The Creeping Rot part one
-o-
-o-
Return, for a few moments, to the memory of Adam's revival. That glowing giant, with
bright wings spreading miles high into the sky. A teenage girl watched that, and was
struck mute, her voice and her mind fading into the unceasing sounds of the sea.
The waves rushed and receded, timeless, and fifteen years later the sound was the
same. It was restful, and utterly uncaring of all mankind's frantic concerns. Shinji Ikari
lay upon the beach, his head pointed towards the sea. His eyes were closed, and in
the deep of night it felt as if tomorrow did not need to come.
There was a cottage nearby and in it someone was likewise eating up the time, in his
case watching TV. He was a very large bruiser of a man, whose every facet denoted
'hired thug' or 'dumb guard'. He sat on an wooden crate, and the television was a small
14-inch portable.
The buzz on the international news networks was about how Russia once more
opened its interior, offering no explanations as to why they had suddenly shut down all
contact a month ago and poured several armies into the Eastern Territory. China also
closed its borders and responded; it seemed for some time there that war was about to
break out.
As sudden as it started, it was over, leaving most political analysts puzzled and making
wild guesses.
He snorted and changed the channel. A movie trailer began to play.
-o-
-o-
There is a voice; soft, young, feminine, and dire. It wafts through, as if buoyed by
the breeze. "Can you be happy like this?" she asks.
There is a young man, who seems not to hear. He stabs a pitchfork into a heap of hay
and begins to shift it into a larger pile. He looks up at the sun-lit sky and wipes sweat
off his forehead. A hawk circles overhead. He turns back to his task.
He is not tall or well-muscled, his skin only starting to bronze from open-air work. His
lanky frame hides a certain mulish persistence, and a frantic denial of anything more
complicated than farming.
"Some space to farm, some seeds to plant... is this all you really want out of your life?"
His hair is long, bound by a single blue bandana. His eyes show intelligence and intense
concentration ill-suited to the mundane repetition of his labors.
"Is this contentment?"
Sweat glistens off his exposed arms. Behind him, the fields are empty. The grain has
been harvested, the fruits taken from the trees.
"Or is this cowardice?"
The hawk screeches. He ignores it.
"You ask for little... but the land demands more of you."
The ground shakes, and he has to jab the pitchfork into the ground to steady himself.
A scratching sound fills the air, and cracks spread through the field; clumps of earth
breaking loose and rising. He was being lifted up high; hay, sod, rocks, and all.
His eyes widen, in fear.
"You will hide from me no longer. You will shine, or you will die."
He turns around, very reluctantly. There, looming over him, iss a monstrous face, with
glowing yellow eyes and a single horn rising from its armored forehead. It opens its
maw to show great gnashing teeth. Its indrawn breath draws a gust of wind, that
tugs at the loose flaps of his clothing.
The young man screams.
It roars.
Darkness.
The sound of wardrums, rising in volume.
-o-THIS SUMMER-o-
The shadow passes, and the clanking of war-wheels follows it. Wagons; painted in
bright and chaotic patterns, festooned with spikes, roll on by. Upon them stand green
hulking creatures, whose mirth show great sharp teeth. There is the sound of many
feet marching in step, and as the view widens, what seemed to be a field of grass is
revealed to be the pulsating mass of a truly massive green-skinned army.
A shout, gutteral and millions-strong:
"WAAAAAAAGGGHH!"
A sudden clang, and darkness again. The deep voice returns, along with white block
letters receding...
-o-A WORLD-CHANGING EVENT-o-
It is a throne room, and admidst the courtiers and advisors is a very reluctant King. He
has a grizzled chin, and his crown fits poorly. He looks sleepy, and is prodded back to
wakefulness by an annoyed Captain of the Imperial Guards. He grins weakly at her, and
she merely turns away with a sniff.
"Sire, please... we must take action." speaks the Minister, himself still rather young.
Those who have seen the first movie would recognize him as the Bronze Cleric, but it
turns out he was happier at being a paper-pusher than as a preacher. "The Orks are
massing in numbers unheard of, since three years ago..."
There is the jingling of little bells at the end of a staff. "Burning, looting, stripping the
land." mumbles the Magician, the long-haired Iron Cleric of before. He was having
very little luck in managing court magician functions, sufficing ceremony and plenty of
hand-waving for any actual results at seeing the future. "Our army is few, our magic is
exhausted. But that is not the worst of it."
Fortunately he had retained his amazing Common Sense powers.
"Gargant walks, Gargant drives them forward. The Orks are in a frenzy for a reason..."
The King looks up, his expression hollow. "The same reason as three years ago?"
The Magician grins faintly, and lets his staff jingle again. "The time comes again, when
Gods walk among Mere Mortals. Who can say, who lives past that day?"
The scene fades away.
-o-
BOOM.
The explosion breaks apart a plaster wall, and splatters Ork insides all on the outsides
of an old mansion. A girls voice, irate, rushes through the din of battle. "There are
greenskins here too? Unacceptable! Kill them all!"
A line of musketmen fired a volley, then charged with bayonets. Their uniforms were
in red decorated with yellow ropes, evoking golden filigree. "You heard the princess!"
shouted the sargeant of that squad. "Cleanse these filth!"
"WAAAGH!"
Bomblets fell from the sky, sending everyone scrambling for cover. The view changes
to the inside control center of a large war zepellin. While the front is functional enough,
the back is made to look like some ornate salon.
"More bombs! More bombs!" says a girl, with flowing red hair, her back to the camera.
She has on a well-fitting suit of plate armor.
Her Air General approaches from the side. "Forgiveness, princess, but... our men are still
in skirmish with the greenskins. We would be cutting off their line of retreat." Or kill them
indiscriminately, he did not add, for that sounded too much like criticism.
"Am I not the Sun Maiden? Do I not possess the might of the Red Tower? Are they not
supposed to fight in my honor?" She sniffs contemptuously and tosses her hair back.
"They'll just have to fight harder and break the enemy's line faster, that's all."
"... it will be done as you say, princess."
The explosions intensify.
-o-WILL BREAK OLD MYTHS-o-
Trumpets blare out and drums slam; and the pale light of sunset reveals a scene as if
out of hell. Dismembered bodies are strewn all over, and blood paint ruined walls. One
broken facade has a strange, eight-pointed symbol.
A fist slams into its center and breaks apart the brick wall. The view zooms out to
reveal The Scary Lady lady and a few orks of her entourage. She bends down to pick
up what seems to be a massive machine-cannon. It is larger than her, but she holds it
effortlessly. She frowns, and tosses it aside. One of her ork guards takes the gun.
There is a scratching sound, and fingers poke out from hastily-dug graves. She turns
around, her face grim. The orks surrounded her protectively, weilding their large axes.
A ghastly moan fills the wind, and the battle begins...
-o-SHATTER NEW CERTAINTIES-o-
A girl puts on a skull-marked cap and steps into an upright casket. The lid slams shut
and recedes into a shaft lined with rusty, hissing pipes.
Wham!
And a strange mechanical warrior throws itself into battle. Against a horde of giant
monsters with gleamng black skin, serrated claws, and vile oozing spit. It spins its torso
round and round, extending its arms like flails, and scattering everything around it.
A female voice proclaims... "Be PURGED in CLEANSING FLAME...!"
Fire shoots out of vents all over its body.
-o- UNLEASH THE HERO WITHIN ALL OF US -o-
The Court Magician yells out, jumping into the fray, a chain-sword singing in his right
hand. He is followed by prisoners and even the very guards the used to detain them.
The cramped corridors of a zeppelin is already marked by the devastation left in his
wake.
Elsewhere, the soldiers of the Third City once again fight on against impossible odds.
-o- AND DESTROY THE POWER OF FEAR -o-
The roar of -Principio Eternus- is unmistakable, and it rears up to show what it held in
its monstrous hand. The young man stands unflinching, the wind snatching at his long
hair, tied back by a white bandanna. He crosses his arms together and smirks slightly.
Clang!
Letters, as if made of iron red-hot from the forge, are stamped onto the screen.
-o- EFB2 -o-
Evangelion Fantasy
Battle!
The Call of Chaos
coming august 2016
-o-
-o-
-o-
Shinji heard the sound of metal-shorn boots upon sand. He tilted his head back to see
large silhouetted figures approach. They gathered around him, and stark against the
moon he could see nothing of their faces.
"It's time." a coarse voice said. "They're on the move. You can't put this off anymore."
The boy sighed. "I suppose it was useless to pretend I could hide from it forever." He
began to get back to his feet.
He looked across the beach, towards the pier, where cargo was still being loaded onto
a moored ship. Even through the distance, its shape was unmistakable. Nine large
cannons proclaimed it was a warship.
"Youre going to need this." the voice added. An object dropped onto the beach in
front of him. It gave off a faint sheen.
Shinji picked it up. For a time he looked at it, pensive, examining the way light glinted
off its polished surface. Then, with slow deliberation, put it on. The golden laurels fit
securely on his head. The tall figure blocking the light stepped aside, and the moon
showed a face with eyes hollow with worry.
He sighed. "... useless after all."
-o-
-o-
July 6, 2016. NERV was at full alert. It was the real thing; another Angel had arrived.
"Do we have authorization to engage yet?" Misato asked aloud.
"... yes, we do. The Far East Alliance have decided to hold off on their initial nuclear
attack." Shigeru answered. Then perhaps more helpfully, "The Trident Land Dreadnought
is standing by in case of surface attack."
Misato sniffed. "I suppose they want to save that for where they'd be useful. Each
other." She sat at her command station, and slapped her hands down on the armrests.
"All right! Time to get useful, everybody!"
Belatedly it had occured to NERV; why was it that the central tower of the command
center only had enough seats for the 'bridge' bunnies' and the actual commander? The
subcommander, the operations director, and the chief scientist when she had some
exposition to offer... all had to stand around whenever there was an attack. Even UN
and JSSDF guests got their own places. The very first thing Misato ordered as the
empowered Operations Director was to get the technicians to haul up some seats.
It only took around fifteen minutes to weld in new chairs and tables.
It did not help the habit of people calling the magi central tower a 'bridge'. It would
have been worse if she was still a captain.
Misato swiveled around to face her science offi... Ritsuko. "Is this the same Angel
that attacked last week?"
The main screen showed the Angel codenamed Iruel. It looked like an upright white
cylinder, bulging out at the bottom, where there was a single large eye. Spikes ran
along the rim, slightly longer at the bottom edge. Ritsuko pulled up an image of the
earlier high-speed attack form, which was an onion-like shape, with the same long
pointed protrusions. "Most likely. Seeing how it adapted this time to deal with our
defenses should be... fascinating."
"More like annoying. Status check on the Evas?"
"Titan modules read OK. Switching to umbilical cable power..." Maya's console showed
4:00.00 operations window. That was at minimal activity; estimated charge time with
heavy AT-field application was at thirty minutes. Plenty of time, all considering.
Misato clapped her hands. "Evangelions, launch!"
The electromagnetic rails shrieked, and then far above, two gargantuan shapes burst
out of an open pit. Tokyo-3 was completely dark, lights out ti conserve power and
not to give the Angel something to aim at. The pale moonlight showed the Evangelions
only as jagged silhouettes.
The Type T equipment used on Unit Two encased the entire neck and upper torso and
put heavy pods over the shoulders. The Titan modules were further refined from the
bulky prototype, so as not to hinder the Eva's mobility. Leaving the shoulders free also
meant that the Evas may rest in their cages ready with the modules, saving precious
time and effort.
Asuka's high-mobility frame had the battery pack around the neck, and closing over
the head; looking like a pharaoh's headdress. This was for easy replacement of power
packs. Rei's beam sniper frame had a much larger, but fixed, reserve. This gave Unit 00
a slightly hunched-over look, with arms grossly oversized by the heatsinks wrapped
around them.
These were the optimized systems as learned from the prototypes since first displayed
against the terror attack on Tokyo-3. Rapid deployment had become the watchword of
NERV. These were Titan modules "Das Ritter" and "Cannon Boss".
"Where is it?" Asuka asked. Which among all the lights in the sky, was the enemy?
"It's holding geostationary orbit twenty-eight kilometers above. Prepare to receive
targeting data." Misato swiveled her chair back to the screen. "You know the drill. Take
position at firing point Gamma. Rei, fire on my mark. Asuka, guide the beam."
"Okay." "Roger."
The Evangelion walked over to a spot behind a nearby hill. There was a power station
nearby, and Unit Zero connected the umbilical plug into its back socket. Unit Two did
the same, but the socket was on its front T-type armor plate.
"Now!"
The Moon-Biter Dual Positron Cannon shot out twin beams, which passed between the
outstretched arms of Unit Two. Its AT-field wrapped around the beams, even going so
far as to spin the shots into a helix. The attack slammed into Iruel's AT-field... and
there was a blinding flash.
"Shield up!" Misato shouted. Quickly, a slab of ceramic-infused armor plate rose from
the hilltop. The returning beam carved through the plate, but the fraction of a second
in delay was more than enough time for both Evas to raise their AT-fields to maximum.
The distinctive hexagonal shape lit up the night. The air crackled with exotic particles.
So great was the energy released that the hillside began to fuse into glass, and the
main screen showed only static.
A few moments passed by, and the sensors went back online. "Asuka? Rei? Are you all
right?"
"I'm fine. Should we try again?" "I am uninjured."
"No damage to the Evas. Primary power station reserves down 15. Three hours and
thirty-nine total operations time remaining." Maya reported. She sent the data over to
the MAGI. "AT-field efficiency calculations is at twenty-two minutes."
"Damn. These things ARE getting smart. Bring up the Hellbore... even if we can't guide
it with the AT-field, maybe we can get lucky."
"Which can evolve faster? Our technology or their biology?" Ritsuko put in with a grim
smile. "We don't have the same output as a bomb-pump laser, but the flow is constant.
Reflecting the beam back... attack and defense in one... I must say I'm impressed. I
wonder if we can bounce the beams back and forth?"
"This isn't ping-pong, you know."
"The Angel is retreating...!" Makoto shouted out. "Our radar is starting to degrade."
Iruel's skin was even starting to darken. It slid back into the remote expanse of outer
space. Reactionless motion was another thing that had the scientists in stiches.
Misato snarled and slapped her hands down hard at her chair's armrests. "Maybe too
smart. They've probed our defenses enough for tonight."
"They?" Asuka said through the link. "Why aren't the Angels attacking with more than
one? Stupid cowards! Come down so I can kill you!" The red Eva shook its fist at the
sky. "HA! I taunt in your general direction!"
NERV's Operations Director tugged at her own hair slightly. One of the necessities of
command was always keeping one's composure. So be it, then. "It's not going to be
back for a while, if it's the same sort of..." and it pained her to say "intelligence-
gathering attack like those other times. You girls can come back down now." She
sighed. "I hereby release NERV from level one combat conditions to standard alert
status."
She got up from her chair and went over the command tower's edge. She looked at
her watch, and now that she was no longer supreme authority, yawned impressively.
"What? It's already 2:30 in the morning? I don't think the Angel will attack again. I'm
bringing the kids home, if it's all right with you, sir?"
Kozo Fuyutsuki was emerging from a small one-man elevator. He nodded and went
over to the commander's chair. Very reluctantly, he sat on it. "I hereby recieve NERV
in standard alert. Thank you, Major Katsuragi. You may go."
Misato nodded and went away. She rubbed at her eyes. She had always distrusted
authority figures, and now she was one... she couldn't even pretend she could put it
down, like the difference between on-duty and off-duty as a soldier. Oh, god. It was
politics.
Yees, damn that Gendo. Damn him for getting her promoted. What a cunning and evil
plan to increase her salary and maker her a truly responsible adult. What a bastard.
It wasn't worth driving her precious, innocent boy away.
-o-
-o-
Time skipped on by.
It had been three months since Shinji Ikari quit NERV and disappeared without a trace.
There was the largest unofficial manhunt (well, boyhunt) ever attempted, with no
results. This may have had more to do with the intelligence agencies all competing
agressively for any trace of his whereabouts, than any special action on his part.
Things had settled into a new equilibrium. Asuka walked towards school, yawning. With
Shinji gone, she had to prepare her own meals. Misato was capable of cooking edibly,
but was often just too cheap or too lazy to bother. Her best friend, Hikari, decided to
just add one more lunchbox to her daily preparations; so the pilot had no worry there.
It was only at breakfast and dinner... Asuka was getting sick of takeout meals.
The biggest change in her life was that Rei now lived in the Katsuragi apartment. With
Shinji's resignation from NERV, the UN decided to get a better look at how the other
pilots were being treated. Rei was picked up from her building and dumped at Misato's
door well before the overwatch commitee had even cleared the airport.
Asuka was getting sick of tofu, too. The chores were assigned on a rotating basis, as
playing rock-paper-scissors with Rei gave up only horde of ties.
Fears that instead of being abused, the pilots would only end up spoiled rotten by all
that publicity only proved false. Tokyo 3 and its citizens respected them but respected
their personal space. Even at class, they were treated with casual deference.
That day, however, Asuka's reluctance to even move at all was not because it was
her turn at early morning chores but more on a lack of sleep.
"Is it true...?" she blearily asked Rei. "Are they getting smarter?"
"Doctor Akagi is convinced the Angels practice active evolution."
"Well, are they?"
Rei did not shrug. "As pilot Ikari said, I am human with 'some special features'. I am not
qualified to judge."
"Well, I agree with Ritsuko. Evolution tends to go from stupid but durable, or smart and
breakable. I don't care why the Angels are attacking us, but it looks like we're going to
have to prove our right to exist. The thing is... they are ACTING smarter, but still not
smart enough." She stomped her feet. "It's just too simple! Why not attack with more
than one?"
What with Asuka hanging around the laboratory so much, she might as well have been
the new apprentice. Maya was a 'journeywoman', what with her going off to NNHIS
base on occasion to fine-tune the simulation data and alternately learning or teaching
new programming techniques. When the scientist realized that, she grabbed her old
friend and got roaring drunk. 'It all goes round and round...' she had gibbered out.
'What's that word? Revolution! Everything keeps repeating. Even the changes are the
same...'
"I cannot be sure. But I would guess... that the Angels, for some reason, do not really
get along?"
Asuka smirked. "Good answer." She took a deep breath. "We're like ants. Tiny, squishy.
We can strip an elephant down to the bone." She abruptly lost her smile. "Refusing a
direct confrontation... at least it's alive... but it's not accomplishing much."
"It does return stronger after each time."
"Ah... but here's what we've been discussing back at the lab. How do we KNOW it's
really the same one?"
Rei paused her walking. Only the very faintest trace of puzzlement showed on her face,
but Asuka had grown adept enough at recognizing that. As much as people found her
eerie, so did the normal mindset confuse Ayanami. Anything that falls under 'trickery'
simply did not occur to her. It would take a bit more to develop a Morkian mind. "I see
your point, pilot Sohryu... and it frightens me."
Asuka sniffed and took a casual stance, her hands behind her head. "Aa. Just because
it looks the same doesn't mean it is the same." She turned around twice, keeping a
carefully blank look on her face. "It's the sort of thing we're trying to find proof one
way or another. There's more than one kind of Angel, we know that at least. Can they
reproduce?"
"I... do not know." The reproductive rate was often inversely proportional to the
lifespan of a creature. What then, when a being's lifespan was just something short
of infinite?
"Reproduction is like mass production of a species, anyway. We've been attacked how
many times in just three months?"
"Sixteen."
"The three months before that?"
"Two." Sahaquiel's attack was worth all the others before.
"So where DO the Angels go, when they're not making our life uncomfortable?"
Rei shuddered. It was like something in her was whispering 'I could tell you. Ask me.
My price is trifling, really. All that knowledge, all that power... do not resist...'
She shook her head. "I cannot help there."
'Bitch! I -will- be free! You are -mine-, and no amount of foolish hope can change that!"
They resumed walking. Asuka yawned again. "Damn it. While we're being worked to the
bone here, without getting anything done... he's probably having the time of his life
somewhere."
"... I highly doubt that, Sohryu."
The two girls briefly had the image of Shinji Ikari in a party. He was the sort of boy
who would rather be off to one side reading a book, than the center of conversation.
It could be a Turkish affair, with belly dancers and everything, and he'd try to read
about the defeat of Darius at the hands of Alexander. That he would willingly seek out
excitement in his life... naah.
"What a boring sort of boy." Asuka said after a while. "Knowing that doesn't make me
feel any better at all!"
"That sort of boy tends to turn into a Patrician someday."
"Again, with the not giving of the good feelings."
Rei tilted her head to the side. "An interesting way to arrange words, pilot Sohryu. You
intrigue me."
"... getting worse." At that point, Asuka no longer quite disliked Rei; as an unfeeling
doll, perfectly passive and preferred by all. That was because, in her own way, she was
being aggressive... which only creeped out Asuka immensely. Someone with such a
bland lifestyle should not have episodes of unpredictability. She made an exaggerated
gasp of surprise. "Look! School! Where we wouldn't have to force ourselves into
awkward conversation!" She rushed in.
Rei pouted very slightly, and followed.
-o-
-o-
"But... not that I'm saying anything against how NERV is doing..." at that Kensuke gave
a slightly frightened but mostly apologetic look at the pilots "... but isn't it not enough
to just drive it off? I thought Angels are supposed to be killed." He made a helpless bow
towards the pilots again. "No offense meant, please..."
"Are you saying we're incapable of killing Angels? That we can't manage without that
baka Shinji to hold our hand?" Asuka asked archly.
"No, no, please.. that's not what I..."
"Well, you may be right." Asuka sniffed. "The problem is that the Angels, attacking from
orbital height, has a damn good AT-field. We can't do what we did to kill the last one,
because a bomb-pump laser needs two Evas to feed and bottle the energy, and one
more for control."
"The positron beam attack only requires two; one for attack, another for guidance and
defense from counterattack." Rei added. "Three is indeed the optimal number for such
extreme Evangelion measures."
"Excuses." Kensuke snorted.
"What, you got something better, pencilneck? We've been trying to kill that thing,
every time, for sixteen tries now. It just runs away before we can really focus our full
force at it!"
"The answer seems obvious. One shot. 100 percent deadly, 100 percent accurate.
Hence, the big-ass cannon being built on the lake."
"Ah, yes... the one, that when complete... will take at least three days to charge up?"
It was Asuka's turn to snort derisively. "It's not available, so it doesn't count."
"Ah, ah... I said the answer SEEMS obvious, Sohryu." Kensuke grinned and wagged a
finger. "The less obvious answer... doesn't rely on external tricks. Willpower, creative
thinking, and a whole lot of guts, maybe."
"What is it?"
"Make the Eva fly."
Asuka laughed. "You know how much those things weigh? What, you think if we try to
jump high enough, our feet might forget about gravity?"
"Did I say anything about the Eva propelling itself? Someone else can. Preferably, one
other Eva can throw said Eva into place..."
Asuka blinked. "You're crazy. That's so idiotic..."
"That it just might work. Have you been in contact with pilot Ikari?"
"Ahh, no. I blame the Intrawebs for this little piece of insanity."
The conversation hushed up as the teacher arrived.
He looked barely awake as he trudged into class. Then again, the same could be said
of Yang Wen-li at all times. "All right, class. Settle down. Sorry I'm late, but we've got
to start classes now..."
"Stand! Bow!" The class did so.
"Um... yes. Thank you, Miss Horaki." He had always learned in his own sedate pace,
and the formal practice of teaching still bothered him. He forgot to prepare his lessons
in advance, arrived late, left early, was distressingly casual about rules... in short, he
was hardly the model teacher. Hell, he would fire himself if he could. "Now, I know that
there was some... excitement... again, last night, but that's not important right now.
Did anyone actually even bother to do their homework this time?"
Hikari raised her hand. Reluctantly, Toji did so too, since she had been there to make
sure he did something halfway sensible. Mana considered it something of an order from
a superior officer. The Evangelion pilots managed to do something before being called
to alert.
Apparently, no one else did. Certainly not Kensuke, who had a 'well, I wasn't home so
technically I shouldn't have to do homework... right?' expression.
Yang sighed. "Fine, fine... I'll just quiz you later." The questionnaire which he had
conveniently foisted off on someone else. That abraded the boredom a bit, not even
knowing what the hell the students were answering. He could take the test at the
same time. Even more exciting, sometimes the questions themselves would be wrong.
One of the boys raised his hand. "Yes, Yamada?" Yang allowed.
"Sensei, how can you say it's not important? I mean... an Angel attacked! The Angels
caused Second Impact! All this time we were lied to... we could have all died!"
The boy was new to Tokyo-3, and everyone there gave him a sympathetic look for his
confused dismay.
"Hm... that is true. However, much of your education before this was to teach you
about the world before Impact, to give you a reference point for how it feels to have
all that ripped away." Yang leaned back on his chair, as if the memories weighed him
down. "Yes, now the truth can be told. There was an Angel, at Antarctica, and there
was a big explosion... but it's been fifteen years, lad... and our population is still at a
decline. More people died in the panic and the general lawlessness the few hours after
the event than in the event itself."
The boy felt acutely embarrassed, and sat down. It wasn't that anyone had laughed
at him; that might have been better. Much more than the certain bleak acceptance
the class had; that man's worst enemy has been and will always be man.
Yang yawned again. "Uh... the lesson? Where were we?"
"The repercussions to the Valentine's Day Treaty, sensei." Hikari responded. "And the
attack on Tokyo after it was signed."
"Oh, that. Well... do I have to?" he groaned out.
"Yes, you do!" Hikari scolded.
"Yeah. Well... I might have had something to do with that." It did not take long for the
class to get over the fact that, yes, he's THAT guy in the archives. Without Hikari to
remind him, he would not have any lessons at all. Yang was the sort of person who
needed a woman's push into whatever brilliance he had to do. It was embarrassing to
even watch, actually.
"That was the warlord Tsung. He sent off one of the bombs at a permanent lock-on to
Tokyo. I was too slow..." He sighed. "He wanted to destroy whatever he could, just
to be remembered if not as a hero then as a monster. Damn fool even idolized Hitler
and Stalin..." His voice took on an edge. "The only reason he wasn't able to send off
more was that we hit him with three of our own bombs. It was a stupid, pointless
death... his soldiers were ready to desert. But there wasn't enough time..."
He stood up and walked over to the window. "Tokyo was mostly empty by that time.
Sustainable agriculture is the key to a nation's survival... not petty things like prestige.
Even suburbs wouldn't be useful there... so everyone decided to move further inland."
He put his hand on the windowsill. "There was nothing there, hardly the capitalistic
landscape he so wanted to mire in infamy... but there were other bombs, other places,
where people lived. So I burned him. It was all so stupid. It should never have gone
that far..."
'I had the largest army in the world! I controlled practically every strategic site. Why
wouldn't he just give up?' he wanted to shout. 'We were like brothers, once. Why
couldn't he just believe I'd show mercy?'
The school board dared not fire him. Admiral Yang liked proper education over formal
education; and he had kicked ass all over China to make sure that the books told of
what really happened, damn the propaganda! All the inconvenient truths, all the glories
and all the mistakes; let them feel pride and shame and most of all... hope.
Yang was a historian. Those who do not learn from history were doomed to repeat it.
He loved history, and wanted to spread that around.
It would have been nice to have Shinji Ikari in his class. The boy had that look, of a
fellow history nut. However, in their first and only meeting, Yang Wen-li learned that
the boy would perhaps learn it all the same way he did.
Reality was still ever-so-much stranger than fiction; they both knew that. Not that
they had anything against fiction, which was quite enjoyable too, mind you; that was
their next thought. Both did not tempt the existence of narrative causality; authored
by Finagle, edited by Murphy.
-o-
-o-
"Absolute governments, (tho' the disgrace of human nature) have this advantage with
them, they are simple; if the people suffer, they know the head from which their
suffering springs; know likewise the remedy; and are not bewildered by a variety of
causes and cures."
To this saying by Thomas Paine did Gendo Ikari owe his freedom. Strangely enough,
Gendo was naturally apolitical. He had no specific policy or ideology to advance,
other than his simple self-interest. The comparison to a snake was apt; he could shuck
off any factional garb that no longer served his purpose.
The only exceptions were NERV (which bore the stamp of his personality, which was
determined to its independence, despite what SEELE would like to think) and recovery
of Yui (inasmuch as the only goal he could be said to have).
Gendo Ikari was at least thorough in covering up evidence. He had been doing that for
so long it was second nature... which was why the boy's actions really threw him. He
had no way of denying it or covering it up. If he got rid of the boy or Katsuragi, then
he wouldd have to think of reasons why they were missing... then manage Ryouji... then
whoever comes after him. Damn that boy! There was a brutal simplicity to it, that
ensured he would have to do most of the work in ruining himself.
Even calling in favors or obliquely referring to whatever he held over the politicians
who put him into power in the first place could only reduce his position.
What irritated him the most was that after that masterstroke, that culmination of
months of shaping the public, the boy had simply... left. The old king sat uneasy in his
throne, knowing that the young king could have taken it so easily. It could not have
been out of respect or mercy. It was a mystery.
At this point however, the most immediate annoyance was that his needlessly large
office was no longer quite so remote and foreboding. Three more tables were pushed in,
and the kabbalistic Tree Of Life on the ceiling was openly derided as ridiculous. His
own private sanctum was invaded by those he had thought of only as ignorant pawns.
He was under no illusions that it was anything other than the most deliberate insult.
Gendo Ikari remained in command of NERV, despite the clamor for him to at least step
down. He was privy to too many dark secrets for him to let go that easily. However,
the UN severely undercut his authority. NERV, strangely enough, functioned as a quasi-
corporation. The Supreme Commander had to be accountable to the board, which was
supposed to be the UN Security Council.
His authority was not so much reduced as that others were boosted considerably.
There tables were arranged in a pentagon, with the open side devoted to a projection
screen. It showed a grainy video sent over the military net.
-o-
The grammatically uncertain and strategically dubious Earth's Cradle was somewhere in
the mountains of Kenya. Its construction was carried out with a surprising level of
secrecy... the kind helped by layered military cordons and road trains escorted by
tanks. All it showed to the world was a large dome, thick, matte black in color, made
of a strong amalgam of materials. A belt system was the only way in or out of the
Earth's Cradle, and once the elevator is receded, it should be practically impregnable.
The outer shell alone was capable of withstanding a direct hit from a nuclear bomb.
The single service entrance could also be shut or collapsed to deny entry to Angel-
sized enemies, an option of limited utility in NERV's geofront. Beyond that was a large
inner space designed mainly as a killzone for anyone that manages to get through.
It had its own factories, its own hydroponic farms, its own power plants. Shut off from
the outside world, it could function at full capacity for at least five years. At minimal
functions, with most of its populace under cryogenic suspension... around five hundred.
Top scientists and supposedly 'vital' people were to be frozen into dreamless sleep, to
be revived at a later date to rebuild the broken world.
An ambitious project, humanity's last card to play against extinction.
If they had another fifteen years... even ten, since construction techniques had
improved from lessons learned with Tokyo-3... it might have lived up to its promises.
Construction began only five years prior. As it was, only the cryogenic capsules, the
primary defenses, and the outer shell were in place. They did not have Evangelions,
but perhaps the next best thing.
The screen showed a jerky, static-smeared image of a clear blue sky. There was a
strange, dark, bulbous shape at the distance. The view clicked into zoom modes, but
it only gave up an even grainier image.
"The air's thick with EMP charge even from that far away? Is it trying to jam our radar?"
a voice thick with a garbled accent was heard.
"Akagi had said something about jamming merely being a side-effect. Maybe this is its
main method of perception."
"D'ye believe that, doctor?"
"A hypothesis, no matter how pretty, is not proof." The other voice had a clipped,
arrogant edge. Ritsuko's eyes widened at recognizing that voice. "There can be no
monopoly on genius... and to insist the Evangelion as the only defender on this Earth
is the height of hubris! We need to show that we have as much right, and as much
ability, to fight for our desired future!"
"Veery admirable sentiment, but can we actually do that?"
"We won't know until we try, of course." Amidst the beeping, shouted reports, and
various sounds of an active command center, his voice rose out; oddly shrill. "Prepare
all three Warborn units for launch!"
"I find tha' inadvisable."
"I am in charge HERE, General Stockman. I know what these machines are capable of.
I -know-, most of all, that we NEED to use them. Show their power to the world. This
is a UN operation, and if you deny my civilian authority, then you might as well be just
another petty warlord!"
"That's not- fine." Those words were hissed out. "Let's see wha' they can do."
"Launch!"
"Martin Arthur Bettelheim, Jagd-Wulf, launching!"
"S-sarah Campbell, Phoenix-Spasm, launching!"
"Kaworu Nagisa, Barrel-Lios, launching!"
The camera showed a huge shape passing by. If the Eva was an artificial human, then
it was an artificial animal... though clearly based upon the Evangelion. It walked on
birdlike hind legs, and its forelimbs were comparatively small (but recognizably man-like)
arms ending in claws and pincers. Its head was vaugely draconic. Its feet ended in
talons.
Above it hovered something much like it, held aloft by triple copter blades. Nearby was
another mechanical beast, seemingly built around one massive gun.
"Take the shot, Nagisa. We'll get into range."
"As you wish, Bettelheim-kun. Firing."
The screen broke out into static. "Whoo, now there's a gun!" a youthful male voice
said with savage glee. "Eat megatons per second, bitch. And you, other bitch, cover
me while I see if I have to finish it off."
"Y-yes, sir." a soft girl's voice replied.
And in the distance, the crumpled white shell of the Angel Iruel.
-o-
"NO WAY IN HELL!" Misato shouted.
"Those are Tridents!" Ritsuko gasped, in similar disbelief. She turned to Misato and
explained "The original Trident designs, T-RAIDEN-T, based on Evangelion technology.
The Trident Land Dreadnought is the complete antithesis to the Trident Land Cruiser...
limited in range, limited in sophistication... this is everything we rejected from the
original design."
"How could they have shot down an Angel?" Misato responded hotly.
"Summarized, the report goes thus: The Angel appeared. We blasted it. It fell down."
Gendo replied with cool disdain.
Misato Katsuragi was assigned the post of NERV Director of Operations. She no longer
had to wait for word from up high before releasing the Evangelions. As far as Tokyo-3
was concerned, she was it. From pilot training to combat operations, only her judgement
mattered. From the earliest possible sign of an Angel attack, she was there at the
command center; staying up so that they would not have to wake up the pilots until
there was no other choice.
She knew well enough that it might be worth trading the Children's lives for the world,
but that was not a situation that NERV should not accept so easily.
"After everything we tried... we couldn't use the bomb-pump homing laser since that
needs three layered AT-fields... but the positron beams chased that thing all over the
sky just last week! Last night we gave it the power we saved up from two full days of
charging! HOW did they even hit the Angel, much less go through the AT-field?"
"As far as we know, the Angel did not even have time to raise its AT-field." the sub-
commander put in. "NERV America was also attacked by the Angel, if less frequently,
and even their single Evangelion was capable of driving it off."
"Then how can Trid... no, as far as I'm concerned, the only thing worthy of being
called the Trident is over there at the Trident base. Can these... things... generate an
AT-field?"
Ritsuko smirked as she read through the data. "Technically, you're correct. NNHIS must
have sold off their designs, but the Trident project designation remains theirs. The
things are called Warborn heavy machine weapons." She put a cigarette to her
mouth, but didn't light it. "Even if they ARE based on the Evangelion... no mere knockoff
can equal the Eva. Much of the strength of the Trident Land Dreadnought comes from
recognizing its specific advantages and disadvantages."
"Doctor Akagi..." Gendo warned.
"No. They lack the means to build an artificial Core. They can't generate an AT-field."
"Is it even a real Angel?" Kaji asked, in support.
"That much, yes. They recovered an intact core." The video showed the process of
extracting that. "Strangely enough, the inside of the shell is mostly hollow, and the
core was suspended at the center of a web-like structure formed of... various
unspecified materials."
Misato leaned back and sucked in her lips. "So the Angel shows up, holds still, doesn't
even raise its AT-field... and gets sucker-punched? It's... too convenient for them,
isn't it?"
"Simply speaking, the Earth's Cradle seems like that much less of a threat, even if it
does have most of the scientists and assets recovered from NERV Germany." Ritsuko
replied. "
Perhaps it was just curious, and paid the price for carelessness..."
"Without the capability to generate an AT-field, these Trident derivatives remain an
insufficient measure. However, they do now have an intact Angel core... which might
prove troublesome."
Ritsuko twitched visibly. "In as much we are UN NERV, the Earth's Cradle is UN NADIR.
As a last-ditch effort designed to ensure the survival of our species... we may be sure
its scientific director will grab at every advantage he can, even if it must be denied to
us. He genuinely believes the world is doomed to... even deserving, of failure."
"Really? Who's that nihilistic asshole?" asked Misato. "Wait, does that count if he thinks
everybody else should die?"
Ritsuko groaned, rubbing her temples. "A small man with a narrow mind overflowing with
delusions of greatness. "
"Who?"
"Sean Vord Lader."
Even Gendo blinked, as a sudden silence descended into the room. Several moments
passed.
"Ah." Misato commented carefully. "I can guess how that might mess up a guy." It was
so bad, she could not even laugh about it. "Did his parents hate him or something?
Because if he changed his name on his own... he really deserves whatever he gets."
"No, it's his real name. His parents were... let's just say there are shocking liberals...
and some are simply insane." Ritsuko sighed. "Dr. Lader is brilliant, but his stubborness
is rather legendary in our circles. I will not excuse it as a reaction against his childhood
since... he IS an asshole, and out of the scientifict community no one likes him. If he
wasn't the foremost expert in his own field..."
"What is his field?" Gendo asked.
"Cybernetics."
"Hm. Hence, the production model Tridents." He frowned slightly. "Might they prove a
threat to the Evangelion project?"
"They did shoot down an Angel." Fuyutsuki noted.
"Under highly suspicious circumstances." Kaji replied. He kept his eye on Gendo, all the
while silently fuming that it was situations like such that made the bastard necessary.
NERV could ill afford any competition, but the UN had to make a decision that was as
divisive as it was decisive. The battle against Sahaquiel broke whatever illusions of
security other nations had, and drove home the fact that it was a war without any
hope of negotiation, a war headed towards extinction. Every nation for itself. "I can't
help but to think this is all going to turn out to be just an extremely expensive placebo."
'We at least have identified which political blocks are most opposed to NERV's current
command structure.' Fuyutsuki thought. 'Now the question is, what are we supposed
to do about it?' Few supported him being elevated to the post of NERV Commander.
Fortunately, the resistance to any outsider being placed in command was even more
vicious from the rest of the UN Assembly that all those who dared suggest it were
made to look foolish.
The impression of steady, fearless, if unpleasant leadership seemed more important
than appeasing the public about the boy's departure. It kept the political jackals at
bay, and frankly... there was not much that could be done without Shinji Ikari to act
as a lever.
"We must examine this data more thoroughly." said Gendo. "If the core is intact, then
the Angel cannot be said to be -dead- just yet. Maintain readiness, Katsuragi."
"... yes, sir." Misato even managed to keep out the disdain from her voice. Of course
she would. Phfft. Like she needed any more reminders of how serious her responsibilities
were.
-o-
-o-
With classes over, Kensuke headed over to Trident Base. He did phone his father that
he might again stay the night at the machine pits. A part of him pondered if he should
really be feeling more regret at how he was drifting apart from his family. Was it really
something he should just let happen...? He was a human, not a machine.
As usual, however, he tabled that thought for later. The guards saluted as he passed,
already a familiar figure around the site. He bowed slightly back, conscious that he was
still somewhat outside of the military structure. Once inside, he put on a many-pocketed
vest over his uniform, and the customary white lab coat over that. He went out to the
hangar to bask for a while in the wonder of man's works.
Three months had passed, and that was plenty of time to overhaul NNHIS operations.
Although intended mainly for support, Trident could not afford to look useless even when
it was not called to active duty. They had moved the hangars over that time, to a more
secure underground storage location. It was just a few levels down, but the machine
pit provided some protection for the Land Dreadnought when shut down. The second
bay also held the next Trident war machine under construction.
He looked at the Trident-2 for a few more minutes. It was still semi-monocoque in
construction, using entirely mechanical components, but was twenty percent larger
and had an internal frame to better handle impact and shear stress. The center held a
gaping cavity where the fusion reactor should be. Unlike the Eva, which in its decidedly
humanoid frames could only handle one type of large weapon at once, the Land
Dreadnoughts were built around the idea of multiple hardmounted weapons systems to
handle threats at all ranges.
In essence, really, walking naval-level firepower.
It took all of Kensuke's might not to call the place the Trident Land Dockyards.
He went down the elevators into the third underground level, which contained the
training area and the tactical control center. Main JSSDF command was still in the
bunker at Atsugi, but at least now Trident had its own means of keeping an eye on the
battle, instead of relying upon NERV's feed. In effect, another supplement to the
capacities of Tokyo-3 tactical response, in case NERV goes off-line again.
It turned out that he failed to win the Evangelion Fantasy Online championship, at it
happened the day just after Shinji left. Perhaps it was just as well. His consultancy at
NNHIS later gave him an unfair advantage, in that the simulated Angel opponents had
to be fed into the Battle Simulator. Guess who had the job of balancing that out for
the Trident's training? Maya Ibuki's code worked so well that modifications and additional
modules could now be handled entirely from offsite.
The Evas and the Land Dreadnought still occasionally fought against each other. It was
possible, through good tactics, for -Magnos Tancred- to even beat the Eva, two or
three times out of ten.
Kensuke arrived at the training room to see Mana Kirishima pacing and unleashing a
litany of castigation upon her crew. Ah; she was absent that day. The school gave
some allowance for training schedules with the pilots; being understood that a few
seconds gained out of practice was more useful than a high score in a literature exam.
Even failing school, the students could just take classes again when it was all over.
There was no second try for a vaporized Tokyo-3.
The two, Jiro Takeda and Vince Nagato, were young soldiers fresh out of the academy.
The red and black of Kirishima Kops colors fit well, and for their part managed to look
properly abashed.
"What the FUCK is wrong with you two?" she shouted, shaking her gloves fists. "Slow,
you're too slow! Stop being so damn timid! We can BEAT the Evas at range, no matter
how good the Titan modules are, batteries can't equal an onboard reactor!"
"But... you ordered us to close in..." Corporal Takeda said doubtfully.
"Of course I did, you mo-ron!" Mana shouted at her driver. "The goddamn AT-field is
most effective at range! We have only one or two shots in surprise, and it better not
miss! The field doesn't work well in close range, they can't melee if the air's solid in
the way." She lifted her artificial hand and clenched it in front of her face. "That's why
we put FISTS in the Brawler configuration!"
She then directed her attention to her gunner. "The Evangelion can hide itself from the
AT-field sense of the enemy. Guess what, WE don't have any biological components.
WE DON'T SHOW UP UNDER JAMMING AT ALL! That's why it all works only at line of
sight! That's why I want you to get a first strike kill every damn time...! In close range
the Eva can't hide from us... we can HEAR their footsteps, idiot! Our sensors don't have
to convert into synaptic input!"
Kensuke chuckled, and got their notice. "Don't you think you're being a little hard on
them, Kirishima? The Eva's direct-link may be complex, but it's also quick. There's
only so much human reaction times can do, if the limbs have to work the controls, and
that gets translated into motion. There's a time delay, no matter how we look at it."
The girl snorted. "That's why they have to PRACTICE. We can't slack off, specially not
now. The weak point of -Tancred- is that it still can't fight as one seamless unit."
".. you might be holding them to an impossible ideal, Kirishima..." Kensuke said, while
pushing up on his glasses. "You can't punish them for not being able to react to your
subconscious cues... like others more familiar with you could have."
Mana squinted at him. She snapped back to her crew "Twenty laps, around the base,
NOW! NOW!" Then back to Kensuke, with a snarl... "You come with me, Aida."
Kensuke shrugged, following. While Mana kept up a fearsome persona on base, he knew
from school that she took pride in her own self-control. She was not a fickle or quick
with handing out punishment as Hikari could be.
She brought him to a nearby stockroom and locked the door. At that point, he started
to feel a little nervous.
"Aida...I know you've got a mouth on you, but you're the only one I can turn to with
this problem." She looked down, her eyes hidden under the brim of her cap, and the skull
there seeming to grin at him. "If you say anything about this to anyone, I'll KILL YOU!"
Kensuke looked pained. "Oh, god..." he whispered. "Not feminine problems...? Why me?"
'Why always me? I'm a machinist, damn it; I follow the machine spirit so I don't have to
listen to those icky aspects of biology or your sob stories.'
"Aida!"
He made a zipping motion with his lips. "Okay, okay, I'm the soul of confidentiality."
Mana sighed. She began to zip down the front of her coat. "Ever since Ikari-san touched
me, all those months ago... I've been getting... feelings..." She then started unbuttoning
her shirt, all the way down and exposing her bra. "I need your help... I can't keep it to
myself anymore."
"Whoa, whoa WHOA!" Kensuke's eyes bugged out and he waved his arms around. "Not
that I'm not flattered and all, but don't you think you should be saving that up for Ikari?
He's not likely he'll refuse you, Kirishima, if you just ask nicel- WHAT AM I SAYING?"
Belatedly his brain caught up to his words. His lips twitched up into a grin. "I'LL BE
HAPPY TO HELP YOU SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM!"
"Idiot." Mana huffed out. She reached into her shit and unhitched her mechanical arm.
She then held out her left arm. "You gonna help, or not?"
Kensuke sighed and drooped his shoulders. "Yeah. As expected." He might as well been
an asexual being to the few girls he knew that were not blathering fangirls. Was it too
much to ask for a girl with brains and personality? Unfortunately, with his obsessions,
those that had those qualities either stayed away or thought him gay.
Tugging at the hand, he pulled out the artificial arm through the sleeves. The skin-like
texture was even somewhat warm. "Oh, this is the NERV issue." he said. "I guess my
combat custom arms are still somewhat unresponsive."
Mana merely looked troubled. Kensuke sighed again. "What am I supposed to do with
this?"
"Um... go over there with you back to me, would you? Make sure I can't see it." She
then turned around to facing the wall. "You got something sharp on you? Not too sharp
to damage the skin..."
Kensuke put the arm on a crate and rummaged around his many vest pockets. "Of
course." He took out a small chisel. "Now what?"
"Poke at the fingers a little, I'm going to try and tell you which ones you're getting at."
Kensuke looked back, she was still facing the wall. Oh, well. He jabbed at the fingers
a few times, feeling somewhat silly.
"Index. Middle. Ring. Ring. Pinky..." Mana began to announce. "Thumb, pinky, index,
pinky again..."
Kensuke turned around. "You're peeking."
"I'm not!" Mana replied, her shoulder heaving in indignation. She thumped the bill of her
cap on the wall.
Kensuke rubbed at his chin, wishing he had a little grizzle there to look debonair. Maybe
even a beard, eventually, though he supposed that might be a fire hazard. He turned
back to the arm and poked at the ring finger a little more forcefully.
"Ow!" said Mana. The finger in question might have even twitched a little.
"Uncanny..." Kensuke breathed. "How long has this been going on?"
"I told you, I've been getting feelings ever since Shinji-san touched me... back in the
onsen, before he left..."
"Touched? Define touched." he added with a leer.
Mana blushed hotly. "He put his hand on my scar, that's all!" she replied.
Kensuke leaned back and looked thoughful. "That was three months ago. You've had
this going on for that long and didn't tell anyone?There are no nerve connections here."
"Well... it's not like it sounds plausible even when it's right there. Besides, for a while I
thought it was like phantom pain... just my imagination supplying the feelings. It only
became real to me a month or so ago... it's been increasing ever since."
The glasses geek turned around. "Let me try something."
"You're tracing a circle on my palm. Line from the base of my middle finger to the tip."
Mana's eyes widened, her blush deepened. "Stop licking me, you pervert!"
"Huh, a full range of sensations. Does it only work with this arm? Maybe it's the little
dregs of Evangelion technology used in the artificial muscles."
Mana shook her head. "No. It seems to work on whatever arm I have on the time. It's
only with that it's clearest what's happening. Maybe because it's the most life-like?"
"Hm..." Kensuke peered closer at the arm. "Logically, there's no reason for it to work.
Do you feel any pain when your wrist breaks open for the gun-arm? No? Hm..."
"You don't sound all that surprised."
The boy waved aside. "Oh, I'm not like Sohryu. I don't necessarily need to believe in a
rational universe."
"That... sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it?" Mana walked over to him, shaking her
head. "I thought you had this 'the universe is a great machine' thing..."
"The universe has its laws and its functions, true, but it operates for a reason of its
own, not for our small mortal little delusions. How can we frail fleshy beings be so
arrogant to believe we already know everything of why the universe works as well
as it does?" He pressed a finger down on the flesh of the artificial arm. "Believe me,
this is as much a miracle for you as it is to me."
Both stared down at the arm, an oddly grisly sight now that they knew of its hidden
properties. After a while, Kensuke spoke again "If nerve endings work, there's really no
reason, even if this defies logic, that control nerves shouldn't work. Have you tried it?"
Mana nodded slightly. "But it's not much..."
"Ikari really could probably help out more than I can. This situation demands a thorough
examination."
Mana felt her lips tilt up. "Shinji-san..."
"Hey!" Kensuke pointed at the arm. "It moved, did you see that?"
Mana blinked, and focused her gaze back to it. "Sorry, no..."
"What were you thinking of?"
Mana blushed.
Kensuke squinted and bent over the open hand. He moved the joints back and forth.
"I see..." he said, nodding wisely. "So perversion powers it after all."
Mana actually stamped her foot and quivered with ire. "It does not!"
"Yeah?" Kensuke blew on the palm and grinned. "Then imagine Ikari handling this arm, his
hands stroking all over it, his fingers playing on your skin... mmm... to be held unresisting
in his embrace..."
The arm... shivered. Kensuke laughed.
"S-s-shut up!" Mana shouted. Her face was all red.
Kensuke laughed harder.
-o-
-o-
In the years following Second Impact, there was a brief resurgence of big-gun ship-
building. The violence of Adam's rebirth knocked the Earth off its axis, and incidentally
also scrapped almost all of the satellites already in orbit. Without the luxury of GPS
and orbital mapping, all long-range strikes had to make do with more mundane methods.
Not to mention that given the blind chaos of those days, sophisticated missiles and
other equipment had to be hoarded, until the industrial base itself could get back onto
its feet, much less so get around to making replacements.
There was also the rampant paranoia in that ANY missile in flight might be a nuke, and
it was thought best not to agitate the hornet's nest any more than it already was.
Long-range bombardment was still necessary however, and the resurgent UN had to
land troops onto contested territory. In the end, it turned out that launching ships with
big calibers and minimal electronics was faster and cheaper than churning out new
missile frigates and carriers.
Submarines were a reduced threat for a time, as the hunter-killers had a closer, more
stringent duty -protecting the remaining strategic nuclear reserves. At all costs, World
War III had to be avoided, specially since nuclear arms had already been used again.
India and Pakistan had glassed each other into a ghastly silence. The Middle East was
a self-devouring meat grinder. Yang was running around unstoppable through the
eastern half of Asia. The UK remnant was ready to go bare-knuckles with France, to get
somewhere to live. They had very little left to lose, while mainland Europe was left
mostly untouched.
With armored columns and booming broadsides, the US was the first to consolidate its
territories from petty warlords; even going so far as gaining an alliance with the nations
to the north and south, forming the Greater Americas Treaty. Europe gave it support
soon after, with the Russian and allied states lending their assets following next. At
least that much, the military planners supposed, was necessary to even match Yang
and keep him from blazing west like some sort of modern Khan. Fortunately, that proved
hardly necessary.
The chaos of the early years ended, but there were still hot spots to pacify. Eventually
though, there was once again a surplus of floating metal. The GPS network was slowly
rebuilt, and construction began on the four NERV sites.
Most of the ships were mothballed, pending future need. The spectre of World War III
had not really faded away, even after fifteen years. Even after Gaghiel's cleaving
through the Pacific fleet, there were still more ships than the UN knew what to do with.
Of course, it was not as if just anyone with the cash could simply pony up and get their
hands on one. All things considered though, they were cheap. Someone bought two.
Since time was roughly equivalent to money, throwing enough currency around quickly
had one of the ship refitted and removed of its aft turrets for cargo space; like some
sort of 'battle-barge', one of the engineers had quipped. The other had its electrical
systems ripped out and reworked to handle an onboard nuclear fusion reactor, which
in itself cost twice as much as the ship.
Hakone 1st Anchorage received word that, barring interruptions, a UN support task
group was due to arrive in four days. No pomp or ceremony was needed nor wanted.
The new UN observer wanted to keep everything low-key.
If Fate could laugh, it would have. "Yeah, right..." it would have said.
-o-
-o-
It was not that Kaworu disliked the people he had to work with. His masters at SEELE
knew he preferred to work alone, and for good reason. Though to make full use of the
Earth's Cradle, he had at least to get along with his fellow pilots.
In truth, they did not disappoint, confirming for him what he expected out of humanity.
He was not humanity's judge, he recognized that justice had nothing to do with what he
wanted to happen. Objectively though, he had to admit he found them straining his
bounds of stoicism.
Martin Arthur Bettelheim was one of the rare children capable of activating an Eva. His
score was not so impressive, barely more than what it takes to get it moving, but it was
enough to separate him from the sea of common humanity. His problem was that there
was no spare Evangelion for him to pilot.
That left the teen eternally irritated, as if his very destiny was stolen from him. He had
a right to stand in glory alongside Ikari, Ayanami... that American pilot whose name
escaped him for the moment... and Sohryu! He never failed to point this out whenever
the chance came up. The last specially rankled, since he too was of German descent,
and was hailed as a prodigy in his own circle.
The teen stood tall and proud, on the gantries overlooking his heavy mechanics' area.
His face was fair, his blond hair cropped into a flat-top, and his uniform was white. If
there was any other effect he needed to present a glowing countenance, he would have
used it.
"My... our chance to shine, Nagisa." he said loftily, his teeth bared in a grin. "The doctor
will coax the secrets of the AT-field from the aliens, and then we're going to show the
world that the Evangelions are obsolete!" He watched the bright red jewel-like orb of
the Angel's core being brought in. "We have the best technology, and we can show
those fools, that pretentious bitch, that they're not all that special...!"
And that, perhaps, was what irked Kaworu. The pilot kept speaking out against Asuka.
Kaworu could not have cultivated her attentions so far without developing some
affection in return.
Bettelheim tried so hard to be like Sohryu, that his successes only highlighted the gap
between them. What in Asuka was brimming self-confidence, in him showed only to be
deep-seated arrogance. Where Asuka sought to prove herself the best, he wanted to
be known as simply BETTER to anyone, everyone. Specifically Sohryu, though. He would
love to destroy her in proving himself superior.
Of Shinji, he was dismissive; an overblown lackey, he had said. He was the beneficiary
of everyone else's hard work, just stepping up to grab the credit. Kaworu could not
decide if he found this laughable or apalling.
Though in essence, he supposed this was true. What Ikari had that he lacked was a
collection of competent... hencemen/women did fit, didn't it? And -he- was the secret
agent here. Kaworu let out a small chuckle. Personal power did not win an empire,
logistics and organization did. Martin flinched at the sound.
"I have a question, Bettelheim-kun."
The pilot nodded, with an imperious flick of a hand bidding him continue. Kaworu smiled
slightly; for he could see this subtle insult was a form of protest. Martin Bettelheim felt
threatened, for it was just so -obvious- Kaworu was compiling a report to some higher
authority. It was hard to open up to someone who held a sword of Damocles over the
team.
"Which is more important to possess; power or recognition?" the hybrid asked.
Martin thought about it for a few moments.
"Power's good but what's the point if no one knows it? False modesty sickens me." Then,
he leaned back on the railing, folding his arms over his chest and staring past Kaworu's
shoulder. "But if you pretend to have power and don't have it, sooner or later someone
will take it all from you! They're not mutually exclusive, aren't they? One can be the
route to the other."
"Well, yes, but for discussion's sake please choose only one."
"Then I'd rather have power, of course." Martin sniffed. "What's this about; feeling
under-appreciated even if you're the one who took down the Angel?"
Kaworu smiled again. He had a cheerful charisma of his own, that disarmed caution. "No,
not really. Is it more proper to say, the equipment shot it down?" he said, recalling
Martin's earlier words about Shinji being the beneficiary of everyone else's hard work.
The blonde-haired pilot nodded, satisfied. "Don't sell yourself short. It doesn't take much
skill to pull a trigger, though. I'd rather have a proper fight."
Kaworu kept his upbeat expression, though the edges of his smile may have tightened.
'I have tracked snipers in the jungle-rot and infested mud. The desert may be merciless
to the unprepared but the jungle devours the unwary, and only there and against such
men have I ever feared for my life. I may loathe my own mortality... so it is that when
mere humans go beyond their own physical limits that even I must applaud.'
"Perhaps you'll have your chance, soon." he said instead. "It would be interesting to see
how a truly empowered Jagd Wulf compares to the Eva."
He looked aside to the third pilot standing nearby. She kept her head down, and her
hands clasped in front; her posture was so straight that it seemed like she was shrinking
into the background. Sarah Campbell had straight black hair cropped to neck-level, and
eyes like pale shale. Her demeanor was so meek and unresisting, that it was a wonder
to many how she could even be counted on to accomplish... well, anything.
She was more interesting to Kaworu, than her partner. He was used to people looking at
him oddly, even outright fearing him. People his own age had extreme difficulty in just
talking with him; he had concerns and a mode of speech far above the teenage level.
There were also those who found his looks exotic and attractive. He would never really
belong anywhere.
"How about you, Campbell-san? Are you looking forward to it?"
It was the first time in a long while that he felt utterly ignored. His presence there was
of utterly no matter to her. In fact, her own presence seemed to be something even she
could forget.
Her silence responded to his earlier question; only power mattered.
Sarah Campbell did not hold crippling self-doubt, but rather a crushing certainty that
human life, even her own life, was cheap and meaningless. Africa was the last place to
stabilize after Impact. It was not a goood time to be a person of pinkish complexion.
Even worse, her parents were merely tourists there, out on their honeymoon and there
for the sharks.
What they went through, what she had seen with her own young eyes, she kept all to
herself. What even Kaworu mistook for a sad case of young, blind romantic attachment
to Martin turned out to be something more parasitic.
He wondered how anyone could take that sort of abuse, then recognized that the boy
in question was incapable of expressing his own feelings in a conventional way. The
mountains of Ndoto and its Earth's Cradle were not like Hakone and its Tokyo-3; where
youthful antics were if not diverting, at least tolerated. Though Martin was verbally
abusive, it seemed he had yet to entertain his... curiosities... upon her body.
'Perhaps because she was not his equal; because she did not value her own flesh, her
own existence... neither can he.'
Passivity was seen as desirable in a woman, wimpy in a man. Overflowing will was a
trait hailed in men, shrewish in a woman.
'And yet... seeing it like this, it seems to have missed the redeeming values of the whole
endeavor. What would it be like to know a Shinji Ikari so shy and passive, instead of his
unflagging purpose? What about an Asuka Langley- Sohryu who let nothing stand in the
way of her pride, instead of searching for the greater good in every setback?' he so
wondered.
He sighed, feeling his solitary duty. 'They might be my adversaries, but seeing these...
I can honestly say that I don't regret helping them in my own way to becoming better
people.' It was not so strange, he recalled; that sometimes one's own enemies can be
his only real friends.
What could he have been like without something to define himself against, with only the
menial and unpleasant tasks doled out by SEELE to occupy his time? 'Probably some
sort of broody, overly sentimental suicidal freak...' he supposed. 'Too much time around
these people, I'd have started to pity them. And with no choice but to live with them
until I could annihilate myself in Adam's cleansing rebirth; I would have started to pity
myself too.'
One of the MPs approached the pilots, and addressed him. He saw Martin flare his
nostrils in muted resentment, but Kaworu was recognized as holding actual authority;
even if the other teen remained team leader. The soldier saluted. "The pilots are hereby
ordered to report to the laboratory." he said.
Martin sniffed and went ahead, with Sarah following at a dutiful distance. Kaworu trailed
behind, committing the way to memory. The lab occupied the entire twenty-third to
twenty-fifth levels of the Earth's Cradle, level with the floor of the main hangar, and
right above the main blast doors leading into the cryo chambers. The whole complex had
walls lined with wires and piping, all utterly new, and in the rush of construction left
covering wall plates as a waste of metal. It felt like the innards of some alien brood-
mother.
-o-
The smell of rusting iron and machine-oil intensified as they entered the main lab. Its
gregarious use of space seemed cramped, with all the machinery necessarily jammed
close together to assembly-line the work. Iruel's core was huge, and had to be left
outside on the hangar. The production model Tridents loomed over it, and thick cables
linked all three to the complicated apparatus around the core.
Technicians and scientists were running around, even those unsure of what to do made
as if they were busy at something important. The chief scientific officer kept his tirade
on their apparent -uselessness- and -incompetence- and how he would love to do all
that needed to be done, to make sure it's all done -correctly-, but he only had one pair
of hands. Therefore, he had to rely on -idiots- barely evolved out of -monkeys- and if
they messed up this important experiment, he would have them -shot-.
Dr. Sean Vord Lader was a tall man, but seemed shorter due to his rounded proportions
and gleaming bald head. He was clean-shaved, with a face that should have seemed
jolly but instead was twisted in unrestrained rage.
That impatience receded a little when he saw the pilots arrive. "Good, good... get over
here..." he said, while motioning to several capsules similar to NERV synchro test plugs.
On a closer look; Kaworu realized these -were- NERV plugs; more NERV Germany swag.
Martin stared doubtfully down at the synchro clips he was given. "Didn't you say these
things are inefficient? We don't really need the feedback, only for the machinery to
move as fast as we want it to."
"Just because you can repeat my words doesn't mean you can even -approach- my
level of reasoning!" the scientist shot back. "Are you even capable of doing as you're
told or do I have to send you back to -School-?"
Martin growled, stuck the clips on his hair, and went over to the testing plugs. The
School was a notion embraced by many militaries as a direct response to the utter
mess of the post-Impact wars, where flexible and unconventional tactics were needed
to prevail over constantly changing strategic aims. Children were trained from a very
young age, no hard task to find experimental subjects; there was a surplus of orphans
everywhere. Methods varied, from stern discipline to the outright draconian.
Their suffering was supposed to make them superior, that was beaten into their heads
at every turn. Someone like Sohryu, who at least had a mother, to be so celebrated
for her comparatively easy work... oh it was irksome. Mana Kirishima's school was more
on forging generals and evolving doctrine. Martin and Sarah came from one of the more
'mercenary' schools; the one with actual death ratios.
Kaworu followed into the plugs. He had never any need for such Schooling, though his
early life was filled with many painful tests. Many soldiers found him creepy enough that
they simply assumed he was the fruit of one of those illegal 'Schools'.
General Jonathan R. Stockman barrelled into the area just as the final connections were
being set. "Wha' are we doing here, doctor?" he asked archly.
"What -I- am doing is to scan the Angel's core by using a sympathetic location graph..."
he motioned aside to a big monitor. "Evangelions are made out of Angel material. AT-
field theory goes that it is both event AND location, therefore it is possible to check
the field generation by introducing distortion effects... much like using sonar."
"... you're going to try an' generate an AT-field? I thought..."
"No. One does not need an entire Evangelion to generate a field. Even -Akagi- mentions
that the core most likely contains field generation apparatus of an Angel." He was not
able to gank the Evangelion spare parts which could have improved his research, to his
continuing frustration. "They -are- composed of exotic material, after all. AT-field refers
to -absolute territory-, whoever coined the appelation -absolute terror- needs to be
shot. That doesn't even -make sense-!"
The general blinked. He was a career soldier, and while feeling out of depth was hardly
stupid or dense. "You're goin' to hook these CHILDREN up to an ANGEL? I canna' allow
this!" he spluttered out. "Are ye mad?"
Everyone around him looked distinctly uncomfortable. The pun was just... too easy.
Dr. Lader stuck his bulbous jaw out. "Hmf! A portion of an Angel. We supply the power,
the pilots here have enough activation talent, but with three of them the signal is dilute.
I assure you it is -perfectly safe-."
He motioned aside again. One of the technicians pulled down a switch, sparks flew, and
a current flowed through Iruel's core. A humming sound filled the air.
"See? -Simple-." the scientist continued, feeling his bones vibrating along. He gestured
again, and someone threw a second switch. The sound intensified, pitched higher.
General Stockman lifted his bushy eyebrows. "Did you jus' assign a musical scale to the
thing?"
Dr. Lader coughed. "It -seemed- a good way to mark frequencies at the time." he said
with some flippant edge. "Frankly I'm -suprised- NERV makes so much of the difficulties
with generating an AT-field. It's -ridiculously easy-. The Evangelions may be based on
Angel physiology, but it's clear the biomachinery used are degraded compared to pure
samples. If we have to use the enemy's -own- tools to destroy them, why should we
-hesitate-?"
"Cause it's tha' enemy, ya loon." the general grumbled back. "What makes you think
these things would make it that easy for us? We shouldn'ae take unnecessary risks, not
with these children. Be reasonable, doctor."
"Oh, -please-. All progress depends upon the unreasonable man." Seeing the man in
charge of protecting the Earth's Cradle was inclined to be likewise as unreasonable in
his own definition of duty, turned to Kaworu and asked "Mister Nagisa, I am -given- to
understand that you have some -knowledge- about these things. What do you think?"
"The theory is sound, sir." the hybrid replied, looking towards the general. "Even if the
Angel manages to retain its consciousness while reduced to in human terms, just one
single organ, there's no actual feedback from this. It's not a neural control system,
we're the ones dumping our own thoughts into the field. That should make it even
harder for the Angel to do anything with its own field."
Dr. Lader nodded approvingly. "Good, Nagisa, remind me later to ask you where you
learned AT-field theory."
"Yes, sir. I do have one question, though..."
The scientist, just about to say something sardonic to the general, turned around.
"What is it now, Nagisa?"
"Which do you think is better to have, power or recognition?"
Both Dr. Lader and Gen. Stockman frowned. The latter reacted first. "Why d'ye ask?"
"Humor me, please." His thin smile was not precisely threatening, but made it seem as if
not answering would be an admission of personal weakness or stupidity.
The scientist shushed him. "Does this have -something- to do with the wave/particle
duality of Angel exotic matter?" His eyes were distant, mulling over puzzles on physical
paradox. "Hm... absolute territory. I'm getting something here... no, no, I'd have to say
power after all. Energy can be converted later on."
"It's not tha' complicated." General Stockman said, overbearing. "Though I'd have to
agree. Some people serve best in the sun, but only in tha' shadows do changes stick."
He was made of those men who did the most and expected no great reward. Without
them, no strategy could ever have won peace for the world. "We donn'a have tha'
luxury of choosing our obligations."
He turned and looked up at the shining red orb. "I'd be perfectly happy to have these
things just stop attackin'. Aye, power to harm, that's what stops things right at the
bargainin' table." As the duly appointed protector by the UN, he had a knee-jerk reaction
to being called a warlord, since he had already spent so much time and so many men
fighting them.
"There's still so much more we could learn; it would be a shame to destroy them all."
added Dr. Lader. His grin was twisted. "The Evangelions are machines made with some
facets of Angel biology. But if we could -harness- these monsters...!"
"You have no basic hatred for the Angels, as such?" Kaworu asked. The implications of
later enslaving the Angel was, again, not unexpected.
"NERV rhetoric, -bah-!" Dr Lader spat. "How indicative of brutish, uninspired intellect.
No, I have no problem with the Angels as such; except that they seem inclined to
continue what started with Second Impact. I'm not inclined however, to grant that they
have significant intelligence... pure biology, they lack the necessary perspective to
-progress- beyond their means. Natural selection is but the bastard offshoot of random
chance." He gestured around. "We -know- our own weakness, so we will -have- their
strengths...! Power goes to those with the will to seek it out and CLAIM it!"
The general just sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Just trying to live the best we can,
tha's all."
"Yes, yes, and as such we must use whatever can get, specially with those more...
-favored- snatching at everything that may be useful." Dr. Lader sneered, showing his
uneven upper teeth. "Are you -satisfied-, Nagisa?"
He wondered of the odd events that led up to the Earth's Cradle developing into but a
twisted mockery of NERV and Tokyo-3. The Cradle itself, a man-made geofront that
paled in scale to Lillith's shell. The pilots and the production Tridents, each themselves
strange and unbalanced reflections of their counterparts. Their scientists, their soldiers,
all consumed in their tasks and trying all the harder to deny their natural disadvantages
in location, assets, and personnel. Delusion was a powerful driving force, indeed.
'Is there really such a thing as a collective consciousness?' he asked himself. 'Minds all
linked through intuitive threads, grasping at the unfolding patterns of history?' With his
preference for his Angel half, he could not really discern that. 'Or more likely, just the
process of parallel evolution. This holds the remnants of NERV Berlin, and is a direct
competitor to NERV Tokyo. Less imitators than echoing what works; as whales and fish
share the same shape, even if one breaths air and the other filters seawater.'
This appealed to him; it was like Adam's own function.
What brutal irony of the universe was this; that those who held on the means and ideals
that 'Man deserves to live' were those who feared they might not prevail on sheer virtue
alone, while those who shout in maniacal fervor 'the Xeno must die' see their task only
as an inconsequential side-effect of fighting for the lives of those they love? Mankind
was not a rational being, once more Kaworu decided firmly. Everything they did held the
glimmer of the ridiculous.
Kaworu bowed submissively. "Thank you for your time and insight, sirs."
"Well, we've wasted -enough- of it, already." The scientist turned again to General
Stockman. "So we can proceed? Hm? Actually -try- to do something -productive-?"
"Fine, fine, do as ye want..."
The pudgy man lifted his arms. "All circuits set, ready exchangers! Begin -experiment-!"
There were clacks and hisses, sparks and the crackling hiss of high voltage lines. Above
all this rose a tone, hitting their hearts and hardening the air. Iruel's core began to show
obvious signs of vibration, its crystal surface starting to ripple.
The Trident Warborn pilots had their eyes shut, and though concentrating did not seem
to be suffering any discomfort.
"-Fascinating-!" Dr. Lader shouted. "Are we getting -anything-?"
"There IS a field, sir!" one of the assistants replied, having to raise his voice too, over
the din. "It's... well, the core shell is just GLASS. Nothing more than simple silicon! And
like glass, it's actually a viscous liquid...!"
"I -have eyes-, I can see that! What about the -INSIDE-?"
The screen showed a grainy, undulating haze. The resemblance to an ultrasound for
looking at a womb was keen and quite possibly intentional.
"Uhm, well... something... SOMETHING'S MOVING INSIDE!"
The core's shimmering red surface transformed from a globe into a mess of sharp spikes.
The spines shot out and bored into the walls, flowing out and hardening into threadlike
links. The tone turned into a scream.
Then Iruel's core split open, and wet wriggling things poured out of the cavity. Dr.
Sean Vord Lader barely had any chance to turn around before the things just dropped
over him, covering his corpulent body.
Where the red pikes plugged into the walls and machinery, the metal bulged out, vein-
like. The tone continued, screeching. Like an orange flood, the innards of Iruel poured
out, and pulled under any people caught in the flow. The pilots could not get out of
their pods in time. Even Kaworu did not react, as what looked like a mottled orange
slug crawled across his face.
Shutting bulkheads did nothing, as the intrusion only spread -through- the walls, turning
the pipes into literal arteries. The hangar began to fill up with reddish-orange liquid, and
upon that floated a horrifying writhing larval mass.
Someone had enough time to smash the big red button for general alarm.
Unfortunately, with both the scientific and military commanders first buried by the
strange assault, the keys to the base self-destruct were unavailable. Red tendrils sank
fusion plants and began to gorge.
-o-
-o-
Halfway across the world, AT-field warning systems were going crazy. Misato rushed to
the control room, with rice still stuck to her cheek. "Another attack?" she asked as she
slid onto her command chair. "The timing's perfect as usual... perfectly inconvenient."
"No, m'am. The worldwide warning system just got hit with a widespread blue pattern."
Shigeru reported. "There's so much of it the sensors got blinded for a while. We're just
now resolving where it's coming from."
"Son of a bitch!" Misato cursed, in English, as she the main screen showed the result.
She turned to see Ritsuko just arriving. "Look at that! I wish I can say this is really all
that unexpected... but I can't."
"Kenya." the scientist responded flatly.
"Someone bit off more than they could chew." Misato replied. She bit at her thumb and
frowned. "Or was this somehow intentional? Can we get satellite imaging yet?"
"Katsuragi. Report."
Misato sighed. She swiveled her chair around to see that Gendo had arrived. She wiped
at her face and looked up at the old men on the command tower. "We don't have any
information yet on whether or not this is an Angel attack. It does seem to be centered
on the region containing the Earth's Cradle, though."
"That is unacceptable. You must clarify the situation promptly."
"That is reality." she retorted. "We'll know when the equipment gets the data. The
director in oversight has no authority to override combat operations. We know what to
do, SIR, and stopping to explain it wastes valuable time. You'll know the same time the
rest of us do, you know, like NORMAL people."
Gendo narrowed his gaze. "Katsuragi..." he said warningly.
She huffed and turned around. "Tell the UN we're taking our option on pre-emptive
nuclear strikes." she said to Shigeru. "Where are the pilots?" she asked Maya next.
"Already in the launch lifts, sempai."
"Good, good. The civilians?"
"Class Five Emergency has been declared." Makoto reported. "They're heading to their
specially assigned shelters now. Hakone 1st Prefectural Defense Force has been
authorized to enter the city for defense and support."
Misato nodded. Those drills were working, then. The military were protecting shelters
far enough as not to get in the Evangelions' way. At any point though, they could
rush in, empty and relocate shelters in a hurry as the unexpected factors of combat
revealed itself. There were trucks and APCs and rigorously practiced soldiers for that.
"We're getting a satellite feed now..." Shigeru reported, somewhat unnecessarily as the
main screen flickered into the view.
The Earth's Cradle was buried in the mountains of the Ndoto mountain chain, and was
hard enough to find from orbit. It was the AT-field flaring from the region that pinpointed
the location. The matte black disc of the Cradle's elevator and main shield showed
onscreen.
The surrounding mountainside began to crack, and the disc bulged out. Slowly, the
Cradle began to reveal itself. The name 'Earth's Cradle' was fitting; unlike NERV's own
geofront which was a perfect sphere, the cyogenic facility was buried under layers of
rock and armor, the upper half of its cavity filled out. Only the bottom half was used
for the facility. Seen from the side, the plans looked indeed similar to a baby's basket,
with the main elevator shaft leading up to a second bulb as like a handle for rocking the
cradle. Then there was the whole vessel for cryogenic suspension and genetic stocks.
The Earth's Cradle began to rise, breaking itself free from the rocks. It had changed,
acquired a new shell, become one creature with all its parts contributing to the whole.
It was a perfect sphere, floating dark and serene and impossible in the air.
Ritsuko cursed. "Misato, remember what you said about the Angels earlier... how they
were changing the more we see them?"
"Getting smarter, you mean?"
The blonde shook her head. "No... more dangerous. And just... -larger-. The first Angel
we found was around the size of the Eva. The next was larger, then something the size
of battleships." She grimaced. "After Asuka arrived, the size was similar again to the
Eva, but there were two... then that creature in lava, big as a hill."
Misato nodded grimly. "Yeah, I see... and the thing during Valentine's Day taller than
the city. That orbital attack Angel, how big was that?"
"Four kilometers end to end."
The Operations Director frowned. "Yeah. I was starting to wonder about the Angel we've
been fighting. It didn't really seem that big or that dangerous..." She slapped her chair's
armrests. "Then it pulls THIS shit!"
"Sempai, is it even the same Angel?" Maya asked.
"If it isn't, were in deep trouble." Misato replied. "How big is this thing?"
Ritsuko tapped at her own console. "Extrapolating... I'd say about six kilometers in
diameter. That's about as much as we're using of the geofront."
Misato twitched. "Our geofront is still bigger though?"
"Really, Misato, is it a good time to feel competetive about this? Yes, yes, though that's
what we have on the surface... almost one kilometer in" Ritsuko pointed up at this.
"... our geofront is actually a perfect sphere going down thirteen and a half kilometers.
I'd hate to see what it takes to get this airborne."
Misato blinked. "I'm surprised you're not making a litany of how this is pissing even more
on physicists' graves."
"I'm sorry, Katsuragi, I'm frightened beyond all capacity for rational thought." she replied
dully.
Everyone stared up at the screen, as the infested Earth's Cradle began to drift east. It
had a shell well capable of withstanding direct nuclear blasts. It held a complete and
sophisticated production facility inside, along with some of the finest creative minds of
the human race. And it could not be overemphasized; effing huge. It had not done
anything yet, but already blind terror and self-destructive panic began to bloom in the
hearts of those watching its inexhorable approach.
Misato's words summed up the thoughts of everyone there. "Oh, this is so going to
-hurt-..." she whispered.
-o-
-o-
-o-
End The Creeping Rot part one
