One of the more controversial domestic policies of the Holy Britannian Empire is the complete and utter lack of exemption for conscientious objection to military service. By law all full citizens of the Empire are expected to answer the call to arms when issued and those that refuse to serve risk severe punishments. Interestingly death is explicitly proscribed as a sentence for those refusing to serve, likely a practical measure on the Empire's part to avoid creating martyrs.
The Empire's reasoning behind this position is an extremely simple one. As its subjects are the direct beneficiaries of its policies, it is the duty of all full citizens to answer the call to arms when such policies drew the Empire into conflict with other states. While some have attempted to argue that imperial subjects already perform their civic duty by paying taxes, the official response has generally been that payment of taxes accords only the right to participate in the decision making process that selects which policies the government pursues and does not excuse one from being called to fight in conflicts the Empire might find itself embroiled. This position is reflected by the requirement that only those whom are not in arrears with their taxes are permitted to vote.
Not surprisingly the ones that suffered the most from the Empire's hardline policies on conscription and service would be several sects of Christians, and to a lesser extent Muslims, that practiced complete or near-complete pacifism. Entire families lost their property and wealth and were confined to internment camps for the duration of the war. Those that still refused to be inducted into military service upon the conclusion of the war were stripped of their citizenship. Many of their descendants still lack it because citizenship in the Empire is only automatically accorded to children born in its territory if their parents were full citizens already, and application for citizenship requires the swearing of an oath to promise to perform military service when called upon, an oath that many still adamantly refuse to swear.
-In Blackest Night: The Great War
Epilogue XII
Entitas ipsa involvit aptitudinem ad extorquendum certum assensum
Against the vast backdrop of space, the lone vessel floating in the void was infinitesimally small. From a merely human perspective, the eight thousand meter tall ship was vast indeed. With the swept-back triangular wings forming the main body upon which the segmented pyramidal command structure was seated upon, a Woglinde-class battlecruiser looked more like a delicate crystalline ornament than the deadly warship it was. Designed for independent operations without benefit of support from larger fleets, these battlecruisers possessed their own transfer column that allowed them to travel anywhere within the Local Group that was the domain of the Terran Empire, given sufficient time and energy of course. Most such battlecruisers did not travel more than a thousand lightyears in a single jump, but it was not unheard of for them to traverse the distances between galaxies should emergencies arise.
In the case of the Princess Kallen however, the warship was presently on a routine patrol performing an astrographical survey along its route. The rate at which astronomical phenomena propagated was still confined to the speed of light even if mankind had long discovered ways of circumventing it, so it was often faster to just jump to various locales to take a reading than looking in that direction in the sky. The importance of keeping tabs on the local astronomy was made evident by the very discussion occurring in the Princess Kallen's bridge between her commanding officer and the navigator, whom doubled as the science officer aboard such ships when a dedicated officer was not assigned.
"I'm not quite sure how else to describe it without getting into the raw math, skipper," the navigator said. "It's as if there are eddies of gravitational energy, bunching up. We've been getting more and more reports of this phenomena across the Local Group, but there is definitely a convergence of it here, about one light minute out."
While it was certainly true that the Woglinde-class was designed to operate without fleet support, the sheer size of these ships meant they actually had space to carry along a small parasite fleet of their own. As such those captains that were given command of one of these battlecruisers were also given the brevet rank of commodore to reflect their actual command responsibility, whatever their formal permanent rank might be. This did however cause a bit of inconsistency on how they were addressed based on whom was addressing them. Members of the battlecruiser's actual crew addressed their captain as just that, captain, while personnel assigned to the attached escorts, which could include other captains, addressed the battlecruiser's commanding officer as commodore. One might have thought everyone would just default to the higher brevet rank, but naval tradition was not something to be overturned merely for the sake of consistency.
"Are we talking about singularity level of convergence?" Captain Hildgarde von Stadtfeld asked.
As a descendant of the Princess Kallen herself, many agreed that it was rather fitting Hildgarde would command the namesake warship of her ancestress. Considering how many generations had passed since the original Princess of Stadtfeld's era being related to Kallen was less of a special distinguisher than one might presume however, with Hilgarde's own family a cadet branch that was not granted royal dignities. Still there was no question that Hildgarde had inherited the Stadtfeld line's martial inclinations, and that she had earned her command through sheer competency instead of any prejudices in her favor due to her lineage.
"No ma'am," the navigator answered, "at least not yet. The problem is the way these eddies are propagating. There have been a few papers published about how they appear to be coming from outside the Local Group, and that they're indicative of something getting closer. Though what might be able to exert such gravitational force over such long distances, none of them have any idea."
Hildgarde pursed her lips. As someone privy to the Stadtfeld family's inner secrets, she had a much clearer idea of just how ignorant humanity was of what was causing these gravitic eddies. That the collective data of millions of iterations of the observable universe was not sufficient to understand what was happening was more than a bit disturbing. Then again, they were definitively past the endpoint of even the zeroth iteration, so perhaps humanity might finally solve the mystery this time around. Hopefully they would solve it early enough to not require yet another iteration.
"Keep at it then," Hildgarde said aloud. "Until we have more data, about all we can do is speculate blindly."
"Yes ma'am-"
In a modern warship, all members of the crew possessed direct neural links to the ship's computer systems. That meant they could use those systems without having to do something so cumbersome as using a console or even speaking, any system they were connected to becoming effectively extensions of their own body. One consequence of this was that Hildgarde did not need a rating to shout out a report of the anomaly that the sensors had picked up. It also meant the other officers did not need to await further information before knowing how to respond to the immediate situation unfolding.
Intense gravimetric distortions detected, gravitational surges approaching.
Data fortification and shields at maximum.
Plotting course to avoid gravitational waves.
Another consequence of this neural linkage was that the crew did not need to speak to communicate with each other either. Information and commands were exchanged via this link as compact bursts of data, allowing the crew to coordinate and respond at speeds far faster than would otherwise be possible. For any outside observers however, the scene of a command bridge operating in full immersed mode would look eerily still aside from the few twitches of muscle that might leak through. Within the ship's command net however, a flurry of activity and information exchange was occurring.
Admiralty has been apprised of the situation, reinforcements inbound, ETA five minutes.
Escorts and small-craft squadrons reporting launch readiness.
Gravitic eddies are plateauing short of singularity threshold, possibility of criticality remains approximately 70%.
Visible marks of the twisting of space caused by the gravitational distortions could be seen beyond the hull. The positions of distant stars continually shifted as if bubbles were forming, distorting the path that the light traveled through. The Princess Kallen ducked and weaved through these distortions, doing her best to avoid being torn apart by the intense waves of gravitic energy. Riding the rapids was an apt enough metaphor for what the battlecruiser was doing, assuming one subscribed to the notion of space being an ocean. A three-dimensional ocean where up and down was as valid a direction for waves to come at you from.
The gravitic turbulence was peaking, but all those aboard understood well that they were unlikely to get a reprieve afterward. After all, the peak could only mean one thing, whatever was causing the distortions was completing its task. And the fruit of that task, was suddenly beheld by their sensors as a massive sphere appeared where there was only empty space mere moments ago.
Planetoid class mass detected! Diameter, 60 thousand kilometers plus!
Consternation and shock rippled throughout the ship as the crew gazed at the sensor telemetry. At one light minute out, they could not even see the thing themselves yet, but the FTL comms on the probes were providing a crystal-clear view. What they showed was an enormous black metallic sphere, with stencil-like patterns drawn across its surface. On one side was a noticeable sunken indentation, with a visible seam running down the center, suggesting the entire thing could be opened up.
What the Hel is THAT!?
No one actually exclaimed that aloud, but the thought was certainly on the minds of everyone on the ship. Despite the shock however training and discipline exerted themselves as the crew carried out their duties.
Initiating first contact protocols.
Admiralty has been apprised of development, additional reinforcements are en route.
No responses from planetoid-wait, energy reaction detected!
Off in the distance specks of red light rose from the black planet. While it would take another minute for them to be visible, if only barely, from the Princess Kallen directly, the nearby probes had a front row seat. Up until the nearest ones exploded as the packets of exotic matter slammed into them. The impact force along was enough to destroy the probes, designed more for stealth and endurance than durability under direct fire, but the readings they provided before their demise told very interesting tales leading up to it.
Did-did that thing just shoot planets at our probes?
The dozen or so red flares that lit up the nearby probes had emitted a gravitational force well beyond what their meager sizes would have implied. Indeed the intensity of the force had spiked right before intense waves of radiation erupted in apparent explosions.
Plots indicate those things reached singularity threshold before evaporating, releasing all of the energy they were holding.
Bloody Hel, that thing wasn't shooting planets, it was shooting black holes at the probes.
A decided case of overkill considering the probes lacked any meaningful active defenses and likely meant as a show of force. Even the Princess Kallen would find it difficult to deal with such weapons if they were aimed at her. Difficult, but not impossible.
Deploy escorts and establish defensive shells.
The parasite warships and light craft squadrons had already completed their own preparations and spread out from their mothership. Simultaneously, missiles were launched from the battlecruiser itself and maneuvered into station keeping positions where they could intercept anything fired at the ship. Against something the size of a planet, the yields of these missiles at least would fall a bit short. That was not the same as saying the Princess Kallen would fall short however, her designers having made sure she was equipped to handle a wide range of eventualities. Of course when facing a planet-sized opponent, help was always welcome.
Friendlies jumping in. Battlefleet Euphemia responding.
Well within visual range, three more ships emerged into the materium. Two looked effectively identical to the Princess Kallen, while the last dwarfed them by several orders of magnitude. At over a thousand kilometers in length, there were moons that were smaller than the Empress Euphemia. The angled, swept wings on the two sides created a diamond shape that was orbited by massive pylons floating along a ring at the center. A large circular fixture faced anything that met the ship head-on, mounted between the two forward structures.
Hundreds of other ships were also now appearing, performing microjumps from their berths inside the Dämmerung-class vessel, taking up positions in the formation. Thousands more small-craft, from knightmares to sleeker dedicated fighters, also swarmed out. The Princess Kallen likewise performed a quick jump, settling in above the Empress Euphemia.
Escort squadrons deployed, formation configured to intercept fire from hostile planetoid.
Additional weapons emissions detected. Counter-missiles moving to intercept.
Prepare firing of Rhine Maiden.
The Empire's warships possessed a wide range of armaments, but in light of what they were facing the command hierarchy aboard the Empress Euphemia had elected to skip gradual escalation and jump straight to the most powerful weapon they possessed, the Rhine Maiden. When fired, the Rhine Maiden created an extremely powerful gravitational wave that was strong enough to tear apart the molecular bonds that held together normal matter. There were only two publicly known defenses against it, one being another gravitic field that could dampen the wave, and the other the wave running into matter that was so dense the bonds holding it together were at the atomic instead of merely the molecular level. While humanity did possess the ability to produce both, doing so was still decidedly nontrivial. Ships that mounted the Rhine Maiden could employ it alone or with other similarly equipped vessels, significantly increasing their range and power. With a full configuration of three Woglinde-class battlecruisers and a Dämmerung-class titan, the Rhine Maiden could tear apart an entire planet. Whether it would work on this particular planet, they were about to find out.
Rhine Maiden firing in three, two, one, mark!
Space rippled once more as the four ships opened fire, sending a cascade of gravitic energy at the planetoid. The planetoid did not just idly sit by and take it however, firing off more of its point-singularity projectiles. The sudden surge of gravitic energy from their detonations as they collided with the Rhine Maiden began attenuating its strength, albeit somewhat inconsistently. The cascade still reached the planetoid with sufficient strength to sheer a small continent, but the surviving probes detected only minor, even superficial damage.
Oh crap.
Of course immediately deploying one's most powerful weapon was no guarantee that that weapon would be any more effective than one's lesser options. And while even superficial damage to something the size of a planet was something, against the thing that was flinging black holes at them it seemed decidedly inadequate.
New contacts. Multiple new contacts.
Especially when all it seemed to do was make it angrier. From the planetoid's surface rose thousands of ships, ranging in size from the Empire's knightmares and strike craft to kilometer long vessels equivalent to light cruisers. The returns from the sensors indicated they were quite unlike anything the Empire had encountered before, the ships being composed of some state of matter that was almost like a plasma. They continued streaming out, making clear that from a numbers perspective the planetoid was easily able to overwhelm the imperial battle fleet that had dared challenge it. As weapons discharged in the distance, it was also clear that these ships also possessed point singularity weapons, albeit of a smaller scale. A small consolation, that.
Admiralty has been apprised of the situation. Contingencies are en route. ETA, two minutes.
That fast a response time suggested that mobilization had begun even before the Rhine Maiden's failure to measurably damage the planetoid. They still needed to survive at least one wave of the enemy attack to benefit from this rapid response however. The battlefleet's chances of doing so seemed fair in that regard, thanks to a few advantages they seemed to possess over the planetoid and its own forces. The first such advantage manifested itself as the prepositioned dispersal of offensive and defensive ordnance opened up on the advancing enemy forces.
A mixture of gamma ray beams, particle beams, antimatter warheads, gravitational weapons, and even some hold fashioned kinetic weapons washed over the advancing enemy ships. Through all this hash of energy the computers aboard the battlefleet parsed through the data to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the deployed weapons. On the smaller light craft, the energy weapons seemed able to rupture whatever was used to contain the meta-plasma the ships were made of. The larger ones were able to brush off even concentrated bombardments, albeit with some fluctuations in the emissions they gave off. Kinetic weapons were proving fairly useless, those actually scoring hits effectively disintegrating on contact with the enemy ships. A violent burst of gamma rays was detected upon disintegration, providing some hints as to what was actually happening, but actually solving that puzzle would need to wait until after the battle.
It was the gravitic weapons that were producing the most promising results however. While none of the prepositioned standoff weapons fired by the fleet possessed the raw power of the Rhine Maiden, some did come close in very localized points. Those tore through the larger meta-matter warships with contemptuous ease, at least those that hit. The unfortunately enemy also understood the value of point defenses and a proper screen. Still, the results of the first attack run on the enemy fleet produced enough results to allow the battlefleet to cycle more effective weapons into the next attack waves, along with better targeting priorities. By the time the enemy closed to energy range, they might even succeed in reducing their numbers by a few percentage points using this stratagem. Of course there were other options as well.
Rhine Maiden recharge complete. Firing solution locked in. Rhine Maiden firing in three, two, one, mark!
Again space rippled as the four ships let loose, the waves synchronizing in constructive interference to massively increase the amplitude of the gravitational wave racing forth. Whatever held together the meta-matter of the alien warships stood no chance in surviving such force and an entire swath of enemy ships suffered catastrophic containment failure. This would push up the number of enemies neutralized into the tens of percent. It was still unlikely to prevent the battlefleet from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers thought. It was however enough to stall the enemy forces long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
With all the gravitational waves being thrown about by both sides, one could be forgiven for not noticing the new ripples mixed in. The personnel of Battlefleet Euphemia had not missed them however, and indeed greeted their appearance with palpable relief. The cause of that relief became clear as light from the new arrivals reached the fleet and they became visible. Off in the distance, in four different directions, four spherical constructs could be seen. Projecting their visible size back the two minutes it took light to traverse, their diameters could be determined to be approximately 13 thousand kilometers. This unknown enemy was not the only one capable of producing planetary scale constructs, humanity simply elected to size theirs to something approximating Earth for the sake of convenience.
Fortress Planets Muspelheim, Niflheim, Vanaheim, and Álfheimr signaling deployment of Laevateinn.
There was actually a noticeable, momentary break in the frantic pace of human thoughts being exchanged as people registered that report. Then there was a single, unified reaction that ran through the entire fleet.
Run away!
With modern FTL technology, one did not necessarily need to be pointed in the direction you wanted to ultimately go. As such the entire fleet was still in formation as one by one the ships began disappearing. Some were returning to their respective motherships, while others were already making a run for it. By the time the fortress planets were ready, the entirety of Battlefleet Euphemia had evacuated to several times the recommended minimum safe distance. That was not paranoia, when four fortress planets were preparing to unleash their primary weapon, that was just good sense. From such distances the naked eye would not even be able to make out any of the engaging planets. It could however make out the massive solar flare that burned through the void. Curious that, seeing as there were no stars in the immediate vicinity of the engagement. Or at least none native to that particular patch of space.
As one of the earliest and the closest neutron stars discovered by mankind, RX J1856.5-3754 also had another designation, Stellar Forge 54. Incidentally, Stellar Forges 1 through 3 were the three stars that made up the Centauri System, while unofficially Stellar Forge 0 was Sol itself, even if officially humanity never actually tried to utilize its home star as a forge. Once humanity's mastery of matter manipulation reached a certain point, it no longer became necessary to explicitly find and mine various elements like iron or cobalt or even more esoteric ones like uranium and the like to serve as the raw input into the manufacturing process. Instead any matter would do, and with sufficient energy could be reconfigured into other matter as required for whatever was being built. The more basic the element, the easier it was to reconfigure. And if you could get matter in a subatomic state, all the better.
These conditions made the stars themselves useful as a source of raw material and energy, with the average star expecting to be able to supply manufacturing needs for millions of years depending on the rate of consumption. Neutron stars were even better sources of raw material since most of their matter had been reduced down to the subatomic component of neutrons, but the Terran Empire employed them for slightly different uses, hence why RX J1856.5-3754's previous location was only an empty spot in space. If you wanted to find the neutron star now, all one needed to do was look up the current location of the Terran Empire's capital, the mobile artificial planet Terra Nova.
At about only 35 kilometers in diameter, the star was several orders of magnitude smaller than even the Earth despite possessing almost as much mass as Sol itself. The Dyson sphere constructed around it therefore had plenty of empty space within despite being only about as large as Earth. Power was extracted by stabilizing the spin of the neutron star so that the positions of the poles, and the streams of high energy particles they shot out, would no longer wobble. Collectors were then emplaced to transform those streams into usable energy as well as pick up some raw material for the manufactories, though most of the required latter were collected via other means. In all the artificial planet supported a population of close to eleven billion, though this did include the orbital habitats gravitationally tethered to Terra Nova. Most consumption projections indicated that they would see probably another hundred million years of use out of the star before the decreased mass would make the neutron star too unstable to further mine, at which point they could probably use the remnants of a dwarf star to recharge it. That would probably be quite the sight for those alive at the time.
As the oldest of the artificial planets built by the Empire, and also because it was intended more as a testbed, Terra Nova did not possess some of the features incorporated into newer variants. It could not travel as fast, its power conversion systems were noticeably less efficient, and the number of built-in defensive systems were less, though this needed to be placed in context as less did not by any means equate insubstantial. Terra Nova was still an artificial planet, and something with that surface area could find room for lots of pointy bits.
Probably the biggest difference would have to be the exotic matter particle accelerator weapons mounted on the poles of newer artificial worlds however. Those were generally regarded as last-ditch defenses if those planets ever faced an attack against a foe rivaling the Empire in power. But because they were intended as defensive weapons, hazarding the planets to employ them on the frontlines was something that the Empire would only do in extreme conditions, seeing as billions of civilians also called these worlds home. Besides, if the Empire really needed to bring that level of firepower into play, it had other options.
PSR J2215-5135 was a neutron star near the upper bounds of the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) limit, representing one of the largest neutron stars in the Local Group with a mass approximately 2.3 greater than Sol. The Dyson sphere that enveloped it certainly contained residential and commercial segments, the people that worked there needed someplace to live and relax, but its function was much more utilitarian. Indeed, there were entire quadrants sectioned off because anyone there would be roasted by the radiation levels when the fortress planet Muspelheim fired its primary weapon, an exotic matter particle beam an order of magnitude more powerful than anything the more general purpose artificial planets could manage. The Empire had deployed four of them in response to the incursion by the unknown artificial planet, and that ultimately proved just enough to defeat it. The implications of this parity in strength however was disturbing in the extreme, and was the focus of the present discussions.
"We've completed a preliminary analysis of the unknown artificial planetoid that intruded upon imperial space," Lelouch said, "and the conclusions are already quite disturbing."
The holographic projection was showing the fractured but still mostly intact shell of the black planetoid, along with the orbiting fleets working to secure it.
"The thing's shell is entirely composed of a rigid neutron matrix, similar to what we use for the core frames of our Dyson planets. Combined with the significantly greater diameter of this artificial planetoid, there is enough raw material here to provide the base skeleton for several hundred Dyson planets."
Considering the neutron matrix was one of the most energy intensive things humanity could produce, that hinted at some pretty impressive capabilities on the part of whomever built this black planetoid.
"The most interesting bit would have to be the power source of this planetoid. While imperial Dyson worlds employ neutron stars, we believe this planetoid had something else. What that something was remains unclear, the exotic particle beams from the fortress planets seem to have destabilized it after successfully penetrating the outer shell. Observations from the aftermath of the strike indicate that something ignited within, and while the shell was able to contain the majority of the blast, the seam that forms the doorway along this indentation was cracked. The observed energy levels escaping was tentatively identified as a solar flare by our sensors, but the quantity of exotic matter that was detected, combined with the analysis of the conditions inside the shell after the blast, have seen some of the analysts and astrophysicists postulate that this planetoid was powered by a quark star instead of a mere neutron star. Such a hypothesis does correlate with the observed gravitational readings, which if nothing else makes clear this was a beast of a mass."
The other attendees all took a few moments to process this information. All of them were beneficiaries of the generations of genetic tweaks that now allowed humans to accept and think through vast quantities of information. Even as Lelouch spoke, they were pulling up references tied to specific keywords in his explanation to get more background. Like how a quark star was different from a neutron star, in that the former could almost be considered one single giant neutron. Or like how despite having discovered a few in the Local Group, humanity presently had little idea of how to make use of such stars as fuel sources due to the even more delicate balance of these stars' equilibrium.
"What of the vessels that this Beast planet deployed?" the Empress Aelfthryth asked.
"We were not able to obtain any intact examples," Lelouch answered, "so the analysis is based on observational data. What is clear however is that these ships are not composed of conventional baryonic matter."
An eyebrow rose on the empress' expression. "Would that not imply these things should not be interact at all with normal matter?"
"Not entirely, your majesty," Lelouch responded. "Before their formal quantization, despite not being able to see dark matter, we were still aware of their existence due to the gravitational influence they exert. The same is happening here. These, ships, are effectively pockets of dark matter and what we see is the effect of light that is warping due to the gravitational fields they produce, hence the red translucent sheen of their appearance. This would explain why kinetic weapons have proven ineffective against them, the gravitational field they exert is strong enough to basically tear such weapons apart when they touch. Similarly this would also explain why gravitic weapons are effective, since a powerful enough gravitic field can overwhelm the field they generate and directly affect the dark matter source."
"So we can fight them."
To that Lelouch nodded emphatically. "Yes, your majesty. It will not be easy, but we do possess weapons in our arsenal that can harm these, whatever they are. Indeed her grace is presently looking into enhancing our ability to do just that, hence her absence from this meeting."
"Truly?"
Another nod. "I expect she is discussing the matter now with the relevant personnel."
The range of the Terran Empire's domain officially extended throughout the entirety of the Local Group of galaxies. While it was certainly true that not all of the worlds had been formally surveyed, much less seen colonies or outposts established upon them, the lack of any other competitors for habitable worlds meant it could proceed with that task at its leisure. There was also the fact humanity could create habitable spaces as necessary, and with the intentional constraints on its population growth, it would likely take a very long time before the species actually needed all the living space the Local Group offered. That did not stop the human race from continuing to figure out ways to push ever outward however, if only to expand its understanding of the universe as a whole. Going further out however required ever greater amounts of energy. Having learned how to tap into the power of the stars themselves, it was only natural humanity would attempt to take the next step up.
As the largest galaxy within the Local Group, Andromeda also possessed the largest galactic core. The process of harnessing the tidal forces of its black hole was a multi-century process that was still ongoing. Indeed most of the people presently working on it did not expect to live long enough to see it fully operational. Some components were however online, enough so that the core generator was already capable of producing more power than pretty much all of the stellar forges in operation. The next stage of construction was however about to see some acceleration, and modification.
"Your grace, there has not yet been a formal decision on the weaponization ECOs to the design," the project director protested. "Without that decision, I cannot authorize proceeding with those changes!"
"The committee's indecision has been overtaken by recent events," Kallen stated. "And as you are well aware, it was never the committee's decision to make on whether to proceed with weaponization, the committee was only established to provide guidelines to avoid the abuse of a weaponized core generator. I am here with an imperial writ ordering the implementation of the weaponization engineering change orders immediately. Your protest is duly noted, director, but if you believe yourself incapable of overseeing these changes, I am also prepared to accept your resignation."
Or fire him outright if he refused, went the unspoken insinuation. The bluntness of what was said however was already enough to cause the director to be taken aback. The formal decision to proceed with that weaponization had already been made, whatever the oversight committee might delude themselves into thinking. Theirs was not the opinion that ultimately mattered after all. The current director had been appointed despite his opposition to weaponization not as a sop or appeasement to the anti-weaponization faction, but because Kallen and Lelouch had been certain that he would make sure it was done as right as humanly possible. Of course they had expected to have a bit more time to ease him into that inevitability, and if the man was not able to handle the sudden shock, Kallen would not hesitate to yank him and put someone else in charge.
"But, what could have happened?" the man tried.
The director's surprise was still understandable however, and Kallen was prepared to give him at least some time to absorb all these developments, especially considering details about the confrontation with the Beast planet had yet to fully filter down. As such she held out a data slate to the director.
"This contains the pertinent details," she stated.
The man took it with clear reluctance, but he did begin perusing it. As he did, his control over his expression started slipping until at the end he met Kallen's gaze with renewed shock.
"This is-I mean-are we certain?"
Kallen cocked her head aside. "Of what specifically."
"Of-well, I mean, that this race is hostile," the man said weakly.
An eyebrow arched upward. "Director, the unknown opened fire unprovoked after the Princess Kallen initiated first contact protocols. How was that not a hostile response?"
"It could have been a mistake," the director tried, but the softness of his voice made clear he did not even entirely believe himself.
Kallen suppressed a sigh. There was no point in trying to disparage the man's convictions here, he had already accepted the truth. Ultimately the director would be more useful if he was let down gently.
"Director, whether it is a mistake or not, we are left to deal with the consequences," she said. "If this race is indeed hostile, we must be prepared to face them with the fullness of our resources. Those preparations include making this core generator ready to employ as a weapon if the need arises."
The man took a deep breath. "We are certain, we are not overreacting?"
"You saw the numbers involved, director," Kallen said. "The only weapons that worked were extremely high energy particles or gravitic in nature. Well, what's the biggest gravitational source in the Local Group?" She pointed out the observation window. "The Andromeda core."
Granted the direction the structure was facing, the only thing outside was pitch blackness. That tended to happen when all light was sucked in by a black hole.
"The core generator was supposed to help advance humanity peacefully," the man said, a hint of stubbornness still there. "To treat it as a weapon, something that destroys…"
There was an old saying, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a big gun. Kallen did not say that aloud however, she was not going to be that flippant. She was however also not going to put up with this whining for much longer.
"Director, the duty you are charged with is to ensure the successful completion of the generator project based on the specified constraints, constraints not set by you, but by her majesty's government. The Empire has determined that weaponization now falls within those constraints. Will you discharge that duty?"
The grimace deepened, but after a few moments the man finally nodded.
"Yes your grace, I will discharge that duty, just to make sure it gets done right."
Kallen nodded in turn. "It's why you were selected for the job, director. I'm certain you won't disappoint."
As she spoke a message reached her from Lelouch, and after taking a single second to glance through it she tilted her head to another man accompanying her.
"Since their initial drafting, the ECOs have seen further updates. Colonel Blake here will brief you on them. Good day, director."
And turned about to take her leave. Another task demanded her attention now, and she had a somewhat long trip to make.
The Sol System, cradle of human civilization, had long since stopped being the heart of human civilization what with the human species spreading amongst the stars. It still retained a degree of cultural importance and it was still home to several billion people, some on Earth itself while others lived in the myriad of colonies sprinkled about the other planets and moons. Those actually born on Earth did have a reputation for being snobbish though, as if their lineage straight from the homeworld was somehow relevant in this day and age. Overweening pride was something Kallen and Lelouch had yet to work out how to engineer out of the human race, at least in a way that would not be detrimental to other desirable qualities like determination and conviction. The human psyche was a damn complicated thing.
The distance from Andromeda's core to Sol could be traversed in a few days with commercially available transit methods. As a Lord Inquisitor and an administrator-level user of the UMN, Kallen could have done it almost instantaneously, assuming she was willing to burn through all that energy. Seeing as the message from Lelouch had not indicated the need for an immediate response, she took a more leisurely journey of a few hours instead. That gave her some time to deal with paperwork and other miscellaneous tasks that she had allowed to build up, even get in a few hours of sleep. She did at least feel somewhat refreshed as she logged into the secured pocket universe where the original Dämmerung lay. Lelouch was already inside waiting for her. Indeed he probably spent more time inside the UMN and its various ancillary alcoves than in the materium despite his ability to project a simicry out there.
"Good, you're here," he said by way of greeting.
"Okay, that is rather interesting," Kallen asked with equal bluntness. "What the Hel did you do?"
Despite having worked together for so long, or perhaps because they were so familiar with each other, the two often dispensed with the pleasantries others needed to ease their social interactions. As for the interesting thing Kallen was noting, the gimbal mounted translucent blue cube was actually rotating instead of remaining still.
"I did nothing," Lelouch responded. "I didn't even get a chance to input the telemetry from that beast planet, the Compass was already active when I logged in."
Kallen glanced over at the man. "Is that what we're calling it now?"
Lelouch shrugged. "The other analysts seemed to think it fitting."
"I suppose they would. So-"
The sound of heels clicking drew Kallen and Lelouch's attention as KOS-MOS made her appearance.
"Root user presence detected," she said as a pair of blue eyes met Kallen's own. "Notifying Caretaker."
The two said nothing in response, instead simply waiting for whatever was happening to unfold. That fortunately did not take long as a fourth person joined them. A fourth, very familiar person.
"Nunnally?" Lelouch said. "Is this another message?"
"No," Kallen said, her eyes widening. "That's not a message."
With her deeper connection to the systems maintained by Zarathustra, Kallen was able to detect the subtle differences between the data constructs that the system projected. That awareness told her that the woman standing before her was not a recorded message. She was however also not a living entity, at least not like Kallen or even Lelouch himself was. She came damn close though, if the complexity of her data processes was anything to go by.
"That's not a static message at least," Kallen amended. "It's an interactive AI, modeled off of the zeroth Nunnally."
"That is partially correct," the simicry said, smiling as naturally as the original would have. She looked over at KOS-MOS. "Thank you, Alice."
The simicry even paid consideration to others much as Nunnally would have done. And the way it now looked at Kallen, the way its face emoted were very convincing. The sophistication of the data subroutines however certainly lent credence to the simicry's claim to be more than just an AI.
"You're a simulation based off of the recorded data from the zeroth Nunnally," Kallen expanded upon her observation. "Or is that also only partially correct?"
Nunnally offered a smile. "You are not wrong in your assessment, I am much as the others you encountered in the past. The misunderstanding however derives from what we are." She placed a hand over her chest. "We are the closest my creators came to, digitizing, the human soul. It was one of many efforts in which they endeavored to save their civilization. It is an endeavor in which you might well succeed where they failed."
Kallen and Lelouch exchanged glances at that bit.
"Then your, activation, is not an indication that Zarathustra is preparing to activate once more?" Lelouch asked.
"In the past it would have been," Nunnally responded. "My duty is to provide a representative of each iteration with the opportunity to leave a final testament. The last representative I interacted with was your prior version, Kallen. And the one before that, Euphemia."
Kallen blinked. "So wait, did my previous version understand what was happening?"
"No," Nunnally stated, shaking her head. "Their testimonies are meant to encapsulate solely their iteration."
A frown crossed Kallen's expression at that. She was not entirely sure how she felt about that. Indeed she was not sure how she would have felt if her previous iteration had been told the truth.
"Were you, awake for all the iterations?" Kallen asked next.
A gentle smile crossed Nunnally's face. "I was only awakened to collect the testimonies."
That was probably better, but Kallen could not help but still feel a tinge of sympathy for this Nunnally. Only awakening at the fall of entire universes could not be very fun.
"If you are not here to gather a final testament," Lelouch asked, seemingly unfazed by such considerations, "what are you here for then?"
The man was showing surprisingly little warmth considering the entity before them could be considered his little sister, or at least a version of her. The way Nunnally's expression froze momentarily hinted at certain emotions working through the simicry's base data. She restrained any further expression of those emotions however and simply answered the question.
"I am here because a new data point has been registered," she said, "one relevant to the primary objective encoded within Zarathustra's command priorities."
"You believe this Beast planet to have been sent by whatever power is precipitating the collapse of the universe," Lelouch stated.
"The data aligns with that conclusion," Nunnally said, her smile deepening ever so slightly, "brother."
That last bit was interesting, it almost felt like this simicry of Nunnally was actively seeking to establish a connection. This was different from other simicries that used stored data as their basis, those simply presumed the continued existence of any relations that existed when the data was copied and saved. This Nunnally however was actively responding to the apparent detachment between her and this Lelouch. Perhaps the zeroth iteration had come closer than later data copies suggested, or perhaps this particular simicry was indeed special. Lelouch himself took a moment but ultimately dipped his head in acknowledgment of being so addressed. This Nunnally might not have been his sister, but he was not prepared to outright reject her as a sibling. That was enough to elicit another smile from Nunnally.
"You technically didn't answer Lelouch's question," Kallen pointed out.
That was true enough. Nunnally might be here because of the appearance of the Beast, but what she actually intended next remained as yet unanswered.
"Is it not obvious?" Nunnally said, looking at Kallen again. "The great enemy has appeared, and if humanity is to emerge victorious you will require the sum and limit of man's power. I am here to grant you that power."
Kallen felt her eyes drawn to the rotating compass. Somehow she just knew that that was what Nunnally was referring to.
"You mean Zarathustra."
To that Nunnally gave a coltish smile. "What makes you think Zarathustra is the limit of man's power?"
To that both Kallen and Lelouch blinked.
"I, suppose the ability to destroy the universe would have seemed like the ultimate power," Kallen said.
"Arguably, it would actually be the penultimate power," Lelouch said slowly. "There is something much more difficult to do than to destroy."
Looking over, Kallen saw a thoughtful expression on the man's face even as she traced his likely thoughts.
"Zarathustra is indeed capable of destroying the universe," Nunnally said, "but it does so by participating in the resonance cascade initiated by this other entity. Its true value however is its ability to harness the collective unconscious of mankind to recreate the conditions necessary for humanity's ascension time and time again."
Creation and destruction, two halves of the same coin. To destroy something it was often simply a question of the magnitude of the power required. To create however, that required a greater degree of finesse, a greater degree of control. It was something the humans of this iteration were becoming better at, but they still fell short of the scale required to recreate an entire universe, or even a fraction of it.
"The power to create is intrinsic to the human imagination," Nunnally stated. "The only limit to man is the limit of that imagination. A single person's vision might be narrow, but that of all mankind? It can only grow with every new perspective added." She raised a hand in the spinning compass' direction. "Zarathustra provides a focus for those perspectives, directing them to view each facet of what needs to be created. And until now, it chose what is and is not created. That choice, I now give to you."
Kallen returned Nunnally's gaze unflinchingly despite the metaphorical weight she felt. This was power, beyond the immense power that she already possessed. As absolute a power as humanity had ever achieved. And she was going to be entrusted with it.
"Are you certain I am ready?" Kallen asked.
To that Lelouch gave a snort, causing Kallen and Nunnally both to look over in his direction.
"Do you think you must shoulder this responsibility alone?" he asked. "Do you think you have been shouldering your responsibilities alone? All these years, how many countless people have walked the path with you? How many more will join you?"
To that Nunnally smiled in warm approval at her brother's words. Kallen herself felt much of her tension bleed away. Despite all the hardship, despite all the responsibilities, one thing that she was unequivocally certain of was that she was not alone, now and forever.
Fin
Bloody hell this was long. Yeah, arguably this isn't the end of the story, but it's the end of this story. The end of the war between humanity and the Beast is another matter entirely. And don't bother asking for the ending of that story, it's not one I'm likely to write.
I think actually finishing this story is achievement enough, since plenty of other stories are simply just abandoned. I myself am also guilty of this, but with this story done, I now have two major works done, and three stories recommended on tvtropes! Now I just need to get A Trail of Tears, Whereupon Sits the Crown, and A Call to Duty and the rest of that trilogy done and recommended and I'll be on my way to having the widest coverage of franchises for a recommended fanfic writer. Yes, it's a pretty stupid goal, but it's also a pretty innocuous one that lets me have some fun.
Renne mellows out as she grows up. The scenes of her interacting with Estelle and Fie were supposed to help expand on that further. She had also become very attached to Kotone and did not take her passing well. Heinrich also mentions her university plans in one of the epilogues. What she ends up doing later in life you can see in the character list below.
AIs and other synthetic forms of life do not by default have access to C's world. This is a bit hard to explain, but let's see if I can pull it off. Abstractly speaking, all life can be thought of as bundles of data, whether they're biological or synthetic. A human's ability to basically create data is what led to the formation of C's world when all that data amalgamated together. AIs however do not possess the same capacity to create new data. They can observe the data at a much finer granularity and more quickly than a biological mind, but they can't wholesale create new data. Without that capability, they are constrained to the realm of data that they can observe, which is the physical, real world, whereas the human ability to create data gives us access to the imaginary C's world.
Now, though AIs can't directly connect to C's world, they can gain filtered access to it. For example, NEMO had some access to C's world and its systems by basically piggybacking on Rai and then Kallen's connection, but what she saw was a very limited subset. NEMO could only see the data of C's world after Kallen had already processed it, so NEMO was never in C's world, all she had was a window. And anything that ultimately ended up in C's world as a consequence of NEMO's actions, it was actually the product of Kallen responding to whatever NEMO did. In theory if an AI like NEMO could induce a code bearer's mind to react in certain ways they could influence C's world, but it's still an indirect connection.
Similarly, those bits of technology that use FTL and use the UMN are also connecting to C's world via indirect means. Indeed, the data that is transited via the UMN doesn't actually affect anything in C's world, it is just a transportation medium. To actually be in C's world, you have to be able to generate data, and presently that ability is limited solely to biological, indeed human, intelligences.
As I've already established that humanity never encountered any other alien races during its ascension, Schlock Mercenary by its nature cannot be used since there are lots and lots of alien characters, including the one the comic is a namesake of, and Schlock without Schlock wouldn't be Schlock. As to what was causing the discrepancy in the gravity/dark energy imbalance, well, you all just got a look at it this chapter. I wonder how many of you will recognize the franchise I took inspiration from, for the enemy at least. The artificial planets powered by neutron stars was all me.
You know, I could easily see Misaka Mikoto as one of Kallen's descendants. She's got the tsundere part down pat if nothing else. I actually also had a scene sketched out in my head of Lelouch trolling Kallen by describing in a really roundabout way Uihara's power, and once Kallen realizes what Lelouch is saying, responds with, "Why didn't you just fucking say she can violate the laws of thermodynamics!?" Because that really is what Uihara is doing by being able to keep things at a constant temperature. Needless to say Uihara's power is much, much more appreciated by Kallen and co.
Did I enjoy writing the story? Sure, it was basically a form of catharsis, letting my mind focus on things beyond the engineering work that is my day job. There were certainly times when my frustrations with specific readers would become visible, though for the most part people recognized this for what it was, a work of fiction that tried to tell an interesting story. That many of you found enjoyment in it, is a bonus.
Anyway, I did make a few promises for this final chapter, so here's the character list.
Characters
I will list the characters along with relevant titles/positions that they have held. The titles themselves are organized based on what each character held at approximately the same time, as well as the order of precedence. Some will have gone through more jumps than others. Note that this list is nowhere completely exhaustive, there have been simply too many characters for me to completely remember all of them. These should however be the most important characters.
Main Cast
Euphemia li Britannia
Princess of the Realm, Sixth in the Succession, Special Auditor (Imperial Exchequer)
Heir Quartus, Viceroy of Japan
Empress of the Holy Britannian Empire, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Archduchess of Pendragon
Kallen Stadtfeld-Kouzuki
Akakishi
Knight of Honor to Her Highness the Princess Euphemia, Lieutenant
Princess of the Realm, Heir Secundus, Duchess of York, Duchess of Tokyo, Knight of Seven, Brigadier-General
Knight of One, Lieutenant-General
Knight of Twelve, Duchess of Bedivere, Grandmaster of the Geass Directorate, Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus (FOREVER)
Lelouch vi Britannia
Prince of the Realm
Cadet (Lycée militaire de Saint-Cyr)
Lieutenant (simulated, Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage)
Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Chronos
C.C.
Grandmaster of the Geass Directorate, Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus
Captain (Britannian Army Nursing Corps)
Lady in Waiting to the Princess Kallen
Supporting Cast
Alex Louis Armstrong
Lieutenant (Princess Euphemia's Royal Guard)
Colonel (Rt)
Alphonse Pierre Juin (Historical)
Marshal of France, Head of European Combined Staff
Amberly Vail (Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM)
Duchess of Vauxhall, Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos
Andreas Darlton
Viscount of Cambridge (New England), Lieutenant-General (Special assignment attached to the Princess Cornelia)
General (Eighth Army, Third Army)
Field Marshal (European Front Theatre Commander)
Marshal of the Empire (Rt), Chief of the Imperial War Staff
Annie Leonhardt (Attack on Titan)
Specialist (simulated, Abwehr)
Specialist (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard, Ordo Malleus)
Arthur
Ashford Academy Unofficial Mascot/Mouser
Chief Mouser of the Imperial Palace
Augustus Velaines
Duke of Halifax, Exchequer (Schneizel government, Ashford government)
Prime Minister
Bertolt Hoover (Attack on Titan)
Specialist (simulated, Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency)
Specialist (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard, Ordo Malleus)
Cassius Bright (Trails in the Sky)
Colonel (Britannian Gendarmerie)
Superintendent-General (Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force)
Cécile Croomy
Captain (Camelot Institute)
Major
Lieutenant-Colonel, Interrogator (Ordo Malleus)
Colonel (Rt), Inquisitor
Cecilia Alcott Cayenne (Infinite Stratos)
Heir to the Duchy of Virginia
Charles zi Britannia
Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, Archduke of Pendragon
Charlotte Dunois (Infinite Stratos)
Cadet (Lycée militaire de Saint-Cyr)
Lieutenant (simulated, Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage)
Claire Rieveldt (Trails of Cold Steel)
Captain, Interrogator (Ordo Hereticus)
Major (Britannian Gendarmerie)
Cole Kraft (Spice and Wolf)
President of Ashford Academy Culinary Club
Lieutenant (Britannian Army Quartermaster Corps)
Captain
Viscount of Sapporo, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, Brigadier-General (Cole actually did ascend the ranks normally instead of jumping like some of the others)
Major-General (Rt), Quartermaster of the Imperial Britannian Army
Director of Veteran Affairs
Connie Springer (Attack on Titan)
Corporal (Imperial Britannian Army, 25th infantry division)
Cornelia li Britannia
Princess of the Realm, Heir Tertius, Marshal of the Empire
Crow Armbrust (Trails of Cold Steel)
Sergeant (Virginian Provincial Guard armorer)
Comrade C (Swords of Michael)
Dwight Greenhill (The Legend of Galactic Heroes)
Admiral, Fifth Fleet Commanding (Imperial Britannian Army)
Naval Representative of the Imperial War Staff
Edward Rochester (Jane Eyre)
Baron of Fairfax
Industries Minister (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Duke of Richmond, Industries Minister (Ashford government, Velaines government)
Prime Minister
Eleanor Varrot (Valkyria Chronicles)
Colonel, Inquisitor (Ordo Xenos), Headmaster of the Schola Progenium
Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos
Erwin Rommel (Historical)
Generalfeldmarschall, Chief of Staff to Marshal Juin, European Combined Staff
Head of European Combined Staff
Eve/Fleur von Eiterzental Mariel Kraft (Spice and Wolf)
Special Economic Advisor on Agricultural Mobilization (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Duchess of Seattle (by marriage to Lawrence)
Felix Cayenne (Trails of Cold Steel)
Duke of Richmond
Fie Claussell (Trails of Cold Steel)
Specialist (simulated, Swiss Militärischer Nachrichtendienst)
Specialist (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard)
Frederica Greenhill-Yang (The Legend of Galactic Heroes)
Lieutenant (Imperial Britannian Navy, Eighth Fleet)
Lieutenant-Commander (Rt)
Gilbert George Percival Guilford
Knight of Honor to Her Highness the Princess Cornelia, Colonel
Knight of Ten, Brigadier-General
Heinrich Stadtfeld
Baron of Denton, Captain, Interrogator (Ordo Xenos)
Major (Ordo Xenos)
Viceroy of Japan
Minister of Industry and Commerce (Rochester government) (Very, very briefly)
Prime Minister
Hubert Wingelbauer (Historical)
Lieutenant-General, European Combined Staff Austrian representative
Irene Koller nee Ellet (Valkyria Chronicles)
Imperial Chronicler, Rai's adoptive mother
Hiroshi Ichijo (Original)
Attendant to the Sumeragi family, Keio/Akatsuki liaison
Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)
Secretary (Imperial Exchequer)
Special Aide (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Duchess of Richmond, Baroness of Fairfax (marriage to Rochester)
Jean Kirstein (Attack on Titan)
Private (Imperial Britannian Army)
Sergeant (Rt)
Jeremiah Gottwald
Margrave of Winchester, Colonel (Imperial Britannian Army)
Brigadier-General (Tokyo Garrison)
Major-General (2nd cavalry division)
Lieutenant-General (Rt) (VII Corps)
Knight of Ten
Jeremy Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Attorney General (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Solicitor General (Ashford government)
Attorney General (Velaines, Rochester, Stadtfeld governments)
Jonathan Marcus Eyre (Jane Eyre)
Colonel (Imperial Britannian Army)
Brigadier, Captain of the Royal Guard of Her Highness the Princess Euphemia
Brigadier-General (KIA), Knight-Commander of the Order of the Bath (posthumous)
Jusis Albarea (Trails of Cold Steel)
Lieutenant (Knightmare Corps Cadet Brigade)
Captain (Imperial Gendarmerie)
Duke of Charleston, Lord Auditor
Kaede Stadtfeld-Kraft
Princess of the Realm, Heir Tertius
Lieutenant (Imperial Britannian Navy)
Vice-Admiral (Rt)
Duchess of Tokyo (eventually)
Kaguya Sumeragi
Headmistress of the House of Sumeragi (Kyoto House)
Duchess of Kyoto, provincial lord of Nishi province
Klaudia von Auslese (Trails in the Sky)
Empress-Consort to the Emperor Wilhelm
Kotone Stadtfeld-Kouzuki
Baroness of Denton
Kyoshiro Tohdoh
Captain (Japanese Army)
Lieutenant-Colonel (Japanese Liberation Front, Akatsuki)
Superintendent (Akatsuki)
Colonel (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard)
Laura Arseid (Trails of Cold Steel)
Lieutenant (Knightmare Corps Cadet Brigade)
Knight of Five, Brigadier-General
Major-General (Rt), Countess of Milwaukee (marriage to Gino), Viscountess of Annapolis (Nova Scotia)
Laura Bodewig (Infinite Stratos)
Specialist (simulated, Abwehr)
Specialist (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard)
Lawrence Kraft (Spice and Wolf)
Branch Director (Japan) of Imperial Bank of Britannia
Exchequer (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Duke of Seattle
Undersecretary of Finance (Ashford government)
Exchequer (Velaines government)
Minister of Finance (Rochester, Stadtfeld governments)
Lloyd Asplund
Colonel (Camelot Institute)
Brigadier-General (Rt)
Maes Hughes (Attack on Titan)
Sergeant (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard)
Master Sergeant (Fenrir Regiment)
Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado (Historical)
Lieutenant-General, European Combined Staff Spanish representative, head of logistics planning
Maribelle mel Britannia
Princess of the Realm, Sixth in line
Mayhew Cardemonde (Original)
Master Sergeant (Imperial Britannian Army, KIA)
Mikasa Ackermann (Attack on Titan)
Private (Imperial Britannian Army)
Corporal (Euphemia's Royal Guard), Ashford Academy Student Council Secretary
Knight of Honor to Her Highness the Princess Nunnally
Knight of Honor to Her Highness the Princess Millicent, Sergeant
Knight of Seven (Princess Millicent), Brigadier-General (Rt)
Millicent Amelia Ashford
Ashford Academy Student Council President
Princess of the Realm, Heir Primus, Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall
Duchess of Detroit
Monica Kruszewski
Knight of Twelve, Duchess of Bedivere, Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, Brigadier-General
Major-General (Rt)
Nagisa Chiba
Lieutenant (Japanese Liberation Front, Akatsuki)
Inspector (Akatsuki)
Lieutenant (Princess Kallen's Royal Guard)
Naomi Inoue
Quartermaster (Akatsuki, KIA)
NEMO
AI Companion to Raibeart
AI Companion to Kallen
Nina Einstein
Ashford Academy Student Council Treasurer
Lady in Waiting to the Princess Millicent
Doctor PhD, Director of Lloyd Asplund National Laboratory
Nora Kraft (Spice and Wolf)
Duchess of Columbia
Nunnally vi Britannia/Abigail Nunnally Ashford
Princess of the Realm
Ashford Academy Student Council Treasurer
Odysseus eu Britannia
Prince of the Realm, Heir Primus, Lieutenant-Commander (Imperial Britannian Navy, inactive)
Olaf Craig (Trails of Cold Steel)
Lieutenant-General (Imperial Britannian Army, Middle East occupational commander)
Pytor Ivanovitch Ivashutin (Historical)
Lieutenant-General, European Combined Staff Russian representative, intelligence
Raibeart (Rai) Koller
Knight of Honor to Her Highness the Princess Relena, Captain (Imperial Britannian Knightmare Corps)
Knight of Eleven (Empress Euphemia), Brigadier-General
Prince-Consort to the Empress Euphemia, Major-General (Rt)
Reiner Braun (Attack on Titan)
Specialist (simulated, Abwehr, KIA)
Renne Stadtfeld (Trails in the Sky)
Enforcer XV, the Angel of Slaughter (Geass Directorate)
Doctor, R&D Director of Stadtfeld Advanced Electronics
Rivalz Cardemonde
Ashford Academy Student Council Vice President
Ashford Academy Student Council President
Crown Prosecutor
Richard Fennette
Doctor MD
Richard O'Connor (Historical)
Lieutenant-General, European Combined Staff British representative
Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Lieutenant (Princess Euphemia's Royal Guard)
Lieutenant (Fenrir Regiment)
Colonel (Rt)
Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist)
Lieutenant (Princess Euphemia's Royal Guard)
Major (Fenrir Regiment)
Knight of Six, Brigadier-General (Rt)
Ruben Ashford
Duke of Detroit
Headmaster of Ashford Academy
Chief of Staff (Viceroyalty of Japan)
Prime Minister
Samantha Frasier (Original)
Colonel (Britannian Army Nursing corps)
Brigadier-General (Superintendent of Army Nursing Corps)
Major-General (Surgeon General of the Imperial Britannian Army)
Sara Valestein (Trails of Cold Steel)
Captain (Britannian Gendarmerie)
Sasha Braus (Attack on Titan)
Corporal (Imperial Britannian Army, 25th infantry division)
Sayoko Shinozaki
Specialist (Japanese Special Police)
Ashford Family Attendant
Nanny to the Prince Wilhelm
Schneizel el Britannia
Prince of the Realm, Heir Secundus, Prime Minister
Sharon Kruger (Trails of Cold Steel)
Maid of the li Britannia household
Maid of the Ashford household
Nanny to the Prince Wilhelm
Shirley Fennette
Ashford Academy Student Council Secretary
Ashford Academy Student Council Vice President
Doctor MD, personal physician to the Ashford royal family
Suzaku Kururugi
Private (Imperial Britannian Army)
Specialist (Camelot Institute)
Special Advisor (Groupe Dassault-Dunois SA)
Toshihiko Kuroba
Doctor (MD), Director of Keio Memorial University Hospital
Victor Arseid (Trails of Cold Steel)
Viscount of Annapolis (Nova Scotia), Captain of the Royal Guard of Her Highness the Princess Cornelia, Lieutenant-General
Knight of One (Empress Euphemia), General (Rt)
V.V./Vivian zi Britannia
Grandmaster of the Geass Directorate, Prince of the Realm
Villetta Nu
Captain (Imperial Britannian Army)
Major (Princess Euphemia's Royal Guard)
Brigadier
Knight of Eight, Brigadier-General, Major-General (Rt)
Wilhelm eu Britannia (Original)
Prince of the Realm, Prince of Wales, Heir Primus
Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Archduke of Pendragon
Willibald Joachim von Merkatz (The Legend of Galactic Heroes)
Admiral, Eighth Fleet Commanding (Imperial Britannian Navy)
Knight of Two
Lord High Admiral (Rt)
Yang Wen-Li (The Legend of Galactic Heroes)
Major (Chinese Army), Magician of Penglai, Anqi Sheng, Minder of the Mongolian and Indian thought elevators
Major-General
Field Marshal (Rt)
Zechs Vander (Trails of Cold Steel)
Duke of Montreal, Field Marshal, Chief of the Imperial War Staff
Marshal of the Empire (Rt)