The Tales of Tokyo-3
I do not own Neon Genesis: Evangelion or any Neon Genesis: Evangelion-related media, those works are owned and in the hands of Gainax and Hideaki Anno, this is simply an unofficial fan-driven story based on the characters and story present, to be written in a new way for people to enjoy.
Is this Secure?
Masuka held the strap of his MP5 as his team sat inside one of the many security checkpoints located throughout NERV. The fan spun silently much to the suffering of the heat building up inside their jet-black vests and uniform, sweating came through the sides of their hair and ears.
"Bro, you gotta try this." Takashi, his squad mate called over with a cookie in his hand. "What is it?" Masuka asked as he look over.
"All personnel on the surface levels are to move down into the facility. All personnel are to assume Alert Level One until further notice." The PA chimed from the external and internal sirens.
What? Masuka thought to himself as he looked up at the wall with the klaxon siren outside emitting a low pitched tone. "It's another drill, great." Takashi said as the rest of the his ten member squad became deaf to the warning.
"It's fucking fire, the cookie." He added, as Masuka held the cookie in his hand while the rest of his squad continued to banter.
It was a pale cookie with melted chocolate indented into the small thing, it looked delicious.
"Who's it from?" His squad leader asked, Hasimo called out. His black beret stood out alongside his golden insignia embroidered on the sides of his arms.
"Y'know.." Takashi went quiet as he licked his lips and stared at the floor.
"You know who, dawg." Ide, the combat medic murmured over as he played with his only weapon, a pistol. Masuka continued to stand mesmerized by the cookie.
"Ah right," The sergeant paused as he snapped his fingers. "The girl in the Logistics Department right?" Takashi bowed his head further down, confirming their suspicions. "You ain't special dude, she gave that one out to everyone else in that department, you were just extra." Hasimo paused. "Alright, get your gear on and watch the Angel do some shit."
"Man, let a guy have some hope yeah?" Takashi sighed as he loaded another magazine into his vest. "Besides the cookies was the bomb."
They were on the floor now, Ide stood slumped against a wall of blood, his eyes were still. "Fuck!"
Masuka shouted as he stood up, the remaining members of his squad stood up, now silent.
"Shit! Ide!" Takashi yelled as he stumbled towards him. Placing a finger on his throat. "He's gone, what the fuck!" He sat down now, Masuka and Hasimo unlatched the safety on their MP5s.
The PA system chimed, yelling a worried call yet still composed. "All personnel are to evacuate the surface levels immediately."
"Was that an Angel?" Masuka shouted as they made their way out of the checkpoint. A JSSDF V-TOL hovered above them, sending a stream of rockets into the adjacent parking lot. "It's JSSDF, what the fuck is JSSDF killing?" Takashi said as he took aim with his MP5 towards the flying green aircraft.
"No don't! We can't deal with that thing, we need to get down before another rocket hits us!" Hasimo shouted over, calling the remaining six members that weren't vaporized by the explosion earlier into a maintenance shaft hidden next to the checkpoint, Masuka hoped the V-TOL didn't see them as they went down.
They climbed down the steps, the sergeant lit a Bakelite container, exploding in red goo over the door, it'd hopefully block anybody who attempted to follow them. They all huddled into a maintenance elevator, reaching into the deeper portions of NERV. "Is this secured?" Masuka asked as they rested. "I hope."
After another barrage of rockets slammed into the facility, like an array of hammers, struck the surface area of the NERV Complex, it was almost a guarantee that a ground assault would follow shortly after the initial barrage; which despite best wishes came through earlier than expected to the QRF elements of NERV Security, who couldn't evacuate a majority of personnel from the higher levels.
"Central-Dogma, this is Yankee-0 on standby in Maintenance Sub-level Four to pathway: Spear-Command, requesting camera access for Level Three and Four, over." He squeaked into the radio, patiently standing on the cracked and unpainted concrete walls underneath the metal causeways threatening to flatten them if more rockets dared to strike.
"Command is silent, let me check if Spear can be alt." The team leader said in a hushed whisper. "Spear team, can you access mainline comms over remaining QRF Elements Surface Level, please respond, over." Waiting in a screeching silence for a minute yet not a single soul fired back, they started to hustle.
"This is Yankee-0 assuming control, proximal elements respond ASAP, over." Another quarter of a minute passed as they waited for anyone to respond.
"Yankee-Team leading tip, all elements are to rendezvous in Level 4 Plaza ASAP. We'll work a retreat and evacuate into any transport links, Over." The sergeant released his grip and breath, the radio dangled uselessly off his chest rig. Quickly the small squad hustled themselves out of the corridor and into the narrow hallways of the facility.
The scenery of the hallways, was covered in vines of roses and brass-dented craters that lined the walls with the organized corpses of the remaining NERV Employees.
Some corpses belonged JSSDF grunts who were unlucky enough to get killed by two unlikely causes, a desperate mall cop or a lucky office worker, though none were presently alive at that moment while they searched through the sea of blood. "Found some of ours." One of the men called over, it was a corpse similar to their apparel, the man ran a hand over the upper chest of the trooper, fishing out an ID.
"Spear-Command, seems like they made a run for it." The sergeant swiped the ID away from his subordinate, stuffing it into his sleeve-pocket. They continued to sweep the halls as sweat dripped from their red berets.
Mumbling from a fallen grunt alerted the squad who quickly surround the enemy with their rifles pointed, the man's helmet was already pierced by a small round, he attempted to raise his own. Empty.
Another series of rounds blew into the grunt's head without a breath to spare, "Stop here," The captain spoke out, "Take his rifle and magazines Takashi." The sub-machine gun fell from his belt as he opted for the larger carbine, loading a fresh magazine, tossing his smaller mags to the Captain afterwards.
They made their way down the halls, gradually growing in width as more bodies laid spilled across the tiled floor, a majority of them were covered in red Bakelite that flooded the floor, still liquid and the pipes slowly dripping out the residue, it covered the true volume of blood that was shed during the siege.
The squad slowly re-armed themselves with more equipment with each passing grunt before eventually their NERV-Issued sub-machine guns were replaced by the much more capable JSSDF rifles, even some survivors were rounded up, mostly office workers that didn't know much about combat though were still armed by the easier to handle MP5s that the squad had replaced, the hope of evacuating to the lower and safer floors were out of the question as sirens warned of further Bakelite floods trying to cover up any access points to Central Dogma.
"Hey!" Takashi shouted as a NERV employee sprinted across the hallway, "Stop, we're NERV!" He made a run for the worker as the ad-hoc formation watched. "Takashi no! Get back here!" Hasimo screamed as he rounded the corner. A scuffle was heard. "Are you alright Takashi?" He said as he propped his sights up in the open hallways, filled with bakelite.
"Get off me, get off me!" The lady screamed as Takashi tackled her to the ground with Hasimo following from behind, he dragged her back around to the formation who had now held a position in a small office hallway. "Get off!" The lady kept screaming, forcing Takashi to cover her mouth with his blood-stained gloves.
Gradually, though still hastily, she calmed down as her vision became clear. "Takashi?" She said quietly, her mouth went agape as he tucked his hand away. "Aiko." He said reassuringly as he let her go, she slumped on the wall as she rubbed her injured arm. "Let me patch that arm up for you, okay?". Hasimo came over, crouching beside Takashi. "We're exposed here, wrap it up quickly." He muttered as he left as quickly as he joined, leading small contingents off.
"Where's Ide?" She asked, "The medic?". Takashi bandaged her arm. "He's gone, I'm sorry." She cried a silent sob. Hugging Takashi afterwards in a warm embrace. "He was my brother." She whispered as Takashi carried her up. "Lovely guy, gone in a blaze of glory." He said in a vain attempt of comfort.
"He always wanted to go out like that, but not here. Not now." She cried as Takashi half hugged her and his other arm handling an MP5. They silently grieved as they made their way up the steps.
As they quickly rose stairs, the closer they became to the plaza for their salvation while blood continued to flow throughout the facility.