"Wait, wait, wait," Kensuke said, breathless, as they passed yet another high-end clothes shop, "You spent the trip over on the Bristol and never told me?"
Rei gave the nerd a quiet glare. "Was there some reason why I would tell you?"
"It's the Bristol! Do you know anything about warships?"
"For the sake of argument, assume that she does not nor does she particularly want to know," Shinji stated flatly, scanning the street for any sign of Toji.
"That is incorrect," said Rei. "I know what the Bristol is famous for. I simply see no reason to inform civilians about my – classified – movement orders."
"Come on!" Kensuke whined, "At least introduce me to the new pilots..."
"They're all a bit busy," said Shinji, annoyed. Rei had been drawing stares all day, and it was beginning to get to him. "We probably will be too, when we get back."
"Aw, man..." Kensuke looked dejected for a moment, and Shinji felt a pang of guilt. The boy was, after all, one of his friends.
Speaking of friends... "Hey, Toji!" he called out, spotting the jock next to the class rep of all people. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Busy, y'know?" evaded Toji. Hikari looked... embarrassed. Odd.
"Look, it's nearly time to head back to the hotel. We're out of here in the morning, remember?" That came from Kensuke, who had also taken Shinji hours to find.
Mumbling an agreement, the jock and his companion fell in behind Shinji. The journey back was made in silence.
"I think I can get our SY-elevens to talk to your main computer, I just have to make sure not to overwrite the drivers," Lieutenant Ibuki said, half-buried in Unit 07's entry plug. "Why you have to use such obsolete equipment..."
"Those last-gen SY-elevens haven't been changed since... well, ever," said Michael, tapping away at a laptop. His left arm lay disassembled several meters away, and a cable fed into the empty socket. "I mean, sure, I was starting to get less sensation from the armour, but if you ask me-"
The power went out. Michael turned around instinctively, and came face-to-face with the barrel of a pistol.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."
"Hold the doors!" was all Misato heard before a very familiar and unwelcome face appeared beside her.
"Really? All the elevators in this building, and you choose this one?" she snapped.
"Would you believe there's only like five that actually go to the top?" Kaji replied, out of breath. "And this one's the only one that can get there in less than three minutes?"
"I did not know that," Misato said, "And why is that so important that you had to spoil my brunch?"
"Because-"
The power went out, white light replaced by red.
"Oh, for fuck's sake..."
Gendo neither stirred nor spoke as the power went out. Instead, he simply raised his right arm, and stared at his palm for a few seconds.
Then, he got up and left his office.
Li pulled his winnings toward him, the stack of coins a symbol of his evening's efforts. Tatyana groaned in tiredness and annoyance, and got up to make yet another cup of coffee. They'd been up since 6am, and it was looking like they weren't going to be let off duty for another few hours.
"When the hell are those lazy slackers going to be back?" she mumbled.
"Tomorrow, according to our glorious leader," Li answered, eliciting another groan.
"So we're on tomorrow morning as well? Christ..."
"On top of that, in two days' time we've got that... what was it? "Strategy seminar?" All day, starting at seven."
"Just fucking kill me now," the Russian girl said. "A day of listening to that deer-fucking imperialist asshole?" She sighed. "At least we're not on patrol anymore. That sucked. In glorious Russia," she added a heavy accent, "we do not need patrols."
"You... do know Russia's not Communist, right?" Li took a proffered cup as Tatyana sat back down. "There's no reason to keep the Communist shtick up."
"It is... how you say... an expectation," Tatyana explained, adopting a strong accent. "I'm not even Russian. I'm Lithuanian. My family moved after -"
The power went out.
"Finally!" Li said. He lay his head on the table, and went to sleep.
"You know," Tatyana said to the sleeping figure, "In glorious People's Russia, you would be shot for that."
"Seriously. You really think this is a good idea?" Michael gave the masked man the best glare he could under the circumstances. "Pulling a gun on one of nine people actually able to fight giant monsters that want to wipe out humanity. That's the plan you came up with. And, on top of that, you chose me."
"You're unarmed, partially literally," the man said. "I have a gun pointed at you. Whether I shoot you or not is-"
"Okay, I'm going to let you finish, but this kind of has to be said," said Michael, irate. "First, "unarmed"? Really? I mean, this is kind of a crippling disability here. Second, if you're not planning to shoot me, point the gun somewhere else. Did they never teach you gun safety at... wherever you come from?"
The masked figure lowered the pistol slightly, trying to think of an appropriate reaction. Michael took one step forwards, batted the gun away-
BANG
-and collapsed onto the floor as the bullet entered his leg.
"OW. FUCK."
"Paging Mr. Hypocrite," the other man said. "It turns out that slapping a loaded gun is a bad idea."
Michael took a breath, and pushed the pain away. "You were pointing it at me first!"
He pushed himself up, stumbling slightly as his injured leg bore his weight, and shoved the masked man, who fell over the railing into the specialised LCL mixture below.
"You know," he panted, watching the poor man's body dissolve, "you'd think there'd be a cover or something on that stuff. Although it is rather impressive you managed to get LCL to do that."
Maya poked her head over the edge of the entry plug. "It's just something it does when foreign bodies are- oh god you're bleeding."
"Yeah. Also, the bullet's kind of still in my leg, so- OW – I can't really do much right now. Can you help me to the cockpit?"
"So... about this whole situation," Kaji began, "It's... not exactly a coincidence."
"You engineered this solely to get us two in an elevator without power, didn't you," said Misato, calmly. "Before you try anything, remember: I still have my sidearm."
"So do I, but I really wasn't going to try anything." Kaji felt for his pistol anyway, just in case. "Okay, so all of this is going to sound a little crazy, but you're kind of the only other person who, one: will believe me, and two: I can actually trust." He took a breath, hand still on his sidearm. "So, here goes. Literally every single major incident in Western human history since about five C.E has been orchestrated by the same person. This person, since the eighteen hundreds, has been expanding their influence over the entire planet with one goal in mind: to find the First and Second Angels."
"You're right, that does sound crazy," Misato said, reaching for her hand-cannon. "But, I kind of have nothing better to do right now, so, exposit away." Ten to one this is some ploy to make up a story so stupid he thinks I'll have sex with him just to stop him talking.
"Okay." Kaji pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Misato glared at him, and opened the maintenance hatch to let some air in. Unfortunately, NERV's builders had neglected to provide ladders for escape. "So, I have no idea what this guy actually wants – I mean, he's immortal already, and has enough pull to tell superpowers what to do. But, I do know it has something to do with Third Impact."
"Movement on the camera," the signals officer said – the second time he'd spoken. "SMGs, heavy body armour, rifles. Twelve total."
"Looks like it's time to move," Sergeant Harper said. "Get your gear and move to point Alpha. Someone get on the radio and call in the Warriors, too."
"Yes, Sergeant!" the assembled soldiers called.
"Third Impact?" Misato asked. "Doesn't that kind of imply the extinction of humanity?"
"Yeah, which makes the whole thing really confusing. This person and the Commander seem to be in league with each other, although they don't have exactly the same goals. Case in point, Adam."
The mention of the First Angel's name sent Misato rocking to the side of the elevator. "Adam. You mean... it's not dead?"
"Honestly, with Angels, it's a bit hard to tell," Kaji replied. "However, it's kind of irrelevant. The Commander has whatever's left, and SEELE – the group this mystery guy's in charge of – didn't want that to happen. Another example – Britain."
"You're not going to say they set that war up, are you? That's a bit paranoid, even from you."
"It's a little complicated. I still haven't got the full story, but it looks like some covert op went south really, really badly, and someone called in the big guns. That, on top of one of these SEELE members deciding to go a bit too rogue..." He sighed in frustration. "The Commander had some part in it, that much is clear. But so many things don't make sense! Why invade one of your closest allies? Why were they able to activate an Evangelion so early? How did Morris manage to take the presidency? The EU and NATO stand by while Britain's getting torn apart, then after Blackpool they all join in on the fighting?" Misato was slightly worried by the spy's sudden tirade.
"You need to lay off whatever it is you've been smoking. They covered this in the recent history module, remember? The flooding New York, LA and so on, the Southern resurgence, Morris taking DC while Congress bickered?" Misato tried to explain. "Everyone was still in chaos, even in oh-six. Hell, the EU ended up splitting apart a few years later – Germany's pretty much inseparable from NERV, that's why they set up the AFU!"
"None of that matters! Morris was an Army officer, the entire rest of the Army should have turned against him the moment he took power! There should have been a civilian backlash of some sort! Did you ever study history beyond that module? America never agrees on anything, unless that something is Nazis!"
"Even if all of this is true, WHY? Why would anyone want Second Impact, or the wars, or any of it?" Misato asked, playing her final card.
"You saw what Adam could do," Kaji said. "All of this... it's just fighting over that power. Even the Evangelions hold just a fraction of Adam's potential -"
The lights flickered on and off, then burned brightly.
"Okay, now screw in that panel there..." Michael directed, flicking the switches controlling Unit 07's reactor. The screens around him were dark, but he didn't need them. "Now, let's just hope they set your power system up to deal with an Eva providing power."
"No reason they shouldn't be," Maya replied.
"You'd be surprised," said Michael. "Alright, now... Ah. That could be a problem."
"Did we lose containment or something?"
"Quite the opposite. The control rods are fully deployed – the failsafe kicked in when we lost power. I can't get them out of the reactor without some charge for the magnets. No manual override because... well, radiation." He sighed. "Of course, the designers only thought that you'd risk being irradiated to shut the reactor off, not turn it back on."
"So... now what?" Maya asked, leaning back in Unit 07's rear cockpit.
"Well, there's an unspecified amount of enemies in the base, I've got a bullet in my leg and I can't turn the reactor on. So, I guess it's time to do some field surgery. Again."
"You know," Shinji said, pushing himself away from his laptop, "Sometimes I wonder why I bother."
Rei gave him a look from where she sat on the hotel bed, which said both "what are you complaining about" and "why haven't you made us dinner yet like you promised". Rei was a very efficient person.
"I mean, some of this data contradicts itself. How the hell can an AT Field block all EM radiation and still leave the thing it covers visible? Why the hell does the core glow RED? How does that even WORK? The only thing it can't always absorb on contact is a neutrino!" He stood up, and started pacing around the room. "NEUTRINOS AREN'T RED! It's not emitting the light – hell, that's another thing, how do they get energy from the core? What the hell is an S2 organ even supposed to be?" He sat on the bed next to Rei, who smiled.
"Doctor Akagi has trouble with similar things," she said. "I remember she once told me that she might have to re-write nearly every other aspect of physics just to account for the Angels."
"At least I can take solace in the fact that the Ph.D.-holding supergenius polymath hasn't figured any of this out in the fifteen years she's had to study it." He went through one of the breathing exercises – in, hold, two, three, out. Repeat.
"You know, I get the feeling Father's already got it all figured out," he said, chuckling. "That'd just be classic him, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," Rei agreed. "Incidentally, neither of us have consumed our daily calorific requirement."
Shinji stared at the girl for a moment, translating. Okay, she wants food. And she only uses the full-on robot speak when she's annoyed. So... "Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. I was supposed to be cooking today, wasn't I?"
"You still are," said Rei.
"So-"
The door exploded.
"UURRAAGH!"
Michael's scream echoed through the hangar. He could hear every syllable as time slowed to a crawl, letting him experience every single crushing wave of pain as he slowly pulled the bullet from his leg. Inch by inch, it came out, held in the precarious grip of the medikit's tweezers. Before his shaking hand could drop it back in, he threw the tweezers away and slammed an LCL gel-pack into the wound. The pack burst, releasing the blood substitute into the wound.
Panting heavily, he started to bandage himself up.
"Why do you have a bone saw in here?" Maya asked, looking up from Unit 07's medikit.
"In case I have to cut another limb off," Michael replied, tying off the bandage. "I'm allergic to pretty much every painkiller except morphine, and cutting one off with a combat knife is... not pleasant." The stump of his left arm ached at the thought. Reminded of its absence, he stood and collected his prosthetic from the cockpit.
Maya stared at the blue-haired pilot. "You... cut that off yourself?" she asked, voice trembling slightly.
"There was an Angel trying to infect me through it." Michael grimaced as he wired the arm into the plug suit's internal network. He hadn't had time to really adjust to the new model – it felt a lot closer to his right arm, but he'd gotten used to his old, clunky prosthetic.
"The pain of that was a lot worse." Retrieving his pistol, he climbed back down from the entry plug. "Alright, I'm going to go see where my co-pilot is. Stay here, and see what you can get working. There should be a bit of power in the batteries – enough for comms and maybe the tacnet – so I should be able to keep in touch. Keep me updated."
Michael's co-pilot was dodging bullets. Rifle fire pinged off the pipe above her as she ran for cover, desperately trying to force her helmet to click into place.
"I only wanted to see how their reactors worked, and now this shit..."
The helmet finally locked, just as she managed to find some decent cover – yet another of the ubiquitous pipes. The HUD booted up slowly, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Michael's icon on the display.
"Deus Seven-one, this is Deus Seven-two. Come in, please." The call-sign felt unfamiliar – they'd never had to use the suit-to-suit comms before.
"Deus Seven-one here. Sitrep?" Straight to the point as per usual.
"Utterly fucked. I've got at least three hostiles with assault rifles plinking away at me, and the reactor seems to have been sabotaged." That was putting it lightly – the coolant feeds had been disconnected entirely, and it would probably take hours to put them all back.
"Alright. Are you armed?"
"Negative, repeat negative. I've got my suit on, but that's about it."
"Ping the tacnet, and get yourself on the map." So that was still working. She did as ordered, and hoped to whatever god was listening that the enemy hadn't broken onto the tacnet.
"Alright," Michael continued after a second or two, "I'm on the way. Stay alive."
"That's... an Angel." Shigeru Aoba stared at the gigantic spider-like creature standing in the middle of the city, awestruck.
"That it is," Makoto commented from the seat beside him. "Has... anyone ever gotten this close to one?"
"Kats said Shinji was standing right at the first one's foot when she grabbed him," Aoba replied without thought. "And the city's in the middle of a power cut, too..."
"So... let's get out of here?" his co-worker asked. "I mean, screw this job." He was still sore that the Commander had assigned him to help with one of the mayoral candidates' election campaign.
"Unless the Angel's interested in elections, then yeah, we should. Get on the horn, we may as well warn people as we go."
Time seems to be passing at one hundredth the rate it usually does, Rei thought to herself during the second after the door blew open. She scanned the room, and planned.
Armoured figures strode in, loosing a single shot each from their rifles. Rei was already moving, shoving herself and Shinji down behind the bed-
-except Shinji had a similar idea, but in the opposite direction; he was heading for the bathroom.
The two collided with one another, and one of the bullets slammed into Shinji's back. The boy had, by a quirk of physics, ended up facing the door. In a single fluid motion, Rei pushed him behind the bed, drew her pistol, squeezed the trigger-
and couldn't do it. Her finger simply refused to push past the point where the gun would fire.
She settled for the next best thing, and took cover.
Time sped up again. She felt her heart pound as she turned Shinji over to see the wound, but there wasn't any blood, or even much of a bruise. She looked around, and saw the bullet sitting a few metres away – a rubber bullet. Odd.
Heavy footsteps clanked towards the two of them, but Rei knew they weren't there to kill them, at least. That meant-
Before she could finish her thought, more gunfire erupted from further down the hallway.
"Contact!" shouted Morel as the enemy took pot-shots at him and his section. He took cover in the corridor junction, and poked his head out for a second to see just who was shooting him.
"No markings on the armour," he reported across the platoon's tacnet. "I counted four here. Keep an eye out for the others."
He swung out, levelling his FAMAS – a relic from his time with the Armée de Terre – and squeezed off a few rounds. One, by chance, took one of the enemies in the knee. Pulling back into cover, he made a few hand gestures at his section – his Lance-Corporal took the second fire-team to try to flank the enemy, while the first suppressed the enemy. Textbook tactics, and utterly predictable... but they were textbook for a reason.
Unable to push forwards or even fall back thanks to the heavy firepower from the fire-team's GPMG (manned by Private Walker, who it was rumoured had traded quite a large amount of alcohol for the non-standard gun), the enemy was easily flanked by the second fire-team. A few seconds later, and the fight was over.
There were still eight of the enemy left unaccounted for, however...
Michael ran through the halls of NERV, forcing the pain from his leg into a tiny ball in a tiny corner of his mind, focussing on getting to Rose as fast as he could. He turned a corner-
and ran straight into Commander Ikari. The two rocked back, but neither fell.
"There is an Angel attacking the city," the Commander stated.
"Well, that's just fucking brilliant," Michael sighed, regaining his balance. "Unit Seven's out of action right now, and my co-pilot's kind of pinned down by the bastards who took out the power." He paused to think. "The reactor for Unit Seven is pretty much ready to be restarted, and I'd set it up to link into the base before it shut down. It just needs a little bit of power – if you've got a backup generator, you could restart it."
"Will it be sufficient to get the other Units out?"
"The reactor's able to power two Evas at a time – more, if they charge up their batteries and swap the cables around." Michael did a quick calculation in his head. "You should be able to power some of the facility too, although I'd focus on getting the Evas out first."
"You should report to your Unit." That sounded like an order. Unfortunately...
"Even with power, it won't be able to move. I was doing some maintenance which'll take at least another day or two." The Commander gave him a stern look from behind those weird orange glasses. "Besides, even if it was combat-ready, I still need my co-pilot. I'm not going to pilot it without her."
"You can't pilot it, or you won't?"
"Either, both, whichever works best. Anyway," he said, with a quick salute, "I've gotta get down there before she takes a bullet. Lieutenant Ibuki can get in touch with me if you need to." The formalities dealt with, he broke back into a run.
Things were not going well. Somehow, the infiltrators had triggered one of the containment mechanisms on the reactor, and now there was a two metre-thick door where there used to be a way out. Which meant that there probably wasn't a way in, either, which made the whole exercise a bit pointless. With that in mind, Rose turned around and stepped into the open, her hands raised.
"So," she called out, "looks like we've got a little bit of an impasse."
Gunfire was her answer. Most of the bullets missed, or slammed into her armour and stopped, but one-
Gendo paused on the way to the Evangelion hangar, as if something odd had happened.
Maya felt the sudden surge of power before the entry plug closed, pulling her into the Evangelion. She scrabbled for the hatch, but it was dogged shut.
The screens around her lit up.
Michael staggered, clutching his gut, then the other rushed into his head. He couldn't fight it – what was it doing? It was only supposed to happen inside the cockpit, damn it all!
He vomited, blood coating the inside of his helmet, then roared in anger and pain. The other had him in its grip now, and it pushed his body past its normal limits. Before he knew it, he was in front of the door to the room his helmet and the other told him Rose was in. A massive armoured door blocked his way. The other didn't understand – it was rage and revenge incarnate, nothing could block it!
Slowly, he wrestled some control back – it was always easier to do so when it got confused. Pulling off his helmet, he racked his mind for a way past. Breaking through wouldn't be possible without...
A wolfish grin slowly spread across his face.
Rei found herself pulled upwards, and out of the room; "We're British Army, protection detail," was the only explanation she got before yet more gunfire erupted. Her protector/captor shielded her from the direction of the bullets, and she looked around for Shinji, where was he-
An explosion rocked the corridor, and the armoured figure holding her broke into a sprint. "Situation is Code Uniform, repeat, Uniform," said the man, between breaths. "Need - reinforcement. Got one of the - pilots - with me, I think Pike grabbed - the other but I – can't see him. They must have stashed some heavy weapons – somewhere in the building."
She faintly heard the voice at the other end of the line: "Copy that. Warrior One is sitting out the front, Warrior Two is in the garage. Get to one, the rest of the platoon can find Pike."
The soldier's response was to speed up.
"Keep your fucking head down, kid!" shouted one of the British soldiers, dragging Shinji back as he tried to run after Rei. "They swapped to live rounds, and I am not going to let you get killed here!"
Shinji bit back a snarl – Rei was in danger. There was only one response in his mind to that. He made a break for it, made it a few metres-
before the enemy caught up with what he was doing and sent a barrage of bullets at him. He slid into a room, and tried to think. I'm unarmed, and I don't think I could do much if I was. Rei is out there somewhere, but the soldier carrying her was one of the British by the flag. That means I have time to get to her, so how am I going to...
The room had an open window, and quite a large stock of bedsheets. This is a terrible idea, he thought as he gathered the sheets up, but it's the only one I can think of right now.
Tatyana whistled as she made her way to her Evangelion. The Commander himself had told her – and the Chinese pilot – to launch against the Angel. They were meant to delay and probe the Angel, to prepare for the other pilots.
She had every intention of killing it herself.
So, she whistled the old Red Army marching song as she walked.
The Carl Gustav recoilless rifle is one of the oldest anti-tank weapons in service. It has seen service in 45 separate countries (including Japan), and has been in production since 1948. It fires 84mm rounds, the most modern of which can penetrate more than 500mm of conventional armour, to a standard range of 700m against stationary targets. Once through, the jets of molten metal released by the HEAT warheads would melt the inside of any armoured vehicle. NERV had inherited several of the guns from old JSDF units, and they were kept in case of an attack by conventional forces.
Michael had two of them.
His right arm sagged under the sheer weight of one, while his left arm kept the other level as he tried to get its fingers around the firing grip. He'd replaced his helmet after liberating the guns – the sheer noise generated by firing one in such close quarters would be deafening, let alone the shock from two of them.
Preparations complete, he took one last look through the sights, and squeezed the triggers, right-side gun slightly before left-side gun.
The blasts rang through Michael's skull even through the helmet, letting the other come to the fore for a brief moment. He pushed it back as the smoke cleared. The door had a massive dent in it, with one tiny crack showing the room beyond. That was, however, all he needed. He let the other take control, and strode toward the door. It cast the recoilless rifles aside, and broke into a sprint.
Shinji took a deep breath, waited two seconds, then flung himself out from the window. Now, if about two-thirds of the calcs I did are right, then...
The bedsheets snapped taut, physics pulling him down and back into the building. He had just enough forethought to shield his face as he slammed through the window. Even so, it still hurt, and he felt vaguely glad he'd decided to switch to a long-sleeved shirt.
He staggered to his feet, and smiled at the soldier standing before him. Well, to be more accurate, he smiled at the girl in the soldier's arms.
"What in the hell?" The soldier rocked back a step, almost reaching for his rifle before realising just who had broken through the window. "So... why?"
"What?" Shinji asked. Why did I do that?
"You were with the others, right? We have orders to protect you two, so why jump down here?"
"Well..." Shinji racked his mind for an answer. "You... did kind of run off with my... my... girlfriend in your arms." Damn it. I probably should have stuck with "friend."
"You are one fucking mental son of a bitch, you know that?"
Tatyana whistled through her Evangelion's startup sequence, and even started to sing a little as it was slowly raised into position. She'd always been enchanted by her dad's old marching songs, even if he had never wanted to sing them to her. She stumbled over the words a little as the memories came back, but recovered.
She slowly moved Unit 06 out of its cradle, and waited for Unit 08 to run through its own boot-up sequence. Not that she needed the help – her own Eva was twice the size of her "backup". On top of that, the RAES had seen fit to add a few guns based on Unit 07's famous emplacements to its second Evangelion.
So, she kept up her singing as she made her way through the labyrinth of NERV.
Michael slammed into the door, left arm first. A few chunks fell out, and the other began ripping at what was left with his hands. The return fire was unusually slow in coming – some of the shockwave must have gotten through – and when it did, it didn't even come close. The other pushed his body through the door, and for the millionth time he mentally thanked his armour.
Finally, he was through, and he let the other take full control.
Misato heard the first roar, and decided to ignore it. It was probably the wind or something.
She had almost managed to convince herself of that when the second roar echoed through the hallways, tinged with a tiny portion of what she knew as Adam's scream. Then, a massive explosion. She had, of course, drawn her pistol and headed straight for it, putting Kaji from her mind entirely.
The wrecked door gave her some pause, but the sound of battle drew her in. She took a few steps forward, got a glance at what was happening, and immediately took a step back.
A figure – a boy with blue hair, who she'd mistaken for Rei at first – was holding up a massive, muscle-bound soldier by the neck with his – robotic - left arm. He stood atop a small mound of bodies, most missing at least one limb. A helmet dangled from his right hand, covered with blood. As she watched, the boy – her mind couldn't associate it with the bossy Captain she'd met – squeezed, and the soldier fell limp with an audible crunch.
An insane grin spread across the boy's face, and blood dripped down from the soldier's corpse. He cast it aside, and turned to look at her. He flinched and started shaking, and took one step towards her-
then collapsed.
Shinji sprinted the last few metres into the waiting APC, just behind Rei. The British squaddie had set her down when she'd started to stir, and they'd retreated to the lobby with the soldier providing cover. The vehicle's hatch slammed shut, forcing Shinji to find a vision slit if he wanted to know what was going on. The rest of the British forces were in full retreat – one of them dragging another by their shoulder handles, and another spraying fire from a machine gun of some sort.
They took up defensive positions around the "Warrior" (Shinji didn't know if that was the name of the tank or the model, and resolved never to ask Kensuke) as they got close, and waited. I wonder why they don't just get in and drive off, Shinji idly thought.
The answer was quickly apparent. The remainder of the enemy – whoever they were – came into view from the stairwells. Some of them noticed the armoured vehicle sitting in the middle of the hotel lobby, and tried to fall back.
None of them made it. The RARDEN gun of the Warrior IFV saw to that.
The Angel had lowered itself to the ground, and was using some weird acid to melt through NERV's outer armour. The tactic wouldn't actually work – it had only gotten through the first of the many layers, and that was designed to deflect high-energy attacks rather than sustained attacks. Tatyana almost pitied it as she lined her sights up on its core.
"Go," she said, and Unit 08 rushed out into the tunnel, climbed up to the Angel. Acid rained down on the Chinese Evangelion, and without an AT Field to protect itself it probably wouldn't last long. That didn't really matter, however – the moment the Angel's AT Field failed, Tatyana pulled the triggers on her control grips.
A hail of rounds, ranging from rifle-calibre bullets to tank shells, slammed into the Angel's core. It sagged slightly, then exploded.
The explosion rocked Unit 08, and it fell. Tatyana briefly considered just letting it fall into the accumulated acid below, but reached out her hand anyway.
"You know what?" Li said from the radio, "Next time, someone else can do the flying thing."
Hey peeps. Sorry this one took a while, things are kind of getting busy again.
You'll be glad to hear that we're about halfway through the story I've got planned out (yes, I have actually got plans, even if I am making most of the details up as I go along :P ) so either you've got more to look forward to, or you don't have to see this on the front page for too much longer.
For those who somehow didn't notice, I re-wrote the first chapter as well. Take a read through, and please let me know what you think.