Flight

Chapter 4: Operation Down Under

"Looks nice," Shinji remarked, "What exactly is it?"

"That, sir, is one of the long-range cannons we have here," the sergeant answered, "It has a range of approximately seventy miles and can hit within a feet of its target, if not closer."

"Sergeant, let me ask you something. If I ordered the shelling of Tokyo 4, a place where a large civilian population lives, would you and your men carry out that order?"

"Well, uh, of course."

"There's hesitation there," said Shinji, "I personally don't want to fire on civilians, but I want you to understand this. The point of me being here is to keep NERV under control. If I ordered such a thing, keep in mind that I am doing my job, and I'll need you to do your job as well. Understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now, continue with the inspection."

"Yes sir. Follow me. Over there we have a radar tower capable of tracking anything within an eight hundred mile radius. It's restricted to that zone because of how many frequencies and spectrums we scan it. There are other radar towers in the surrounding bases and the overlapping fields of coverage ensure that nothing avoids our detection."

"What about our own planes?" Shinji asked.

"Each of our planes have a transponder that only registers on our radar," replied the sergeant.

"Remove the transponders," Shinji ordered, "NERV could easily have managed to tap into the signal."

"Sir? Are you sure that is necessary? I mean, our operators do need to know where our planes are."

Shinji stopped and turned to face the sergeant.

"Are you telling me that our own goddamn radars can't detect our stealth aircraft?"

"Well, uh, actually, they can, but it's so faint that they are barely recognizable."

"Take them off anyways," Shinji repeated, "I will not give NERV anything to use against us. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"All right. Now that we've cleared that up, what do we have to defend this base from a ground assault?"

"A battalion of the 101st Airborne," the sergeant answered, "As well as three tank companies."

"Good. And if they attack with an EVA?"

"Well sir, is there even a way to stop an EVA with conventional weapons?"

"Very impressive sergeant," said Shinji, "No, there is not. If an EVA attacks, the base is to be evacuated. I may have to be the one to take on an EVA."

"Yes sir."
Rei looked at the clothes she had and tried to pick something informal out. She rarely wore something out of uniform and was still uncomfortable wearing casual clothes. She had two long skirts, one white and one blue. Her current dilemma was which one she would wear for dinner.

"You have got to be joking."

Rei turned around with the two skirts still in her hands. Asuka was standing in the doorway to her bedroom, her arms crossed across her chest.

"The dinner isn't until this evening and you're already trying to figure out what to wear."

"So have you decided whether you will accompany me?"

"No," Asuka answered immediately, "I'm going to rip Misato a new one and get that letter Shinji sent me."

"Are you sure that is wise?" Rei asked, "The commander may not take kindly to you 'ripping her a new one' as you so put it."

"Well too bad. I'm going to get that letter no matter what."

"Perhaps you should wait until I speak to you after the dinner," Rei suggested, "Attempting to harm the commander would be a rash action on your part and would only get you confined. However, if I am able to get Shinji to tell me what he wrote in his letter, I could relay it to you."

"Hell no!" Asuka screamed, "If Shinji has something to tell me I want it to be between us."

"At least wait until I return and have spoken to you," Rei persisted, "I do not want to see any harm befall me."

"Don't worry," said Asuka, "I'll wait. It'll just make beating up Misato all the more enjoyable."

Rei sighed. Asuka would probably try to attack Misato, even with Section 2 agents all around. She went back to looking at the skirts.

"Just wear the blue one," Asuka said to her.

Rei raised an eyebrow and looked in Asuka's general vicinity. Asuka rarely offered her advice on clothes.

"What? It matches that blouse you're planning on wearing."

Rei looked at the blouse and realized that Asuka was right. The blouse was a soft white and would go nicely with the blue skirt. The white one would make it look like she was going to a wedding or something. She tucked the skirt and blouse away and walked out of her room. They still needed to report for work and it was Asuka's turn to drive. Rei didn't know whether to feel scared that Asuka would be driving at high speeds or relieved that they would be getting to work on time. Asuka was well-known by the Tokyo 4 police as a fast driver and most of them had memorized her license plate. They all tried to stay out of her way when she was driving fast.

The two women went down to the car and were soon on their way. They owned a green Toyota Corsair, green because Rei had wanted blue while Asuka wanted red. They finally picked green as a way of appeasing each other. This time Asuka actually drove at a normal speed, though it was still twenty miles over the speed limit. They arrived at the gate leading down to NERV's garage in ten minutes and Asuka slowed down. Rei swiped her clearance card and Asuka took them underground. She parked and the two took the elevator up to the main office.

"Major Ayanami, here's the tactical briefing for today."

"Thank you."

Rei took the papers and flipped through them quickly. There wasn't much new today, except that American forces around Tokyo 4 had gone up to DefCon 3. Shinji was obviously expecting trouble and she would have to pacify him at the dinner tonight. Suddenly her eyes caught something. A US naval force had moved dangerously close to the route that the Russian convoy would be using to transport Unit 14. They were mainly composed of destroyers and a cruiser and thankfully didn't have a carrier. However, it was still too close for comfort. The US forces around Tokyo 4 had certainly become more alert ever since Shinji arrived. However, this alertness could only last so long before the troops started slacking off. Toji and Hikari came into Rei's view as she turned a corner.

"Hi Rei. Ready for that dinner with Shinji?"

Rei quirked an eyebrow at Hikari.

"How many people know about it?"

"Well, most of the command staff does," Hikari answered, "Toji told me and he found out from Misato."

"The commander must have listened in to my conversation with him last night," Rei muttered to herself, "Well, it doesn't really matter. I believe I am ready for the dinner. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Not really," Hikari admitted, "but good luck."

"Thank you."

Rei continued walking down the main office to her own office. She skimmed through the rest of the tactical report and found nothing else of interest. As the tactical director, it was her job to ensure that another massacre didn't take place in NERV and that was not always an easy job. The Japanese government had been willing to kill anyone in NERV, even children. That had counted greatly against them when the Security Council was debating on who should take over watching over NERV. Rei let a small smile appear on her face. She had actually liked having the Americans around Tokyo 4. Despite the threatening pose, the US forces also acted as a buffer against any other threats. It did provide her plans with some needed flexibility. It was going to be a long wait for dinner to come.
"Welcome Base 4, general."

Shinji nodded acknowledgement to the colonel standing in front of him. Base 4 held the majority of the fighter squadrons as well as two of the N2 mines. They had a few of the B-3 bombers stationed here, ready to destroy Tokyo 4 immediately. They walked down the road to the main hanger. Inside over a dozen mechanics and pilots were by their planes. The mechanics were looking through the planes while the pilots just chatted with each other. Shinji noticed a group of female pilots that were separated from the others. He easily recognized them by the hawk insignia they wore on their collars. They were the Bloody Hawks, a squadron of female-only pilots that were known for their cold efficiency in combat, and their rambunctious behavior in the mess and bars. All of the twenty-six pilots were hot and weren't afraid of showing it off. They were out of uniform and the rest of the men working inside the hanger were stealing peeks at them. However, all this stopped when they noticed that Shinji had entered. The one star on his shoulder easily caught their attention, though it did take a few seconds for everyone to realize who he was. A lieutenant walked up to them and saluted. Shinji returned it.

"General Richards," he said.

"Lieutenant. Any reason those pilots are out of uniform?"

"Well, they're not on duty right now," the lieutenant answered.

"Ah. So, what is the status of the forces? Can they launch an N2 strike within ten minutes of an order?"

"The B-3 bombers are being kept fueled at all times except for maintenance," the lieutenant assured Shinji, "The N2 mines can be loaded in five minutes."

"Good."

Shinji then noticed that a lot of the pilots and mechanics, including those in Hawk squadron, were looking at him.

"Any reason your officers are looking at me?" he asked the colonel.

"Well sir, you're a legend," the colonel replied, "You're the man that saved the world once. It's an honor to serve with me."

Shinji nodded. "Show me the B-3s"

"Right this way," the lieutenant gestured.

They walked through the hanger and exited to the runway. One of the sleek B-3 bombers was right there on the runway. Two mechanics were checking some of the equipment and there was a guard of five soldiers. They all saluted when Shinji and his escorts appeared.

"The B-3 Liberty bomber. One of the most beautiful warplanes ever designed by the United States."

"A very good assessment," Shinji agreed, "Excellent. Everything seems to be in order here. Good work colonel, lieutenant. Oh, and squash any rumors of me being single."

A surprised look appeared on the colonel and lieutenant's face.

"I'm spoken for."

Shinji walked back to his Humvee with his team. The military convoy rolled out and they drove back to the command base. Shinji quickly stopped in to make sure Jessica was fine and made himself a quick lunch. He then rushed down to the conference room. The staff was already waiting for him when he entered.

"Sorry if I'm late," he said, "Who would have thought three Humvees could cause a traffic jam?"

Only two people cracked a smile but Shinji didn't mind. He sat down and a major handed him a file. It had the presidential seal on it. Shinji opened it and read through it. After he was finished, he closed the folder and put it down in front of him.

"Well, it seems the president has approved the plan," he said, "What do you have for me?"

"Our naval taskforce will intercept the Russian convoy and order them to stop," the commodore started, "From there, providing they do stop, the Marines will seize control of all of the ships and then two SEAL teams will assault the cargo ship."

"After the ship is secured, two Delta teams will board and secure whatever the cargo is," a colonel continued, "Once that is finished, we will escort the freighter away and let the rest of the Russian forces go. The freighter will be brought to Okinawa naval installation and we'll have personnel determine exactly what they were transporting."

"What are the backup scenarios?" Shinji asked.

"If the Russians resist, we will fire a warning shot. If they return fire, we will take that as hostile action and attack. They would be infringing on UN jurisdiction because of the nature of the cargo."

Shinji nodded. "Ladies and gentlemen, I know many of you are wondering why Washington has suddenly decided to take such a tough stance against NERV. Well, let me tell you."

Several staff sergeants walked in and gave each of the officers a folder. It was classified Delta. Each of them opened it and started looking through. Shinji continued speaking.

"Two months ago, NSA intercepted a transmission between the Russian NERV branch and NERV Command in Tokyo 4. The word EVA came up several times, which first alerted NSA. It took three weeks for them to finish cracking the code. What you have cannot leave this room, and must never be spoken outside. One other word caught the attention of the analysts and the computer. I'll leave it to you to find it."

The first officer to find it, a major, gasped. He looked up at Shinji in surprise. Quickly, the rest of the staff found it as well.

"Dear god," a colonel muttered, "Is this for real?"

"It is," Shinji assured them, " 'Adam is ready.' This has grave implications for NERV and the rest of the world. We contacted the NERV branch in Germany and found that they were unaware of any plan involving anything called Adam, so we must assume that they mean Adam, the first Angel, the being that caused the Second Impact."

"This is enough for us to storm NERV and seize control of it!" one of the colonels said, "Why haven't we?"

"I'm not here to launch another massacre," Shinji reminded them, "I'm here to stop NERV, and using brutal force is my last resort. We have more information and we know of two things for sure. Unit 14 is on its way from Vladivostok and apparently NERV is working on another dummy plug system. Both are unknown to the UN and therefore are illegal. Once we take Unit 14 and seize whatever documents are on board the freighter, NERV will lose the trust of most of its backers. That will hurt its efforts severely and allow us more maneuvering space."

"Besides," a major put in, "If we wanted to take control of NERV we could do it right now. Our forces stationed in NERV could seize control easily and reinforcements would arrive in twenty minutes at most."

"Now you know why," Shinji continued, "There is one other thing, however. NERV also holds Unit 01, and that EVA is capable of setting off the Third Impact. It nearly did so before, and it can do so again. The only reason it failed was because I stopped it. Understand the consequences if I am to fall into NERV's hands. If NERV is able to corner me and my guards and US troops are too late to save me, I will commit suicide. A dead pilot is no good to NERV, and I am their last link to Unit 01. If any of you are with me, I expect you to not try to stop me. Understood?"

All of them nodded.

"There is another thing. The Japanese government hates us being here and they have been lobbying for the UN to kick us out. We need this operation to carry through successfully. Japan had protested us taking over their role of watching over NERV Command and they consider it an insult that the UN ignored them. Japanese honor requires that the insult be avenged. Therefore, be wary of any Japanese attempts to sabotage our efforts. If this operation is successful, it might shut up the Japanese government for a while. Understand?"

Again they nodded.

"Very well. When does the operation launch?"

"Operation Down Under will launch in two hours."
Rei put on the dress and got onto the NERV car. As it drove along the streets of Tokyo 4 she kept looking out the window. After Shinji had disappeared, everything had changed. Misato had spent the entire five years during his absence to look for him and the American CIA and British MI5 had done a very good job in covering up for him. MI6 and the CIA had also led NERV in a marry chase throughout Europe and Asia, though they stayed out of Africa. When Section 2 finally figured out Shinji was on the other half of the world Misato blew a fuse. Of course this entailed another year of looking for Shinji in the Americas, and in the end they had succeeded partially. Shinji was back in Japan but not under NERV's control and was actually threatening NERV. Few nations even dared to threaten NERV now. Because most nations still believed that NERV was capable of setting off the Third Impact, they tried to stay out of NERV's way. However, the Security Council had set the US to watch over NERV. Japan had fought to keep the US out of their territory but had failed. It was a very unstable situation in Japan. The Japanese government felt the need to prove that they could handle NERV, the US trying to do its job and keep NERV under control, and NERV playing off the two sides in order to carry out its own plans.

The car stopped and the agent opened the door. Rei swung her legs out and stood. There were over a dozen US Rangers present and dressed for battle. She also spotted at least five snipers. The US wasn't taking any chances, it seemed. Shinji had definitely changed things. A sergeant approached her.

"Ms Ayanami? Please come with me. I'll show you to General Richard's quarters."

Rei followed the sergeant into a secondary compound and was led to what looked like an apartment. Two of Shinji's teammates were standing outside and dismissed the sergeant. The woman opened the door and followed Rei in. The man stayed outside. Shinji was busy setting the table with Jessica's help. He looked up when they entered.

"Ah, Rei. I hope you don't mind Sarah being with us tonight."

"That will be fine," Rei replied.

They took their seats, Shinji sitting directly opposite of Rei. Rei tasted one of the dishes Shinji prepared. It was an American dish, but tasted very good.

"So how are you two related?" Sarah asked.

"We're related through our mother," Shinji answered.

"You two had different fathers?"

"Well, it's a bit complicated."

Sarah nodded and continued eating. Rei looked over at Jessica. The little girl was sneaking looks at her but she didn't mind.

"When did you adopt Jessica?" Rei asked.

"Two years ago," Shinji replied, "She's been with me ever since."

Jessica smiled at her father and continued eating.

"You seem to have had an eventful life," Rei commented.

"Not as eventful as NERV thinks," Shinji said in between bites.

"You're just modest," Sarah put in, "Sam's won two Purple Hearts because he managed to salvage two operations that went bad."

"Both of them was because of an overconfident team leader," Shinji added, "I just suggested caution."

"You seem to have retained your cooking skills," Rei noted.

"It's been a necessity," said Shinji, "In the field, you make do with what you have."

"Sam cooked some incredible stuff when we were out in the field," Sarah added, "At times we were eating better than we would at home."

"For you, it was most of the time," Shinji joked.

Sarah laughed and nodded her agreement.

"I cannot cook at all."

Rei noted the looks the two gave each other. It was obvious the two cared for each other. Asuka was not going to be happy.

"So how will Jessica continue her education?"

"There's a tutor on the base," Shinji answered, "She's taking private lessons."

"Would it not be better if she were enrolled in a public school?"

"The closest schools are in Tokyo 4, and all of those are under NERV's observation."

And how did you know that, Rei thought to herself. Shinji obviously had better intelligence than she was led to believe.

"Besides," Shinji continued, "Jessica really doesn't want to go to a public school. Right dear?"

Jessica nodded vigorously.

"I also don't know enough Japanese."

"That's going to change," Shinji said and rustled his daughter's hair.

Andrew opened the door and walked in.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but you're needed."

"Sorry Rei," Shinji said to his sister, "Duty calls. Enjoy the dinner. I'll get back as soon as possible."

Before he left he handed two envelopes to Rei. The look in his eye was enough to tell her what they were. One was addressed to Asuka, and one was for her. He quickly left the apartment with Andrew. Rei looked over at Jessica. She was still staring at the door.

"What are your hobbies?" Rei asked.

"Why do you ask?" Jessica replied.

"You are my niece. I'd like to get to know you."

"I like machines," Jessica answered, "Particularly engines."

"Jessica can fix almost any kind of car," Sarah added, "She's a born mechanic."

Jessica smiled at the praise. She then turned her attention back to her food. Just then Bart walked in. He handed a message to Rei.

"This came for you," he said, "From Commander Katsuragi."

Rei quickly read through it. When she was done, she felt slightly stunned.

"Is something the matter?" Sarah asked.

"I have to get back to NERV," Rei replied, "There is an emergency."

"Oh. Well, it was nice meeting you. Right Jessica?"

Jessica nodded. "Bye Aunty Rei."

"Bye Jessica. Goodbye Sarah."

Rei almost ran out of the room. Currently two thoughts were racing in her head, the fact that Jessica had called her Aunty Rei and that US forces had intercepted and captured Unit 14.
"What've we got?" Shinji asked when he entered the situation room.

"The operation went off without a hitch," the colonel informed him, "The Russian forces have moved away and we have control of the freighter. Our ships are escorting it back to Okinawa. ETA, three hours."

"Good," said Shinji, "Did the Russian forces resist?"

"Two warning shots got their attention," a major answered, "We intercepted messages between the Russian NERV branch and NERV Command. They know about the hijacking."

"It doesn't matter," Shinji said, "We have Unit 14. Call the UN inspectors and get them to Okinawa. It's time we showed them the EVA unit."

"Sir, we're getting a message from NERV."

"Put it through."

Misato's face appeared.

"Shinji, what's going on?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Shinji replied, "Why was NERV receiving an EVA unit without the authorization of the UN?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. NERV was not receiving anything. We received a distress signal on a NERV frequency, saying they were being attacked by US forces. How do you explain that?"

"We intercepted a freighter with a NERV logo transporting an EVA unit. Onboard were NERV personnel from Russia and Japan. What am I to assume?"

Misato's face turned white. Shinji then terminated the communication.

"Colonel, make sure that freighter gets here."

"Yes sir."
Misato didn't know what to do. Shinji had taken possession of Unit 14 and NERV had no way of getting it back. This little twist changed almost everything. It would be nearly impossible to undo the damage Shinji had and would soon inflict on NERV.

"Commander? What is it?"

Misato looked up at Kensuke.

"It's confirmed," Misato said to him, "The US has possession of Unit 14."

Kensuke nodded gravely. "Shall I send the self-destruct signal?"

"I already tried. They're jamming it."

"How were they so prepared?" Kensuke asked her.

"There must be a leak. Contact Toji. Get him to plug it."

"Yes ma'am."
Rei opened the envelop with her name on it. It was indeed a letter from Shinji.

Dear Rei,

I know that I haven't contacted you for a very long time, though part of it is because of NERV. However, I just want you to know this. You're my sister, and part of my family. I'll never let anything hurt you if I can stop it. Just trust me on this. My actions today are just me trying to stop NERV from attempting another Third Impact, or worse. I am not trying to hurt you, Asuka, Misato, or anyone else.

From, Shinji

Rei refolded the letter and put it in the envelope. Shinji might not be trying to hurt them, but he had succeeded in doing so anyways. He was destroying NERV, and that was enough.

End of Chapter 4

Now you know why Shinji seems so powerful and has so much support from Washington. Of course, none of you know what he will do to NERV.

Z98