"They called us the Lost Generation. They said the world had ended only a few years before we were born. They even wondered if we would ever have anything to live for. These past few months I've been wondering if they were wrong about that.

"Then again… I don't think I do. Not anymore.

"Not anymore."

---

In the year two thousand and fifteen, everything was about to change. Something immense and powerful awoke for the first time, deep beneath the red seas of Earth, amidst the sunken cities. When it rushed to the surface, causing immense tidal waves to spread out in every direction, and saw the sun for the first time, the world was unaware.

Unaware of a forty meter high humanoid creature, something that seemed to be emaciated to the point of starvation. Its ribs protruded from its skin, showing the white to mark against its black, leathery skin. Gills were placed along its sides, breathing in and out periodically as it swam along. Its arms and claws made no motion as it moved. Its face, a skull mask, was expressionless.

In forty minutes, the time it would take the creature to cross the intervening ocean between it and Japan, the world would change irrevocably.

---

Though unaware, the world was not unprepared for this inevitability. Along the coast in the region of Nebukawa was a simple defense line of tanks, ready to counteract any conventional attack on Japanese soil.

The reader, of course, should be well aware that this beast would not be attacking conventionally. A nearby bird seemed to be aware of this fact as well, for rather than sticking on its perch, it rapidly flew away, calling out a warning to other creatures a few moments before the immense splash that marked the beast surfacing again.

The humanoid creature stood upright, towering over its human opponents, and slowly walked to the shore. The tanks fired quickly, letting out an electronic pulse every few seconds. Each shot either curved away from the beast or detonated harmlessly a few feet from it.

In the last seconds of his life, one tank operator made a desperate radio to headquarters. "We're not affecting it at all!"

Command wasted no time in issuing their order. Sadly, "Fall back! Let the Second Line hand-" was the only part of it that reached that tank. Immediately afterward, the beast kicked it away, destroying it upon landing. It continued, quickly crushing or kicking the tanks, which were far too slow to get away.

---

At HQ, the commanding officers watched a video feed, stunned. Finally, one stood up in anger, shouting, "Damn that thing! It wasn't even touched!"

Standing to the side of the commanding officers was a different sort of man, wearing nothing that suggested any military authority besides his jacket. Despite this, he watched the disaster with an air of absolute power. The failure of the tanks didn't faze him in the least. "As I said," he commented softly, "the Angels are not affected by conventional weaponry."

A second officer glared at him. "And how the hell would you know that, Ikari?"

Ikari smiled coolly. Everything about him, from his orange-tinted glasses, to his facial hair, to his modest but formal attire, radiated contempt. "Our research on the previous Angel, of course."

In the vast Command Center of HQ, a room built like the front of a battleship (in shape and scale), these four men kept at the absolute peak. On the tier below them, three technicians worked on their computers urgently.

"The Angel completely annihilated the First Line," the female of the three commented. She was Ibuki Maya, normally an individual who worked on keeping the vast computer networks of HQ working. Today, she had found herself monitoring a horrific battlefield, her brown eyes widening with each death.

"The Second Line is deploying," the man in the middle added. He was Hyuga Makoto, the only one who really had received training for this. Today though, he too was horrified at what he saw.

The third one, Aoba Shigeru, pointed out the thing that everyone in the room was thinking at that very moment. "Sir, the Second Line is unlikely to make any difference."

Ikari, the one he had been speaking to, nodded and turned to the military generals. "Generals? Do you have a suggestion, or shall we continue to throw human after human at them?"

The general who had stood up sat down again, uncomfortable. Ikari wasn't technically in charge here, was he? The general realized that where his jurisdiction began had never been properly established by the United Nations.

"Yes, of course… Your Project E…" the third general muttered.

The first sighed. "We'll approve its activation, but if this scenario fails…"

"We're taking over again."

Ikari nodded, completely unconcerned by the prospect of failure. "Of course." He turned to the three technicians. "Tell Doctor Akagi to begin preparations immediately."

On the monitor, the camera picked up the beast called an Angel beginning to move again. Time was running out.

"It's been fifteen years," Ibuki whispered.

Hyuga heard, and replied, even softer, "And now it's starting again…"

Ikari, though he could not have heard them, seemed to know exactly what they'd said. "We will fight them until we have won this battle. Prepare to launch Unit Zero."

All three generals and all three technicians were afraid.