"It would appear they've decided to deny anyone the use of Tokyo-3's MAGI system," SEELE 04 intoned.

"Field Reports indicate the loss has compromised only a portion of their radar coverage," SEELE 06 replied, his tone conveying his displeasure.

"More disturbing is the fact that they have a second MAGI system in orbit where we cannot reach," SEELE 07 stated.

"We cannot order the Seventeenth in with those ships in position. We've all seen what damage they can do, and we've received word that they've held back their most powerful weapons, too," SEELE 11 proclaimed, his nasally voice turning it into more of a whine than he'd intended.

"The threat posed by the orbital ships will be remedied shortly. At that point, we'll order our forces in to clear the path for the Seventeenth to proceed." Keel's voice cut through the shadowy chamber with definite finality, and it took a moment for those gathered to voice their opinions after that.

"What do you intend to do?" SEELE 09 asked.

"That is not your concern. Preparations have been made to deal with just such a situation." SEELE 10 stated.

"Like your spy?" Asked SEELE 11, the question mocking.

"Enough! You all have your parts to play in the hours ahead. When next we speak, it should be as one all-powerful being," Keel ordered. There was silence in the chamber for a moment, before the Monoliths began fading, one-by-one. Finally, all that remained was SEELE 10 and Keel.

"Do you think they suspect we're coming?" SEELE 10 asked, quietly.

"You've seen the documents; despite attempts to avoid it, we've followed the 'plot' enough that even the Third Children should expect it. Begin your attack," Keel stated, his voice sounding weary for the first time.

"Are you sure what we... what I-- am about to do will be reversible?"

"If all goes as planned, not only will that and more be within our power, we'll hardly have cause to care."

"Understood." SEELE 10's monolith disappeared then, and Keel, alone now in the digital chamber he'd spent far too many hours in, took one last look at the black expanse around his digitized desk, before disconnecting for the last time.

------

"Lady Kino?" an officer called from the Combat Information Center. "We've got incoming from the north, multiple contacts inbound for Tokyo-3."

Makoto Kino turned to look at the officer for a moment, before moving over to the holographic map nearby. "Do we know what they are?" she asked.

"They're just about to reach the jamming zone surrounding the city, but SHODAN has them identified by their IFF Transponders. Looks like a mix a UN and JSSDF Aircraft. Air Superiority Fighters."

Kyle, who'd been listening in via an open communications channel, spoke up then, "what types of fighters?"

The officer glanced at the information on his screen before reading it off, "two US-made F-22 Air Superiority Fighters, two UN F-35 Strike Fighters, and a Japanese F-2."

"Beautiful," the Imperial Commander complained, while Admiral Yuki gave the order to launch TIEs.

"Ma'am!" A different officer called, his voice more urgent, "we have incoming!"

There was a rumble as everyone who had heard the exclamation declared the impossibility of anything assaulting them outside of the atmosphere.

"What is it," Makoto asked, frowning. The shields were up, but they hadn't expected anything to attack, so there was the off-chance they were facing something that might be able to circumvent them, however unlikely the possibility.

"Too fast to be manned without inertial dampers... Flight path looks primarily ballistic. Telemetry puts their launch point at somewhere in central Asia, the Qinghai Province of China."

There was silence on the bridge as that registered. "Where will it come down," Fuyutsuki asked, finally.

"Looks like the south central Pacific."

"That doesn't make any sense," Ritsuko mumbled, as she tried to get the hang of the differences between the original MAGI system and MAGI-Omega.

"Does this help?" SHODAN asked, overriding every screen to show that the projectile would pass directly between Tokyo-3 and The Nerve.

"They wouldn't!" Ritsuko hissed, a moment before another officer spoke up, his voice grim, "Radiometrics confirms it. The payload is hot."

"That's insane! At this altitude, they'll bring down every unshielded electronic device from Miyagi to Hyogo!"

"How long until it passes overhead?" Kyle asked.

"Twenty seconds, Milord."

Kyle winced, "SHODAN, what will this cost us?"

"Radio communications, contemporary systems attached to unshielded cables, and most of the civilian systems," the AI responded quickly.

"We can live with that. Everyone get ready for it," the Imperial Commander stated, as the officer quietly counted down.

As the countdown hit zero, the Chinese DF-41 ICBM passing directly over Tokyo-3 detonated, its pre-programmed targeting data indicating it had reached its destination, and the one megaton warhead in the missile's nose cone flashed before releasing its destructive nuclear power.

In the warships above the blast, multiple systems monitoring local space registered the sudden spike of Electromagnetic interference, and certain systems were shut down to prevent them from taking damage. The most important system hit, however, was both unexpected and unwelcome.

"Teleporters are down!" A young Lieutenant stated, as the flash outside died down. The Polarized Transparisteel panels had darkened immediately in response, but the glow from outside had still briefly illuminated the interior of the bridge.

In Tokyo-3, all three Evas stopped moving and turned to look up at the flash, the upper-atmospheric burst shining in the sky like a second sun. Much like the windows above, the panels displaying the world around each Eva darkened as external sensors responded to the sudden influx of light.

While most of the Imperial Systems were either shielded or operating on a technological level that rendered the blast harmless, thousands of miles of unshielded cable and tons of contemporary electronics weren't so lucky, and all over Tokyo-3, Power transformers exploded in showers of sparks, while unhardened electronics sputtered and died; the more sensitive devices smoking as delicate components were literally fried by the Electromagnetic Pulse.

"What was that?" Shinji cried, looking over at a nearby transformer that had just exploded in sparks.

"A nuclear explosion," Rei explained, as she set Unit-01 back on its course.

Further away, outside the jamming perimeter established by the Joint UN/JSSDF taskforce, the Theater Commander glanced up at the fading fireball above, and nodded grimly.

"There's our go-signal. Engage."

At those words, the shout went out, shielded field radios configured to talk through the seemingly-random jamming giving the order to hundreds of hidden Units that had painstakingly crossed Japan over the past weeks in preparation of this one attack.

"Time to take back our future," the General said, before turning to the person beside him. "We'll send you in once we've cleared a path."

The figure, a grey-haired, red-eyed child, didn't respond, merely humming quietly to himself as he watched a column of M1A2's go by.

"Outer Decoys are being painted... taking fire!" an Imperial Captain shouted, alerting everyone in the deployed garrison that the fight had officially started.

To the east, where the outermost buildings and defensive-looking structures were being systematically destroyed by explosive fire from a number of mobile howitzers, a steady rumble picked up, growing to a roar as a squadron of low-flying jet fighters flew by in an inverted-V formation.

While their radios were still full of static from the dissipating EMP, the Squadron Leader waved instructions to the other pilots from within the cockpit, and the group of jets turned south, the F-22s and -35s opening up their internal munitions bay to expose a number of GBU-39s, small-yet-powerful bombs that the planes began dropping on pre-designated targets.

"Bombing in Sector 5!"

"C-Flight is responsible for that sector. Divert them from their patrol and bring up the AA systems," General Hongo replied, looking over the tactical map and silently cursing the jamming field that let jet-based fighters get within their airspace.

"Yes, ma'am!" Someone replied, and a moment later the map showed a trio of TIE-Defenders deviating from their patrol pattern and heading towards the location of the bombings.

Outside, the bombs had managed to hit most of what the pilots had been aiming for, and the Squadron cheered as behind them, one of the skyscrapers fell into the ground, a huge rectangular hole left in its place.

"Incoming bogeys!" One of the Pilots shouted, the reflex ingrained despite the lack of radio communications. Behind and to the left, his radar showed a trio of ships coming in fast, the IFF-less craft not registering in his fighter's identification systems.

"This is C-Flight Lead, break and engage," the Leader of the Trio of TIE-Defenders stated, his communications system untouched by the EMP.

"C-2, Understood."

"C-4, Roger."

The two other TIEs broke off and accelerated, C-4 coming up behind the Mitsubishi F-2, while C-2 dropped into place behind one of the F-22s.

The aircraft broke as well, the two F-35s climbing for more altitude so they had more choices for maneuverability, while the F-22s slowed and dove, trying to lose their pursuers in between the skyscrapers. The sole F-2 in this flight pulled up to get a little height, before turning hard, bleeding off speed and sharpening the turn with a quick application of the fighter's airbrake.

C-4 smirked at the maneuver, impressed the dated-looking single-engine fighter could turn so sharply. It wasn't enough to lose the nimble TIE, however. The Space Superiority Fighter flared its starboard engines, throwing the craft into a hard left, before it shot off to stay on the tail of the F-2. Lining up for a shot before the F-2 could finish straightening out after its hard maneuver, C-4 fired, the green-tinted blasts of energy reaching out towards the enemy fighter.

"Shit," the pilot of the F-2 said, as a green lance of energy flashed by his cockpit on the left. A moment later there was a massive jarring sensation, and his cockpit went dead around him, the world outside spinning wildly. Knowing there was little time left, he reached for the ejection handle, hoping the seat wouldn't throw him into a building or the ground. Unfortunately, before he could pull the yellow handle, a second laser blast bisected the cockpit, vaporizing the remaining front end of the fighter.

"One down," C-4 intoned emotionlessly, before climbing after one of the running F-35s.

C-2 watched his target drop down and fly a mere 10 meters off the city's deserted streets. "C-2 to Command; can you retract all non-vital buildings?"

"Negative C-2, that blast destroyed most of the locking systems. The city's days of rising with the sun are over," someone replied.

C-2 grumbled an affirmative, before dropping his fighter in behind the fleeing F-22. As the two planes took off down the city streets, C-2 opened fire, the green blasts missing and blowing out a number of windows on a skyscraper. Ahead, the F-22 Pilot spotted a park- and the end of the buildings providing cover- and prepared to pull up hard, activating his afterburners and climbing for the sky.

C-2, prepared for the run for maneuvering room, modified his trajectory, and fired when the F-22 had cleared the last building. Before the Jet Fighter's Pilot could react, the energy blast passed above the jet, and the second shot impacted squarely with the body of the plane, setting off its fuel in a fireball that C-2 happily flew through.

"Strike one bandit," He cried out, before turning his attention to the radar. The other F-22 had bailed and was running, and he turned to intercept and destroy it when his Radar warning receiver went off, the audible alert punctuated by a flashing indicator on his HUD.

Behind him, the F-35 pilot smirked as he released an externally mounted AIM-120 AMRAAM, the missile streaking away to intercept the bizarre-looking craft ahead. The TIE began to turn, its maneuverability impressive, but at the range they'd been, there was little time, and the missile exploded, the warhead delivering a jet of superheated gasses ahead and into the target.

"Yes!" The F-35 pilot declared as the craft ahead disappeared within the black and orange fireball. His enthusiasm, however, died as quickly as it had appeared when the target emerged from the blast apparently unscathed, a thin blue spherical field around it shimmering once more before disappearing.

C-2's TIE was jarred harshly from the blast, the fighter's shields surprisingly damaged by the shaped-charge, and it took a second for him to regain control and realign on the fleeing F-22. Before the enemy behind him could fire again, he hit his craft's afterburners, rapidly putting distance between him and the F-35 behind him.

The F-35 pilot growled as the enemy craft suddenly accelerated at a rate nothing manned on Earth could mimic. Activating his own afterburners, the Strike Fighter accelerated again, when suddenly a green blast of charged plasma impacted his fighter from behind, C-Flight Leader taking out his second F-35, and accelerating to join C-2 in taking out the last F-22.

------

"Another ballistic incoming!"

"What?" Ritsuko cried, turning to the screen keeping The Nerve in contact with Jupiter's Thunder and Imperial forces below.

"Another from China?" Fuyutsuki asked, looking down from his seat at the top of the Bridge.

"Yes, sir."

"Will it pass above Tokyo-3 like the last one?" Makoto asked from the bridge of the Thunder.

"Yes, Lady Kino. It'll reach us in another minute."

"Damn... and the airways were just beginning to clear," Ritsuko growled.

"More incoming craft detected," another voice added.

"Ground-based sensors registering a large number of vehicles approaching Tokyo-3 from the west and north," another voice piped in.

"Deploying AT-STs and AT-PSs. Activating AT-ATs," General Hongo stated, nodding to a nearby Major to call up the indicated forces and start sending them out to engage.

"Three, two, one..."

As before, the missile exploded as it passed over Tokyo-3, the ICBM having carried its nuclear warhead to the designated destination, where it exploded with the force of a million tons of TNT.

------

Once again, the sky flared, and the few messages being sent over the slowly-clearing airwaves were drowned out by another burst of static, and what few devices hadn't been fully destroyed by the blast sizzled as the energy again ravaged anything unshielded in the area.

The final F-22, passing into the jamming zone, released a flurry of white phosphorous flares to signify that its squad had completed its designated task. Below, in one of the many mobile jamming stations, an intelligence officer spotted the flares and smirked before using a tight-beam laser communication system to let his superiors know that step one had been completed.

A moment later, there was a distinctly alien whine, and suddenly a trio of bizarre, three-winged craft emerged from over the trees, two continuing on after the fleeing F-22, while the third rose and wheeled around before strafing the area. As the green blasts began raining down around him, the Intelligence officer had only a moment to hope his message made it before the world exploded around him.

------

"Mobile Jamming emitter destroyed," C-4 stated, before accelerating to catch up to the other two Defenders in his Flight.

"Good job," C-Flight Lead stated, before turning to look at the updated orders scrolling by on one of the many displays within the TIE-Defender's cockpit. "Flight, break off and return to our designated patrol path, we've got multiple incoming."

The other two pilots acknowledged and quickly reoriented their craft towards Tokyo-3.

As they passed over a relatively nondescript-looking building which rose over the nearby trees, there was a sudden clank, before the entire structure began rising from the ground. What had once looked like a semi-domed structure with a small attachment slowly began rising into the elephantine configuration of a fully-deployed AT-AT. As it was rising, its belly had opened up and released a pair of Speeder Bikes, which took off into the forests surrounding Tokyo-3 with a roar.

On the outskirts of town, a number of clearly-marked doors set into the ground rumbled open, the alarms and flashing lights set around it notifying anyone nearby that one of the EVA Elevators was approaching.

Instead of the biomechanical Eva, however, the lift rose into view carrying a pair of AT-STs, the bipedal armored vehicles stepping off the lift a moment before the platform sank back into the ground and the doors around it closed.

Nearby, closer to the interior of Tokyo-3, one of the larger buildings that had originally been designed to hold weapons and munitions for the Evangelions lay open, its interior having already been emptied of TIE-Defenders earlier when the craft had been scrambled to begin patrolling Tokyo-3. Down near the ground, however, a number of smaller bipedal craft began emerging, the AT-PTs looking almost comical compared to the monstrous AT-ATs, but offering appreciated support to all nearby infantry Units.

And from a number of Entrances to NERV, both hidden and well-known, hundreds of Imperial Stormtroopers poured onto the streets, falling into formations as the officers in charge relayed deployment locations.

------

As a column of M1A2's advanced towards Tokyo-3, a spotter for a nearby M110A2 Self-Propelled Howitzer caught sight of something moving in the trees. Calling in the disturbance, he trained his binoculars on the area, a moment before something large and grey appeared from the tree line. At first, he was confused, until he looked up, following what he belatedly realized was a leg, to find himself staring into the face of a gigantic vehicle of some kind.

"Oh shit! Target! bearing: 148 Degree-" Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the behemoth fired, the green burst from the medium blaster cannon blowing up the nearby vehicle and destroying everything and everyone in the nearby area.

The line of Abrams tanks slowed, their turrets rotating to target the gigantic vehicle, and a couple opened fire.

Onboard the AT-AT, the driver, a major, smirked as the HEAT Rounds impacted the body with little effect. There was some kinetic damage, but the rounds were designed to deliver a concentrated blast of superheated plasma, where as the AT-AT's armor was designed with directed-energy weapons in mind. The blast left some carbon scoring, but little else. The major turned to the secondary driver beside him. "Well, Captain, let's return the favor."

Taking a second to reorient their vehicle, the two officers took aim and fired, quickly walking a series of shots down the column of tanks.

As the blasts rapidly made their way back, the rearmost tanks roared to life, heavy diesel engines engaging to get the multiple tons of armor out of the oncoming torrent of energy blasts. A few of the tanks collided, slowing them down enough that they too were caught up, but three of them managed to avoid the volley, darting off the road and into the bordering field, where they proceeded to fire back as they tried to get some distance between them and the AT-AT behind them.

Unfortunately, the trees ahead parted, and a second AT-AT appeared, cutting off their potential escape into the forest. As the second AT-AT joined the first in taking out the remaining tanks, a distant rumble signaled the arrival of the next group of planes.

------

"That's a lot more than last time," C-2 stated, as his radar began picking out incoming targets as they emerged from the jamming area.

"C-Flight, we're to break and attack all enemy fighters with extreme prejudice."

"Acknowledged lead," C-4 Said, before rolling his TIE and reorienting it to face the incoming group of enemy fighters head-on.

"Missiles!" C-2 shouted, as dozens of incoming fighters suddenly let loose with a barrage of air-to-air missiles. Mostly AMRAAMs, but a few Sidewinders, as well.

C-4 watched the incoming weapons on his radar screen, One hand on the controls for the repulsorlifts, and just as the missiles reached terminal range, he cranked the repulsors to full, the entire craft lurching upward and most of the missiles passing by below. One of the AMRAAMs, which had been fired a little later than the rest, managed to correct and impact, but the shield caught the blast, dissipating it for the most part, and C-4 flew out of the cloud of smoke and fire to return the favor.

The incoming aircraft, realizing they'd failed to destroy their targets, broke off, a moment before green laser fire began cutting through the sky.

"Shinji! There's a tank column approaching your location. We've routed some bombers your way, but you're going to have to hold your own while they launch," Misato said from within the Garrison.

"Lieutenant Ayanami, you're close to the aerial engagement zone. If you can, assist the TIE-Defenders in the area," General Hongo ordered, glancing over at Misato for a moment before turning back to the tactical map.

"Affirmative," Rei said, turning to join the battle.

A moment later, a window popped up before her, Shinji was calling from Unit-01. "Are we supposed to kill the people inside?" he asked, looking a little worried.

"If they could, they would not hesitate to kill us," she replied.

"Yeah, but this... seems kind of unfair. They don't really have a chance, do they?"

Rei shook her head. "Fair or not, my orders are to assist, and that means destroying the enemy."

In Unit-01, Shinji was about to elaborate, thinking Rei'd misunderstood, when suddenly a second window opened, this time from Unit-04.

"Shinji, if you don't want to kill, you can try to flip the tanks over, or bend their barrels or something... but know that every time you get close, they're going to open fire on you, and if they hit a weak point in your armor, it's going to hurt. A lot." Kyle's face was frowning in concentration, and Shinji glanced at his map to see where the Imperial Commander was.

Kyle had initially moved out in Unit-04 to the designated holding area, but after confirming no enemies were going to come near, he'd decided to do something about the jamming. At the moment, he was crouching behind a hill as a mobile howitzer attempted to peg him. Nearby was another Mobile Jamming Station, and with a quick blast from his wrist-mounted laser cannons, he took out one of the many sources of jamming before turning his attention towards the cannon still trying to tag him.

Shinji was about to ask the Commander another question when suddenly something exploded against the back of Unit-01. While the new armor from the Jupiter's Thunder had successfully taken the blast with minimal structural damage, the heated piece of metal was hot against Unit-01's back, and that meant Shinji now had to work with the feeling of a red-hot poker sticking him between the shoulder blades.

"Augh!' he cried, turning to glare at the tank that had emerged from the tree line to fire on him. A second tank emerged a moment later, and fired, this time the projectile impacting Unit-01's chest.

His hesitation to kill forgotten as he realized both Rei and Kyle had been correct, he brought his foot back and kicked the first tank that had fired on him, sending it crashing through the woods at speeds more common to aircraft.

The second tank crew was in the middle of reloading the main cannon when Unit-01's foot came crashing down on it, the tank's armor holding up against the pressure at first as the entire vehicle began sinking into the hillside, a moment before the structure gave way, and the turret collapsed into the crew compartment.

Rei, assuming Shinji was now too busy to talk, closed the communications window and brought Unit-00's right arm up, the left arm holding it steady, before unleashing a blast from the wrist-mounted lasers.

One of the few F-2s flying over Tokyo-3 had just managed to sneak away from the slaughter behind him when suddenly the green blasts from Unit-00 impacted with his craft and turning the multi-million dollar machine into a flaming ball of wreckage.

------

"Ballistic incoming!"

"Again?!" Ritsuko asked, not longer surprised at the announcement. The old men were putting everything into this.

"Another Chinese missile?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Affirmative."

"I'm getting kind of sick of this, Can you try to shoot that one down, SHODAN? It may be long range, but this time, if we miss, all we'll hit is water," Makoto stated.

"The Long-Range weapons weren't designed to hit such a small, quick-moving target. It is unlikely to work," the AI replied, but a moment later, four of the Medium Turbolaser batteries rotated, the barrels rising to line up with the trajectory SHODAN was feeding the gunnery station, and after a second, they fired, the large green blast of heavily concentrated plasma and energy streaking away from the ship at high speed. After the first shot passed the missile, the other guns fired, each one using the details gained from the previous blast to modify their intercept course. Unfortunately, the missile erupted, the last blast taking out the spent body while the sole Re-Entry Vehicle accelerated to its final destination before exploding spectacularly, the warhead once again brightening the skies over Tokyo-3.

"This is getting old," Nabiki grumbled, as the windows slowly brightened as the anti-flash systems receded.

"Indeed," Makoto said, before turning to Captain Archer. "Captain, get a shuttle of Storm Commandos ready and take out the launch site in China."

"Yes, Lady Kino."

Makoto glared at the edge of the Chinese landmass visible below. It was time to stop these annoying repetitions.

While most of the Imperial Units below were fighting, the Lambda-Class Shuttle was quickly prepped for launch, and loaded with a number of Storm Commandos. After taking off, the Officer In Charge, a Colonel, spoke up.

"Alright, listen up! Our Target is a series of Launch sites for long-range ballistic missiles."

As the briefing continued, the shuttle passed outside the Jamming zone, and one of the many AWACS systems circling Tokyo-3 like vultures picked up the faint return from above.

While a majority of the airwaves were still unusable due to the recent nuclear detonation above, the plane managed to alert their one surprise lying in wait along the Chinese coastline.

As the shuttle descended over the mainland, behind it, a long black shape emerged from the ocean depths, its treated-hull -designed to withstand the crushing depths of the ocean-becoming visible as it reached the proper depth. The USS Tennessee, an Ohio-class Ballistic Missile Submarine, had quietly waited here for two weeks, after sneaking into Chinese territorial waters and awaiting further orders.

Those orders had arrived today, and had been checked and re-checked before the captain had grudgingly admitted their veracity. Now they'd just received targeting coordinates.

After a brief prayer, the captain gave the order, and the sub shuddered as one of its Trident II D-5 missiles was ejected from its tube in a cloud of gas. After a moment to distance itself from the sub, its first stage motor ignited, and its aero-spike extended, a moment before the missile burst from the water and tearing off after the Shuttle.

While the missile was not designed to work as a surface-to-air weapon, the shuttle was on a direct approach, and unless it deviated, the blast from the 3.5 megaton warhead would hopefully take the ship out. The Flight path was not a typical ballistic path, and the missile accelerated diagonally, slowly rising above the horizon, like a cruise missile.

Above, the Thunder watched as the shuttle approached the launch zone, and only at the last minute did any of the systems register the missile. Before that, the sensor-ghost had been dismissed as an affect of the dissipating EMP field and the Jamming going on below.

An officer reached forward to transmit a warning, but before he could, the missile's warhead exploded, the warhead having reached its designated point of destruction and going off a mere hundred feet behind the shuttle.

The Shuttle's shields were strong, and they held up against the blast at first, but the constant barrage and pressure threw the craft around harder than the inertial dampers could readily correct, and the crew aboard was thrown to the floor at the same time the shuttle was thrown from its course. Before anyone could regain control, it crashed into the side of a mountain.

"Shuttle is lost," Someone stated, finally, as the feed from the shuttle was cut off. On the horizon, the nuclear flash had been apparent, and was now gone, as if it had never been. Makoto grimaced at the thought of having sent those men off to die, and around her, a few people stepped back as she trembled in rage.

"It's not your fault," Nabiki said, softly from beside her.

"No? Because I get the distinct feeling it was," Makoto ground out, turning to look at where the flash had taken place a moment later.

"Where did that missile come from?" she asked.

After a moment of silence, she turned back to the Officer who'd been constantly keeping her updated on the incoming missiles.

"Where. Did. It. Come. From?"

The officer paled and turned back to his console, bringing up the last few minutes of raw telemetry recordings and tried to backtrack the missile. While most of the crew had always treated Lord Kyle much like the original Imperials had treated Darth Vader, the young officer now realized Lady Kino was just as capable of taking her anger out on a crew man, or so he assumed.

Finally, after a minute of total silence, the officer spoke up. "It was a submarine launched missile off the coast of China. It had a rather unorthodox flight-path, but judging from its speed and yield, it was apparently an American Trident II missile."

"Can you find out where it was launched from?" she asked immediately after.

"You're not going to-" Nabiki started to say, before Makoto cut her off.

"Yes. Yes I am going to. Nobody strikes at us and gets away with it. Especially not with such a hit-and fade attack."

"We will have to move from our position to get a good firing angle," SHODAN pointed out.

"After we take out that sub, we're going to take out those nuke silos," Makoto explained.

"You're going to at least leave us The Nerve, right?" Kyle asked, from below. He'd been keeping track of the conversation, but hadn't wanted to speak up until now.

Makoto nodded, before telling him yes when she realized that Unit-04 wasn't connected visually.

"Well then... I guess the best I can tell you is happy hunting," Kyle replied, sounding pre-occupied.

Below, Unit-04 was being tag teamed by both air and ground Units. A group of tanks had spread out within the woods and began firing randomly at the Eva's backside, while a trio of UN Hovercraft would dart around Unit-04's head and fire off an occasional missile.

Shinji was faring better, having depleted the area's supply of Abrams, though occasionally one of the many fighters running from the TIE-Defenders would take a shot at Unit-01 as it flew by, determined to use their missiles on something.

Rei had taken up position within the outskirts of Tokyo-3, one of the outlying skyscrapers protecting her backside as she took potshots at passing enemy aircraft.

As the Jupiter's Thunder broke its stationary orbit and headed west, a call went out from an observatory in northern Japan, a moment later the telescope re-oriented itself to watch the smaller Star Destroyer in orbit. A second call alerted the field commander outside Tokyo-3 that the heavy air support had pulled out.

Making a quick call, he, in turn, notified an airbase in South Korea, where 9 oversized transports were waiting for the signal to launch.

Outside of Tokyo-3, south of where Kyle was engaging the tanks and hovercraft, and to the east of where Rei was currently lining up a shot at an incoming F-22, a number of tanks began congregating, their location still bearing some scars from where Zeruel had first started to encounter Tokyo-3's defenses.

"Alright, we have confirmation, we move out in five," an JSSDF Colonel shouted, before climbing into one of the numerous vehicles hiding in the tree line. As dozens of engines revved up in preparation, the colonel turned to his quiet passenger, who had stopped humming and was now watching the sky wearily. "We'll travel near the head of the column. Are you ready?" The Colonel asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Yes, colonel... this will all be over soon," Kaworu said, before he started humming softly again.

The atmosphere had settled down some and the airwaves, while still fairly scrambled, were just beginning to clear up, when the column moved out.

"Numerous ground targets moving in from the East, moving in to intercept," C Flight Lead stated, rolling his craft to engage the vehicles breaking from the tree line. So far, there'd been little in the way of opposition, the few fights he'd gotten into being decidedly one-sided as he scored kill after kill while depleting the enemy's ranks.

"Ground forces diverted your way," Someone in the garrison below responded as he lined his craft up for a strafing run. The whine of his lasers split the sky, and the green lance darted forward to take out one of the leading Tanks, the next couple blowing craters into the ground before the fourth impacted the-

A glowing field of concentric orange hexagons caught the next few bolts, and when they finally began striking the ground again, the blasts were all on the far side of the column.

"Command, this column is shielded. Switching to missiles," the pilot said, as he swung his craft around for another shot. Before he got halfway, however, the Defender's missile warning system began screaming at him, and a moment later, a number of high-speed wire-guided rockets from a pair of JSSDF Hovercraft impacted against his shield, battering it into nonexistence, before several tore into the cockpit and solar panels.

The Colonel suppressed a grimace as a cheer went up at the first confirmed kill in this theater, and glanced at the young passenger who'd saved them from certain death without even lifting a finger.

Above, far beyond visual range, specially modified sensors aboard The Nerve detected something anomalous and raised an alarm those in the bridge had grown to hate.

"Blue Pattern AT-Field detected near Tokyo-3," Makoto Hyuga stated as he read the information off the screen before him.

"How far out?" Commander Fuyutsuki asked from the upper level.

"Two kilometers," was the quick reply.

"Far enough. Can we hit that area from here?" He asked, scowling at the still-static-y image of Tokyo-3.

"It'll be risky, sir. Our aim isn't going to be too good with the interference from those nukes," Lieutenant Aoba responded.

"Speaking of, we're about to take care of that," Nabiki said, from Jupiter's Thunder.

As she spoke, the massive warship was taking up a position above the valley sensors had indicated the most probable launch point for the nuclear weapons that had been detonating over Tokyo-3 repeatedly since the battle began.

It took the middle Tendo a second to realize what she was looking at from this angle, nearly straight down, but her eyes narrowed when the floor of the valley became visible. On her world, there were dozens of pools of water, each one cursed to turn whoever fell into them into whatever drowned in there with a splash of cold water. Here, however, the pools were gone, replaced by a number of below-ground ICBM Silos, the dark openings sinister counterparts to the springs she'd been accustomed to.

Where the Amazon Village had rested was a large bunker and barracks, numerous vehicles, both armored and not sitting out in the sunlight as soldiers scurried around.

Makoto Kino, Sailor Jupiter, frowned at the image before her, before turning to the weapons control officer. "I want that valley sterilized."

"Launch!" someone called out, and indeed, one of the black pools had lit up from within as steam and smoke poured out of nearby vents moments before another ICBM rose out of its silo and quickly accelerated towards the sky.

"You've got one final incoming warhead, Tokyo-3," Nabiki said, as the first heavy Turbolaser spoke out, its green blast devastating a large portion of the valley. Moments later another spoke, then another, and soon, every weapon aboard had contributed, the dome of fire that had been Jusendo Valley finally halting its growth a moment later as the last blast detonated.

As the warship rotated to return to its position above Tokyo-3, the wall of flame dispersed enough that the floor of the valley, now a lava-like molten mess became visible, the glowing liquid slowly cooling as the Thunder disappeared from what few nearby radar screens remained.

The Warhead that had been launched moments before its silo had been destroyed detonated before The Nerve could get enough of a targeting feed to try and take out Kaworu. Fuyutsuki scowled and relayed that to ground forces, many of which were directed to intercept.

"I... understand," Shinji said, as he received orders to move in. He'd never met Kaworu, but he'd read the summaries, and a part of him had felt bad about how the battle with the Seventeenth angel had played out. Partially because Asuka had teased him relentlessly about it, and partially because even now, with all the changes, he'd understood, in some part, what that other Shinji had felt.

"Hold on, long range sensors are picking something new up," Misato said on the Eva-only channel. A moment later he heard her curse. "Incoming aircraft, nine Eva-carriers."

"The Mass-Production series?" Kyle asked, before shaking his head. What else could they be?

"Nerve, can you target them?" Kyle asked.

"We can, but they're turning away, looks like they've released their payload. And the sensors are now beginning to pick up a number of new contacts. They've got reinforcements... a lot of them."

Kyle grimaced within Unit-04," General Hongo, pull the ground forces back into the city proper, and prepare all Units for urban warfare. Rei, Shinji and I will try to hold off the MP Eva's."

"I'm sending down a squadron of Defenders from the Thunder, Admiral Yuki added.

The numerous AT-ATs, previously wreaking havoc among the tanks and fighters making their way towards Tokyo-3 turned and began trekking towards the city proper; the frozen, powerless skyscrapers and buildings ahead causing the drivers no small amount of concern. There weren't any civilians inside them, but their maneuverability would be shot.

"All AT-AT's will form a perimeter just outside the city proper, with AT-STs taking up position along major highways and roads into town," General Hongo's voice rang out, moments before each AT-AT received a data packet that showed where they would be positioned. "Stormtrooper squads will be spread out within the city, heavy encampments at major intersections, with AT-PT support. Snipers and demolition teams moving into position now."

Misato picked up where the General left off, "Rei, you and Unit Zero will take up position to the north of town. Kyle, I want you to take the southeast side of town, and Shinji, you're on the southwest. I'm sending you all updates to your map. We've highlighted the Eva Lifts nearest your position. If you need extraction, those are all ready to take you down."

When the Major had finished, Admiral Yuki spoke up, "Since we'll no doubt have ground Units mixing it up, all aerial Units are to focus solely on other air-Units." Before their pilots could speak up, the Admiral continued, "All TIE-Bombers are to head back to their assigned berths aboard theThunder."

On their way back to Tokyo-3, the Thunder had slowed as it passed the Chinese coastline, before speeding away. "We're not going to attack?" Nabiki asked, looking over the hologram displaying the location of the USS Tennessee at Makoto.

Makoto shook her head once. "That's too close to the coast for the amount of firepower we'd need to hit a target that deep. The soldiers at the silos were one thing, innocent civilians, however..."

Nabiki merely nodded, before turning to watch a number of TIE-Defenders heading down into the atmosphere on the display.

"SHODAN, how much longer before the EMP and radiation dies down enough for the Teleporters to be usable again?" She asked.

"Teleporters will be usable in approximately one hour; less if you wish to risk partial destabilization," the AI replied.

"Destabilization?"

The officer in charge of the teleportation system grimaced, before replying, "basically, you either fail to turn up at the other side, or if you do, you're missing parts, or they're no longer attached in the correct places, ma'am."

Nabiki paled at that, before calling down, "All Units be advised, Teleporters will be offline for another sixty minutes."

Kyle, within Unit-04, smirked as he made his way to the southeast side of town. In the distance, out over the ocean, he could see a number of wide contrails from what he assumed were the Eva-carriers. Zooming his optical sensors, it took a moment to spot the nine Units they'd released, which were swiftly making their way towards Tokyo-3 on their white wings.

"Good god, those things are ugly. Who the hell decided to paint the lips?"

As if hearing him, one of the Units turned towards Unit-04, still miles away, and its red-lipped mouth pulled back into a smile, before it and four others veered towards him.

"Oh, nice..." Kyle mumbled.

Outside Tokyo-3, the sounds of battle began to die down as the AT-ATs and AT-STs pulled back towards town, despite the damage they had been doing to the opposing force just minutes ago. As confused drivers and pilots radioed for orders concerning the enemies sudden change of tactics, the static of the last detonation slowly fading away, the nine mass production Evas crossed into Tokyo-3 airspace, drawing the attention of a number of the TIE's defending the city. Two of them took Proton Torpedoes to the face, while the rest were liberally peppered with laser blasts. Or, that's what the pilots had intended, instead, the attacks were stopped again by a series of concentric hexagons, and a moment later, from behind the huge Units, a number of fighters launched from the UN Carrier group returned fire, missiles and bullets slicing through the air and scattering the Defenders, who quickly began to return the favor.

Unlike last time, in which all the contemporary fighters had been outnumbered, this time the twelve TIE-Defenders were outnumbered almost 4 to one and another swarm of fighters from the north joined in a moment later, this group having low along the coast to avoid detection as long as possible.

Inside the cockpit of C Flight Lead, previously C-2, the missile warning system wailed nonstop as the pilot corkscrewed, juked, and rolled out of multiple missile's flight paths, the occasional near-miss punctuated by a sharp decline in shields that suddenly seemed to take forever to recharge. Ahead of him, a shape suddenly flashed across his field of vision, a Japanese F-2 that was there and gone too quick to take a shot, and a moment later his craft shuddered as it passed through the fighter's jet wash.

Pulling up hard, he spun his craft in a turn that would have broken his back had his TIE not had Inertial dampers before diving towards the street to evade the incoming missiles and get some room to maneuver.

One of the missiles, an AIM-9 Sidewinder, lost its lock, but picked up another again, turning to home in to its target and detonating when it managed to reach the suddenly less-maneuverable target. The unfortunate F-15J Pilot never had a chance to bail out before his plane exploded around him.

C Flight Leader pulled out if his dive a mere five meters above the ground, climbing slightly to give an AT-ST a little space, before weaving around a darkened skyscraper and coming in towards the swarm of enemy fighters from below, where a rapid series of laser blasts took out a couple of fighters before he was back in the thick of things. As some of the fighters turned to deal with this new threat, a sudden flurry of green blasts flew by, ten more fighters disappearing in flames as the new group of TIEs from the Thunder arrived to help even out the odds.

Below, Stormtroopers stopped briefly to watch the fight going on overhead, or to get out of the way of falling wreckage, while anxious commanders watched the outlying roads for the forces he knew were incoming. The AT-AT drivers had been ordered to call ahead if anything made it past them, but it never hurt to be careful.

There was a sudden whine and Stormtroopers scattered moments before an artillery shell detonated nearby, reducing a storefront to rubble. "We're being shelled!" A number of troopers cried out as all over the city, explosive shells began to rain down at random.

Misato grimaced at the tactical display before her, wishing the airwaves were clearer. The radar systems here could track each individual shell, and backtrack its trajectory to the launcher, but with the static still messing with sensors, she'd have to guess where the artillery Units were. At least with the lack of nukes, she could transmit targeting date to take out the remaining jammers in the outlying forest.

Taking a moment to compose herself, she quickly relayed the locations triangulated from the TIE-Defenders during their patrol and the garrison she was currently standing within to The Nerve, which took a moment, before raining down fire from orbit, the jamming in the air clearing rapidly as mobile emitters were destroyed. A few of the mobile artillery Units were hit as well, and the few that remained quickly moved from their position before firing again.

One of the Artillery drivers winced as a shadow went by overhead, expecting at any moment to have his vehicle explode around him, but when no explosion resulted, he looked up and gasped at the gigantic white-winged figure heading towards the city he was currently bombarding.

Shinji scowled within the Entry Plug of Unit-01 as two of the Mass production Evas landed before him. A glance at his tactical display showed that two others were headed towards Unit-00, while the rest all seemed to be heading towards Unit-04. Telling Misato as much, he ejected Unit-01's Progressive Knife, and crouched, preparing for the two Units before him to move.

"Remember Shinji, these Units are piloted by Dummy plug systems. If Asuka could take them all out on her own, you should have no problem with only two. Just watch out for their weapons, and remember to destroy their core," Misato said softly over the comm.

Shinji frowned slightly. He already knew that. And he remembered exactly what had happened when Unit-02 had run out of power and the Mass Production Units had reactivated. Gripping the knife tighter, Unit-01 tensed, before pouncing, an inarticulate scream escaping Shinji's lips as he moved to engaged.

Rei had simply waited for the two Units to make their move, but unlike Shinji's pair, the two facing her moved in immediately, and she had to dive out of the way as one took a swing at her with its weapon as it passed by overhead. The second veered and attempted to take her out while she was still down, but she calmly fired a concussion missile at it, which detonated against its AT-Field, obscuring its vision and giving her a chance to move out of the way of its now-wild attack.

Kyle stared at the MP Eva that had smiled at him from afar as two others landed behind him, and the final two took to circling the city.

"Cute," he mumbled, before firing a proton torpedo at the one before him. As with Rei, the torpedo impacted an AT-Field, but unlike the First, Kyle dove into the explosion, coming out the other side of the smoke and flame with a haymaker and a counter-AT-Field that caught the smiling Unit in the chest and sent it flying back. Its armor was cracked from the blast, but after flopping around for a second, it began to climb to its feet, while Kyle moved to avoid the other pair, who had engaged a moment after he had.

To the east, the column of vehicles neared the city, and the AT-ATs nearby concentrated their firepower on them, only to have their blasts intercepted by Kaworu's AT-Field. After reporting this in, Misato opened up a communication channel to the Evas, "Rei, Shinji, Kaworu's approaching the city. One of you needs to break off and intercept him."

"... A little busy at the moment," Shinji growled as he ducked under a swing that would have taken Unit-01's head off had it connected, before lashing out with the Progressive knife and scoring a hit across the Mass Production Unit's side. Had it been a person, the slash would have opened a large cut just below someone's ribs. Instead, it compromised the semi-rigid armor, and barely nicked the surface of the Evangelion beneath.

Rei, on the other hand, had one of her foes by the arm and yanked hard, twisting her enemy off balance, where she let go and spun fast, bringing her leg up and across to drop on the Mass Production Unit's back with a bone-shattering crunch. Red fluid poured from the seams in the armor as the body was driven into the ground by Rei's spinning axe kick, and as her spin continued, she pulled her progressive knife and brought it down on the Enemy Eva's battered back, driving through its armor and deeply into the core, silencing it forever. "One Mass Production Unit down." She stated, ducking as a battleship-gray heavy lance passed through the air above her. Unfortunately, her Progressive knife was stuck in the core of the 'dead' Eva, and she had to abandon it when dodging the swing.

Moving quickly, while the other Unit was off balance from its missed swing, she lashed out with both hands, shoving the Unit away before taking off at a sprint that strained the armor in her Unit's legs. As the Mass Production Unit stumbled back, Rei caught up with it, grabbed hold of the hand holding the heavy lance with both arms, and leapt over the second Unit, using her forward momentum to pivot around the off-balance enemy before throwing it as hard as Unit-00 could. After all the practice she'd subjected herself to with training, she pulled the move off flawlessly, and the Mass Production Unit was airborne, headed towards Shinji, who was currently grappling with one of his Units, the other currently squirming as nervous feedback from a severed arm kept it down.

Rei's throw had dislocated the thrown Unit's arm, as well as shatter the bones and supports around the Unit's wrist, and its limp hand dropped the heavy lance, which she picked up, as she made her way to where Misato was directing her.

Meanwhile, the AT-AT Drivers were growing more and more concerned as the column of vehicles drew closer and every shot they and their AT-ST companions had fired were caught by the AT-Field projected ahead of the vehicles seemingly at all time.

One of the foremost AT-AT Gunnery officers was about to fire again when a shadow passed over the cockpit, causing him and the driver to pause. "What the-" He started to ask, before suddenly, the AT-AT beside them exploded, the entire vehicle cut in half by the heavy lance of one of the Mass Production Eva's that had been, until recently, circling above Tokyo-3.

The Mass Production Eva turned to look at them, and tensed to jump their way, when a pair of legs drove into its back at speed, driving the enemy's face into the ground where it slid to a halt at the end of a lengthy furrow in the dirt. Unit-00 quickly scrambled after the assailant, as the Gunnery officer and Driver quietly thanks her for her timely intervention.

As the two Units squared off, the column approached even closer, and suddenly began returning fire, the tanks focusing all their firepower on the AT-ST's while anyone with a rifle or machine gun began peppering the AT-AT's cockpit with bullets. The Transparisteel held off the attack easily, but the distraction was enough that the final third of the column, primarily made up of APCs, suddenly accelerated ahead, out of the range of fire, and into the city, where, almost as one, they began to disgorge their Units, each one packed beyond normal limits with JSSDF soldiers.

"Enemy contact! Enemy Soldiers have breached the perimeter!" A sniper stated, as he drew a bead on an enemy soldier and fired. Unlike the standard weapons of the Stormtrooper, the E-11, Stormtrooper Snipers carried the DC-15x Sniper Rifle, which was much more accurate, as well as being much more deadly. Designed for use in an era full of armor to protect against blasters, the JSSDF's Kevlar Helmets and Titanium-reinforced Body Armor was vaporized along with the brain or heart of whatever unfortunate soldier the snipers positioned within the buildings targeted.

On the ground, the soldiers were beginning to panic as unseen assailants were thinning their ranks at a terrific rate. "GO GO GO!" someone shouted, as the soldiers that had exited each vehicle began running, most following those ahead, while the few in the lead were pushed along by the mob behind them. Unfortunately, most of those in the lead were cut down as they rounded a corner and approached the first intersection in which an E-Web Heavy Repeating Blaster had been secured. Quickly scrambling for cover, the soldiers began calling for fire support from the mobile artillery outside the city, and a moment later, shells began raining down, most towards the heavy weapons emplacement, but some on buildings where Officers and NCOs felt the Snipers might be hiding.

After disgorging a majority of their troops, the APCs, Mostly M2 Bradley's and British-made Warriors, accelerated behind their charges, The armor on each thick enough to stop most sniper shots, and as they began to flank the soldiers they'd disgorged, few broke off from the main group and headed towards a hole in the armor of Tokyo-3 where a building had once stood.

Kyle grimaced as a pair of heavy lances clanged together in the space his Unit's head had been a second ago. Two Mass Production Eva's lay at Unit-04's feet, one sliced neatly in two by its own weapon, the two halves of its core glinting darkly in the afternoon sun, while the other had a fairly small hole in its chest where a rapid fire burst of Unit-04's wrist mounted lasers had penetrated the armor, skin, and spine of the incapacitated Unit.

"This is getting annoying," he grumbled, as he swung up with his liberated heavy lance. With a gush of red fluid that temporarily painted his view crimson, one of the offending Unit's stumbled back, its arms reduced to a pair of stumps a moment before a thrust sent the weapon into its chest and through the core.

"Two down," he said, before something plowed into him from behind. The fifth Eva, the one that had been circling, had decided to swoop in shoulder first and ram Unit-04 in the back, a sneaky-yet-effective maneuver. As he stumbled to a stop, something glinted out of the corner of his eye, and his hand shot up, a moment before the Heavy lance stopped against an AT-Field and hovered there, before morphing into a copy of the Lance of Longinus.

"Oh, shit," he muttered, before throwing Unit-04 back as the AT-Field collapsed under the power of the Lance. Deprived of its target, the lance continued on, its brief stop doing nothing to alter its momentum as it continued on, until it speared, by pure chance, an AT-AT, which fell over from the force of the impact.

"Son of a bitch," Kyle cursed, as the remaining Evas renewed their attack.

Rei had seen the AT-AT go down as the gray lance had speared its side, but could do nothing for the crew as she dodged another swing from her opponent. Unlike the pair she'd fought, this one seemed far more intelligent, keeping her off balance with random and unexpected attacks, and occasionally throwing things at her that it picked up, like AT-ST's, trees, and even buildings if their fight got too close to the town.

Behind Kyle, the lazed Mass Production Eva slowly climbed to its feet. Rei noticed the movement, dodged another charge, and spun, sprinting all-out before ramming the rising Unit with her shoulder as it prepared to take a swing at Unit-04's unprotected backside.

Before she could turn, however, her other assailant hit Unit-00 in a diving tackle that took both Units further east, towards the coast, where the shoved Unit was again slowly crawling to its feet.

Shinji, who had dispatched one of his opponents by shoving an armed proton torpedo through an earlier-made wound, was now fighting against the other Eva he'd started with, as well as the one Rei had thrown at him. The thrown Eva's bad arm was dangling limply for the most part, though occasionally it would twitch or spasm, which was unnerving to watch as the tremor would hit the broken, mangled wrist and the entire hand would flop around in a way no healthy hand could ever move. It unnerved Shinji every time it happened, and if he didn't know better, he'd have assumed the Mass Production Unit was doing it on purpose.

Misato shouted for joy when the radar operator nearby reported that they had just gotten a faint return on the enemy artillery shells. The defenses within the city had been well-laid out, but the advancing soldiers were systematically working their way in, despite their losses to snipers, and calling in artillery barrages that quickly took out whatever defenses were in place. Despite their far superior firepower and armor, the defenders were forced to retreat further and further into the city as enemies were engaged, lest they be on the receiving end of some very lethal rain.

"Nerve, Thunder, I'm going to need fire support soon. We're almost able to backtrack the artillery to its point of origin," she explained.

"Understood. We'll also have teleportation up in another forty-five minutes or so, give or take ten," Nabiki replied.

Misato nodded at the small image of the Admiral, before turning to the radar operator, who began uploading telemetry and targeting data as the airwaves grew clearer as time passed.

Outside of Tokyo-3, most of the Artillery teams were watching the Fighting Evas and defending AT-ATs with awe and no small amount of anger. As directions and ranges were called in from various forces within the city, the appropriate team would plot their shot and fire, and adjust as required by the soldiers who'd been playing spotter, until they were given the all-clear. Suddenly, from above, the artillery Units, used to raining death down upon their foes, began disappearing in hellish fireballs as Turbolaser blasts dropped down onto them as their positions were given away by each shot fired.

The few artillery Units that hadn't been destroyed immediately began shuffling around, their shots growing less and less accurate as they tried to stay ahead of the Turbolaser blasts and continue providing support to the forces within the city.

Back inside the garrison, the Radar operation's computer station was now not only tracking each shot back to where it came from, it was also calculating the amount of time between shots and each one's general location, and extrapolating probably enemy locations based on direction, range, and times. More mobile artillery Units went up in flames as some which had tried moving in a straight line were anticipated and destroyed, while those with a predictable pattern of movement weren't too far behind.

Within the city, the disruption of their artillery barrage meant that the invaders were now fighting on more 'even' ground, though with superior technology, the Imperial Forces within the city definitely had the advantage. The JSSDF's rapid advance ground to a halt, and slowly began to fall back as the defenders found themselves no longer under bombardment. The occasional artillery shell still fell, but now there was just as much a chance of the moving artillery Units to drop a shell in the midst of the JSSDF forces as there was for it to land a hit on the Stormtroopers.

What hadn't been accounted for was the durability of the armor and weapons. While most of the JSSDF soldiers were hesitant to put on Stormtrooper armor for fear of friendly fire, the dropped D-11 blasters were quickly becoming a hot commodity, and now, along with bullets, the Stormtroopers would occasionally take a blaster bolt, which was much more likely to puncture their armor, coming from a military weapon of Imperial-level technology.

As the battle became more and more of a massive firefight, a new wave of attackers suddenly emerged over the tree line: a number of JSSDF Hoverjets, though only a few bore the boxy MLRS seen earlier. The majority held special pods that opened as the rapidly-moving craft came to a sudden stop mid-city, and from within dropped a dozen men, quickly reinforcing the invader army, before taking off to pick up more. While a few of the Hoverjets were shot down both coming and going, a majority of the TIE-Defenders were busy with the remaining jets in the air, which had thinned considerably.

One of the Defenders had just caught an F/A-18 with a laser to its fuel-tank when suddenly one of the few MRLS-equipped Hoverjets unleashed a trio of rockets at it, the high-speed unguided weapon systems packed with high explosives that battered the shields down before tearing apart the Defender far quicker than most air-to-air missiles were capable of.

The Hoverjet pilot knew that had been a lucky shot, but didn't question it as he turned and prepared to unleash the remainder of his payload into the side of one of the large vehicles defending the city. Taking aim, he pulled the trigger, and 15 high-powered rockets took off, exploding against the upper side of an AT-AT with enough force to knock it over.

To the east, from the ocean, a dull roar was heard as a barrage of cruise missiles passed over the shore on course towards Tokyo-3. With the help from a laser-equipped spotter far enough away not to draw attention to himself, three of the missiles impacted squarely with the legs of another AT-AT, the sheer force of the combined blast reversing the knee-joint as it had been flexing, destroying the internal drive mechanisms and starting a fire in the engine compartment.

The remaining cruise missiles suddenly climbed sharply- one disappearing under a withering hail of shots from a TIE-Defender and another crashing into the belly of an attacking F-15- before nosing down and impacting with unnerving accuracy upon a the remains of a building that had early been devastated by some precision-guided bombs.

The remains, which had sat at the bottom of their hole in the armor, groaned once before collapsing into the Geofront below.

"Breach in the armor!" someone cried from below. Fuyutsuki scowled at that, turning to look at the display now displaying the breach. With Shinji aware of how Third Impact worked, as well as the fact that cameras aboard had clearly shown several Mass Production Evas destroyed beyond regeneration, Lilith was utterly useless in Third Impact.

Fuyutsuki's eyes narrowed. While he hadn't heard the order, it was fairly reasonable to assume that Kyle had had Adam moved up to the Thunder when all this had started. The fact that Admiral Tendo had taken a shuttle instead of teleporting up, as well as her sudden acquisition of a remarkably familiar suitcase had given him the impression that Adam was out of reach. So was SEELE unaware that the treasure they sought was out of their reach?

Keying in a private communications channel to the bridge of the Thunder, he requested Nabiki and a moment later a miniature hologram of her appeared on the desk before him. "Admiral, is it safe for me to assume you brought Adam with you to the Thunder?"

"You'd be correct," she replied, quickly.

"Do you know if SEELE could have had any way to known that Adam is still in Tokyo-3," he asked with a frown.

"Not likely. I only retrieved the briefcase from room 11B when Kyle asked after the Magi went down."

"Then it's Lilith they're after," Fuyutsuki said with a sigh. "I'll call the Sub-Commander."

"He's actually... " Nabiki trailed off. "Never mind. I'll see what kind of forces we can move to intercept, though without an Eva, I fear any Stormtroopers, no matter how well equipped, are going to do little to even slow Kaworu down."

Kyle was stumped. While he was down to two opponents, one- the wily Eva that had body-checked Unit-04 from the sky- had his Eva in a two-handed headlock, while Unit-04 had just broken the other Eva's neck with its legs. Without damaging the core, it was only a matter of time before it got back up again, and so far, he'd broken the neck twice. "This is a fine little stalemate," he muttered, a moment before Fuyutsuki appeared on the Comm.

"Kyle, we've got trouble. Kaworu might be close to accessing the Geofront, and we've nothing that can stop him."

"..." Kyle stared at the screen for a moment, wondering if today was just a bad dream. Before he could respond, however, there was a rushing sound, and suddenly he was back in the endless expanse of LCL, face-to-face with Armisael.

"Bad timing," he said with a wince.

"You simpleton! Have you forgotten just how you defeated me?" she said, glaring.

"I crammed you down here where I hoped you'd go away, instead you interrupt me in the middle of a –" Kyle was cut off as she interrupted.

"You absorbedme! You... your Eva has that which made me me within it."

Kyle blinked, uncomprehending for a moment. Finally, "so... It has an S2 engine?"

"No!" She cried, then paused. "Yes!" She frowned. "More than that. It has my abilities. Remember, what happened when your allies came into contact with me?"

Kyle's frown disappeared. "You mean...?

Armisael nodded, her frown disappeared and a slight smile taking its place. "Yes. Relax enough for me to assist, and we'll end this stalemate decisively."

Suddenly he was back in Unit-04, and Fuyutsuki was talking to him "-stop him at all costs!"

"Working on it, " he replied, before closing his eyes and relaxing, reaching out for that empty place that he'd stuffed Armisael. He felt the Mass Production Eva holding him tighten its grip as Unit-04 went limp, but ignored it, reaching out for the unconventional ally within and finally feeling something entirely not-him also reaching out. With a mental tug, he suddenly found himself sharing the Entry plug with Armisael's human form, though she was transparent and not wearing a plug suit... or anything else at all...

"Umm... you're naked." Kyle said.

"Ignore it," she said, only he heard it in his head, instead of through his ears. She glanced around once, before nodding to herself.

"I'm what?" Fuyutsuki asked, looking somewhat worried. If Kyle was going off the deep end, this day was going to end in the worst way possible.

"Not you, Commander. Armisael." Kyle explained, shutting off the communications link.

Armisael looked around, before placing her hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Get ready," she said, waiting a moment before she disappeared.

Behind Unit-04, between the shoulder blades, two bulges in the armor glowed white hot against the Mass Production Eva's chest, a moment before a pair of glowing white helixes shot out of Unit-04, spearing the Eva holding it twice, before stopping at forty meters.

"Holy shit!" Misato cried, as she saw it happen on one of the displays of the battlefield.

Kyle grunted as he suddenly felt pain in his chest, though looking down there was nothing wrong. Suddenly, he realized he was synching with the other Mass Production Eva, Unit-04's angelic contamination overriding the dummy plug as the corruption slowly spread.

"Kyle, your synch rate is beginning to fall," Ritusko's voice said, from the comm. He didn't reply, merely nodding. While it was amazing how quickly the contamination was spreading in the other Unit, it was totally screwing with his concentration, and he felt his control over Unit-04 begin to slip.

"Allow me," Armisael said, once, before disappearing entirely. Suddenly the sensations from the Mass Production Eva disappeared, and he fell free as it released him. The two were still connected by the two tentacle-like helixes of light, but as the corruption visibly spread to cover the rest of the Mass Production Unit, he felt none of it. A moment later, the Unit shuddered before standing up.

An incoming video link suddenly requested his attention, and mentally opening the channel, he blinked as he saw Armisael sitting in a bizarre, darkened Entry Plug.

"Who the hell-"

"Identify yourself!"
"It's not possible..."

Numerous outcries at the appearance of a total stranger on the Videonet rang out before Kyle silenced them all. "Everyone, meet Armisael. Armisael, meet everyone. Now, back to the fight."

With the tables turned, Kyle and Armisael quickly dispatched the second Mass Production Eva, before turning towards Tokyo-3.

"We cannot separate or it will sever the link," Armisael said, as the distance between both Units grew. Kyle slowed Unit-04 somewhat, as the Mass Production Unit behind it slowly began to walk more evenly. Wishing there was a little more length between them, Kyle was surprised when he felt something shifting, and suddenly one of the tentacles of light retracted from the Mass Production Eva, disappearing into his back, while the other doubled in length.

"Convenient," he mumbled as he moved towards the opening in the armor surrounding Tokyo-3.

Ahead, at the edge of the hole, carefully avoiding any unsteady-looking rubble, a pair of M2 Bradleys pulled to a stop a moment before opening up to reveal Kaworu, and a team of Special Forces Commandos hand-picked for this mission.

"I told you," one said to another, as they gathered around the hole and looked at the almost-pristine fields below. 'Almost' because directly below them, lying half-in and half-out of the lake within the Geofront was the remains of the skyscraper that had once occupied the hole they now intended to jump through to enter.

"Thank you for getting me this far, gentlemen," Kaworu suddenly said, his voice slightly melancholy, "but I'm afraid from here on out I must do this alone."

Most of the officers around paused as they were pulling on their ramair parachutes before one spoke up, "our orders were to escort you into the enemy base where you could stop these terrorists from causing Third Impact."

Kaworu shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, you were misinformed. My goal is to get in there and cause Third Impact." Before any of them could react to that, Kaworu rose in the air, the faint shimmer of air below him indicating his use of an AT-Field to defy gravity.

"Son of a-" one commando said, drawing his sidearm. Before he got halfway there, however, another had shot him in the head.

"Go, Kid. Do your job," the plant said, as the others began drawing their weapons. As Kaworu dropped out of sight, the sound of gunfire behind him growing distant, he slipped into the oppressive shade of the Geofront and made his way to the darkened pyramid below.

Far above him, the aerial battle had thinned some as numerous atmospheric fighters were destroyed, and the occasion Space Superiority fighter was overwhelmed and taken out.

Below, the remaining AT-ATs, now moving around in unpredictable patterns, would occasionally took out a tank or APC that tried to make a run for the city.

The airwaves around Tokyo-3 had been steadily clearing up, and with the threat of more high-altitude nuclear explosions gone, the Imperial forces on Defense knew it was only a matter of time before these invaders would be systematically ejected from Tokyo-3. preferably into Mount Fuji.

It was, then, with some degree of shock that Stormtroopers ran quickly to get out of the way of a Running Unit-04 and Mass Production Evangelion Unit sprinting through the city and connected by an unearthly glowing light.

Upon reaching the edge of the hole, Unit-04 and its impromptu ally peered down into the Geofront, before the two pilots spoke to each other.

"I hate to say it, but we're probably going to have to destroy your ride," Kyle said, looking down again at the rubble before as a plan began to materialize.

"It was to be expected," Armisael stated, looking down as well before grimacing. "That fall should be enough to critically damage this monstrosity's core."

Kyle smiled darkly, "not to mention that monstrosity would make a nice cushion for Unit-04."

Armisael grimaced slightly, "I will have to remain in control up until the final moment, otherwise this one could shake you lose and deploy its wings to slow its fall."

Looking down once more, Kyle nodded. "Ready?" He asked, psyching himself up for the jump. This was going to be a rather lengthy fall.

Armisael didn't reply, merely leaping down, the moment she was through spreading out her body to catch as much air and slow her descent so that Kyle could keep up. With the eighty-feet of length the angelic extension had quickly following, Unit-04 leapt in after her, remaining vertical as it fell until it 'landed' squarely on the Mass Production Eva's back.

Once Unit-04's feet were firmly in place, Armisael twisted slightly, redirecting their fall towards the Pyramidal headquarters of NERV. Without its wings deployed, however, the horizontal distance traveled was minimal, and both Unit's would only clear the rubble of the fallen building by a dozen meters.

Moments before impact, the tentacle of light withdrew from the Mass Production Eva, and it shuddered once, as the Dummy Plug System regained control. Unfortunately, it was far too late to do anything, as both Units touched down, the Mass Production Unit doing an ugly, high-speed belly-flop into the valley floor, as Unit-04's feet drove the white-armored Eva's back armor through its chest, impaling the core and pushing much of the internal mess of pseudo-organs and machinery into the ground below.

"Touchdown," Kyle said, wincing at the shock the landing caused to Unit-04. Despite their durability, numerous armor plates had buckled, cracked, or shattered under the stress, and the underlying biological systems had been strained close to the breaking point.

"Unit-04 heavily damaged!" Lieutenant Ibuki cried out, as details quickly crawled across the display before her. "Both legs close to failing, armor integrity compromised," she elaborated, a moment before Misato's voice overrode hers.

"Kyle, there's an Eva-Lift nearby that can take Unit-04 down to the Loading Bay," the Major stated, as a patch of grass retracted and the telltale metal corridor appeared as a lift rose to a halt at ground level.

Unit-04 moved weakly towards the lift, limping across the valley before it managed to lock itself in place. A moment later the big green Unit disappeared and the patch of grass rose back into place to hide the entrance/exit as if it had never been there.

Far to close to Tokyo-3 for her liking, Rei continued to battle her assailant with an almost detached interest. Much like the foe Kyle and Armisael had finally dispatched, this MPE was far more creative, and despite the length of time she'd had to take it out, it showed only superficial damage, while Unit-00 was beginning to overheat.

Suddenly, and from out of seemingly nowhere, two more forms crashed into the space between them, the battered hulk of an AT-AT pushed ahead as Unit-01 drove a second Mass Production Eva forward with mindless determination, Unit-01's hands wrapped around the enemy Eva's neck in a grip that was buckling armor plates with alarming speed.

Behind him, the other MPE lay still with Shinji's Progressive Knife stuck in its chest, the second progressive weapon to become trapped in the super-dense core of a dispatched foe. Despite this lack of a weapon, however, Shinji was succeeding, and with a sickening series of cracks and crunches, the Mass Production Eva went limp in his grip as numerous systems, devices, and organs were pulverized under the pressure of Unit-01's grip.

Grabbing one of the Heavy lances lying nearby, he returned and brought the weapon up to impale the core, when it shifted in his hand, the lengthy blade reforming into the gray-yet-familiar shape of the Lance currently aboard the Jupiter's Thunder. With a shrug, Shinji drove it home, the MPE twitching once before going still, and Shinji turned to join Rei in her fight.

Unnoticed by him, and all but forgotten by Rei, the other active Mass Production Eva, receiving new orders, turned to engage the nearby AT-AT's that had been free to engage all approaching troop carriers, APCs, and Tanks.

Deep within the darkened bowels of Tokyo-3, Kyle coughed up the last of the LCL as he stood beside Unit-04's Entry plug, which quietly cycled back into Unit-04 with a whine of electrical motors.

"Misato, when it's safe, send down the Barge for Unit-04 and Shinji and Rei," he said into a hand-held comm taken from one of the numerous Imperials within the loading bay. True to plan, the catapults were constantly loading and unloading AT-STs and AT-PTs throughout Tokyo-3 to respond to the enemy forces now breaching the city.

Giving a quick order to the Officer in Charge to begin evacuating all non-essential troops, Kyle took off towards Central Dogma, and the LCL-Plant within, where Lilith's crucified form rested. In the darkened corridors, the Emergency lights beginning to fade as their internal batteries slowly ran out of power, the oppressive silence was a startling contrast to the sounds of battle going on within Tokyo-3, above.

With the climate control system disabled, the corridors had begun to cool noticeably, and the LCL still dripping from the plugsuit brought goosebumbs to Kyle's skin. "And there's only another mile or so of corridors between here and where I'm going," she grumbled as she made her way downward.

Rei's opponent, Misato thought with a grimace, was definitely a cut above the others, and only after discussing it briefly with Ritsuko and Commander Fuyutsuki did she and General Hongo modify their plans. The Eva Units -01 and -00 battled was classified as MP-Alpha, and the one currently tearing through their eastern defensive line was classified MP-Beta. With both Shinji and Rei attacking, the Alpha was falling back steadily, but until it was dispatched, it was far too dangerous to send either of the two Units to intercept the -Beta.

To the east, said Beta was currently gripping an AT-AT by its head-like command module, pausing a moment before twisting so violently the vehicle fell over even as the head was pulled clear of the AT-AT's body.

A nearby AT-AT spat devastating bolts from its heavy laser cannon, but the Eva, either sensing the blast or merely lucky, sidestepped at the last moment, and the green blasts of concentrated energy shot off into the tree line, the two large explosions emanating from the point of impact utterly ignored by the combatants.

Turning to face the one that had fired, the Mass Production Eva prepared to charge when a third AT-AT fired, this one's temple-mounted medium repeating blaster taking it in the arm and spinning it violently as the armor bubbled and frothed as it was vaporized by the blast.

Doing its best to dodge the combating behemoths, a pair of AT-STs backed up towards the city, taking a quick couple shots at an approaching JSSDF Tank before ducking behind a corner a moment before a nearby building shattered as another AT-AT was thrown into it.

General Hongo, who'd been watching the battle, scowled before calling the Jupiter's Thunder.

"Go ahead General," Nabiki answered, her attention, much like Makoto's nearby, was focused on the small digital map of NERV Headquarters, and the flashing dot that represented Kyle as he, currently 'she,' ran towards the LCL Manufacturing Plant.

"The Mass Production Evas do not exhibit any signs of having an AT-Field. The Unit on the east side of town is tearing through our defensive line. I need it taken out before the entire sector's defenses collapse."

Nabiki shook herself free from watching that dot which represented the last line of defense between Humanity and Annihilation, and nodded, "Just send the coordinates when your Units are clear of the blast-zone."

General Hongo's eyes narrowed, "If my Units pull back, the target will follow to continue engaging. I need those shots, and I need them now."

Nabiki's eyes widened as she realized what the General meant, before nodding. "If you're sure," Nabiki stated simply, as the coordinates were received.

"I'm sure," the General stated quietly as Nabiki fed the orders to a nearby captain.

"Ma'am, there are Imperial transponders within the blast radius," the captain replied as he prepared to fire.

"I know, Captain," Nabiki said, before nodding for him to continue. Swallowing, the captain turned and relayed the order, silently cursing whoever was in charge of this attacking army.

"Damn you, SEELE," Nabiki hissed, as a green blast lanced out from the Thunder, catching the Mass Production Evangelion and four AT-AT's in a blast that devastated a good portion of the fields just outside the city.

Within Tokyo-3, the blast briefly stopped the fighting as soldier and Stormtrooper alike ran to dodge the sudden hail of falling glass broken by the shockwave. When the deadly rain had finally stopped falling, the two opposing armies re-emerged and picked up where they left off, the air filling with bullets and blaster bolts.

"Fifteen minutes until Teleporters become operational," SHODAN stated calmly.

"That's nice," Makoto said absently as she continued to watch her Husband's transponder make its way through the corridors of NERV. Without power, the location was based on a best-guess using triangulation from The Nerve and Jupiter's Thunder's sensors and SHODAN's accurate maps of the complex, but every once in a while the battle between them and the origin of the signal or the structure itself made the signal fade on occasion, or oddly appear to run through walls as the alignment was thrown off by a meter or two.

"Lady Kino, we have them!" An officer cried, with an almost palpable sense of dark pleasure in her voice.

"Have who?" she asked, turning to look at the officer with a frown.

"Milady, SHODAN has backtracked the signals from the Mass Production Evangelion Units and-" the Officer was cut off as SHODAN interrupted.

"-I've planted a virus in their system, which rooted out an entire shadow international computer network apparently created and used solely by them."

Makoto Kino frowned darkly at this, and Nabiki stepped forward, "Makoto, stay here and keep an eye on things. I'll take The Nerve. Whether or not we win or lose, SEELE will reap what it has sown."

Makoto was about to protest, when she realized her place was here, while Kyle, now cut-off from all but the most basic of communications tried to stop the final Angel from eradicating all life on Earth as they knew it. With a nod, she turned back to the display.

Nabiki turned towards the officer in charge of the teleporters. "Is it safe enough for ship-to-ship travel?"

"Yes, Admiral, the radiation-" he started to reply, before she cut him off.

"Good. Send me there. Now," she ordered, thinking back to all the atrocities she'd read about or witnessed since coming here, all of which could be laid directly at SEELE's feet. She had faith in Kyle, but Kaworu's AT-Field had been described as so powerful not even light could get through it when it was at full strength. She could do nothing to help him down there, but she was heading out to do what she could, and any objection she might have had against taking a life or lives was violently shoved aside as she considered what SEELE had done to the people she had once thought of as merely characters in a story. People she'd fought beside, sometimes literally. This wasn't payback, revenge, or reprisal.

As the Thunder's bridge faded out of view from around her, the officer manning the teleporter station heard the Admiral whisper before she disappeared completely: "This is Justice."


Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger... curses. And so late, too... Well, I guess the next piece is the big finale.. It's actually almost finished, but I need to clarify a few things that are confusingly written, and tie up some remaining loose ends and it'll be up, and I'll be done with Eva. Once more, I owe my pre-readers thanks for pointing out the times I went overboard, under-detailed, or just plain bad during the course of writing. Thanks guys.

Oh, and I know where I'm going next, but feel free to offer suggestions.. I'm not promising I'll go everywhere people want me to, but I'm always looking for something fun to do.