Answers:
Guest: Nope, the United Nations Security Council is in fact a real life organization, but the UNSC reference was kind of an in-joke (google "UNSC BBC news goof" )

Disclaimer: See prologue
Ch.1 Disappear and Abandon.

Hakone, Japan, 2004.

The Artificial Evolution Laboratory, despite its bizarre sounding name, was the pinnacle of human medical technology. Advanced prostheses, stem-cell based organ transplants, and neural augmentations are developed in the top-secret, joint government and corporate facility. Managed by the UN, it has great international presence, with companies such as Chinese-based Tai Yong Medical, and American companies Crynet Systems and Sarif Industries competing to purchase the futuristic developments coming from the labs.

The Lowest floor of the lab complex is the Gehirn branch. It was specifically established to determine the solution for 'the Black Moon dilemma.' The SEELE Subcommittee of the UN Security Council had been recently elected by the General Assembly to oversee the after-effects and future defense of Hakone, and the planned fortress city to be built above it. There were the usual questions of graft and shrewd politics in the election, but that's nothing electoral bribery can't fix. With SEELE's well-appropriated funding, Dr. Ikari and Prof. Fuyutsuki were able to draft the brightest electronic, mechanical, and biologic engineers from around the planet. The Gehirn program focused on the development of gigantic humanoid 'Evangelions', and Gendo Ikari's natural organizational leadership was used to keep the large staff of brilliant but often absentminded professors working and studying smoothly.

The UNSC oversaw the construction of the armored dome that would spread over and across the former city of Hakone. When it was completed, there would be 22 layers of ceramic armor—the most rigid and resilient object man had ever constructed. However, it was the ingenious method the builders used to protect the inhabitants of the city that was truly laudable. Each and every skyscraper, every apartment building, every corporate office was bristling with surface to air missiles, anti-air cannons, and garage space for military vehicles was divided up along roads and highways. When the new housing blocks were furnished, the civilian population of Hakone was moved into the upper city of Tokyo-3 to live in the incredible moving skyscrapers—buildings that could be lowered under the armor like a turtle retracting into its shell.

Ground-level Hakone was made into dedicated military complex real estate, giving the giant robots plenty of fighting room on their home turf. Gehirn essentially owned the entire complex, as they needed workspace, housing, facilities and raw materials for construction of the Evangelion units. Their pyramid base was a sight to behold, as was the emergency water reservoir that functioned as a reflecting pool for the base itself. Over time, Gehirn's political influence grew, and with it, so did its international reach. Gehirn Branch 2 was established at an Air Force base in Nevada that doesn't exist, and Bethany base was built in Siberia, with the express purpose to entomb the still-alive Third Angel.

The raw similarities between human and angel DNA made work on reverse-engineering the Third's core simple, but imperfect. The synthetic core could generate matter and the shield, known to Gehirn scientists as an 'Absolute-Terror Field', but could not power itself. The Evangelion Units would require constant and available external power, and that meant a massive upgrade to Japanese infrastructure, long overdue after the damage caused by the Second Impact.

When 2004 arrived, Gehirn had successfully grown the muscle and skeletal mass for Prototype Evangelion 00 and Test Evangelion 01. Unit 00 was infamously glitchy and spent quite a bit of time connected to the MAGI computer system for calibration. Dr. Naoko Akagi—quite possibly the most brilliant computer scientist in history—had her work cut out for her when she designed and built the computer system that would calibrate and maintain the fleet of cyborg war machines. The three server systems were each given separate artificial intelligence operating systems, and they spent just as much time arguing with one another as they did useful computations.

The Evangelion Units were built with two potential control systems—one was a physical cockpit that the pilot would ride and manipulate the Unit with conventional controls. The other, a design espoused by Dr. Ikari herself, involved merging the pilot into the Evangelion's Core-the pilot wouldn't need joysticks or triggers, they would control the massive beasts like they controlled their own bodies. The two systems were to be progressively tested, but Unit 00, with the first-generation 'entry-plug' system was down for maintenance…again.

Unit 01 was progressing well enough that Dr. Ikari fast-forwarded the live pilot trials and wrote herself into the sortie roster, taking the very first position as a candidate. When the Core-entry test was scheduled, she was to simply activate Unit 01, broadcast a 'success' message over its transmitter, and then exit the Core. Gendo was overseeing personnel for the day, and neither adult Ikari could manage to arrange childcare for their three-year-old son Shinji. Gendo brought him into the test control room and told him to wait still while he and his mother worked for just a few minutes. Dr. Akagi, however, just wouldn't have a bored little boy sitting and looking lonely while all these adults were being workaholics. She took to fawning over the timid but adorable boy while she should have been reading the MAGI's calculations—she really couldn't help it, she had a daughter of her own, now a Dean's List student at Tokyo University.

Yui harnessed herself into the entry crane—an unwieldy scaffolding that would lower her into the core directly, and as the test was started, all personnel were ushered behind the bulletproof windows. Unit 01 was plugged into its ultra-high-voltage power conduit and Yui was lowered. A flash of light from the core and the MAGI displayed the simple text 'success' on their terminals. Dr. Akagi hushed the celebrating and gave the order. "All right, let's get her out!" A technician at the next terminal gave her the warning: Yui's mind was synchronizing with Unit 01 well beyond the 1:1, 100% threshold. At this rate, the Evangelion was going to take control of her.

"EMERGENCY STATIONS! All personnel focus on deactivating Unit 01!" Akagi shouted across the facility. "Cut power! Lower the crane, we'll fish her out if we have to!"

The entry rig attempted to remove the endangered pilot, but Unit 01 tore the scaffolding away with its newly-activated arms, halting the intended rescue attempt.

"My God," the tech gasped out. "She's going to a 400% sync…she's dissolving in the core!"

"What!? Why isn't it deactivating?"

"Ma'am 14 seconds until internal battery is depleted."

"That's too long!" 10 seconds.

"Yui, please," Gendo whispered to himself. 6 seconds.

"5…4…3…2…1" The robotic weapon's eyes darkened and its arms fell slack.

Silence.

The room felt silence for over a minute.

"Dr. Akagi…" Naoko looked down at the boy by her leg.

"Wasn't my mom out there?"

"Yes she was, but we'll have her back in the office in no time." The motherly scientist lied, but she doubted he believed her.

She picked him up and carried him over to his father, who was still staring out over the failed test.

Gendo Ikari wasn't a cold man, but his heart broke that day. Something in his mind broke as well. He spoke to the lifeless robot, "I'll save you Yui, even if it kills me and everyone else here." He hurried home with Shinji, both of them frightened and confused. He spoke to a representative of the school system, where he told them that looking at his son made him sick for his lost wife and that it made him angry and violent. He asked that the boy be taken away for his own safety, and Shinji was gone the next day. Gendo Ikari set about learning how to resurrect his wife, even it cost him the entire world.

A/N: Wow, 2300 words and finally some action! (hey, I never said it was good action…) but I do believe that worldbuilding is an important part of storytelling, and the technobabble is an important part of that worldbuilding. But it does make me feel like Ritsuko. As an aside, the lack of worldbuilding (or context for that matter), was one of my major problems with Rebuild 3.0, hence why I'm trying my hand at it.