A snap shot of what is going on back at Earth, and the steps Lelouch is making to ruin Palpatine's day. If you're curious, I literally had like, an hour to myself this weekend so this happened, I gotta get back to work now =/
Commander Keiko Kirigaya had no idea why she had been ordered from her home in the middle of the afternoon to meet a shuttle to take her to orbit on her daughter's birthday.
She did know that she was fucking pissed off about said order and her wife was going to have to explain away to Yui why mummy had to run off and play discount G.I. Joe yet fucking again due to the fact that she was one of the handful of actually competent Black Knights to survive the Unification War.
"Urge to kill rising," she muttered to herself, the troopers escorting her exchanged nervous glances before resuming parade rest.
Good for them, they had survival instincts.
Reaching the top floor of the landing platform she had been escorted to the blast doors opened revealing the open sky scape of New Pendragon, her awaiting shuttle, and the new car smell that just didn't seem to want to leave the city.
Stomping forward she marched up the shuttles ramp and came to an abrupt stop when she saw the Emperor of Britannia sitting across from her resting languidly on one of the crash chairs.
She didn't hesitate a moment as she addressed him with all the respect that she felt he was deserved.
"Why the fuck am I here rather than at my daughter's birthday party?"
The troopers tensed, the Emperor tilted his head to the side, and Keiko tapped her foot in annoyance as she crossed her arms while raising a brow.
There was a tense silence, then she finally spat out, "Are you going to fucking answer me or do I have to make an appointment for that?"
The 99th Emperor of the Holy Empire of Britannia, one Lelouch vi Britannia stared at the irate Japanese woman for a few moments, then broke out laughing.
He kept at it for nearly a minute when Keiko lost her patience, snapped a emergency response procedure binder off a wall bracket, and threw it at the Emperor's head.
She nearly hit him, his reflexes were pretty damn good.
She didn't know it now but said reflexes were honed due to the fact that he was used to hot headed women throwing shit at him during his more megalomaniacal moments.
It instantly endeared her to him, but she did not need to know that.
"Boy I'm talking to you!" She snapped out, ignoring the pair of guards aiming rifles at her, who were also ignoring the fact that she had a pair of pistols aimed at both of their heads.
The Emperor was trying to restrain his laughter as he swatted a hand before him addressing the now very tense guards, "Stand down, stand down! Holy shit I haven't laughed like this in ages. Seriously, guys, rifles down, Commander Kirigaya, pistols holstered, please."
She didn't move until the guards lowered their rifles, then she holstered one of her pistols, she kept her primary in her hand.
"Commander Kirigaya I ord-"
"Don't fucking push your luck boy, if I wanted you dead there would be a mountain of bodies and a glassing procedure in the works, what the fuck am I here for?"
Lelouch sighed and gestured for her to sit beside him, she sat in the crash seat with a bit of trepidation, her escorts sitting across from them as the amusement park style rungs clasped down over their bodies.
It took less than a moment for the shuttle to thrum to life and lift off the platform, absently holstering her pistol Keiko glanced out the window and could clearly see the lights of New Pendragon fading behind them when Lelouch deigned it appropriate to speak.
"I know you don't trust me, and quite frankly you have every right in the world not to. Japanese ex-patriot that allied herself with the EU, commanded a submarine for six years and managed to become a bane to Britannia's shipping until you and your crew signed up with the Black Knights. You were then given command of a Logres air ship and managed to not only survive the battle of mount Fuji, you ran harassment attacks against Britannian forces for weeks up until the Galactic Empire invaded our planet."
"We were running on fumes at the end, no way to recharge our batteries or ammunition..." she muttered quietly, Lelouch smiled at that while gently patting her hand.
"You were an inspiration to freedom and an unholy terror for my forces while I was trying to playact the villain. Quite frankly, I like you and consider you one of my closest friends even if you despise me."
The commander paused at that and met his gaze over her cats eye glasses while letting out an incredulous, "Excuse me?"
Lelouch laughed while shrugging lightly, "You're a charismatic pragmatist at your core, but you care about your people more than you'd like to admit. You don't say it, you never overtly express it, but your people, they recognize it, just as I do. Now tell me, what flaws are there in the Imperator Class Star Destroyer?"
Caught completely off guard at the non sequitur Keiko tilted her head slightly while blinking rapidly before responding, "Umm, for starters, windows. Why the fuck does a warship meant for space combat have structural and tactical weaknesses like windows? Second off there are no dedicated close in weapon systems, no standard missile batteries, and its power plant could supply the energy for three times as many turbolasers that is standard. And the wasted space, those blasted TIE fighters take up so much volume just due to those ridiculous solar panel wings. I get that they're cheap but holy shit I could have at the bare minimum two hundred frames shoved into one of those ships rather than the standard seventy two TIE's if given the time and resources."
The Emperor smiled and nodded slowly at that while he leaned his back back into the crash chair, "What would your preference in starship design be Commander Kirigaya?"
She frowned, scoffed, then nodded, hell if he wanted to know she'd let him know.
"Just as I submitted when we were initially commissioning a generalized starship design. Guns, lots of guns, thick armor, ray and particle shielding, have no idea why that is not standard with the GImps, could probably cover that with a Blaze Luminous System regardless. Segregated and dedicated fighter launch and landing platforms so they do not interfere with regular combat but also don't waste valuable space. Also along that line of thought, fighters, lots and lots of fighters."
"No knightmares?" The Emperor asked innocently, she scoffed at that.
"It's fine and dandy for the Knights of the Round to fuck up the GImps in their souped up ace frames but seriously, each one of those things costs roughly what we put into a cruiser due to the sakuradite in their systems, right?"
Lelouch sighed at that, "You aren't wrong."
"So no, no frames, a dedicated starfighter would be best, you know, just not designed by anyone who had anything to do with those TIE's."
Lelouch laughed and nodded quickly as he replied, "I guarantee no one involved with the design team for those flying coffins had anything to do with the Vipers."
Keiko froze, her brow furrowed, and then she glanced out the window letting out a gasp as she saw the cloud of fighters escorting their shuttle towards a massive ship that, on first glance reminded her of an alligator on skies.
Blinking rapidly she felt her lips lifting up slightly as they got closer to the vessel in question, and startled a bit when the Emperor placed a jewelers box in her hand, frowning she opened it, and gasped when she recognized the golden pins resting in the boxes velvet lining.
"Congratulations, Rear Admiral Keiko Kirigaya. You are the first person to take command of Britannia's first home brewed battleship, and you are tasked with fucking shit up from here to the outer rim with your flotilla all in the name of making the Galactic Imps feel the fear they so gladly spread to those who can'ts defend themselves."
Hands shaking Keiko met the Emperor's gaze as she whispered, "What's her name?"
Lelouch smirked as he gestured towards the window, "She is the Pegasus Class Battlestar, 'A Terrible Resolve.'"
Rear Admiral Keiko Kirigaya grinned as she stared out at the one thousand seven hundred and eighteen meters of gunboat diplomacy floating placidly before her while surrounded by her compliment of four hundred Viper star fighters.
"That... Is a good name."
Lelouch nodded as their shuttle approached the starboard flight pod and removed his harness, "Agreed, now, Admiral, would you like to tour your new command?"
Keiko couldn't help giggling a bit as she accepted Lelouch's hand, "Why yes, I would be delighted, your Majesty."
Yup, I gave my fem!Kirito command of the Peggy while being under the direct orders of Lelouch.
That shouldn't cause any issues, right?
Hehehehe...
Also I think most mainline Britannian ships are going to follow the naming conventions of Halo, a turn of phrase, a quote, something poetic like 'Pillar of Autumn' and 'In Amber Clad'. Thinking Lelouch's personal flagship is going to be 'Bad Moon Rising,' but I'm kinda rambling now. Back to work, peace all!