Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies

Launch Thirty-one

Maya Ibuki briskly headed down the hallway in NERV, a file under her arm. The briefing from Gendo had been a odd experience, especially with how hung over the old man had been. Oh, he had done his best to hide it, but his hands had shook and he winced as the lights went on and off.

'Though if this information is right, I can understand him hitting the drink,' Maya admitted to herself grimly.

She headed to Ritsuko's office, tapping at the door with her knuckles. "Ma'am?" Maya called out to her respectfully, despite the fact that at one point she would have just opened up the door and gone right in.

Ritsuko opened the door, giving Maya a cool look. "Yes?" she asked.

Yes, those happy times were past. Maya could feel her guts churn under that cold look, but didn't let it show. "Could you please call Misato down?" she asked, "I need to give you both a high security briefing."

That made Ritsuko raised her eyebrow a bit, "Why not Gendo himself?"

"His friends Jack and Daniels were keeping him company I think," Maya said dryly. "He's in no shape to give a briefing."

Ritsuko snorted in amusement, "Got it." With that she paged Misato, then both of them waited around uncomfortably.

Misato hurried in a few minutes later, "What's the crisis?"

"Not a crisis exactly," Maya answered, "but Gendo has decided to upgrade your security status and free up certain info."

"Really," Misato drawled.

"It appears that certain things have gotten bad enough that Gendo feels you need to be kept in the loop," Maya explained with a shrug. She laid out the photos on the desk, giving them a moment to look at them.

"That smile is gruesome," Ritsuko remarked, looking at the Evangelion-like construct.

"That's a Evangelion," Misato pointed out needlessly, "why the hell didn't we know about it before now?"

"Need to know," Maya answered bluntly. "Up until now, they were intended as a back up to our forces," she explained.

"But something has happened," Ritsuko guessed.

"The North American branches of NERV," Misato guessed. As both Ritsuko and Maya looked at her she shrugged, "We know the executives over there were at ground zero at the S2 engine explosion. Has someone new seized control?"

"Yes, the third or fourth in command, Maria Vincennes," Maya nodded, "I've got her file here. It's annoyingly sketchy."

"Huh," Misato grunted softly as she read. Early thirties, rose up in the tech side of NERV. Worked with Ritsuko, interestingly enough, as well as with Kozo. Not much detail on projects she was involved with.

Ritsuko looked faintly annoyed, "This isn't correct by the way. The only form of working together we did was via email conversation."

"What did you think of her?" Misato asked curiously.

"Smart," Ritsuko answered instantly, "very driven. While she was good at the sciences part of the work, I did get the sense she was ambitious."

"How so?" Maya asked.

"She pretty much offered to sleep with me to get a transfer here," Ritsuko said to her dryly, "I said no, obviously."

"What the fuck!" Misato yelped.

"If it helps, it was before we got together," Ritsuko patted her hand.

"Still pisses me off but yeah," Misato sighed. She looked at Maya, "So she, presumably, has the keys to some of these Evangelions."

"Yes," Maya agreed, "and is no longer answering to NERV or the Committee. I think we have to assume she's hostile."

Misato made a face, "Maybe not."

"Oh?" Ritsuko looked at her curiously.

"Think about it," Misato gestured with her hands, "you immediate boss AND his boss both just got blown to smithereens. Apparently on orders of NERV. Are you going to be instantly willing to fall into line like a good girl?"

"Point," Ritsuko admitted.

Misato looked over at Maya, "But be that as it may... do we have tactical data on these Evangelions? Because if they DO jump us, I wanna be ready."

"Partial," Maya sounded annoyed, "even with this happening, there is resistance to releasing the full specifications. But there's some..."

Misato watched with some amusement as Maya and Ritsuko picked apart the incomplete data. They really DID work well together, it was kind of sad they they had been put on opposite sides, so to speak. Still, that was life.

"So they have a power source here, maybe the S2 engine or a battery?" Misato pointed at the back of the Evangelion.

"Yes," Ritsuko agreed, "or at least that's what we think."

"It'll be key to nail that first," Maya nodded as she added, "we think that the Mass Production model will have improved self repair. If you don't disable the power source, they can recover from serious damage."

"Weapons?" Misato asked thoughtfully.

"Standard knives and rifles so far," Maya reported, "but supposedly they are developing some form of spear or lance too."

"That could be a problem," Ritsuko mused.

"Keep us at a distance so we can't get at the power sources," Misato agreed, "I'll have to drill the kids on how to fight them."

"That's all we have so far," Maya got up, "and officially I'm supposed to collect these files when I leave." She smiled tiredly as she added, "But I'm VERY forgetful lately, so call me when you want them picked up."

"Thanks," Ritsuko smiled as Maya left.

"That was interesting," Misato noted as she took out a portable bug scanner. Surprisingly the documents and folder came up clean.

"Very," Ritsuko noted. "I think she was playing straight with us, pretty much," she mused.

Misato drummed her fingers on the desk, "Maria Vincennes, do you think she's actually a threat, or not...?"

Ritsuko made a maybe gesture. "Hard to say... I'd agree Gendo is concerned, as is his bosses, whoever the hell they are."

"At least the Mass Production Evangelion information should be good?" Misato asked.

"It matches some leaks I've seen," Ritsuko agreed, "long with that odd data stick someone planted on us."

"STILL want to know where that came from," Misato growled.

"Me too," Ritsuko agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Kensuke Aida sneezed loudly. Unlike in anime, he was not sneezing because of a mystical coincidence where someone was talking about him. No, the brown haired young man with glasses was sneezing because he had gotten a cold.

"Idiot," Hikari Horaki noted, shaking her head, "you shouldn't have gotten dressed wet after showering at NERV."

"She's right," Shinji agreed, the young woman having accompanied Hikari and Toji to check on their sick friend, "I know Asuka does that, but she's a machine running on irritation and bad coffee. You do NOT want to follow her example."

"Oh, mean," Toji laughed. "You better not let her or Mana catch you calling her that."

"You think I'm stupid?" Shinji noted dryly.

"No comment," Ken sighed, then wheezed as he coughed.

"So I brought the papers from class," Hikari said with relentless cheerfulness, "that way you can keep up with us."

"Oh great," Ken sighed again.

Shinji shrugged eloquently. "You need us to get you anything?" she asked politely, "I know your dad is away..." No one mentioned his dead mother. They had SOME tact.

"Some snacks, maybe," Ken admitted. "Reading military catalogs keeps me entertained, but I could use some snacks."

"Military Otaku," Toji shook his head but smiled. "Yeah, we;ll get them for ya."

"We'd better go," Hikari noted, "do your homework too, please."

"Yes ma'am," Ken saluted wryly.

To be continued...