The pungent, acrid scent of gunpowder stung her lungs, accompanied by the deafening, ear-splitting cracks of gunfire.
She sprinted through the skeletal remains of shattered buildings like a woman possessed.
"Pant... pant...!"
Her heart hammered against her ribs as if it might burst, yet the physical strain paled in comparison to the leaden weight of guilt crushing her chest.
'I'm such a fool! Why did I leave him behind?!'
Lelouch Lamperouge. The Vice President of the Ashford Student Council, a frail weakling who seemingly collapsed from anemia if the wind blew too hard.
She had abandoned him, alone, in the middle of this hellish Ghetto.
The Britannian military, currently in the grip of a bloodlust, did not distinguish between insurgents and civilians. If he were discovered...
The mere thought was horrifying. Despite knowing her true identity, he had shielded her. He had even accompanied her here today of his own free will. And she had cast him aside simply because her comrades were in danger.
'Dammit, please stay safe. I'll apologize a hundred times later, just... please, stay hidden! Don't let them find you!'
Biting her lip until it bled, she vaulted into the industrial wasteland of the abandoned factory district where the hideout was located.
"Ohgi-san!"
The scene was already a descent into chaos.
"Kallen! I told you to stay away!"
Kaname Ohgi (male) shouted, firing his rifle blindly from behind a crumbling piece of cover.
"I couldn't just run and abandon my comrades! What's the status?"
"It's the worst-case scenario! The radical factions provoked the army—right next to our sector, of all places! The military intends to steamroll everything in this district, including us!"
"Dammit... what about anti-Knightmare weaponry? There has to be something left!"
To her desperate plea, Ohgi could only shake his head with a bitter, defeated expression.
"Nothing... all we have left are a few outdated rocket launchers. Against those steel monsters, they're nothing more than toothpicks!"
At that moment, several radical Resistance members hiding on a nearby rooftop stood up in unison.
"Die, you Britannian scum!"
They attempted a final, futile stand, unleashing their rockets.
A thunderous explosion erupted as a shell struck the armor of a Sutherland. However, as the thick, gray smoke dissipated, the Sutherland emerged unscathed, its frame polished and mocking.
[Is that all you've got?]
As if in a gesture of pure contempt, the Sutherland engaged its Landspinners and scaled the building's wall with predatory grace. It leveled its massive assault rifle at the rooftop.
"Aaaaagh!"
A merciless hail of bullets shredded the air. Before they could even scream, the radicals were reduced to mangled heaps of flesh.
The cover where Kallen and Ohgi stood shattered under the weight of the collapsing building above them.
"Kallen! Move!"
Ohgi threw his body over hers, and the two rolled across the debris-strewn floor.
When the dust cloud cleared, three Sutherlands—the mainstay Knightmare Frames of the Britannian Army—blocked their path.
Steel giants that couldn't be scratched by mere rifles looked down upon them with mechanical indifference.
[Surrender, terrorists! Any further resistance will result in summary execution!]
The Sutherland's external speakers blared a cold, synthetic warning.
Everyone knew the truth: surrender meant execution anyway.
"Dammit... is this where it ends?"
Ohgi checked his magazine with a look of utter despair. It was empty. The cold dread of impending death crept over them. In that split second, the image of the abandoned Lelouch flashed before Kallen's eyes like a final regret.
'I'm sorry... Lelouch. At the very least... I hope you survive...'
The lead Sutherland raised its assault rifle. Instinctively, Kallen stepped in front of Ohgi and squeezed her eyes shut.
KRA-BOOM!
An ear-splitting explosion rocked the area, yet the anticipated agony never came.
"...Huh?"
Opening her eyes cautiously, she saw the lead Sutherland staggering, its balance compromised. And beyond it, emerging through the swirling grit and smoke, another Knightmare Frame was charging toward them.
It was a Glasgow, an outdated Britannian model.
"What is that?"
The Glasgow's movements were grotesque. It swayed and lurched like a drunken man.
It staggered as if on the verge of toppling over, only to suddenly dash at a speed that seemed to defy the laws of physics, before lurching to a sudden, awkward halt.
"Is it an ally? Or a foe?"
While they stood in confusion, a voice crackled through the Glasgow's external speakers.
[G-Get out of the way! Where's the brake?! Gaaaaah!]
"...What?"
The Glasgow accelerated at a terrifying velocity and slammed directly into the enemy line.
CRASH!
Due to the sheer, clumsy force of the impact, another Sutherland nearby lost its footing. The two machines became entangled and collapsed together in a heap of shrieking metal.
"Wh-Who the hell is that guy?!"
Both friend and foe were paralyzed with shock. Was this a sequence of highly calculated maneuvers, or just the work of a madman?
At that moment, none of them realized that someone inside that bizarren Glasgow was screaming in pure, unadulterated desperation.
I was in a state of absolute panic.
"Aaaaaagh! No, not that way! Why are you going forward?!"
Armored Core? Nine Breaker? Bullshit. A Knightmare in reality was nothing like a game controller.
The feedback was too visceral, and the control sensitivity was far too high.
"Calm down! Just calm down! The right pedal is for acceleration, the left is... reverse? No, wait, that's the Landspinner deployment!"
Every time I botched the controls, the Glasgow bucked like a wild stallion. I had somehow managed to ram one of the enemy units, but that was sheer, dumb luck.
"Ugh... I'm going to throw up..."
The interior of the cockpit was a claustrophobic hell smelling of blood, sweat, and the bile rising in my throat from motion sickness. But I couldn't stop.
If I stopped, I was dead. And right there, ahead of me, I could see Ohgi's group and Kallen.
"Kallen... you're alive."
With a wave of relief, I gripped the control sticks once more.
"Screw it, I'll figure it out! Hey, you tin can! Listen to me for once!"
Treating every enemy in sight as a mere obstacle and mashing buttons just as I would in a video game, I drove the machine forward.
The Glasgow shrieked as it accelerated once more.
[Identify yourself! State your unit! What are you doing attacking allies?!]
One of the tangled Sutherlands scrambled to its feet and shouted through its speakers. I responded by pulling the trigger.
"Shut up! Move if you don't want to die!"
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
The assault rifle mounted on the Glasgow's arm spat fire. Aiming? There was none of that.
I just held down the trigger because he was close. However, that mindless spray of bullets was unexpectedly effective.
At point-blank range, the high-caliber rounds tore through the Sutherland's armor as if it were parchment.
[Aaaaaagh!]
The Sutherland slumped and erupted in an explosion of sparks and fire. Only one remained.
[You... you lunatic!]
The last Sutherland pilot turned his barrel toward me in horror, but I had already maxed out the Landspinners.
"Die already!"
I charged the Sutherland head-on.
SLAM!
The massive impact jolted me so hard I felt as though I would be catapulted through the screen.
The Glasgow bulldozed the Sutherland back, slamming it into the wall of a dilapidated building behind them.
CRUNCH!
The wall gave way, and both units were buried halfway under the rubble.
"Gah!"
I slammed my head against the console; stars exploded in my vision.
As I regained my senses, I saw the enemy unit still twitching.
"Oh no you don't!"
I forced my aching arms to move, seizing the control sticks.
I raised both of the Glasgow's arms, clenching the mechanical manipulators into a single massive fist. Then, I drove them straight down into the enemy cockpit.
THUD! THUD!
"Die! Die! Just die already!"
Halfway to a mental breakdown, I didn't stop the bludgeoning.
The screeching of buckling steel, the sound of bursting hydraulic cylinders.
I didn't cease until the Sutherland's cockpit was a crushed, unrecognizable hunk of scrap metal.
"Heave... pant..."
Only then did I finally stop.
Three Sutherlands. I had neutralized two. But what about the one I had first rammed?
I checked the external monitor.
The hatch of the first Sutherland was open, and a blood-drenched pilot was crawling out.
"Gotcha! You bastard!"
Shinichiro Tamaki (male) had already rushed the machine.
Tamaki grabbed the pilot by the collar, hurled him to the ground, and cheered.
"Ohgi! I got one! I've captured a Knightmare pilot alive!"
With trembling hands, I released the controls.
I did it. I actually did it!
I wasn't a hero from a game or a genius strategist, but through a desperate struggle for survival, I had protected my friends.
"Ugh... blurgh..."
The joy of victory was short-lived.
"You there, pilot! Who are you?!"
Kallen's voice reached me through the monitor.
Her voice was trembling, a cocktail of wariness, curiosity, and the hope one feels toward a savior.
Should I answer? No, it was too early to reveal my identity in front of everyone like this.
Knowing I couldn't be discovered, I tightened my grip on the controls to move the machine away.
"Ugh..."
Instead of the machine, it was my body that faltered.
A sudden wave of vertigo washed over me, spinning the world around, and my vision blurred violently.
Kallen on the monitor doubled and then tripled.
"Wait...?"
Subconsciously, I touched my forehead. My gloved fingers came away coated in a lukewarm, viscous fluid. When I looked down, my glove was stained a deep, alarming crimson.
'Blood...?'
It seemed I had struck my head harder than I realized when I rammed that Sutherland.
The adrenaline had likely numbed the pain during the fight, but the moment the tension broke, the suppressed agony and shock came crashing down at once.
'No... I can't...'
My head throbbed, and my thoughts turned to fog.
The manic excitement that had sustained me drained away like a receding tide, leaving only a leaden exhaustion. My eyelids felt like they weighed a ton.
'I have to... get away...'
If I stayed here, they'd find out. Kallen, Ohgi... they couldn't know I was the one inside this thing.
I fought to keep my fading consciousness. I had to operate something to escape.
My hand groped through the air, aimlessly seizing the first lever I could find.
'Is it... this one...?'
Clack!
A heavy mechanical click coincided with a sudden rush of cool, fresh air against my back.
'Oh... dammit.'
It was the hatch release lever.
'I'm screwed...'
With the hollow realization that I had opened the door myself, the switch of my consciousness flicked off.
I collapsed forward onto the console.
"Hey! Answer me!"
Outside, Kallen was pounding her fist against the crumpled armor plating of the Glasgow.
There was no reply.
The Glasgow remained as silent as a grave, belying the savage ferocity with which it had just decimated the Sutherlands.
"Are they injured?"
Ohgi rushed to Kallen's side.
Just as Kallen was about to try and force the entry...
Screeeech—THUD.
The Glasgow's cockpit hatch hissed open on its own. As the thick armor plate tilted back, a cloud of acrid smoke billowed out.
"Oh?!"
Kallen instinctively jumped back, only to see a limp pilot sliding out from within the smoke.
The unconscious pilot's upper body began to slump forward, threatening to fall from the high cockpit.
"Watch out!"
Kallen threw herself forward, catching the falling pilot in her arms.
"Hey! Wake up! Are you alright...?"
Kallen shook the pilot, searching for his face. And in that moment, the words she intended to say died in her throat, replaced by a stifled gasp.
Though blood from his forehead stained half of his face, she would recognize those features anywhere.
The pale skin, the long, delicate eyelashes, and the frail Vice President who was always collapsing from anemia.
"...Lelouch?"
Her heart felt like it had stopped. Her mind went completely blank.
Why? Why are you here?
The one who just saved us... was you?
"Kallen! Who is it?! Someone you know?"
Ohgi shouted from below. But Kallen couldn't find the breath to answer.
Cradling Lelouch's limp, frail body in her arms, she was swept away by a tide of shock, confusion, and an inexplicable emotion, left only to murmur his name in a daze.
"Lelouch... Open your eyes... Lelouch!"