Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Right, let's get this action sequence done...
Chapter 4
The green eva thudded heavily on to the ground, sending up a small dust cloud around its feet. The force of the impact sent Art slamming into his harness as he was thrown forward, knocking the wind from him. After being hurled forward, his body was hurled back as the eva recovered, smacking his head on the headrest of the seat. The seat had been converted from an old ejector seat from a high altitude interceptor, and it creaked on its hinges.

Art looked around him, slightly dazed and winded. Regaining his senses, he remembered procedure, and eyed on his comms, "This is 3, I'm down and bloody pissed at the guy who designed this harness."

A familiar voice crackled across the open channel, "All right 3, go about the mission as planned, you only have four minutes of power left."

"Yeah, ... what's the plan again?"

"Don't play games!"

Art grinned, "Sorry ma'am."

The green eva rose from it's crouch. Art hit a couple of buttons on his armrest console, and an overlay appeared on the view screens in front of him. As he looked, he could see the other evangelions highlighted in a gold wire frame, even though they were obscured by scenery. Enemy columns were shown up on a red wire frame. He looked for a green box, which would be the weapons locker dropped somewhere nearby.

(3mins50secs)

The green wire frame box was overlaid on a couple of trees. 'The weapons drop box must be on the other side of them then.' He gripped the two joysticks that jutted out from the front of the seat, and guided the eva in the direction of the green box. When he was lined up with the box, he looked to both sides and rammed both sticks forward, sending the eva hurtling toward the tree line. He jumped clear of the trees.

As he flew serial hundred feet in the air, he looked in the direction of the factory. He was in a roughly oval shaped valley, several kilometres across. In the distance he could see a flash of red as Unit 02 went about her business. In the middle of the valley there was a concrete rectangle in the ground, a few kilometres long. The rest of the valley was made up of a huge plane surrounding the concrete slab, with trees lining the plane and valley walls.

As the green Eva fell towards the earth, Art caught sight of a column of what looked like tanks hauling ass towards him. He looked at them with dread as he realised there would be people in those armoured killing machines.

He hit the ground next to the drop box, and ripped open the top. As he reached inside for the weapons, he noticed what appeared to be hinges on the inside of the side of the box. He looked around to see the box opening was in fact on the side. "Um... hope they don't need it again..." he gave a nervous laugh, " ... yeah... bugger."

He grabbed the rifle out of the box, and flicked a few switches. This set off the auto-controls to position the rifle in the correct place, ready for him to shoot. The auto-controls were one of the many systems in the eva, which made it possible for it to be used as a war machine. For low synch. level pilots, such as Art, the auto-controls performed complex operations, such as putting a finger through a trigger guard. This system saved a lot of time, stopping the pilot from spending hours getting their eva's fingers into small holes. It also saved on rifles when they missed the hole. An eva is designed to rip through concrete blocks without noticing, and so the rifles were like Swiss cheese until the system was in place.

When the rifle was secure in a firing position, and sent the eva sprinting through the tree line towards the slab. The slab itself was the roof of the enemy factory. Art was not sure on what they produced, that information was on a need to know basis, and as a pilot, the only thing he needed to know was where to point his gun. The tanks he had seen rolling towards him were outlined in red, so even though the trees obscured his view, he could see where they were.

The eva burst through the tree line, sending tree trunks flying like matchsticks. He readied his rifle, aiming for the lead tank of the column. A purple bolt of energy was sent screaming towards the concrete factory roof. Art did not notice it hit, as he pulled the trigger, sending a volley of tracer rounds hurtling towards the tank column.

The column disappeared in a shower of earth and fire as the rounds exploded on impact. Art did not have the luxury of time he thought he would have to reflect on the fact he had just killed a few dozen people.

In fact, it was surprisingly easy.

Then the dust cloud cleared, revealing the burnt out husks of the few remaining tanks, those that had not been buried under the dirt as it fell back to earth from being sent skyward. He was half glad that the resolution on his viewer was not good enough to make out individual bodies.

(3mins20)

He scanned the valley.

The hilltops beyond the line of trees were clear, apart from a few Nerv self-propelled mortars, which had begun pounding away at the enemy troop formations. Art did not bother with them. His main concerns were well in the valley.

For one thing, there was a fresh column of tanks hurtling from the factory gates, huge concrete holes in the ground that just seem to spew armoured death from its mouth. For another there was a line of artillery, all of which seemed to be indicating in a subtle way that when they started firing, no one was going to be happy.

As a side thought his mind noted a series of infantry squads, stealthily working their way closer to the eva. But, they were only infantry. The eva barely had to worry about the artillery, let alone a few men with small arms.

(3mins10)

On the other hand, the trucks carrying his power supply *would* care about a few infantrymen, no matter how small their limbs were. So this left Art the tough choice of turning them into geography. But it hardly seemed fai-

His thoughts were interrupted by a whistling noise. Lots of whistling noises. He saw the white trails loop lazily in the sky behind the missiles sent at his eva. Without even thinking, he sent his eva leaping to one side, and he watched the massive fireworks display as the missiles collided with the forest behind him. Would have been quite pretty had it not been for the fact they were aimed at him.

He snapped his head around to see the artillery lines, the smoke trails from the missiles clearly pointing to who had just let loose several thousands of dollars worth of bonfire night specials. He set the viewer on maximum resolution, and could see a few bodies quickly exiting the artillery vehicles, as though they knew the pilot of the eva would not be very pleased with them.

And he was not very pleased. The artillery line disappeared in a hail of explosive rounds. Well, at least half. The barrage had shaken up Art more than he thought, and his aim had been wildly off.

(2mins55)

The new tank column that had been racing from the factory was now moving at a more surreptitious rate. Nobody particularly wanted to be on the receiving end of the indestructible giants weapon of mass destruction. But, they were still a threat to his power cable carrying trucks. They could not be allowed to come any closer, especially if they were moving in his direction.

The artillery fired again, although Art was too interested in the tanks to notice. He was also too busy to sot the firestorm that had appeared on the factory roof. If Art had a failing, and currently he was finding out that he had more than just a few, it would be the fact he tended to keep too close an eye on his objectives.

To that end he dispassionately destroyed the armoured column. This took quite some doing. The last column had been tightly bundled together, as though huddling close to each other would provide protection from the nasty evas gun. All it had done was to leave Art with a bigger target, and allow him to use fewer rounds when taking them out. These buggers were all neatly spread out, and so a lot of the rounds were wasted on the gaps between tanks.

(2mins35)

It was after he had destroyed the tanks his eyes got around to telling his brain about the artillery firing. Which became a moot point as explosion blossomed on the evas A.T field. The blasts blacked out the forward vision, replacing the viewer with static as the explosion played merry hell with the Nerv connections. The concussive force of the multiple impacts sent the eva sliding back a few metres. Out of reflex, Art held one arm over his eyes, trying to shield himself from the missiles.

When the barrage stopped, he saw that the eva was holding its arm in the same position. The rifle though, not having the luxury of an A.T field to protect it was covered with scorch marks and scrapes were the shrapnel had got to it. Art cursed the fact he had not yet learnt to spread his field. Sure he could keep it around himself, er, his eva like a cloak, and wrap it around his sword or prog. knife in a melee, but that was just his instinct working on over charge to keep the eva, um, himself safe.

He was not happy. The scorch marks ruined the nice paint job done on the rifle.

(2mins05)

The eva once again gripped, the rifle in both hands. Art dropped it to its knees in classic marksman pose, and set the rifle square in his shoulder. This was a fairly pointless exercise. The only reason people do it was to keep the rifle steady with the recoil, but an eva was both strong enough and big enough to take the recoil of even this massive gun without flinching. But at least it made Art feel better. In the end that's all that really counts when piloting the bio-titan.

He picked his targets carefully. He used the viewer n maximum scope to effectively snipe the artillery units whilst they desperately reloaded the big guns. But it was futile. The entire line of vehicles was destroyed, one shot per customer.

He was surprised by a sudden constant thudding on his A.T field. He looked to his, um, the eva's side, and saw what appeared to be a group of survivors of the tank column he had destroyed. They had sneaked up on him whilst he was dealing with the artillery.

(1min35)

The green goliath turned and blasted the few tanks, the boy pilot's eyes seemingly distant as he extinguished this threat to hi mission. They exploded spectacularly. Art thought that the explosions looked quite good when they got this close.

Now he had time to deal with the remaining squads of infantry. They were quite close now though. He was shocked at how close they had gotten in such a short time. Why, it could only be a few seconds since he first saw them. Then he checked the battery charge remaining counter. Ohshit.

He got a good look at them. Most were carrying RPG's, the one shot disposable ones that many a common squaddie got lumbered with if the top brass thought there would be something heavy on wheels in the area. A few unfortunate buggers were stuck lugging around an authentic tank hunter system, the true missile launchers used for taking down heavy armour, bulky infrared sighting equipment and all.

Almost robotically he aimed the rifle at them. He was about to pull the trigger when he realised just what the hell he was doing.

(1min15)

Art watched, momentarily paralysed with shock at how easily it had all come to him, the first of the RPGs streaking towards him. Those were people in those tanks. And he had barely given it a moments thought.

The grenades hit, causing his A.T field to ripple in front of his eyes. These were people as well. But he had just been ready to shoot at them as though they did not matter. He was appalled with himself. He has become a merciless killer, giving no regard, even a little disdain to the people he had just killed. He was half tempted to stop now, and just let these poor bastards at least get away with their lives.

The radio crackled, "Supply to three, supply to three, is the way clear? Over." Then again, others were counting on him for their protection.

Without any more doubt, he pulled the trigger, sending golden bolts of death streaking towards the squads. They had even less chance than the tanks.

(40 secs)

"Three to supply, way is clear, over."

He heard the trucks roll in behind him, whilst he kept a keen lookout for any fool who tried to attack now.

(20 secs)

The cable for the eva was plugged in. He could relax. At least for now.

He looked at the damage he had done. The still burning husks of the artillery vehicles. The flipped over tanks. The brown patches where the bullets had struck the ground, making the earth fly high into the sky and fall to the ground again. He consciously ignored the remains of the infantry squads.

He was amazed at how, ... cold he had been.

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Misato let out a breath she did not realise she was holding. It was a sigh of relief, not that the boy has managed to stay alive, but that the plan was not a complete write-off. Well, she was half glad the boy made it. The paper work for casualties was staggering.

She turned to Maya. They were in the cramped mobile command vehicle, a far cry from the spacious command centre with it's twenty foot high monitors. She put a hand on Maya's shoulder, "How's Asuka doing?"

Maya barely looked up from her screen, "She appears to be doing fine. Her eva is in great shape, and her synch ratio is holding stable, and the destrudo count..."

Misato stopped listening as the techno-babble washed over her head. In fact, she had stopped listening at the words, 'she's doing fine'. She let her mind wander over the plan they originally had.

Rei was supposed to crack open the roof of the factory with the positron rifle, just open enough for an eva to get inside and cause as much damage as possible. The factory produced the latest model of Jet Alones, the JA Mk.II. These were fairly impressive beasts. They had removed the bulky nuclear reactor system, and replaced it with a... complicated battery thing. Misato was not really sure what it was, but she knew the buggers could run at maximum power for over a day. They also had a shoulder mounted ... big ass gun. Again, Misato had ignored the techno-babble, but the nickname had been clear enough. A.T. field busters. And that was why the factory had to go. Having these robots running around with such huge guns would compromise Nerv's tactical superiority. It might even give the other guys a fair chance.

So, they had opted to lay waste to the factory. But the rifle shot had just burned a neat hole into the factory roof. Maya had told her the structural integrity of the roof had been weakened, but it meant that the ground troops that Misato had in reserve would have to be used. They had been sent in five minutes ago, and were currently infiltrating the factory with extreme prejudice.

Misato interrupted Maya's techno-babble, "How are the ground troops doing?"

Maya sighed. She knew about Misato's tendency to drift in and out of conversations that involved too many scientific specifications, and had in fact been talking about what was on TV recently. She brought up the command console for the troops. "They're being pinned down by heavy resistance..."

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Asuka was trying to work out if she was annoyed relieved or jus plain angry. She had been set down a few klicks from her original drop zone, and it had taken her e while to find her weapons drop box, and now that she did have a rifle, the little men and their toy tanks were running away.

She had fired a few half-hearted shots at their backs, but it had seemed fairly pointless. She could not get them at this range anyway, and their constant jinking as they fled across the valley floor made sure she was just wasting her shots.

Still, it was quite a good thing. If she kept walking forward, she'd be at that damned factory in about ten minutes, and that would just be fine by her. Another good aspect was the fact she had not really killed anybody yet.

But even that annoyed her a little, partly because you had to work very hard not to annoy Asuka. She was expecting to find out where she drew her lines, and these little cowards would not even have the courage to face her. It was just so damned, *annoying*. If they had stuck around, there was a good chance she would not pull the trigger. A small traitorous part of her said, yes, but would *you* want to stick around to find out?

And that little voice made her angry.

"At least the scenery is nice," she said out loud as her eva plodded onwards. No one in the command centre seemed to want to draw attention to the fact, that if she moved a little bit quicker, the enemy would be in range.

----------------------------------

Rei carefully sighted along the rifle, and gently squeezed the trigger, sending a scarlet beam out. It obliterated a tank that had been trying to outmanoeuvre Unit 02. She sighed inwardly. Pilot Sohryu seemed to be actively ignoring the enemy.

On the other hand, it gave Rei something to do.

She was vaguely aware that some people frowned upon the destruction of human life, particularly if it was an efficient way, such as de-atomising them. That was a word she had learnt from watching old sci-fi movies. She quite liked it. It had a certain clinical quality to it.

But it seemed to her that all those people who often gave you stern looks if you told them about it, had never sat in a machine of war in their entire lives. Then again, her entire knowledge of people like that had come from the old sci-fi movies she had borrowed off Lieutenant Hyuga, so she was hardly in a position to debate the point.

What she was in position for was another shot at a tank that had begun to circle PilotCoo- Art's eva. She sighed inwardly, something quite hard to do she had found, before she realised it was just a metaphor. She sighted in the tank, and squeezed the trigger. It vanished in a cloud of dust and electric flashes.

When you got right down to it, this was not what she would call fun, and Rei had a very clear definition on that word, as she did most things. And that seemed to be the problem all those people with the frowns had, people revelling in the slaughter, as they had put it. And she did not enjoy this. This was more like work.

Frankly, it bored her.

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A worried lieutenant looked at the reports on his screen. He was supposedly in a safe area, a command bunker deep within the factory. But the reports he kept getting did not make him feel safe at all. He was not particularly worried about the reports themselves, but he had a slow sinking feeling in his gut as he realised he would have to tell the 'old man' about this news. And it was not good.

He swallowed hard. "Sir?"

The 'old man' stirred in his seat. It was a trick, the lieutenant knew. The 'old man' was always watching, but he pretended not to be. When he let that rumour circulate, efficiency had improved dramatically. Nothing made a more efficient worker than one who does not know when the boss is looking. "Yes?" he said in a voice that was coolly calculated to tell you that while you had important information, you should really not be wasting my time, so hurry up. This old man was talented.

The lieutenant swallowed hard again. "The troops sir. They're, um, nearly all dead sir. And those that aren't are running as fast as their engines are allowing, sir. And, sir, some are even trying to surrender sir. Sir." He threw in a couple of extra 'sirs'. Superiors always felt more comfortable when they were called sir a lot.

"Running away," the old man said absently.

This made the lieutenant more nervous. "It- .. It's the green one sir. They say it's wiping them out all along one side, sir. And, sir, they say there's another one just spitting death at them, sir, that they can't see, sir, like God was smiting them, sir. And, sir, the red one, sir, hasn't done anything yet, sir, and they're really pis- scared about that, sir."

"Well, send in the Jet Alones. This is what they are built for."

"B-but sir, which ones?"

"All of them."

"B-b-but sir! Half of them aren't even operational, sir!"

"Think of them as a decoy then. How is the defence inside the factory going?"

The lieutenant swallowed harder this time. "Sir, not, sir, very well sir.

"Oh really? Where have they got up to?"

"Si-"

"And say sir one more time and I will deal with you. Remember your former superior?"

"Sorry, si-!" he clamped a hand over his mouth. The stories about the 'old man' were legendary. There were things, people had said, such amazing things you could do with a hole punch if you put your mind to it. Then again, they also said that he was part of a conspiracy to destroy the world, but no one really believed that. But a hole punch you could really believe in.

"Where are they?"

There was a bang on the bunker door.

The lieutenant looked at the 'old man', his eyes wide with terror. "Very close s-!"

"I see. Take care of this for me, will you?" The 'old man' rose from his seat, and walked away.

'He's got to be joking.' "Um, s- um, commander?"

"Sir?"

And the 'old man' was gone. About ten minutes later the door burst in, and hole punches were no longer at the forefront of the young lieutenant's mind.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Sorry it's so damn late, but frankly I've been up to my neck in work. Anyway, I promised red-hot eva action, and here it is, although, it's not quite finished yet. Next chapter includes red-hot eva action, news from back home, and quite possible Shinji, if the bugger can get off his lazy arse and do his duty as a character that is.