Disclaimer
The series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, from which this work of fiction is based, is owned by GAINAX. Characters presented in this document that come directly from the series are also owned by GAINAX. "Lady Pheaura" owns Madison Timlitt. I own all other original characters.
Evangelion: Primum Revelation
Chapter 13: Declaration
Written by T.S. a.k.a. "Kain Tempest"
German Translations by "Steve Vader"
Tristan finally felt like he was doing something with his life. Hustling down the corridors of Tower Four towards the operations room, he could see that the entire facility was a hive of activity. Technicians and runners were milling about the halls, clearing out paperwork and double-checking connections. The tower was the first and only line of defence that the NEC had, they had to be ready for the worst.
As the door into the operations room slid open, the captain adjusted the gemstone clasp on his collar and strode in. Sub Commander Septerra looked down at him from his elevated perch.
"Where have you been, Captain?" Septerra growled, expecting a more punctual arrival from the director of operations.
"Satellite interference for my phone. Sun flare." Tristan murmured.
"This is no time to blame your tardiness on natural-"
"With all due respect, let's get to the task at hand. Lectures are for debrief." Ignoring the angry stare from the now insulted Sub-Commander, Tristan stopped at the edge of the platform and looked out on the combat data, panels with streaming data, maps, and video screens, all pointed at the area the battle was to take place. Low-tech as compared to Tokyo-3 and Berlin's facilities, E-NERV was forced to make due. "Unit-06 status."
"Entry plug inserted. Preparing for launch." Tristan picked up a headset near the officer who spoke up and spoke into the microphone.
"Pilot Ikari?"
"Y-yes?" Shinji responded over the speakers.
"Your EVA is going to be provided with the necessary battery packs to reach the shore. Tower Four is not optimized to combat Angels at this time so you will have to engage the enemy at the coast with minimal support."
"But my synch-"
"I am well aware that Unit-06 is resisting input. Don't worry, we're not going to leave you out to dry. UNIT has graciously provided us with two Trident units to provide support."
"Tridents?"
"Affirmative, they're not as potent as the Evangelions, but they are far less costly and have been mass produced since the middle of last year." Shinji was silent, clearly the explanation wasn't what he was after. After all, he already encountered the Tridents back at Tokyo-3. Again images of Mana came to his mind. Now looking back at his relationship with her, Shinji didn't know what to think of the former spy. He felt bad that he hadn't thought about her as much as he should have. But their relationship was slow fleeting and he could never be sure if what she had told him was fact or simply a well conceived lie. More than likely though, it meant nothing after the end of the world. The Tridents were like a headstone, a symbol of her.
"Understood." Shinji replied after a moment of silence.
"I never liked the sound of that from the start." Septerra grumbled. Tristan lowered the receiver.
"Let's just hope they are more afraid of Angels than us." The captain added before continuing Shinji's briefing.
"The Tower Four surveillance equipment is a tad faulty so we are relying on the Tridents to each be a second pair of eyes and ears for us in case you're not positioned directly in the target's path. You will all be separated by about three miles apart."
"Alright." The shore. The setting of this battle sounded a lot like the first proper battle Shinji had with Asuka, when things were less complicated. Back in those days Asuka was just and arrogant bitch and a rookie. No matter how much simulation time she had gone through, she had been far too reckless. If Shinji wasn't forced to live with her, he would have been quite happy to ruffle her feathers as much as possible. At least, he imagined he would have wanted to. Touji had described her best and at that time Shinji had to agree, Asuka was a Grade-A psychotic bitch. However, getting to know someone always made it more complicated to understand them.
"Battery packs are being outfitted in order to get you to the site, we have few actual launch tunnels and we have no transports to take you in the air. As soon as you are launched and your cable released, you need to get to the staging area. The computer already has the waypoints which will come up on your heads-up display."
"Okay."
"You are paying attention, correct? I'm not just doing this to test my vocal chords."
"I know that. Please continue."
"Was that necessary, Captain?" Septerra murmured. Tristan ignored him.
"You will be provided a machine rifle at the staging area. From there the operation will begin. We are unable to get any data on the target so be ready for anything. The two Tridents will also be engaging the target to compensate for your low synch ratio, they will try and stay out of your way, but just make sure you don't get too excited. If you or they get too out of control, someone could get killed."
"Understood."
"I don't want that Angel to even put a single toe on dry land, we're counting on you." Tristan took a breath. Shinji didn't respond. "That's everything you need to know for now. Prepare for launch."
"Yes, sir." Shinji mumbled.
The pilot scanned the plug of Unit-06, the HUD covered in several diagnostic programs, the regular procedure when the machine was on the threshold of a routine launch. Weapon inventory, servo balance, synapse roster. It was all typical and something that the boy had ignored. At most, everything seemed like an exercise that was often brought up after the power outage fiasco prior to the entrance of the Eighth Angel.
Shinji knew better though than to simply think of this as just another exercise. The Angels were back. The end of the world didn't mean anything to them as they pressed the pursuit now. Was it really the Angel's intent to kill all of humanity. Was Kowaru's claims of humanity's survival true, or was he simply trying to bring peace to Shinji when he knew the result all along. The Angels were the undeniable plague that would swallow up everything.
When everything dissolved into chaos at NERV HQ in Tokyo-3, Misato had tried to cram so much information down Shinji throat when he wasn't even interested in paying attention to the world. Things had gotten so out of hand that he just didn't want to respond to the stimuli. Perhaps it was to get into the same state Asuka was in. She seemed so peaceful. A sickening image caught up with him and Shinji snapped his eyes open.
"Shinji, are you alright?" Tristan asked. The boy blinked away the disturbing memory.
"Yes, I'm fine. Let's get started."
"Evangelion, launch!" Tristan barked. The LCL did little to reduce the intense force of inertia on the pilot's body as the high powered trains yanked the Evangelion up off the cage floor and upwards at an extreme rate, electromagnetic grooves throwing the unit like a rail gun shell, up through Tower Four's shafts.
The jolt at the end of the trip was no less startling as Shinji's innards shot up to his collar at the same time as the Evangelion's head snapped upwards, sounding like a cracking whip. Recovering from the violent motion of the launch, Shinji gritted his teeth as the shoulder clamps were released and the weight of the torso caused it to lurch forward with a groan. The small hissing pop of the umbilical cable followed with the shrill chirp of a battery counter.
The inertia of the release prompted Shinji to make his EVA take it's first step and start towards his destination. First walking at a fast clip, the Evangelion slowly moved up to a long striding sprint across the countryside, Hamburg soon becoming a dot in the distance. The EVA made wide strides like a athletic runner, hurdling over derelict power lines and hopping rivers.
"Impressive." Tristan mused to himself and those around him. He glanced down to see a small yet significant rise in Pilot Ikari's synch ratio.
"Grace under pressure." Septerra commented, seeing the value on his terminal as well. Tristan smiled inwardly at the saying, wondering how Asuka would have done or how she was going to react with the news on how quickly Shinji was now getting back into the saddle. The little sprain was probably going to doom her career as a pilot, but Tristan didn't feel any remorse at the thought. This coldness he became aware of was a empowering sign for Tristan, the name Winter seemed to be creeping back into himself. But what would have begun the metamorphosis? Perhaps the threat of Angels, seeing another Evangelion pilot, or perhaps it was Asuka herself.
The parallels were eerie. Tristan had trained his whole life to become an Evangelion pilot and Asuka had started so late into the game when it came to training. And now here they were again, Tristan still ahead with regard to a career and Asuka was being held back by a normal occurrence, today it was an injury, but in the past it was… A normal childhood?
Considering the records of the three of them, Tristan, Shinji, and Asuka, the captain realized that Asuka was the only one among them who had the opportunity to live an ordinary life. Even though Asuka lost her mother, she still had her father and stepmother, with only a small change of outlook, she could have been completely normal and free from the trials the two men were to face. But then again, Shinji also had the opportunity to leave NERV whenever he wanted, he hadn't invested the same amount of time and effort that the two European pilots had. It seemed that Tristan was the only one that was actually chained to his duty. No decisions, no need to question. Things were simpler this way, but at the same time it was disappointing.
Tristan's life revolved around the Angels. So what would happen to him if they did indeed all disappear? What good was a shepherd without his flock? His life was meaningless beyond the Angels, as was the lives of the other pilots. Tristan would be damned if history forgot the names of himself and the other Children.
Before one of the lieutenants informed him, Tristan looked up to see Unit-06 skid down a hill, coming to a stop before swampy, red earth before the ocean. Unit-06 crouched down at the foot of the hill, wasting no time in retrieving the umbilical plug lying on the heavily reinforced concrete pad NERV's field equipment was on. A group of trucks, flatbeds, and cranes, plus the large power generator that would be feeding the Evangelion sat nearby, technicians crawled upon the power generator as others checked the small coolant units next to it.
Shinji carefully moved the main controls carefully and slowly. The boy licked his dry lips as he manoeuvred the tempermental machines hand around the machine rifle lying on one of the flatbeds. If lifted it the wrong way he was going to break the axle with Unit-06's hand or drop the weapon and crush the vehicle. He hated having to do field work, the work being much more meticulous than just grabbing the weapon sent up and blasting away. A guide, trying to be of some use, used his light sticks to try and direct the acquisition of the weapon. The young woman was probably just a little older than Shinji and smiled up at Unit-06 as it raised the rifle. Shinji, even though he knew she couldn't see, smiled and gave a small wave from inside the plug.
Glancing to the side, Unit-06's pilot counted only 4 extra clips of ammunition were lying on the concrete pad. If this Angel was well armoured, Shinji was going have to tangle with the monster in close combat. Something that Shinji didn't enjoy considering how merciless the Third and Fourteenth Angels were. But then, the NEC wasn't completely prepared to face an Angel, as Tristan had warned, despite they were dancing with oblivion by setting themselves up with so many Evangelions and pilots that the enemy would see them as the biggest threat.
Cradling the rifle in the EVA's arms, Unit-06 stood up and wrapped a hand around the trigger, resting the muzzle on top of the right hand. The feedback told Shinji that the grip was loose, but the Evangelion refused to close it's hands tighter on the handle.
"Unit-06 in position." Shinji reported. Tristan gave a slight smile and nod even though he knew the pilot would not see either.
"Good work. At least didn't start you on your face." Shinji grunted, remember how quickly Unit-01 had tripped on its own two feet during its sortie with the Third Angel.
"Could we please not talk about it?" Shinji was actually quite pleased at how well he was handling of Unit-06, despite being a new machine and his low synch ratio. It seemed as though he was getting back into his usual mind set and the Evangelion was responding to it.
It was believed that the neural net of the Evangelions would at first resist Shinji and Asuka, considering that they had been tested by their designated pilots and so would not be used to new thought waves. Indeed, at first Unit-06, if it were really alive, seemed to absolutely hate Shinji, refusing to do the most menial of movements.
"Alright then, we'll get down to business. Your HUD is marked with the general locations of the two Trident units, positioned on rock formations in a shallow part of the shore, 3 miles from you and 3 miles from each other." Two green reticules appeared and marked the distanced of the targets to be around the three mile mark.
"I see the indicators."
"Okay. Judging from the direction the target has been moving, the Angel will be passing between the two Tridents and moving in your direction. The plan will be to have the Angel pass the two Tridents and have you engage it a one point five miles from the coast. Once you engage, the Tridents will activate and move up on the Angel from the rear flanks and catch it in a cross fire. You got that?"
"A mile and a half from shore. Got it."
"Good."
"Captain, I have a contact at 2 o'clock, eight miles from the staging area." Tristan's heart skipped a beat.
"Another Angel?" The lieutenant who gave the news quickly scanned the new data.
"Negative. It's UN Littoral Combat Ship 'Bull Dog'."
"An LCS? What class?"
"The 'Bull Dog' has just contacted us, they just came from Norway and want to help out." A second lieutenant reported.
"ASW class, sir." Responded the first lieutenant. Tristan silently raised his hands in exhasperation.
"Is something the matter, Captain?" Septerra asked.
"What good is an Anti-Submarine vessel in an Angel battle?" The captain asked those present. No one answered the rhetorical question. "Tell them to go home."
"I have a second contact now." The first lieutenant added.
"God, what now, a tug boat?"
"Unknown. No signatures that can be identified. Object of significant mass on sea surface, 12 o'clock, 6 miles from staging area."
"What the Hell is going on here? I want to know what that is!" A few seconds of frantic typing from the lieutenant being a weak whimper came out of him.
"The system says the information could not be found."
"Trident One has picked up the target's signature on passive sensors. Estimated time of arrival to Trident Two's sensor area is five minutes."
"And to Unit-06?"
"Eight minutes." An idea popped into Tristan's head.
"Contact the Bull Dog and find out if they have sub hunting helicopters and how long it will take them to get one to the coordinates of the unidentified contact." There was a brief pause.
"Six minutes." The second lieutenant responded.
"Tell them to do so, I want to know what is going on out there."
"Understood."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Septerra muttered.
"I'm just hoping for the best." Tristan responded in kind. "Shinji, we are getting some reconnaissance from the UN LCS 'Bull Dog', if you can, keep the fighting away from the northeast."
"O-okay."
"You doing alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. The angel will arrive in ten minutes?"
"Less than."
"Okay. I'm ready."
"Make sure that you keep it at bay with machine gun fire until the two Tridents can come in for support. I don't want you to rush in if the EVA is acting ornery." Shinji sighed, Tristan was making it sound as if he didn't know what he was doing. In all sense, Shinji was the veteran and should know what to do. But then, Tristan no doubt had military training and more understanding of tactics, but the fact remained that his commander didn't have to explain such elementary combat tips to him.
"I know."
"Target has come in sensor range of Trident Two and is slowly accelerating. New ETA to Unit-06 is three minutes."
"Damn it! Shinji it's sped up, get ready for it any minute now." Tristan heard Shinji grunt in surprised and the Evangelion raised the rifle up to point at the water's edge.
"Sub hunter 'Terrier One' is approaching the coordinates… It's an aircraft carrier?" The entire operations room stood frozen for a moment. "Repeat, the unknown contact is an aircraft carrier."
"How could something that large get into the area without being detected!" Tristan cried.
"There are still many holes in the NEC defense grid. I'm amazed we detected the Angel when we did." Septerra grumbled once more.
"One, no two, VTOL aircraft have lifted off the run way. Harriers."
"Why, vertical take off?" There was a pause.
"There is a large mechanical spindle with a thick black cable running into the water towards shore."
"Those two VTOLs are headed right for the staging area." The first lieutenant cried.
"Black cab-" A cold shot of horror struck Tristan just before the operations room fell into chaos.
"Anti-aircraft fire from carrier. 'Terrier One' is hit and going down!"
"Target has doubled it's speed, ETA 50 seconds!"
"Trident One and Two have mobilized without authorization and are headed towards the staging area."
"VTOLs sighted by staging area per-" Shinji jumped, seeing two small specks in the sky streak towards him.
"Have the concrete platform evacuated! Shinji, activate your AT field!"
"W-what?" Shinji saw small specks of light drop from the now visible aircraft and come directly at him. Shinji took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Unit-06 hunched down as the volley of missiles slammed into the staging area, causing the plug to hum with the violent movement outside.
"Missiles have been fired from VTOLs! The place is in flames."
"Generator status?"
"Undamaged."
"Shinji, shoot those aircraft out of the sky." Shinji's eyes shot open and he looked up at the two aircraft wheel away and prepare for another strike. A shot of realization struck him, his commander was ordering him to kill human beings?
"His AT field isn't activated."
"What's going on?" Shinji demanded, as he heard frantic voices from Tristan's end of the channel before hearing Tristan return.
"Do it!" The captain roared into the microphone.
"Angel is surfacing!" Tristan and Shinji's eyes respectively looked up, the former to the video screen of the battle, and the latter to what appeared on the middle of his view. A dark blue humanoid form rose out of the water, looking like an anorexic man, it lifted a massive heavy cannon towards Unit-06.
"Damn thosebastards." Septerra growled.
"Ikari, evade!" Shinji gave out a yelp and everything stopped for an agonizing long second. The entire planet holding its collective breath waiting for the aftermath as time prepared to catch up.
Unit-06 dropped down and twisted. A white bolt of energy sundered the gun in the EVA's hand, showering the burning wrecks around it in metal shrapnel. A second volley of Harrier missiles slammed down into the collection of vehicles, causing the entire platform to erupt into a heavenly inferno. Shinji's AT field arose just as the flames rolled across the Evangelion's back. The target levelled another shot and fired. Unit-06 jumped sideways to evade the blast. The subsequent explosion threw the umbilical cable violently into Shinji's legs, throwing it off balance. Shinji slammed into the wreckage and immediately twisted his head to see the enemy line up his weapon again. He instinctively rolled backwards and away from the third blast. The concussion of the blast slammed him against the generator as he got to his feet. Pushing away from the generator, the unit stumbled as it got tied up in the umbilical cable. The fourth shot rang out but wasn't aimed at Shinji. The generator bloomed in fiery brilliance.
Shinji heard the battery give a shrill cry as his five minutes were counting down. Panic overtook him as the enemy reappointed his aim to Shinji. Glancing down at Unit-06's feet, now tangled in the useless umbilical cord, Shinji knew he was finished if he didn't act quickly. Gritting his teeth and eyes desperate, he deployed a progressive knife and wildly slashed at the cable, cutting up his leg at the same time. He jettisoned the now useless cable scrambled way. The target lead the shot and fired. Shinji halted only meters from where the blast would hit. Red water and wet earth flew up into the air as the concussion threw the EVAs torso up and backwards. The feedback told him that he was struck in the chest, and the EVA, falling backwards while on it's knees yanked at the muscles in his thighs, causing him to cry in surprise.
Unit-06 threw itself sideways and onto its front and raised it's head to look back at the gunner as he adjusted his aim. Shinji looked around frantically, his options and stimuli starting to become overwhelming.
"Tristan! What do I do? Where are the Tridents?" Shinji cried, his voice wavering in fear. Tristan let out a loud growl or anger.
"Get off of the shore and away from the target! Those Tridents are going to kill you!"
"W-what?" Panic crept in as the entire parameters of the machine were thrown out the window and Shinji was only seeing things unfold two seconds too late.
The enemy fired another round, but Shinji didn't respond fast enough to avoid it. Lying prone, Shinji twisted the Evangelion's left arm to cover his head. The blast seemed to bury itself under Unit-06, the explosion throwing it head over heals. The wind blown out of Shinji's body, he felt weightless for a moment before his EVA slammed into the side of the hill. Searing pain then caught up and burned into Shinji's left arm and chest, he began gasping for air. Through watering eyes, Shinji saw the target charge through the water towards him. Shinji began to get up when the enemy's foot slammed down onto his chest, his attacker having covered the distance at a phenomenal speed.
"An EVA?" Shinji didn't even come to terms with what he was fighting in the confusion of the attack. He looked up at the malicious yellow eyes of his assailant as it aimed the cannon at the collar of Unit-06, planning to vaporize the entry plug in one shot. Shinji's mouth seal shut and he stared at the topaz glimmer as the monster pulled the trigger.
The sound of the empty chamber echoed through the landscape. Perplexed the enemy Evangelion tested the trigger twice more. Shinji tightened his grip on his progressive knife and without thinking, swung and twisted it into the back of the leg holding him down. Grabbing the ankle with his other hand, he hauled the target off of himself, causing it to list to the side with the dead weight of the empty cannon. Unbalanced now, it stumbled off to the side, giving Unit-06 plenty of room to rise.
Pulling himself to his feet, Shinji faced the now impaired Evangelion, the knife gripped tightly in his fist. He glanced at his battery counter. Less than three minutes. And with the Tridents heading for him he wouldn't be able to win. He was finished.
The enemy, hauling the cannon back to a management angle, stood erect again, indicating a skilled pilot, but it paused for a second, becoming still. Shinji knew that it wasn't a sensor error, but the machine had become far too still to simply be observing him.
"Perfect! Enemy distracted. Shinji, retreat!" For once, Shinji knew of the danger and didn't question it. He turned and clamoured away from the shore and began sprinting away from the battlefield, the battery counter seeming to drop just as quickly as he ran.
"Thirty seconds before Unit-06 is in the missile field." Informed one of the lieutenants.
"'Terrier Two' is disengaging." The second reported. Tristan held his breath.
"Target is not pursuing Unit-06. Tridents One and Two are continuing on however.
"Deploy that guided mortar launcher, give Ikari some cover fire." The gambit worked. 'Terrier Two' had thrown torpedo at the enemy vessel and had gotten them so scared about losing the umbilical cable, they were disengaging. That left only the two Tridents and a lot of it depended on how quickly Shinji could get deep enough inside the range of Tower Four's missile range. The Tridents wouldn't have the armour do stop a guided missile.
"Launcher in place."
"Fire a shot across the nose of the leading Trident, see if it scares them." Shinji heard a cracking noise and a loud explosion behind him. Not giving himself time to dwell on why thunder was starting to sound, he sprinted onwards towards Tower Four.
"No affect on their path."
"Balls of steel." Tristan commented.
"Unit-06 is now in the safe zone."
"Arm the arsenal then, let those Tridents get killed if they want." Soon after Tristan said that the displays of the region showed the two Tridents slowing down.
"Tridents are disengaging and heading for the carrier. Should we pursue?"
"Negative. Let them run. We don't have the resources at this time to return the favour." The energy in the operations room died down as the danger passed.
"Shinji, are you alright." Shinji was breathing heavily, coming off of the adrenaline surge. Recognizing the disembodied voice he was hearing, Shinji calmed himself as much as possible.
"Uh, y-yeah, did the-" The line went dead.
"Batteries depleted, Unit-06 has gone silent." The first lieutenant reported, now sounding almost relieved.
"Get a recovery team over to Unit-06's location and retrieve Pilot Ikari. Tell 'Bull Dog' to make landfall and have a rescue team sent for any survivors of the 'Terrier One' crew." Tristan ordered and turned to Septerra. The sub-commander scanned over the combat data as it came onto his monitor and folded his arms. He glanced up at Tristan for a few seconds before looking down again and giving a sigh.
"Intelligence has received a communication from UNIT… It's a list of grievances followed by a declaration." The same lieutenant as before piped up.
"Never mind telling me. I already know what the declaration is." Silence came among all of the high ranking personnel in the room.
"So what do we do now, Operation's Director?" Septerra asked, defying the vacuum after about a minute.
"When Pilot Ikari returns, we begin debriefing. Before then we send the information to High Command for review and a decision on how to proceed concerning UNIT's actions."
"You're not going to take command of this situation, captain?"
"My job is commanding operations concerning Angels, not human beings and Evangelions. Unless my protocol is changed, I will be doing my job."
"Where did this attitude come from, Tristan?"
"I don't like being… Flexible?" The sub-commander sighed, assuming that Tristan was a pile of shuddering nerves. He almost lost his best pilot as well as his job over a strategic oversight they all made. The captain was simply trying to cope with it and would no doubt let it out some other time. Hopefully, his office would be salvageable when he exploded inside it.
Silence was all that had greeted Asuka when she was first brought to Tower Four. With the Angel attack imminent, she had been whisked away by the rag tag members of the NERV special service to be brought here. With her sprained ankle she couldn't fight, but also with no one to help her in her state of reduced mobility, it wouldn't be wise to leave a pilot to try and evacuate to a shelter. So here she was, in the safest place in Hamburg, second only to the entry plug of an Evangelion.
Sitting across the three seats of, Asuka was flipping through the pages of the journal she had found two months ago. Over the course of her journey from Japan, Asuka had little time to actually page through the discovery she found. It was here in Hamburg when she had managed to find enough time to go about reading the volume. Underneath the pillow, elevating her injured leg, a small portable radio was playing soft music from one of the entertainment only channels on the airwaves. Asuka prayed that the sound wouldn't draw anyone she would regret having a conversation with, namely Madison.
Even though Madison claimed to have a job at NERV, Asuka believed that it was a ton of bull that the girl was only using as an excuse to be near Tristan. In a state of battle like this, the fool was probably stuck sitting on her hands, with not a care in the world. Every time Asuka had a thought about Madison, it only added more to the least of things that made the red-head revile the artist.
The thunder of movement caused Asuka to raise her eyes away from the page and around herself as dozens of NERV personnel frantically passed through the area. Runners, informants, and specialists, moving around as an emergency of some sort sprung up within the base. From her state, Asuka could not grab someone to find out what was going on and the sense of purpose within the crowd told her not to draw their attention from the task at hand.
After the stampede passed, with only the music betraying the exit of the event, Asuka was left only to sit and wonder. The sound of footsteps approached and the German girl noticed two specialists along side Madison, walking briskly in the opposite direction of the previous mob. Asuka knew she was going to regret it, but she sat at and called Madison. The other girl stopped and glanced at Asuka in surprise, the two other personnel continuing on ahead.
"What's going on?" Asuka asked. Madison made a quick glance towards her colleagues to ensure she wasn't being missed. "The place is starting to seem like a hornet's nest."
"After what happened on the front line today, we have been ordered to begin full-scale combat procedures. Hamburg may come under attack at any time." Asuka was taken aback at how direct and clear Madison was, and from the look of worry in the girl's eyes, she knew that this was real.
"From the Angels?"
"No, UNIT." Asuka narrowed her eyes, not seeming convinced. "The UNIT forces that were to help Shinji were there to set a trap for him."
"You mean the Angel…" Asuka trailed off.
"UNIT's Evangelion." The German girl slowly looked down towards her lap. After a few moments of contemplation, she raised her head and looked straight ahead.
"What's happened to him?" Asuka asked in a low and even tone.
"To Shinji? He-"
"Madison! For the love of God quitscrewing around and get to work!" Madison and Asuka both jumped out of their skin as they heard the captain bellow. Tristan stormed into view, so enraged he looked like he was ready to tear someone apart. Madison was startled by her commander's abrupt and violent entrance.
"T-Tristan I-I-"
"Shut up and get going! Stop wasting time!" Tristan roared. Madison took a step back then turned and ran after her colleagues. Asuka looked from the hall Madison disappeared to, to Tristan standing there, seething and glaring as he followed the girl's exit.
"What the Hell was that? You didn't have to-"
"You shut up and listen!" The captain barked, turning his attention to Asuka. "UNIT has declared war on the NEC. We are no longer dealing with Angels but EVAs and Tridents."
"Tridents?" Asuka didn't recognize the term for a few seconds, but just as the realization came, Tristan was walking away.
"You better hope to God your ankle heals faster, because you have no time for training anymore!" Tristan yelled from down the hall. Asuka looked back down at the journal and closed her eyes. War was supposed to be a horrible event, one that became practically extinct after Second Impact when humanity was able to take a step back and realize the value of cooperation. For Asuka, war was a contemporary history book's footnote. When the world ended fifteen years ago, the notion became irrelevant.
Asuka had believed that war between humans would never happen again, that bodies would not pile like they did during the great wars in the early part of the twentieth century. Yet here they were, on the verge of another one of these needless events. The majority of Tower Four, everyone seemed to be emotionless, going about their need duties with empty urgency. A state of shock was being shared by among everyone, and now Asuka too was being affected. Tristan seemed to be the only one at the moment who was actually reacting to it, exploding and yelling at everything and everyone around him.
Asuka thought about how Shinji would have, or was, taking this himself. He was on the front lines when everything happened. To actual face human enemies again, but not like the conditioned when Unit-03 was taken over by an Angel. Madison wasn't given the chance to tell what happened to Shinji. A strange mix of joy and dread washed over Asuka. Tristan's anger may not have been from the emotional shock of the war, but from loss. The loss of his favourite pilot, to be exact.
Even with a horrid turn of events, the music still played on.
To Be Continued…
Author's Note
No doubt a lot of you are confused as to what was going on in this chapter, but truth be told I have yet to have much practice in writing effective action scenes, and a lot of exposition had to be avoided fro the save of keeping things interested, namely in the UNIT's Declaration. For those who are still concerned about when the actual story of PRE begins, rest assured that the chapters will push the story along. In retrospect, twelve chapters to establish the setting was a tad ridiculous, I just hope I can effectively make up for lost time.
This was a tough chapter to write, namely because of how the action scene needed to have the sense of instant fatality in it. That and I constant felt like something was missing, mostly in the beginning of the chapter. But then again, the point and necessary event was put on the table in the chapter so I shouldn't wait forever in tweaking it.
It seems as though my ACC, Tristan, is still in the development stages of his character, in retrospect I am beginning to have a difficult time understanding his actions as he shifts between different mental states. Some people may become concerned because a lot of the story seemed to be told around Tristan. The problem was the position of characters in the scenario, to which Shinji didn't have anyone in particular to interact with.
I've been doing my best to try and get a schedule going with regards to getting these chapters done in order to complete the whole thing in a timely manner. It seems strange that it was about a year ago since I first got started on this project. But then again, the series anniversary is still a couple of months away. Perhaps I will devote more to my musings then, until then enjoy this chapter and continue reading. Cheers!