2:40pm, NERV Central command bridge
"How long?" Misato stared at the display of NERV's failing armour layers with her arms folded.
"Twelve hours...maybe fourteen if we're lucky?" Makoto said despairingly.
The silence on the bridge was deathly, as every single staff member immediately dwelt on their mortality.
Save for Commander Ikari, where none where sure about what went on in his mind. She herself could only feel shocked at how he'd reacted to his only child's very near death screams.
With a face and heart unmoving as stone.
Ritsuko meanwhile, took another look at the screen, tsked, then lit another cigarette.
First Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba muttered the words "well isn't that just fucking perfect" before returning to typing on his keyboard.
The purplehead massaged her eyes, sighing.
"Get every bit of intel we have together. This is going to be a long brainstorm..." she turned away from the display and walked off, calling out "briefing room, fifteen minutes."
Why can't anything, ever, be simple? Her subconscious grumbled.
They'd been screwed.
Royally screwed.
Whilst they still did have an active Eva in reserve, it would be obliterated if it was deployed against the Seraph right now. Not to mention Unit 00 was antiquated compared to the more recent models, such as 02 and 03, with even 01 itself being far superior in terms of combat.
Oh why the hell can't they be here now? Misato cursed the Evas and their ability to wreck air travel. Their impossibly strong A-T fields interfered with those of the things that could carry them, namely FCVs, which would cause them to plummet into the ground and explode into a million fragments of failure and wasted money.
So they had to be transported via land or sea.
Various section members saluted as she strode past in her red uniform, giving quick nods of acknowledgement in return.
Arriving at the room, she opened the door and walked in, taking in the dark, dull and metal atmosphere of this large cuboid. There was no difference of any kind, just drab and grey.
Pulling out a seat for herself, Misato sat down and ran a hand through her hair.
How the fuck are we going to get out of this one?
She leaned back, crossing her legs and arms, closing her eyes so as to devout her whole cranial capacity to the formation of a plan.
Exactly ten minutes later, the relevant staff filed in, taking their respective seats. Some cast a quick eye over the Lieutenant Colonel who appeared to be asleep, but the slow opening of her brown eyes, coming out of a deep meditation, caused them to look away.
"Is this every-" She had to stop mid sentence when Commander Ikari and Vice Commander Fuyutsuki walked through. As in, the old man walked, whilst Gendo almost glided.
Probably on the winds of bastardry...Misato mused, then turned her mind to the problem at hand.
"Right, that thing basically sliced through one of the most powerful A-T fields ever created like a machete through A4 paper. How do we kill it?"
"We don't know." Makoto shrugged.
"Well tell me what you do know." The combat operations director felt her patience be stretched. It was bad enough they'd known the monster was coming, even worse that it had very nearly killed her charge, and could sit pretentiously directly above them without the forces of humanity being able to lift a finger to stop it.
Ritsuko took one last puff of her cigarette, shaking the smoke away.
"From what we can tell the Seraphim can detect energy. How, we don't know, but this one is different. It doesn't just sense things from over a mile away, it folds its A-T field into the most powerful energy beam ever recorded-"
"How do you know it can do that from a mile away? It was much closer than that when it took out Unit 01..." Misato's words melted away as an awkward silence fell upon the room.
"What have I missed?"
Maya coughed, then replied.
"Well, Lieutenant Colonel, whilst you were gone the HIJMS Kenshin attempted to make an attack run on the 6th Seraph...it was obliterated before it even got within seventeen-hundred metres of it. All hands were lost..." Her shoulders slumped. Maya hated seeing people get hurt.
Let alone die.
How many more good people do we have to lose before we rid ourselves of this plague. Misato's subconscious snarled.
"Why don't we coordinate with the fleet? They hit it with positronic bombardment, then we rush Unit 00 in to finish the job?"
Ritsuko chuckled at that, before gently nudging her apprentice. Maya gulped nervously.
"Our scans indicate the Seraph's blast does have a cool down, but it's only a matter of seconds. Not only that, but Seraphim have shrugged off positronic bombardment before. And with this one..." she went quiet for a moment, as if accepting doom.
"Nothing would ever get close enough to kill it up front."
Misato tapped her finger for a while, thinking.
"Then we need to find a way to scramble its senses. I'm guessing an EMP wouldn't work?"
"No...but..." Ritsuko frowned in concentration.
"But?"
"Perhaps, Subject Creatrix could be used for that..."
"It could." Gendo's voice caused everyone to turn in his direction.
"The power it wields is beyond our imagination. I believe it certainly could be used to mask an operation, perhaps even blind our enemy. But to do what, Lieutenant Colonel?"
Chills went down her spine as the bastard king's eyes seared her soul. It was good to have his attention and involvement, but she didn't want to be under his gaze for too long.
"I was thinking, Commander, that perhaps we could mount a ranged assault on the 6th Seraph. Tenka-sensei informs me that Shinji-kun will be conscious again soon enough, which means we should be able to field two Evangelions."
"Even if we could do that...we don't have a weapon capable of cutting though a Seraph's A-T field. In the past, Evas had to get close to neutralise one. We can't do that here. It's almost impossible..." Makoto nervously fiddled with his papers, desperate to avoid his superior officer's ire.
Which he somehow managed.
"It may be almost impossible...but it's the best we've got." Misato leaned back in her seat and sighed.
A quiet cough caused a silence of the grave to fall upon the world.
"Actually, Lieutenant Colonel..." Gendo said with a hint of a smile.
"It may not be almost impossible after all..."
3:00pm, Fukoaka, Defence Board Headquarters, General's office
This day was awful.
Not only had a Seraph taken out the "weapon with which our people will survive" in one shot, but it had also obliterated yet another precious Susanoo, was now hovering over the capital city and blasting its way into NERV Central, and Parliament and the Emperor himself were trapped there. This nightmare scenario was worsened by NERV demanding that Japan hand over its latest top secret weapon. A weapon the damned organization really shouldn't have known about.
"How...did you even find out about it?" General Motichka massaged her eye-lids as the hologram of Gendo Ikari stared pretentiously at her.
Within her simple office, it's only distinguishing features being the flags at her sides and a painting of the battle of Osaka on the wall , Chiso felt immensely annoyed that even here the bastard king deigned to command her.
"I have my resources...now, will you be willing to relinquish it, or must I get the UN to put through a requisition order?" He put bluntly.
Motichka clenched her fist and took a deep breath.
"You enjoy provoking me don't you?"
Gendo remained silent.
The General explosively sighed, then ran a hand through her short brown hair.
"Even if I did give it to you...we haven't even powered it up yet, let alone fired it. The damn thing might just do more damage than a Seraph ever could if it malfunctions."
"The Positron Rifle was designed to knock FCVs from the heavens. With some extra modifications, I believe it may be the only ranged weapon capable of getting through a Seraph's A-T field."
The bastard always gets what he wants...Motichka inwardly snarled, but slowly nodded her head.
"Very well. I see we have no choice. Although I struggle to think how we might transport it to NERV Central, especially with the air space locked down."
"We shall take care of it."
Chiso really couldn't tell what thoughts resided behind those glasses, and to be frank she didn't want to.
It was unfathomable to her, how many women found this pompous man attractive. How two generations of Akagis had fallen under his sway and had been destroyed, was beyond her.
Stupid whores...total disgraces to the home islands.
To be frank the only thoughts Gendo's face summoned for her, was the sweet idea of shoving a Hitokuchi into his forehead and pulling the trigger.
One day Ikari, one day.
"But how...oh never mind. Well, do you need me for anything else, Commander?" The General said sardonically.
"No, I have no further use for you. You are dismissed." The hologram faded, finally leaving Motichka to slam her fist down on the table.
"Damned upstart! Just who the hell does he think he is!?" She stormed around her office, venting all the rage and hate she felt for this man who had her country wrapped around his little finger, terrifying the Guards standing just outside the door.
Eventually calming down, Motichka flopped back into her chair, and began pressing the buttons on her touch screen phone to contact "Site Ieyasu," to inform them the fruits of their labour were now to be snatched away.
All that hard work...it would have made Japan impractical to attack from the air...damned NERV...damned Seraphim...
Her eyebrows narrowed.
One day Ikari, the UN won't be around to protect you. And on that day I will be waiting.
5:00pm, NERV Central
"I can't believe he managed it..." Misato whispered as she walked through one of NERV's many corridors, specifically the one which would lead to the outer VTOL pad where a JSA Kaze waited to take her to Site Ieyasu. The government's top secret weapons testing and development facility. A place she imagined the Defence Board were reluctant to allow them in.
The Commander, through some miracle, had managed to convince the JSA to work with them. Despite all the misgivings the armed forces of Japan had for NERV, they had agreed to put that aside for now.
A common enemy brings everyone together in the end I suppose...
Her thoughts were distracted by her phone ringing however. Pulling it out of her pocket, Misato froze upon seeing the name Tenka flash up.
Shinji-kun...
Pressing the answer button, she held the phone to her ear.
"Tenka-sensei, what is it?"
"Ikari-san is out of the rejuvenation chamber. He'll be regaining consciousness in a matter of minutes."
Misato breathed a sigh of relief before asking the question she really wanted to ask.
"How is he?"
"Physically he's fine but..."
"But?"
The doctor sighed.
"You must understand that he is first and foremost, a child. Considering what is to be asked of him, and what has already been asked of him, I severely doubt he will Pilot Unit 01 again. I believe it very likely he's been traumatised by his previous action."
The silence hung on the phone, the purplehead reaching the open air VTOL pad in the meantime, engines of her transport slowly firing up.
"Just...just keep him there until I get back alright. I'll figure something out..." She trailed off and hit the end call button.
Shinji-kun, don't give up. We need you now...more than ever...all of us...
She slipped the phone back into her trouser pocket and boarded the Kaze, doors sliding shut behind her. The VTOL roared as it took off, swiftly screaming into the heavens and increasing its distance from the Seraph which could annihilate it in seconds. Fortunately, they were far out of range.
Or unbeknown to them, Ramiel took no interest. For why should a hunter be bothered by a fly?
Having strapped herself in, Misato leaned her head into the headrest, eyes closing as she exhaled through her nose.
Always hated flying...
Lacing her fingers together, the thirty year old decided to sleep through the half an hour long flight, her thoughts dwelling on the young man whom she'd come to care about lying in a chamber filled with LCL.
How the hell am I getting you back inside that plug... her eyebrows knitted together suddenly.
We need to destroy the Seraphim at any cost...so why don't I want him to be a part of all this anymore?