NUSA
2077
Badlands
Aldecaldos Camp
Afternoon
"What exactly am I looking at?"
V squinted at the terminal in front of him, looking at what appears to be an image of a run-down set of buildings with debris strewn around it. Panam tapped on said terminal, and pulled out a shard.
"Here take a look, this place wasn't here a week ago. Militech and Arasaka are going nuts on the net! This looks very important!"
He took the shard from her and slotted it in, immediately his vision shifted over to a drone's eye view of the area.
A beaten up pyramid with a hole in the center lays in the middle of the wreckage. Torn up vehicles are scattered around, along with pine trees. and laying in the middle of it all…
Was a large purple robot of some sorts, crucified on a red metallic cross.
Teams of corpos mill around it, examining and studying it.
Taking out the shard, V gave Panam a look of genuine concern. An Item this valuable and hard to collect needed both corporations to work together on this. That robot must be one powerful entity.
"We obviously can't take the giant robot, but they are talking about some computers and tech inside they haven't seen before!"
Setting down the shard, V sighed and chuckled.
"Well, yeah duh. But maybe we could take a look at it while we are there. Stage a large enough explosion nearby to get a majority of the security teams over to investigate. Then we strike!"
Panam snorted, shook her head and leaned against the tent pole.
"Too bad Saul won't let us. Not unless we have a damn good reason to do so… But we could scout…"
V gave it some thought before nodding, a smirk growing on his face. The same smirk that Panam knew very well.
"Who's driving?"
"Your turn this time!"
"Then let's delta!"
Militech and Arasaka Joint Research Site
Evening
The complex was fenced up around the main perimeter. Guards patrolled the edges of the site, keeping animals and unauthorized humans out. All of them were given a shoot to kill order.
The site was lit up with dozens of flood lights, each focused on the major parts of the debris.
The centerpiece of it was the eerie crucifixion of the purple robot. Its horned head and jagged jaw gave everyone who dared look at it, a chill.
It was almost as If it was watching them.
The car parked just outside of any of the guards' view, ensuring they got a chance to scope it out better.
"Take a look at the size of that thing… It's almost bigger than the pyramid…"
V took a scan of the surroundings. Not much of the place was fully set up. Seems rushed and hurried. The cameras are mainly covering the larger areas.
There was a network but it seems like it wasn't connected to the buildings or the Robot. He doesn't see any access points on any of them.
"What do you see?"
Panam scooted behind V and pulled out her binoculars to also take a look. V pointed at the pyramid.
"It may be the fact that it's not powered up, but I don't see any networks inside the buildings. There also looks to be more underground."
V was about to turn off his scanner when he spotted something very peculiar.
A child was being escorted from a scaffolding on the Robot down to ground. Zooming in, he got a better look at the kid.
There was no cybernetics on him, no data, not even a phone!
"You see the kid too huh?"
He asked, to which she nodded.
"Yeah I see him, He doesn't look like he has any implants or even a Link. I'm getting nothing on him, besides something on his head."
Panam got an odd feeling in her stomach, something was very wrong here. Either that kid was born clean, or he isn't from here.
Either way, he looks like he doesn't belong here.
He looks… Scared.
"Should we try and get a closer look at him?"
She asked, obviously concerned about the kid.
V felt some sympathy for him, but knew getting close to him would be a risk for him and her.
"Let's just scout the perimeter, and if we get the chance we can try and get a better look at him."
"Alright. That part in the fence looks unguarded, ping the camera and see if there is anything actually watching them."
Panam then pointed at the pyramid, and marked a point on V's scanner.
"What's that logo say? Is it a corporation?"
V took one last scan.
"Nerv… God's in his heaven… All's right with the world…"
Inner Perimeter
A few cameras deactivated and a few dead guards later, the two managed to sneak their way into the makeshift excavation site. The pyramid was huge, it looked many stories high, and the Robot was gargantuan.
Its hands looked bigger than a car, its limbs long and lanky. Its overall body looked…
Inhuman.
It looked like a demon. Parts of its armor are cracked and worn.
On its shoulder read:
"EVA 01"
And Its arms had:
"TEST TYPE"
It radiated an aura of some sort of anger and distrust. It looked like one of those Oni masks.
"This definitely doesn't look like either Militech or Arasaka."
V whispered, taking more scans of the environment around them. That kid from earlier was taken inside to the pyramid via an entry point buried nearby.
"Let's follow them, the robot or EVA is too heavily guarded."
"Alright I'll follow your lead, you have the Kiroshi."
The duo tiptoed past dozens of scientists, Netrunners, and guards. Making their way unnoticed by the hastily set up cameras watching key points in the site.
Inner building
As soon as they entered the entry point, they found themselves stepping in sticky orange goo…
It smelled like blood.
And it might have been blood. Countless bullet holes, dried blood splatters, and empty tan and black uniforms are scattered about.
"What the fuck?..."
"It's like a bloodbath, but the bodies themselves are gone…"
They carefully stepped around the shredded clothing and kept following the trail marked on the scanner.
Each step soaked more of their shoes.
It felt wrong to be here, as if thousands of people were watching them all at once. It's like they are trespassing on a mass grave.
A sign in both Japanese and English on the wall indicated that they were being led to the Bridge.
"What kind of place is this?..."
Panam started to feel more and more uneasy the deeper they got inside.
These halls saw a war.
V scanned the environment, looking at the bullet holes and weapons on the ground. None of them matched anything on the database. He tried scanning the armored uniforms.
"JSSDF STRIKE TEAM"
He only knew of the JSDF, which was disbanded decades ago.
He tries scanning the tan uniforms. All of them had the name "NERV" and their ranks.
"Level A Technician"
"Utility"
"Bridge tech"
"Seems like they couldn't fight back… We are here."
He motioned to the blown open door, where they heard the echoing sounds of people talking.
"Let's check it out."
Both of them carefully snuck into the Bridge, making sure to avoid anything that could alert the corpos to their presence. They made their way onto a platform above the group.
"Tell us about these terminals. Surely you must know how they work…"
"N-Not really, it's mainly Ms Ibuki and Ms Ritsuko that work on these…"
The boy was Japanese, as he was speaking it. His shirt was caked in that orange goo, as well as his hair. He clearly hadn't been cleaned off.
Zooming in, V looked at the four people interrogating him.
"Well, if that's the case… What can you tell us about this place? We don't know much besides that you came out of that robot an hour ago. Help us understand your predicament, Shinji…"
The boy, now known as Shinji, seemed very scared at the current situation, His biological readings were very telling of that.
"W-Well… The robot is Evangelion Unit 01 like I said earlier… I pilot it to save humanity from the angels… And then I… I-I…"
He seemed on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"Oh god… Asuka… Misato…"
Shinji clutched his head as if he was in total agony. His heart rate skyrocketed, his breathing became rapid.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…"
He repeated the words over and over as he cried.
"Jesus Kid… What happened to you?..."
V whispered to himself. Panam was also visibly disturbed at the sight. She had seen kids who had their parents slaughtered in front of them, she had seen their pain, but something felt off about this.
"Why are you sorry? What happened to them?"
. . .
"They died because of me… The world died…"
"What do you mean?"
The netrunner asked.
"I killed them all. I wished for the world to die."
The Netrunner was taken aback. That Evangelion outside looked like it was capable of doing some serious damage, but to end all of humanity?
"Well… I can certainly say humanity isn't dead here. I'm guessing where you're from they died."
That didn't help him at all. He kept crying harder.
"Look… You help us with your tech and this stuff, and we can try and help you fix your problems. How about that?"
The Netrunner offered a hand to the crying child, but was met with more crying.
Sighing, they turned to one of the guards.
"Call me when he wants to talk more, I'll be working on cracking the Evangelion's system."
"Gotcha."
And with that the two Netrunners left to do their other duties.
The guards simply let the crying boy be, they don't get paid enough to care about him. They never spoke a word to him nor lifted a finger to silence him.
They just didn't care.
"We gotta help the poor kid, he's obviously dealing with some heavy stuff, I damn well know what Militech and Arasaka will do to him.
V had a voice of actual anger, he knew more about this than Panam did.
"No way! As much as I feel pity and sympathy for the kid, we can't interfere, Saul would never let him in! Both of the corps will be looking for him."
Panam was firm on this, he knew she would be stubborn about this, And in any other situation he would be too. But something about this screams potential danger if they don't do something.
V may not care about the rest of the world, but something inside yelled at him to intervene. He shuffled a bit to get a closer look when he stepped on a goo soaked pillow. It was pink with a cat stitched onto it.
This place was horrible.
"Roger that. Netrunner is coming back with a blackbox of sorts, and he wants the kid ready for it."
"Gotcha. Hey kid… Uh… Chin up, It'll all be over soon, we just need to get in the Evangelion's Black Box and we'll get you out of here."
That seemed to slightly calm down Shinji as he stopped crying and just held his legs to his chest.
"I damn well know they won't let him leave. They are going to try and turn this into some sort of Black Site, keep him away from anyone that might get him out. They are going to use him as a guinea pig…"
"Goddamnit V, you and your fucking hero complex… We can't help him! Sau-"
The sound of footsteps alerted them to the returning Netrunners. The two Netrunners came in carrying a large disk with a large ring surrounding it. Multiple connectors ports are left open with all of them mostly unknown to V.
"That must be the black box…"
"V we have to get out of here, we can pick up some guns and maybe so tech laying around but we cannot stay here. We are way in over our heads…"
V simply ignored her, still fixated on the Netrunners plugging in the Black Box into some consoles.
"Alright you can try and turn the power on to the Bridge, and turn on the computers with it, we'll need its OS to read this stuff."
Soon, the whole room illuminated, the sounds of beeps and fans whirring to life. The Bridge was alive once more. Shinji didn't look too happy with what they were doing.
"Please… Don't…"
He pleaded, his puffy eyes filling up with tears again.
"It's only for a few minutes, Be thankful you don't have cybernetics or we would have to read it from you."
The large monitor came to life on the other side of the room. Holographic projectors coming back to life, displaying warning signs.
The monitor then began to show some bootloader messages. Something that stuck out was a large amount of errors.
It soon displayed the same logo that was on the outside of the pyramid.
"NERV: GOD'S IN HIS HEAVEN, ALL'S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD"
An ironic statement considering what happened to this place.
Suddenly dozens of warning messages appeared all around them. Errors indicating that sections of the place were destroyed, that Servers were lost, that outside connections are gone. So many things lit up displaying what's wrong with the facility.
"Try and bypass it, and get it to show everything."
"Gotcha."
The other Netrunner began tapping away at the console, shutting off the warnings a couple at a time.
Soon most of the warning lights turned off and they were finally able to start the recordings.
Static came over the speakers as an artifact filled video began to display clips of what seems to be the outside view of the Evangelion.
Shinji began to hyperventilate as he watched.
It showed clips of giant creatures, battles fighting them. The screams they could only assume is Shinji. screams of pain and agony, screams of rage and fire.
They saw the monsters he fought, the other giant robots or Evangelion that fought alongside him. A Blue and white Evangelion, and a Red and Orange Evangelion. They all helped him fight them, voices that came over were both female, and sounded like children…
"Idiot Shinji!"
"I'm taking point!"
The Evangelions were injured in almost every fight, they all screamed in pain at times.
At some points the video would cut out, At which Shinji cried out more for them to stop playing it, that he doesn't want to relive it.
At one point it was showing the other two Evanglions being defeated by a creature with folding arms. Unit 02 as it was called, had its arms and head decapitated. And the other was missing its limbs. The video cut out at times, but showed him fighting the creature or Angel. He lost an arm at one point, but kept fighting.
V and Panam starred in utter horror as the video went on. The Netrunners and Guards did as well. They simply ignored the cries of the boy who pleaded more and more for them to turn it off.
V felt sick in his stomach. The last part of that battle showed the Evangelion eating the angel…
One clip later showed him fighting Unit 02 and killing a white haired boy, all while in front of a blobby white humanoid, crucified in the same way that Unit 01 was outside.
The final clip…
The Final clip showed a group of other Evangelions with wings and injuries, they had large grotesque mouths and each of them showed the mutilated corpse of Unit 02…
Shinji's scream was the last thing recorded.
The screen now showed
"End of Recording."
Silence washed over all of them. Despite the whirring of fans and mechanical clicks, you could hear a pin drop.
"I killed them all…"
Shinji repeated it over and over as his biometrics began to go wild.
"I'm getting him out of there!"
V said, pulling out his pistol.
"Wait, V!"
. . .
A gunshot rang out.
Well, I started writing this after playing Cyberpunk 2077 and got both the Hanako ending and then redid it to get the Aldecaldos ending. It was hard to come up with the beginning part but I got it to work somehow. I'm very proud of this work and I really hope you guys enjoyed it!
-DerpymanMT
Deus