Disclaimer: I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything associated with it. Gainax created this world, I just play in it.
Transposed
Chapter 29
The recreation centre complex where the swimming pool was located was on the opposite side from the hospital in the huge pyramid that made up the outwardly visible part of NERV's base inside the Geo-front. It too was on the ground floor and it was evident by the sounds of combat echoing through the halls that somewhere beyond their position hostiles had gotten in here as well. They hadn't gotten far up the hall from the pool when they began to hear it.
If the enemy could gain access this easily into the Geo-front then all of the work they had done to block or redirect access from up top through the city had been a mostly wasted effort. They knew it was a very real possibility that SEELE had a number of ways in that didn't show up on any set of plans for the place, but judging by the amount of activity she was hearing over her radio those ways in were either numerous or so well concealed that no one had ever found even a trace of them in all of the time this place had been operating.
It was just as likely that no one had ever even bothered looking. It wouldn't have surprised her if Ikari had known, but even if he didn't know exactly where they were it wouldn't have mattered to him anyway. He would have just used the attack to cover his move to take Ayanami down into the depths of Terminal Dogma and begin initiating his version of Third Impact. She supposed that with how long Kiel had been planning this that he certainly would have factored in needing undetectable ways into the place, but it was still mind boggling to think of the sheer amount of detailed planning that must have gone into this entire thing. If only he had used that intellect and attention to details to do something good and worthwhile.
The preferred and most direct route for her to get Shinji down to the Eva cages was to head for the main entrance and reception hall of the pyramid and to the central bank of elevators there, but it seemed that the enemy was already ahead of her. She had factored that into her list of possibilities and it seemed she was now going to have to deviate and head for her secondary choice already. There was a set of utility elevators in this end of the building that were near a maintenance and storage area. The enemy would probably try getting in there too but she hoped to slip by them by getting to a set of maintenance stairs and going down a flight or two before trying for one of the elevators there.
She stopped them at the first main intersecting hallway they came to and motioned for Shinji to stay behind her. She knew he could hear the fighting up ahead just as easily as she could and the poor kid had to be rattled by it, yet it seemed he was coping with it remarkably well.
"Looks like we have to take a detour already," she told him. She listened carefully to try and determine if any of the fighting was taking place down the corridors to her left and right. She thought she heard faint sounds in the distance down to her right and nothing to the left, but it wasn't easy to say for sure with the commotion further up the hallway ahead of them.
She let out a breath and took a quick look left and right before quickly pulling back behind the corner. She hadn't seen anything and no one had tried to blow her head off. She took a second, longer look, mostly concentrating on the right hand hallway. There didn't seem to be any imminent danger from that direction.
"Okay Shinji," she said. "We're going left. Ready?" The boy nodded. She could see the fear and nervousness in his face and in his posture but she could also see enough resolve in his eyes to know that he wasn't about to run or hide.
She rounded the corner with him right on her heels and they paced a quick walk/slow trot up the left side of the long hallway. A little over a hundred feet up ahead of them was a hall that went to the right. When they were thirty feet from it someone peered around the corner and quickly pulled back. She pulled Shinji across to the other side of the hall with her and steered him down to the floor. It was good timing. The person whipped around the corner almost immediately and opened fire on where they would have been if they had kept to that side. Realizing they had crossed the hall he was sweeping his fire towards them when she opened up his chest with a three round burst, sending him sprawling across the end of the hallway.
As she fired a couple of more bursts into the wall above the dead man to keep any friends he had with him at bay for a moment, she noted that he was garbed in forest green camouflage like the one's Matt had reported running into. She motioned for Shinji to stay down where he was and she quietly crept towards the corner. She could almost feel that there was at least one more hostile around the corner and she had long ago learned to trust her instincts. She wasn't about to make a juicy target of herself to find out and if he wasn't either then she needed to do something to at least distract him for a second in order to make a move.
Looking down she saw a shell casing near her boot that had rolled a few feet down the hall from the man she had shot. An idea crossed her mind, one that relied on basic involuntary reactions. It was worth a shot. She picked up the casing and when she was a couple of feet from the corner she tossed it into the adjoining hallway, at an upward angle so it would hit the ceiling. As soon as it left her hand she took a couple of quick steps and hit the floor, sliding across the opening on her left hip and shoulder. There was indeed a another man standing around the corner and the tossed shell casing had indeed done as she had hoped. It caught his attention just enough to make him to avert his eyes to it for just a split second. It was enough. As his eyes snapped back to her she was already pulling the trigger, pounding two three round bursts into his abdomen and chest.
Truthfully, she couldn't believe that it worked, but she'd take whatever lucky gifts she could get. She didn't have time to wonder about much as she heard heavy boots slapping the floor from well down the same hallway, followed immediately by the sound of rifle fire and bullets slapping into the wall above and behind her. Luckily for her the shooter's aim wasn't great as he fired while running. She returned fire, sending three round bursts down the hall. She felt something tug across her vest over her right shoulder and heard the bullet whiz past her ear, while at the same moment her foe was hit and went to the floor. As he cursed and screamed in German and writhed on the floor she realized that unlike the other two, he was wearing a vest.
She didn't know if her tri burst had perforated the body armour or just slammed into him hard enough to break some ribs and knock the wind out of him but she wasn't going to wait ti find out. Quickly getting to her feet to get a better angle as he struggled to get up, she sent more rounds downrange, finally drilling him in the head. Keeping a hard eye on things down the hall to make sure no one else appeared, she swiftly and smoothly swapped the empty magazine in her carbine for a fresh one. She didn't bother checking the graze on the shoulder of her vest.
"It's all clear Shinji," she called. She could see him shaking as he stood up. She couldn't blame him for being rattled by the close gunfire. As he approached her she made sure to keep herself between him and the sight of the dead mercenaries. Draping an arm over his shoulder she steered him by the carnage and up the hall. "I know it's tough by stay with me Shinji. You can do it."
"H-how do you do it?" he asked. "How do you fight against guys like this all the time?"
She gave his shoulder a squeeze. "Same way you do Shinji when fighting the Angels. Someone has to do it and I can."
NERV Command Deck
Just as with most days recently, the morning started with a certain air of tension on the command deck. The 'Bridge Bunnies', as they were collectively know were busy at their usual assigned tasks of monitoring the base functions, the defence grid, or what was left of it, and watching the scanning systems for not only Angels but anything else that might potentially be hostile. Ever since the city had been shifted to battle configuration the SIS people had been busy setting up their command centre in Gendo's old office. There wasn't room for them and the NERV personnel here on the command deck, and once the action started there would be too much noise from each groups respective comm systems and duties for any of them to work effectively. Currently, Colonel McKinnley, Sub Commander Fuyutsuki and Kaji were in the command staff's observation post above them. Yui was there as well speaking with both of them.
Ritsuko was feeling that tension as she took her freshly poured cup of coffee to the bridge station she was using and watched the activity around her. As they had for days, both the NERV and SIS people were used to operating under stressful conditions and to their credit they all were going about their work efficiently and calmly. While she couldn't say much in her observations of the SIS people since she really didn't know any of them, her own people she did know and she could see the subtle hints of the strain they must be feeling. The impending appearance at some point of seven mass produced Eva units was daunting enough with the spectre that the Seventeenth Angel might arrive with them. Never mind that it could well coincide with a human attack on the base.
In relative terms, the Angels were a known quantity even in their variety and unpredictability. But seven mass produced Evangelions, all piloted by a dummy plug system was something that seemed far scarier somehow, maybe because they were monsters that had been crafted by human hands rather than being some form of invading alien. They all remembered the relentless savagery that Unit 01's dummy plug had displayed as it tore the possessed Unit 03 to bloody chunks. The idea of something like that being repeated and multiplied by seven was not something they wanted to see and it was hard to keep one's morale up under the shadow of that potential eventuality. Yet even with that hanging over them they were still able to do their jobs. They had been offered the chance to evacuate if they wished but they stayed in spite of it.
She was feeling the fear herself with an added layer of guilt. While she certainly wasn't the only scientist within NERV and SEELE to have worked on the dummy plug project, her work certainly had contributed to the whole. As it was she had been trying to find a way to atone for that but without having access to the programming for the mass productions units she had little hope of doing anything to disrupt the connection between the dummy plug and the unit. Sadly, as always, they would have to rely on their own pilots to handle them. Their plight was something else that had tacked itself onto the cloak of guilt she wore and weighed on her conscience the closer they got to the end of things.
She had treated all of them, and Rei in particular, as little more than mere parts of the Evangelion. She had long tried to tell herself that investing any emotions in them was a fools game and her detachment was far better than Misato's close involvement. Her friend's torment was her example to justify her way of thinking. Misato put herself through hell being caught between her obsession to kill the Angels at all cost and the need to use children to do it. Despite her military training and the fact that she was their commanding officer it was impossible for her to stay at arms length from them. She had already known Asuka, took an instant liking to and had an instant connection to Shinji, and if it wasn't for Gendo's tight control over Rei she had little doubt Misato would have been much closer to her as well.
But her, she had been completely detached from the them and perfectly alright with using children as soldiers and to let them suffer for what was ultimately to be a pointless cause. By the hand of the Angels, by Gendo, or by SEELE, the world and in particular mankind was supposed to come to an end. No matter what those children did it had all been designed to be for naught. Save the world from one threat so it can be destroyed by another and she had been right up to her neck in helping to make that happen.
She looked to Maya and once again thanked whatever lucky star that had deigned to pass overhead and gift her with someone who supported her and believed in her despite all that she had done. She was the ray of light that illuminated her way out of the darkness and the lifeline that kept her from drowning in guilt, loneliness, and misery. Maya was making her feel like a human being again instead of a monster and returning a little bit of hope to her life. One way or the other they were close to the end of this fifteen year nightmare and she could only hope they came out on the positive side of it. She had reasons to actually want to now.
"Colonel!" she heard one of his comm techs call to him on the radio he carried. "Topside is reporting that the JSDF armoured units outside the main entrance are turning their turrets on them and opening fire."
"Damn it!" he cursed. Evidently the help he had been assured was reliable was anything but. "Sound the alert and get me General Nakamura on the line, he's got some explaining to do." He turned and headed for his command post but before he left she also heard the reports of hostiles in the hospital and recreation wings.
"Get ready," Fuyutsuki told his own people. "We could be seeing incoming Evangelions at any moment."
"Sempai, it's starting," Maya called.
"I see it," Ritsuko acknowledged. "When they hit that firewall start sending out every surprise we have. I'm activating our mole programs. All of the other MAGI should be connected together for this and focusing on attack right now. Our viruses should spread through all of their systems in a matter of seconds."
With a flurry of keystrokes she sent the commands to awaken the digital monsters they had left in NERV 01's MAGI. As it was, the virus would have been leaving pieces of itself throughout their systems since she originally planted it there. Those bits would have migrated to the other MAGI as they linked with it for the attack on Tokyo 3. The commands she just issued would bring those bits together in the other MAGI's core systems and would take effect as soon as Maya let loose the other surprises which would flood them with diagnostic requests, error messages, repeated queries by the millions from the government systems they were linked to, and the vast contents of entire digital libraries from all over the world.
"They've hit the firewall," Maya reported. "It's holding. Everything looks good."
"Then let them have it Maya," she commanded with a smirk.
"Yes Ma'am!" Maya responded with unexpected glee. There was even a malicious little smile on her face.
Now it was a matter of waiting to see if the measures they had worked so hard on had any effect. The hope was that not only would their measures stop the attack but weaken it. They wanted the attacking systems to have to pull back resources to deal with the imminent threat to their core systems. Everything they had thrown at them so far was designed to push them to that course of action.
She spared a moment to look up to the observation level where Yui still stood with the Sub Commander. While the woman definitely looked concerned and worried, she wasn't in a panic. Yui caught her eye and offered a brief, small smile. She took that as a sign that the Children were okay. She knew that Lilith would be keeping Yui updated as she kept track of Shinji and Rei through her link to them.
'Bet Misato's wishing she was there with gun in hand to take on Kiel's goons.' Ritsuko smirked to herself. 'Knowing that they were targeting the pilots must have her in a rage. I don't even want to think what she might do in Unit 01 if anything happens to Shinji.'
"Sempai, the strength of the hack is beginning to weaken," Maya said, breaking her out of her thoughts.
Ritsuko checked her screens and sure enough the incoming data flow that was hitting their firewall was slowly beginning to lessen. After a few minutes it began to drop much quicker. The enemy systems were having to takes resources away from the hack to try and protect themselves.
"Time to let them have phase two," she said.
Upon entering a new series of commands she unleashed a second wave of attacks. Whereby the first wave concentrated on overwhelming the enemy systems while the virus attacked their core programming, the second wave of attacks she unleashed would hit all of the secondary programming within the systems. While a lot of the peripheral programming and systems were less vital than that at the core, they were still pretty important in their own right and was data that they could not afford to lose. This two pronged attack meant that the enemy would have to decide which battle to fight since they couldn't fight both and they certainly couldn't maintain the hack while they fought either of them.
"Now that's a rather predatory smile if I ever saw one," Yui's voice from beside her.
"It worked," she grinned. "We hit them hard and their attack is now rapidly declining. They have too many problems of their own to worry about now to be attacking us."
"That's good," Yui sighed in relief. "At least when the Evangelions deploy they won't be operating blind."
"Speaking of which, are the kids alright?" Ritsuko asked.
Yui nodded. "According to Lilith their escorts are taking out anything that gets in their way. So far they haven't run into anything they can't handle. They had to tell Asuka a little bit of the truth, just enough to make her understand why other human beings were attacking the base. She's not holding them up but it hit her pretty hard."
"Not surprised," Ritsuko said. "Considering her views about NERV's importance and her status within it. Finding out it was all a sham would be crushing. Especially with all that she is already dealing with."
"Rei is determined and helping her along," Yui added. "And Shinji's nervous and he's scared but he's hanging in there."
"Sub Commander!" Hyuga suddenly shouted from his station. "We've just gotten word from the Pacific Fleet that they have radar contact with seven large aircraft that are on a direct heading for Japan. They're still outside our detection range however."
"Let me know the second you pick them up," Fuyutsuki ordered. He picked up the phone to let the Colonel know, although the man had probably received the same report already.
"Are the Eva's prepped and ready?" Ritsuko asked.
"They're ready to go and all systems are green," Maya answered. "We have no reports of any enemy incursions in the cage areas and all surveillance cameras show the cages are clear. They'll be able to launch on their own with no assistance from us if necessary." Hopefully that wouldn't be the case since it meant that in some way, shape, or form the bridge crew would be cut off or incapacitated. It was a necessary precaution however under the circumstances.
"I just hope it remains clear and they get there soon," Yui said. She wanted them all there safely, but selfishly she wanted Shinji there most of all and she made no apologies for that. He would be all but untouchable inside of Unit 01 and under Lilith's care. Physically at least, but there was no armour or entity present with the Eva that could protect him from the stress and fear of the fight and her little boy had been through so much already. This should be the last battle he would have to endure, she prayed to any deity that was listening that it be so and that he could then have the peaceful, quiet life he deserved and with all of the love and care that he had never been allowed to have.
From the very beginning Kiel had always planned on being at ground zero when Instrumentality took place. It wasn't a necessity, he could be anywhere on the planet and be within the effect of the event, but he wanted to be as close as possible for the culmination of all of the hard work he had put in over the centuries to get to that point. Originally it was to be himself and the Committee in a conference room he had secreted in a surface building on the edge of Tokyo 3, but with the demise of the Committee he had revised that to a bolder and more preferred option that he had held in reserve.
Either way, he would be there for that moment. The point of renewal and rebirth, the much desired return to what he truly was. The point where he could resume the work of perfecting the ideal life form that was the balance between strength, power, and intelligence, a perfect balance that would allow it to survive and flourish against the challenges made against it by both its own brethren and other naturally occurring and evolving species. Beings that he could guide to prominence.
He had certainly known what a transgression he was making when he sent the second Seed to this world but he had sought to send a message to his own kind. The life forms produced by the two differing types of Seeds were inferior as far as he was concerned. The flaws within both of them made them vulnerable and with his brothers and sisters being so reluctant to guide these life forms as they grew and evolved it only made the situation worse. Without a guiding hand both types fell towards their ruination, finding a multitude of ways to squabble and make war among themselves and prey upon one another in ways both petty and depraved.
If the goal was to promote life then how could they allow this? How could they even start from the flawed stock they used and then simply content themselves to let it evolve as it may? To him that had been just as cruel and depraved as the behaviour of the unguided life forms themselves. How were they to ever know any different if there was no one there to help them along and allow them to prosper without destroying themselves. Just because their own race had begun this way eons ago did not mean that they should make every life form they were responsible for suffer the same way when they had the knowledge of experience to help them do otherwise.
There were others who believed as he did and the subject was a long and often debated one, but he had been the only one willing to do something drastic to make his point and illustrate as vividly as possible how flawed the current way was and to push his ideas for creating a better Seed. But he was seen as a villain. Others were doing experiments to the same end, but only he was willing to push the envelope and push theories that the others deemed as too dangerous and unstable. His experiments didn't take place in theory on paper or in a dish under a microscope, he created fully formed beings constructed of various ratios of the genetics of the Adam and Lilith type Seeds.
The failures were many. The test subjects either lost the structural integrity of their bodies through their AT Fields and fell apart, or grew into grotesque shapes and proportions and either imploded or exploded. Some of the few that lasted more than a few days displayed glimpses of unchecked power and psychological instability. Yet, every failure rendered valuable data to the process. In the end, once his research had been uncovered, he had been labelled a monster, a murderer who cared little for the pain his test subjects had to endure. A man who had become obsessed and lost sight of the true goal and the ideal of the sanctity of life. They said he was jealous and spiteful of the others who sought better ways in their own research that was slowly making positive headway.
They sought to reeducate and reform him by stripping him of his power and sentencing him to live among the inferior life forms on this world and spend all of his time and effort over several lifetimes to help guide and improve their lives as one of them. To do whatever he could to ensure that any life forms produced by the second Seed he sent did not awaken and affect life on this world. Today that long and excruciating sentence would come to an end and with it the flawed existence of the beings of this world. Their last contribution would be to rejuvenate him and allow him to continue on with his work. His revenge against his own kind would be the success of that work. He would prove them wrong. He would create as many test subjects as it would take to perfect what he knew to be possible and once he had he would seed worlds with them and guide them and show the others among the First that he had been right. His theories and his work would be justified and he would be vindicated.
Not even the alterations to his plans that had been necessary over the last several weeks would stand in the way of him being at ground zero. He would have preferred things to go according to his original plans but he supposed he was quite fortunate in how few snags there had actually been up until now. He would have preferred that his ability to turn both the Japanese government and its military against the Tokyo 3 base had remained intact. The object had been to neutralize the base and its personnel, primary among them being the pilots. No pilots meant no Evangelions to oppose him. Once the MPE's arrived the ritual would begin and there would be no risk to losing any of the units before hand.
Ikari's actions upon the return of his wife had thrown the proverbial spanner in the works but it was not a critical breakdown. Even with only seven MPE's at his disposal they should be more than a match for the remaining operational units should the mercenaries fail to neutralize the pilots and they would have no back up from the base with their MAGI hacked and taken out of the equation. Instrumentality would happen and he would have the souls of the remaining population at his disposal to set himself free.
Having overseen the construction of the Tokyo 3 base, even if from afar, he was aware of every hidden entrance and secret passage within it. He had ordered the majority of them to be constructed after all. He even knew of the handful that Ikari had seen to installing for himself and he would be making use of a couple of them. Thus far the trip through the dark and cramped secret spaces had been slow and tiring even though he was seated in his wheelchair. But they, himself, Dr. Holzer, his two best bodyguards Josef and Kurt, and two other men hand picked by them, had remained undetected thus far. By the time they reached a secluded portion of the parking garage that was restricted to Ikari's use only, the shooting had already started.
One of his few remaining moles in the place made sure that the power was restored to Gendo's private elevator from the car park after the SIS people had had it cut off. It would take them straight to the command level and hopefully with little trouble he would have his front row centre seat to his own last death and rebirth on this much loathed little world.
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