Chapter two
The First Contact
"Two possibilities exist
Either we are alone in the universe or we are not
Both are equally terrifying"
-Arthur C, Clarke
March 1st, 2015
Tokyo Japan 10:37 pm
The people of Tokyo were on edge, nearly 900 people had disappeared all over japan in just a few months and even more all over the world. Many were too afraid to even leave their homes now, not wanting to find out where everyone went. Others tried to continue on with their lives, going to work and at night going to their favorite restaurants, clubs or bars thinking that being around people would keep themselves safe from disappearing like so many others. On this night moving lights were seen high in the sky, at this point it was just a normal occurrence, the lights had been seen for weeks and most would just go inside. But many noticed one of the lights getting brighter and brighter, soon a mass of people had gathered in the streets to watch it.
This light however was much more than a simple light, it morphed into a fireball shooting down towards them. They scattered, running for cover before they got hit, finally it crashed into the road, the dust cleared and embedded in the ground was a pod. The metal pod glowed a dark green and a vibrating noise came from it. Cautiously people came closer to take a look at what had almost hit them, ignorant of the danger they were all in, stopping about 15f before it, they all looked in awe at the pods vibrating increased the more people came near, Without warning panels on the pod opened, releasing a dark green gas into the air.
The gas acted like tendrils that shot out, grabbing people and pulling them in close, once they were pulled in enough the gas wrapped around their victim turning into a green webbing. Anyone who wasn't caught ran off for safety. But more pods came shooting down from the sky and captured anyone unlucky to be near it wrapping there victims in the webbing to be saved for further use.
Xcom HQ 10:45 pm
Warning alarms sounded off throughout the base, running down the long corridor she passed by staff who ran to their designated stations within the base, all of them had prepared for this day to come but none of them had thought or wanted it to be today. After nearly crashing into half a dozen people and nearly getting run over herself she stopped in front of the commander's office door. She let herself take a section to catch her breath and collect her thoughts before she went inside. Pressing a button the automatic door slid open and she stepped in. The commander's office was big, you would enter from the side of the room on the right was a giant screen that was built into the wall on the left was a slightly elevated platform where the commanders desk was.
Maya Ibuki moved up to the commander's desk and saluted him. Maya herself was a short woman in her early 30s with brown hair cut short and a shy demeanor, something the woman thought she would grow out of a decade ago but here she was. The man seemed to pay her no mind when she walked in. A recording of the attack in Tokyo was playing but Maya couldn't tell if he was looking at her or the screen from his hands and glasses hiding his face. Maya hated being the one sent up to talk to him, he always made her feel uncomfortable but she swallowed her fear and cleared her throat.
"Sir, we've gotten reports of an attack in Tokyo." She said just now seeing the redundancy of the report.
"Yes I'm well aware." Gendo said plainly.
Maya held back her embarrassment and gave the next report. "And all other branches report alien attacks in their regens, they've sent out teams to counteract the alien activity sir".
"Good," he said. The man removed his hands from his face and looked down at the woman. "Lieutenant, give me the status on captain Soryu's mission?"
Maya pulled up her tablet. "Sir captain Soryu and sergeant Makinami have the VIP in custody and aboard the skyranger, they'll be here in 5 minutes."
Gendo nodded "Good, I want him here in my office as soon as he gets here."
"Yes sir I'll inform the captain when she gets here"
"Good, you are dismissed lieutenant."
Maya saluted the man before leaving his office.
"God I can't believe this" Auska said slamming her fist against the skyrangers wall "The aliens chose now of all times to attack while we were running the commander's personal errand!" Asuka Langley Soryu was fuming, the aliens had attacked and they were wasting time. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence for the natural born redhead, always had a short fuse since she was a child.
"Oh calm down princess, war just started, there'll be plenty of aliens for you to shoot at when we get back to base." said a red rim glasses wearing brunette in a cheerful tone.
Asuka turned to her companion. "Glad you are having a good time foreyes." Mari looked up from the book she was reading and gave one of her cat-like smiles. She was sitting next to their captive, they had his hands handcuffed behind him and pulled a hood over his head and he was nicely strapped into his seat. "Well now one of us has to keep morale up"
Asuka rolled her eyes "sure goodluck with that."
"You worry too much, ya know?"
Asuka's face visibly turned red. "Oh well excuse me for feeling 'worried' about the aliens that came from god knows where to kill us! Mari thought she would punch a hole in the skyrangers wall.
She crossed her leg over the other and kept smiling at her. "Hey all I'm saying is that you should be a little more patient." She put her arm over their captive shoulder and shook him a little. "We'll drop him off and we'll be off again in no time."
Asuka sat down opposite to Mari and looked at the captive. "Ya him, all this damn trouble for one guy."
Said captive began to stir, he moaned in pain when he raised his head up."Ah god my head—wa-wear am I?" All he could see was black, not knowing he was wearing a hood he started to breath heavily and struggle against the handcuffs and the seat straps. "The hell is this, wear am I!" He started to hyperventilate under the hood, each breath was cut short by it, freaking him out. "Hey take this off me now damn it!"
"Hey hey calm down there big guy."
He continued to struggle. "I can't breathe, who are you, Where am I?"
Asuka got up and stood over him. "Listen to me you idiot, breathe in slowly!" she ordered.
He obeyed, breathing in slowly letting enough air to fill his lungs to calm down.
"Feel better?"
He nodded "Yes" he said feeling a little embarrassed. Pain surged through his skull making him wince. "Ah god my head—-it hurts!"
"Oh ya sorry about that, there was little time and we needed to bring you with us." Asuka said.
"I told you that you hit him too hard."
"Shut up."
The pain in his head faded, letting his mind clear up to remember what happened before all this. He remembered that he was walking home for the night after stopping at the store to get a few things for himself. Then someone grabbed him, pulling his arm and twisting it behind his back. after pulling free he threw his elbow at his assailant but they jumped back and he missed. Before he could do anything else a girl with orange hair ran up and hit him with the but of her gun. Then he was here, wherever here was?
"Hey the hell are we?"
"We're aboard the skyranger."
"Skyranger?"
"Yes, it's the aircraft we're riding in." Asuka kept her answers short, Not being allowed to reveal too much to him under order, even if she wanted to. The captive continued to ask questions to hopefully get a better sense of what was happening.
"Ok um—-Where are you taking me?"
"We're taking you back to our base."
"Ok well am I in some kind of trouble?"
"I don't know, I was just told to get you" Asuka spoke truefully, she really didn't know why the commander wanted him.
"My commander told me to bring you in. but I don't think you are in any kind of trouble though."
"Who's your commander?"
"Can't tell you that."
He was getting annoyed, he didn't know where he was or where he was going or even what these people wanted from him and they weren't giving him a clear answer. That annoyance turned to worry as he thought about who they were.
Are they invaders, if they are, why are they speaking in japanese? He asked himself. Their Japanese was perfect too, most people master the language only after years of practice and it still wouldn't make sense for them to speak in Japanese in normal conversation if they were foreigh. Plus what would they get out of kidnaping one guy off the street? There were hundreds of more important people they could get that knew more than he did and then there's this skyranger one of his kidnapers spoke about. By the sound of it this skyranger was a troop transport aircraft, an aircraft he never heard anyone having. So maybe their JSSDF and maybe this is a prototype made in secret?
But he was JSSDF too, why would they kidnap him and use a secret aircraft to move me when they could just call me in if I did something wrong? He sighed, just hope you get some answers soon"he thought."
"Hey listen we're coming up to the base as we speak. I'm sure the commander will answer your questions." Asuka said.
"You still haven't told me who he is yet."
"I think you will know him once you see him. "
Attention all personnel, please clear the landing pad, I repeat clear the landing pad. The loud speaker echoed throughout the big natural cave that had been turned into Xcom's aircraft hanger. At the top of the cave was a long tunnel that led up to a round bulkhead door that aircrafts go through to get inside. The hangar doors opened and the skyranger came hovering down to the landing pad. At the edge of the pad was Maya, she held her clipboard close to her chest so they wouldn't fly off. Landing gear opened and landed with the ground, the thrusters powered down and the skyrangers ramp lowered opened.
Asuka and Mari came walking down with the captive between them and stopped before Maya.
Asuka bowed. "Hello lieutenant."
Maya bowed back. "Hello captain, the commander has requested that the VIP be taken up to his office."
Asuka huffed. "Wait me?"
"Yes captain."
I guess I should have figured as much "she thought". "Alright Mari, stay with the skyranger. I'll take our friend here up to the commander."
Mari gave her a salute. "Whatever you say boss."
Mari sat back inside the skyranger and Asuka took the captive by the arm though the base. "Come on you." she said, leading him out of the hanger. The captive could hear people all around him and talk about invaders and something about an attack? He wondered what the hell was going on? The two walked down the long dark halls and eventually made it to the commander's office. Asuka guided the captive into the office and positioned him and herself in front of the commander.
Asuka saluted the man. "The VIP is here sir."
Gendo still sat in his normal pose looking over the two. "Thank you captain, you may release him."
Asuka raised an eyebrow but ignored her concern and took off the captives handcuffs first. After his hands were free she pulled the hood off his head. When his head was free Gendo greeted the young man before him.
"Hello Shinji."
Shinji was wearing a white dress shirt and jeans with his hair cut short. He was beyond confused, first he was kidnapped then something about an attack and now he was in here with his father. Gendo looks the same as he did last time years ago when he was a kid, except that he grew out his beard and now was wearing a pair of orange tinted glasses.
"Dad? What the hell! What's going on!" Shinji asked.
Gendo ignored him and looked over at Asuka. "You are dismissed captain. Collect your gear and meet your squad in the hangar."
Asuka nodded leaving the office and making her way back to the hanger. When she was gone Shinji stepped forward, tired of being kept in the dark he yelled at Gendo. "So are you going to tell me why the hell you brought me here or are you just going to keep pretending that I'm not here!"
Gendo didn't seem to even acknowledge what Shinji said, making the young man even more angry but before Shinji could say a thing Gendo stood up and stepped down from the platform he was on to face Shinji. Shinji hadn't expected that from him. For years he remembered Gendo always facing away from him. Whenever they met up, whenever they talked, he faced away like he was something embarrassing to look at. But now something is different.
"I brought you here for a good reason, Shinji." Gendo said.
Shinji crossed his arms then asked. "And that is?"
"I brought you here to offer you a job."
"A job? You kidnap me and bring me to god knows where to offer me a fucking job!" Shinji yelled out, not being able to control his anger any longer.
"Yes." Gendo said unfazed by Shinji's outburst.
"The hell stopped you from sending a normal message to me?"
"If I had sent a letter to you would you have read it? Or would you have thrown it away when you realized it came from me?"
That made Shinji calm down a bit, he would have just ignored him if he had sent a message but he was still pissed about the kidnapping. Shinji signed. "Alright, you make a good point." I guess he knows me a little more than what I give him credit for. "Shinji thought." "Now tell me what is even happening?"
"We are under attack." Gendo said
"Under attack? You mean Japan is?"
"Yes but not only us. many others—-"
"If were under attack then I need to get out of here and—-"
Gendo raised his hand, making Shinji stop. "Your superiors have been informed about your absence and if you would let me finish, Japan is not the only one that is being attacked."
"It's not?"
"Yes, China, Russia, all of Europe and even America are all under attack."
"By who?" Shinji asked
"By beings who are not from this world."
Shinji could almost laugh from how ridiculous that answer was. "Are you talking about aliens? Do you really think I'm going to believe that crap?"
Gendo shook his head. "No, not without proof." He pulled a remote out from his suit and pressed a button that started a recording of the attack that happened in Tokyo. Shinji watched as pods came shooting down from the sky and how they captured people with gaseous tendrils. This had to be some kind of joke right? But it couldn't be, his father was here and all this would have been an expansive joke too. "Shinji thought." He turned back to face Gendo and tried to say something but nothing would come out of his mouth
"As you can see the situation is dire". Gendo said.
Shinji still didn't know what to say, it was all so unreal like it was out of a movie or game, but it was happening in front of him and all he could do was watch as it happened. His mind came back to him, he shook his head and pushed that memory of the recording to the back of his head. "So is this what you brought me here for? Or is there something else?"
"No, That is not why I brought you here to Xcom."
"Xcom? I'm guessing that's the name of the group you're part of?"
Gendo nodded. "Yes I am the supreme commander of the extraterrestrial combat unit. Xcom is a global defense organization tasked with fighting against any alien threat that comes and I'm offering you a place within it."
Shinji's eyes widened "What! I don't know how to fight aliens. I don't even know what they look like!"
"We do not know what to expect from the outsiders ethier Shinji, they are unknown to us."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"It's to show you that you are not alone"
Having enough of the back and forth Shinji had one more question. "You had gone through all the trouble to get me here and for what?"
"Your background in the JSSDF made you a viable candidate."
"-That's it?"
Gendo nodded "Yes."
Shinji was confused. All this because of his place in the JSSDF? Wouldn't it make more sense to get a more skilled soldier? "He thought." Gendo sensed his confusion and spoke up. "I need plenty of men and women who are willing to fight against the aliens shinji."
So you brought me here because you need more canon fodder eh? "Shinji thought." With his patience wearing thin Shinji came closer to Gendo at eye level. "If I agree, what would happen?"
"You would fight head on against the aliens with a squad that you will be assigned to. You would have the best weapons and equipment to fight with. You will also have access to the best medical care we have available here and you would be compensated greatly for your service."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then you would be sent back to your home and go back with the JSSDF."
The offer was pretty tempting, having the best weapons and medical care on top of getting paid a lot of money was a good incentive. But he would be fighting an enemy no one has ever faced in history and basically leaving his country behind to do this.
"So what will it be Shinji?"