Chapter 2: The Rise of Char and The Reality of War

I was eighteen when I graduated from the West Point and officially became Nonette's personal squire, or rather her errand boy/man servant whatever you prefer, although this time Alya came with me as my own personal knight.

Nonette didn't seem to mind, but she made it clear to Alya that if she stole her adorable little brother away she would hunt her down.

I was fifty-fifty on whether she was completely serious which made me more than uneasy.

However Alya just shrugged off the veiled threats of the knight of the round, saying that she would serve me to the best of her abilities in whatever form that may be, and if that included a relationship she would not object.

If I hadn't known Alya for a long time, her declaration would have sounded strange, but that was her way of saying she cared, I think.

Nonnette satisfied with her response, turned around and ordered us to go shopping while I carried both the knight of nine's and my knight's bags as they went on a shopping spree that would but my older sister Guinevere to shame.

Life wasn't all like being Nonette's servant and shopping buddy she would train me along with Alya, but even together we couldn't beat her.

However, my skills were starting to catch up with my special abilities, as I was lasting longer and longer each time, even getting a few blows in myself.

But even if I could see her first attack coming, didn't mean I could stop or counter the follow-up.

Still the training proved invaluable, and I felt like I could take on any enemy that I would face in the immediate future to come.

I was first deployed to Cambodia when border tensions between the empire and the Chinese federation were coming to their breaking point with the empire's expansion into the Pacific.

It also didn't help that my father's way of negotiation seemed to mean exclusively to declare war and take it all whenever possible, having no regard for the will of others.

If it weren't for my older brother Schneizel's skill as Prime Minister in keeping us from fighting a war on multiple fronts, I'm sure my father would try and declare war on both the Federation and the EU just to complete his Ragnarok connection as fast as possible.

Which is why I was suspicious as to the motives of my father and having Britannia being here in the first place.

While Japan was a strategic location acting as a buffer between the homeland and the Federation as well has having seventy percent of the world's sakuradite.

Cambodia had nothing, no valuable resources, no thought elevators, so this war had no meaning beyond the politics that started it out of pride, nationalism, and manifest destiny that so many believed in.

I couldn't say I was proud of what my country did or how it rules over others in its discriminatory way, but it was effective in its sick morally devoid way.

The economy was good, people believed in their leaders, and the empire boasted the strongest military in the world.

It was thanks to the imperialistic policies and exploitation of the areas it had conquered over its history.

The empire would first take over and replace a countries culture, language, and customs with their own.

Forcing the natives to become honorary second-class citizens of the empire or be forced into poverty and hunger.

Many chose the lesser of two evils and bowed their heads to their new masters in order to sustain their families or life.

Those who didn't were doomed to lives of crime, terrorism, or poverty in the ghettos and ruins of the cities of their past.

In a way, it was an effective way to assimilate as many areas as they had or will.

By taking away people's culture and language, the Empire takes away their identity forcing them to adapt to the empires own social standards to survive.

By doing so, they cut out the very tongues of those who denounce them and force them to speak the language of the conquerors just to survive.

This not only shapes and molds them into submissive citizens, but it also strips them of their previous life.

Because they were either honorary Britannians or they were just a number, not a person or a human being, a number.

They were the labor, seen as like ants that helped moved the industry forward as they built our settlements on top of where their cities used to be.

I knew that was going to happen here, and everywhere else if Britannia would have its way.

Because the empire's war will never end until the whole world is a part of the empire.

But Cambodia was not Japan, we were stepping on the doorstep of the Chinese Federation, and they wouldn't give in as easily as the Japanese did.

It started off with an invasion from the south and east of both area 11 and 12 (Japan and the Philippines) into what is known as Indochina a collection of Southeast Asian countries that included Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar.

I was a captain assigned a command of a company of Knightmares and soldiers into Cambodia to take the country along with part of the Imperial army.

The goal was to take all of it, but right from the start, it all went wrong, the forces we encountered were well armed and disciplined.

I would soon learn that the Chinese Federation had been supplying the local armies and militias with weapons and their prototype Knightmares.

My first encounter with their new Knightmare frame called the Gun-Ru was a few months into the war.

We had been moving through a ruined city that was long deserted and was thought cleared by intelligence.

I was only when we were in the center of the city that the bombardment began.

A whole division of Gun Ru's was locked onto the city trying to kill me and force back the Britannian offensive.

My men and I were pinned in, under fire from all sides; I was frozen seeing my men die left and right from the constant barrage.

It was Alya who broke me out of my shock as she suggested e try and break the encirclement less we die buried by artillery fire.

I quickly ordered what was left of my men to make a break for the other end of the city attack the encirclement and break through to higher ground.

With the use of smoke grenades, we eventually came upon the Gun Ru's position.

They quickly fell as they were mainly outfitted for long range artillery not for fighting the much more mobile Sutherland.

After escaping the trap, I went with half of our men to sweep east while Alya took the other half in the west.

After that day, we had destroyed the entire division of Gun Ru's, however, I had lost over ninety percent of my forces, many which died in the initial bombardment due to my indecision.

When I reported back with word of what happened I was lauded with praise for pulling through an impossible situation.

Command wanted to honor me, but I was still regretting what had happened, as the Knightmares were there to kill me and instead I had lost nearly everyone under my command.

I was promoted to Commander as a result of my success and took to calling myself Char instead of my royal name to protect not only myself but also my forces under me from being targeted by enemy attacks.

The fighting continued for months, and I had developed a reputation of rushing headfirst into danger.

My reason for doing this was that if I could defeat the enemy myself none of my men would have to die, this was made possible thanks to my abilities knowing when and where the enemy would attack from.

My actions had many different reactions inspirational to the enlisted men, crazy by many officers, and insane by my sister Cornelia and my knight Alya.

I had become a warrior who fought for those beside him as well as seeing the enemy as those who wanted to kill me, so I had to destroy them first.

I saw my enemy no longer as human beings who were trying to protect their families and loved ones, I saw them only as threats that had to be dealt with.

I was broken out of this belief when the campaign came to a hold at an enemy fortress that stopped all progress.

The enemy was a mix of locals and Federation soldiers who had made their way down to help the locals fight us.

They were held up in a mountain base that was supplied by a winding tunnel network that housed supply lines and civilians from the surrounding villages.

The main invasion force had besieged the fortress for weeks with little sign of progress.

The emperor displeased for our lack of progress sent one of his knights of the round to expedite our progress.

Unfortunately, the one we received was an orange haired psychopath by the name of Luciano Bradley the newly assigned Knight of Ten.

Luciano Bradley was every bit of cruel and sadistic as his character made him out to be, the man didn't care about friend or foe only glory and bloodshed.

When he arrived, he assumed command from the regular forces, as I was too inexperienced while my sister was elsewhere in the country.

His solution to our problem of the fortress was a simple one, "how do you get rid of insects, you call the exterminator."

Luciano had the army launch tear gas into the fortress to draw them out but what came next solidified my hatred for him.

Unknown to me he had a secondary part of his plan.

When the enemy emerged from their holes he had us launch white phosphorous right on top of them uncaring if they were innocent civilians or not.

You could hear the screams and cries of the dying as they were burned alive.

But among that you could hear laughter.

It was coming from none other than Luciano himself as he watched his handiwork from his Knightmare.

Something snapped inside of me that moment, and before I knew it, I was charging the Knight of Ten in a fit of anger.

Still high on the slaughter of innocents, Luciano welcomed my anger, and we fought.

While he was considered the better pilot I could see and sense his moves, and I was able to keep up thanks to training growing up.

He also was piloting a Sutherland just like me, as the Percival was yet to be made yet.

We fought to a stand still until I was disarmed and my Sutherland fell to the ground.

My Knightmare was lacking its right arm and was kneeling on one knee as Luciano stood above me and taunted me on the radio.

I was listening to his trash talk until he brought Nonnette and my family into the mix.

That got him a slash harken to the head of his knightmare, and I swept his footing, forcing his knightmare onto its back.

Leveling his lance in my left hand, I was about to spear it through the cockpit to kill the sadistic knight when I was broken out of my trance by Alya on a private channel pleading with me to stand down.

She was right I shouldn't kill Luciano even though I would be doing the world a favor here, but I knew that would mean my execution as I would have killed one of the emperor's personal attack dogs.

So stabbing the spear next to his cockpit I disabled his knightmare and left him trapped in his machine as the fires burned brightly illuminating the land that was soaked in ash and blood.

After a few days, the flames died down, and I went with Alya to see the ruins of what seemed to be an impenetrable fortress.

The white phosphorus did its job burning everything leaving only scorched stone, twisted melted metal, and the ash and bones of those who defended it.

The scent of charred flesh and death permeated as charred bodies littered the place blackened with white powdered phosphorous bleaching the ground.

When I found what we thought was their command center, I saw something I could never unsee.

The roof was partially caved in from the initial bombardment trapping people inside, when we revealed the rubble what we found were, so many bodies huddled together some were just bones, but others still had skin that was charred and horribly burned.

The worst part was we found smaller skeletons with larger ones; these weren't soldiers they were civilians, families who tried to escape the violence of the war only to be burned alive.

At the center of it, there was what looked to be a mother shielding her child from the flames but was instead frozen like a grotesque statue with a face of agony strung across her face.

I threw up my lunch immediately, and I didn't say a word but when I returned later that day I drank a whole bottle of whiskey and was unapproachable for the next few days.

Why, why did they have to die?

There was no reason, no just cause, and no glory, only death.

And I just watched as it happened.

The suffering caused by both sides did nothing but fuel our hatred and drove us forward to kill each other.

Alya confronted me and got me out of my alcohol-fueled depression.

She said that I was right to feel the way I did, that it wasn't right what Luciano Bradley did, and I shouldn't blame myself.

Instead, she said that she believed in me not because I was the strongest, the smartest, or the cleverest, but that I cared the most.

She revealed that it was me when we were younger that reached out to her and been a friend when she needed one.

Also that I was the best commander she could ever have because I didn't see men as pawns, I saw them as people, just like those who died in those flames.

Her revelation stunned me, I had never been trying to be a person to be followed, I merely attempted to be the best I could be and save people in the future.

But according to Alya all those simple actions of compliments, saying thank you, and treating others as my equal had inspired and earned me the respect of the men under my command.

She went on to say that because I cared so much, I even put myself in harms way just to prevent others from dying she was scared that she would lose me.

She was afraid; that's right I'm the only one Alya has left, who will save Anya from the emperor, who will help avert all the future events that will play out just like this one.

She then hugged me saying that she believes in me and that she was placing all her hope for the future with me.

And now I realized I needed her to bring me out of my sorrow and work for a better tomorrow that she believed I could help bring about.

I still didn't know how I would change the future, but Alya had helped me own focus on what was truly important and that was a future that was not sustained by the cycle of war and hate.

After the incident in Cambodia and my actions against Luciano Bradley, I was put on leave citing post-traumatic stress and combat fatigue.

So I decided to go to Japan and visit the Ashford's who started a new Academy, which Milly had begun her second year.

So Alya and I went to Japan or Area eleven for some much-needed R&R while the conflict in the Pacific theater still raged on.

A cheerful Ashford family greeted me at the airport, as I wanted to keep my visit need to know and private.

A sixteen-year-old Milly greeted me with a slap to the face for not visiting sooner, but then gave me a hug saying she was glad I was okay.

The next few weeks were nice as Milly's carefree attitude put me at ease from the stresses of war.

But now and then I think she would see the cracks in my mask as I was no longer the slacker prince she knew, but a hardened veteran who has seen horrors she would never see.

But even so she treated me as the same as anyone else.

When it was time to go I promised to come back again in the future, because I wanted to see my favorite blond-haired friend again and because of the story's start in just a few years.

But as I was turning to leave she ran up and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before telling me not to lose hope and that tomorrow always has a possibility to be better.

Hope, the one thing I didn't have.

I knew the future would be worse, that war would engulf the world, millions would die, never once did I think of hope.

The genocides, injustices, and my regrets occupied my mind.

Never once did I think of the new life I was given.

All I thought of what the future might hold and that my future would be the same.

But the sage advice from my childhood friend made me ask.

Did it have to be this way?

No, it didn't.

This wasn't a story anymore, this was real life, this was my life, and I have a chance to change things.

So I departed Japan with a smile on my face and hope in my heart believing that this was my chance to make a difference and live and life worth living.

Thanks to Alya and Milly's support I was able to focus and work towards a better future.

I established myself as one of the best battlefield commanders as I was best at adapting to the ever-changing landscape of battle and leading the troops in battle.

What I also fought in a way was seen as honorable as I never attacked civilians, never terrorized or mistreated the local population, and even allowed soldiers to be awarded and promoted by merit, not by lineage.

My line of thinking caught on and took notice as I was awarded for my exploits in having the highest success rating while having the fewest casualties out of any commander in the war outside of my sister.

Outsiders saw me as a male version of Cornelia, and another great leader for the Britannian army.

I merely saw myself, as doing what I thought was right.

I even attracted more and more soldiers to my command that agreed with my policies.

My "honorable" approach to battle seemed to please most while critics saw my mercy as a stain on the glorious empire's military.

This eventually led me to create the Chimera Corps, a strike force that was a first in and last out kind of group.

I was allowed to create the group after the war, which ended a few months later, as we were able to take two-thirds of what we set out to conquer which seemed to satisfy the emperor.

Thus, areas 13-17 were created and settled over the following two years.

Meanwhile, I was building my personal army to act as an extension of myself, because it didn't matter how good of a pilot I got I was still only a single man.

I also got into a more active role in my company Anaheim Electronics even having them design my own custom Knightmare.

In the meantime, I devoted myself to working with charities and finding ways to help the poor in post-war parts of the empire.

I did this to help people and to help with my regrets about serving an empire I was starting to hate more by the day.

With my reputation and birthright as a prince, I got money from many sympathetic noble families.

Whether it was real sympathy or not didn't matter as I helped directed the money to those in need.

Soon people who were considered numbers were able to receive clean food and water, medical aid, and warm clothes that otherwise they couldn't afford.

When people asked why did I do this I said because it was the right thing, however on the inside, it was to help my guilt-ridden conscience for having a role in putting these people in their situation.

Eventually, I was told that my Knightmare was ready, so I went to pick up my new knightmare.

What I got was the sixth generation Knightmare frame named the Tallgeese. One of the original designers had named it after the ambition that it would be the tallest and first knightmare to fly. It was designed after the Tallgeese 2 with red replacing the blue from the original design however due to budget, and technological restraints were scaled back to get it working.

It was the only other custom sixth generation Knightmare frame other than the Gawain which had beaten my team in building the first float system.

Still the Tallgeese was a beast of a machine ready for multi-purpose combat and to handle anything thrown its way.

The armor was thicker than most Knightmares, reinforced with titanium alloy to better protect the pilot. Instead of ignition boosters it had the cockpit ejection system along with land spinners able to be equipped with sand panels if need be. For weapons, it boasted a large anti-Knightmare cannon nicknamed the Dober gun that is mounted to the right shoulder. A shield on the left forearm equipped with a prototype blaze luminous system. A custom heat tempest lance, which allowed the user to heat the lance to extreme temperatures to be able to cut through enemy weapons and armor, and an extendable MVS halberd that was stored in the lower back.

All in all, it was a machine that was beyond any other yet besides maybe the Lancelot, Guren, or Gawain

Eventually, I would come to be in command of 100 Knightmare pilots who were at my beck and call and another 2,000 soldiers, engineers, scientists, and doctors that made up my personal forces.

We were deployed mainly to border disputes in Asia and Conflict zones in Africa where my father was thinking of expanding next.

It was difficult being in command of so many people who believe and follow your every word, Luckily I had Alya to help me run it and keep me focused.

I also kept in touch with Milly exchanging more letters and postcards, which kept me, grounded and not let things get to my head.

Now I realized that I had a life here, with people that I relied on, and they relied on me.

I guess now things started to make more sense to me, I would do the best I could do and fight for a better future.

I had found my hope for the future, but I needed more than that if I wanted to change things.

I needed to change not just the world, but the ideals of the people and I had to have trust and faith in doing the right thing for everyone be at the heart of it, or all the change I dream about will all be just hopes for the future that will never come to be.

So I began my war, which was harder than any battle, the battle to change people's minds.

2017 a.t.b.

Britannian private jet

Location: The Pacific Ocean on route to Area 11

Char p.o.v.

I closed the journal I was reading from which I started to write in after a few years here to remember who I was and where I came from.

I currently found myself on a private plane chartered for Tokyo or rather what my family built on top of it.

Sitting there, I could hardly believe that it has been eight years since I arrived here in this body.

Now 21 years old I was tall and lean, standing at six foot five inches tall, just shorter than my older brother by a few inches I also had similar looks with short blond hair that I usually slick back behind the ears with a few strands hangings in front.

I was dressed in a simple red officer's coat with black pants and shoes that somehow became my go to look for a while.

"My Lord, remind me again why are we going to area 11 again because I'm having doubts on this military inspection that you told the higher ups." A stern voice asked from across the aisle; this was none other than a 20-year-old Alya Alstreim.

Gone was the 12-year-old girl who nearly knocked me out at when we first met, now stood a battle-hardened woman who fought to serve and protect me from all my enemies as I was now close to the only family she had that she was aware of.

She wore her hair to her shoulders and had a serious look on her face one she puts on when she is extracting information from someone.

Now if I looked like an anime version of Char Aznable, Alya was this world's version of Haman Karn.

Standing five foot six Alya possessed a body only found in an anime or supermodels. She had c-cup breasts, a trim figure, narrow waist, and a round shapely ass.

She was a ten in my book, but I would never say that last sentence out loud as I might not live to speak again after.

If I wasn't there for her after her sister was erased from her life and gave her support and a friend to rely on I had a small fear in the back of my mind that she would have become more of a cold-hearted genocidal maniac

With the amount of those around in this world, I didn't like her chances.

Now she's just a little cold to everyone, but we still have a good friendship, and she is one of the few people I learned to trust here.

"Well since it would please you Alya we are going to Area 11 for multiple reasons, one of which does happen to be an inspection of the military status of the forces there."

"Very well, and what will we be doing that involve sending an advanced force a week ahead of us both, putting the rest of our troops on standby, and bringing the Tallgeese?" She asked smirking knowing she would get the truth if I fought it or not.

She even sounds like Haman sometimes, I wanted to shiver, but I couldn't show fear in front of a predator like Alya, or I wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Since your powers of deduction have already discovered that much I shall save us the trouble of this back and forth and just tell you." I relented because fighting Alya on something as trivial as this was a waste of time and energy.

"First, the inspection is real not because it is necessary, but I do have a feeling that my brother Clovis will have a shortage of Knightmares shortly by doing something foolish. Second there are several high-value targets that I had to secure before our arrival to accomplish our objectives in the future. Third I received word that my brother's Knightmare development think-tank and competitor the Camelot unit is in area 11 looking for a pilot for their new model."

"Is that everything?" Alya asked probing to see if I had more to say.

"No, we are also going to Area 11 because I feel that the world shall be forever changed because of what happens in the future there."

"Why would you think that?" she asks feigning interest as she has become immune to my grandiose way of talking long ago.

"I'm glad you asked, with its disgruntled population, rampant corruption, various rebel movements, strategic importance, and abundance of sakuradite Area 11 is a powder keg waiting to blow."

"So are we the spark or the water in this situation?" she asked to clarify whether we were going to put out the fire or start one.

"Hopefully the later but I think it will be a bit of both," I said cryptically.

Curious about my last statement, but satisfied with the results of her little interrogation she went back to reading intelligence reports on activity in the middle east.

Why she took my reasoning so well, it was because I had taken us this far with my line of thinking and she would support me even if it hadn't led to the success I had attained.

Also, there was a rumor going around the regular soldier of the Britannian army saying that I could see the future, and that was why I was never shot down in combat and never been defeated in battle.

They were partially right; over the years I had learned how to use my psychic powers to great effect in augmenting my skill as a pilot allowing me to rise as fast as I did, and they didn't know my struggles at the hands of Darlton and Nonette.

I was seen as a living legend in the military especially among pilots and as an example of Britannia's own renaissance man.

By being an ace pilot in the Empire, being the CEO of Anaheim Electronics, and of royal birth to boot.

I had inadvertently become the most eligible bachelor in all of the Britannian Empire and perhaps the world. With that spawned multiple fan clubs and fangirls that followed my every move whenever I set foot in Britannia. Luckily my inspection although filed with the head brass back home I was coming unannounced to Area 11 to not only avoid the fan girls but to arrive and be present for the first act.

Because tomorrow was the start of the show, with everything in place all I had to do was to wait for my opponents to make the first move.