Metal Storm
Prologue
Earth
2016
Keele sat in the soothing darkness, watching the hologram through narrowed eyes as the figure of Unit 01 rose into the ruins of Tokyo-3, just in time to witness the broken remains of Unit 02 hit the ground. A slow smile started to form as he watched the MP-Evas draw the purple war-machine unknowingly into the dance of the Red Earth ceremony.
"Well played Ikari," he muttered, leaning back. "Well played. But you always had the loosing hand. And you were wrong. Your death, and the death of us all with bring about a rebirth so beautiful that you could never imagine it.
"What is it you people say? Don't count your chickens before they've hatched?"
"What the?" Keele gasped, spinning in shock at the unexpected voice. He blinked in surprise at the figure of his butler. "Amano? What are you doing here, I left strict instructions with you and the rest of the staff that…"
"Oh, do be quiet, there's a good doll," Amano interrupted, idly waving a hand. Keele's eyes bulged in shock as his implants all froze, bright red warning signs superimposing themselves over his vision.
"It seems," Amano mused, studying Keele absently as he stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the hologram, "that you did rather well. Seele came very close to achieving their goals, which were, of course, really my goals."
Amano paused at Keele's faint grunt of complaint.
"Oh please," he said, sneering. "Did you really think you arrogant old fools managed to gain so much power purely on your own merits? No, nearly a full third of SEELE's operatives were actually me, in suitable, ah, 'disguises'. You see, I'm very good atdeceiving people. And I used my skills to support your goals because I knew that, with the right push, your goals would become mine.
"And it nearly worked. Instrumentality was so close… I could almost taste it…" He shrugged, and started to stride back and forth, taking on the air of a professor sadly pointing out the mistakes in a students work.
"Unfortunately, you really should have been more proactive. You knew that Ikari had Lilith, that he had Adam and you did nothing. You didn't take any real steps in securing the loyalty of that little science experiment of his. A few seconds ago, he tried to combine Rei, Lilith and Adam to start and control 3rd Impact."
Keele blinked in shock, about the only action he found he could do.
"He failed though, it seems that his little pet was less obedient then he expected. She has started and is in control of 3rd Impact right now, as we…as I speak. Your failed precursor to the last 'angel' appears to plan on convincing her to not break apart everyone's AT fields. Instead, she will probably choose to punish you and your people for your arrogance.
"Ah well," Amano sighed and shrugged. "I'll just have to try again at some later date." He glanced back over at Keele. "There is, of course, the question of how I should punish your failure. I suppose I could simply leave; Lilith will probably punish you well enough. However… For all the effort I put in on your behalf, I feel I deserve some kind of reward…"
The man Keele had always dismissed as nothing more then a butler, a lackey casually reached out both hands and cradled his frozen head.
A few seconds later, Lilith turned her attention from the JSSDF troops to him, and his body collapsed from the metal skeleton of his implants into an orange-red puddle.
It was pointless though.
His soul was already gone.
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Harbinger-class transport Warrior's Chariot
5 348 999 M41
"…so I'll see you in a few minutes, right after the Warp jump," Thorne concluded.
"We'll be…" Shinji began, and froze. "…when is the Warp jump?"
"Thirty seconds or so, why?"
"Pilot Soryuu is… indisposed," Shinji replied, putting a heavy tone on the last word.
"…Ah," Thorne replied. "Well, we'll reschedule in thirty minutes then. You know what to do pilot Ikari. And, good luck."
Shinji released the vox's transmit rune as he felt the familiar mental lurch as the aging transport jumped into the semi-real and flinched, a spike of fear shooting straight down his spine in an instinctive reaction evolved from a time before humans had stopped fooling around in trees.
It wasn't the feeling of jumping into the immaterium; all the time spent on theWarrior's Chariot moving from one war zone to another had allowed him to view the events with a certain calm. No, it was the sudden shriek of female rage from the room's attached ensuite that had him suddenly wishing for a gun, armor and, for preference, close-air support.
"THAT'S THE FIFTH DAMN TIME!" Asuka snarled, stomping out of the tiny bathroom and slamming the door behind her. Shinji hesitantly opened his mouth.
"Don't say a word, Ikari," Asuka growled, fists clenched. "I'm not angry at you, but all it'll take is one wrong word, and you'll regret it!"
"I was just going to say," Shinji began carefully, forcing his voice completely toneless, "that Thorne just summoned us to a meeting." Quickly, seeing the familiar spark rising in her eyes, Shinji continued; "When I explained that you were indisposed, however, he said the meeting could easily be delayed for half an hour or so if you wanted to head down to the shooting gallery of some practise…"
Asuka glared at him for a second, and then visibly forced herself to tone it down from 'strip-flesh-from-bones' to merely 'severely-annoyed'.
"Fine," she muttered, her voice under tight-control. "I'll see you in half an hour then.
As the door hissed shut behind her, Shinji sighed slightly in relief. Asuka may have matured considerably in the considerable length of time since 3rd Impact had been averted, but there were some things that could be guarantied to set her off. Walking to a nearby wall closet, Shinji reached in and grabbed a few cleaning supplies. And a mop.