Disclaimer: Evangelion is owned byGainax and ZOE is owned by Konami.
A young boy no older than fourteen or fifteen opens his eyes in a world of complete darkness. Not more than a second after he opens his eyes a console if front of activates and a soft green glow fills the darkened space. At his sides he places his hands on orb-like controls and the green lights begin to pulse around him. The overhead lights up and appears to become transparent to the outside. A HUD (Heads Up Display) appears in front of him with three disjointed lines forming a loose triangle appear in the middle. Looking around the boy seeing a middle-aged man and woman seemed to be in a rather heated argument on the catwalk above him. "Idalo," the boy spoke, "Raise the outside volume, please."
"Roger," a disembodied voice replied.
Soon the man and woman's voice came in loud and clear, "…shouldn't be doing this!" the woman argued. "The reason I signed up in the first place was to keep children from having to fight!"
"Don't blame me for that!" the man countered. "Remember it was your bonding program that aloud it to happen!"
"That was an accident!" the woman defended. "The program was corrupted by the power surge it was never meant to be bonded with the mind of a child! The bonding program was designed to just increase the reaction time between the two!" The woman then crossed her arms, "And don't forget, the power surge was a result of your miscalculation in the energy transfer of the Metatron!"
The man bristled for a moment and was about to retort, "Lower the volume please, Idalo."
"That…" the man's argument was cut off as the volume decreased again. The boy sighed knowing that this was the same argument that took place every time he entered the cockpit. The truth was both the man and the woman felt guilty about the accident but were often too proud and stubborn to admit it too the other.
The boy thought about the last year of his life and the drastic and unimaginable changes that took place. It all started with a phone call. He had been preparing dinner for himself at his guardian's house when he heard the phone ring. He waited for a few rings knowing his guardian did not like him answering the phone. After the five rings however he decided to answer the call. When he picked it up he realized his guardian had picked it up just a second before he did. He was about to hang up the phone when a familiar voice came from the other line…
Flash Back
"It's me," the voice said.
"Father?" the young boy thought. "Is he calling to check up on me?"
"I know," his guardian answered. "He's still a burden. If it wasn't for you I would have left him at the station."
"I…I'm just a burden?" the boy asked himself.
"When are you going to pick him up?" his guardian asked.
"I'm not," the boy's father answered. "He is still useless to me. I'll send more money…"
By this point the boy had let go of the phone and placed it on the counter top. "I...I'm still useless to Father? A…and just a burden on my guardian?" Feeling depressed the boy moved back to the stove not even realizing that the meal had been ruined do to his inattention. After several long minutes of silence the made a decision, "I don't want to be a burden for anyone, I should just leave."
Flashback End.
The boy did leave, he ran away just like he did the first time he heard his father say he was useless when he was just a little boy around four or five. That night he packed his SDAT music player, some close and what little money he saved up and left his guardian's home. He boarded a train near his guardian's house and traveled as far as he could. The next two weeks were a blur for the young boy because a mixture of depression, hunger and exhaustion from not staying anywhere for more than a few hours. He did not want to be found and for as long as the boy could remember if he did not want to be found he would not be found.
It was not until he passed out one night and woke up in a strange bed did he start to remember with any clarity. He remembered waking up to three voices outside his room talking about his health…
Flashback
"…appears to be a bit malnourished," a man's voice stated like he was reading it off a piece of paper. "Other than that he appears to be fine. We have him on a IV drip for now replenish him."
"Where did you find him?" another man's voice, this one deeper that held clear authority in it.
"I found him on the road side passed out about three kilometers from the compound," a woman answered. The boy was not aware of it at the time but the woman's voice would grow rather familiar with in the coming months.
"Do we know who he is?" the authoritative voice asked.
"Not yet," the first male voice, whom the boy surmised was a doctor stated. "We just finished the preliminary test now. I was just about to search for a match of his DNA in the database. That should tell us who he is, unless he's just a street kid. Then it'll become a lot more difficult."
"What will we do until then?" the woman asked.
"If we find some ID on him then we'll return him to where he belongs," the authoritative man said. "If we don't then we'll set him up in an orphanage." There was a pause for moment before he continued, "After he gets better that is."
The boy then heard the three people start to walk off. Because he was still tired he fell back asleep. He awoke again after an unknown amount of time and felt that he was strong once again. "They probably know who I am now and contacted him," the boy thought. "I should leave, I don't want to bother anyone." The boy stood up, though a bit shaky after days of inactivity and searched for something to wear other than hospital clothes. He found a pair of pants and a shirt in his size and put them on. After that he left the room trying to find an exit…
Flashback End.
Now that the boy thought about he was very surprised that security had not caught him when he wondered out of the medical area. True that area was not high security but the fact that no one caught him just showed that security was far from what it should be. That oversight was quickly corrected just a couple of days afterwards…
Flashback
The boy was lost. He must have take nearly a dozen turns in the strange complex and still had run into a person or a sign indicating an exit. The first he was grateful for, if he ran into a person they would make him go back to his medical room and either his father or his guardian would eventually take him back. The second was frustrating, after all how could he get out if he could not find an exit?
Finally he came to a corridor that had a door with bright light coming from underneath it. The boy hoped the light was sunlight and opened it up. When he stepped through doorway and found himself on a catwalk about three or so meters in the air. He was about turn back around when a shout from below startled him, "POWER SURGE IN THE METATRON TRANSFER CONDUITS!" The next thing the boy knew he was falling over the edge of the catwalk.
Flashback End.
The next thing the boy knew he was waking up in hospital room again. This time however they would be sending him anywhere. This was because he fell into the cockpit of the very machine he was sitting in now. At the time he had been told that artificial intelligence of the machine had been activated by the power surge and bonded with him making him the pilot, or as the call it Runner, of the machine. The bond between machine and Runner could not be reversed or changed. That is unless the entire program was whipped clean or the Runner died, neither was an option.
So for the next eleven months the boy was trained how to pilot the machine called an Orbital Frame with an AI designated Idalo. In those eleven months the boy had grown physically and mentally, as it was needed to pilot the Orbital Frame. To be a proper Runner the boy had to be strong enough to survive the G-forces its acceleration produced, and have enough knowledge to run the advanced systems correctly. So day after day the boy worked out and had private tutors in the fields required. The result was he was stronger more physically fit then most people his age and had a college level education in some areas like mathematics, physics, computer and programming while he was almost lacking in others like history literature and the standard foreign language courses taught to his age group.
The boy was brought out of his thoughts by the arrival of a third person, "Idalo increase volume once again."
"Roger," the AI replied.
Outside on the catwalk the third person addressed the first two, "Dr. Akagi, Dr. McClain how are we proceeding?"
"Director," Dr. Akagi greeted. "We will ready for the demonstration as scheduled. Though I am still against this."
"I am aware of your concerns," the Director said. "However until the other Orbital Frames are ready we have little choice."
"At least he won't suffer the pain caused by the neural feed back like in the Evangelions," Lawrence added.
"The demonstration is in three days," the Director said pulling the topic back to his original question. "The driver programs for the sub-weapons need to be installed."
"Most of the sub-weapons have been uploaded already," Naoko said. She was in charge of the all the programs for the Orbital Frame; including the AI. The AIs of the Orbital Frames were nowhere near as complex as the Magi, but then again they did not have to be. The AIs of the Orbital Frames were nothing more than battle computers, their primary learning program centered on battle tactics and analyzing and defeating an enemy. The Magi were designed for battle tactics, strategies, city planning, city governments, utilities, ect. They needed to be much more complex in order to perform their function. "The only sub-weapons that have not been loaded are the Floating Mines, Homing Missiles Decoy, and Zero-Shift. The Floating Mines and Homing Missiles should be loaded by tomorrow. The Decoy and the Zero Shift will not be ready for at least a month I'm afraid. The programs are just too complex to finish before then."
"Understood," the Director said. He then turned to the Orbital Frame, "We will be doing more flight test this evening Shinji."
"Yes Director," the boy now known as Shinji replied from inside the Orbital Frame. A large set of bay doors opened up in front of the Orbital Frame opened up and soon the catwalk rose up so that it was above the Orbital Frame.
As the trio watched the Orbital Frame leave the hanger, Naoko could not help but think about their creation. It terms of looks the Orbital Frames were nowhere near as imposing as the Evas. The Orbital Frames were on average as tall as a three-story house while the Evas were close to a skyscraper. However it was what each where capable of where the important difference resided.
The biggest weakness of the Evas were that the Evas required an external power source, and if separated from its power cable it only had five minutes of run time left; thus the need for massive cable stations in and around Tokyo-3. The Orbital Frames had no such weakness; they had an internal power source, the Metatron that allowed them nearly endless runtimes. Next the Orbital Frames were able to repair themselves, as nearly sixty percent of the Orbital Frames were made of nanites that when damaged would begin repairs automatically. In extreme cases the nanites could be used to replace parts that were too damaged, all that was required was the raw material to be available. The Evas needed several hundred people on repair crews to fix their battle damage.
Then there were the weapons. Most of the Orbital Frames weapons were energy based and grouped into three categories, long range, short range and sub-weapons. The short range was a bladed weapon, in Idolo's case, attached to the right arm that was charged with the Metatron energy allowing it to cut through just about anything. The long range was either a charged shot of plasma energy encased in a filed called a Vector Trap or long streams of plasma energy that could be directed by the battle AI of the Frame with the same Vector Trap. The sub-weapons were additions that made the Orbital Frames incredibly versatile and allowed them to face off against a wide verity of opponents. The Evas could only carry one or two weapons at a time and were usually projectile weapons.
Then came the terms of mobility. Because both resembled a humanoid in structure both were highly maneuverable. The advantage the Orbital Frame had over the Eva was that the Orbital Frame could fly. It incorporated a combination of powerful Ion Thrusters on their backs to provide mobility and an Antigravity Generator to keep them aloft.
Then there was defense. The Orbital Frames had a plasma barrier that could refract and in some cases deflect almost any energy source that hit it. If the barrier was not strong enough or could get passed plasma field then the Orbital Frame was both fast and nimble enough to avoid it, in most cases. The Evas had an AT field that blocked the attacks and armor to reduce the damage incase the AT field failed.
That also brought up how the Orbital Frames were going to defeat an AT field. An AT field was basically a barrier of space folded against itself. A Vector Trap was essentially the same thing with the only difference was that it also could form pockets inside itself allowing for storage. So the Vector Trap was able could neutralize the AT field because they shared similar properties.
"All in all Lawrence was right," Naoko thought. "These are superior to the Evas in every way."
"Alert me if there are any problems," the Director instructed. "Also let me know as soon as the Driver Programs are installed."
"Yes Sir," Naoko replied. Loading the Driver Programs would only take a couple of hours as the programs were already written. All they had to do after that was test them and make the corrections.
After the Director left Lawrence turned to his colleague, "Once the Drivers are loaded you can then try and think of a way of explaining to your daughter where you've been the past ten years." Lawrence flinched at the glare Naoko gave him as a reply. He had just crossed a very sensitive subject with the woman and knew he was going to pay for it later. "I…I think I'll go up to Communications and see h…how Shinji is doing." Naoko did not reply as Lawrence ran out of the Hanger.
After Lawrence left Naoko let out a sigh. "He's right though I will have to think of something to tell her." She then looked in the general direction Idalo took off in, "Of course I'm not the only one." She then sighed again, "I'm getting too old for this."
Several hundred kilometers away in the bowls of the Geofront the Commander of Nerv sat his desk reading over a report for the third time. It said that there was going to be a demonstration like the one for the Jet Alone in three days and Nerv was once again sending Dr. Akagi Ritsuko and Captain to attend. The problem was that unlike this time he had no idea what was coming and neither did SEELE. And if he was honest with himself the Commander of Nerv was very nervous by that fact alone.
This was only one more addition to a disruption in his scenario that he had not anticipated. The first was that Dr. Akagi Naoko had disappeared after she completed the Magi. This was not a big deal because he was planning on using Rei to driver her off. The woman was a brilliant scientist but her usefulness had ended when the Magi was completed. The problem was she had just left and then disappeared without a trace, after two years of searching and no trace of her was found she was presumed dead. It irked him not knowing for sure though; he absolutely hated not knowing all the details. The second was much more detrimental. Another disappearance this one of his son just over a year ago. Like Naoko, Shinji disappeared without a trace and he could not help but think that the two were somehow related. With Shinji's absence he had to fall on his back up plan, using Rei to pilot Unit 01. It worked just like he anticipated it would, Unit 01 reacted just like it was foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls meaning the scenario was still viable. With the 'new' Third Child now taking up position of the pilot of Unit 00 everything was once again back on track. The scenario he formulated was flexible enough to anticipate such events so overall the loss was negligible at best. Still he just wished he knew more about why his plans did not go as he laid out.
His thoughts then turned back to the third disruption. "They are not sending any details on the design of their machine sighting the possibility of sabotage from the Jet Alone. If Captain Katsuragi had not told what she saw in the reactor then that excuse would not be viable. Good cover but that is all it is. The real question is what will they be using as a power source that allows them to claim such a long run time?" The Commander reread the proposed run time of over two hundred days again. "Does not matter in the end, they won't be able to get past the AT field. Still…" He looked at the document one more time wondering what would happen in the next seventy-two hours.
