DC Evangelion
Chapter 7: Preparations for War
Tokyo-3
Fortress 1
Monitor Womb
"Launch all depth charges!" one of the Generals yelled watching the five story high holographic video screen as the dozens of old style helicopters began dropping successive waves of metal canisters into the choppy water.
General Hiro Matsuda watched and internally grimaced. The JSSDF were scrapping together anything and everything they had to throw at the XT. Those helicopters were from the mid 20th Century and had been heavily retrofitted. But they were well past the age of usefulness and were edging into senility. Retrofitting could only help so much. Those copters were at least two, perhaps as much as three generations out of date. Hell, some of them might even be older than I am, Matsuda thought darkly.
While it might make some tactical sense, he rather thought they were throwing away irreplaceable trained men and women in outdated machines that should have been scrapped long ago.
There was a rumble and foamy geysers of waters erupted from the sea as the depth charges detonated.
The same General who had ordered the dropping of the depth charges was now ordering one of the helicopters to move in closer to try and get a better view and determine the effectiveness of the attack.
Matsuda felt his hands twitching and a tic began jumping at the corner of his mouth. Pull them back dammit. Pull them back! he mentally screamed.
The sea boiled as something huge parted them and Sachiel surfaced.
They heard a scream of horror from the audio channel from one of the helicopter's crew, perhaps the pilot or co-pilot as they got a close up look at the XT. Closer than even the General wanted probably, Matsuda thought mirthlessly.
The screen dissolved into static. Shit. Matsuda closed his eyes for a second.
The General made a muffled curse and slammed a fist on his armrest as the holographic screen blanked before switching to another, more distant view point.
The helicopters were scattering now, struggling to run away.
A few didn't.
The abrupt surfacing of the the enormous XT either caught a few by surprise or their engines simply weren't up to the task of getting them out of the way quickly enough. The XT didn't even seem to notice the four helicopters that it brushed aside. They saw one of the helicopter swinging around wildly, smoke pouring out from its tail rotor. It appeared as if several of the main blades of the helicopter were gone, ripped off. It crashed and shredded itself into scrap metal before exploding into a ball of fire.
Matsuda said nothing but continued to watch as now a convoy of mobile missile launchers unleashed a barrage of rockets. Explosions dotted up and down the frame of the gigantic XT who ignored them as it waded forward through the surf and onto dry land. It raised an arm and some sort of energy beam erupted from its hand to destroy one of the fleeing helicopters as a man might casually swat a pesky fly.
There was a sound of exultation from one of the other Generals sitting at the Command Deck. He immediately placed his handset down and looked at the other two, "ETA is 15 minutes for the aerodynes!" he said proudly. The other two Generals began smiling and nodding as well.
Matsuda did not bother to respond. He didn't think the new aircrafts would make that much of a difference anyways. But it would be interesting to see how much the new technology performed.
"It is not going very well is it," a deep rumbling voice sounded behind him.
Matsuda glanced over his shoulder to see that his two military subordinates had appeared to watch the action. General Yuri Ivanov was a big, stocky, bulky barrel chested man who towered over just about everyone else. A Russian by birth, he had joined the Army as a common soldier and worked his way up the hard way, winning his officer's commission and later his generalship through his fierce bulldogged tenacity and bloody single minded stubbornness.
He earned his frightening nickname from his high school days when he led his ice hockey team to the State Championships twice in a row. It was coined by the players on the opposite side of the rink. They fearfully dubbed the savage and brutal forward as Ivan. Ivan the Terrible.
Matsuda suspected that Ivanov secretly enjoyed and played up his coarse and savage reputation. He was well known for his loud and blistering oratory. More than one hapless officer who found himself or herself at the end of one of his tirades discovered a few more speed gears that they didn't even know they possessed by sheer inspiration. Or perhaps desperation.
Ivanov reminded Matsuda of a bulldozer more than anything else. Big and ponderous and just about unstoppable.
Of course, if someone were designing Ivanov's antithesis, he probably would have come up with Air Marshal Luo Zhang. He was a good foot shorter than Ivanov and whereas Ivanov was built like a brick wall, Zhang was slender and rapier thin like a gymnast.
Of course it wasn't just their physical differences that set the two men apart but rather the fact that Ivanov's approach to combat was simplistic and straightforward. Wade in and keep on hammering his opponent until he can't take anymore. Zhang on the other hand was a wily, sly, cunning, and devious strategist who preferred the subtle sucker punch when his opponent was least expecting it.
Zhang was rather quiet and mild sort of person who apparently didn't go for the bombastic and strident shouting of Ivanov. He never raised his voice but he was capable of flaying the skin of any person, officer or noncom with only the frosty tone of his voice and the icy glare in his eyes.
Their appointment to the JSA was a political gesture by the United Nations. Each Fortress had a designated regional area that they would be responsible for. Fortress 1 which covered Asia thus included Japan, China, and Russia thus they drew various military and support personnel from those specific regions.
Matsuda had at first been dubious at the idea but he had long since become accustomed to their presence and even found that their professionalism, their insight, and individual talents were a tremendous asset. And playing them off against each other only helped. Ivanov was too much of a fighter and Zhang was too much of a thinker. Thus Ivanov had to reign in his aggressiveness and Zhang wouldn't paralyze himself into indecision by overanalysis.
It still felt a bit odd though sometimes working alongside a Russian and a Chinese. Russia, China, and Japan had all warred against each other at one time or another. Desperation and the urgent need to survive enabled old bitter enemies to unite in face of a mutual enemy. They were no longer Russians, Chinese, or Japanese anymore. Those old concepts of nationalities and rival states had pretty much ended in the fiery cauldron of Second Impact. They were now simply human beings united against a common foe fighting to survive.
Actually, most of the youngsters seemed not to notice such trivialities anymore. It was Matsuda and his older generation that still seemed to find it a bit awkward and a bit out of step.
Matsuda wondered if they did manage to survive and triumph would their alliance break apart? Would they go back to isolated nations and bitter rivalry?
The world was such a strange place these days. And getting stranger, Matsuda reflected. He shook his head. Enough wool gathering. "Yes, I'm afraid so. They aren't doing so well."
Zhang merely gave a small nod of agreement and then, "Both the Chinese and Russian Armed Forces are mobilizing. They are alerted and are redeploying to assist the JSSDF," he reported calmly.
Matsuda snorted. "I doubt they can get here in time."
Zhang shrugged and continued, "The Third is en route now. We've shunted the car to an express track and increased the speed past the safety margins but it's still going to take it at least another fifty minutes to get to the station. And it's going to be an hour and thirty minute drive here to CIC."
"Damn. Why the Hell didn't we fly the kid in?" Ivanov demanded with a low growl.
"It wasn't a priority at the time. Internal Security thought it was better to be 'low profile'." Zhang said dryly.
Hindsight was such a wonderful thing. Matsuda cursed as he pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to remind himself that InSec was on HIS side. Or so they claimed.
"What about an aerodyne? It could make the trip here in about fifteen minutes—" Ivanov suggested.
"None of them are available." Zhang interrupted coolly.
Ivanov growled, "If that kid gets his ass killed then we don't have a pilot and that fancy genetically engineered super-weapon," he jerked his thumb in the general direction of the EXO Frame Hanger, "is as worthless as a tank out of petrol. The engine will turn over, the gun will fire, but it ain't going nowhere. It will just sit there looking all shiny and pretty and damn useless."
"We shall simply have to rely on the JSSDF to delay the XT long enough for us to pick the Third Child up and bring him to Fortress 1," Zhang stated calmly.
Ivanov sneered, conveying his opinion of the ability of the JSSDF to do just that.
Zhang was expressionless but Matsuda got the feeling that he silently agreed with his counterpart.
"Fortress Status?" Matsuda asked to divert attention.
Ivanov grunted, "All defensive systems are fully on-line, the offensive systems are 90 percent operational," he reported. "They are still having problems with the automated missile reloading system in Battery 5. However the engineers tell me that the problem will be fixed and they will be fully on-line within the hour," he reported grimly. Both Zhang and Matsuda heard the unspoken Or Else. Ivan the Terrrible was not the most forgiving or understanding of individuals. He did not expect results. He demanded them. The engineers had better be finished in an hour.
"The Fortress is presently sealed. All access points are blockaded. All nonessential personnel are currently evacuating into the emergency shelters. I have several MP patrols searching for stragglers or people who think it's another stupid drill and are staying put. We're doing headcounts at all of the shelters so we'll know if they're any people left behind and who they are so we can look for them," Ivanov concluded.
Zhang reached into his pocket and pulled out a small computer pad and examined it. He looked up, "Fortress 2 and 3 are on-line with us. The other Fortresses are currently uplinking now," he reported. "The other senior staff is waiting for us in the Communications Chamber."
Matsuda nodded and then cleared his throat, "Sirs, something has come up that requires my attention," he said respectfully to the triumvirate of JSSDF Generals, all of whom outranked him sitting in the Command Deck of the Monitor Womb and busy discussing some new mobilizations.
The most senior of them nodded courteously, "Very well General. You are excused." and casually saluted Matsuda before returning his attention to the holographic image of the XT now trodding over several tanks. He scowled before reentering the intense conversation and began arguing some new deployment and how to reorganize it.
Matsuda returned the salute and then glanced right and left to his mismatched pair of bookends, "Let's go," he told Ivanov and Zhang with a jerk of his head.
A/N: In case some of you are wondering Matsuda, Ivanov, and Zhang are not part of the original Evangelion universe nor do they belong to DC. They are my own original characters.