Sergeant Bruce Cranmer
Head Technical Director, NERV Transom
Status - En route to Transom, Location NERV Battle Fleet, Replacing former Technical Director Kazaki Miyo
Objectives - Offical: Take over duties as Technical Director, Unofficial: Classified
High above the Atlantic Ocean, soaring through the clouds, something roared.
Emerging from the upper layer of Cumulonimbus, an small transport aircraft, brightly coloured and fast, zoomed towards its destination carrying its semi-precious cargo. The plane was a Bombardier CRT-500-2 executive passenger turboprop. A unique design, it's propeller blades were mounted aft of the Pratt & Whitney turbine engines in a pusher prop configuration. Its orange, black and white paintwork was blemished by just one small spot of red on its vertical tailplane. A number on its canards denoted it as "06".
Bruce Cranmer sat alone inside. The only other people aboard was the flight-crew and a single, seemingly lifeless stewardess. Despite his new navy-blue NERV uniform, not one of them had shown him an ounce of respect. They only wore the standard beige overalls, yet it seemed they were either ignorant to his rank, or being spiteful as they were on punishment duty... or something like that. Cranmer really didn't know how the Fleet did things. Commander Jaeger (sounded German, actually an American bloke) was a mystery to him. All he knew about the man was that he replaced the late Commander Ikari when the latter was killed in a shady incident. Typical, NERV's first command casualty and it's not even time yet.
Other than that glaringly obvious thing, Jaeger was damned lucky to have the top spot in NERV's command structure. It's pride and joy and the reason NERV existed.
Fifteen Years ago, the 'Welcome to NERV!' booklet read, an event all people on Earth know as Second Impact occurred It destroyed the continent of Antarctica, wiped out approximately half of all human life and close to 75% of all wildlife. Officially, this disaster was caused by a meteorite crashing into the Southern continent at a speed close to the Speed of Light. However, the truth has been kept from the public to protect them.
We know for a fact that Second Impact was not caused by an errant asteroid. In fact, an expedition to Antarctica discovered a strange being frozen in the ice. Believed dead, the creature was thawed, only for it to regain consciousness. Its subsequent self-destruction brought about Second Impact. This being, code-named The First Angel, is the reason NERV exists. This organisation exists to fight the Angels.
We know more are coming. The First Angel failed in it's mission to destroy humanity. Since then, another Angel has been unearthed, still dormant and destroyed. A Third is coming. We don't know when. But we know it is for certain.
We have the mankind's only hope of survival... We have the EVA's.
"Sergeant Cranmer?" The pilot's voice came over the intercom, "We have cleared the final cloud layer. We have arrived."
Bruce looked out of the pusher prop's tiny window. True to the Pilot's word, the plane had descended rapidly and now the ocean's surface was in sight.
*Battle of Britain OST - Aces High March*
There it was. The NERV Battle Fleet. A myriad of vessels from all different countries. Made up of Pre- and Post-Impact warships, the Fleet was nonetheless, a formidable sight. Right at the centre of the churning waters, a huge red ship nosed its way through the tumultuous seas. Until a few years ago, this massive vessel had been Knock Nevis, the worlds largest supertanker and ship overall. Now having outlived its usefulness as a carrier of crude oil, it had been laid up for scrap as a hulk called Mont. It presented a perfect opportunity for a Command and Control Vessel. They made it the fifth Anti-Angel Unit and named it Ramiel. It's official designation was The Transom. To many outside NERV, it was NERV Central outside NERV Central. All the functionality of the Tokyo-3 branch, just compacted.
So it was sold to NERV. Who hollowed it out, stripped it and refitted it. Now it was barely recognisable. Its once bare decks were filled up with six massive ovoid objects. Yellow light pulsed inside and immediately Cranmer knew what these were: N2 Reactors. Nuclear capability for the price of zero radiation poisoning.
To either side, brightly coloured destroyers sailed. The lack of exhaust from their smokestacks signified they were unpowered. Closer inspection showed the links to the Transom holding them in check. There were four, one blue, one silver, one black and the last painted a garish purple. In the distance, a black and green aircraft carrier chugged. Alongside, a Russian submarine kept watch, the Roman Numeral VI upon its conning tower.
"Tower Approach, this is Transport 06, requesting permission to boom-and-zoom cargo on the Transom." For some reason, the pilot had allowed radio traffic to be heard in the cabin.
"Roger 06. Tower confirms. Approach Vector 920 on 34. Transom recognises." A nasal sounding woman replied cryptically.
"Affirmative. Landing approach on Transom confirmed." Landing on the Transom? If he wasn't mistaken, Bruce was pretty sure he had not seen a single flat surface on the former supertanker. Unless of course, you counted the walls of the superstructure. In a panic, he unclipped his seatbelt and ran up to the flight-deck door.
*BANG BANG BANG!*
"Wait, we can't land on that thing!" he protested, "It has no flight deck. We''ll just crash and become another set of obituaries!"
"Sergeant Cranmer!" The pilot shouted in return, "Everything is under control! Please return to your seat." A hand grabbed the crook of his arm. Surprised, he turned to find the 'sleepy' stewardess smiling coyly at him. 'That' smile that Pan-Am had perfected.
Seconds later, he was back in the seat, belt engaged. His breathing pattern grew irregular as the plane descended, flaps and landing gear whining as they were lowered.
"Hello and welcome to the last stage of your flight!" Cranmer jumped as a TV screen suddenly switched on in front of him and a woman began talking with a voice long since recognised as a cliché, "You may have concerns about landing on the Transom Unit. Please refer to this simple animation and watch all your apprehensions wash away!" The 'simple' animation replaced the far-too-happy-for-her-job girl and instantly showed how the pusher-prop would be landing. As advertised, Cranmers allusions to the plane crashing were misguided.
"Oh yes," he mused, "I forgot."
The Transom clunked. Not just a simple *clunk* but more like a *CHHHHHHHHHHH-CHUNK!* Heavy gantries lowered from the ships deck and attached themselves to the side below the waterline. With another ear-splitting report, they began lifting massive armour plates from the sea at a speed Usain Bolt would be jealous of. Slapping into place on top of the N2 Reactors, they continued until there was a flat surface running the entire length of the ship from the superstructure forward. With a glare of light, the plates were sealed and the Transom's flight-deck was operational.
The CRT-500 descended further. It passed over the Transom's funnel's before touching down, tires squealing. The ship was long enough for there to be no need for an arrestor hook and the plane came to a stop with brakes only.
*End Music*
"Transom, this is 06. Cargo has arrived. The new Tech-Dec is here." The pilot announced proudly. Cranmer looked over at the closed flight-deck door with an odd look.
"Tech-Dec?!"
999999
The flight deck was, unsurprisingly empty. It was lonely, there just being four people and a small passenger plane being on top. He had orders to wait for the Commander, from a Captain Katsuragi. One thing he had noticed, there were a lot of Japanese names in the organisation. Had it really taken this long to notice that?
*Swoosh!* An unexpected box appeared in the middle of the deck. Then it opened up, revealing three people inside it. Cranmer still had no idea whatsoever how the shipbuilders got this elevator to function. He had never seen any specs on the cross-section for the wells it worked inside.
The lift's occupiers exited the cramped box, leaving it to close and retract back into it's recess. A wiry, grey-haired man, wearing an important looking uniform stepped forward. The epaulettes on his shoulders gave away his rank: Vice-Commander. Kozo Fuyutsuki, former college lecturer turned military leader. He had been slated to replace Ikari when he was killed, but for reasons that most did not know, that didn't happen. Seeing him here was enough to make Cranmer snap to attention.
"Sergeant Cranmer, Welcome aboard Ramiel," Fuyutsuki announced with a flat, accented tone, "I am Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki."
A tall woman, with shocking purple hair and red uniform jacket to boot, saluted, before she stepped up to Bruce with a genuine smile on her face,
"Captain Misato Katsuragi at your service! Or rather," The smile faded, "You're at my service, so start polishing my boots!" she ordered.
Cranmers eyes widened in surprise, "Pardon me, ma'am?!"
"I'm just kidding! Learn to take a joke." Katsuragi harrumphed.
"Sorry, ma'am, the military training seems to have dulled down my sense of humour. Perhaps I should polish that as well?"
"Enough," said the third person forcefully, "No time for these silly games." Misato looked at the man, the phrase 'you're no fun' singing out of every pore.
"For the Captain of the largest vessel on Earth, you don't take things seriously enough, Katsuragi." Fuyutsuki criticized.
"Anyway. Pleasure to meet you Sergeant Cranmer. I am Commander Marcus Jaeger," the second man introduced himself, "Forgive Misato-san, she's a good soldier, but lets herself get carried away whenever she's off-duty. Hell, she gets carried away when she's on-duty sometimes! Please, at-ease. I'm sure you'll want the grand tour and to see your station."
"Yes Sir. I don't like waiting to get started."
"Then if you'll follow us into the elevator," Katsuragi ushered, "The tour will begin!"
*Evangelion- 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone OST - Première Manœuvre*
The elevator car emerged from the abyss in the ceiling. Sailing down towards the floor, it slowed and came to a stop, before sliding along a set of suspended rails. The doors opened.
When they did, Cranmer's jaw dropped in awe.
"Sergeant, allow me to introduce you to our main hanger bay."
The bay was simply huge. It seemed to give a bigger on the inside effect given the sheer volume of equipment inside. Tanks, planes, armoured cars, helicopters and even a torpedo boat was in there.
"Is that," he began, "A B-52 Stratofortress?" Sure enough, one of America's eight engined behemoths, garish orange in colour, sat on a platform, technicians working inside its bomb-bay.
"Yes," Misato answered, "That's Sahaquiel, the Tenth in it's line. Over there you can see the Third, Seventh and Sixteenth." Cranmer looked over in the direction the Captain was pointing. Two black Russian helicopters and a pure white Harrier jump-jet were parked in bays, engine inlets covered with brightly marked covers.
"The ANGEL Units?" he questioned, "I thought they became obselete when the EVA's went online."
"Given the power of The First Angel, we need every war machine we can get our hands on," Fuyutsuki responded, "With the UN slowly whittling down our budget, we couldn't afford to scrap them."
The elevator slowly passed by a bright red Leopard battle tank. It's turret side was emblazoned with two numbers: 02.
"Which ANGEL is that?"
"That's no ANGEL," Jaeger put in, "That's one of the EVA's. Specifically Ground Unit 02 of Battle Group 02, specialized for Ground Combat."
"If that belongs to Group 02... where is the rest of them?"
"Group 02 is currently out on exercise in the North Sea. They will be returning in a few short weeks." Katsuragi answered. There was a little gleam in hers eyes, almost as if she didn't know whether to be grateful or scared that they were coming back.
The elevator car was nearing the end of its sightseeing trip. Bruce caught just one last glimpse of a blue tank with a girl dressed in white sitting atop it.
*End Music*
She was odd. Her hair was blue.
The car settled into place on the far end of the hanger wall. The doors opened with a swoosh.
"Oh Ritsuko!" Misato meeped nervously.
On cue, a lab-coat-wearing Japanese woman with dyed blonde hair stepped into the elevator, face-to-face with Captain Katsuragi. She was wearing one of those smiles that happens if you happen to be annoyed at someone.
"Captain Katsuragi," Ritsuko announced, "You missed your Physical. Another fifteen minutes and we were going to send a search party. You're lucky I came to find you myself."
"Hmm, Sorry!" Misato said in a girly tone, raising a hand in front of her face. The other woman sighed deeply.
"So this is the new Tech-Dec, huh?" she asked.
"Yep! Sergeant Bruce Cranmer is his name." Bruce looked up from his Welcome to Nerv! booklet at this.
"Sorry, what?"
"You're the new Tech-Dec. You'd better start getting used to the nickname, because it's not going away." Misato said helpfully.
"Why Tech-Dec?"
Jaeger spoke up, "Because a few years ago, our then Technical Director reported to duty drunk out of his skull, then went around boasting he was the Technical Decorator. Tech-Dec for short."
Jaeger and the two women would've laughed their butts off at the memory of a man walking around shouting he was a decorator of technical stuff. Would've if Fuyutsuki hadn't stepped in with a casual comment,
"The next stop is mine. I have important duties to attend to. I shall see you 'around' Mr Cranmer." He said it all quickly and flatly. It was quite the mood-killer. Working as intended, some might say.
"I'm Doctor Ritsuko Akagi by the way. Pleased to meet you." she stretched out a hand. Bruce willingly took it.
"SO Cranmer," Jaeger said suddenly, "Since you are going to be the one keeping the EVA's up to spec, I suppose you'll need to meet the Commanders and the pilots."
"Uhhh, yes I suppose so."
"Good, I like an enthusiastic man!" All he got were strange looks as he strolled over to a wall-mounted comm-panel. Add a few sparkly lights and make his uniform bright yellow and hey presto, you were illegally recreating Star Trek.
"This is Jaeger." Jaeger's voice said over the internal PDA, "Requesting all available Evangelion pilots and Commanders to report to Transom Briefing room in 15 minutes."
*Transom Briefing Room, 15 minutes later*
28. That was the number of people on that room, excluding Jaeger, Katsuragi, Akagi and Cranmer.
Cranmer whistled,
"That's a lot of pilots."
Jaeger nudged him,
"This isn't all of them, mind you. Six of them are with Group 02 and two are still with Sea Unit 05."
"Why haven't they come aboard then?"
"Just wait and see."
So Bruce waited and saw.
Two women simply materialised in the middle of the room. Bruce jumped back in surprise.
"Fuck me! Is that hologram technology?"
"Only the best!" one of the holo women smiled.
"Pilots! Stand to ATTeeen-SHUN!" Boots clapped together when Jaeger gave the command. All but six of the mass of people were instantly at attention.
"Commanders! Take position, Forward!"
The six stepped forward. Cranmer was wide-eyed as he recognised one of them.
"Commanders, Reeeee-PORT!" The six snapped to attention, saluted and began introducing themselves.
"Rei Ayanami, Commander, Group 00!" the blue-haired girl said quietly, but forcefully
"Shinji Ikari, Commander, Group 01!" a wiry young man said dutifully.
"Toji Suzuhara, Commander, Group 03!" an athletic man shouted with a little too much volume.
"Kensuke Aida, Commander, Group 04!" a guy with glasses shouted in military form.
"Hikari Horaki, Vice-Commander, Group 05!" a freckled young lady announced with a tone that suggested prior experience.
"Mari Illustrious Makinami, Commander, Group 05!" The final woman, the holo-woman from before, said in a way that seemed to denote she enjoyed her job a little too much.
"Everyone, At EASE!"
"Psst!" a whisper in his ear caught Bruce's attention, "There is one final Commander. You should be glad she's not here yet, because once she learns you're the new Tech-Dec, she'll be convinced you're fixing her EVA's the wrong way. In a word, she'll make it her mission to make your life hell."
"Why?" Bruce whispered back.
"How the hell should I know? It's just the way she is."
The end of a short first chapter (well, at least it felt short).
Don't worry. This fic will not be focused purely on Mr Cranmer and Mr Jaeger. I am simply introducing two OC's that play a major part.
Omake
The AUTHOR (Fanatica) is seen standing in a room, surrounded by Evangelion characters.
He speaks to them,
AUTHOR
Erm, why are you looking at me that way?
MISATO (Looking angry)
You write the first chapter of a new story and you don't focus it on the pilots?
AUTHOR
So?
SHINJI
The point of virtually every EVA fanfic out there is to talk about how I get mindfucked, how I fall in love with Asuka and how we all live after Third Impact.
AUTHOR
Some of them. Not 'virtually all'. Just a few. I mean there is at least seven and a half thousand EVA fic out there, isn't that enough?
REI
No.
GENDO
I mean, what's with the EVA's being damn war machines? How is my Yui supposed to survive in a battle tank? And why am I dead?! Everyone knows how totally evil I am!
OFFSTAGE VOICE
Speaking of war machines...
MIHO NISHIZUMI and her crew from GIRLS UND PANZER crash through the walls in a tank.
MIHO
You promised you would get the next chapter of our fanfic up next! But instead you've put up this and given another chapter to that ridiculous Asuka thing!
YUKARI AKIYAMA
How can you leave your GuP fans with just seven chapters?!
AUTHOR
Actually, I believe it's eight-
SAORI TAKEBE
Doesn't matter! The fact is it's still not finished! I could never love a man so ignorant to his people's needs!
Several more characters from unfinished fics walk in. These include HAN SOLO, ELIZABETH LOCHLEY, the OC ALEXANDER ROGERS, KYLE BLUEMAN, HICCUP HORRENDOUS HADDOCK III and HEATHER BROWN/SPINNERETTE.
HAN
You say you're a good man, yet you never finished have the stuff you started!
ALEX
Hear hear! You've put me in two fics and neither are anywhere close to being finished!
KYLE
I thought you loved CHERUB, mate. Why haven't the grace to say you're not bothered with it any-more?
HEATHER
I thought you loved my web-comic Fanatica! It was my belief you wanted to continue that crossover fic I star in.
HICCUP
I'm not even gonna say anything meaningful, because you know you have done wrong!
AUTHOR
Shut up already! I go through stages alright! I like thing, then I like another, then another, so on, so on. Perhaps I'm too damn lazy, perhaps I can't bothered or perhaps I don't bloody know how to put things into writing! I get good ideas, then I conveniently forget them!
A wild FANATIC and HOSHI SATO appear.
FANATIC
Whereas I don't!
HOSHI
Anyway, you're all wrong. He has finished something. I'm proof of that.
ALL THE CAHARCTERS
SHUT UP! Fanatica wasn't the one who wrote that stupid Star Trek Enterprise fic!
ASUKA
Besides, that was only one chapter, so it was easy to finish.
HOSHI
Well, what about that Homeworld one?
MARI
Pfft, only finished because he couldn't be bothered to write anything more for it.
HELEN PARR and VIOLET PARR walk in hand-in-hand.
HELEN
Perhaps you should let Fanatic take over the channel once more and let him spread glorious futanari filled content across the interweb!
Everyone (except FANATIC) looks at HELEN and VIOLET in horror as they kiss.
AUTHOR
Look guys, would you rather Fanatic takes over and spams futa, or I do all the writing and do not a lot of sensible stuff?
FANATIC
Hey, what's wrong with my stuff?
CHLOE ARMSTRONG from SGU comes along, looking how she did before FANATICA thankfully got rid of the disgusting part of Chapter 2.
GENDO
My god! My EYES!
GENDO IKARI runs off stage holding his popped-out eyeballs in his hands.
ASUKA LANGLEY SORYU screams.
ASUKA
Oh my god! No. NO! NOOOOOOOOO!
ASUKA runs into the AUTHOR's arms and crumples.
ASUKA
Please! Come back! Give me as many arms and tits as you want, just don't turn me into THAT!
The AUTHOR strokes ASUKA's head.
AUTHOR
Don't worry. I won't do anything like that.
ELIZABETH
Well it looks like he's won favour in the court.
THE BEAST
FeeeEeeeeEedddD SOooooOOooOoonNn
The AUTHOR looks at THE BEAST forlornly.
AUTHOR
I think it's about time this omake ended before it really loses cohesion and makes no sense whatsoever.
THE BEAST
NnnnnnnnooooOOoOoOoOoOooooooooOoOoooOooooOOoOooOOo OooOooOOoooooooooooooooooooooooOOoOOoOOoOo-
THE END OF ALL TIME AND EVERYTHINGNESS
READER
Fuuuck, finally it's over, I'm never going to read this guy again.
The READER looks at themself, then at the omake.
READER
Aww, come on!
THE END
No really
The End
COMING SOON ON FANATICA'S STORY LIST
OBLIVION PROJECT
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA x HOMEWORLD
GIRLS UND PANZER: SISTERLY BONDS CHAPTER 8... OR 9... OR 7... OR 31... OK it's number 5
NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: THE DEFILEMENT OF ASUKA LANGLEY SORYU CHAPTER 5; MIND BREAK CHAPTER 3; THE TRANSOM CHAPTER 2
FANATICA'S FIRST FIC - BABYLON 5: OMEGA
AND ROUND OF APPLAUSE) HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: LONE WARRIOR CHAPTER SOMETHINGORATHER (number8)
And something with TANKS!