Chapter 2: "Far Shooting"

2017 a.t.b. The large-scale revolt, known as the "Black Rebellion", against the Holy Britannian Empire caused by the masked man “Zero” ends in failure. However, the influence of the Black Rebellion, which showed signs of opposition against the increasingly powerful superpower, was strong, and, including the major powers that oppose Britannia like the Chinese Federation and E.U., anti-Britannia terrorism also occurs frequently in countries under Britannia’s rule. Under these kinds of conditions, the terrorist-deployment organization “Peace Mark”, which possesses a worldwide network, is connected to terrorists in every country and to terrorist-supporting organizations like Kyoto, and causes terrorism everywhere...

“Who…are you?”

Those words flowed into the dusk evening. The girl’s voice, which had a much higher tone than his, seemed to overlap and speak in unison with his voice. This stimulated the deepest recesses of Orpheus’ mind, and a distant memory was stirred.

“You’re—”

Without even being conscious of it, Orpheus’ mouth tried to issue the name of the girl, when—a flash occurred on the horizon far away. Slightly delayed, the sound of an explosion and the shock wave arrived and seized them.

“!”

Orpheus came back to his sense. The explosion just now was at the goods stockpile at Béjaïa.

“You bastard!”

The girl seemed to snap and rushed over towards him. Her expression of fury and the sword she held in her hand demonstrated that she had realized the truth of the explosion at Béjaïa. Orpheus also reflexively prepared to use the knife he had on him. But, before their blades could cross, a black silhouette gently alighted down between them.

“This isn’t the time for you two to fight. Put away your blades, you two Oz’s.”

The black silhouette was an unfamiliar-looking Knightmare. It seemed to be a one-off custom frame. A man had appeared from the cockpit and gave that order to Orpheus and the girl. His face was hidden by a mask, and it wasn’t possible to see his expression.

(Two Oz’s, he said?)

“Go, Orpheus Zevon. The Britannian pursuit forces will arrive here at any moment.”

While the masked man restrained the girl, Orpheus housed the Byakuen in the trailer and retreated from there. The masked also seemed to follow suit afterwards and disappeared. The girl was left alone in the dessert.

“Two Oz’s…” 

The masked man had certainly said that. Then, that girl with the same face as him—was she also called Oz? However, no one answered his question.

Miss X, their contact, was waiting for Orpheus and the others, who had succeeded in returning alive from Béjaïa. Having a new mission offer for them, she visited the private military consultant organization’s “Peace Mark’s” home base. 

“I want you to eliminate Britannia’s new-model bomber.”

The Britannian Air Force was going to roll out the prototype of a super-long-distance and high-altitude bomber equipped with the state-of-the-art Float System. If this bomber was deployed in actual combat, Britannia would obtain the means to inflict damage to every base on the earth without resupply.

“The client may be the E.U., or the Chinese Federation—”

“Or maybe a rival manufacturer that lost in the bidding war with the military?”

“That information wasn’t inquired into. Whichever it is, it’s possible to rewind Britannia’s world conquest schedule a little by preventing the development of this bomber. That’s important, you know?”

According to Miss X’s explanation, the aircraft manufacturer in charge of its development had completed the prototype’s assembly work at a location belonging to them around Lake Michigan within the Britannian continent, and planned to do a manned test flight soon at an adjoining airfield. 

“By Lake Michigan, you mean in the middle of Britannia?”

“Yes. In Britannia’s largest industrial area.”

“It’s because a large quantity of fresh water is needed for the production of advanced technology. That area is full of various big and small factories that mixes munitions and private demand.” 

“How are we supposed to slip into a place like that?”

“Leave that to me. I’ll prepare the arrangements for that.”

Listening to the silent conversation between Ze and the others, Orpheus quietly opened his mouth to speak.

“We’ll take the request. We’ll come up with a strategy soon. But before that, Miss X. There’s something I’d like to confirm with you.” 

So said Orpheus.

“What is it? There’s something you want to ask me?”

“—At Béjaïa, there was a girl who was identical to me. She was a Britannian knight.”

“Eh? You mean—”

“Yes. It was without a doubt Oldrin Zevon.” 

“Your twin sister…So she’s in the Britannia military…”

“The masked man also called her Oz.” 

“Masked man?”

Orpheus explained to Miss X what happened at Béjaïa from start to finish.

“The sister that I was separated from all my life, and a masked man…” 

Orpheus faintly smiled.

“All sorts of people have appeared, you know? Do you have some knowledge about it?”

“For Oldrin’s case, there’s too little research on the matter. I’ll investigate it. As for the masked man, I have a rough idea of who he is…Most likely, he’s Wizard.”

“Wizard?”

Miss X told Orpheus about the self-named “magician” masked man that was a supporter of Peace Mark. 

“However, the only things that are known about him are that his codename is Wizard, that he possesses abundant information and assets, and that he pilots his own personal Knightmare as well.” 

“How shady. I don’t agree with guys like him who watch things from the shadows.” 

“Yeah. However, he’s a reliable existence. Also, he seems to be well-acquainted with your past as well.” 

“That just makes him all the more dislikable.” 

“True.”

Miss X shrugged her shoulders.

South Haven, the industrial town that was situated next to Lake Michigan while commanding a view of the state capital of Chicago on the opposite shore. In a particular section within it that was firmly guarded by the Britannia military was RAO’s—Royal Aeronautical Ordinance—airplane manufacturing facility. Most of those huge grounds were comprised of a test flight-use airfield. The Britannian military’s new-model bomber would take off from this airfield and undergo various tests. The security checks on people going in and out of the facility were ranked among the highest and it would be difficult even for Orpheus with his Geass to penetrate within it. Even if he did succeed in getting in, he couldn’t expect to be able to accomplish the mission and escape afterwards. However, Peace Mark didn’t undertake plans with the resolution of suicide like that.

“There’s no need to approach the target. With the Byakuen, it’s possible to aim and shoot at it from outside the guard zone.”

That was the conclusion that Orpheus and the others came to. Of course, doing that wouldn’t be easy.

On this site where RAO’s factory and airfield were adjacent to each other, the bomber could immediately go to the taxi way when it was rolled-out of the factory. According to nature of the plan, firing at the bomber just after takeoff was the desired outcome. This was because Britannia would suspect machine trouble at first if an accident occurred with this timing, and more importantly it was expected that it would buy time for Orpheus to escape.

A plan that couldn’t be accomplished without the Byakuen—that is, an ultra-long distance shot using the ultra-high output electromagnetic accelerator cannon equipped to its right arm. Certainly, with the specs of this cannon, it is perfectly possible for target to receive the cannon shell. However, “receiving the bullet” and “hitting the mark” are too entirely different things.

Seen from the spot where Orpheus will fire from, RAO’s airfield is located on the other side of the horizon—in other words, somewhere that can’t be directly seen without obstruction. Of course, this is natural in a normal firefight. Primarily, field guns are weapons that are meant to hit targets at a distance of 10 km, 20 km, or even further away. However, in this mission, Orpheus would be facing a moving target, and would have to aim with pinpoint accuracy. For the sake of that, Orpheus had stationed Ze at a location where it was just barely possible for him to survey the target as an observer. But this wasn’t to observe the bullet impact on the target. If it was a normal bullet shell, it was possible to correct the targeting alignment using the first bullet, but this was a one-shot deal this time. Therefore, Ze’s job was to get as physically close to the target as possible, and to provide data on the various factors of the bomber as it moved down the runway and on the surrounding physical environment.

It could only be called an unfortunate coincidence that two Security Guard Knightmares showed up at the empty hill where Orpheus was concealing himself. For the South Haven police forces to lose their way because of land navigation trouble while doing practical Knightmare training was outside of his expectations. Moreover, it could be argued that an encounter with these Security Guards was more troublesome than meeting the Britannian regular army. Although the weapons equipped to the police-use Knightmares had their power relatively restrained and their armor was light, they on the other hand had stronger than average communications functions with their disposition towards public order. If his presence here was reported, everything would come to nothing.