9:03pm:

Distant explosions, the unmistakable sound of gunfire, bombs whistling their way down to the ground, possibly blowing a number of troops to pieces. It was all distant, but getting closer. Closer, closer, and closer.

It was all that ran through Shinji's head as he and the rest of Eagle Company struggled their way through the thick bushes of jungle. They were approaching the Route 16 bridge, right on schedule too.

Though it seemed the Angels had a little surprise attack hidden up their sleeve. The bridge was being relentlessly fired upon by the Angels, who had attacked opposite the direction Eagle Company were headed. Whoever was on the bridge when the attack occurred had long been dead now.

The darkness of the night forced Alpha Company to set up some makeshift spotlights, a lot of them having been designed for use onstage. The harsh conditions of the weather and war made a malfunction a common occurrence.

The lights would often dim out and brighten back up randomly, so during battle a lot of troops resorted to firing flares all over the place. Some of them were even thankful for the fires, as the light made the jungle somewhat visible. The scene resembled Unit-01's escape from the Angel camp.

The river channel was wide, and the water flowed smoothly through that section. Most of the waves crashing on the edge of the channel walls were produced by any bombs that might've blown up in the water.

Captain Shiro raised his fist, signalling the company to stop and to kneel down. "They're struggling out there... I don't know if that bridge can hold out any longer." He stated as he continued to observe the situation.

Without the bridge, there was no way Unit-01 could get across the river. All other bridges had been demolished by NERV so that they could monitor who was passing from one side to another.

"Shit, we're gonna have to go in." He added. "Alright, listen up! A few of us are gonna have to go in to find this Company's C.O! We aren't going anywhere until we find a way through that bridge! Got it?"

"Sir, yes sir!" Replied the company. "Nobu! You're coming with. Inamura, you're also assisting tonight. Soryu, Takeda! Both of you, pick two of your peers to tag along!" He ordered.

Asuka looked behind her, looking around for the 'perfect candidate'. Since she was mad about not being in charge, she opted to pick on whoever it was she felt like picking on. Of course, Shinji was not too far from her line of sight.

"Ikari! Aida! You're both coming along!" She ordered. As the two were about to make their way over, Rei stopped Kensuke and raised her hand at the Lieutenant. "What is it, Wondergirl?" She asked impatiently.

"May I go in Aida's place?" She asked. Asuka thought it made no difference. She was a good fighter, after all. "Sure thing, Missy. Aida, you've been spared." She said.

Shini and Rei followed Asuka, the three of them accompanying the other troops as the rest of the company waited safely in the treeline. As they approached the camp, the gunfire became more deafening. Shinji's hands were beginning to shake again.

"There is no need to be afraid, Ikari. I will keep you safe." She said again, sounding almost exactly like she did before. Shinji nodded, having been slightly comforted by her.

They were all blocked off by some fences, all of which had been set up by Alpha Company to set the territory of their camp. In the camp, the troops scrambled to get more ammo, but they were quickly running out.

They eventually found a gash in the fence and made their way in the camp. From their angle, they were out of the enemy's line of fire. They still had a good view of the river though, so they didn't feel very safe just yet. The gun fire never stopped for a second.

"Is there a Captain Shiro over there?" Yelled a troop in the distance, looking with his binoculars. Takeda pointed his flashlight over to the troop, trying to get a good look at who it might be. "Yeah! Who's that?" Shiro yelled back.

"Get that light off me!" He yelled as they approached him, irritated by the bright light that had overwhelmed his vision. "Lieutenant Ito, sir. I've got some documents that Top had sent over for ya." He said as he reached into his little bag.

They were all knelt down, still not sure if the enemy could see them or not. The boy took out a thin brown folder and handed it to the captain. "This is mail for a 'Lieutenant Soryu'. Classified information, from the Commander himself." He said.

Shiro passed the folder over to Asuka, who reached in her bag to find a place for it. "Didn't expect you here this soon, but I'm glad you're here." He said. "Why?" Asked Shiro. "'Cuz now I can get outta here! If I can find a way..." Answered the boy as he picked up his rifle and walked off.

The sound of a bomb cutting through the air followed by a loud explosion in the water caught the attention of the few troops from Eagle Company. "You're in the asshole of the world, Captain!" Said the boy once more, before running off to find his way out.

"Shit..." He uttered to himself, realizing their newfound predicament. Fortunately for Eagle Company, the enemy was not blocking their passage to the other side directly.

The catch was that the Angels had attacked and established their grounds at the very front of the camp. So from their position, the bridge was in full view. Eagle Company could not advance without being reduced to mince meat by gunfire.

NERV Troops that had been stationed on the other side were granted some cover by the surrounding trees, so they had been able to fight back, even if it was little help compared to the Angels' aggressive tactics.

Shiro figured that if he coordinated a quick retaliation with Alpha Company's C.O, they could push the Angels back just enough for Eagle Company to advance. Finding the C.O. would prove to be difficult, however.

Wherever they were, they weren't doing their job all that well. A lot of the camp was set aflame, and craters dominated the dirt floors in the middle grounds of said camp.

The Angels also fired a ton of rounds at the other side of the bridge, prompting more fires to start. The stage lights the company had set up dimmed, then gradually lit back up again.

Multiple troops, not being able to see their enemy very well in the dark, decided to fire flares towards them. And so, flares just kept flying by, almost looking like a laser trailing through in sharp contrast to the dark night.

"We need to find the C.O, I'm thinking our company can push those skinjobs back!" He yelled. Asuka stood up and walked a little closer to the camp, studying the situation before her.

"Lieutenant, what are you doing?" Asked the Captain. "I gotta go find the commanding officer. Ikari, Ayanami, let's go." She ordered. Shiro frowned, confused at Asuka's entitlement.

"Soryu, I have not given you permission to split up. Settle down now-" "I'm just doing my job, Cap! Try not to get in the way too much, yeah? We have orders to get across this bridge... so let's look for this fucker!" She yelled.

Asuka made her way off the treeline, nearing the fire fight. Shinji and Rei followed, not wanting her to go alone. "You three get back here, god damn it!" He yelled, his face turning slightly red. "We stay here until they come back, got it?" He ordered, furious at the position he was just forced to take.

Asuka lead the trio as usual, making sure she took them to a position with sufficient cover. The edge of the camp was determined by the treeline, if one were to step out of it, they would be extremely visible.

The three had already entered the camp, and managed to take cover behind some bungalows and tents. From their current position, Asuka had a good view of the bridge. Bullet holes riddled the wooden walls, which had been placed as a cheap repair from a previous attack.

Light cables had been hung around and across the bridge to give the repair workers some visibility during the night. Now, the lights were an extreme hazard, as if any on cable were to fall into the water, it could electrocute anyone nearby.

Since their radio connections were severed, Alpha Company had resorted to using megaphones to coordinate their attacks across the field from each other. It was an attempt to organize the mess that was their current situation.

It was likely that it was a futile attempt, though. The Angels still help the upper hand, and it was getting worse by the minute. "There's no way we can just run for it, we'll be dead in seconds." She stated.

Rei looked around the treeline again, wondering if there was a way to the other side with some form of cover, even if it was very little. The entrance to the bridge was neatly set up with trees that acted as a sort of decorative wall.

She figured that if they were able to run back to the treeline and simply sneak under the cover of darkness, they could find some way over to the other side to look for the C.O.

"Lieutenant-" She said as she tapped the redhead on her shoulder. "What?" She asked, somewhat rudely. Rei pointed over to the end of the treeline, just by the concrete river bank.

"We may be able to rush over to the other side through there. We must be quick." She proposed. "I was just about to say that!" She yelled back, looking as if she was about to blow up.

Asuka ran over to the farther side of the treeline, where they were able to join a bunch of unfamiliar troops also trying to sneak through peacefully. Among the bushes, troops crawled through with leaves strapped or tied around their helmets.

The three walked through the crowd without any trouble, though the trees blocked out a lot of light. The occasional flare or explosion provided brief moments of visibility, which helped them avoid tripping or stepping on a fellow troop.

Finally, they reached the river bank, still using the treeline as cover. The water here was no longer green. It was a dark brown, almost black. Shinji had no clue what might've caused that, but he chose to focus on more important things.

The sight of the bridge over the river with its lights flickering on and off, it looked like a demented carnival. The flares even resembled fire works at times, making the scene just a little more eerie.

Some of the troops' screams were amplified by the megaphones, adding to the horrifying nature of the battle. "The bank should be just low enough for us to stay out of the Angels' sight." Said Asuka.

Lucky for them, it was also just low enough for them to walk through, though they had to keep a low stance. Another mortar round landed in the water, the blast sending a jet stream straight up, hitting a steel cable.

The steel cable wobbled around, causing it to make that strange noise high pitched noise. Shinji looked over, wondering what that was until he saw the cable's wobbling moving in sync to the noise.

But once he looked down at the water, he was horrified. Bodies were floating on the water, some were left bleeding out on the concrete river bank. The ones in the water were slowly making their way down stream.

The blood mixed with the dark green color of the water, turning it into that dark brown Shinji had seen just a minute ago. He couldn't stop looking at the bodies, those people were on his side. He had never seen this much carnage before.

They finally neared the other end of the treeline, now being able to take cover behind the trees. They could barely see anything, the spotlights only passed by for a few seconds.

Asuka heard some sort of yelling not too far away from them. She listened closely and traced it to the treeline the stood behind. 'More troops... maybe they know where the C.O. is.' She thought.

Asuka stepped over the thick plants and entered the treeline, Rei quickly did the same. Shinji was still distracted by the bodies in the river, fear completely dominating his thoughts.

"Shinji! Get over here!" Yelled Asuka, snapping Shinji out of his crisis. He hurried over and made it to the treeline, finding that the troops of Alpha Company had dug out trenches to crawl through.

The bottom of the trench had a bit of flowing mud, but it wasn't too bad. The three made their way through the trenches, looking for the nearest troop to lead them to the commander of this camp.

There was one girl, sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees. She was shivering almost in an almost violent nature. "You know where I can find the C.O. here?" Asked Asuka.

The girl tried responding, but her volume was very low and her shivers were too much for her to even begin to speak. "Th-th-N-n... Um, n-n-" She tried, failing every time she tried starting another sentence.

"Ugh, shell shock..." Said Asuka, proceeding further into the trench. The three grew frustrated over their lack of visibility in the trenches. The combination of darkness and the sound of explosions in the distance was enough to stress anyone out.

They eventually came to a split, and had no clue which way would lead them closer to this commanding officer. "Which way are we even going now?" Asked Shinji. "Shut up, let me think!" She yelled back.

She raised her head up to have a look at where the trenches lead. She couldn't see much most of the time, but she was able to get a general direction from both paths.

She ducked again and turned to Shinji and Rei. "From what I can see, the left path takes us closer to the middle of the camp, which is where most of the Angels have their guns aimed at. The right path takes us to the other side... right's the way to go." She said.

Shinji and Rei nodded. "Alright then, let's go!" She ordered. They took the right path and continued to look for anyone who might have a clue as to where Alpha Company's C.O. was.

They came across two other troops, both of them frantically trying to reload their heavy machine gun. "Lieutenant Soryu here, where can I find the C.O?" She asked them.

The two saluted her, but were at a loss for words. "Does anyone here know where this damn C.O. is?" She asked, a little more aggressively this time. "No clue, miss... We're just trynna keep the Angels away... we gotta keep 'em away..." He said, his stare trailing off to the side.

"Ugh! Let's just keep going!" She said. Their luck wasn't too good, as they kept asking around and found nothing. Eventually, Asuka found that there was no point in looking around, as the C.O. had most likely been killed.

"We're turning around, we're just gonna have to attack them ourselves. She said, frustrated at the fact that she wasted her time. They turned around to leave, but heard gunfire go off in the trench beside them.

They quickly ducked, not knowing if it was enemy fire, or friendly fire. The lack of clarification from the troop over there gave the reason to believe an Angel had made it into the trenches.

Asuka signaled to Shinji and Rei to stay close behind, and to watch all around. They nodded and did just that. The sound of boots running over mud was heard getting closer to them, and they all braced for bullet action.

Rei faced another trench and heard the running closest to her, and figured out pretty quickly the runner was coming her way. "They're coming." She said. She aimed her ADV rifle, but remained cautious, knowing that it might be a friendly.

It was at tense moments like these that time seemed to slow down for Rei. As it did, a figure came running down, no Chameleon Suit on. It was the standard issue combat uniform provided by SEELE.

It was an Angel. Rei pulled her finger back, shooting three rounds into the artificial human. He dropped, all life leaving his body. More running was heard coming Rei's way, and she braced again.

It was no Angel this time, rather just two other troops. "Friendly!" Said the troop, putting his hands up. Rei lowered her rifle, and Asuka walked ahead to talk to the two troops.

"Lieutenant Soryu of Unit-01. Do you know where your commanding officer is?" She asked, saluting the two. "Private Ishii here. This is Private Matsuo, both of Unit-37. I don't know, Lieutenant. We can't say, we've been here for fucking ever..."

"Do you even know who they might be?" She asked. "Yeah, Captain Aiso. Haven't seen him in two days, though. The Angels have been attacking this point a lot, Alpha Company is missing a ton of troops, man." He said, sounding shaken up.

"Okay, well Eagle Company's here. We have orders to get through the bridge, but we weren't told anything about the Angels trying to block this point." She stated. "We've no radio connection, fucking skinjobs jammed it. We can't warn anyone of anything."

Asuka sighed, looking around to see what they could do as a way to push the enemy back. "We have to get going. Tell the rest of your company to group up, out company's gonna be coming in hot. But we're gonna bolt it out of here once we do, got it?"

"Yes ma'am." The two troops said, turning around to head to the rest of Alpha Company. "We're going back, c'mon!" Ordered Asuka. "Oh, and if there's any spare ammo just lying around, take it. We're gonna need all we can get."

As they headed back, they found the occasional string of bullets for the heavy MGs and carried it around their necks. Shinji only had found a few clips, all still filled with unused bullets. He took a glance over the trenches, and found a wooden ammo box.

He went to have a look, knowing the enemy couldn't possibly see him from their position. He tried opening the box, but it wouldn't budge. He angled himself to have a better chance in opening the box, but the mud he stepped on came loose.

He wasn't aware that he was next to a little cliff, and he tumbled down a short distance. He landed in a puddle of mud, the puddle being deep enough that the dirt water reached his torso. Hi hands landed on something mushy, he figured it was just wet dirt.

His helmet dropped into the muddied water, staining it brown like the rest of his uniform had been in the water. As Shinji began to raise himself from his fall, he realized what he was touching.

It was a body, and it had been in that puddle for a few days now. Maggots crawled all over the carcass, some of them now on Shinji. "AAAHH!" He screamed, scared out of his mind.

He reached for his knife and scraped all the maggots off his uniform, a feeling of disgust overtaking him. He stared at the body, the ribcage almost empty now. The uniform was SEELE's, so this was definitely an Angel.

He had the shivers again, the fowl stench of decomposed body forcing him to gag a little. "Ikari?" Yelled Rei, having heard his scream. "I'm fine! I'm just down here, I slipped off-"

"Shinji, where the fuck are you?" Yelled the Lieutenant. "I fell! I'll be back up in a minute!" He yelled back, annoyed by her short-fused temper. He grabbed his rifle, finding that the mud had entered the mechanism and was now jammed.

"God damn it..." He said, realizing there were probably a lot of things that had just gotten damaged by the thick mud. He picked up his helmet, was had sat upside down floating in the brown water. He shook it off a bit to rid his head gear of the mud.

After placing it back on, he climbed back up to where he was. If he was going to aide in the attack, he needed a new rifle. "Lieutenant, My ADV rifle is fucked. Do I just pick up an abandoned one?" He asked.

"How'd that happen? Wow, you really ARE an idiot..." She said. "Is that a yes or a no?" He asked, not really wanting to put up with her attitude. "Yeah, and watch your tone around me, private." She snapped.

"M'kay." He replied, still hinting of attitude. Asuka could see that he had just witnessed something unpleasant, but gave him no break for it. Whenever she was set off, that was that.

"Hurry up, we're headed back."

Shiro watched as Alpha Company kept getting fired at, so many lifeless bodies sprawled on the dirt on the camp. "Captain!" Yelled Asuka, carrying extra ammo along with Rei and Shinji.

"Did you find them?" Asked Shiro. "There's no fucking C.O. here. We might as well just launch the attack already, I already gave Alpha Company a heads up." She said.

"I'll be the one to make that call Lieutenant. Expect a word from your commanding officer." He said, gesturing for everyone to follow him. Asuka grunted, not about to show any kind of defeat to him.

The troops returned to the company, who had been patiently awaiting their return. Asuka, Rei and Shinji passed some of the ammo around, keeping little of it for themselves.

Toji noticed how drenched in mud Shinji was, and that his rifle had been compromised by it, too. "What happened to ya, man? You look like you fell in a porthole!" He said.

Shinji stared at him, looking extremely spent. He rubbed some of the mud off his uniform and waved it at Toji's face, the earthy liquid splatting on his face. "Bleh! Fuckin' asshole, man!" He said, much to Shinji's amusement.

"Alright Eagle Company, listen up! We can't cross until we've pushed the skinjobs back! We're gonna group up at the edge of this treeline, we line the mortars up, and fire at the Angels! Once they start to back up, we fire and push 'em out some more! Once they're far enough, we storm through the bridge. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" Replied the company. "Alright, let's kick some ass!" He yelled, the company lining up all of its mortars and grenade launchers. At just the right angle, they could take cover behind one of the bungalows and fire the mortar over the structure, completely put of the enemy's sight.

The mortars all pointed upwards, at an angle good enough for the rounds to land right on top of the Angels. A little further behind the mortars, all 3 troops of the company who carried grenade launchers were also lined up. Rei was part of this little team.

All soldiers were set, and ready to fire at the enemy. "Fire!" Ordered the Captain. The mortars all went off almost simultaneously. Bangs were heard at the gates of the camp.

As the mortars were being reloaded, Rei and the other two grenade launcher wielders all fired at the same time, as a way to buy the mortars some time. Temporarily stunned by the blasts, the Angels began running back.

Alpha Company took the chance to fire back at them some more, and aided Shiro's company a lot more than expected. A second round of mortar rain was delivered to the Angels, this time pushing them back a lot more.

After the grenade launchers fired again, Shiro saw that now was there chance to sweep the gates. "Alright, push them forward! Fire now!" He ordered as his troops ran forth, firing rounds towards the Angels.

The received incoming fire, but it was barely enough to harm the company. The blasts had come out of nowhere and they wouldn't risk losing any more souls. They were just trying to figure out what happened as they all scrambled.

The company kept firing until they thought the enemy had reached a good distance away from them. "Alright, cross now, Eagle Company!" He ordered. All of Eagle Company ran over to the bridge, still paying some attention to the general direction of the enemy.

Alpha Company, who had been pinned to one corner of the camp, were now able to stand their ground again, and continued firing at the Angels. As Shiro ran, he slowed down to talk to one of the troops from Alpha Company.

"You guys gonna be good? We can try to send back up!" He yelled, trying to combat the gunfire for volume. "I don't know, cap. But we're gonna keep fighting! Just make your way outta here, this place is fucking hell!" Replied the troop, running over to the front gates of the camp to join the fight.

Shiro then followed his company to the bridge, as bullets began to fly in, the Angels trying to take their position back. As the company reached the bridge, they kept yelling 'Friendly' to confirm to the rest of Alpha Company on the other side that they weren't the enemy rushing them.

The bridge wasn't too long, but running through it felt like an eternity. The fear of a lead bullet snapping through your skull had made every second in the field feel like a minute.

As Shinji reached the other side with his friends, he eyed a fallen soldier, his ADV rifle still in tact. He ran over and dropped his jammed rifle, and picked up the dead troop's still-working gun for himself.

As the company continued to rush over, the firepower the bridge was receiving only increased. All of Eagle Company had made it across, and what seemed to be a stressful, unwinnable situation, turned out to be just another really close call.

Finally, they were in the clear. They continued up the dark road as the firepower behind them grew more violent. Some of the troops kept looking back, worried about Alpha Company.

They had seen some rough action, but nothing as insane as that. A lot of them worried it would only get worse. As they inched further away from the Route 16 bridge, they watched as bombs were dropped on the bridge.

Wood chunks flew everywhere, and the support beams quickly crumbled. The bridge was gone, right in time to seal the company's fate. There was no turning back, greater Matsuyama was waiting.