DC Evangelion
Chapter 4: Sachiel Strikes!
2015 A.D.
Harsh red lighting illuminated the Combat Information Center of the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force Submarine Mitsubi.
"Target bearing!" Captain Ichiro Goro barked as he leaned over an enlisted man's shoulder to glare at the strobing computer displays.
"Target is moving at over 55 knots. Same course and heading." Sonarman First Class Hochi reported.
Lt. Commander Shindou studied her computer readouts at the Tactical Station and tapped several control keys. "I'm getting a download from the Recon Drone," she reported.
The miniature oblong-shaped projectile that the Mitsubi had launched over twenty minutes ago had been racing towards the gigantic object that made a blue whale look like a midget. Now it was feeding gigabytes of information collected by its array of sensors and probes via a tight-beam pulsed laser.
"The Target is not repeat not mechanical. It's organic!" Shindou stated with a note of incredulity in her voice.
Captain Goro fired a look at Shindou and mentally divided the tactical officer's competence between the absolute absurdity of the statement and then decided to believe her. Which meant it was probably was what that panicky submarine captain claimed it was before he was destroyed.
An XT.
An extraterrestrial organism. Which was not encouraging news since the last XT mankind had encountered had wiped out half of Earth's population.
Goro gritted his teeth. He had joined the JSSDF to serve his country, to face and confront men. Not gigantic alien monsters. He remembered watching some old flatscreen movies about this sort of situation when he was a kid. What was it now? Oh yes. Godzilla.
He thought it was funny then. Some ridiculous looking thing that looked more like a guy in a rubber suit beating the crap out of the Japanese military. Somehow the humor was noticeably lacking now though.
Two submarines had already been destroyed by that thing. Now it was Mitsubi's turn.
Goro knew that the JSSDF didn't really think he could stop this thing. His job was to slow it down.
To buy the JSSDF time to put together a force big enough to do the job. That knowledge that he, his crew, and his beloved submarine were regarded as a mere sacrificial lambs to the slaughter was enough to turn his stomach.
He did have some advantages going for him however. The Mitsubi was one of the very latest, most modern submarines in the JSSDF Navy. The previous two submarines were older, due for retirement in a few more years. In comparison, his ship was not only faster, better armored, but packing some very impressive weaponry as well.
Of course, Goro reminded himself sourly, none of those very impressive weaponry had ever been actually tested in combat.
Despite his technological advantages, he found himself wishing he had a few of the older but proven weapons. More to the point, none of his crew had ever actually used any of these magnificent state-of-the-art weapons. Outside of a simulation that is. The accountants had collective heart attacks at the mere suggestion of expending live ammunition for war games or target practice and had insisted on dummy shots and computer projections instead.
Goro fantasized for a moment of stuffing one of those damn accountants into a torpedo tube and firing it at Godzilla while waving one of their spreadsheets. He smiled tightly at that whimsical daydream.
Oh well, time to go to work and earn my magnificent salary, he thought regretfully and refocused his attention to the various displays of the CIC. He cleared his throat and glanced at his executive officer Commander Fujimoto. "Are we ready?" he asked tightly.
"All hands at battlestations. The Mass Driver is loaded and primed. Reloads are ready. E-Torpedoes are charged and ready to be loaded. We are running at over 110 percent of full power. Armor is collapsed and ready for rigging," Fujimoto said dourly.
Goro nodded. "Helm!" he barked, "Prepare to drop out of Pursuit Mode and rig for Combat Mode 1!"
The streamlined shape sped through the water, streaking towards the submerged Sachiel on a direct intercept course.
Then the object began to slow, sections of its streamlined shape began extending themselves, folding themselves out as Mitsubi lost its sleek appearance as armor plating snapped into place.
"Armor is up," Fujimoto reported looking away from his own control screen that he had been watching a wireframe diagram of the Mitsubi finish reconfiguring itself.
The Mitsubi was one of the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces latest design. A hybrid of terrestrial and Kryptonian technology. It was a Tsunami Type B Class Submarine and was little more than three years old and was a vast improvement over some of the jury rigged and half understood systems of the Tsunami Type A.
The impossibly light and incredibly durable Kryptonian metal alloys had enabled designers to create a submersible that could literally transform its basic structural layout for maximum effect. A hydrodynamically sleek and streamlined shape for speed or to a more blunter and armored carapace for better protection to deflect attacks.
The Mitsubi had an even heavier armored mode, Combat Mode 2 if needed. But Goro knew that his best chance not only for survival but in delaying Sachiel lay in Combat Mode 1 where he had the best balance between protection and maneuverability. Combat Mode 2 would give him slightly better durability but trade too much of his speed as a result.
Goro stared as the sensors finally was able to project a clear picture of the XT. The Mitsubi had been previously been moving far too fast for its sonar to accurate paint a very good picture of the XT. Now that he was slower and nearer, the sonar mapping and low-level laser radars and low-light cameras had enough data for the hypercomputers to project and extrapolate a visual image of the XT.
Somehow he had been expecting … well he wasn't sure what he had been expecting but he had been expecting something a little less silly looking. He shook his head. Ridiculous or not …
"Target with Mass Driver," Goro ordered.
Immediately the spinal mounted gravity driver, whose the design was pirated from one of the sublight engines of Kal-El's lifepod began to whine as it powered up. "Target is locked!" one of the rating reported.
"Fire Mass Driver," Goro said calmly.
There was reverberating whine as the gravity driver took the solid projectile, a solid chunk of metal roughly the size of a five year old child and launched it. There was a strange whipcrack of sound reverberating throughout the entire ship as the metal slug became the world's largest and fastest moving shotgun shell.
Goro felt like the entire ship was holding its collective breath as they watched the viewscreens. Not that it mattered. They couldn't see the projectile. It was moving far too fast. What they were tracking were the spiraling shape of the water was literally vaporized by the speed of the object's passage.
They saw XT's reaction first as it jerked to a halt at the sudden attack. Then they felt the dull KRU-THUMP of the enormous impact reverberated throughout the hull.
Fujimoto wasn't looking at the screen, instead he was flashing orders tersely. "Reload Mass Driver!" he snapped. Shindou looked up, "Gravity coils are in cool down cycle, recharging now. Three minutes before we can fire again!"
Goro barely heard them. He saw the XT whip around and focus on them—! "Helm! Evasive! Downward angle dive now!" he heard himself scream.
Faster than he would have believed possible, the enormous XT lashed out. And barely missed.
Goro bared his teeth in a snarl. "Ready E-Torps 1 and 2!"
"Aye! E-Torps 1 and 2 armed and ready!" Shindou called out, her fingers stabbing control buttons.
"Lock on target and fire!" Goro bellowed.
The Mitsubi shuddered internally once and then twice as compressed air charges ejected the Energy Torpedoes from the torpedo tubes.
Instantly, the hydroelectric turbines in each sent the projectiles hurtling off at high speeds.
Sachiel ignored the miniscule objects. They were insignificant. Insects. More annoying that dangerous.
Energy sparked as the torpedoes each created a magnetic bottle. And more energy started pumping into the magnetic bottle. The energy began to grow, feeding off on itself, growing in size and strength until it was a barely contained crackling sphere of electro-plasma that struck Sachiel's outer skin and ignited.
In the dark and shadowy ocean depths, a miniature nova was born and then ever so slowly, almost reluctantly, faded away.
"Well?" Goro snapped, peering at the digital display of static.
Hochi mentally cursed as he fiddled with his controls, trying to clear the sonar arrays which were temporarily blinded and confused by the incredible underwater explosion. He especially disliked being crowded by his superior officer who was practically shoving him aside from his own sonar monitors. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, the Captain was not telepathic and thus was unaware of his sonarman's mental curses. Nothing could take a head on collision with an Energy Torpedo and live. That thing, whatever it was, was dead or dying, Hochi thought with a snort.
Absently Hochi wondered how long it would take the corpse of that size to surface.
"Interference is clearing…" he muttered aloud and then, "I'm getting something—!"
Out of the billowing curtains of bubbling water, Sachiel lunged forward. The impact struck the Mitsubi hard and caused the submarine to flail around as it fought for control. There was no time. Almost casually, Sachiel backhanded the ship.
The Mitsubi could have survived even if one-third of the submarine's compartments had been ruptured and flooded. It's remarkable and incredibly durable design would have still enabled the submersible to be minimally operable. The strike by Sachiel however had ripped open the entire starboard side of the submarine from bow to stern.
Millions of gallons of seawater rushed into the huge gash. Bulkheads tried to close to seal off the flooding but too much of the compartments had been torn open and they could only delay the inevitable. Not stop it completely.
Sachiel watched calmly as the Mitsbui began to tilt off-axis as compartments flooded and its center of balance was compromised.
The crew of the Mitsbui fought desperately to save their ship.
It was a futile task.
Delicate and fragile electronics shorted out as they were submerged in water. Lights sparked and died.
The Mitsubi began its last dive backwards. Its bow tilted upward as it fell almost vertically towards the ocean floor.
She smashed savagely on the bottom of the ocean floor. It was only a testament to the strength of her design that she even held together. But no longer. The massive weight of the submarine snapped it in two, tearing itself in half midship.
The twin fusion reactor plants finally gave out, their final safety systems failing. There was a powerful and deafening explosion as the Mitsubi died.
There were no survivors. It had happened far too quickly, far too fast for anyone to attempt to escape.
Sachiel waited a moment more, carefully surveying the destruction to ensure that those bothersome insects were well and truly destroyed. Then satisfied, it turned to swim onwards.
Towards Japan.
A/N: One of my reviewers, gunman mentioned that in the Evangelion series, the Japanese Self Defense Force is actually known as the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force which I had been calling the JSDF by mistake. I have since corrected that error.
For those of you wondering, the JSDF is the actual name for the Japanese organization in the real world. Apparently after 2000 A.D. or Second Impact, the JSDF would reorganize itself as the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force (JSSDF) as they were no longer a protective or reactive military arm or peacekeepers but rather would have to serve as an offensive army in the chaos and several wars that sprang up after Second Impact. That's pretty much what happened here as well in my reimagined story. Hope that clears things up that when I am referring to the JSDF in previous chapters, it was the pre-Second Impact version and post-Second Impact, they are now the JSSDF.