Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies
Launch Forty-seven
The two Evangelions had air dropped from a heavily modified US jet, then fell into the outskirts of Tokyo-3. Once they recovered, they advanced on NERV. The hastilly painted pink and black units strode forward, carrying modified rifles.
Mayumi Yamagashi broadcast, "Tokyo-3 NERV! Please surrender, we have no wish to harm you! We're just here for the Angel!"
"Doubt that will work," Kaworu Nagisa murmured.
ZWOOSH! The positron beam cannon mounted on Jet Alone fired, and probably would have taken her Evangelion's head off, if not for the AT-Field.
"Eeep!" Mayumi yelped.
"Well, I'd say talking is out," Kaworu noted as they advanced.
"Target Jet Alone first," they were coached, "it has no AT Field, it's the most vulnerable!"
Sadly, their enemies were also well aware of that, and had paired a Evangelion with it to protect them. Leaving three of them fighting their two, AND facing long range fire from Jet Alone.
"No! No! They've got me!" Mayumi yelled as Unit-02 disabled her.
Kaworu, alone, attempted to fight on, but the other Evangelions soon cancelled the AT Field then disabled his unit.
GAME OVER
"Well, that was awful," Hilde noted as they reviewed the results of the simulation.
"We ARE outnumbered five to two," Kaworu noted reasonably. "Even if one of them is Jet Alone," he added.
"I'm sorry I died so fast," Mayumi sighed.
"Not your fault," Hilde reassured her.
"We need to work out a strategy to divert the other Evangelions before go in," Kaworu mused, "otherwise this will just happen again."
"Or disable them. Could we keep them from launching, somehow?" Mayumi asked.
"Someone already tried killing power to Tokyo-3. They've taken steps to prevent it, now," Hilde said, but she was impressed she had thought of it.
"Drop a N2 mine on the entrances, weld them shut?" Kaworu offered.
"It's a thought," Hilde agreed as they brainstormed ideas.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"That could have gone better," Maria Vincennes noted, the head of US branch of NERV reviewing the simulator footage.
"Well, we are outnumbered," Sumire Nagara noted mildly.
"So unless we get a few more Evangelions, there's no point in fighting them?" Maria asked her tiredly.
They had been wrestling with the idea of launching a raid on Tokyo-3 for a day or so, and so far had no successes. The possibility was high that the Arael angel might HAVE to be eliminated, and if Tokyo-3 was under it's influence, it might fall to them.
"I wouldn't go that far," Sumire said. "Unit 04 and Jet Alone are both not huge threats, just zero, one and two."
"Sadly our pilots are inexperienced and will be toast against Tokyo's well trained pilots," Maria admitted with a sigh.
"Hmm," Sumire didn't really argue that.
"We know other countries were working on Mass Production Evangelions," Maria mused. "Could we get their assistance?"
"No one's as far along as we are," Sumire shook her head. "And this is a project you do NOT want to rush."
Maria had to ask, "Best case, worse case?"
"If they rush and screw up... best case, you end up with a berzerk, out of control Evangelion," Sumire said dryly. "Worse case... you get a proto-angel and everybody in a 100 mile radius dies," she finished grimly.
"Eeep," Maria softly replied. "Yeah, okay, no rushing."
"We're working on some other means of matching the Evangelions, but it's still early in development," Sumire added.
"Okay, keep working on it," Maria sighed. "Are you still in touch with Ritsuko?" she asked.
"Yes, she's maintaining a data stream on Arael for all NERV branches," Sumire said. "I suspect she's holding back at least SOME data, but so far it's very complete."
"And they're stumped, still?" Maria asked.
"Yeah. There's no way we know for a apparently human child to manifest Angel abilities," Sumire said, "but she is."
"And they can't pinpoint a Core?" Maria asked.
"No."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Ooof!" Shinji yelped as she was sent flying.
Tanya Dugurechaff smirked, "That is a typical judo throw."
"You okay?" her assistant, Asuka, asked.
"Nothing hurt but my pride," Shinji admitted.
She, Asuka and Ken were getting some martial arts training from Tanya, while Rei was in her Evangelion monitoring the Angel. So far, it had been a humbling experience for Shinji and Ken, much to Asuka's amusement.
"How does someone that short kick ass so well?" Ken muttered.
"LOTS of practice," Tanya told them cheerfully.
"I'll work on Ken," Asuka cracked her knuckles as she advanced on the young man.
"Eep," Ken 'eeped'.
"Please go easy on me," Shinji said nervously to Tanya.
"You remind me of Colonel Gantz," Tanya noted, "he was such a disappointment when I trained him. Turned out all right, eventually."
"Uh, right," Shinji said.
"Okay, come at me," Tanya ordered, gesturing.
Shinji swiftly charged, punching towards her face. Tanya caught her arm, shifted... somehow, and Shinji ended up on the ground, face first. "Ack!" she grunted.
"One of these days you'll fight a human being," Tanya noted, "and you'll need more than the brute force tactics you've used with Evangelions."
"Right," Shinji picked herself up.
Tanya proceeded to show her the basic throws and such she had used, as well as a arm grab. It was surprisingly easy to pick up, actually.
"I think Asuka's having too much fun over there," Shinji noted as she saw Ken being thrown again.
"Eh," Tanya shrugged.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Maya Ibuki REALLY did not like Captain Mary Sioux.
"SOMEONE got that video out, lady. And we need to know who," Mary old her flatly.
Maya met her eyes calmly, "It wasn't me. And we're maintaining security to the best standard we can."
"Back off, Captain," Misato said, frowning at her.
Mary gave her a look, "You have something to hide?"
"Just an general annoyance with people from outside who have no clue what's going on," Misato said frostily.
Mary smiled coldly. "Someone with NERV leaked video of the Angel. Worse, the information SHOULD have only been available to a limited number of people," she noted.
"In theory, a limited number of people," Misato corrected. "but there were staff involved in setting up that remote shelter we're keeping her at, people saw her outside, and so on..."
"And someone could have hacked the Magi," Ritsuko calmly pointed out, drinking from her cup of coffee.
"That's not possible," Maya countered.
"YES, the Magi are the most powerful computers on Earth," Ritsuko shrugged, "but there are Magi knock-offs in all the NERV bases. And there are a few in commercial use, too."
"And is you synched more than one branch's Magi together, you could possibly out-power our version," Misato added.
"You're kidding," Mary blinked.
"Nope," Ritsuko shrugged. She pointedly did not look at Maya as she added, "Misato and I gamed out that scenario a few times. It's also why I added the ability to cut the Magi off from all outside access, if needed."
"Okay," Mary digested that. "I still want a list of everyone who could have had access to Arael," she said, "we're going to eliminate anyone here, first."
"Aye aye," Misato saluted sarcastically.
"You didn't tell me you thought the Magi could be hacked like that," Maya murmured to Ritsuko.
Ritsuko drank a bit more coffee, "You didn't ask."
To be continued...