Well, here's something unexpected: new material for the Reaper War! I've recently been on a bit of an Evangelion kick (between watching the first two Rebuild movies (I can't stop rewatching the run to catch and fight against Sahaquiel; best segment in the entire Rebuild series!) and reading a handful of Eva fics, including Advice and Trust which I just recently discovered), and realized I haven't been giving them any real attention in a while (though, if a potential plot idea for future stories I have is used, this will change…). So, I've written a few things for them here, showing how members of the NGE group have changed/developed since we last really saw them in Book 13.
SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
The D77H-TCI 'Pelican' dropship flew low over rocky plains as it approached the drop-off point. Aboard, in the troop bay, four people – teens who'd saved their world more than once – made ready to fight. They'd all been training extensively over the past few months, learning military fighting as well as the shinobi arts. They were all wearing advanced, energy-shielded powered armor designed to resemble their respective Evangelions – purple with green highlights for Shinji, red with white for Asuka, blue with white for Rei, and dark-green with orange for Mari. They were ready as they could be, their spirits bolstered slightly by news of the victory at Rannoch yesterday.
Shinji's mind briefly strayed, thinking about how much things had changed. He now had a much healthier self-image than he once had, thanks to having his mother back in his life, four beautiful girls who loved him (and each other) dearly, and a handful of role-models and teachers who had helped him become better than he was before. He'd been confirmed to have a Lightning affinity for ki/chakra and mana conversion, and had been taught a few techniques to take advantage of that. He had also become rather skilled in 'human-scale' combat with the UNSC BR85 scoped burst-fire rifle, thanks to the thorough yet patient teachings of Agent Washington; the ex-Freelancer, though carrying more than his share in past mistakes and regrets, was unfailingly nice to Shinji, having become fond of the kid. He also was getting along quite well with Yui… Very well, actually; not for the first time, Shinji wondered if there was something brewing between his mother and the 'recovering cynic' (as Epsilon-Church described Wash)…
An odd development was that the Lance of Longinus apparently 'liked' Shinji; in addition to the superpowered, morphic weapon (it could be a 'tuning-fork' lance, a straight spear/javelin or quarterstaff, a sword…) being Eva-01's main weapon in its 'normal' size, it could also shrink down to such a degree that Shinji could wield it as a personal weapon as well; he'd gotten fairly good with it thanks to training from the others. At the moment it was slung diagonally across his back, while his BR85 rested in his hands.
Asuka had changed a fair bit. She was still a tsundere, but nowhere near as harsh and vicious as she used to be; getting her mama back, having her maternal grandmother become involved in her life, gaining four more family members in her third cousins, and having a loving boyfriend and girlfriends had all done wonders for her emotional & mental health. Auntie Kyōko and her mother had been working hard to train the girl in shinobi arts, and she had made good progress; and of course, as an Uchiha, her affinity was Fire. In terms of weapons, she'd become partial to the Sangheili Type-55 'Storm Rifle'. She'd made a few friends amongst the DDF as well; she got along especially well with Asuna Kagurazaka, the two acting like sisters, almost. …During one memorable event, the sight of Asuka & Asuna unleashing their Pervert Revenge Mode together on the ermine-fey Chamo had been… quite a sight to behold, that was for sure. Shinji could still remember the little rodent's scream.
About a month before the Reaper War began, a particularly powerful Type-B 'Demon' had ambushed the Pilot Team while they were training. At some point in the battle, he'd trapped Asuka in a genjutsu. Shinji had no idea what she saw in there, but when she broke free she had awakened her Mangekyō – three arrowheads (or hearts) in a triangle with their points touching in the center, over a black background. She had then withstood the Type-B's retaliatory attack with a Stage-0 Susanō ribcage, and then burned him to ashes with Amaterasu. Afterward, she, her mother, and her grandmother had undergone an 'eye swap' to grant all three of them the Eternal Mangekyō; Asuka's three-hearts Mangekyō pattern was now within a red circle with four little inward-curving spurs branching off it to almost touch the heart-shaped marks.
Kyōko and Ren had been doing well, catching up on the history of Ren's homeworld since when she 'left' it just after the First Great Shinobi War, and learning several new techniques that had been created in the decades since. Asuka's mother had also, in the past few months, struck up an odd yet strong friendship with Garrus Vakarian, the two of them swapping stories and bonding in their own way.
Rei had changed as well, becoming much more open and emotional thanks to him & the others, and to Yui (who liked to describe Rei as 'so very cute and cuddly', to Rei's embarrassment). Her personality had developed, revealing her to be very inquisitive and curious, but also rather shy, and a total sweetheart when with the people she trusted, practically craving physical contact with them. And even Asuka admitted that Rei's smile was beautiful/adorable; actually, the two had become very close since the bluenette opened up. Still, though, Rei could shift into her stoic mood as needed, usually for battle (Homura Akemi and Laicixa Testarossa did the same thing). One thing that had helped Rei was the discovery that the soul contained within Unit-00's core had in fact been a portion of Rei's, excised when she was reincarnated after Naoko Akagi strangled her first body. Master Yen-Sid had personally led the effort to safely extract the fragment of Rei's Heart and put it back together in her.
Neither Shinji nor anyone else yet knew that Rei also carried the proto-Angel Lilith's Heart/soul inside of herself as a 'passenger', the same way Sora carried Ventus' and Fate had once carried Alicia's. That would be for another time…
Rei had turned out to have a Wind affinity; in addition, though she could not use most Ice-type jutsu (namely, though she could manipulate already-present snow & ice in a low-temperature snowy battlefield or the like, she couldn't generate ice straight from her chakra; that required a kekkei genkai), she could use Ice-type magic, and McDowell had taught her a few tricks. She could also freely manifest her AT Field for defense (as well as offense; a properly-manipulated AT Field could have very sharp edges, and could make an excellent battering ram). She was also a fairly accomplished sniper, and it made for an interesting sight to see such a petite, waifish girl effortlessly carrying around and using a great big UNSC SRS99 S5-AM rifle, or a Quarian M98 Widow, and an M6 Carnifex 'hand-cannon' as backup.
Mari had… not really changed all that much. Then again, she didn't need to, having been psychologically healthy enough to begin with (though sometimes Shinji thought she enjoyed fighting a little too much…). She was, though, very affectionate with him, Asuka, and Mana, and very perceptive of their moods, often the first one to figure out if anything was bothering any of them. She also loved giving hugs, but none of them really minded that very much. She had Earth as her affinity, and usually used it to form big stone gauntlets to punch her enemies with for massive damage. In terms of weapons, she was partial to the UNSC M379 SAW and the COG 'Gnasher' shotgun.
Among the members of "Team Eva" not present, things had changed to varying degrees as well. Presently with her Sigma Team, Mana Kirishima had become psychologically healthier in the past few months. With prodding from Aqua, Yui, and Mari's mother Tomoyo, she had finally, FINALLY gotten some professional help from a very well-qualified and well-informed TSAB child psychologist regarding her various issues with her past (her parents selling her to a warlord at age 6 for food, being made into a child soldier in bloody battles, being made a cyborg by injuries, her issues with her femininity…), and she was making slow but significant progress. This was helped by plenty of support from her teammates as well as the Eva pilots, and by a certain pair of adults who had taken an almost parental shine to her.
Shinji had caught rumors and hints that Misato and Kaji A) might get married before too long, and B) might be considering adopting Mana.
The rest of the NERV crew was doing well enough, too. Fuyutsuki was acting head of NERV now, helping in reconstruction projects as well as handling any trouble that popped up (SEELE-loyal remnants causing trouble, the very occasional sign of Amon's or Xehanort's foot soldiers scouting around, and now coordinating to lend what aid to the Reaper War that they could give). Dr. Akagi was still head of science, and was currently among those lending her expertise to Project Crucible here in this Realm; she had become more pleasant to deal with, now that Gendō was out of the picture and she had hooked up with Maya. Gendō… well, Shinji no longer really gave a damn what his birth-father was up to; last he heard, the man was sulking in a prison cell, having seen the woman he loved be brought back to life only for her to furiously denounce and divorce him for all the hell he had put their son and the other Pilots through. They had been shocked to discover he had the embryonic form of the First Angel implanted into his hand; said hand had been removed, and placed in deep and secure cryo-storage (NERV's new heads were worried that trying to destroy 'Adam' might accidentally wake it up, so they just froze it for now).
Kaworu Nagisa – the 'Angel of Free Will' – was settling in pretty well, all things considered. After some initial suspicion, he had quickly proven his good intentions toward everyone and had been slowly but surely accepted as another member of the group. He was a bit odd at times, but never deliberately malicious, and the (very few) times he committed a faux pas or accidental insult, he was always deeply apologetic. He got along fairly well (though purely platonically) with Rei, and had also become a friend and confidante of Shinji. In fact, he had developed a strong compassion for the Pilot of Eva-01, thanks in part to Shinji's kindness and purity of heart; Yui called Kaworu's feelings toward her son 'agapé', a term Shinji hadn't yet looked up the meaning of, but Kaworu had slightly shyly agreed was the best word for it. And part of Shinji had to admit that, though he loved 'his' girls and found them beautiful, he couldn't help but also consider Kaworu to be a little attractive as well…
Yui was, like Ritsuko, lending her aid to the Crucible, working with Drs. Halsey, Testarossa, and a few other 'big-brains' in handling some of the more important aspects of the ancient machine. Asuka's mother, meanwhile, though certainly smart enough to lend further aid to the ambitious project, was also in the field about half the time, her skills as an Uchiha proving valuable in several battles. Mari's mother Tomoyo had taken up her old role for this conflict, being reinstated as a DDF officer; currently she often acted as 'mission control' for Team Eva.
"So…" Asuka spoke up. "Who are we fighting today – Cerberus or Reapers?"
"Cerberus" Mari replied. "They've been harassing the settlements on this planet; we're going to 'discourage' them from continuing that. …Though also, we've heard rumors of a small Reaper scouting party in this system; it's possible we might encounter Husk forces while we're here. But the Cerbies are our main target right now."
"I'm still not too comfortable with the idea of fighting other humans," Shinji remarked, "especially during this huge war for survival against the Reapers."
"Cerberus has made their choice" Asuka replied. "Besides, I'm pretty sure most of their foot-soldiers don't really qualify as 'people' anymore. Not after what The Illusive Man's done to them…"
"It's just… Is it even possible to save them?"
"No, unfortunately" Rei replied. "Judging by autopsies and psi-scans, their minds have been thoroughly altered by cybernetic implants and Cerberus-controlled Indoctrination. There is nothing left in them of the people they once were. All we can do is…" she cocked her sniper rifle. "'euthanize' them."
"…He'll pay for this" Shinji said, low and dark.
"Who?" Asuka asked. "The Illusive Man for doing that to them, or Harbinger for twisting his brain around enough to make him think doing it was a good idea?"
"Both."
"LZ looks clear" the Pelican pilot said over the intercom. "I'm bringin' us down."
The quartet made ready, donning their helmets with the face-plates and reflective visors, making sure their weapons are loaded and readied. They felt as the Pelican swung around, and then stood up as the troop-bay door opened, revealing the dusty brownish-grey surface of the rocky plains area they were in, illuminated by this world's orangish-yellow sun. They stepped out, taking the 30-centimeter jump down to the ground, and the Pelican then sealed up and flew away, its VTOL jets kicking up some dust that the team's helmets filtered out. Thankfully, the planet's atmosphere was quite breathable; in fact, it was the same type as Earth's, minus the taint of any industrial pollution (yet). The only notable issue this 'garden world' had was that the continental region the current joint human/Asari settlement was on was fairly tectonically active, so all settlement structures had to be thoroughly groundquake-proofed.
"Okay," Mari said, "we don't know exactly where Cerberus' people are hanging out. There are plenty of rock formations to give us cover and concealment, but that also means plenty of cover for any of their scouts to sneak up on us, so keep a look out and watch your motion-trackers. Now, let's go huntin'."
The quartet moved out, cautious and alert. For around 10 minutes, they found nothing. Then, as they moved through a field of shin-high grayish-green grasses with several large boulders scattered about, they quickly slid into cover behind a pair of large rocks as they spotted a single Cerberus Nemesis seated atop another boulder about 40 meters ahead. Her attention was off to the right at the moment, her modified Widow rifle in her lap.
After debating for about half a minute, they had Rei sneak around, crouch-walking through the grass, going wide and slowly, quietly approaching the Nemesis from behind. The black-armored Cerberus soldier never knew what hit her as the blue-armored young Pilot came up right behind her, wrapping one arm around her throat and then activating her other hand's wrist-mounted Sangheili plasma dagger. The energy blade was precisely thrusted up and in, punching through the Nemesis' helmet and skull and cutting/burning deep into her brainstem. The Nemesis instantly went limp, the most vital part of her brain destroyed. Rei then signaled to the others. However, as they came close, they heard something.
"Nemesis-52, status report" a partially synthesized voice came over the Cerberus soldier's comm. "…Nemesis-52, respond; status report… Control, Nemesis-52 is not responding to calls."
"Understood. Squad 3-M, investigate."
"So now we've got a squad coming our way" Asuka said. "Should we beat it and try to get around them?"
"I've got a better idea…" Mari replied, a small grin on her face.
20 minutes later, a squad of Cerberus Troopers, along with a Centurion and an Engineer, approached from the northeast. They were met by the sight of the Nemesis apparently sitting/slouching atop the boulder, her head and arms partially propped up by her rifle's butt as the barrel was pressed against the foot of her extended leg for leverage. She wasn't moving, and didn't acknowledge their presence.
'Is… she asleep?' the Centurion thought incredulously. 'Did she actually doze off on the job?'
He came closer with his squad following, and sighed as he tapped into her suit, checking her biosigns… and gasped as he saw them all flatlined.
"She's dead!" he called out.
As if that was a signal, a figure in dark-green armor popped up from the other side of the boulder. The first shotgun blast downed the Centurion's shields, and the second took him out. From a couple of other nearby boulders, the other three emerged and opened fire; shots from Rei's Carnifex, Asuka's Storm Rifle, and Shinji's Battle Rifle cut down more than half the Cerberus squad in the span of a couple seconds. The remainder instantly returned fire, their shots pinging off the rocks or against the Pilots' energy shields. Focused plasma fire from the red-armored Team Eva member stripped the Engineer's shields, and a headshot from Rei's Carnifex put him down. Mari used her SAW to mow down three more baseline Troopers. One last Trooper tried to run, but a three-round burst to the back of the head put a stop to that.
"Okay," Mari said, "now we make our exit, before they send an even bigger force to investigate."
The quartet moved on, careful of their surroundings. After a few minutes, they caught sight of a pair of Cerberus Phantoms a ways up ahead, watching the area. Shinji nodded to Rei, who readied her SRS99 and took aim at what they knew was one of the more dangerous types of Cerberus soldier. Two loud *cracks* rang out as a pair of 14.5mm armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot rounds tore through the skulls of the Phantoms. The quartet started across the grassy plain, heading for the cover of the rocks 100 meters ahead… and then a Cerberus Hammerhead came over the nearby hill to their right, and immediately spotted them.
Rei formed an AT Field just in time to block the wave of high-velocity missiles fired by the hover-tank's cannon. The team went wide, peppering the machine with small-arms fire but not doing significant damage. Shinji pulled the currently human-scaled Longinus Lance from its position across his back, and used chakra-boosted speed and agility to zigzag toward the tank from the side. He leapt over an attempt by the thing to sideswipe him, and landed on its top, his armor's mag-boots allowing him to cling to the tank's hull. Sparks flew as he dug the Lance into the tank's hull, cutting a hole in it. He then pulled a pair of plasma grenades out, activated them and dropped them in. He leapt off, sprinting to get some distance. Just as the tank swiveled round and prepared to fire its main gun at him, the grenades went off, gutting the vehicle and roasting its crew. The Hammerhead dropped to the ground, sparks and smoke coming from it.
"Not bad, baka" Asuka said with a grin; it was more of a pet name than an insult by this point. "Think we've pissed them off yet?"
"I'd say we have" Rei replied. "An entire squad, a few Phantoms, and now a tank? They will not be happy."
"Let's keep doing that, then" Mari said. "Let's find their base of operations here and raze it."
They continued on, and after about 20 minutes, they reached a plateau overlooking a wide-open lower-elevation area up ahead. And in there…
Mari whistled. "That's a pretty big base" she looked out at the sizable Cerberus FOB, complete with a vehicle pool full of tanks & IFVs and a massive landing pad for ships. "Are they planning to invade, maybe?"
"Possibly" Shinji replied. "I don't think we can take all of that out as we are now."
"…You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Asuka said with a grin.
Mari nodded. "Let's stomp 'em."
-Break-
Elsewhere on the planet, a Cerberus Atlas toppled over backward, a sizable arrow of solid chakra driven through it. With the last of this Cerberus force disposed of, Kyōko Uchiha-Sōryū allowed her Susanō to dispel, letting out a sigh as she observed the aftermath of the rather one-sided battle between the DDF group – herself, Neji Hyūga, and a quartet of Spec-Ops Sangheili – and the 'Cerbies'.
Suddenly, she sensed a very distant flare of chakra from the neighboring continent. Kyōko recognized a Summoning Technique, and she smirked as she figured who and what it was.
"Cutting loose now, are we, kids?" she murmured.
-Break-
Cerberus military training and technology gave them quite an edge against most of the forces of this galaxy, and even the foot-soldiers of the DDF's other realms often had to really work to take out a Cerberus force without taking a notable amount of casualties. But right now, all of Cerberus' guns and tech was virtually no help at all against the quartet of 80-meter-tall, AT Field-shielded, heavily-armored biomechanical titans that were figuratively – and in some cases literally – stomping all over the terrorist paramilitary organization's base and personnel. The four Evas were barely using their ranged weapons, mostly content to use massive melee strikes and weaponized AT-Field attacks to carve through Cerberus.
The Evangelions had been given quite a few nifty upgrades to aid in their service with the Dimensional Defense Force. Their armor had been upgraded to a more durable yet also slightly less heavy material compared to the plating they'd originally been covered in, and there were a few subtle differences in paint-job (Eva-01 had a bit more green to it than before, for instance). In terms of offense, the Evas had missile launchers built into the armor of their upper bodies in a couple places, capable of firing "small" warheads to deal with smaller threats or wound bigger ones; right now, Eva-02 used a half-dozen such rockets to shoot down a Cerberus 'Mantis' gunship harassing it. They also had hard-points for mounting other mission-specific gear – shoulder- or forearm-mounted cannons, jump jets, shield projectors, and so on. And of course, they still had their Eva-scale projectile weapons and their progressive knives and – in Eva-02's case – progressive axe. For power sources, they relied on top-grade fusion reactors constructed and installed by Huragok… as well as the 'natural' power of the Evas themselves.
The organic beasts that lurked beneath all that armor, augmented with cybernetic tech, had changed as well. Though their cores no longer carried human souls, the beasts had limited intelligences of their own, and – fortunately for everyone – these intelligences were quite fond of their pilots, willingly synchronizing with and working with them. Dr. Akagi said there were signs that the Evas' natural intelligence was very, very slowly improving, but thankfully this did not negatively impact their 'bonds' with their pilots; in fact, it seemed to help.
After using a pulse of Unit-01's AT Field to send a few dozen Cerberus soldiers flying, Shinji turned in time to see Eva-02 hit a Cerberus Atlas with a kick, sending the mini-mecha flying with great speed and distance, right toward a distant pair of thin rock pillars next to each other. The Atlas flew in an arc, passing perfectly right between the spires.
"And it's good!" Asuka cheered, throwing her and her Eva's arms up in celebration.
"Extracting data from base servers" Rei reported; she had Unit-00 knelt down by a torn-open structure, reaching a hand in and allowing a handful of cables to extend from the Eva's wrist and plug/jam into Cerberus computer servers. "I'll send it to the Systems Alliance once I'm done."
Over the next few minutes, the four Evangelions made short work of the Cerberus base and its personnel. This far into the war, they'd learned the hard way that Cerberus people never surrendered, had been cybernetically altered and Indoctrinated enough to be rendered literally incapable of surrendering. Soon the last Cerberus gunship fell, swatted out of the sky by Unit-05.
"Well, that's over with" Mari said. "Now, let's-"
She was interrupted by a sound that startled the four pilots: an extremely loud and deep, slightly distorted bass horn-like noise from up above. They looked up, in time to see a massive shape drop in through the low-hanging clouds overhead, landing with a ground-shaking thud. …The Pilots had been lucky so far in the war, engaging Cerberus and Husk forces but not getting involved in the bigger, nastier fights. But now, for the first time, they stood face to 'face' with a Destroyer-class Reaper. The ancient mechanical monster was 160 meters tall, twice the height of an Evangelion, balanced on four thick legs covered in the same jet-black armor plating as the rest of its huge body. Its forward plates slid open to reveal a single large photoreceptor over several smaller white ones, the big one shining with a baleful red glow… a glow that was now brightening rapidly.
Shinji quickly had Unit-01 throw up an AT Field just in time to block the thick, bright red beam from the Reaper's primary weapon, straining as the weapon's raw power ate away at his defense. Fire from Unit-00's and Unit-05's pallet rifles was aimed at the Reaper's 'face', pinging off the monster's energy shields and forward armor, but a few shots that came too close for comfort forced the titan to cut off its beam and partially close its plates, letting out the Reaper equivalent of a snarl. It swept its beam at Unit-00, forcing the blue Eva to hit the dirt, while also dispatching a squadron of Oculus drones to harass Units 01 and 02.
Unit-05 jumped into the air, and Mari had her Eva's two foot-tipped legs transform into four wheel-tipped ones. Landing hard, she immediately started rolling, circling around the Reaper Destroyer while firing pallet-rifle rounds at it and dodging a couple of return shots. Then, when the Destroyer was distracted for a moment by 00 and 01 firing at it, Mari made her move. She rolled in close, readying her Evangelions' drill and channeling her AT Field around it, and thrusted it home. The drill dug deep into the joint of the Reaper's left rear leg, doing severe damage in little time. The mechanical monster thrashed in anger, swinging another of its legs and knocking Mari to the side. She shifted her Eva's legs back to 'normal' mode and righted herself, groaning at the sympathetic pain from the light damage dealt by the impact.
Slipping behind the monster while Shinji & Rei distracted it again, Asuka went for a crippling blow. She triggered Unit-02's jaw plates to unlatch, and the armor-clad cyborg beast let out a snarl as its mouth full of Tyrannosaur-like teeth was freed to open. Grabbing hold of the Reaper's damaged leg with both hands, she then focused and shaped her AT Field around her Eva's jaws and teeth, giving the huge fangs a yellow-orange glow. She then had Unit-02 bite down as hard as it could, deep into the badly damaged leg joint. The serrated teeth and AT-Fields, coupled with the fact that 02 had the highest bite-force of the Evas, meant that the damage very quickly added up, and soon the Destroyer's left rear leg was severed completely, dropping to the ground with a thud.
The Reaper 'roared' in rage, shifting its remaining three legs to regain its now-shaky balance. It turned its main gun on Unit-02, which barely avoided a shot that would have punched through its barrier and damaged the biomech itself. As the Reaper turned its gaze to the side, it took a three-round burst from Eva-01's rifle that destroyed two of its smaller white photoreceptors. Now enraged, the 56-million-year-old Destroyer fired its main gun with as much force as it could, but the purple Evangelion leapt over the beam, coming in close and grabbing hold of the main sliding plates along the Reaper's front. With a display of impressive force, Shinji forced the plates wide open enough to break the mechanism that allowed them to close, leaving the monster vulnerable.
A shot from Rei & Unit-00's Eva-scale high-velocity sniper rifle punched deep into the Reaper Destroyer's body through this weak point, causing significant internal damage. She fired six more times, the second-to-last shot piercing through the metal monster's main 'eye', the rounds tearing through multiple vital systems. The Reaper groaned as its 'running lights' went out, and it collapsed to the ground, permanently offline.
"Jeez" Asuka said, a little breathless. "That was a bit tougher than I thought it'd be. I don't even wanna think about what would happen if we tried to take on one of the big ones."
"Okay," Shinji said, "now let's head back to base and give our report. …Let's see how they react to us wiping out a Cerberus base and killing a Reaper."
-SCENE BREAK-
By chance, the Normandy II had stopped to refuel on its way back to the Citadel (it was due for a maintenance cycle, with the crew set to be given a little shore leave) at the same station that she was currently on while waiting for her next assignment. Thus it was that Kyōko Uchiha-Sōryū found herself able to catch up with a close friend in person rather than via vid-comm. She and Garrus were presently hanging by a window overlooking the station's dock, watching a few frigates and corvettes come and go. They talked about various things, some related to the war and others not. As the conversation rolled on, the human woman took a chance and, slightly shyly, made a little 'half-joking' suggestion. Garrus had been surprised and rather flustered, but didn't exactly show any overt rejection of the idea. All the same, though, he wanted to take things just a little slow, to be safe.
"You know me," he said with a grin to hide his nervousness, "I always like to savor the last shot before popping the heat-sink."
There was a long stretch of silence as the look on Kyōko's face slowly shifted to a sly grin, while the look on Garrus' turned to one of embarrassed realization.
"Wait… That went somewhere horrible…"
Kyōko couldn't completely suppress a giggle; occasionally, Garrus was kind of a dork. But she liked that about him. "Right" she said. "I'll give you a bit of time to think about it. Just… maybe don't wait too long, okay? This war doesn't look like it's gonna get better any time soon."
"I know…" the Turian replied solemnly, turning to face her. "I really wouldn't mind… that sort of thing, Kyōko. I'm not adverse to the idea at all, actually, just… surprised, kinda; I've never exactly considered cross-species intercourse before. …And damn, saying it that way doesn't help; now I feel all dirty and clinical… Just give me a bit of time, and… we'll see how things develop. …So, heard from Mami?"
Kyōko smiled; over the past few months, Mami Tomoe had become comfortable with her (despite a bit of confused nervousness at first at the shared first name with Mami's fiery little kohai) and with Garrus, even before the two adults' friendship really got off the ground. She was a sweetheart, and… the two of them were among the very few whom Mami would let her walls down around, revealing the scared and traumatized lonely girl that being a veteran magical girl had made her into. She got along pretty well with Asuka, too.
For an instant, the word "adoption" flashed through the Uchiha woman's mind.
"She's doing fine" she replied. "I hear she took down three Banshees at once all by herself, while protecting a little boy."
Garrus nodded approvingly. "She's a good kid. …She's been through way too much crap for someone her age, really. It's nice that she's finding some true strength and happiness after all that."
Garrus' Omnitool chimed, and he let out a soft sigh.
"Well, that's my cue" he said. "The N2's all fueled up, and we are Citadel-bound. Good luck out there, Kyōko. …We'll talk soon…"
She nodded, and then watched him leave. Though part of her was nervous, another part couldn't wait to see where things went with her & him. …She suspected one person already had a suspicion where it might go, if the big, knowing smirk/grin she'd gotten from Asuka after catching her & Garrus finishing a vid-conversation a while back meant anything.
'Never thought I'd feel this way for a space-alien…' Kyōko thought, a little smile on her face. 'I'm certainly not complaining, though. …Be careful out there, Garrus; please don't get yourself killed before we can have the chance to see if this might work…'
-SCENE BREAK-
Classified Location, Deep Space
Yui Ikari sighed as she leaned back in her chair, having just finished overseeing the installation of another chunk of software for the Crucible. Not for the first time in her life, she was involved in a project where, though she understood many little facets and details and parts, she had no idea of what the big-picture end result would be like. The Crucible Project was a hell of a lot bigger than Project Eva, though.
Speaking of which, she had actually enjoyed overseeing the numerous upgrades to the Evangelions… especially the ones other than 00, 01, 02, and 05. In the wake of the 13th Angel, Eva-03 had been badly damaged, but not irreparably so. After confirming it to be 100% Angel-free, they'd started repairing it, and eventually succeeded, following that by giving it the DDF-provided upgrades and picking out its pilot. It was now in active service, just like its 'siblings', both older and younger.
When they had made Unit-01 from Lilith years ago, they'd had to literally sever the lower half of Lilith's body and use it as a base to 'grow' 01 from. But the DDF's technology and magic meant that something much less invasive could be used for future Units (as well as ensuring that no human souls needed to be trapped in the cores to get them to work). The result? Using three proportionately small 'donations' from Lilith's form, they had managed to create three new Lilith-based Evangelions, bringing the total to four, mirroring the four Adam-based Evas (00, 02, 03, and 05). Units 06, 07, and 08 now had pilots of their own and were also in active service. In the old days, people would've said that having eight Evangelions was gross overkill, but against the kind of foes they faced now? They needed all the heavy hitters they could get.
Yui heard armored footsteps behind her, and a male voice greeting her with a "Yo". She smiled.
"David?" she said. "I didn't know you were here."
"Yeah, well," Agent Washington sat down beside her, removing his helmet, "my team found a couple relics that we thought might be useful for the Crucible, so I brought them here for the tech-heads to have a look at. …Plus, I wanted to check on you, make sure you didn't forget us lowly grunts fighting in the trenches."
She smirked. "I haven't forgotten. I've been regularly checking the updates they send us on the war's progress and on any significant happenings. I saw you handling yourself very well on Garvug not too long ago, and I saw my son and the other 'first-gen' pilots kill a Destroyer."
"Wait, they what? Damn, not bad at all. Shinji's getting better and better; all of 'em are, really. …I don't think they'd have as much luck against a Dreadnought, though."
"Yeah… The war's not going too well, is it? In the big picture, I mean."
The ex-Freelancer sighed. "We knew it would be bad. We are scoring a handful of victories here & there, but… yeah, in the long run, the big picture, we're slowly getting pushed back and ground down. Mostly it's because the Reapers have so damned many to throw at us; all the DDF's starship tech advantage can't help much if they get Zerg-rushed, and they can't be everywhere at once. It really looks like the Crucible's gonna be our best – maybe only – hope."
"We're doing our damndest to get this thing put together and in working order. …And we still have no idea whatsoever on what exactly it will do. But we don't have any other choice: either we put our faith in the Crucible, or we all die."
"…We can do this, Yui. I don't know how I know we can, but I know. …I'm afraid I've got to get going now. I need to report to the Infinity; we're… We're receiving our augmentations."
"Augmentations?" Yui looked at him, confused.
Wash nodded. "I and the other surviving Freelancers are being made Spartan-4s. …I'm probably not gonna change too much; the augmentations the 4s get aren't as… extreme as the 2s & 3s; most 4s only gain a couple inches when they get augmented, for instance. But… yeah, the next time you see me, I'll be a Spartan."
She smiled. "You've earned it, David. I can't wait to see how you'll look in Mjolnir Armor."
"They say it takes a little bit of getting used to. I won't be totally alone, though; besides the other Freelancers, Eddie & his team are being made S4s as well."
"Buck, too?"
"Yep; him, Dutch, Romeo, Mickey, and Rook are all getting 'upgraded' with us; they'll be 'Fireteam Kestrel', I think. Anyway, I think I'd better get going before someone comes looking for me. …I'll come by to see you again if I get the chance."
She nodded, watching him re-don his helmet and make his exit. She closed her eyes, thinking back to how things had gone in the months since she met him right after she was freed from 01's core; Wash had more than his share of scars in his past and skeletons in his closet, but he had made a lot of progress in healing the 'wounds' that Project Freelancer had left him with. Sure, he was a bit snippy with the Blood-Gulchers (and considering what neurotic goofballs they were, she couldn't really blame him), but he did care for them. He had also been really kind and patient with Shinji, helping him, giving him advice, giving him fighting tips that had served the boy well, quietly worrying about the boy in his own way…
"Hmm…" she thought, her mind wandering to her thoughts and feelings regarding the man, and to a few possibilities for the future…
-SCENE BREAK-
Sigma Team advanced, carving through Husks as they went. A Strike Raid from Kairi cut down a Marauder, leaving the Cannibals it had been commanding disorganized, easy prey for the Nakajima sisters. A pack of Husks charged in, only to learn that is a very stupid thing to do when one of your enemies is a Diclonius, especially one with a shotgun. Aqua made short work of a Brute, dancing around the hulking hybrid Husk and dealing rapid, powerful blows, cutting deep into its armor plating and finishing with a decapitating strike. Mana handled a Ravager, capping off a barrage of MA5D fire with a frag grenade rolled underneath the insectoid techno-zombie. Asa used her pseudo-Biotic magic to lift a few Cannibals into the air and then slam them to the ground with bone-crushing force, and finished them off with some M2 Lancer fire.
Now, as they finished off the current batch of hostiles and moved forward, they came up onto a plateau… that overlooked a horde of Reaper forces – Husks of all types, all over the place. They were probably going to march on the town a few kilometers away.
"And Commander Shepard & Teana-san just have to be busy on Thessia right now…" Asa murmured.
"This won't be easy…" Kairi said.
"Actually," Aqua replied with a light smirk, "this is perfect. Mana~?"
The auburn-haired cyborg girl grinned, starting to form a few hand-seals…
-Break-
A few dozen kilometers away, three Evangelions took to the field, staring down another small army of Husk forces. The first – Unit-03 – was mostly black, with red and white highlights. The second – Unit-06 – was grey with bits of dark green, and the third – Unit-07 – was yellow and sky-blue.
"I know it's cliché to say," Tōji said from in Unit-03's cockpit, "but they look like ants from up here."
"Yeah well," Kensuke replied from Unit-06's cockpit, "I'm still gonna be careful; I've heard about those South American army ants that can kill a horse just by swarming all over it…"
"I think an Evangelion's a hell of a lot tougher than a horse, dude."
"You know what I mean."
The pilot of Unit-07 sighed, steeling herself as she pulled free her Eva's glaive and readied it. "Asuka…" Hikari whispered. "You've always been a step ahead of me. But I swear… I'll catch up to you, so we can truly fight side by side… …Let's go, boys!"
The three 'second-gen' Evas charged, ready to start slaying cyber-zombies by the bucketload.
-Break-
Husks of all sorts died by the dozens as Evangelion Unit-08 waded through them. The 80-meter-tall biomech's armor was white with pink highlights, with a sleek, almost 'graceful' look. And it was effortlessly shrugging off everything the Reaper forces threw at it, and dealing death to the puny things trying to impede it.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I shall fear no evil…," Mana grinned, "for I am piloting 35,000 tons of 'fuck you'!"
She grabbed a Harvester out of the air and slammed it to the ground, flattening a squad of Marauders. The rest of Sigma Team followed in Eva-08's wake, finishing off the few survivors.
Mana laughed as her Eva's missile launchers blew two more Harvesters out of the sky. "I don't even fuckin' care anymore that my Eva and my plugsuit have some pink on 'em! This is awesome!"
-Break-
The 'second-gen' Pilot trio had been doing fairly well, making short work of the Husk army. And then a pair of Reaper Destroyers had dropped in from orbit. The last Eva vs. Reaper fight had been 4-on-1, and hadn't been too difficult for that group. But 3-on-2 was another story; Tōji, Kensuke, and Hikari were giving it all they had, coordinating to defend against their enemies and launch counterattacks, but the two Reapers were coordinating as well, sharing sensor data and working together to keep the three Evas on their toes.
Tōji grimaced as a very near miss of one Destroyer's beam passed by the left side of his Unit-03, the close proximity generating enough heat to slightly damage the armor plating closest to the beam; he'd been so busy using his AT Field to defend against one Reaper's attack that the other one had almost gotten him. The second Destroyer was then stopped from its attempt to charge another shot by several rounds from Unit-06's rifle, forcing it to cancel its gun's charging sequence and close its front plates to protect its 'face'.
One Destroyer had sent out a squadron of Oculus drones, which now directed their attention against the silver-&-green Eva, forcing Kensuke to swat at them. Another few drones tried to rush at Eva-07, only for Hikari to use a perfectly-timed swing of her Unit's glaive to slice one Oculus in half, followed by an AT-Field 'sledgehammer' strike to send a few more drones flying. The pigtailed girl then charged her Eva at the closest Destroyer, the biomech swinging and thrusting its polearm, forcing the Reaper to backstep and dodge to avoid taking hits to its leg joints or photoreceptors.
Unit-06 managed to shoot out one of the second Destroyer's smaller 'eyes', and the monster was not at all happy about that, sweeping its bright red beam in Kensuke's direction, forcing the Eva to duck and roll. Unit-03 came in from the side, clambering up on top of the Destroyer with something in its right hand. The Reaper shook him off, but not before he tossed the object into the now-closing front plates, landing inside. …And then, the 'micro' N2 warhead detonated inside the Destroyer. The blast gutted the ancient metal monster, which seized and then fell 'dead'.
"I guess we can tell Dr. Akagi that the N2 grenades are a success" Kensuke remarked.
Meanwhile, Hikari continued pressing her assault on the other Destroyer, having dealt a few hits and damage to the beast. Finally, she dodged under and around a blast from its main gun, and then thrusted her Eva's glaive right into the Reaper's big red main 'eye'. As the monster roared and thrashed, she pulled out her Eva's assault rifle, jammed the barrel into the thing's 'face', and held down the trigger. She emptied most of the clip into her target, the rounds tearing through vital components. The Reaper Destroyer groaned, staggering and stumbling, and finally it collapsed, its lights going out. Eva-07 pulled its weapon free of the ancient being's corpse.
"That wasn't too bad, I guess" Hikari said. "I'd still rather not do it again, though."
"Two down, 200 million to go…" Tōji sighed. "Let's make sure the Husks in this area are all dead, and then head back to base."
-SCENE BREAK-
Just northeast of the ruined city of London, a Reaper Destroyer exchanged fire with a squadron of tanks and a handful of fighter jets. The ancient titan was gradually winning, slowly picking off and grinding down the coalition forces attacking it. However, it failed to notice the huge red-armored figure over a kilometer away, preparing to strike.
Letting her synch-rate go as high as it could, Asuka activated her Eternal Mangekyō and began channeling her chakra into/through her Eva. She felt it moving down Unit-02's arm, shaped and guided by the Eva's AT Field, gathering in the biomech's hand and beginning to grow and take form. However…
"Damn it…" she gritted her teeth. "Not enough… I thought I had enough to pull this off… What now?"
Suddenly, she felt as another person's chakra began to flow and mingle with hers. She looked to the side, and her Eva's external cameras showed her maternal grandmother perched on Eva-02's right shoulder, Ren's own Eternal Mangekyō active as she sent her Susanō out to merge with Asuka's. With that boost in hand, Asuka smirked as she continued shaping her Eva's weapon…
The Reaper Destroyer crushed a Hammerhead tank with its foot, and fired a sweep of its beam to vaporize a dozen soldiers. The rest of the tanks scattered, firing shells while the fighters blasted the monster with missiles. However, the shots did little damage to the Destroyer's heavy armor, and now its primary eye began to glow brightly as it prepared a full-power shot…
There was a massive crack/boom of the sound barrier being broken by a significant margin. Fired by Unit-02's giant AT-Field/Susanō bow, the massive arrow of solidified AT-shaped chakra pierced through the Destroyer's main 'eye' at several times the speed of sound. The one-two punch of the deep penetration and the arrow's breakdown/detonation into damaging chakra dealt quickly-fatal damage to the Reaper, which stumbled and collapsed to the ground, its lights going out. Soon spotting their rescuer, the surviving tanks and aircraft 'saluted' the crimson-armored titan, which waved and then moved on.
-Break-
Kaworu Nagisa moved through the streets of London, doing his part in effortlessly dispatching the various Husks that tried to attack him; they had no souls, no 'light', just corpses transformed and reanimated by Reaper nano-tech (as was implied by the Lilim's colloquialism, "cyber-zombies"), so he had no qualms about destroying them. He could 'feel' the battles raging all over this area, many organics' souls being torn from their bodies and sent to the Beyond, as well as a few Reapers' life-forces being snuffed out.
As he came around a corner, he almost bumped into an angled black building. And then he saw that the 'building' was the leg of a Destroyer-class Reaper, which then turned to face him, its multiple glowing photoreceptors staring down at the puny 'human'. Kaworu's face had a slight frown as he sensed the Reaper's core – millions of individual essences forcibly melted down into one, like Instrumentality gone wrong, and made into the heart of a being created to bring death and ruin. …But as he extended his senses, in this, his first time meeting a Reaper face to 'face', he sensed something else.
Just as Rei Ayanami carried the slumbering Heart/soul of Lilith alongside her own, Kaworu carried part of the soul of Adam, the progenitor of the Angels; the other part was within the embryonic being currently deep-frozen at NERV headquarters. Unlike Rei, Kaworu had access to a small portion of his genetic donor's knowledge. And there was one ancient race of beings that Adam – and thus Kaworu – had knowledge of. Now, Kaworu's face became one of shocked recognition.
"You… You carry a fragment of their essence?" he said. "How can they be involved in this?"
The Reaper let out a 'growl' and fired its main gun directly at Kaworu, who quickly tossed up a powerful AT Field; he grimaced as he actually had to put some effort into blocking the beam. Then, in a blur of movement, Kaworu vanished, leaving the Reaper perplexed. A distance away, the human-form Angel stood atop a bombed-out building.
'If a 'Star-Eater' is involved in this war somehow,' he thought, 'things must be far more than they seem. …I need to tell someone; we need to look into this before things progress too far…"
Concentrating, Kaworu reached his senses into the higher plane of another Realm, homing in on the energy of the Supreme Kai, currently watching the battles via scrying. Placing his index & middle fingertips to his brow, Kaworu then vanished from this Realm.
-BONUS CHAPTER END-
And now we know just how the Supreme Kai and Ouranos found out that something was amiss, leading them to discover the Crucible's true functions and send a group to stop Team Shepard just in time.
This is probably the only unexpected Bonus Chapter this Book is going to get. However, you probably won't have to wait too much longer for new material, because the release date of StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void has finally been confirmed: November 10th, only four weeks away! Soon, the Dimensional Defense Force will be embroiled in yet another large-scale conflict as Amon starts his endgame.
See you soon!