Chapter 4: Training Duel and…
Chapter A/N: Beginning of the storyline proper now that the background is out of the way. The fighters being tested by EVA Squadron have all been modified with the first full versions of the COFFIN system interface as in AC3 Electrosphere, which uses all-round camera displays instead of a transparent cockpit and places the pilot in a highly reclined position to resist G-forces, as well as in a neural interface with the aircraft's systems so they can control the plane simply by thought. One disadvantage, though, is that ejection is impossible since the resulting neural trauma would either kill the pilot or render them terminally insane. For an idea of what the Eva kids look like at age 20, the faux Reprise of Evangelion poster around on the Internet gives as good an impression as any.
Warnings: Angst, adult themes, gory violence, strong language and general unpleasantness appropriate to war all ahead.
BGM Alert: Stamina Rose. Ghost In the Shell: Stand Alone Complex OST1, Track 3. Begins when the dogfight does and continues to its end.
Time: 15:00hrs 4/20/2020: Place: North Osean/South Belkan Priority One Strategic Airspace B7R ("The Round Table"), Osean Federation on the Osea Continent, Planet Earth. (Strangereal Universe)
"Eva Lead?" The radio squawked in Shinji's ears. Or at least it seemed to squawk, despite the fact that in a COFFIN, or Connection For Flight Interface, equipped plane the radio was actually a direct datalink to the pilot's auditory nerves; in-flight telepathy, in other words. "Hey Eva Lead? SHINJI? BUDDY?"
"Huh?" Chief Warrant Officer Shinji Ikari partially broke to answer his wingman from concentration on flying his newly assigned mount, a purple-hulled ADF-01FC Falken II fitted with the second-generation, immersive COFFIN system cockpit; an advance over the simple, 360-degree cameras and armored shell equipped original COFFIN, pioneered by the first ADF-01 Falken way back during the Belkan War of 1995. This flight was yet another hush-hush measurement test evaluating their combat performance with the COFFIN and determining what adjustments might need making.
And since the squad was stopping over at the Osean Air Defense Force's Heierlark AFB for reasons equally above their pay grades, the test scenario was a blind emergency intercept over the infamous Area B7R: The Round Table; monitored by Major Misato Katsuragi, head of Evangelion Squadron aboard the unit's command plane: AWACS Pribnow Box. Shinji thought of how lucky they were last month's test had been a simple night maritime strike simulation as he replied, "Yes 04?"
"Sir, you've got to keep your head on a swivel here; with all due respect. This is the Round Table for Pete's sake!" Shinji's second wingman, Warrant Officer Kensuke Aida, alerted his commander and friend of many years to the dangers of this place, at least as he saw them given his penchant for air combat lore.
A circular crater some 800 kilometers in diameter, this airspace was notorious during the Belkan War as the premier battleground for air superiority. Ostensibly, because of its massive resource deposits and strategic position astride borders formerly claimed by Belka abutting the Republic of Ustio and the Kingdom of Sapin; but really because of precisely the feudal mindset its name implied: a place where any seeking honor as knights of the sky… could duel to claim it. Though long quieter since South Belka's secession to Osea mid-war, ratified by treaty after Belka's defeat, the area was still a favored training ground for rookie fighter pilots from nearby airbases.
However, the airspace quickly took on something of its old aspect when Misato warned Shinji's three-ship flight of their approaching objective. "Warning, Eva Squad, this is Pribnow Box; be advised! Solo bogey closing at 1.5 Mach on an intercept course. Weapons hold; repeat, weapons hold. Strip and identify, over." Major Katsuragi had just authorized an intermediate level of readiness, allowing the weapons to be armed yet not authorizing fire until further information; contrary to popular usage, "bogey" meant "unknown and presumed hostile," as opposed to the confirmed hostility and clearance to fire at will that "bandit" denoted.
"Roger that…" Shinji tensed all over; at least before he remembered that the Falken II tended to misinterpret that and accelerate more choppily than preferred. "This is it. Here I go, Dad. Try ignoring me once I show you who was really there for Mom that day!"
"What? I don't…" Kensuke reported the lack of anything on his radar display faithfully enough, but was soon enough proven wrong when his warning gear began positively screaming at him from at least two incoming missiles. While frantically dodging the head-on strike from some 60 degrees above he screamed, "WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT! WHERE THE HELL IS THIS BASTARD COMING FROM??"
The answer to that question only came from Kensuke's simulation gear, the laser ranging pulses and datalink transmissisons that substituted for missile hits firing off a white smoke generator in the Falken's weapons bay. In the space of five measly seconds WO Aida's plane was mock destroyed with an utterly cold efficiency reminiscent of the legendary Demon Lord, former ruler of these skies twenty-five years ago. The battle was now truly joined as Shinji and his other wingman, Warrant Officer Toji Suzuhara in a black-hulled Falken II, split off wildly and just barely dodged the simulated long-range missiles inbound on their aircraft. They were lucky; the attacker had focused on downing Kensuke's silver-hulled Falken II first by lobbing two simulated heat-seekers after him once the first spread of three BVR missiles was outbound.
"Kill confirmed. Eva 04, exit the combat area and RTB." Second Lieutenant Maya Ibuki instructed Kensuke to make way for the surviving members of his flight to finish the test. Grudgingly, with a stream of possibly appropriate invective just barely inaudible beneath his radio buzz, he complied. She then intoned, "All Eva pilots, you are weapons free; repeat, weapons free!"
Shinji's breath caught as he realized the attacker's identity, signaled by her gold-hulled and equally COFFIN-equipped X-02C Wyvern II, once she banked hard past Toji's plane in such a fast merge that both her rivals' planes were buffeted by the jet wash from her supercruising at Mach 1.5; even some miles distant. "A-A…Ayanami!" Shinji's stomach sank right at that thought. It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair!
Chief Warrant Officer Rei Ayanami. The stunning blue-haired, ghost pale woman with the crimson eyes; Shinji's comrade-in-arms these past five years of training as a GRDF fighter pilot, and the clear favorite of his father: Special Air Division NERV CO Commander Gendo Ikari. Every time he looked at her, equal parts dumbstruck awe and juvenile longing, Shinji swore unto his inevitable grave Rei was the spectral, spitting image of his late mother Yui Ikari; despite the universal ridicule his friends heaped on the idea. That is, equally as much as they ridiculed his obvious desire for her since she'd hardly spoken five short paragraphs to him in all their five long years of acquaintance. He truly had his work cut out for him since he'd seen her fly before, albeit never against him: beautifully enough to make one cry, full stop.
Nonetheless, as much as Shinji hated the idea of fighting this vision, he hated the idea of losing to her… to anyone, still more. Therefore, he ordered Toji to break right and attempt either a conversion turn onto Rei's tail or a one-circle fight from head on against her, Shinji calculating on Rei to evade and open her tail to his sights. Either of Toji's options was arguably as dangerous as the other, since Rei was known for both double-tapping her missile shots and pulling either Pugachev's Cobra or similar hard braking maneuvers in such instances; those latter maneuvers intended to cause her pursuer to overshoot either right into her waiting missile lock or behind for Rei to make her own joust-style pass. None who overshot Rei survived the blunder, even if all her dogfights thus far had been training mockups.
Shinji's order had swiftly been proven an error, however; not a good omen for when he'd be entrusted with formal flight leadership as a Second Lieutenant, if ever. Rei had taken the brash Suzuhara up on his offer of a joust and squarely whacked him in teeth, as it were; one simulated missile impacting as the second went wide because of the extreme banking angles involved. Thus disoriented as his plane bucked to simulate damage, Suzuhara faltered in his normally quite good flying technique just long enough for Rei to pull an inhumanly tight vertical conversion turn onto his tail and hold him dead in her sights long enough to simulate a gun kill. Apparently, despite her mask of emotionlessness, Rei Ayanami sure believed in adding proverbial insult to injury when it came to putting those opposing her in their place.
Gulping as he watched Toji's plane belch smoke from its belly canister and break off to return home per Maya's usual commands, Shinji thought frantically, "I mustn't run away… I mustn't run away… I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY!!" He punched the throttle to afterburner as he began to consider his alternatives in a pseudo-head-on approach like currently so against Rei, none of them good.
Option 1: He could attack her truly head on, hoping against reason that her targeting system hadn't reloaded her simulated missiles yet, and still more to dodge said missiles even if they were fired. A surprisingly effective tactic nowadays, what with all-aspect missiles, largely because it was the most foolish thing one could do and thus normally unexpected short of beyond-visual-range fighting. But again, risk normally outweighed reward here, especially so against a pilot of Rei's obvious mettle; and Shinji guessed from Toji's mock demise that he would hardly fare any better using it than his friend had.
Option 2: He could blow past her and attempt an Immelman or Split-S, each being opposite the other, or another conversion turn in an attempt to somehow drop onto her tail. Again, this general approach too was scarcely better than Option 1 because of Rei's tendency to force pursuers into overshooting her to their inevitable simulated doom. Shinji quickly eliminated either the Immelman or Split-S in this case, since leaving his intakes and tailpipes exposed even as briefly as those maneuvers did was simply out of the question here. That left the conversion turn. "Here… HERE I GO!!"
Shinji broke hard left immediately after cracking the Mach in too close a merge to realistically shoot, despite just barely guessing correctly that Rei's targeting system still hadn't reloaded after downing Toji, and grunted against the G-forces as he wrenched his Falken II as hard as its' forward-swept wings, fly-by-light controls and thrust-vectoring engines would allow in pursuit of Rei's Wyvern II. A close pursuit was hardly the Falken's advantage against a Wyvern, but Shinji was too close to reasonably employ his medium-range missiles and thus had to settle for the relatively least-disadvantageous of several close-range tactics available.
Predictably, Rei began to barrel roll upwards after lighting her afterburners, forcing Shinji to either follow her in the worst sort of fight possible: a Vertical Scissors, or else risk the same demise that befell Kensuke if he let her arc away for another BVR pass. In the sort of mad turning and rolling that characterized this fight, an aerial 'knife fight' if there was any such thing, one aircraft must eventually attempt to break the cycle of progressively tighter turns to its advantage or else overshoot. Assuming it didn't just stall out first. "Damn! What's the deal with this rigged system check anyway? I know we're not stunt pilots… but this is INSANE!" Despite his thoughts' hesitance, Shinji knew he had no choice and followed. He wasn't yet aware enough of his surroundings to see Rei coming in time and avoid getting smacked like Kensuke if he tried to separate to longer range.
The g-forces built steadily, and time blurred more with each passing second/age as Shinji tried to wrestle Rei into a solid missile lock, then into his gunsights when that became impractical. And the speed just kept dropping along with the range: 400 knots… 300… 250. "Th-this is it… I'm going to stall, and she'll just stall out afterward to whip her nose down towards me and fire…NO!!!"
With his speed at a mere 205 knots, Shinji made his gamble, pulling a hard loop opposite Rei's after she seemed to commit to that particular roll. It worked: she was now flying perpendicular to him at only slightly higher speed; a perfect simulated gun target. "YES! Come on girl… let's just get this over with so…? Shinji paused inside as he kept angling for the shot, blushing as he realized what he wanted to finish this fight for: so he could fantasize about her more back on the ground. No doubt about it: he was a pathetic loser… even, hell, especially to himself.
Be that as it may, the success of his approach in this case shocked him back to reality as Misato herself chimed, "WHOO YEAH! Gun kill confirmed! Way to go Shinji!!" She caught herself after chuckling a bit before continuing, "Well done both of you. RTB for debriefing and some well-earned rest kids." Misato seemed just a hair too eager at the result of Shinji's sweat and anxiety today; had she been drinking too much of her 'special' coffee again?
The return flight to Heierlark had been equal parts easy flight and difficult silence for Shinji as he puzzled out why he'd managed to defeat Rei today. But gradually, he began to sense the outline of an answer. "She's so perfect; in… hell EVERYTHING. But maybe that's the problem? She stayed committed to that turn even though she didn't have to. Does she really know how to improvise?" Shinji wondered. Rei's flying technique certainly covered the book, but maybe that was all. He hadn't sensed her particularly taking notice of him, Toji or Kensuke outside the minimum required to maintain situational awareness… precision without passion, perhaps? In any case, it had been effective enough this day, Rei still coming in 2:1 in her favor thanks to downing Shinji's wingmen first.
As Maya signaled they could begin landing in formation, Rei finally deigned to acknowledge Shinji's presence scarce meters to starboard of her as they finished lining up on the ILS localizer bar, forming the vertical part of a crosshairs in each of their Head-Up Displays. "Ikari?"
"Wha-what? Ayanami?" Shinji nearly choked in amazement, as he always did when she asked of him.
"You performed well today." Had something come over her? Since when did she complement anybody; much less Shinji?
"Uh… well… it was nothing. Really. I was just, you know…" The range was dwindling, and the awkwardness of the moment was hardly aided by Shinji's need to keep his approach and glide slope both on target, thus displaying an equilateral cross on his HUD for reference. If Rei was having the same problem, her plane's usual silken glide certainly betrayed no sign of such.
"No, Ikari. I do not know." She was demanding an answer. Damn it all, she wasn't letting Shinji off the hook now!
"I was… I WAS JUST DOING WHAT EVERYONE ELSE EXPECTS OF ME!!" Shinji faux-screamed over the secure link between his purple Falken's COFFIN and the gold Wyvern's. He wanted to get the uncomfortable truth out as fast as possible.
Rei only returned with a flat question, "I see. Do you not admire what your father has done for you… for the world?" Her question punctuated their tires hitting the runway on another textbook landing for both of them.
"WHAT??" Shinji had hardly imagined Rei, to his mind a guardian angel assuming he had such, could ever offend him; but she just had, and gravely so at that. "How in hell could I admire what that jerk has done? Do you even know who he is, Rei?" Shinji needed to gauge just how crazy his fantasy girl could possibly be, however disheartening the results.
"Yes. Shinji. Do you?" Each word of Rei's terse and quiet rebuttal struck Shinji like lashes from a barbed whip. As they taxied in to their revetments on the flight ramp, Shinji moped in stunned regret at how he'd probably sunk forever whatever slim chances he had of a deeper relationship with Rei. His friends would be guffawing at the news when they inevitably forced him to fess up; especially Toji and his girlfriend Hikari Horaki, the last pilot selected for EVA Squadron, which relationship Major Katsuragi only seemed to allow because they were both Warrant Officers and thus presented no formal reason to order a separation. In any case, Misato never assigned them to the same flight, so she clearly took pains to ensure discipline where it mattered: in the air.
Stepping into the debriefing room after changing into his service blues and flight jacket, in which room Misato was loitering with her usual casualness, her face plastered with an even bigger smile than usual for her excitable self as she eyed him intently, Shinji moped further as he endured her equally greatly annoyed recounting of the day's fight. "At 15:00 hours today, the First Flight of Evangelion Squadron, Special Air Division NERV of the GRDF engaged a lone bogey over Area B7R. This mission was actually a surprise many-on-one training engagement between three Eva Squad ADF-01FC Falken IIs, under the command of Chief Warrant Officer Shinji Ikari, and one Eva Squad X-02C Wyvern II piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Rei Ayanami. Suffice it to say that I am shocked at how poorly Warrant Officers Suzuhara and Aida performed today!"
Misato shot them her characteristic 'annoyed scowl' before continuing as they winced at such disapproval from their shared fantasy woman. "Rei is our pilot with the lowest synchronization with her COFFIN system, and this test was actually intended to challenge her so her stats could improve. But you two were off the ball and merely ended up as meat for her, since she was explicitly told not to hold back. Only Shinji here," Misato winked his way in what seemed only barely professional regard, "fulfilled the point of this mission; providing Rei with an effective challenge in both tactics and piloting before shooting her down in the simulation.
For which, if you shall all stand gentlemen," Misato reached into her GRDF uniform overcoat, seemingly a strange thing to wear for a debriefing indoors until she pulled out two small golden bars and a velvet box. "I hereby honor Chief Warrant Officer Shinji Ikari, by the power vested in me under the General Resources Defense Force Charter as commander of Evangelion Squadron, with a field commission to the rank of Second Lieutenant; with all the privileges and responsibilities pertaining to said rank. Approach, Chief Warrant Officer Ikari."
Shinji hesitantly stood before Major Katsuragi as she stood and pinned the two golden 'butter bars' to his uniform lapels. She then handed him the velvet box, which he opened to see contained the other two for his shoulder straps, presumably to be pinned on later. He hesitantly saluted her in silent thanks. She replied, "Congratulations, Shinji," as she returned his salute.
His comrades did the same, disappointed scowls on their faces as they realized they'd missed out on promotions to CWO at least today. Rei simply saluted, paying him no more heed than usual. Though he could understand why, it still hurt as far as Shinji was concerned. Deeply.
"Dismissed. Shinji, if you may, I have some further matters to discuss with you." Misato's beaming tone audibly drained from her voice as she spoke. Clearly her praise wasn't unqualified after all. Typical, at least for Shinji's life that is.
But what followed next was most atypical, at least for the moment. Commander Ikari's "audio only" monolith replaced the fig-leaf emblem of the Special Air Division NERV on the briefing screen, and delivered the news. "Attention. There is word of a lone aircraft, ADFX-01 Morgan class, approaching this base. Our radar analysis has already confirmed it is carrying Multi-Purpose Burst Missile ordnance, and we can only presume its objective is to destroy this facility. The Osean Air Defense Force planes guarding the perimeter have already been shot down, so it is our responsibility to return the favor. EVA Squad is to launch all ready aircraft at once and intercept."
Misato blew up. "Sir, that's crazy! Two of my pilots are in NO way prepared for combat, and one is clearly showing signs of mental fatigue after her COFFIN synchronization test today!" She referred to Rei, sitting blankly in what looked like her conserving energy as much as possible.
"I neither make nor expect excuses, Major Katsuragi. You shall carry out your orders however you must; that is all." Commander Ikari's monolith vanished, in favor of the fig leaf and "God's in His Heaven, all's right with the World" motto once again.
"Damn it!" Misato stomped the floor once, HARD, and fumed visibly for a moment. Then she turned morosely to Shinji and asked what her duty required. "Shinji?"
He saw no other point. He'd tried to run away a year ago, after nearly panicking when Rei had been badly injured in a crash by her Hawk trainer jet shortly after its issue to her. All that had earned Shinji was some time in the stockade and yet more disapproval from his hated father. And yet more questioning, vaguely chastising stares from a bloody, bandaged, but unbowed Rei as well. "I'll do it." His tone was pure resignation, and no more.
"Good, Shinji." Misato's pacing in that statement made him doubt a pause between those words had really been intended; it was only barely audible if it indeed existed. "The techs are arming your Falken now with XLAA long range missiles and a full load of Sidewinders. Good luck." She really meant it; his five years of living with her and Kaji had certainly brought out the maternal side in her, it seemed.
Raising his head blankly, Shinji ambled towards the locker room for his flight suit; the second time that morning he'd done so. Would it always be like this? Would he always be caught up short by the problems of strangers he'd prefer never to meet and inflict himself upon? He wondered as he began to strip down before slipping into his G-suit…