Infiltration, Part 4
Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, English and Interlac.
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm doing wrong (to correct it).
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
2 minutes Before Iruel's Attack
Over Lt. Shigeru Aoba's left shoulder, Vice-Commander Kozo Fujusuki watched the screen.
"Are you double checking this?", he asked. The image of a hexagonal grid dominated the view, the data shown was rather worrying. A datastamp on the left upper corner showed the Scanner number, 8766, and the data relays in the lower screen showed which sections of the gigantic Geofront received that particular set of data: Pribnow Box, where the test was done, and Central Dogma. No one else had access to the report.
"Yes, Sir; I am." Aoba answered, his voice even, as this was neither the first, nor even the fifteenth anomaly/imperfection/problem the crew had found since the testing of the three teenagers had begun. Each time they reviewed the equipment, building, and anything else, some new problem appeared. It was a matter of prioritizing the gravest problems to be solved first; either during the test, if there was a way to circumvent them; or wait until the test was finished. It was a never-ending battle against Murphy's Law. Aoba continued, pointing at the red hexagons marring the black diagram, some were alone or in small groupings, but there were a couple of zones where the red color was beginning to spread, "These are the parts that were brought in three days ago." Lt. Aoba had no way to know, but the first few nanobots sent by Iruel had been brought with these same parts. "These are the parts that are showing signs of deterioration."
Fujutsuki thought for a moment, recalling exactly where had those parts been used, "The 87th protein wall."
"It is, Sir. With enough magnification, you can see some of the spots. But I don't know what this is. Can you tell me?"
Lt. Makoto Hyuga added his own report. "It's got to be corrosion. There are slight variations in the temperature and conduction rates. Deterioration of sterilized rooms happens a lot. Lately, an awful lot."
Aoba consulted a calendar and turned his head to look at the Vice-Commander. "The construction schedule was cut by about sixty days. It's possible that some air bubbles were trapped inside. There are a lot of flaws in the construction of the B Wing."
Fujutsuki nodded minutely, he had insisted on sticking to the original schedule, but had been overruled by Commander Ikari, who wanted to advance the Dummy-Plug Project as fast as possible. "The building was built after the Angels appeared, remember?"
Over them, a red clad ghost floated upside down, twiddling his thumbs, "(Enough technobabble, guys! I'm dying of boredom here! Again! I don't want to re-die! Once was enough!)"
Fujutsuki sighed, "Take care of it by tomorrow. Otherwise, Commander Ikari will be jumping over our collective asses for it."
"Understood."
"(I'd actually pay good money to see that, old man. Your boss is too clod for my taste in villains.)" Deadman commented acidly.
Meanwhile, down in the sterile water room, the corner of four steel plates showed a definitive change in color. Instead of the polished green surface, and ugly purple splotch spread slowly, but with increasing speed. It almost looked like a livid bruise on the skin of a corpse.
No human ear or instrument could hear the multitude of small sounds coming from the splotch. "Ping! Ping! Ping!"
Vega System
High Orbit over the Psion Homeworld
Truthful Justice; Almeracian Battle Ship, Krypton Class
Crew Rec Room.
Same Time
Two teenagers occupied a table at the end of the room. A male of close to 12 or 13 years old, with short black hair and green eyes, dressed in black and deep red, a Golden pentagon sigil over his heart, displayed a proud "S" letter. In front of him, a girl of about 16 or 17 years old, clad in a lightly armored space suit, dark crimson in color, accented with black trim. Her short hair was black too, but her eyes were a deep blue.
Apparently, they were playing a complex game of cards, but actually, they were discussing the recent events. The young male had been using his super-hearing to spy on the war council, relaying the information to his friend, who intermittently checked the padding of her dark grey helmet or the jetpack that rested near her feet.
"(So, Jor. It seems we are going to get into action soon. Are you ready?)" Aleea Strange asked, while she paused the game to slip a new charge unit in her ray gun. Actually, her father's spare ray gun, but until he could be found and rescued, it was hers. She put the weapon back into its holster. And checked the energy cell for her jet pack, this one was a more advanced version of Adam Strange's, with better handling in tight spaces.
"(Very ready. I only wish it was Mom here instead of Dad.)" Jor Max-El, Crown Prince of the Almeracian Empire moved two cards in his hand, setting down another while lounging lazily on the seat. This was their first combat run. Lord Kal Max-El had raised a lot of objections to having two teenagers in a war zone, but had been overruled by his wife, Empress Maxima. She had used two arguments: Number one, "It is due time for the heirs to earn their colors"; and two, "I am the reigning monarch, do as I say".
Aleea Strange raised an eyebrow, "(Really? Your Dad is Superman, for Klono's sake! He and my dad are pals!)"
"(Yeah, but Mom just goes nuts when the enemy shots at us. Have you seen her in full warpath? She goes all "Waaaaaagh (1)! How dare you to challenge the great Almeracian Empire?¨and crumples their cannons. If Darkseid didn't have so many soldiers, this stupid war would have ended years ago!)" Jor had put all his cards on the table, leaving his hands free to mimic the described actions.
"(Yeah…)" Aleea considered for a moment the sight of the usually fiery empress unleashing her considerable power in actual war, and shuddered. "(Your mom is scary.)"
"(You know what I think?)"
"(I know you rarely do, so it must be good.)"
"(Hey! I resemble that accusation!)" Jor Max-El bristled in fake indignation.
"(Indeed you do, Jor. Now spit it!)"
"(I think we should go in, and rescue Mar'i and the prisoners before the big guys get involved. Right now, those Apokoliptians must be so busy arming their weapons that they won't even see us!)"
Aleea thought about it for a moment, as she put her jet pack on. "(I'm in. If only to make sure you don't get caught. It is bad enough I have to babysit you, but I promised your Dad I wouldn´t let you out of my sight.)" she tapped a control on her left wrist, and the jetpack harness tightened securely around her torso.
Jor laughed, "(Please! This is a yellow sun system, so I'm even stronger, faster, and more invulnerable than usual, plus I get several types of supervision. Even without the yellow sun, I got Mom's mind blast powers and resistance to damage! Those ParaDemons won't have a chance.)"
"(I meant caught by your Dad." Aleea enjoyed the weird facial expressions of his friend, and pulled him by the arm. "C'mon! If we can get in, and bring Mar'i before the main attack begins, we will be in the clear.)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Pribnow Box Control Room
1 Minute Before Iruel's Attack
"Another water leak?" Dr. Akagi's aggravation was clear, they had been dealing with that kind of setback all day long, and her patience was wearing thinner with each report.
Maya held the phone in her hand while she relayed Aoba's report to Dr. Akagi. "No, it's some kind of corrosion in the protein wall above this floor."
Akagi almost facepalmed. "Just what we needed… Could it have any effect on this test?"
"No. Not at the moment."
"Then, let's continue. We can't abort complex experiments due to minor technical problems. Otherwise, Commander Ikari will be jumping all over our asses." It was a nice example of a synchronous cosmic echo, but no one knew it.
"Understood. Synchronization position is correct." Maya continued with her report.
Another techie added to Maya's report. "Connecting the simulation plugs to the EVAs, via the simulation bodies."
Here, things would get tricky. A whole extra level would be added to the interface. Pilot to plugsuit to plug to EVA was complex enough. Naked pilot to plug to simulation body to MAGI to EVA was orders of magnitude more complex.
From the EVA cages, a tech reported from his side. "Contact with EVA Unit-00 has been confirmed. AT Field will be generated in two."
Meanwhile, in the Protein Wall 87, Iruel acted. The release of energy could now be seen with the naked eye, had anybody been looking at the purple splotch in the wall and the small red embers of light dancing in it.
Ivory Coast
Deep Underground
Brotherhood of Evil Secret Base
(Mental Plane) Same Time
"(Mallah! There's malicious code in the system! I'll keep it controlled, it is fascinatingly complex. Delightful even. Get Dr. Akagi here, now it's the time for her to show me she deserves her place in the Brotherhood of Evil.)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Pribnow Box Control Room
Automatic alarms blared. Dr. Akagi turned around towards her tech crew. "What's happening?"
The first reports began to pour. "We've got a contamination alert in the Sigma unit on A Floor"
"The 87th protein wall is corroding and releasing heat."
"We've detected an abnormality in the 6th pipe as well."
Maya correlated the reports to an unavoidable conclusion. "Corrosion of the protein wall is increasing at an incredible rate!" her screen showed the diagram of the place the 87th protein wall and the 6th Ultrapure Water Tube met. The red hexagons multiplied as she watched. A "Polluted Area Alert" message flashed insistently in the lower right of the screen.
Soon, the whole screen became a sea of red hexagons.
Dr. Akagi barked her orders. "Abort the experiment! Shut off the 6th pipe."
Maya pressed a kill switch, activating a whole set of levers at emergency speed. Tube number six closed itself, and descended into an isolated section, the hatch above it closed itself with the weight of a sepulcher.
Other tubes sealed immediately, to contain any possible backflow of contaminants. A cascade of reports was expertly evaluated by Dr. Akagi. Each word painted a clearer image in her mind of exactly what kind of damage was spreading above the Pribnow Box.
"Prepare the polysomes." A desperate measure, but the only thing she could think of, having evaluated and discarded other options. Hidden hatches opened, and articulated robotic arms emerged, each one topped with a high intensity laser. "Set laser power at maximum. Shoot the invasive particles."
The diagram in the screens showed the place where the first signs of corrosion would show, and the polysomes were pointed there.
"Corrosion has reached 6-58. It's here!" Maya reported.
Major Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi watched the tank, waiting for the corrosion to show itself in the gigantic tank. A scream distracted them from their tense watch. "NOOOOO!" it was Rei. At the same time, the hand of the simulation body slammed against the wall. Impossible, the body was moving by itself! It had no actual nerves to control movement! All it had were sensory nerves, it was only supposed to show the nerve impulses as directed by the pilots.
Despite lacking a head, and arm, and both legs, the simbody was trying to free itself from its supports. Iruel's influence reached into the body, studying it at first, then taking control of it. It would take Iruel a while to rebuild it to a better shape.
All Iruel needed was to get enough nanoparticles of itself into the cloned flesh, and the body would be completely under its control.
New York City, U.S.A.
S.T.A.R. Labs
Dr. Victor Stone's Office
(Mental Plane) Same Time
"(Damn!)" Victor Stone was suddenly aware of an invasive code into the system. He split his awareness to scream for help. "(Karen! Call Dr. Akagi! I need help! We have an intruder in the system and I'll need all my focus to keep it at bay.)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Pribnow Box Control Room
"The corrosion is still spreading!" Maya's voice brought Akagi and Katsuragi back from their stupor. "It's invading the simulation bodies' active water system!" In an instant, Dr. Akagi was behind Maya's chair, analyzing the data in her screen.
Misato watched horrified how a purple blotch grew over the simbody's right shoulder. Right where a tube entered the muscular tissue.
Slowly, the arm jerked up, the hand rose towards the viewing port. And suddenly, it stroke.
Dr. Akagi broke a glass seal over the emergency shutdown, and frantically pulled the handle under it, by some minor miracle, she didn't cut her hands with the shards.
A Ranch Not Very Near Reno, Nevada, U.S.A.
Very Far from the NERV-2 base
(Mental Plane) Same Time
"(Now what?)" Cliff Steele fell down from his reinforced chair. A blast had knocked him down. He pushed a small button on the camera he still carried on his chest. "(Hey, Doc! What happened?)"
A refined female voice answered almost immediately. "(Cliff. We are under attack, bring your metallic fists out and do your thing. The attackers look like robotic wasps, and they already caused damage to the generator.)"
He stood up with a deceptively graceful movement his robotic body wasn't actually designed to perform. "(I'm on my way, Naoko!)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Pribnow Box Control Room
Dr. Akagi pulled the kill switch, explosive charges set in the simbody detonated. The mutilated arm of the cloned body crashed against the observation window. Misato stepped back instinctively. "How's Rei?" she asked urgently. She couldn't see anything beyond the curtain of bubbles formed by the arm's sudden displacement.
Maya's face set on a determined expression, so very different from her usual warm face. "She's all right, major."
Dr. Akagi gave her next order, looking intently at Maya's readouts. "Eject all plugs immediately. And hurry up with that laser!"
At Maya's command, all three simplugs were ejected from the simulation bodies. Automatic systems directed the plugs towards an emergency chute. After they had passed, a series of heavy seal doors closed hermetically behind them. After each sealed door, the chance for contamination of the next section was greatly reduced.
Dr. Akagi and Lt. Ibuki directed the laser beams agains the purple corrosion in the tank wall. The intense heat generated where the focused light hit the wall turned the liquid into steam at a prodigious rate.
Everything seemed to be working, until a sudden flare revealed a series of floating octagons protecting the corroded area. Misato was the first to see it. "An AT Field?"
Dr. Akagi raised her eyes, confirming it. "Impossible!"
Horrified, Major Katsuragi looked down, at the mutilated arm, red lights spread all over its surface. And a moment later, the same light manifested on the simulation bodies.
"We have a blue pattern, Misato. That's an Angel."
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma (Spiritual Plane)
Back at Central Dogma, Deadman tensed and slapped his left hand against his forehead. "(Now what? No, no, don't tell me! Another Angel! Dang! And the Stranger is not available…)"
Alarms blared their strident scream. Vice-Commander Fujutsuki grabbed the phone next to Makoto. He listened to the report for a few seconds. "An Angel? You let an Angel inside the GeoFront?" behind him, Commander Ikari platform lift brought him to Central Dogma in time to take control of the crisis.
Fujutsuki ordered a complete shutdown of Central Dogma, isolating it from Sigma Unit. If they were attacked by the Angel, they would lose all ability to act.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Pribnow Box Control Room
Misato knew what that would mean. She screamed to her companions in the Pribnow Box observation room, "Abandon this Unit! Evacuate immediately!" instantly, the tech crew obeyed, leaving behind everything behind, knocking papers to the floor in their rush to get out. Dr Akagi stared at the windows, almost in trance.
Next to Misato, the thick reinforced windows cracked under the pressure at the other side. The Operations Chief stopped to drag Dr. Akagi out. "What the hell are you doing? Hurry! If we stay we will die!"
They ran out the chamber, behind them, the windows broke, and hundreds of gallons of sterile liquid invaded the place. The emergency doors closed after the two women, barely on time.
All around them, blast doors closed in sequence, hermetically sealing the whole area. Anybody who failed to evacuate, would be sealed behind.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma (Spiritual Plane)
Deadman was about to get out Central Dogma, but he stopped when he saw Commander Ikari answer the red phone he had taken out from a drawer. "(Graargh! Now what are you doing now?)"
"I know. Please take care of it." The ghostly acrobat was about to put his ear against the phone, when Ikari ended the call and put the phone back into the drawer. "(Dammit! Who the hell called you?)"
Calmly, the Commander ordered "Stop the alarm. This is a malfunction, an error in the alarm system. Report that to both the Japanese government and to the Committee."
Lt. Aoba answered, "Yes, sir." And begun to make the appropriate calls.
Lt. Hyuga raised his eyes from the computer screen. "The contaminated area is still descending. it's spreading all over Sigma Unit from the Pribnow Box."
By then, Kozo Fujutsuki had taken his usual place behind the Commander's right shoulder, and whispered in his ear. "That's a critical area."
Ikari whispered back. "Yes, it's too close to Adam." He addressed the bridge crew. "Stop the corrosion within Sigma Unit." He turned back to Fujutsuki. "If the Angel gets there, everything will be over."
Long ago, Ikari had mastered the art of leading two conversations at the same time. The tech crew listened clearly as he addressed them. And his words to Fujutsuki got lost in the general ambient sound.
"If necessary, we will sacrifice the GeoFront." Then to the bridge bunnies. "Report the EVAs status."
Makoto confirmed the data as he answered. "Ready in Cage Seven, Sir. We can launch then as soon as the pilots have been recovered."
To everybody's surprise, Ikari answered with a different course of action. "There's no need to wait for the pilots. Launch them immediately." Both lieutenants gasped their surprise, Commander Ikari continued. "Launch Unit-01 first. Sacrifice the other two EVAs if necessary."
He overrode the techs objections. "If the EVAs are contaminated, we will be finished. Do it."
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV H
QEvangelion Cage 7
As Commander Ikari ordered, Unit-01 was the first to be moved to the launch platform. Only the most basic checks were enacted, as it would be an unmanned launch. The EVA unit wasn't even connected to the umbilical cable.
A few seconds later, the exit hatch opened, and the platform reached street level.
The purple Evangelion stood there, menacing in its immobility.
Without energy or sensory input, Yui Ikari's soul didn't even stir. She never knew the colossus had been launched.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Main Access Shaft, Below Sigma Unit
Inspector Ryogi Kaji emerged from the top of the spiral elevator. He looked up, and for a moment, he wondered at the myriad of crimson light above him. He had been listening to the alarms, and when the elevator stopped, he quickly realized it would be best for him to get out immediately. Just as he had opened the emergency hatch, he confirmed his fears. The automated voice in the PA system relayed its message. "All of Central Dogma under Sigma Unit will be shut down in sixty seconds. Thirsty seconds until activation of vacuum pump."
Kaji smiled to himself. "So, that's the new Angel. Time to take a break." He looked down, locating the closest open access. 'It seems I'm in luck, any higher and I would not be strong enough to reach that exit.' He jumped, clearing the distance with deceptive ease. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He had no desire to try surviving the lack of air. "I have to get to the next blast doors."
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
20 minutes after Iruel's Attack
Everybody watched the screen showing the Angel's progress. The red stain covered more space each second. At the rate it was spreading, it wouldn't be long until the whole GeoFront was contaminated by the Angel.
Author Notes:
'Waaagh!', (with three 'a's) is the war-cry of the Warhammer Orks; both in Warhammer Fantasy (now Age of Sigmar) and Warhammer 40,000. It is also the name for their armies, and for their wars/migrations. Orks are simple creatures, after all…
Aleea Strange is another legacy character. Daughter of Adam Strange from Earth, and Alanna, from Rann. She debuted in the Adam Strange miniseries (issue 3, May 1990). As a child, she has not been featured much in the regular DCU, but she had some scenes in the background of Kingdom Come. Aleea inherited her dad's quick thinking and love for scientific minutiae. Jor Max-El is my creation, based on the Supersons stories from the 1970s. He is the elder sibling of the royal trio. Just as Clark Kent Jr, he tends to be overconfident of his abilities, and quite impulsive.
Oh, I almost forgot it!
This is the 52nd Chapter of Stranger Visitations!
52 is a very important number in DC lore. 52 parallel worlds, and the 52 maxiseries come to mind.
Not that it will affect the plot, but I thought it would be nice to mention it!