Teana's Travels Book 13 - Fallen Messengers

by D.K.N

The crew of the Starshot travel to an Earth that has been ravaged by a cataclysm called Second Impact, and is under attack by monstrous entities dubbed "Angels". Can they make a difference against these beasts, the mysterious organization SEELE, and the three pilots' psychoses? Rated M for violence and language

1. Tokyo-3

And here we come to Book 13 – Fallen Messengers. Let's see how the coalition handles the Angels and SEELE…

I MAKE NO MONEY OFF OF THE FOLLOWING THINGS, WHICH ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE MENTIONED OWNER-PEOPLE:

Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha (Teana, various other characters) – 7Arcs

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Shion, the "Keiichi Crew") – 07th Expansion and Studio Deen

Shuffle! (Kaede Fuyō, Rin, Asa & Ama, Sia & Nerine, Primula) – Navel and Asread

Erika's New Perfume (Marie, Sarah, Erika, Timmy, Veronica) – Deviant-Art artist Lance the Young

Mai-chan's Daily Life (Mai, Kizuna) – Waita Uziga

Star Wars (Ahsoka, Cody, Rex) – George Lucas, Lucasfilm

Halo (Forerunners, UNSC, Sangheili Alliance) – Bungie and 343 Industries

StarCraft (multiple characters, events, and devices) – Blizzard Entertainment

Naruto (jutsu, abilities) – Masashi Kishimoto

Mahō Sensei Negima (spells, abilities, characters) – Ken Akamatsu

Kingdom Hearts (Keyblades, the concept of Nobodies (Laicixa), Aqua) – Square-Enix

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Mana Kirishima, damn-near everything else in this Book) – Studio Gainax

Elfen Lied (Kaede K., others) – Lynn Okamoto, Arms

Red vs. Blue (The Blood-Gulch Crew, the ex-Freelancers)– Rooster Teeth

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

-BOOK 13 START-

Tokyo-3

September 19, 2015

Shinji Ikari sat on a park bench, lost in thought. Flashes of cold memories from the battle against the 12th Angel two days ago still forced themselves to his awareness every now & then. He remembered it vividly: the terror as the 'shadow' – actually the most bizarre Angel yet – absorbed Eva-01 and him with it; the coldness as the hours passed in silent darkness, with naught but his own dark thoughts to keep him company; the sudden warm, comforting presence just before everything went red. And what's more, he'd later been informed that, had he not broken out when he did, the Angel – and he – would've been destroyed by a combined multi-megaton explosion.

He was still rattled by all of it. And, apparently, he wasn't the only one. Asuka was a bit more irritable than usual, but Shinji – having learned how to read the redhead somewhat – could tell she wasn't actually as angry as she pretended to be. Rei appeared to be her usual self, but Shinji could faintly detect a difference in her behavior: she seemed to be… checking on him, for lack of a better term, with a little more frequency than before, and her eyes showed the barest hint of… something – concern, maybe?

Shinji sighed as his thoughts turned to the two most interesting girls in his life. The fiery, expressive Asuka and the cool, stoic Rei… He also found his thoughts drawn to the third girl who had, for a while at least, made her presence in his life known: Mana Kirishima, the masculine, tough-as-nails girl who piloted the Jet-2, and who'd vanished through some sort of dimensional dislocation shortly after the 9th Angel.

She'd taken quite a shine to him, her boisterous, in-your-face personality reminding him of a younger Misato (in a good way), though she lacked any of the feminine traits that his guardian had… partly because, she'd confessed to him shortly before her departure, she considered any femininity to be weakness on her part. Partly due to her childhood as a soldier and partly due to a mild existential crisis caused by her 'rebuilding' as a cyborg, Mana had vehemently rejected all femininity, refusing to allow herself to even think 'girlishly'. She claimed it was because she was disgusted by the weakness she erroneously associated with such traits, but Shinji could see something deeper: she was afraid. Mana had repressed that part of her for so long that she was, deep down, completely terrified of what would happen if she ever let it out.

And now she was gone, fleeing her employers who supposedly sought to "shut her down". It made his fist clench; they dared to view her as a machine, as their property! Remembering his missing friend, the pain he'd seen hidden deep away in her eyes (much like that he'd seen in Asuka's, oddly enough), and thinking about what those people reduced her to in their own eyes, made him genuinely angry. Despite how comparatively-little time he'd known her for, he had come to care for her as much as he did for Asuka and Rei and Misato, and if there was one thing capable of making Shinji mad, it was messing with his friends.

His phone beeped suddenly. He pulled it out and read the automated message: "PILOT IKARI, YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED AT NERV HEADQUARTERS". He pulled himself up out of his seat, and started walking.

-SCENE BREAK-

NERV HQ

26 Minutes Later

The three pilots found themselves in a briefing room near the Evangelions' 'cages'. Misato, Dr. Akagi, and (to the former's poorly-concealed annoyance) Kaji were present. Ritsuko stepped forward.

"Right" she said. "Now that you're all here… There have been recent unexplainable readings on the outside of the city; they keep cycling between Patterns Blue, Orange, and Yellow. We have no idea what's causing it, but in case it's some new Angel or something related, we need to keep you three on standby here for a little while."

"How long is this gonna take?" Asuka griped.

"If nothing happens within four hours, you're free to-"

"Ma'am!" Makoto Hyūga's voice cut in over the room's speakers. "We have a situation!"

"What is it, Hyūga?" Misato asked in her 'all-business Major' mode.

"Remember how we got readings from when that… spatial dislocation accompanied Kirishima Mana's disappearance? We're getting similar readings, except it's coming from orbit, and it's bigger – much, much bigger."

"Switch to one of our sat-cams in the area" Ritsuko ordered.

The viewscreen in the room changed to a view from a satellite-mounted camera in high orbit over Japan.

"Cherenkov radiation detected" Maya reported. "It's coming from the spot where the spatial distortion is building."

"Cherenkov radiation?" Shinji asked.

"It's what happens when a charged particle moves through a medium faster than light moves through said medium" Asuka explained, her attention focused on the screen. "It's why water-submerged nuclear reactors glow blue."

Everyone watched as a massive, roiling, bluish-white rift appeared, and from it emerged a massive construct, grey and silver with electric-blue lines running along it, very angular but with a few smooth curves to it as well. There was something 'written' on the side. Suddenly, the camera's feed became distorted and then went dead.

"It's hacking every single satellite that detected its arrival!" Maya said. "It's deleting every bit of data regarding it! I managed to save a picture, though."

"Everyone, to the bridge, now" Ritsuko said.

Five minutes later, the group was at the main command center of NERV, as were the Commander and Sub-Commander. Maya keyed in a few commands, and the image was projected on the center's main 70-foot screen.

"What's that writing on its side?" Misato said. "Kinda looks like English."

"It says 'Starshot'" Kaji replied. "…Perhaps wherever Kirishima-san went, humans have FTL travel there."

"We've got two objects heading for Tokyo-3" Shigeru Aoba interrupted. "30,000 feet and descending."

"Angels?" the Sub-Commander asked.

"Negative, sir; no Blue Pattern, and they're way too small. Hang on, trying to get an image…"

An automated camera mounted atop one of the mountains bordering Tokyo-3 followed the remote commands sent its way, locating and tracking the objects. An image, magnified and cleared, was soon displayed on the command center's screen: a pair of identical gunmetal-gray aircraft, blocky with four wings – the forward two larger – and eight engine thrusters. The design looked distinctly human.

"Sirs, incoming transmission" Hyūga reported. "It's coming from… from those two aircraft."

"Patch it through" the Commander ordered.

"I repeat: this is UNSC dropship Kilo-23, calling NERV base" a woman's voice said with a moderate Southern accent. "Can anyone hear me?"

"Who are you and why are you here?" Commander Ikari was his usual blunt self.

"We represent the United Nations Space Command, one of several space-faring civilizations from various dimensional realms who have banded together in a coalition to deal with mutual threats. One of your former colleagues, one Mana Kirishima, ended up on the homeworld of another of our coalition's member states, and has since willingly and formally joined our merry band. From what she's told us, you folks have a bit of a giant monster problem on your hands. In addition, we have reason to believe that a powerful enemy of ours may be planning to meddle with affairs on this Earth. For those reasons, we've come to help."

"That is all quite a difficult claim to believe" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki said.

"With all due respect, sir," Misato replied, "we saw them come out of a glowing, swirling hole in reality in orbit. I'm inclined to believe them."

Before a response could be made, NERV's scanners detected a "fluctuation" just outside of the city's west borders, rapidly alternating between Patterns Orange and Yellow. The bridge techs immediately tapped into cameras nearest that location, and nobody could believe what they were seeing.

"What is this…?" Kaji murmured. "Demons?"

"We call them 'malevolent extra-planar entities'" Hocus replied. "We don't quite fully know what they are, really, or what their origins are; most people just go ahead and call them 'demons', though. We've been fighting them for a little while now."

"Away teams, this is Colonel Holland" a man's voice cut into the comm. channel. "Change of plans: divert course from NERV and get over to the site of the incursion. Keep those things out of the city!"

"Roger that, sir" the other dropship's pilot replied. "Echo-419 diverting course, Gamma Team onboard."

"Kilo-23 diverting course, Sigma Team onboard."

"I'll have Theta Team and Lancer Team on standby in case things get hairy" Col. Holland said.

"Target hostiles in sight," Foehammer said, "preparing to deploy. All right, girls; get set to come out swingin'."

"Thinning the herd" Hocus said, and the NERV viewers watched the viewscreen as the two dropships came into view, large guns unfurling from their 'chins' and firing a torrent of heavy fire that cut into the enemy, killing around half of them. The two dropships then swiveled around, setting down to hover a few feet above the ground as their rear hatches opened.

"Touchdown! Hit it, teams!"

13 people emerged from the ships, all of them in full-body armor and wielding various weapons; one of them had a vaguely non-human profile, and was wielding honest-to-goodness lightsabers. The NERV crew watched as this baker's-dozen of people proceeded to effortlessly carve through the monsters. It took less than two minutes to wipe them out.

"Area clear, sir" a girl's voice said.

"Excellent work, Gamma-1" Col. Holland replied. "NERV Command, I assume you've been observing?"

"Affirmative" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki replied.

"We request permission to meet with your people, at a location of your choosing. I'll be on my way down myself once you give us a location. Gamma and Sigma Teams will be there as well. …Sigma-4 dearly wishes to see the Evangelion pilots again."

"Again?" Misato asked. "Wait… Kirishima?"

"That's right; she's part of Sigma Team. We'll explain later."

"Direct your dropships to the field near Geofront Access Point 7-B" Commander Ikari said. "Aoba, send them the coordinates."

"Y-Yes, sir"

-SCENE BREAK-

Outskirts of Tokyo-3

Near Geofront Access Point 7-B

20 Minutes Later

Nine people – Shinji, Asuka, Rei, Misato, Kaji, Ritsuko, Maya, and (slightly surprisingly) the Commander and Sub-Commander – stood in the grassy field, awaiting the coalition's "delegation". It wasn't long before Kilo-23 and Echo-419 flew into the clearing, setting down nearby. Their rear hatches opened, and seven people emerged from Echo-419 while six came out of Kilo-23. Each and every one of them was still clad in identity-concealing full-body armor, but one of the six from Kilo-23 immediately headed toward the three pilots.

"Ikari! Ayanami! Sōryū!" Mana shouted as she removed her helmet. "Damn glad to see you three are still alive an' kicking!"

"Mana-san!" Shinji said with mild surprise. "What in the world… or should I say 'worlds'… have you been up to?"

"Oh, you know…" the girl replied. "Fighting demons, pirates, and rogue Intelligence operatives; becoming part of a multi-dimensional space-faring alliance; having my internal cybernetics overhauled and replaced by vastly technologically superior components by the UNSC; those sorts of things."

"I'm glad to see you're okay" the boy said with a warm smile. Mana didn't fully understand why she felt her face heat up a bit in response.

The rest of the teams walked up. "Which of you are the highest-ranking?" Misato asked them.

"We are" Aqua said as she and Teana stepped forward. "I'm TSAB Second Lieutenant Aqua Acionna, leader of Sigma Team."

"And I'm UNSC Second Lieutenant Teana Uchiha-Lanstar, leader of Gamma Team."

The woman nodded. "Major Misato Katsuragi, operations director for NERV" she said. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Our commanding officers, Army Colonel Urban Holland and Navy Captain Zhal Arum, should be arriving in a few minutes" Teana said.

"So what's with the armor?" Asuka asked.

"Powered armor" Mana replied. "Provides energy shields, strength enhancement – the degree of which varies by model and type –, vacuum sealing for hazardous environments, and the helmet's HUD is equipped with shield indicator, ammo counter, motion tracker, and a special system called 'VISR' that I'll tell you more about later."

"So what do you girls look like under there?" Misato asked.

"It varies" Mana replied. "A bit interesting, though: Teana-san looks a little like Asuka."

The group, especially Asuka, looked to the red-armored figure. Teana responded by removing her helmet, allowing her long red-orange hair to spill free, her blue eyes looking out at them.

"I'd say more than a little" Ritsuko said.

"…This is a little weird" Asuka said as she and Teana stared at each other. The older girl gave a small smirk in response.

"Though our blue-haired girl's hair is a darker blue than your blue-haired girl's" Teana said. "And yours doesn't look like she's nearly as… enthusiastic."

Rei's eyebrow quirked up just a tiny bit. Subaru proceeded to walk over, pulling her own helmet off, her blue-green eyes sparkling with life as she shot a big, friendly grin at the pilots.

"Those are interesting armor suits" Fuyutsuki said, thinking aloud. "They look more advanced than that which your other squadmates are wearing."

"Subaru and I are wearing MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor, Mark-7" Teana said. "We're the only ones between either of the squads capable of wearing it, due to our cybernetic enhancements – I have carbide ceramics grafted to my bones, while her internal augmentations are different yet come out to the same durability. If anyone without such abnormally strengthened bones were to try to use Mjolnir Armor, the reactive liquid crystal layer and force multiplication functions would… Well, there's an old video of the Mark-4's testing; it shows a man trying out a Mjolnir Suit. He moved his arm, and the bones snapped. That caused him to spasm in pain, which made more bones break, which made him jerk in pain again, which broke more bones, which… It ended in a long, drawn-out, and very painful death."

A few of the NERV people shuddered at the mental images.

"What's interesting about MJOLNIR" Mana said "is that the wearer synchronizes with it pretty much the same way the Eva pilots synch with their Evangelions."

"What?" Ritsuko's attention was thoroughly drawn to the two newcomers; although he was silent, Gendō was listening intently as well.

"There's a neural interface implant in the back of my skull" Teana said. "It links with my armor when I'm wearing it. Basically, I just think about moving my arm," she lifted her hand, "and the armor & my arm move together, as one, rather than my arm just moving and bringing the armor with it like 'normal' armor. It makes for vastly increased reaction times. You'd… have to ask the armor's designer, Dr. Catherine Halsey, if you want the detailed specifics."

It was at this point that another Pelican dropship, reading Beta-511, flew into the clearing, setting down. From the back hatch emerged an armed guard force of six ODSTs, followed by two figures. The first was wearing a light-grey military uniform with the insignia of a Colonel. He had crew-cut black hair (with a few hints of grey) and dark-brown eyes. The second figure caused the NERV group's jaws to drop (except Gendō and Rei, and even then their eyebrows rose). It was a saurian-looking biped, standing at least 2.6 meters tall, his lower jaw in the form of four toothy mandibles, hands with two standard digits and two opposable thumbs each, and digitigrade legs ending in hoofed feet. He was clad in a dark-grey bodysuit over which was worn pristine white armor, with a fairly impressive headpiece/helmet. Stuck onto his chestpiece was the insignia of a Naval Captain.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Aqua said, "I present to you UNSC Colonel Urban Holland and Sangheili Alliance Shipmaster Zhal Arum, the two commanding officers of the coalition vessel, the Forerunner-built M-class destroyer Starshot."

The head of NERV stepped forward. "Gendō Ikari, Commander of NERV" he introduced himself with a calm, even tone with the barest hint of passive hostility hidden within.

"Kōzō Fuyutsuki, Sub-Commander" the older man introduced himself, noticeably more cordial and friendly than his superior.

"Right, then" Holland said. "Who should go over the details first?"

"I would assume you lot have a more interesting story to tell" Fuyutsuki said.

"Indeed" Zhal replied, his calm, smooth baritone catching by surprise those of NERV expecting some guttural growl or something. "There is much to discuss."

"Mana, if you want to hang out with the pilots during all this…" Aqua said.

"Sure!" Mana replied, heading over to Shinji, Asuka, and Rei.

"Long story short," Holland said, "we are, as Kilo-23 explained, a coalition of several spacefaring civilizations from across various dimensional realms – some are human, others are not. All told, we include 12 sapient species, including three different subspecies of human."

"Subspecies?" Ritsuko asked.

"Yes: Homo sapiens sapiens, or baseline humans; Homo sapiens sanguinus, or the Lucavi, none of whom are present at the moment; and…" he looked to Kaede Kanade, Sigma-5, who removed her helmet to reveal her hot-pink hair and cat-ear-shaped horns "Homo sapiens diclonius, the Diclonii."

"What are the other species?" Maya asked.

"The Sangheili, the Unggoy, the Lekgolo, the Kig-Yar – well, some of them –, the Protoss, the Drakonians, the Jalaxians, the Rigellians, the Kyyreni, the Elvaan, and the Aspatrians. Gamma-6, Ahsoka Tano, is also the sole coalition member of the Togrutans, another species. …I should also note that the Elvaan, though not humans, are physiologically nearly identical, and in fact are genetically identified as members of the Homo genus – Homo longevinus."

"But they can't produce fertile offspring with Homo sapiens?" Ritsuko asked.

"Correct, which marks them as a separate species."

"Humans are dominant amongst the coalition in terms of population percentage" Zhal Arum said, "though my people carry a… somewhat disproportionate amount of power and leverage."

"That's because the Sangheili Alliance has the largest and most technologically advanced navy out of any of the coalition's member factions," Teana cut in, "in addition to the largest percentage of their overall species population to serve in the armed forces."

"Indeed" the Shipmaster said. "We are a very martial people; every Sangheili citizen has some degree of combat training, for males a term of military service is encouraged to varying degrees in some Keeps and compulsory in others, and those who do not fight often fulfill noncombat roles that, in one way or another, help those that do."

"Hey, that reminds me" Teana said. "Shipmaster, why have I only ever seen a handful of Sangheili females?"

"Fertile females who have yet to mother a child are forbidden from military service" Arum replied. "Those who have mothered at least one are permitted noncombat roles. Those who have mothered multiple children, and those who are infertile, are given the option to serve on the front lines. …Attempting to pressure them to make one choice or the other is heavily stigmatized against; it must be of their own will."

"What about those who give birth to twins? I mean, considering how your people hold twins in reverence…"

"Your people… revere twins?" Kaji asked Zhal, slightly confused.

"Not… quite" Zhal replied. "Compared to you humans, multiple births are extremely rare amongst Sangheili – less than 10% percent the natural rate of human twin births. And of those few, less than half are identical twins. Due to their rarity and other factors, amongst my people twins are seen as sacred, blessed, gifts from the gods. This view extends to non-Sangheili twins, including humans; Gamma-2, the girl Shion, is one of a set of identical twin sisters, and thus she is seen as rather… special by us." He turned to Teana. "And as for your question, we know how extremely rare twin births are, and thus that the chances of a female who has mothered one set will give birth to another are astronomically small. The same customs apply to them as do to other females."

"Moving on," Col. Holland said, "Kirishima mentions you folks have a bit of a giant monster problem on your hands."

"You could say that, yes" Kaji replied. "Ever since our Second Impact…"

"Uh, yeah," Mana cut in, "I should mention something, you guys: our Earth is apparently the only one where something like Second Impact happened."

This caught the NERV-goers by mild surprise.

"Yeah, most of these girls come from Earths where something like that never happened. On Marie, Sarah, & Mai's Earth, Shion's Earth, Fuyō's Earth, and Kanade's Earth, it's apparently on all four around late 2011 or early 2012, and their human populations each recently hit the 7-billion mark."

Misato's eyes went wide.

"How many humans are on this Earth?" Holland asked.

"About two-and-a-quarter billion" Kaji replied. "We were at six billion just before Second Impact happened 15 years ago."

"You lost 3.75 billion people in just 15 years?" Aqua asked, incredulous.

"No" Commander Ikari replied. "We lost more than even that in only four years, as a result of the Second Impact's effects, the climatic shifts that followed, and the several massive wars that those in turn triggered. We were brought down to 1.95 billion, and slowly built our population back up to where we are now in the aftermath."

"Yeah, none of the other Earths we know of have suffered like that" Teana said. "Though… recently the UNSC's Earth got some bruises – a lot of wrecked cities, a 970-kiloton fusion warhead detonated in central Antarctica that didn't really do as much damage as you'd expect, and the African nation of Kenya got burned to ash & glass by low-orbit ship-grade plasma weapon bombardment, as did portions of its neighbors. They're presently at around five billion people, because the UNSC have had interstellar colonies for centuries, and thus plenty of time and space to spread humanity out amongst. My & Subaru's homeworld, Midchilda, has around four billion people for the same reason – lots of worlds to fit our 11.5 billion people without cramming everyone on a single planet."

By this point, the ODST squad, with support from parts of Gamma and Sigma, had managed to set up a good-sized wall-less tent and a handful of decently-comfortable-looking chairs.

"Perhaps we should all have a seat while we finish explanations" Holland said. "It can't be comfortable standing in this Sun the whole time."

-SCENE BREAK-

Aboard the Starshot

That Evening (1940 Hours)

Col. Holland sighed as he leaned against a wall in the bridge. The two sides' explanations had taken up most of the day. Now, everyone was off doing their own thing. He and Arum were in the bridge, going over in their heads what they'd been told; Teana and Aqua, the two team leaders, were there was well, quietly conversing.

Suddenly, the bridge door opened, and a man strode through, blue armor with yellow panels.

"Agent Washington?" Holland asked. "What is it, son?"

"They didn't tell you everything" Wash replied. "Not by a long shot."

The leaders of Gamma and Sigma Teams came forward. "What do you mean?" Aqua asked.

"You know how in Marie's world, the adventures of the Blood-Gulch Crew, and of the Master Chief, are fictional? Turns out it can work both ways. …There was an old show – like, really old – that I've watched through a few times. I think you guys need to know some details about it."

Zhal Arum stepped forward. "Very well, Agent. Regale us."

Washington took a deep breath. "I'll tell you four about an old, end-of-the-20th-century show I used to watch, called Neon Genesis Evangelion…"

-CHAPTER END-

Next time: a new pilot and a revelation regarding bloodlines.