Heavens Restored 2 (Patreon)

Heavens Restored 2 - or ‘Time to stage a coup, save my cute cousin, and become the Chinese Emperor’ (Code Geass, SI)

“It looks amazing.”

I was really trying my best to hold back my inner geek but… this facility! This group of smart and well-paid scientists! And what looked to be the basis of what I wanted: a bloody Metal Gear!

The basis of this project was through the few Gun-Ru Knightmares that the army in Manchuria was not using, the shells and the various parts recovered used to create something that the Japanese defined by words, plans and displays of the current process as a ‘major divergence’ from the Britannian/Europian patterns.

Rather than envision a scalemail for ‘knights’ to wear, we would have our own Gundam without having to rely on either a pilot or modest equipment. In the large migration of Japanese to Korea, a few members of this world’s zaibatsu had started to reconsolidate in the region, some even managing to relocate near to the Manchurian border as a way of sheltering their investments better.

Japan’s brightest and shrewest minds were now working under me and providing me with the technological and administrative boon I required without having them handle things like they would have done as invaders.

I still have some PTSD at how dystopic the State of Guangdong in TNO was with the Corpos going nuts with each other… but this was that, expect the corpos were tiny and serving under me.

The army was loyal and bribery was deeply frowned upon, especially from ‘foreigners’, so that possibility was, for the time being, shelved as I handled the main elements of creating a Metal Gear.

Electronics, computer programming, and the development of advanced AIs- If Japan refused to put money on this, then I would not as restrictions on the topic were very few and allowed for maximum productivity in that regard.

A year went by and I was already there, witnessing the construction of the husk dedicated to ‘Metal Gear Gao’, the third name bestowed after the creator of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gao.

The project was going smoothly on a technical and engineering-related matter, but the AI production was facing some expected delays in the ‘adaptation phase’. AIs were something that the Code Geass world had, except no one really cared much for those as there was a sense of individuality that had to prevail on others.

A bit of a flaw that came within a world where the ‘Holy Empire of Britannia’ was a thing and traditionalism existed even in the ranks of the Europian Union.

Still, the main ‘issue’ was a matter of practical use: the AI were getting prototyped and rendered useful in some short-term experimentation to see what had to be patched, fixed, reworked or removed. Trials and errors, all done with utmost attention and care to neither waste time or drain the available resources.

The main goal of this project was, after all, to create an effective anti-knightmare frame meant to not only revolutionize the science behind it but also be able to overwhelm the problem that was the RPI-11 Glasgow, the main Knightmare frame that acted as the bulk for the Britannian Army at the very moment.

The lack of ‘reason’ for the world to modernize fast was both a blessing and a very confusing detail as it preceded quite the arms race to get the best and most gundam-like Knightmare ever in the next seven or so years.

It was a matter of caution and I intended to keep an eye on not pushing things too far.

“The armaments have been improved upon the Gun-Ru and the Glasgow’s specifications, with the creation of two modern and rapid-firing 105 mm Cannons to replace the obsolete 90 mm variants of the Gun-Ru, and adapting Landspinners and Factsphere to allow major flexibility and mobility.”

I slowly nodded. “I was thinking of replacing the machine guns too. I understand that it may be difficult to find suitable replacements among local weapons, but I should be able to find some foreign designs by next month.”

The young researcher that had taken to heart the role of acting as the liaison between the entire group and I smiled in relief at that offer, scribbling something in his notes.

“That would be much appreciated, Wakasama,” The scientist remarked. “Alas, we were unable to finish the testing for the railway gun, for that the team extends their apology.”

“Which I will ignore because I was made aware of this possibility through the latest report, Aramaki-san,” I replied contently. “I understand that there are conflicts that go beyond what you and your team can do, so I am understanding of these circumstances. Keep on with the good work, I love what you’re doing here.”

“Your praise brings us much honor, Wakasama.”

They were good workers, and it wouldn’t do anything to chide them on something that delayed part of the display due to reasonable developments, so I had no point in scolding anyone or accepting any apologies.

Still, the visit was not meant to last long. I would visit each week, fawning over the progress made and how we were getting quite close to the bulk of my plan. While I was waiting for that, however, I didn’t cease my other projects- mostly on the civilian side of things.

If there was one thing I learned while training under Fang was that the man loved his army and he didn’t like when people played reformist with it without first passing from his opinion. And he was still a man with many conservative beliefs in regard to training and handling his own troops.

I could see that changing once I became emperor but, for the time being, I had very little leverage on him. What I could do was take care of civilian reforms.

The projects I had in mind were not that simple to undertake with a small budget, but I could rely on the fuckton increase of income the region got through the integration of the Japanese migrants in its economy. And with it, I could start public works meant to further funnel more money into the state’s coffers.

The main plan was the creation of motorways and to improve infrastructure in general. That was something that Manchuria needed desperately as its roads had been the same for more than fifty years and the car industry was rather abysmal compared to other regions such as Hubei and Sichuan. The latter example being a more mountainous region compared to the overall Manchurian territory.

So, road-making and road-painting was something that took months to work into, but those plans were further connected with the creation of a regional train system and greater mobility within major settlements.

I had been working on this since I was able to in Manchuria, and the end result was the creation of a rather ‘ironically-named’ company under me.

The South Manchuria Railway Company, known to the Japanese as ‘Mantetsu’, was the main construction firm behind the handling of the national railway, roads and other major infrastructures.

In name alone, it represented a very ‘small business’ meant to be localized within the border but… the projects behind it were far more ambitious than anything the fools in Luoyang could expect.

Buildings were expanded upon in terms of size and quality, settlements were doubled in size as small villages were integrated into slightly bigger ones, a judicial reform was passed to render the system capable of handling bribery with the implementation of a better-paid police force commanded by veteran officers from Fang’s own army.

The man was willing to see the point in that use of his staff as the local law enforcement effort had been extremely lacking in recent years. Men were thus drilled, shaped into proper elements of an incorruptible force of order, and a leadership was established between the military and bureaucrats to facilitate the ‘background handlings’ of some judicial affairs.

But what was perhaps the most relevant reform that made Manchuria stand out from the rest of the regions in China was the introduction of renewable energy as a source of electrification.

The project had been conceived a bit earlier than the Metal Gear concept, and it was meant to have two crucial reasons: 1) A proper nationalization of electricity thus lessening the bill considerably for everyone as the state would keep it at the very minimum for everyone; 2) the self-sufficiency that would became part of my manifesto of change once I put that fancy crown in my head.

I had plans to make a monstrous super-state such as the Chinese Federation a shining example of Autarky and, due to its size and resources, that may as well be a real possibility.

And once the economic and social issues for the country were fixed… I would happily show Britannia that trying to pull a sneaky one on us with both the capture of the Philippines and Japan was not something that we are willing to accept and forget about.

So yeah, things were proceeding smoothly as I prepared for the big changes of next year all the while enjoying the comfort of having a ‘cuddle bandit’ in my bed that tended to ‘brazenly’ invade the shelter of my ‘privacy’.

“Cuddles~”

Romi shall always be my number one cuddle-buddy. Period.

But while things proceeded smoothly in that regard, I was unaware that my police reform would soon yield a few interesting findings. Three ‘findings’ at that of the political hostage kind.

—--------d-d-d-d—-----

AN

In a world where Kururugi Genbu pulled a Uno Card on Britannia and pretty much fucked them over before he died.