A/N: Nobody dies is the property of Gregg landsman, and Evangelion is owned by Gainax. Just to say, the identity of the British Prime Minister was told to me by a friend of mine who had been talking to Gregg on IRC, that was his idea and i make no claim to thinking it up.
Nobody Dies: Hand to Hand Chapter one.
The room was dark, twelve monoliths were aranged in a circle around a Man, each of them had a logo and a number designating their organisation and designation. Though the mood was decidedly cold, the man in the middle didn't seem to notice and he was smiling cheerfuly.
"Major Feigen, a problem has come to our attention that we want NERV Britain to solve for us." SEELE 06 intoned in it's distorted voice, the man behind the number was unrecognisable at this point.
The Major's smile grew wider as he heard this. "What can we do for you sir? Prime Minister Pendragon has summoned me for a meeting, so perhaps we could speak quickly?" The 29 year old military officer straitened his red uniform absently.
"Well we don't want to keep the old bastard waiting, now do we." SEELE 07 muttered nastily.
"Since the Angels Sachiel, Ramiel, Israfel and Sandalphon have both displayed the alarming ability to create human sized versions of themselves." SEELE 06 continued, ignoring 07 tactfuly. "We have realised how inadequate the ground defences of Tokyo are."
"We wish for your facility to devise a way to rectify this situation." SEELE 03 ordered imperiously.
"So all our manpower is to go directly to this new project then sir? What of the Eva we've been constructing?" Feigen's brow furrowed as he asked this, they had put three years of work into constructing Unit 19.
"Have Unit 19 sent to NERV Denmark, they have no projects to speak of." 05 replied, his voice faintly mocking.
"As you wish. I will begin immediatly."
Twenty minutes later The head of NERV Britain was in the office of the First Lord of the Treasury, seated in a comfy armchair, a mocking smile on his face. Arthur Pendragon was seated behind his desk, wearing his usual suit with his family crest sown onto the breast pocket. They were playing chess and drinking single malt scotch.
"So... what drunkenly idiotic and useless task has 'the commitee' assigned to you this time, Younger?" Pendragon asked, his face carefuly blank as he moved his piece.
The mocking smile became a satisfied grin as Major took the Prime Minister's knight, opening up the board and beginning his stratagy. "The want me to create ground based defences to keep Tokyo-3 safe from human-sized Angels, they gave us a fairly large budget increase too."
"Interesting... I wonder how this will affect our place in the future." Pendragon moved his bishop. "Check."
"Who knows, but I have a couple of fun ideas that I want to try out."
"... You're not a designer Charles, why are you thinking of ideas?" Arthur enquired, perturbed.
"I get bored..." His piece clicked as he set it down.
"This can only go well. Checkmate."
"Ladies and gentlemen of NERV Britain, I have recently recieved new orders, all work on Evangelion unit 19 is to stop immediately; we have been given a new task." Charles Feigen looked down at the staff of the base that dominated the center of London-4, his face set in its usual jovial smile.
"We are going to produce ground weapons for the defence of cities from human sized enemies, I want project proposals for different weapons on my desk tommorow. Remember my motto: "No idea is too crazy, because you can always add more napalm." The staff bellow mouthed the words along with their Commander. "Doctor Walker, I would like to speak to you in my office please."
Taking off his military jacket and putting it on the back of his chair, Charles Feigen looked at the lead designer of NERV Britain and tilted his head to the side.
"So what have you got Cathrine?" Taking his seat he motioned for her to do the same.
Sitting down the engeneer smiled wryly. "What makes you think I have any idea's already? You just told us about the new project."
"If you don't have any ide-" His sentence was cut off as three files were put on his desk.
"Ok so the first one is project 'DRONE.' Basically its a remote controlled robot with Adjustable Armaments." Walker's grin had matched the Major's as she spoke.
"Not really feeling that one, why make drones when we have people? They'll never have as good reaction times as humans and they would be a pain to make properly. What else you got?"
"I thought I'd get the crap out of the way first so I can show you these, I think you'll like them."
"Ok project names are MOLOCH and SERAPHIM... those sound promising." Charles opened the file on Project MOLOCH and smiled. "This is more like it: Powered armor, set up with chainguns, misile launchers, flame thrower-"
"Thats not a flame thrower, thats a Napalm thrower." Cathrine interjected.
"... Cathrine, I want to have your babies."
"Just name a time and place boss man." she said, her voice mocking.
"Wait, that's impossible. Is that a Mondschein 404 pauldron mounted coil gun?"
"Authentic, NERV-Alaska original. Managed to order the schematics for the Eva scale one from NERV 1, they weren't going to use it anyway." Her grin grew wider, "I modified it so it would fit. The Anti-matter tipped ammo should give it a bit of a kick."
Charles had the look of a child who has just been given the best christmas present he can think of, his eyes were wide and his smile threatened to cut his head in half. "That is a definite yes, amazing work."
"Now have a look at project SERAPHIM, this one is a little more controversial." Cathrine's voice had sobered up alot and she seemed to have taken on a pleading edge to it.
Charles opened the second file curiously, and took the time to read every line. All of the science was there and all statistics had details on how reliable they were. Putting the file down Charles looked at his lead designer and smiled evily.
"Are you absolutely fucking insane?" His voice sounded delighted as he said this and he pointed down at the file. "Angel DNA? You want to splice a group of soldiers with Angel DNA?"
"I do."
"Im so proud of you Cathrine! Thats just about crazy enough to be fun. Project approved, but one thing... I don't ask anything of soldiers that I won't do myself." Looking the dark haired woman in her bespectacled eyes, the Commander of NERV Britain spoke carefuly. "I will be spliced with the first batch."
The next day the commander was reading through the project proposals and grinning, this new project would be fun.
"Hey Claudia! Come look at some of these ideas, I think you may enjoy them."
The Sub-commander walked into the office holding two cups of tea, her grey NERV jacket was open and she had a white tank top on under, she had a carefuly neutral expression on her face but her eyes were interested and attentive.
"Yeah Major? I always feel slightly aprihensive when you say I might be 'interested' in something." She placed his Earl Grey in front of him and walked round to his side of the desk, leaning over to see the files.
"Oh ye of little faith." He replied, an innocent look on his face. "Haven't all those situations turned to our advantage?"
"Whats this one you're looking at?" She asked, ignoring the question tactfuly.
"This is wave emmiter ammo, it is specificaly designed to attract calcium, or calcium like material, to it before exploding and sending the fragments firing out. Not only will this kill the target in an explosion of its own bones, it will also shred any nearby enemies with shrapnel." The grin on the major's face was infectious and the Sub-commander couldn't help but smile too.
"That seems quite brutal, which researcher thought it up?" Looking down at the signature at the bottom of the page, her smile grew a little wider. "Martin... it could only ever be Martin."
"That man will either be given a commendation for ingenuity, or pulled up by the UN for war crimes."
"Probably both." As she said this, Charles closed the file and moved to the next one.
"This looks promising." He muttered running his eyes down the sheet, and his eyes widened.
"What's wrong? This appears to be a normal one way shield barrier, allowing for fire one way and blocking Angels from getting through the barrier."
"Look at the second part Claudia."
"...Second shield is generated three feet in front of the first, invisble to the human eye, this shield is generated in a spiked shape, any incoming enemies will be skewered on these as they attempt to get closer to the... I have no idea how the hell he comes up with this stuff."
"The badge he wears on his lapel may explain it." Charles looked to the side and saw her confused look. "It says, and I quote: 'I'm all that's left of a bizarre childhood.'"
"Ah that explains it then."
"Yeah, anyone who would wear a Canadian made badge has got to be fucking insane."
"Too right."
The prototype MOLOCH class armor was coming along nicely, the outer armor had been created and the materials for the Cybernetics had been ordered, all weapons were available for them to install into the armor itself, and all construction was ahead of schedual.
"So that appears to be good news Cathrine, which leaves me with one question... why are you frowning?" Charles offered the doctor his hipflask and looked surprised when she snatched it from his hand and downed half of the expensive scotch.
"I am frowning, Charlie, because the software that we are building to make the armor work, isn't, to put a finer point to it, working."
"I'm guessing there's a reason for this."
"Yes, we want it to do a lot of stuff, and we haven't actually managed to balance it out with the different systems, the HUD isn't connected to the weaponry, the servos don't automatically move when the pilot moves and the weapons aren't activated due to cerebral activity."
"Sounds like you have your work cut out for you." The Major commented neutrally.
"Bite me."
"So you've been spending all your time on this project then?"
"Lets get something straight here Major, I may be busy with things, but I don't let one projects troubles side line me when i need to work on others." Her face had a satisfied smile on it.
"So?"
"Project Seraphim is on track, we are only waiting on the Core DNA that is being sent to us by SEELE." Walker took another large gulp of wiskey and handed the flask back to her Commander.
"Okay, thankyou, I'll try and leave the rest to you, I know you dont need me shoving my nose in your projects."
"I will hand the first two reports to you on monday." She said quietly, turning back to the small super-computer that NERV Britain had instead of a MAGI.
Charles turned and walked out of the room quietly and shook his head dejectedly.
"Well then, Time for me to get home I guess." Wistling quietly, The major wandered out to his car, thinking of his home, and his girlfriend.
"She is going to murder me when I tell her about SERAPHIM."