare 1946

Page 136

"Did they run away? Or were they secretly..."

"Running away is impossible. If they could all run, those American soldiers would have vanished long ago. As for those involved in clandestine matters, they might be executed, but there's no need. If they commit a crime, they'll likely be used as an example to deter others, so..."

"So they were very likely put to work by these people who call themselves the Britannian Empire?"

"Yes, look, just like those traitors over there..."

……

The man pointing with his chin was none other than the three Soviet soldiers who had changed into blue and white uniforms and were wearing hexagonal identification tags on their chests. The three of them were huddled together by a lamppost, each holding a piece of sesame seed cake, and one of them also had a bottle of wine in his hand.

"This stuff is ridiculously delicious!" Ivanov, like the other two, was holding a pancake with a fried egg inside, chewing it with a melody that was much more pleasant than when he ate black bread.

"Hey, we can't just stare at the bread! That's not how we're supposed to behave!" Chicherin slapped the bottle of liquor he was holding onto the private's arm. "I saved this especially for you! Hurry up!"

"Hmm!" Stasevich burped. "To be honest, it's really nice here! To be honest, it's much better than the buildings back home. It's interesting that you can even buy vodka in the shops here! Well, although the alcohol content seems a bit low..."

"Oh, comrade, ouch, ah..." Ivanov squinted, the alcohol making him sting. "What exactly are we here for?"

"Hmm? Ahahahaha, tsk tsk tsk." Stasevich smiled and shook his head, lowering his voice, "How can we not put on a wonderful opera in front of the enemy? So, what is this TV screen saying? I understand even less."

……

What are they acting out?

The background depicts a street scene in the Tokyo Concession, with a deep valley in the middle and platforms in the distance. In the distance, there is a palace encased in vermilion walls, exuding the style of Eastern civilization; while on the closer platforms, familiar black chariots and steel giants are neatly packed together, all facing the red direction without exception.

The camera pans down to reveal three double-decker-like structures parked there, with several posts on the roof, and then several giants surrounding the vehicles.

"Hey? Isn't this what was reported yesterday? Do you guys remember?"

"do not remember……"

“Cough, I don’t remember either…” Stasevich called over a familiar soldier—he had been their English-Russian translator for the past few weeks, helping them understand the rules.

"This? Ah, you still remember the Black Knights I told you about yesterday, right? A group of remnants have run into the embassy across the street and are hiding there. Acting Governor Guilford is preparing to put the captured Knights members in front of them for execution, in order to force those scoundrels to show their faces. It's that culprit named ZERO."

"Oh?" The three comrades wiped their mouths. "So, how much time does this governor have left for the Knights?"

"A few minutes."

……

"Finally! The time for execution has arrived!" The female voice hosting the live broadcast echoed through the streets. "The Black Knights bandits, now bound by chains, are about to face justice! The people of Area 11 have ultimately failed to see the Zero they believed in! Perhaps their actions in abandoning their lackeys prove that they have completely given up resistance!"

As they talked, the steel giants raised their guns toward the double-decker bus—a prison van with two levels of cells. The crowd watching outside the execution ground became restless, seemingly trying to hear their pleas and cries.

“Tsk, this is a bit…” Chicherin suddenly turned his face away, “It’s quite like the situation when the German fascists were executing comrades all over the motherland back then…”

“That’s true, but… if their Black Knights are really so ‘wicked,’ why not use the gallows? It’s really uncreative.”

"No, that's not it!"

Suddenly, a loud and mysterious voice echoed in the frame, causing the camera and the soldiers and civilians in the frame to turn their heads in all directions.

"You're wrong! Guilford!" At this moment, the screen zoomed in, and a familiar black figure emerged from a Sunderland truck at the back of the crowd, wearing a black helmet and a long cloak. "The people you want to execute are not terrorists! They are our Black Knights' soldiers!"

"ZERO! ZERO has appeared!" The crowd on the street shouted, but several Soviet comrades seemed out of place—even though a soldier was translating for them.

"It looks like we caught the second half of a ballet performance; the first half had finished before we arrived."

"Sigh, you bet, it feels like I missed out on a fortune..."

……

"ZERO! What a foolish act!" The host continued his impassioned speech. "Alone! ZERO actually came to the execution ground alone! It seems he's riding in a KMF, not here to surrender! But fighting alone is tantamount to sending himself to the guillotine!"

ZERO's black automaton slowly approached the crowd and the path cleared by the guards, quietly stopping in front of Guilford's aircraft, which featured a cape and a golden spear.

"Long time no see, Secretary Guilford! How about we come out of here and catch up?"

"Thank you for the invitation! But I want to use KMF to put an end to our past!"

“Alright! Well then…” ZERO said, climbing into the cockpit, “I’ll set some rules for the duel! It’ll be a one-on-one fight between the two of us! No one else is allowed to interfere! And you can only use one weapon at a time!”

"Alright! You guys! Scatter!" With that, all the KMFs around Guilford withdrew, discarding their sidearms and swords, leaving only a spear in their hands pointing at ZERO's aircraft.

“Oh… what is this…” Stasevich felt like the omelet he had eaten had turned into a pot of vinegar. “Coming to the execution ground for this kind of thing? You’re here to rescue people, comrade? This is more absurd than exchanging prisoners on the battlefield… and this so-called governor actually agreed? I seriously doubt what kind of nonsense you’re playing in Berlin with this pighead who’s from the same family as me?”

……

“In that case, I’ll take that riot shield!” ZERO’s phone pointed to a police KMF machine next to him, its weaponry in its hands. “Oh, by the way, Mr. Guilford, if there is an evil that justice cannot defeat, what would you do? Would you become evil yourself to defeat it? Or would you persist in your pursuit of justice, ultimately succumbing to evil?”

"Cough cough cough!..." Chicherin choked on his drink. "Why is it that same nonsense you spouted on TV before? Comrade, what kind of rebel are you with that kind of thinking?"

“Justice, evil, emmmm…” Ivanov couldn’t help but shake his head. “According to him, three or four years ago we were utterly defeated by the Nazis, so the Nazis were an evil that our justice could not overcome? And now that the Nazis are gone, we have already transformed into evil and wiped them out?”

“Tsk tsk tsk, comrade, your idea is really dangerous.” Stasevich shook his head with a smile again. “Among the traitors that General Androv wants to eliminate for Motherland, this guy named ZERO seems more suitable than me.”

At that moment, on the television screen, Guilford had already started up his landline and charged towards ZERO with a spear in hand.

"My justice stands with Her Highness!"

"Haha! Is that so! Then I will transform into evil to vanquish evil!—"

As soon as ZERO finished speaking, the execution ground inexplicably began to slowly rise in a cloud of smoke and dust. Guilford was so shocked that he stopped in his tracks, and the people in the distance also scattered and fled when they saw that something was wrong.

"What is this thing?" The three comrades looked at the scene that followed in bewilderment—the rising artificial ground was perhaps difficult for them to understand as a structural feature, but it was definitely moving! It was slowly tilting towards the bottomless ravine behind them!

Oh no, it seems it rose high enough that the ground collapsed and slammed hard onto the opposite side of the ravine, onto the small patch of land beneath the vermilion city walls. As for the Britannian soldiers on the platform, they could avoid falling to their deaths, but they couldn't escape the scene of being smashed to pieces. The tanks and KMFs, like carrot chunks rolling off an overturned chopping board, were reduced to a pile of rubble, accompanied by exploding sparks and the grinding sound of steel, all vomited up from a garbage truck.

Only ZERO's aircraft seemed to have foreseen everything, having prepared its riot shield well in advance as the platform rose. Now, like a skateboarding teenager, it leaped into the towering dust kicked up by vehicles and buildings.

……

"Comrade? Are there engineers in this POW camp?" Stasevich couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Could you find a soldier to tell me how this thing was fixed? And how to operate it to make it look like this?"

"If they knew, they could probably have kneaded a whole bunch of tank-sized bridges by hand, just like kneading dough, while beating up the Nazis. Yes, just like a stretcher that can be folded and unfolded."

The three Soviet soldiers, unwilling to process what was about to happen, leisurely walked towards the other end of the street—ignoring the television broadcast of ZERO ordering his colleagues in the embassy to rescue the prisoner who had also fallen onto the platform, and the scene of the two sides' KMFs fighting each other in the thick smoke.

"Tsk tsk tsk, everything is thanks to that fool who accepted the duel, ha!"

"Why did we let that ZERO in? We've already called him a terrorist, and we still expect to kill him in some kind of fair duel? If the Nazi dogs treated the partisans like this, the SS wouldn't have been hanged by us so many times, would they?"

"Heh. But what's going on here? They're fighting so fiercely, do they really think the embassy that sheltered them is their own territory?"

"Well, their territory is quite ridiculous, but, comrade, I don't think we're doing much better, are we?"

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Stasevich laughed again. “We will go back, just like those compatriots who were captured by the Nazi dogs and taken to concentration camps. There will always be comrades who will bring them back to their homeland. The lucky survivors will return to their homeland to rebuild their homes; the unfortunate souls will be buried in the embrace of their motherland without hesitation.”

……

The streets of the Tokyo concession suddenly fell silent, but then Chicherin and Stasevich's drunken humming began, gradually bringing everything back to life.

"We will not allow the wings of evil to fly into our borders! We will never allow the enemy to ravage our vast fields!"

The people on the sidewalk were stunned, listening to the three men's magnetic, vodka-sounding voices with a mixture of understanding and confusion, as they watched them walk away.

"You rotten fascist monster, you have nowhere to hide! We have prepared the coffins for your unworthy human descendants!"

"Let noble rage surge like waves! The people are waging a sacred war!"

Chapter 150, Section 213: The Roar of the Sleeping Lion of the Empire

"Hey Angelie! Come out here! I know I was wrong! Aren't you going to care about tonight's mission?"

It was another afternoon in Germany. Griffin stood in a barracks, hands on his hips, looking at the tightly closed door with a wronged expression.

"I promise I'll never peek under your skirt again! And I'll never guess what color your bra is again! Okay!" His voice grew louder and louder. "I know you always complain that I'm super indecent and a harasser! Always staring at your chest! But I..."

"Hey." Suddenly the door opened, and Angelie stood with her arms crossed, head tilted, leaning against the door frame, looking at the roguish captain with a dissatisfied expression.

"Hey! I knew it, you can't ignore what your superior says..."

"The sun will be setting for a long time, and we still have several hours before our mission begins. You, a medal-winning hero, are revealing your shameful secrets to everyone in the camp who might be overhearing. Well, maybe that's why you're so shameless."

"Hey, listen to me, I really realize..."

"Did I say your mistake was very serious, hmm? I left you behind to give you time and space to reflect on yourself. I'm still working on some tactical issues. If there's nothing else, please go back, okay?"

"Tch! You said you didn't want to lecture me!" Griffin grinned mischievously. "That tirade of yours was enough for me to finish twice over!"

"Oh? Okay then, I'll set aside some time."

"Really? You promised you wouldn't..."

“I understand, don’t waste time forgiving you, you idiot.” With that, Angelie shoved aside the captain blocking her way and walked toward the front of the barracks.

"Huh?" Looking over, I realized that it was Ypel who had returned, accompanied by two very familiar young ladies.

"Captain Zark, we have brought you some orders."

"Oh, don't be so polite, just call me Griffin, haha." The captain wiped his forehead. "Well, let's get started. I've met you both before."

"Well, the reason we're here is that Warrant Officer Lilycia from your squad has gone to Area 11 to participate in a new mobile suit project, so the higher-ups have decided to have the two of us join your team. We'll need your guidance for future operations, including tonight's mission which was changed at the last minute."

"Hahahaha! Very good! Very good!" The captain laughed and clapped his hands. Angelie, who was standing next to him, frowned and sighed again as she watched him. She shook her head helplessly.

“Then let me introduce myself first.” The new short-haired girl gave a composed salute. “Sergeant Julia Ido.”

“Lieutenant Shisian Inteker.” Another girl with long chestnut hair saluted and shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

"Hahaha! I'm so happy! We're all so happy! Haha!" Griffin jumped up a bit, put his hand on Angelie's head next to him, and gestured to show her height compared to the two new faces—Juliet wore a small white hair accessory and was slightly taller than Angelie by about half a head; while Sisian was even taller than Juliet by about half a head, with a small hemp rope braided on each side of her hair, connecting to the wing-shaped hairpin at the back of her head.

"Mind your business, Captain."

"Oh! Okay, okay." Griffin stopped. "By the way, you mentioned tonight? Is there any change?"

"Sir, orders from the Presidential Headquarters in Berlin: tonight, part of our Knights Order will participate in an offensive operation, escorting the 92nd Independent Brigade, which has just returned from the EU front and is equipped with new weapons. We will join forces with a portion of them to capture the town of Gramzo, located 42 kilometers southwest of Szczecin."

"Was it a night raid? That's pretty clever. Looks like the brigade leader and those generals aren't fools after all. So, what are you referring to as the new weapon you mentioned earlier?"

"Canterbury, this is a new type of mobile electromagnetic gun that walks on four legs. It has achieved good results on the EU battlefield, and the higher-ups plan to bring it over to see if it can adapt to the battlefield here."

"Oh? I'd love to see that!"

"Are you going to see it, Captain?" Before Sissian could return the smile, Angelina chimed in, "Before you go, please pick up the top few buttons of your shirt and your tie. Even if the 92nd Independent Brigade isn't the best, you should at least know they have some dealings with Her Highness Elizabeth. It's embarrassing..."

"Stop! Things are clear, give me a few minutes! I'll get out myself!"

Watching Griffin happily return to his bed, Ypel pulled Juliet away, while Sisian, amused by the sight, followed Angelie into her and Ypel's barracks.

"It seems you two get along very well, doesn't it?"

Angelie didn't say anything, but instead pulled out a photo album and placed it on the table.

"I guess you might use a word that those less-than-serious soldiers would say, 'harem harmony,' right?"

"Oh, it seems you don't dislike this way of putting it, do you?"

“It’s not a matter of like or dislike, it’s just that…” Angelie casually flipped through a few pages of the photo album, looking at the images flashing by—among the soldiers in the photos, some were staring coldly at the camera, some looked like couples, and some were playfully fighting. Some of the color photos were accompanied by black-and-white photocopies.

"In your words, those who are disharmonious in the 'harem' can only helplessly remain in these images. Those who don't cooperate seriously in battle, those who give orders haphazardly without understanding the situation, those who cause the death of their comrades because of conflicts... This is the price they pay for forgetting that they are on the battlefield, in the military camp..."

……

Everything proceeded as planned, and Griffin and his group met Canterbury, a colossal mechanical giant standing on all fours, two heads taller than Sunderland and Gloucester, with a massive electromagnetic cannon clamped around its neck, silently pointing forward.

"Oh? Is this it?" Ypel continued to pull Juliet around the elephant, asking her all sorts of questions. Angelie had obtained the combat video of Canterbury in the EU, and left the real business to the other two.

"So, Major, what kind of battle plan did your handsome brigade commander come up with? Can you explain it to me using this map?"

"Here's the thing, we heard when we came here that there are a lot of enemy tanks here that are a problem for us, and we lack something that can easily destroy them. Also, it seems that the battlefield here focuses on assault operations, right? So I plan to divide the force that is attacking the enemy town's defenses into two groups. The KMF and infantry fighting vehicles will lead the first wave of the assault, and the assault guns will provide cover fire in the second wave while moving at a slower pace. Taking the town shouldn't be too difficult."

“Hmm… I feel like there’s something not quite right.” Xixi’an shook her head. “Then, what about Canterbury?”

"Our plan is to have it enter the city last, providing cover fire from the rear during the first two waves of attacks, and then use its direct fire mode to destroy it when we encounter a Minotaur tank, which was mentioned in previous intelligence."

"This is too dangerous for Canterbury, and frankly, it's not suitable for a fight in District 45."

"You mean... a warrant officer?"

"Perhaps you've considered our advantage in night fighting, but we can't rely on any single strength to guarantee control of the battlefield. Unfortunately, we must admit that in terms of tactics, we need to learn from the Soviet Union, the main enemy of District 45, so..."

“So can I say something?” Griffin interrupted their conversation, calling to Angelie who was standing nearby, “I think that pretty lady has been watching the video long enough, hasn’t she?”

“I have a question, Major.” She walked over, still staring at the laptop screen in her hands, “Canterbury’s firepower mode has two, right?”

"Ah! That's right! One is the electromagnetic railgun's direct-fire charging mode, which can unleash firepower capable of destroying city walls, and the other is a high-angle launch of ordinary cluster munitions for fire coverage."

"So don't you think that using the force to demolish city walls to attack the 'fearsome' Minotaur, while perhaps a bit like eradicating the root of the problem, would be a huge waste of resources? Besides, based on our own experience, Minotaurs don't appear alone, but rather fight in groups or in coordination with other units. As for the Canterbury's defensive capabilities and flexibility, as well as the issue of its electromagnetic cannon's charging time, I suspect that your three precious Canterbury cannons might not even become grass in the mouths of bison and rhinoceroses, let alone Minotaurs."