"The order is confirmed. The Longbow system is to be deployed. Target is the Angel currently drilling in the centre of Tokyo-three."
"Roger that. Looking for a sat in the right area... there we go. Satellite Twenty-Three! It's your lucky day!"
"Fire when ready."
"Like I was going to wait for an order!"
160 kilometres above sea level sat a collection of very unusual satellites; 36 in total. Each one was a simple design: two solar panels, a computer core, a communications array,a manoeuvring system and six massive tungsten rods, each attached to their own rocket booster. One of these satellites, acting on commands received from Camelot Station in a much higher orbit, oriented itself to point the rods retrograde. It waited for a few seconds to get into the optimal firing position, then simultaneously released two of the rods and fired their engines.
The rods fell back into the atmosphere, the first stage of their rocket boosters falling away as their on-board computers noted the change. The plasma sheath and shock heating of re-entry blinded and deafened the computers for a few minutes, and the projectiles reverted to a ballistic trajectory. Eventually, they slowed enough that shock heating was no longer occurring, and they spotted their target. Another command deployed their manoeuvring wings and fired the second stage of their rockets. Just before the shock heating started again, the computers confirmed they were on-target.
A few seconds later, both tungsten rods slammed into the side of the Sixth Angel, each one delivering the explosive force of a mid-range nuclear weapon to an area no more than a metre on any side.
A gargantuan fireball filled the sky.
"No effect," confirmed Misato, her voice dull. The Angel, that damned Diamond, was still floating serenely above the direct centre of the city, drill extended. One of the bridge technicians looked at her in shock.
"Nothing?!" he asked.
"Nothing," Misato said.
"FUCK," shouted the technician.
Rei sat by Shinji's bed, waiting for him to wake up. She didn't exactly know why she wanted to do this, so she had decided to go along with the feeling in order to find out. She had been doing that a lot recently.
The Commander had forbade her to launch in Unit 00 after Shinji was nearly killed by the Angel. She trusted him, despite Shinji's words earlier. The Commander is a rational actor, she reasoned, and I am aware of his plan. The plan calls for the Angels to die. Therefore, it is logical to assume he will not sabotage the effort to kill the Angels.
On the bed in front of her, Shinji slept. She looked at him, trying to place him in the logical scheme of things. The plan does not require me to be on particularly friendly terms with Pilot Ikari. While there is a small tactical benefit from doing so, I am aware of the fact that there is no need for us to be tactically effective. And yet, I find myself drawn to him anyway. Why?
There are several reasons, she thought. He is unusual by the standards of most of my "peers". His scientific theories are interesting, and deserve further investigation. Unlike my "peers", he is willing to answer my questions immediately, rather than forcing me to observe him. If anyone had been able to see her face, they might have seen her blush, if they were using thermal sensors with an amazing resolution. Not that I would particularly mind observing him, thought the part of her that was a fourteen-year-old girl. He has intervened to save my life or enrich it in some way multiple times. The only other person who has made such a sustained effort is the Commander. The analytical part of her picked up the thought, I wonder if it is a genetic anomaly? That males of the Ikari line are particularly receptive to a certain subset of humanity? She doubted it. There were too many environmental variables that could account for the coincidence. Regardless, the answer has been found. I am drawn to him for the same reason I am drawn to the Commander. She sat back, satisfied. Her heart stopped for a beat as she thought of a problem. The Commander's plan may actively call for us to not be close. I should... confirm this before continuing on this course of action. Some part of her knew what she'd do if the Commander did call for her to cut ties with the boy in front of her, although the rest of her wasn't quite ready to admit it.
Another problem occurred to her. What if he is no longer interested in any sort of friendly relationship? Again, her heart skipped a beat at the thought, and she mentally noted to ask Doctor Akagi about the phenomenon, just in case. My actions earlier may have dissuaded him from that course. I will need to find some way to repair the damage. I will have to consult someone later.
She tensed slightly as the door opened behind her, but she could tell that is was Misato. "The Longbow system didn't do anything to the Angel," the Captain said. "We're going to plan B."
"What is plan B?" Rei asked.
"I'll tell you on the way. We're going on a trip," replied Misato. Rei hesitated before standing up; she didn't want to leave Shinji behind. "He'll be fine," said Misato from behind her. "Come on."
Several hours later, Shinji woke up. For the first time in several years, he didn't immediately sit bolt upright, but simply lay there. Okay. That happened, he thought as memories of the battle flooded into his mind. That said, I have no idea how they got me out of that mess. He sat up, his entire body protesting at the action, and looked around the room. "Hey Ayanami," he said as he noticed the blue-haired girl sitting next to his bed. "Any idea what happened out there?" Please just talk about the fight after I blacked out.
"The launch clamps suffered a minor mechanical failure," Rei explained. "They delayed opening by three seconds, and by the time they recovered the Angel's beam had connected." That explains that, at least.
"What happened after I blacked out?" Shinji asked, giving voice to his real question.
"Technically speaking, Pilot Ikari, you did not "black out". You died," said Rei. Part of Shinji struggled to take this in, while another part noticed the girl's voice almost seemed to have an emotion in it when she said that. "You were successfully resuscitated, but you were medically dead for fifteen seconds. After the beam connected, Captain Katsuragi ordered the detonation of the explosive charges lining the city block, and managed to recover you and Unit One. Since then, several attempts have been made to destroy the Angel. So far, it has resisted all conventional weapons fire and two Longbow projectiles."
Shinji took a breath at that, and rested his head on his hands. I predicted this, but still... "Do we have a plan?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Rei. "We have managed to appropriate an antiparticle accelerator from the JSSDF. With enough power, it should theoretically overcome the Angel's AT Field."
"So I don't need to go out again?"
"Unfortunately, the system is highly experimental. We have been forced to route the targeting system through the Evangelion in order to obtain adequate control."
Shinji felt his heart sink. "So I do need to go out again," he sighed.
"Possibly. Theoretically, I can use it from Unit Zero."
"I'll do it," Shinji said. "You said an antiparticle gun, right?" Rei nodded, and a storm of numbers and ideas flooded through his mind. "Okay. Get me the technical specifications and meet me... where's the gun right now?"
"It is currently being assembled on-site at a firing point three kilometres north of Matsushiro base," said Rei.
Shinji sighed. "Well, find someone who can drive and meet me at... entrance fifteen in about an hour."
Rei nodded, and turned to leave. Before she could reach the door, however, she heard a crash from behind her. Shinji had fallen over as he tried to get out of the bed. Part of her mind noted he was naked, and Shinji might have seen her blush slightly had he not been preoccupied with the fact he'd just fallen over. She moved to help him, but he recovered enough to wave her off.
"No time," he said, panting. "You'll need to give me the details of the operation on the way, as well."
"Yes," Rei said, and left.
"So, when do we launch?" asked Rose, smiling. Her helmet was cradled in her arm; they'd been waiting for the order since the Angel had been detected several hours ago.
"We're not," replied Michael, stepping into the ready room and throwing his helmet onto a bench. He sat down next to it and cradled his head in his hands. It seemed he was never going to be able to catch up on his missed sleep.
"Why the fuck not?" Rose asked. She sat next to him and pulled him into a hug. Michael almost drifted off then and there, before Rose continued; "We've had to sit the past two Angels out, and now we finally get enough warning to launch, and we're sitting it out?"
"Blame the UN," said Michael. "They're annoyed that Longbow didn't do anything. Besides, they haven't voted in that amendment to the Vatican Treaty yet; the vote was scheduled for next month."
"And we have to listen to them because of the whole global unity thing," Rose finished. "Gods fucking damn it!"
"I'll give my sister a phone call in a bit; NERV has something up their sleeve and I kind of want to know what," Michael continued, ignoring Rose's outburst. It had never proven good for his health to respond to them.
"Do you really think she'll tell you?" said Rose, her voice making it perfectly clear what she thought.
"She does still owe me a favour from Jerusalem. Besides, even if she doesn't it'd be interesting to speak to her. Maybe I'll get the number of NERV's new star pilot," Michael replied, fiddling with a wire on his prosthetic. The hand twitched in response.
"Yeah, right," Rose said sarcastically.
Shinji sat in the bowels of the gigantic cannon which would be used to smite the Angel. He'd found a pair of thick goggles somewhere, and was busy trying to connect a laptop to the cannon. Rei had noticed that he'd changed somehow when he'd heard about the gun; he seemed to be giving orders rather than taking them. She leant against the edge of the hole leading back down to the ground, waiting for him to ask for something. While technically speaking, they were equals on the chain of command, she'd independently discovered the old adage of "when in doubt, follow the person who looks like they know what they're doing."
"Yes!" Shinji exclaimed, breaking her out of her thoughts. The laptop's screen showed a readout from the cannon – current power input, the status of the various components, and the current strength of the magnetic field. The window showing the amount of positrons stored in the cannon's reservoir was blank; it would be supplied when the operation began. "Alright, Ayanami," he continued, "pass me the rest of the cables up." A pale hand reached up from the opening, clutching the cables leading to the various sensors Shinji and Rei had set up over the past half an hour. He connected them to the laptop, and began clicking through various menus until he found the one that controlled the laser array.
"Pilot Ikari," she asked, "what purpose does this accomplish? NERV's science team has already accounted for all of the data you are gathering. Your efforts appear to be redundant."
"Yes," said Shinji, not looking up. Rei felt slightly disappointed. Why? she asked herself, the Commander rarely looks at me when he speaks and I never feel like this when he does not. This requires investigation. "- basically I'm hoping we can manipulate the Hughes effect, that is the way in which the AT Field interacts with light, in order to create a localised weakness in the Angel's AT Field. That, combined with the power of the beam, should be enough for us to get through. In addition to that, I'm trying to link the cannon to multiple different sensor arrays, rather than just Unit One's, so it should be more accurate. It would help if the MAGI would let me access NERV's sensor net, or if they'd help in any way whatsoever rather than just sitting there uselessly."
That is something I can help with. "Pilot Ikari, allow me to use your laptop for a short amount of time," she said. Shinji looked at her, shrugged, and slid the laptop over to her. She tapped in her access code for the MAGI, and gave them a priority task to help Shinji with his work. The quicker he is finished here, the quicker he will revert to his normal self, she thought. She had decided on the drive over that she didn't particularly like how maniac Shinji got when he switched into what he called "scientist mode", to say nothing of the one time she'd been awake to see him in his other emotional state. "There," Rei said, passing the laptop back. A few minutes later, Shinji looked up in surprise.
"It's done," he said, closing the laptop. "All that's left to do now is wait."
"Hello sister," came Michael's voice over the phone. "I got you a present. Happy birthday!" Rei stared at the massive shield in front of her, phone held to her ear. A pair of heavy transport VTOLs had just dropped it off, a few seconds before her phone had rang.
"It is not my birthday today," she said. She didn't actually know when her birthday was, and even if she did she would probably never celebrate it.
"It's a joke, sis," replied Michael. "Anyway, I managed to get the Chinese to give you guys that shield that just arrived. Rose ran some sims, apparently it'll take the Angel's beam for..." there was the sound of paper rustling, "eighty-three point six six recurring seconds."
"That will be useful," said Rei. That will allow for Pilot Ikari to recharge the rifle and fire a second shot before the Angel can harm him again, she considered. I will inform Captain Katsuragi of this development.
"So... what's actually going on over there, anyway?" asked Michael before she could end the conversation.
"I am not allowed to divulge details regarding Operation Yashima," replied Rei. "Furthermore, I do not have time for an extended conversation. Goodbye, Michael." She ended the call, and entered in Captain Katsuragi's phone number.
"Hey, Rei, what's up?" greeted the Captain as she answered the phone.
"I have received a gift that could alter our strategy for the upcoming battle," Rei replied. "Please report to the forward staging area."
"A shield?" asked Misato as she noticed the gigantic slab of metal and ceramics. "Who the hell sent you a gift like this?"
"My brother," answered Rei. "Regardless, if we use this correctly the strategy has a much higher chance of success." Fifteen point eight one two percent rather than eight point one recurring, to be precise, she thought. She hadn't taken Shinji's modifications to the positron cannon into account yet, because they were an unknown quantity.
"Yeah," Misato said, "I was planning to use Unit Zero as a decoy, but with this we can ensure Shinji'll get both shots off if he misses the first one."
"We could still use Unit Zero as a decoy," Rei pointed out. She wasn't particularly attached to the idea, but a multi-layered defence would work better.
"That thing won't stand up properly without something like an Eva propping it up," Misato countered, "and your AT Field could buy some more time out of it." Rei considered this, and nodded.
"What's this thing?" asked Shinji, walking over from Unit 01. He'd found a lab coat and rubber gloves somewhere, and was a Tesla coil away from completing the mad scientist look. Rei glanced at Misato, willing her to keep quiet. He will not react well to being told I am to be used as a human shield, she thought.
"It's a shield," said Misato, ignoring Rei. "Rei's going to use it to keep you covered out there."
Shinji took a few seconds to process this fully. "That... sounds like an immensely dangerous idea," he said carefully. "I don't think-"
"It is my choice, Pilot Ikari," Rei interrupted. "Please do not make an issue out of this." Misato stared at the two of them in shock; she'd never seen Rei interrupt someone, and they were acting almost like a married couple.
Shinji stared at Rei for a moment, mentally willing her to reconsider. "Fine," he said, backing down. "But don't jump in the way unless you have to, got it?" Rei nodded.
"I'll just leave you two alone, then," said Misato, striding back to the command bunker. It would be inaccurate to say neither of them noticed – Rei was perfectly aware of the Captain's departure, just as much as she was aware of the position of every single technician working on the cannon. She did, however, choose to label the information as irrelevant.
Shinji sighed and sat down, leaning against the edge of the gargantuan shield and closing his eyes. Rei took the opportunity to sit beside him, watching as the tension he'd been carrying since he'd woken up at around midday slid off of him. "Why are you so worried, Ikari?" she asked. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. Something about the smile invited a question, so she asked "What?"
"That's the first time you've just called me "Ikari", Ayanami," he said, chuckling. "not "Pilot Ikari", just "Ikari". Almost like I'm not entirely defined by the whole Evangelion thing."
"I apologise, Ikari. I did not know you found the title "Pilot" so uncomfortable," Rei said. Shinji waved it off.
"I'd have mentioned it before if it really bothered me," he said. He thought for a while, then took a breath and continued, staring firmly at the floor, "Although while we're on the subject of apologies... I'm sorry I snapped at you this morning."
If he'd been looking up, he might have seen her eyes widen in surprise. "It... it is okay, Ikari," she said after a while, "I... must also apologise for my actions this morning."
Shinji looked up at her, smiling again. "It's fine, Ayanami," he said. "There is one thing that's bugging me, though, if you'd like to answer one of my questions for a change."
"I have answered eighteen questions from you, Ikari," said Rei, before realising that could, in context, be seen as a denial. "Ask."
"How did you end up piloting an Eva? Hell, how did you even get into NERV?" asked Shinji.
"I... do not recall," replied Rei. "It is... frustrating." Shinji looked at her, confused, so she continued, "I posses a memory which borders on perfection. I do not often forget things. Despite this, I cannot remember anything that occurred before May the eleventh of six years ago. I was, apparently, working at NERV since before that date."
Shinji gave her a sympathetic look. "I can see why that'd be annoying," he said. He looked up at the stars, and closed his eyes. "We've only got an hour till launch," he murmured, "You should probably sleep."
Rei watched as Shinji's breathing slowed. She decided to follow his advice, and closed her eyes to sleep. She was just drifting off when she heard his voice from beside her.
"Don't get yourself killed out there," he said, voice almost inaudible. "Consider that an order."
Kensuke watched with rapt attention from the roof of the school building as the side of an entire mountain opened up. "There's Unit One!" he exclaimed as the purple warmech strode out of the new opening. The classmates around him cheered; finally, someone was going to take down that damned floating diamond!
A gasp rose up from the crowd as another Evangelion – this one orange, with a single eye – strode out behind Unit 01, grasping a gigantic shield. "That's Unit Zero!" shouted Toji, to more cheers. He turned to Kensuke, lowering his voice. "And look who's not here," he said. "Looks like we were right."
"Yeah," agreed Kensuke. Before he could continue, one of the teachers showed up and started yelling at the class to get back down to the shelter.
Shinji took up position behind the positron cannon, and settled in for a wait. He ran through a breathing exercise Rei had taught him, and practised lining up a shot with the gigantic rifle. While he couldn't do a practise run of the calibrations required to get the gun to work properly, he could at least get a feel for its weight. In front of him, Rei crouched holding the giant shield. I have to get this right the first time, he decided. If Rei gets hurt because of me...
"Units Zero and One are in position," said Misato over the radio. "Operation commencing in five... four... three... two... one... COMMENCE OPERATION YASHIMA!"
The plan was simple. The basic idea was to use the various conventional forces in the area to distract the Angel while Shinji waited for the cannon to charge. Then, the MAGI would calculate the massive array of variables needed to make sure the gun would fire in a straight line, and Shinji would pull the trigger once sighting on the Angel's core.
The first part of the operation worked perfectly. The city's defensive turrets unleashed a storm of fire against the Angel, while entire regiments of artillery pounded it from afar. Several wings of aircraft – mostly JASDF F-15s and Russian Tu-22 bombers – dropped several tonnes of explosives onto it. The Angel shrugged off all of the fire, as predicted, but in doing so it was forced to keep its attention to close range, allowing the charging sequence to continue uninterrupted.
"What the hell's it doing?" asked Shinji as the Angel shifted from a diamond shape into a hexagonal cone, deflecting a super-heavy artillery round. As he waited for an answer, it shifted into a sort of halo shape, spitting beams from smaller diamonds every few metres along the halo's circumference.
"We're reading shifts in its AT Field every time it does that. Some shapes seem focussed on defence, others on offence," replied Doctor Akagi from the command bunker.
"Cannon charging complete in fifteen seconds!" shouted one of the technicians. Shinji put the Angel's behaviour aside, and focussed on the task at hand. He opened the rifle's bolt, inserting a combination fuse / positron battery and slamming it into the rifle's chamber. Running through another breathing exercise, he sighted down the rifle's scope and lined up the three sets of crosshairs on the dead centre of the Angel. Three seconds.
Two.
One.
Shinji breathed out a little, held the breath, and squeezed the trigger.
Rei watched as Shinji's beam lanced out towards the Angel. It looked to be on target -
The Angel shifted into an offensive stance, a gigantic star, and fired its own beam straight at Shinji's sniper nest. The two beams met halfway between the two, curved around each other as their magnetic bottles interacted, and slammed out to the sides, blowing apart an entire city block.
The Angel will be able to fire another shot before Shinji has recharged for another shot, she realised. Gripping the shield in Unit 00's hands, she stood up.
She didn't see the Angel's second shot lance out, but she felt it hit even through the massive shield. She strained to brace herself against the mountainside as the beam pushed her back. The ablative coating on the shield was working... for now. She could vaguely hear Shinji's voice yelling at her, telling her to run away, but she simply switched off the radio and braced Unit Zero's shoulder against the shield. I will protect him, thought some part of her. The rest of her agreed.
Twenty seconds before the shield fails, another part of her noted. He should have fired again by now. This isn't working...
Shinji was busy trying to recode the laser array. The charging cycle was complete, but without the modifications he was making he was certain the next shot would fail too. Damn it! he thought, This is taking too long! A timer he'd set up before the operation began showed Rei had ten seconds left on the shield. He slammed in the last line of code, skipped over the final check, and slammed in the second fuse / battery.
It had taken fifteen seconds since his last check.
He sighted back on the Angel, set off the laser array and squeezed the trigger on the rifle.
The beams speared out, the laser disrupting both the magnetic bottle holding the Angel's beam together and part of the Angel's AT Field. Shinji's positron beam ripped through the Angel's beam, ignored its AT Field completely and blew a hole right through the centre of the Angel.
It screamed, and died.
Shinji was already running towards Unit 00. He waded into the new lake of lava created by the heat of the Angel's attack, and dragged it to the shore. When the remote ejection command failed, he slammed his knife into the entry plug hatch, and pulled out Rei's entry plug. He set it down carefully at the edge of a field, before popping his own hatch, jumping down from his Evangelion and running towards it.
Rei was vaguely aware of someone shouting outside. She couldn't focus on the words, but she knew it was someone trying to help her. Someone... important? She tried to take a breath, and choked. The LCL had drained as it became too hot, leaving only smoke in the entry plug. The shout outside became a scream of rage, and suddenly air poured in to the plug. She took a grateful breath, and tried to focus on the person standing in the now-open hatch. He seemed to be crying?
"Shinji..." she began, barely able to get the words to form, "why... why are you... crying?" She could smell the all-too-familiar scent of burned flesh, mingled with the smell of burning plastic. He'd opened it?
The boy climbed into the entry plug, and picked her up out of the pilot's seat. He carried her out into the fresh air, and rested her against a tree. Her head started to clear. Did I just call him Shinji? she asked herself.
"I'm just... so glad you're okay!" he said, smiling. "I told you not to get yourself killed, you idiot!"
"I'm... sorry," Rei replied, "I... don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"Just... smile," Shinji said. "and be glad you're alive." In the distance, the sirens of the medevac teams wailed.
Rei looked at Shinji, and smiled.