The party split up; the pilots filtered into one elevator while Misato and the Commander entered another, Misato downing a third detoxification pill as she walked. Michael fired off a quick salute as they parted, and hit the button that would take them all down to the Eva bays.
"Rose," he commanded. The girl unslung the bag over her shoulder, and unzipped it, revealing a pair of armoured plugsuits and helmets.
"Sorry, we don't have your suits," Michael continued, "I want you two out five minutes after we get down, okay?"
The other two pilots nodded assent.
"We should have a basic plan up by the time you get on the scene. I'll put markers up for your HUD, follow them. If you lose comms, remember that protecting humanity is our primary goal." The blue-haired boy started stripping out of his uniform.
"Try not to get killed out there, as well. Shinji, take a melee loadout. Rei, you're on long-range support – don't get too close. Let us take down the AT Field and you try to snipe the core."
Shinji tried to look away from the Captain, but the only other place to look was right at Rose, who was also stripping. Taking the lesser of two potentially-dangerous paths, he tried to not pay too much attention. That was not as easy as it sounded – even if Shinji had no sexual interest in male anatomy, the severe scars that riddled the boy's body captured his interest. Some of them were clearly battle wounds – entry and exit wounds from bullets, a few deep cuts and, of course, a few scars around the stump of his left arm – but some looked... surgical. Shinji could see wires and circuits just beneath the Captain's skin, and what were clearly access points for cables.
A soft click caught his attention, and he turned. Rose had finished putting on her suit, somehow before Michael even started. She moved to help him, holding the bottom part of the armour while he stepped into it. After that, the procedure was nearly complete; Rose slid the top half of the suit over Michael's head, and he attached the two together at the waist. She stepped back, and the two clicked their helmets on.
A few seconds passed in silence. Rei took Shinji's hand, and squeezed it reassuringly.
"I..."
She trailed off, unable to vocalise the thought with others present.
"Alright," Michael interrupted, "Looks like we're getting reports from the MAGI and the patrol Evas. It seems to be some sort of kamikaze weapon; it's falling from orbit and accelerating towards us." The elevator doors opened. "I'll give you a full summary later, get to your Evas."
"Yes, sir," Rei acknowledged. Shinji followed a second later, and tried out a salute.
"That was weird," Rose commented as the two walked towards the Evangelion launch bays. They had both been cleared to walk unaided, but running was still beyond them. "And, probably the sloppiest salute I've ever seen."
"It's a good sign," said Michael idly, trying to ignore the slight discolouration in Rose's armour over her wound. "Means he's starting to see me as his commander, which when everything inevitably goes to shit is going to be a massive help."
"Always a plan for everything, right? Even though you're the "let's all work together for the greater good" sort of guy?"
"I'm a realist." Michael reached out with his arm and pulled Rose slightly closer. "I'm beginning to suspect that NERV is even less innocent than we thought. Stay on your guard until all this is over." Conscience appeased, he stepped up the pace again.
"Unit 07 has launched. ETA 10 seconds. All Eva units, prepare for further instructions."
"Evacuation of inner city complete, setting buildings to fortress mode."
"Power situation nominal. Synchronisation feeds reading as green across the board."
Li tried to tune out the voices coming over the radio to focus on his Evangelion, but it was damned hard when they insisted on talking every thirty seconds. To top it all off, those insufferable British assholes were going to be "co-ordinating" the operation, which meant constant requests for status updates and location reports and a billion other things he didn't care about.
Beside his Evangelion, Unit 07 slid to a halt from its launch sequence. Explosive bolts fired, and the special carry-case for the Trebuchet cannon dropped from its shoulder.
Li moved Unit 08 over to the slightly smaller figure, and pulled a power cable from its back.
"Unit 08 is ready," he reported tersely. "Unit 09 is currently providing cover for the Positron Cannon."
"Acknowledged," came the reply – he couldn't tell if it was the boy or the girl – and then: "Reactor status green. Communications are currently stable. Preparing to stream MAGI analysis across wireless network; prepare for incoming data-link."
A window popped up on the side of his entry plug, asking him for confirmation. Li accepted, and a 3D model of the Angel and its possible approach vectors appeared in front of him. He took note of the numbers listing its estimated mass and velocity, and keyed open his comms.
"Have you taken a look at the data, Seven?" he asked.
"Working on it. A little busy." They even sounded like it. "Final system checks on Positron Cannon are complete, ready to fire on command. What were you saying, Eight?"
"If that thing hits, it will be an extinction event - with or without Third Impact. We're looking at kinetic energy measured in... what's 10 to the power of 21?" He punched the numbers into the on-board calculator as he spoke.
"A 1 with 21 zeros after it?" There was an audible pause, and some inaudible swearing. "MAGI says that's Zettajoules of energy – what the fuck is a Zettajoule? - and are saying they forgot to do the kinetic energy equation somehow. Well, I was working on the idea of shooting the Angel out of the air, but it looks like we'll need something a bit better."
"Angel will enter the battle zone in t-10 minutes," one of the drones at HQ said.
"Why don't you catch it?" NERV's actual operations commander asked.
"There's no way-"
"Wha-"
"No-"
Objections and cries of disbelief crowded out the comm channels. Li thought on the idea a little. It could work...
"Well, unless someone can think of a better plan in the next ten minutes, we're doing it. What's the Commander's input?" That was odd, the British asking something like that was rare at best.
"The Commander left for an "unavoidable meeting,"" Captain Katsuragi answered.
"That's a good sign," Li said, sarcastically.
"You know, I'm actually inclined to believe that," said Unit 07's co-pilot. "He could have run off before, and hasn't."
"Cut the chatter," ordered Captain Ayanami. "Prepare for another data-link, Katsuragi is sending where she wants you."
"Units 01 and 00 have arrived at positions Theta and Iota. Final preparations complete. T-2 minutes until combat operations."
The last gasp of the summer day's light vanished as the generic NERV officer spoke. Shinji switched over to low-light vision, as the city's lights had been turned off in a futile attempt to deceive the Angel.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen," said Rose, "last chance to upload a will or any last messages."
"A will would be useless. If Angel hits, we all die." Ivan's slightly broken English mirrored Shinji's own thoughts.
Time passed in silence.
"T-thirty seconds until combat operations."
Shinji opened a private channel to Rei, carefully masking it as a standard data exchange.
"Hey," he said, lamely. Words that were clear in his head a few seconds ago disappeared on seeing her face.
"Shinji," she acknowledged.
Shinji pushed himself to speak. "I... I... Iloveyou!"
Damn it. Even now, he couldn't say it properly.
Rei smiled at him. "I-"
"CONTACT!"
The NERV Lieutenant's voice broke Michael out of the synchronisation loop for a second, and he had to force himself to regain focus. It wasn't easy, their individual injuries kept disrupting the loop.
He closed his eyes,
and opened Unit 07's.
The tactical part of the Evangelion's gestalt mind noted that most of the other Evas had already moved. That was good, the delay had not caused a problem. It broke into a slow, lumbering run as the bestial part of it was given more control. It could see the Angel now, a gigantic black dot in the sky that somehow – against all reason - stood out against the night.
"Angel is heading for position Iota's catchment area. All Units, divert course." The more distant part of its mind gave out the orders. The gestalt collapsed for a nanosecond as the beast felt the usual hunger at the other's voice, but the tactician out-manoeuvred it mentally – turning the hunger into anger and aiming it at the Angel - and forced it back into the fold.
"Unit 07, i- ev- hing- ght?" The message was distorted. The Angel must be close enough to sense the Evas hunting it with its field. The other sent an affirmative reply – there was no issue here.
The Angel would die.
Shinji ran.
In another time, he would have been running away from the Angel. Now, he ran towards it.
There was no thought, no cry of rage, no bestial snarl. Just the running. The timer beside him ticked down, slower and slower with each passing second. He no longer needed to look up to see where the Angel was; some distant part of him knew instinctively.
The Angel shed its first layer, sparks of darkness falling through the few wispy clouds. A gigantic multicoloured ball, guided by fins of the same blue material the Sixth Angel had been made of. It had changed course; before, it would have landed on the inner edge of Rei's area. Now, it would land on the outer edge.
There was something off about the Angel's descent, but Shinji could not spare the focus needed to work it out. He turned his attention to working out whether or not he would make it in time to help.
Unit 01 jumped off the top of a ridge, barely breaking stride as it hit the ground. Buildings and cars scattered in its wake like toys, and the boy sealed inside reached the inevitable conclusion.
He needed to go faster.
Unit 07 watched as the Angel released its fins, and unfurled itself. For a moment, all three parts of the gestalt were entranced as they gazed upon the titanic creature; a massive, multicoloured eye with two smaller eyes as wings. Then, the tactician noticed something.
The fins weren't disintegrating. Instead, they were on an intercept course for each of the Evangelions on the defending side. The other tried to pass this information on, and received only static; even the immensely powerful radar array carried by the giant was having trouble getting a solid return. The tactician made a choice, and brought the siege cannon into firing position.
One body flicked a switch, setting it to a fully-automatic firing mode, while the Evangelion itself slid to a halt and braced itself.
"-co-ng An- -t!"
Li's instincts kicked in, and he pushed Unit 08 sideways. A beam split the air where he had been a second earlier, and he scanned the area to see where it had come from. The Positron Cannon had been retracted back into the Geo-Front, so it had to be an attack from the Angel; except the beam had come from behind him as he ran towards it. He turned-
Another beam skimmed Unit 08's face, and he finally saw the culprit.
Chinese curses bounced off the walls of the entry plug. One Angel was bad enough, but two? No, there were even more; there were as many of the strange collections of polygons as there were Evangelions. Communications were down, there was a strict time limit, and the enemy was beginning to deal with the number advantage.
Things were not going well.
"Misato!" Shinji shouted, hoping his message got through.
He needed a clear run to the Angel's landing point – the city was too dense. He ignored the beams lancing around him until one caught him in the arm. He staggered, but kept going.
The city's armoured blocks began to rise from the floor, just as he needed them. A few steps, and he was airborne again and away from the city. He wasn't headed straight for the Angel any more, though, but that wasn't an issue; the city's flood-walls provided a banked turn for him. One more jump, and, then it would be a straight run-
The Angel fragment that had been shooting at him blocked his path. He finally snarled, and drew his knife, ready to fight.
Shells streaked past him, obliterating the Angel. Shinji didn't look back as he kept running, shaping his AT Field ahead of himself to streamline the airflow and clear any remaining obstacles.
He was nearly there.
Unit 07 could feel its ammunition reserves ticking down, two shells per second.
Five shells to deal with the Angel fragment attacking Unit 01, five apiece for Unit 00 and 02 – priority going to those closest to the main Angel. Spinning, it put two shells into the fragment headed straight for the gestalt. Thirteen shells left, and four Evas to help. All three bodies grinning, it lined up the next fragment and fired-
An explosion rocked it to the side, breaking the gestalt as the emergency shut-downs kicked in. Armour shattered, and the ruined wreck of the siege cannon fell to the ground.
Li spat rounds at the thing attacking him, glad that it didn't seem to be able to manifest an AT Field of its own. Even so, Unit 08's pistol wasn't doing much; he'd broken some of the smaller pieces, but actually killing the whirling strangeness was another matter.
He changed magazines, and sent a command to the grenade dispenser on the Eva's left wrist. Flicking the explosive – a modified super-heavy bomb – into "ARMED" mode, he waited for a chance. Unit 09 was headed towards him, having killed its own enemy, and it seemed the Russians were holding their own. He had lost track of the NERV Evas and Unit 07.
Unit 09 flanked the enemy, laying into it with rifle-fire.
And then Unit 09 was gone.
There was no time to react; Li threw the grenade and charged the Angel, scoring hits on the now-exposed core. Beams ran through him, detonating the grenade dispenser and one of the spare pistol magazines, but he kept firing.
Shinji skidded to a halt directly below the Angel. He had made it there before anyone else, thankfully.
"AT Field, maximum strength," he ordered, looking straight up.
Feeding every last joule of energy in Unit 01's systems into the core, he projected an opaque, rainbow-coloured shield into the path of the Angel.
Too close to change course, the Angel slammed into the shield. The sudden rush of air from the space between the two rang out in a thunderclap, lightning flashing from the impact point. The hill they clashed on became barren in a second, the sheer amount of energy being released turning trees and plants to ash.
The Angel deployed its own AT Field, and slowly pushed through the shield. A skeletal torso reached out for Unit 01. Shinji grabbed its hands, and pushed.
The ground beneath Unit 01 cracked, the armour plating making up the artificial hill's foundation unable to take the load. Despite this, Shinji was winning; the Angel was slowly being pushed away from the ground.
Changing tactics, the Angel sacrificed part of its own body as fuel, rocketing downwards. The pressure on Shinji's arms increased tenfold, but he refused to kneel. The Angel's arms became spears, coring through Unit 01's arms, but Shinji simply roared in defiance.
Eighteen seconds left on the clock. He needed to win this, and fast.
He pulled the Angel downwards, slamming Unit 01's head into the core.
No effect. Fifteen seconds.
An orange-painted arm reached past his head, and grasped the red sphere. A progressive knife slammed into the Angel's core, again and again.
Ten seconds.
Shinji pushed upwards, straining against the Angel's massive bulk. Eight seconds. The Angel rose into the sky painfully slowly, metre by metre. Five seconds. Running out of time, Shinji pulled downwards again, this time angling it towards Unit 00's knife.
Three seconds. The knife made contact, and started cutting.
Two seconds. Cracks spread across the core, which filled Shinji's focus.
One second.
The core shattered.
Author's note - just skip ahead if you're just here for the story: There'll be a chapter dealing with the aftermath of this fight later, possibly over Christmas depending on how busy the next two weeks get. Just in case people missed this, I will let slip a smallish spoiler: I am fully aware I never gave Unit 09's pilot a name. And now, I finally get to go to sleep.