Attack on the Queen Britannia

## Attack on the Queen BritanniaPart of the **Choronzon Arc**

The Queen Britannia, moving through the frozen Irish Sea

## Belligerents

* ---
* **Knights**
* **Anglican Church**

## Commanders and Leaders

* **Knight Leader**

The **Attack on the Queen Britannia** was a battle which occurred one December morning in the story's first year, shortly after the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom.

Taking place in the Irish Sea, near to the Isle of Man, it was an assault carried about by British forces and several groups from Academy City on the hijacked Queen Britannia, in order to prevent Choronzon from using the stolen Honours of Scotland to seize control of the United Kingdom's magical system and performing the Ceremony of Mo Athair which would have resulted in the destruction of the world.

## Background

### Choronzon

Around the time of the Golden Dawn's downfall, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers summoned the Great Demon Choronzon, with orders to bring Aleister Crowley, the instigator, to ruin. Choronzon later appeared before Aleister during a summoning experiment in the Sahara desert in 1909, but was prevented from carrying out the late Mathers' command and was driven off. Afterwards, the demon secretly travelled from Africa to the United Kingdom and assumed the identity of Lola Stuart, creating a physical body to act as its primary avatar. While Aleister survived his supposed end in 1947 and continued his plan as Board Chairman of Academy City, Choronzon manipulated events while acting as Archbishop of Necessarius, both to fulfill its contract with Mathers and its own desires as the embodiment of natural breakdown and dispersion. The two would continue to plot in the shadows for the remainder of the 20th century.

On December 11th, Choronzon ambushed Aleister while he was knocked out following his battle with Kamijou Touma, in order to infest him and usurp control over Academy City. The demon also taunted Aleister by claiming to be possessing the body of his second daughter Lola. This attack resulted in the diffusion of Aleister's alternative possibilities, the Crowley's Hazards, across the world and their subsequent invasion of the British Commonwealth, in response to Choronzon's actions, with the prime Aleister shifting his consciousness to the body of one of them. Failing to seize Academy City, Choronzon ended up temporarily sealed within the shut-down city while Aleister pursued her achilles heel in the United Kingdom - the corpse of her contractor Mathers.

Facing Choronzon's anti-Crowley measures in London, the Divine Mixtures and grimoire-based recreations of the Golden Dawn, Aleister was eventually forced to unlock Academy City's technology to escape from death at the hands of the reproduced Mathers, resulting in Choronzon breaking free from the seal. Choronzon flew from Academy City to Edinburgh Castle, arriving as Aleister had Mathers' real corpse ready to use the connection against her, but was able to use her previous deception to trick Aleister, stabbing her and using the opening to burn the corpse. Released from the contract, Choronzon was free to enact the destruction of the world which she desired, naming the planned ritual the Ceremony of Mo Athair, in reference to her former contractor.

### Honours of Scotland

The Honours of Scotland are a set of Scottish royal treasures, consisting of three regalia; the Sword of State, the Coronation Crown and the Ruling Sceptre, together with the Stone of Scone. The three regalia and the stone, a combination of three and four, form their own magical system, similar to the system symbolically rooted in the three power, four region structure of the United Kingdom and governed by the Curtana. As the spiritual items form an alternate foundation for the control mechanism, they can be used together as an alternative control for the UK's magical system, though this is only possible if the Curtana's control is unstable. The ideal position for their usage in this manner is at a point between the centers of the UK's four regions (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) - in the middle of the Irish Sea.

With the Curtana-controlled system still unstable following the damage to the Curtana Second from the clash of Curtanas during the British Halloween, an opportunity was created for the Scottish royal treasures to be used in this capacity. With the threat posed by the Crowley's Hazard invasion of the United Kingdom, the evacuation of the British Royal Family from London to Edinburgh was partly to prevent the Honours, stored in Edinburgh Castle, from falling into the wrong hands.

### Queen Britannia

The Queen Britannia was a luxury cruise ship and floating fortress which was built in order to carry the British Royal Family in comfort and safety across the seas, in order to perform large-scale rituals at 53 predetermined points throughout the territories of the British Commonwealth, aided by the amplifying effects of its central temple. The ship served and protected the royal family for many years, though as necessary diplomatic trips came to be made by plane, the ship came to mean more as a show of force and technological might than as a vehicle.

After being decommissioned, the ship was moored in a harbour in Edinburgh as one of its major tourist attractions. As forcefully dismantling the ship might have resulted in a highly destructive rebound, it was instead intended that the mental noise from the tourists' thoughts would gradually neutralize the magical symbols over time, though it was estimated that the process would take over 1200 years.

### Recent Events

In the early hours of morning before the battle, although the threat of the Crowley's Hazards was past, the invasion and the surrounding events had left the country in an unstable, chaotic and confused situation. The world as a whole was also in a state of chaos and confusion, with a quiet and temporary mania starting to set in with the threat gone. Following a pursuit on the roads between London and Edinburgh by the recreated Golden Dawn, the royal convoy arrived at Edinburgh Castle, followed by the groups from Academy City, with Choronzon arriving not long afterwards.

Immediately after Choronzon stabbed Aleister and released itself from the bonds of its contract, Kamijou Touma faced the demon, but was soon grievously injured by her Magick: Flaming\_Sword, only being saved through the wounded Aleister's intervention. Accelerator, having contracted with Qliphah Puzzle 545, briefly clashed with Choronzon before the demon left the graveyard to seize the Honours of Scotland beneath the castle. Easily overcoming the knights and Queen Elizard, Choronzon obtained two of the regalia and the Stone of Scone. The Sword of State ended up in hands of Hamazura Shiage, who was looking for a way to revive the recreated Dion Fortune, who had been reduced to cards following the clash between Aleister and the recreated Mathers, and when confronted by the demon, made a deal to assist her in return for a way to bring Dion Fortune back.

#### Choronzon's Preparations

At some point prior to the events at Edinburgh Castle, Choronzon (in her guise as Archbishop Lola Stuart) had made arrangements for the Queen Britannia to be moved from its mooring in Edinburgh. As the ship was a valuable cultural asset and the Irish Sea was comparatively safer at that point than the east side of Scotland, which bordered the sea leading to the European mainland and was therefore under threat from the Crowley's Hazards, the security crew likely didn't question the order.

Immediately after the events at Edinburgh Castle, Choronzon initiated remote attacks across the world through the ley lines, in order to influence the populace and stoke chaos for the first stage of the Ceremony of Mo Athair, as well eliminating possible threats. Locations attacked included the RV where Lilith was being sheltered and the pyramids of Egypt, Prague in the Czech Republic and Athens in Greece, with at least one of the latter's temples sustaining damage.

Choronzon herself left Edinburgh with Hamazura Shiage by rail, on a Rapid Model train heading from Edinburgh to Glasgow, avoiding magical flight in order to reduce the chances of being detected too soon. The two ended up leaving the train early due to Accelerator and Nephthys's actions, and were split up briefly after Niang-Niang approached them, looking for a fight. After a inconclusive battle with Niang-Niang, a bloodied Choronzon caught up with Hamazura at Dumfries via winged flight.

When the Queen Britannia arrived at Dumfries, Choronzon hijacked the ship, swiftly removing the people onboard, who didn't know how to activate the ship's defenses, within 30 seconds. Turning on the magical defenses, which soon shot down several Anaconda cruise missiles fired at it at around 10 AM, Choronzon accessed the central temple and prepared it for use together with the stolen Honours of Scotland and Stone of Scone in the Ceremony of Mo Athair.

#### British and Other Preparations

Following Choronzon's theft and the arrival of reinforcements, the British forces set up a temporary headquarters at Edinburgh Castle to monitor the situation in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world as well as attempting to track down Choronzon and planning a counterattack against the demon. Touma and Aleister's group were also present at the base, with Touma and Aleister being treated along with the rest of the wounded, the latter being kept alive despite previous enmity because they needed all the help they could get.

Following Index's arrival by helicopter and the discovery of the Queen Britannia's movement, the lead groups discussed Choronzon's likely plan and thought processes. Considering the type of destruction she was likely seeking, forming pairs to cause mutual destruction in pursuit of the breakdown of all things, they thought about what might pair with Choronzon herself. Going through the possibilities, Aleister soon realized to her horror that the most likely candidate was her daughter Lilith, a fear which was confirmed when Lilith herself arrived shortly afterwards, having used her power to fly the RV her group was in from Egypt to the UK.