Neon Genesis Evangelion: Altered Destinies
Launch Thirty-Four
Maria Vincennes was the current head of the US branches of NERV, a title with great responsibility but little actual power. The Evangelion they had been developing had been devoured by the Dirac Sea, then mysteriously spat out in Tokyo-3 with a Japanese teen aboard. HOW, no one seemed to know.
And the same S2 engine explosion had killed her two superiors, dumping her into command and making her a member of SEELE. Her security access finally gave Maria the full details of SEELE's plans, and what she saw appalled her. Triggering their own impact event? Turning all of humanity into liquid to live on as SLIME? It was insane!
So she had formally broken away the US branches from SEELE, as well as informed her top staff exactly what SEELE had planned. That was a gamble, but she thought that most of their staff would be as dismayed as she was. And so far at least, it appeared she was right.
Maria was jerked from her thoughts as someone knocked on her office door. She wheeled around from where she had been looking out at New Las Vegas and called, "Come in!"
Sumire Nagara, her acting second in command, strode in. The dark skinned woman was attractive, and annoyingly stacked compared to the less endowed Maria, and had a serious personality. She had worked in sciences like Maria, but was less ambitious.
"We've heard back from the Vice-President, they support our plans if SEELE or the UN makes a move," Sumire told her bluntly.
"The VP, not the President?" Maria noted.
"The President, I expect, is keeping his options open if SEELE ends up kicking our asses," Sumirie shrugged.
"Cowardly bastard," Maria muttered.
"Politicians," Sumirie said philosophically.
"Heh," Maria smiled slightly. "Have we had any progress on finding pilot candidates?" she changed the subject.
"We're testing several boys and girls now. It's remarkable how easily some are syncing with the Mass Production model cores," Sumirie noted. "So far, our highest sync scores are from Mayumi Yamagishi."
Maria blinked thoughtfully, "She's the one who reads all the time?"
"And apologizes a lot, yeah," Sumirie agreed. "I'm beginning to think the theory that all pilots are maladjusted may have some basis in fact..."
Half way across the world, Shinji Ikari sneezed violently, then looked confused.
"Did you just do that anime thing where someone sneezes when they're talked about?" Asuka had to ask
"Nah, must be allergies..."
The two women just ignored that as they continued. "Have you started her on simulator training?" Maria asked.
"Yeah," Sumirie nodded, "she's not doing bad, either. I think she's got potential, assuming I can get her to stop saying sorry to the angels she kills."
"All right, work with her while we look for other candidates," Maria decided.
"And what will you be doing, oh Glorious Leader?" Sumirie teased her as she headed to the office door.
"Trying to figure out how to approach Gendo Ikari without making our situation any worse," Maria sighed.
"Good luck," Sumirie laughed, then both jerked as an alarm rang out.
Maria swiped her desk top screen, quickly determining the source. "Shit," she muttered.
"Angel?" Sumirie guessed.
"Tokyo-3 is under attack," Maria confirmed...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The outer defensive line provided almost no warning as the massive angel burst through like it wasn't there. Vaguely humanoid it towered over a Evangelion, and it's mask like face seemed to laugh as it advanced.
Reaching the armoured 'shell' over NERV it paused, as if considering, then began to manifest the energy beam that had already devastated the outer lines. But with no warning two Evangelion hit it with a flying tackle.
"Push!" Asuka roared as she and Shinji used artificial muscle and their two AT Fields to force the angel back.
"Ugh!" Shinji grunted as she 'felt' the feedback through Unit-01. It was like trying to pick up a tank or something!
"SWITCH!" came over the order over their radios and Asuka and Shinji stepped back before the Angel could attack them.
The angel staggered once the pressure was off, confused. An enemy attacking then relenting made no sense! But then a barrage of missiles corkscrewed into it's chest, left open by the Evangelions tearing at it's AT Field. The explosion staggered it back, but barely scuffed it's shell.
"Damn," Mana muttered as Jet Alone lumbered forward.
The Angel began to recover but then bullets riddled it's form, fired at extreme velocity from Jet Alone's arm canon. In a rational world the high density and speed of the near artillery shell sized bullets should have torn it apart, but it seemed to mostly shrug them off.
"The AT Field's reforming!" Asuka called.
"We're up!" a new voice called.
Unit 00 and Unit 04 charged in, again combining AT Fields to disrupt the Angel, then were nearly slashed as the Angel extended flat, blade like 'arms' against them. "Yow!" Ken yelped, then screamed as his Evangelion's hand was sliced right off.
In the NERV command center several staff members winced at the scream. Up above them from where they watched quietly, Gendo smiled grimly. "We're doing better than expected against Zeruel," he noted quietly.
"For various values of better," Kozo said.
Gendo carried on, "You were right in rebuilding the outer line. It gave us enough warning to mobilize the Evangelions."
Below them they watched the battle rage on the screens, four Evangelions and a giant robot barely holding back the 'Angel of Might.'
"Is it me, or does Zeruel not know what to make of Jet Alone?" Ritsuko noted as the robot peppered the Angel with bullets, distracting it. Ken had recovered and was working with Rei to try to pin it down so the others could pound it.
"Jet Alone does seem to confuse it," Ritsuko conceded.
"Maybe because it's entirely a machine?" Maya offered thoughtfully.
"Possibly," Misato agreed then shook her head. "Doesn't matter. With no AT Field of it's own we can only use it for fire support."
"Where IS the Positron cannon?" Kozo had to ask.
Gendo grunted in displeasure. "Being refitted, along with a shoulder mount for Jet Alone. If the Self Defence Force hadn't argued with us about getting it for so long, Jet Alone would already have it equipped," he said flatly.
From his tone of voice, Kozo expected heads to roll at the JSDF. Assuming they all survived this battle, anyway...
The whole base shook as Zeruel unleashed it's beam attack, blasting away the Evangelions and boring down through armor plate. "Armor layers one through ten, gone! Structural damage reports coming in!" a bridge officer yelled.
"Did the whole Geofront move?!" Misato yelped.
Up above, the five warriors regrouped after being flung away from their enemy. "We appear to be barely annoying it," Rei noted grimly as they shook off the dizziness.
"Ouch," Ken muttered, having added burns to getting his hand cut off. "Thanks," he added as Asuka helped him up.
"Good job, meat shield," Asuka joked.
Shinji snorted. "Everyone okay?" she asked as they started hurrying back to where the angel was. It was a bit awe inspiring that they had been blasted blocks away...
"Head's ringing a bit, but otherwise well," Mana admitted.
"Fine," Rei said grimly.
"Me too." Asuka chimmed in. "We're hurting that thing, but... that's it," she pointed out, frustrated.
"Misato," Shinji tried asking over the radio, "any suggestions?"
"I don't have any clever suggestions," Misato admitted as the base shook from another angel blast, "pin it down, cancel the AT Field and shatter the core!"
"Remember, it's physical power in part comes from the Field. Your four combined ones should be able to counter it," Ritsuko added.
With a combined yell the four crashed into the angel, and they managed to stagger it a moment. The crazy blade arms whipped out, slashing at air as they shoved down on the angel with AT Fields. The angel bucked under them, and it took all their will just to try to keep it down.
Suddenly a blade arm burst free of their grip, striking out to slash Unit-01 right through the middle.
"AAAAAAH!" Shinji screamed, staggering back.
The angel struggled harder to free itself, then Jet Alone charged forward. "Cancel the AT Field!" she yelled, then heaved Jet Alone up before STOMPING down on the angel's head. It simply crunched inward wetly, and for a moment stunned the angel.
"I'm going in!" Asuka yelled as she concentrated, trying to focus her AT Field and all the strength she had. She punched down at the exposed core, striking with all the rage and terror that that churned within her.
The final explosion rattled the base even worse than before, knocking staffers off their feet and making tiles fall from the ceiling. But as the smoke cleared the Evangelions stood in triumph.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"How is Shinji?" Rei asked, the pale girl standing outside the medical ward.
"Out cold, but we think she'll be fine," Ritsuko reassured her. "There was no damage to the entry plug when Unit-01 was cut in two, she's just in shock from the feedback."
Rei puffed out a relieved breath, the young woman oddly surprised at how... worried she had felt. It wasn't a feeling she was used to.
"Ken, how do you feel?" Ritsuko asked the young man gently.
Ken smiled back a bit weakly. "Well, my hand's still numb... is this gonna last awhile?" he asked worriedly.
"Not long," Ritsuko reassured him. "In tests other subjects recovered from similar feedback in a few days."
"Good, or else my gaming is going to suck," Ken tried to joke.
"Just be glad that's not your jerking off hand," Asuka teased.
"Asuka!" Ken yelped.
Asuka just ignored that as she headed over to where a medical assistant was finishing bandaging Mana's head. "We have got to improve that thing's shock absorbers," she joked.
"Oh yeah," Mana smiled back ruefully. "I don't think Jet Alone was designed to fight eldritch abominations," she agreed. The explosion that had blasted them away from Zereul had broken the harness meant to keep Mana in her seat, and she had been thrown around the cockpit. She was concussed, and everyone agreed she had been lucky she hadn't been hurt worse.
Ritsuko smiled at them tiredly, "I'd like to keep Mana in for observation..."
"Oh hell no," Asuka blurted.
"... but I figured you'd want to take her home," Ritsuko continued. "You'll need to keep an eye on her, waking her hourly and checking for signs of disorientation. Okay?"
"Got it," Asuka agreed.
"Thank you, all of you, for everything you've done," Misato addressed the teens seriously. She smiled suddenly, "When Shinji wakes up, dinner's on me."
To be continued...
Notes: Yeah, the fight scene sucks. I'm awful at writing those. Give me character bits instead... Setting up NERV America both as a separate group and a possible ally or enemy to our heroes and/or SEELE.