CHAPTER 44: COMMON GROUND
They didn't even bother repairing the damage to the city. Now that SEELE had officially cut NERV off from outside resources, right at the turn of the new year, the agency had little in the way of capital to spend on anything but the bare essentials. Even the trains and subway no longer functioned. Not that they needed to since ninety percent of the non-NERV population had already left and nearly all NERV personnel had relocated to 'shared quarters' in the GeoFront.
Among the few that remained were Lieutenant-Colonel Katsuragi and her sole roommate Asuka Soryu. The two had grown somewhat distant over the past few weeks. Between Misato's moping and subsequent withdrawal into the dead drop Kaji had left in her fridge and Asuka's personal struggle with her own self-confidence, the two had little levity in each other's company.
Another source of depression was Rei's circumstances. There was even less interaction with the usually withdrawn First Child now that she'd been moved into the GeoFront. Compounding the matter were rumors that she was hearing voices. During the last angel attack she had been ready to fire on Unit-01 to blast it out of the angel's attack but inexplicably she held her fire and briefly claimed someone was talking to her.
Following the battle, the commander called Rei into his office, alone. Their meeting was brief but rumors were circulating that the First Child was becoming rebellious towards her 'father figure' and that was the reason the commander had her moved to the GeoFront: to control her. Considering how the girl had been making the occasional sarcastic remark and behaving more casual, one could easily make the assumption that her new attitude could've been the cause.
What wasn't rumor was that SEELE was preparing to move against NERV. How, when or even why wasn't known. But everyone knew it was coming. The Japan Self Defense Force and SSDF were already being placed on alert status, there were mobilization orders being issued to the Chinese airborne regiments and a massive US Navy task force had recently departed Hawaii. Put it all together and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on.
War was about to come to Tokyo-3…
XXXXX
Given the political and tactical situation the angel alarm came as a surprise and something of a strange relief. That didn't mean it didn't make everyone nervous. Unlike the previous angels, though, this one appeared on the outskirts, near the area where Shinji fired the positron cannon during Operation Yashima.
Similar to the most recent angel, this one glowed with a bright white light. However, this one appeared as a double helix wrapped halo ring that hovered about five hundred feet in the air. It didn't move and didn't appear to be doing anything.
"Unit-04 has launched," Maya said in an almost bored tone. "Moving to intercept."
"Unit-02 is locked in the catapult," Makoto added. "Ready to launch."
"Move it out," Commander Ikari ordered. The bridge bunnies gasped. Asuka was still struggling with her synch ratios and it was still questionable whether she'd still be effective in battle.
"Belay that order," Misato countered.
"Colonel Katsuragi!" Gendo barked. "I want all available EVAs on the surface immediately!"
"The angel is holding its position and at this moment is not an active threat," Misato replied. "We only have two operational EVAs, and given what happened last time, I don't want to place both units at risk until we can feel out this enemy first."
"The purpose of the EVAs is to destroy the angels," the commander replied. "There is no other course but to get it over with."
"And we will, sir," the raven haired operations director growled. "But it has to be done right. The last time we acted brashly it resulted in an EVA pilot going rogue."
"You're out of line, Colonel," Gendo shot back, rising to his feet. "Consider yourself relieved." Everyone gasped once more. That had never happened, not even during the heat of previous attacks. And beyond a somewhat insubordinate tone when Misato said 'sir' she wasn't behaving improperly. Something had gotten under Ikari's skin and it was beginning to show in his behavior.
"This isn't over," Misato grumbled under her breath and stepped to the side.
"Scramble Unit-02 at once," Ikari repeated his order.
"S-sir?" Makoto spoke up hesitantly.
"No arguments. It may be useful as a decoy at the least."
"Is that all the children are to him?" Maya whispered to her colleagues. "Pawns and tools to be used as decoys?"
"He was willing to write off his own son," Shigeru grumbled as they went about their task. "Why should he care about Asuka's life?"
"Do I even care anymore?" Asuka asked herself as she sat in her EVA. "Would it matter if I'm even linked to this thing?" She wasn't feeling very confident following the previous battle. She'd been blindsided and wasn't even able to fight back. Then Unit-01, even without Shinji present, still managed to save her. "I'd probably just be a burden out there."
"What's the target's status?" Rei heard over the radio as the Commander inquired about the angel.
"Target is remaining in a fixed position," she reported.
"Looks like were at a stalemate," Lt Aoba added. "The angel is still rotating but maintaining an altitude of five hundred feet and a distance of 4.79 miles from the city."
"The Magi are unable to analyze it," Lt Hyuga reported from his console. "Its pattern keeps shifting from blue to orange."
'Probably representative of the double helix pattern of its body,' Rei analyzed. 'But why? What does it mean?'
"The shifting pattern probably indicates that it's capable of assuming forms other than what we're seeing now," Dr Akagi was thinking along the same lines. "Meaning it's attack could come in any form. I recommend engaging it from a distance."
"Rei," Commander Ikari came over the line. "You are cleared to engage the target."
"Roger," the girl nodded as she shifted her sniper rifle and took aim.
"Commander," Colonel Katuragi's voice could be heard in the background. "I still recommend we hold back and study it first." Rei began to expand her AT field in preparation to attack.
"This is your last warning, Colonel," Ikari barked. "Stand down or-" The angel stopped rotating and its halo form closed up into a serpentine shape.
"It's coming!" Rei shouted, interrupting the debate down in the command center.
Before she could move the angel pierced right through her AT field and imbedded itself into her EVA. "Erg," she could feel it in her own stomach as it writhed around, trying to wrest control of the EVA from her. "No…you…don't…" She growled as she grasped the serpent body with the left hand and fired the rifle at contact distance into the enemy with no effect. However, grasping the target seemed to only aid it in its attack.
"The target is trying to merge with Unit-04!" Maya shouted as her console began to alert her to the danger.
"Contamination is spreading through the abdomen and left hand," Shigeru confirmed. "It's trying to infect the EVA."
"Not again," Ritsuko shouted. "It's like what happened with Unit-03 all over again!"
"Get Rei out of there!" Misato shouted to the commander. "Get her clear and self-destruct the EVA before it's too late!"
"No," Gendo countered. "Send in Unit-02. Destroy the angel at all costs."
Unit-02 reached the surface, casually grabbed a rifle and took position on Unit-04' flank. "Here it goes," Asuka mumbled. But, just as she was spreading her AT field the opposite end of the angel whirled around and whipped towards her. "Fuck!" Thankfully, Asuka was alert enough to dive to the side before it could make contact with her. The angel drew back and struck again. With adrenaline now running through her veins, Asuka was able to stay just ahead of the angel until she tripped over into a rock quarry, the fall jarring her enough to cause her to involuntarily drop her AT field.
"Asuka's AT field is down!" Maya reported.
"I told you she shouldn't be allowed to pilot," Ritsuko snapped at Misato.
"Why are you yelling at me!?" The colonel asked rhetorically. It wasn't her idea to send Asuka out there.
"Target has ceased its attack on Unit-02," Makoto reported. "She's clear."
Topside, Asuka shakily righted her EVA, fearing that if she poked the Unit out of the quarry she'd get attacked again. "Unit-02," the commander came over the radio. "Get back in there and rescue Unit-04."
"How!?" Asuka snapped. "I almost lost my head last time! And I didn't even get a shot off!"
"Close the distance and get Unit-04 free."
In her EVA, Rei was seeing flashes from Shinji's time as a Wolverine. She saw, as if looking through his own eyes, how he spotted a weak point in a parking lot's pavement to destroy a Russian tank. He witnessed him almost single handedly flank a squad of Spetsnaz in a clothing store. And she watched as he targeted to rotors of a helicopter gunship with an RPG.
As she watched these play out she heard something in her head, another memory from Shinji. A deep, British accented voice, as if someone was reading to him: "The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plan…Attack him where he is weak…appear where you are least expected…"
"Attack the enemy's plan," Rei repeated herself. "What's…it's…plan…?"
"Rei is losing control of Unit-04!" Lt Ibuki reported with alarm. "The angel is merging its AT field with Unit-04's!"
"Unit-02, move out now!" The commandeered ordered once more.
"That's all? Just move in? The thing attacked me the moment I raised my AT field!" That's when Rei had an epiphany. "How am I supposed to fight like that!?"
"The AT field," Rei said out loud. "Drop…the…AT…" she struggled to focus through the pain. "…Field…Drop…Drop…" Finally, she was able to drop her field and simultaneously let go of the angel.
And, just as quickly as it attacked the angel withdrew and began to slink back and forth among the mountains and trees as if searching for something. "Wait," Misato broke the silence down in the command center. "What the hell just happened?"
"I'm now sure," Makoto replied as Misato moved up to his console. "Rei just dropped her AT Field and the angel's attack ceased."
"It just stopped its attack?"
"And now it looks like its searching for something."
"Of course," Ritsuko exhaled. "As soon as Rei and Asuka expanded their fields the angel attacked. And it tried to attack them through their fields by merging with them. When Asuka fell into the quarry she dropped her field…"
"And the angel stopped attacking her," Misato realized. "Then when Rei did the same…"
"And now it's like it can't see them," Maya picked up on the thought thread.
"But with their fields down how can they attack?" Makoto asked.
"They can't," Misato said over the radio.
"Well that's just fucking great," Asuka snapped. "We can't attack because then we'll get infected by the angel and our EVAs will turn into zombies like Unit-03!" In her EVA Rei was trying to think of a plan.
'Attack the enemy's plan,' she kept going over the Sun Tzu maxim. 'Use their plans against them? Use their attack against them?'
"I say we phone this one in!" Asuka grumbled. "I don't exactly feel like fighting either."
"Asuka," Rei said, righting her unit. It had a hole burned into the gut and its left hand was scorched so bad she could barely feel it. Meanwhile, Unit-02 was undamaged. "Converge on my location," she began to punch commands into her keypad as she watched the angel continue its search for a target. "I have a plan…"
"What are you on about?" Asuka said as she moved Unit-02 over to Unit-04. "Your EVA looks like it picked a fight with a blowtorch. And what makes you think you can give me orders? Just because you're the commander's pet doll?"
"Shut up and listen for once!" Rei gave an uncharacteristic retort. "First: I am not a doll. Second…" A weapon slot appeared beside Unit-02, it opened to reveal a Prog-Katana. "I'm going to be the decoy…"
"The what?"
"THE WHAT!?" The entire staff in the command center snapped.
"Rei," Ikari came over a video line. "Stand down, now. Return to the GeoFront and-" Rei killed the feed without sparing him so much as a glance.
"Asuka," Rei said softly to her fellow pilot. "I just need you to trust me this one time…" She then turned to face the angel, now about a mile away. "Get behind me and whatever you do, do NOT deploy your AT Field…"
"What's she doing!?" Ritsuko barked as the red Unit-02 took up position, with the Katana, behind Unit-04 as if were about to behead the other EVA.
"You can do this, Asuka," Rei said to the German in a tone not unlike Shinji's. "Shinji believed in you. Now prove him right."
"Colonel," Makoto spoke up hesitantly. "I think I know what Rei's planning…"
"So do I," Misato whispered in fear. "And I don't like it…"
In her EVA, Asuka struggled with the plan Rei had texted to her. It was crazy, and she doubted it would work. "Shinji…what would he…?"
"He trusted your abilities, Asuka," Rei replied. "He knew you were strong. You just tried too hard to prove it…" Asuka thought back to all the times she got into an argument with her male teammate.
"I have had it with your fucking high and mighty, elitist bullshit!" He had yelled at her while they were training to synchronize their movements. "…the world does not revolve around you, me or anyone else. But all of humanity is counting on us to beat the angels. If we fail the human race will cease to exist. This is not a fight about you, Rei, Misato, or me…" Was she finally beginning to realize what Shinji was trying to get her to understand? "…If we fail…If we don't pull our shit together, we're fucked."
Then, she recalled the voice she heard in her head after Unit-01 rescued her during the last attack: "Dieser Schmerz wird dich entweder zerstören oder stärker machen...es ist deine Wahl, Asuka…" (This pain will either destroy you or make you strong…it's your choice, Asuka…) The 'voice' was right; all the pain and emotional trauma she suffered as a child and was forced to relive by the fifteenth angel, she could either dwell on them and let it bring her down, or use it to fortify her spirit. She'd gotten through it once, and she could do it again.
"Right," Asuka let out her breath, doing her best to focus her mind and steel her resolve to fight. "Let's kill this fucking thing." She placed both hands on the katana, drew it back over her head and got ready. "For Shinji…"
"For Shinji…
"I don't believe it!" Shigeru announced.
"What is it now?" Ritsuko asked as she marched over, thinking something bad had happened.
"Asuka's synch ratio jumped twenty-five points!"
"How?"
"She's moving on," Misato smiled. "She's making herself stronger." For the first time in a long time, Misato began to hope again. "Go for it, Asuka."
"Now," Rei activated her AT Field and, as expected, the angel whipped around and shot towards her like an arrow. The data on her monocle read out the distance and time to impact. It also read out another number: 'Dodge' that was just slightly before impact.
"Come on!" Asuka said. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Finally, the 'Dodge' counter read zero and flashed.
"NOW!" Rei dove Unit-04 forward and to the left. She timed her jump perfectly, slipping right past the angel. Asuka timed her strike perfectly, too.
"HYYYYYAAAAAAAARRRRR!" She slashed the katana forward and the progressive blade began to slice right down the center of the angel like a hot knife through butter.
Asuka had to struggle to hold the blade upright for a couple seconds during her strike to cut it the full length, but it paid off. The angel was almost perfectly bifurcated and the two halves flew off in opposite directions behind both EVAs. They touched the ground just as the two ribbons flickered then exploded, taking out a pair of hills and forcing Unit-02 to crash onto Unit-04.
XXXXX
When the girls came to, they found themselves occupying the same hospital room in the GeoFront. They looked at each other and noted that neither was wearing any bandages. "I guess this means we did it," Asuka said with a soft smile.
"I believe so," Rei agreed. "Your strike was perfect."
"Shit," Asuka chuckled. "Your plan was perfect. Still crazy. Like, Shinji-level crazy," she glanced over at the blue haired girl. "But still perfect."
"Thank you," Rei smiled and nodded back.
"Hell," the redhead shrugged. "We actually made a pretty good team out there. Sorry for calling you a 'doll'…" She paused dramatically, "Wondergirl." She then held out her hand. "And you're right…Shinji would want us to work together."
"Yes," Rei nodded and gently took Asuka's hand. "Together, we stand…"
Outside, in the GeoFront, Misato was conversing with Makoto over the battle's outcome.
"You're sure nothing changed with Unit-01?" Misato asked her subordinate.
"Not a blip," Makoto replied. "Hell, I was surprised it didn't go berserk again. It became such a regular thing that…"
"Yeah," Misato grumbled as her head slumped back against the bench. "What about the other EVAs?"
"Both sustained only minor damage," he replied. "Unit-04's damage was mostly superficial and extended only to the first nerve layer. I was more surprised that Rei came up with such a crazy plan."
"Surprised me too," Misato grinned. "It was like something Shinji would do…"
"That and hanging up on the commander," Lieutenant Hyuga chuckled. "Rei hung up on the commander. Who could've expected that?"
"No one," Misato grumbled. "But the commander ordered her placed on house arrest."
"What? For something like that? That's a little harsh…"
"No," the colonel shook her head. "I think there's more to it than that…" She looked off towards the pyramid. "Something's brewing and, very soon, it's going to boil over."
"Are we…are we able to handle something like…that?" Makoto asked hesitantly.
"Without help?" She sighed heavily. "I doubt it…"
XXXXX
That evening, the advance elements of the Japanese military began to covertly approach the outskirts of Tokyo-3. It starts with probing actions by recon specialists, small incursions to test the waters and only engage enemy forces if attacked and only if necessary to escape. Mini-UAVs were also flown over the city, locating key points of attack and targets.
Soon, more heavily armed parties would infiltrate the city and set up forward positions from which to strike as the more conventional forces closed in. This group would be made up almost entirely by the Special Self Defense Force. Highly trained and ruthless covert operatives known for their speed and almost callous disregard for collateral damage. And one of their targets was a simple, unassuming apartment complex not far from NERV central.
Unbeknownst to either party, other actors were also moving into position. Among these were the lead elements of a Marine Expeditionary Unit-Special Operations Capable force that was covertly inserted via C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster transport to Naval Air Station Atsugi. This force included TUSK-equipped Abrams main battle tanks, LAV-A2 fighting vehicles and AAVP7 amphibious APCs.
The marines began to move their AAVs, loaded with combat veterans, into the Tokyo-3 river and proceed upstream under the cover of darkness while the LAVs and tanks quietly prepositioned themselves within hangers on the base. MV-22 Ospreys and CH-46 Sea Knight Helicopters were also placed on standby to quickly move the infantry towards their objectives while AH-1Z Vipers were loaded for bear.
Off shore, their counterparts in another MEU received their final briefings and began to pre-stage their equipment on board LCAC and LSM landing craft. More aircraft, rotary and fixed wing also began to get ready for the battle that was to come.
Meanwhile, in an abandoned warehouse near Tokyo-3 High School #3, a British special operator approached several of his fellow warriors as they were eating a simple meal of rice, Spam, mandarin oranges and soda. The only one not at the table was doing handstand pushups along the wall. "It's time, lads," he said as he scratched his beard. "Break out your Sunday best, we've got a date tomorrow."
"Let's roll," the one working out said as they stood up and moved over to their cage lockers to break out their full battle kit.
A/N: Coming soon, the showdown everything has been counting down to…The Battle of Tokyo-3!