Blood Red
Episode 1
Hospitality
A/N:
ATTENTION ALL READERS.
In the future (and possibly starting from this chapter) the story will contain spoilers for Evangelion 3.0+1.0, even though I might change them a bit to fit the story better, they will still be there.
You have been warned.
Anyway have a nice read :D
Chapter 2: New pieces on the board
Tokyo 3 central park, 21:06
"There it is, the Fortress of doom, barely floating in all its glory."
VEGA announced as the group reached the fortress while it was still being repaired by the drones.
"Are you sure that it can actually fly?" Asuka asked and a new voice came from the base of the ship to answer her:
"Well, the engines and the shield are working properly now, the only thing broken is the navigation system.
I'm Doctor Samuel Hayden by the way, nice to meet you all."
Then as he saw Shinji and the drone attached to him, the three meter tall white robot said:
"I believe that it's better if we get inside, it's going to be dark soon and thanks to the shield we won't have to worry about other drones or the L barrier."
Suddenly Asuka asked:
"How would you know about it if you crashed here just hours ago?"
"We were eavesdropping on you while you were at your tent, it was the Slayer who made that building fall down after all."
Asuka turned to look at Shinji for a moment, seeing that he was stuck looking at nothing, lost in his own thoughts.
It was the sudden sound of a portal opening that brought him back to reality and as he raised his head, he saw the large dark blue circle right next to Samuel.
"There isn't currently a way for you three to get on the ship without a portal, so… after you."
"And what tells me that you aren't going to lock us up or worse?"
"What benefit would that bring to us exactly? We are lost on an unknown planet and you are our only source of information, while we are also your only hope of survival.
I won't force this decision on you, but I say that your chances without us are pretty slim.
Me and VEGA will be waiting for you behind the portal."
Just before the two of them entered the blue circle though, Rei asked:
"What about the Slayer?
He seems to be your companion and as you said the city at night is dangerous."
The robot waited for a moment before replying:
"He'll come back when he wants to, I wouldn't worry.
Instead, I would worry about that wound on his abdomen getting worse.
If you follow me inside we have a medical area where we can quickly treat all of you."
"...
Alright, follow me Brat, you too Doll."
And so they walked forward into the dark blue, feeling as if their entire body was tickled for a moment before they came out on the main deck of the ship.
It was, in some ways, similar to that of the Wunder, only if its designer was from the Medieval times and had access to teleportation technology.
A neatly decorated metal bridge extended over a small circular pool, leading to a set of stairs which ended with the main bridge and control systems.
Then after another short and wide stairway, the area was divided in three by two thin columns, with a secondary teleporter exit in the central one.
At the back of each area, a wide glass door was left open, leading to various parts of the ship.
The trio kept following the tall robot as he took the door to the right and began descending to a central round area.
Once the next door opened, the pilots couldn't believe their eyes:
"Where did you get an evangelion!?" Asuka shouted as the limbless body of the Atlan mech came into view.
"Well, yours is not the only world with giant robots.
What you are looking at is an Atlan class assault mech, designed to fight against the Titans from hell."
"Wait... hell?"
"In our world hell exists and it has a long history of invading other worlds so that its leader can gain more power.
This particular machine, as well as the ship itself, comes from the world of the Argenta, where we originally found the Slayer.
Although… there is still a human being behind that suit."
Suddenly they heard a door to their side open and out of the airlock, the almost two meter tall Slayer walked out, his face hidden by the lighting of the visor.
"Glad you came back, do you mind showing them the way to the medical station?"
He nodded and signaled the pilots to follow them, but when Shinji came to the next set of stairs, it was too steep for him.
He lost balance and fell forward, closing his eyes and getting ready for the impact.
This however, never came as the Slayer had run from the front of the group to the back and managed to grab him right before he touched the ground.
The two of them looked each other in the eyes for a moment, with Shinji feeling a strange sense of warmth for a moment.
"Why did he save me?" he asked himself hearing Kaworu reply shortly after:
"He needs you to stay alive, he'll probably get rid of you if he thinks that you aren't useful to them anymore, that's why."
"Maybe you're right Kaworu…but… there was something about the way that he touched me that…
It almost felt…"
Shinji never found the end of that sentence, yet he couldn't help but form a weak smile for the man who had just saved his life.
And in the background, Asuka almost felt something inside of her catch fire.
This moment however, was interrupted by Rei who said while she was looking over the railing:
"I can see that my unit has managed to get inside your ship after the crash."
And Samuel replied:
"Yes, it was too difficult to remove it, so instead we are going to scrap it and use its resources to rebuild the Atlan, since it seems too damaged to work again anyway."
"But if I remember correctly, the mark 09 has an excellent regeneration ability."
This time VEGA answered while he opened the door to the elevator:
"That's true. However it seems that from my surface analysis some vital piloting components were destroyed, so while it kept its regeneration factor, it can no longer move or even activate.
This makes it a perfect candidate for the Atlan as we would have to ignore future repairs.
We don't even have to worry about the different types of material as I've already run some tests and the evangelion can be safely converted into the new parts that we need."
"We have something like that in the Wunder too, unit 01's S2 engine keeps constantly regenerating its limbs and we use them, however it's not the fastest method of producing material, which is why the Wunder must be going towards Europe now."
"What is in Europe?" VEGA asked.
"A large storage and facility in the old city of Paris, with enough parts to repair both of our units."
"Interesting… though why are you telling us this? It sounds like highly classified information."
"Because I'm pissed that they didn't come to pick me up!"
Samuel couldn't contain himself and let out a small chuckle, which ended the conversation as the group entered the elevator while the robot went back to his quarters.
Meanwhile in the elevator, the tense aura that has formed seemed unbreakable, like not even the most powerful anti AT field shell could make a dent in it.
Yet it only took a small beep from the elevator to shatter it completely.
Minutes later Shinji was floating naked inside of the tube at the centre of the room while a semi transparent blue liquid kept him sedated.
Various robotic arms were being used by VEGA to treat his injury, obscuring various other parts of his lower body.
"It's not like there's anything I want to see anyway." Asuka thought.
She looked at the clock on the wall, which told her that only a few minutes had passed as it slowly ticked into 21:20.
The Slayer noticed this too and gestured to the other two to follow him outside.
They did and soon they were in some sort of dining room, where some food had been set up for them.
"What's all of this?" Asuka asked and VEGA replied:
"Given the intense physical activity of today as well as the injuries you received, me and Hayden decided to wait until tomorrow to ask you questions.
Forgive me but, even though it is just some freezed food that I have heated up, it's still better than nothing."
Rei then immediately sat down and began eating, but stopped for a moment as she noticed the strange look that Asuka was giving her.
So she said:
"I am sorry captain, but I am quite hungry and I believe that I cannot aid in our mission if I lack sufficient energy."
Asuka's response was a grunt and then some seconds later she asked:
"What about S-...the Brat?"
"The liquid in his tube provides his body with the necessary nutrients that he needs in that state, so I wouldn't worry about him.
…
…
Shikinami, I know that you still don't trust us completely and to be honest, neither do we.
But we have to manage in some way or another… And isolation won't be the answer to our problems."
Something in VEGA's tone, especially in the last sentence, made Asuka's heart stir for a moment and a while later, she was sitting at the table eating some warm edible food.
Ten minutes later both her and Rei were done eating and so Asuka asked:
"Now what?"
"You can go explore the ship as much as you want, VEGA will tell you what areas are off limits at the moment.
Also avoid going in the room behind the reactor, it's not… recommended when the Slayer is in there."
And with that all the doors in the vicinity opened.
Asuka, seeing the opportunity to learn more about their 'partners' gestured Rei to follow her and together they began to explore.
First they went back to the main deck, where they tried doing stuff with the controls to try to understand them.
And the ship would have tilted ninety degrees to the right if there wasn't VEGA to check on them.
So from there they left the main deck and began exploring.
Meanwhile, inside of a medical tube
"Wh-where am I? I… there's… water… around me and I feel…
I feel like I just woke up from the heaviest sleep ever…
Has it really passed so much time that I can't remember what it felt like to be sedated? I had quite the streak back at the old NERV hospital…heh.
Is… that camera looking at me?"
He blinked a couple of times while keeping on focus on the small device at the corner of the room.
A moment later he heard his name being called:
"Shinji, I see that you are awake again, it's still me, VEGA, the liquid might distort the sound coming to you.
Anyway, are you feeling better? If you do, blink twice, I don't believe you are able to move any other part of your body right now."
And so the boy closed and opened his eyes twice in quick succession, since the pain in his abdomen was gone.
"Perfect." -VEGA replied- "I will now lower a screen for you to give you some information on your status."
Suddenly a tile from the ceiling popped out and a robotic arm moved it in front of him.
He looked at the diagram of his body as VEGA said:
"You have suffered severe blood loss and a large portion of your body was perforated by what seemed to be a metal pole covered in red material.
Thankfully, most of this damage has almost been repaired, right now I am regenerating the final layers of tissue around the perforated area.
Unfortunately, during my analysis, I discovered that this wasn't the only damage your body had received.
Your skeleton was involved as well, which is why you aren't feeling anything at the moment."
He saw Shinji widen his eyes for a moment,so he decided to reassure him by saying:
"Do not worry, it will heal over time, yet at the moment I am currently operating your spine as a couple of damaged vertebrae are posing a serious threat to your spinal cord.
In fact if you had placed any more pressure on them they might have shattered and rendered you paralized, which would have meant certain death in our situation.
I say that you must thank Shikinami after this for allowing us to operate on you as it was her good will that saved you."
Shinji's eyes widened in surprise as he thought:
"Asuka…Asuka… I'm alive because of her?
… After all the pain that I've caused her… she has decided to keep me alive?"
"Shinji, she's keeping you alive because she doesn't want to fail her mission, that's all you are to her, an objective, some cargo that she needs to deliver somewhat intact."
Kaworu suddenly remarked, making the boy's mood suddenly plummet while the words echoed in his head.
"Is everything okay Shinji? I just registered a sudden change in your brain signals.
Blink twice for yes, or once for no."
"Don't worry Shinji, we are together, everything is okay"
The boy blinked twice.
"I understand, sorry for the wrong assumption.
Anyway, I will leave you alone for now if you desire.
Asuka and Rei are currently exploring the ship and if I can leave you an interactive map that you can use with your eyes."
The boy blinked twice.
"Perfect, see you later Shinji."
And with that, VEGA disconnected from the camera in the room, yet he hadn't left completely, since he was still checking every parameter in Shinji's body.
Especially his brainwaves.
Samuel's office
"There it is again, that strange signal wasn't an error by the sensors…
There's something in his brain that's causing this and…
Both Asuka and Rei have emanated this type of brainwave, yet while the base is the same, after a moment it diverges into three different types, with it being the most present inside Ayanami.
What do you think, Doctor Hayden?"
"I have been comparing them to older data from our expeditions in hell and the brain waves that were produced in a patient's head when the forces there tried to corrupt them.
Look at this."
He then overlapped the two diagrams on his computer and said:
"They almost completely match."
At the left airlock of the ship
"Captain Shikinami, I would like to know why you want to leave the inside of the ship."
"Huh? Hey isn't that the Slayer going towards the hospital?
Anyway VEGA told us that it's safe and I want to get some fresh air, since the shield takes care of the L barrier.
Plus I want to see what's inside of those towers outside."
"I understand, let us proceed then."
As Rei said that, VEGA opened both doors of the airlock and the two of them walked outside, being immediately surprised by how beautiful the clear night sky looked.
Rei stood still for a moment and looked at it while Asuka decided to enter the tower in front of them as the glass door opened.
A very old metallic suit was floating in front of her and soon she heard VEGA say:
"This is the standard type of armor that te Slayer used in his time with the sentinels, very light, but resistant and mobile, however many parts of the body are left unprotected."
"Interesting…What's that large black box other there?"
She asked, pointing at the small room at the back of the tower that was preceeded by a mirrored stairway.
"You are currently in the part of the ship where I store data about the Slayer's fight and where I analyze them so that I can find areas where he can improve.
However, this quickly fell out of use and soon I decided to use the footage myself to learn how to aim better with the ship's cannons and how to predict enemy movement."
"He is that good?"
"Why don't you find out for yourself? You too Rei."
And so VEGA guided the two of them inside the small room, where they then began watching fight after fight; quickly entranced by the beautiful dance of death that awaited them in every video.
Suddenly though VEGA stopped the recoding for a moment as he said:
"I must inform you that Shinji has recovered enough to get out of the operational tube and soon you will be able to see him.
At the moment the Slayer is with him to make sure his new implants work correctly."
The silence lasted for an instant as Asuka asked:
"Wait… implants?"
"Affermative.
His entire skeleton was found damaged, so, while his body finishes recovering and repairing the damage, Hayden has created a light exoskeleton that will allow him to walk without putting almost any strain on his bones."
"Oh- How soon can we get to see him?"
"His mental state is unstable at the moment, I do not know, maybe he will want to see you himself."
And with that, the conversation ended and the video resumed.
Fortress of Doom, medical area
Shinji was sitting on one of the clean white comfy beds when he heard the door open and saw the Slayer walking towards him.
VEGA had already told him why he was here, yet it didn't make him any less scared. The buff man before him was simply too… alien looking for his brain to calm down.
Thankfully Samuel's voice suddenly filled the room as he said:
"Alright, since I am the one who designed your exoskeleton, we will now see if you can use it without problems and the Slayer will be here in case any accidents occur.
For starters, try to get up from your bed"
Shinji tried doing so, but as soon as he applied pressure on the mattress, he sprung forth like a spring and almost fell face first into the metal floor.
Thankfully, there was already a pair of strong arms carefully holding him in the air.
Then, they began to move and slowly, Shinji was in a standing position, feeling some metal parts behind him move around, but without actually hurting him.
"Alright, sorry for that, it still needs to be calibrated. You see this exoskeleton isn't designed just to allow you to walk around or run, it is also able to aid you in dangerous situations by incrementing your basic abilities like speed, agility and strength.
But let's keep it simple for now, try walking around to see if it's comfortable enough."
"A-Alright."
The boy began walking randomly around the room, while Samuel adjusted the machine so that by the end he couldn't even feel it.
Throughout all of this, the Slayer was always behind him, bringing him back to his feet whenever he got too unstable.
A while later they tried doing some jumps and short runs, which he all managed to do successfully.
Finally, after some very, very, very light stretching, the Slayer grabbed a small plank of wood and held it perpendicular to the boy, then Samuel said:
"Truy thinking about punching that piece of wood and look at your hand."
Shinji did so and suddenly his right hand was covered by many small pieces of metal that formed a sort of gauntlet around it.
Then as he heard a beep come from behind his back, he heard Samuel say:
"Now, go and punch it, with as much force as you can."
Shinji looked at his hand again and took a deep breath, then, he moved his arm backwards and pushed it forward.
Thanks to the exoskeleton, the plank of wood was completely obliterated, even if the Slayer hadn't moved an inch.
The boy stood there surprised, thinking about what incredible feat he had just accomplished, but he didn't have time to process it when he felt a large hand fall on his head.
He looked at the Slayer, who patted him on the head once before giving him a thumbs up.
At this point, Shinji wasn't sure if he should have died or cried tears of happiness for finally feeling accepted again.
Thankfully, there was Asuka who helped him choose an option.
Which was to suddenly make a step back as she began running at him with one hand raised.
Acting out of instinct, Shinji tried defending himself and without realizing it, he had already grabbed her arm and kept it in place.
He looked at it in full shock, but before anything else could happen, Asuka ran away with a disgusted look on her face, not noticing Shinji's arm tentatively reaching out to her.
She took the elevator, ran up the stairs, reached the first floor, then she took another set of stairs and reached the room that led to the central area of the main deck.
Once there she suddenly noticed a ladder that she hadn't yet seen and, with her head clouded by her raging thoughts, she took it without hesitation and began climbing.
At the top, she opened a trapdoor and climbed out, resting on the ground to breathe.
Meanwhile, she was thinking:
"No no no no no no no, it's not possible, it's not possible that a brat like him was able to overpower me! He's not stronger than me he's just a stupid idiot who has everyone's kindness!
Why did they give him that thing! Why did it make him smile!
Why can't I get a pat on the head too!"
"Shikinami, is everything alright?" VEGA suddenly asked her and she replied harshly:
"Leave me the fuck alone!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why?!"
"Because you are sitting next to my core."
That answer surprised Asuka enough to make her stop for a moment and analyze the area she had reached.
She was currently sitting in a circular area that was very thin and placed between the cupola at the top of the Fortress and a large glass structure.
Inside of this structure, a gigantic brain shaped metallic monolith stood, with lots of small spykes coming out of it on its two lobes.
She was near the right lobe and so she got up and walked around, trying to find the front of the brain.
She did, and she was greeted by a large circular plate with the acronym V.E.G.A. imprinted on it.
From there she looked up, noticing just how large the brain shaped core was.
"Shikinami, since your mood seems to be low, would you like to see something interesting?"
She thought about it for a moment and nodded.
Suddenly the entire cupola began turning into a window, allowing both Asuka and VEGA to have an awesome view of the clear night sky above them.
And as the blood decorated moon passed above them, Asuka asked:
"Hey VEGA, where is this warmth coming from?"
"I am the one producing it, sorry, do you want me to turn on the air conditioning?"
"No… it's okay like this…
I would like to thank you properly, all of you, for taking you with us.
For being kind enough to help us."
"I'm glad Asuka, it feels like you don't eat these things often."
Asuka couldn't help but chuckle at that as she replied:
"Only to those who I think deserve it."
"I'm glad to be in this group then.
Say, it has gotten quite late, why don't you go back downstairs?
There is a guest room near Hayden's office, you three can rest there, if that is fine with you, given your reaction to Shinji."
She stayed silent for a moment that felt like an eternity, then she said:
"That stupid brat, he shouldn't have been supposed to be that strong.
He's a prisoner dammit, not a VIP."
"It's not anyone's fault that it went like that, he simply reacted out of instinct and the system complied.
If you want I can deactivate that option tomorrow."
"I'd like that."
"You know? He would have probably been dead if you hadn't come with us."
"Huh?"
"You allowed me to treat him immediately and that saved him.
If it wasn't for you, we would have had to put him down or he would have been paralized for life."
Shikinami lowered her cap to cover her face for a moment, the she asked:
"Where was that room again?"
"In front of Samuel's office a bit to the left."
"Thank you."
"See you tomorrow Shikinami and rest well, it was a hard day for all of us."
NERV
"Fuyutsuki, it is quite late to stay up at such an hour for a man your age."
Gendo said as he saw the old man enter his destroyed office, he was starting to get tired too, but he had gotten used to it by now.
"It's true, however I came here to tell you that the video recordings from the drones have arrived.
And that their mission was a total failure."
"Explain."
"It seems that the pilots were protected from the assault by an unknown human wtih a green armor and a large arsenal who had enough skill to destroy every drone in a large area of the city.
There was also a second drobe qhxih at one point was seen with the pilots following him.
They were walking towards the large floating castle that fell from space and stopped the impact, which is presumably their base of operations.
There was also a very tall cyborg waiting for them at the castle, while the green man joined them later."
"I understand, however this does not have repercussions on the scenario as long as we can keep them confined in Tokyo 3."
"About that, the cyborg seemed to be repairing the ship before their arrival, which tells me that they want to leave soon too.
Unfortunately an attack on the castle would result in a failure with our current forces as it seems to be well protected and well armed despite its size in comparison to the Wunder.
The game hasn't even started and yet they are already ahead of us."
"Don't worry, almost every chess game opens with pawns being moved forward, so for now we can let the situation develop.
Only then will I elevate them to more important pieces."
"I assume that we will rely on our spy network then."
"Yes, it contains many high level pieces of the board already."
The elder let himself chuckle for a moment as he said:
"If you keep comparing everything to chess it's going to get you killed in the end."
"I wouldn't doubt my strategic ability Fuyutsuki."
With that the older man left to go to bed, meanwhile Gendo remained there a bit longer, looking at the being that was currently fused to his hand.
It was twitching strangely again, just like it had done earlier that day, yet he had no answer to why that was happening.
Fortress of Doom, guest room
"My God VEGA was right, I'm solo tired right now. Oh well, the bed looks comfortable enough, those two are already in there."
As Asuka thought this, she noticed the small bottle of water that had been left on one of the nightstands. She took it and drank a bit before quickly stretching and finally sitting on the large bed.
All in all it was a pretty big bed, large enough to comfortably hold three people their size at the same time while leaving them enough room to not suffocate on each other.
She was laying on the left side of the bed, with Rei in the centre and Shinji on the right side.
The lights had been turned off except for the red blip of a secret camera she hadn't yet noticed, so she simply closed her good eye and relaxed.
"Too bad I can't sleep because of this fucking thing in my eye."
Suddenly she felt the left side of her head get warmer and she thought:
"What? It's your fault I'm like this you stupid alien!"
The left side got even warmer now, though she also suddenly felt a strong sense of danger… to her right.
"AAAAH! Brat when did you wake up!?"
She suddenly realized something though, Shinji's eyes were still closed.
"Wait… he's sleeping? How, wha-
Does he usually walk around at night?
Maybe the fourth impact fried his brain?
Although why would Bardiel make me feel in danger from hi-"
She didn't have time to elaborate on that as Shinji's hands suddenly came around her throat and pressed hard.
She suddenly felt like she was in unit 03 again, being strangled by the much stronger Dummy plug while she was unable to do anything.
And even this time, she couldn't overcome the strength that his new exoskeleton provided him.
But this didn't mean that she wasn't going to put up a fight this time.
"I have to wake him up in some way, think Shikinami think...
What's this boy's most vulnerable area?
Wait. He's a boy."
Not having any other alternative, she kicked him not too hard in every man's weak spot, immediately waking him up and making him recoil from the pain.
He managed to regain his senses quite quickly, but before he could say anything, he noticed Asuka's reddened neck.
Combined with the nightmare he was having just a moment ago, he closed into himself and began to silently cry while heavy footsteps were heard coming in their direction.
The Slayer entered the room a moment later, stopping to look at both of them for a moment, before he helped Shinji back up.
Yet, the boy held his gaze down, not daring to look at the girl he had almost killed again.
Asuka then shouted:
"What the hell was that!?"
"I… I don't know… I was having a nightmare and… and… it was about unit 03… I was living it again… but no matter how much I tried…
This time I really couldn't do anything."
She simply stood there and looked at him, crossing her arms in defeat.
Then she said:
"Stay out of the room."
"Wait wh-"
" .
I don't feel safe with you so close to me."
Suddenly though VEGA said:
"Slayer, you could remain in here to prevent other accidents, if you want."
The man thought about it for a moment, then he nodded and sat down on the chair in the corner of the room.
The tension slowly died down, until the lights were turned off again and the pilots were each in their own areas of the bed, just like before. Only this time, there was one more presence in the room.
Meanwhile in his office, Samuel and VEGA were stuck analyzing the brain patterns that they had received from the exoskeleton.
"Look, there's that wave pattern again, it gradually got stronger as Shinji fell asleep and then peaked when he was choking her.
After she set herself free it returned to lower levels than before.
What do you think, VEGA?"
"I do not know… I believe that we need further data to establish what it exactly is, however we should stay alert.
If this wave pattern is able to make him move like we just saw, the lives of Asuka and Rei are in great danger."
"How can we protect them though? We don't have a cell anymore, the mech down there destroyed it along with all the demons."
"I suppose that the Slayer is our safest bet at the moment, as he also seems to have grown to like those kids."
"Maybe it's his way of being a father again, considering the photo that I found today when he was outside."
"If your hypothesis is true Samuel… then I believe that we won't have to worry about this problem anymore."
The day after
Shinji woke up feeling a bit better than the day before and even though the events of the previous night were still lingering in his mind, he was trying his best to keep them away.
He was surprised to see that he was alone in the room, except for the Slayer who had been waiting for him.
He gestured to the boy to follow him and after getting up, not without some difficulties, the two of them began walking towards the main deck.
While they were approaching the final set of stairs, Shinji asked him:
"Hey Uhm… Slayer… did you not sleep tonight… to guard us?"
The man looked at him only once they were halfway through the staircase and simply moved his head to deny his question.
"Oh…"
Shinji's mind began to wander off as he considered the implications of his answers, but just as he got lost, a very loud voice brought him back to reality.
"Took you long enough Brat! We've all been waiting for you!
Come here and don't you dare play the silent game! I want to know everything that happened at NERV!"
"Don't tell her everything Shinji, not for now."
"O-okay Kaworu."
Shinji sat down on the chair that had been left for him and once everyone was ready, Samuel asked the first question:
"Alright, so we've discovered that this city is called Neo Tokyo 3, so I wanted to ask you, what happened to Tokyo 1 and 2?"
And it was Asuka who answered:
"Around thirty years ago in the year two thousand, an exploration team in Antarctica discovered a being trapped in the ice, called Adam.
It was one of four interconnected beings, believed to have split from an original single one who had originally crashed into the Earth with the white moon, that huge structure you can see on the horizon.
The team did some experiments with it and it woke up all of them at the same time, resulting in an explosion which melted almost all of Antarctica.
It significantly raised the sea levels and in total killed half of the human population.
Following this disaster, Tokyo 2 was destroyed with a nuclear strike, leading to Tokyo 3.
Fifteen years after the second impact, the name of the event, NERV had built the evangelions, those big mechs that we pilot.
They were needed to kill the angels, alien beings that were created from Adam after the second impact and wanted to reclaim the planet for themselves.
The three of us were the official pilots of these machines, however everything went to shit when the tenth angel arrived.
I was incapacitated at the time and because of the strength of this particular angel, the Brat had to push his unit 01 to its limits, starting the near third impact.
It's called near because it was stopped from being completed by another unit with a special weapon, however it was an angel in disguise which later completed the impact.
This is why fourteen years later Earth is like this now and also why there are only a couple of million people left on the planet."
Silence fell in the room for almost a minute, before Samuel said:
"Wow… that is, something… however… how were you able to fight against angels fourteen years ago if all of your bodies look so young?"
"It's different for all of us.
Mainly, it was discovered that by remaining too much time connected with an evangelion, stopped your body from growing at all, so I am actually twenty eight years old despite having a fourteen year old body.
Now for our individual cases…
I have an angel trapped behind this special eyepatch of mine, it infected me after taking control of a test unit I was piloting and I've been stuck with it since because this Brat didn't do anything about it.
Talking about the Brat, after the near third impact, it was believed that he had died inside of the evangelion and turned into LCL.
But apparently that was not the case as he simply remained asleep there for fourteen years.
Finally there is Rei, who is a clone built to obey Gendo Ikari's orders, the commander of NERV and the Brat's father, who is very responsible for this mess.
Over the years he has in fact indoctrinated most of the survivors into believing that he had no fault in the death of almost four billion people with the third impact.
So now he just has an entire country's worth of industrial cities and lots of subjects under his hand."
"However you said that you were part of another group right?"
"Exactly, WILLE, who has had to struggle with resources and personnel for all of these fourteen years."
"Alright, I believe that this is enough for now. Instead, VEGA is going to tell you our story."
The Ai opened a new window on the screen and almost began talking, when suddenly a notification was sent by the repair drones:
{Vertical thrust 95% repaired, railguns 1 and 2 repaired}
The current window was closed and instead a new one was opened which displayed a map of the world, with many areas outside of Tokyo 3 marked as 'unknown'.
"I believe that we will have to postpone that for another moment and given how the repairs are going, I will take this time to talk about something else.
During the night I took the time to analyze the information in your GPS device Shikinami and I managed to add it to the ship's systems."
Play:[LRSSG briefing 1] Ace Combat 7 OST
Suddenly a large digital map opened in front of everyone as VEGA began to lay down his and Hayden's plan:
"Using the data found in your GPS device we have been able to determine that the L Barrier has a lethal radius of one hundred and fifty kilometers from the centre of Tokyo 3."
A large yellow circle was drawn around the city as VEGA continued:
"We have also found coordinates for various human settlements outside of the L barrier, with the closest one at just one hundred fifty two kilometers from the northern edge of the barrier.
Given the possible attacks that we might be subject to if we remain in the city, as well as our limited supply of food, we have decided to send you three to this village accompanied by the Slayer for protection.
The ship is still unable to move horizontally, so you will have to go there by yourselves.
Unfortunately this will not be easy given the high number of drones that we have detected patrolling the red desert thanks to our motion scanners."
The map was updated with the position of the settlements and hundreds of small red dots as the drones, along with their detection range of around a kilometer, shown as a red circle around each drone.
"Their high number, along with their ability to call for reinforcements makes simply walking through the desert a death sentence, which is why Samuel has devised a plan to let you pass through undisturbed."
The robot got closer to the map and said:
"We are going to use the two high power railguns of the fortress to take out a large number of drones in two lines, forming a V shaped hole in the net."
Two blue lines were drawn on the map, turning the red dots into crosses as they covered the entire distance of the L barrier.
"Thanks to the Slayer's extended fighting from earlier, we determined that the drones can only call reinforcements in an area of ten kilometers, which means that their forces will be split in the middle.
This will open up a tunnel for you to pass through undetected, however we don't know what might happen out there, which is why I would like to ask you all…
What is your experience with rifles?"
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Hey there, a bit of a shorter chapter this time to set things up, I still haven't given myself a set length to reach, I'll just cut when I feel like it.
Anyway see ya next time and leave a review if you want!