Neon Senshi Evangelion
Twelve
"All right everyone," Misato said briskly, "that's the combat scenario." The purple/black haired woman smiled slightly, "Any questions?"
"Did you intend that hair colour or did the dye bottle slip?" Shinji joked.
"Intentional," Misato gave him a look, "now please stop dissing big sister, please."
Satsuki Ooi bit back a giggle. The atmosphere here was a LOT more relaxed than down in Yui's lab, but she liked it here. Plus, yr gave her added time to ogle Misato.
"I noticed were fighting against a Jet Alone simulation, rather than a Angel this time," Rei noted thoughtfully. "Why?"
Misato suspected Rei knew, but felt the need to get t all on the table, so to speak. "Jet Alone is going to be run by the Japanese military n cooperation with NERV," she answered, "and to be frank they don't like us very much. Now, I don't expect that the military will actually attack NERV, but the fact they now have a giant robot must be making a few generals think twice about the idea..."
Privately, Misato actually DID think the military would hit NERV, if they got the chance. To be frank they saw NERV at amateurs interfering in their business, and she felt they would love a chance to seize the Evangelions. Of course the UN would scream bloody murder, but...
"What tactics would you propose using on Jet Alone?" Misato asked them both thoughtfully, testing them a bit.
Shinji didn't look happy about it but nodded thoughtfully. "The arms and legs are less armoured, we could take those out," he noted.
"I'll take a shot at it with the rifles," Rei offered thoughtfully, "we might manage to cripple it before it even closes the range."
"Go for it," Misato nodded, "but keep in mind we have a human piloting the simulation. Expect the unexpected."
Misato sat back in her seat in the control room, smiling slightly. "Aren't you controlling Jet Alone?" Satsuki asked curiously as they readied the simulation to start.
"Oh, no," Misato shook her head, "they're used to fighting me, by now. I think it's time to shake things up a bit."
Satsuki looked at her thoughtfully, "So who is it?"
Misato just smiled mysteriously. "All right," she addressed the pilots. "go!"
Shinji and Rei had developed strategies to use while fighting in the simulations. They knew what made Misato tick pretty well, having been practically raised by her, and could anticipate how she might fight. Mind you that didn't always help, but it at least gave them some edge.
"All right, I'll try to engage Jet Alone," Shinji said as they advanced through the simulated city, "try to get to higher ground and snipe at it."
"Got it," Rei said as she peeled off, "be careful. I get the feeling this is not gonna be easy."
"Hmm," Shinji grunted. The 'rules of this simulation were that Jet Alone had gone rogue, and had tactical data on NERV's operations. They needed to capture or kill the opponent.
The buildings annoyingly cut Shinji's line of sights, and he couldn't even see or hear where Jet Alone was. Making a decision he headed towards one of the hidden weapons lockers in the city. With a large scale shotgun in hand, he at least might feel better.
Shinji's Evangelion pressed the key to open the weapon's locker, the panel sliding down with a whoosh. He gazed inside then blinked, confused at seeing several slots empty. 'Where would...?' he started to think before something occurred to him.
Before Shinji could grab for a weapon something exploded against his back. The first blast took out his armor, the second blasting into the Evangelion's back, doing serious damage. Red lights flashed and pain surged, though thankfully not as bad as it would be outside of a simulation. He thumped down face first and struggled to get the Evangelion to move, but the damage was too great.
"Rei? Rei!" Shinji tried communications, but nothing went through. The 'damage' had taken it out, he realized. 'Or Misato turned it off,' he sighed, sitting back to watch the rest of the battle unfold.
Meanwhile, Rei Ikari was briskly hauling a modified rifle up onto a rise just at the edge of the city. They were observing radio silence, assuming Jet Alone had their frequencies too, so she wasn't concerned at not hearing from Shinji. Instead she took her position, laying her Evangelion down and taking a sniping position.
Rei peered through the scope, sweeping the city. It ws blind luck she saw the flash of light off another scope then instinct took over. Wrenching her controls Rei made her Evangelion roll away, even as bullets stitched into the simulated turf.
'Jet Alone is armed,' Rei realized ever as she zig zagged to try to avoid fire. "Shinji, you there?" Rei asked, only to hear a soft hissing of static in reply.
Shit. Rei could easily imagine what happened, Shinji probably being jumped unawares. You'd think with how often Misato did it to him, he'd learn... She awkwardly fired off some shots from her rifle, even as she ran. Bullets continued to whizz by as Rei scrambled for the city towers and relative cover.
The rifle was rigged for long range, and therefore was going to be useless in urban combat. She dropped it, even as she advanced using buildings as cover. Her first instinct was to reach one of the weapons caches around the city, but that was probably how Jet Alone jumped Shinji. If it knew the city layout, it was probably watching for her going for the weapons.
Advancing between buildings Rei crossed the city, even as she watched for Jet Alone. Much like her it had chosen a rise just outside the city. Unlike her it couldn't take a traditional sniper position, and had to hold the gun awkwardly to fire it. Still, whomever was piloting was at least somewhat skilled, having been able to nearly hit her earlier.
Rei deployed her shoulder mounted knife, taking a deep calming breath. She had to clear nearly half a mile in the open to reach her opponent, which would be a challenge. Well, at least avoiding being hit would be. She doze out of cover, then zigged as she headed up the rise. Jet Alone moved to shoot and Rei abruptly changed direction even as bullets whizzed by. Then she was there, and tackled Jet Alone, hammering the robot backwards.
'Damn it, it's heavier than I am,' Rei noted as she desperately wrestled with it. Shockingly it twisted, sending Rei's Evangelion into the dirt. Stunned and disoriented Rei saw the Jet Alone advance, then strike with surprising power.
SIMULATION OVER.
"That wasn't realistic," Rei complained as they towelled off LCL, the two siblings heading for the debriefing, "we didn't have AT Fields!"
"We do tend to assume that we'll be effectively invulnerable, maybe a bit too much," Shinji pointed out reasonably.
"Hmm," Rei acknowledged. She looked thoughtful, "That wasn't Misato in that simulation, but whoever it was is trained."
"Huh?" Shinji asked.
"Took the high ground, used the map to their advantage, and used hand to hand combat training," Rei ticked them off.
"Maybe they've got someone from the military already?" Shinji wondered as they entered the briefing room not far from the simulators.
"Well, that went horribly," Misato noted cheerfully as they took their seats. She gestured to the brown haired girl beside her, "You all know Mana Kirishima, she was the one who delivered today's ass kickings."
Mana blushed, and Rei bit back a smile. She and Shinji knew Mana from school, and she had been in training as a reserve Evangelion pilot. She rather liked the taller girl, despite their seemingly different temperaments.
"Sorry about that." Mana said with a shy smile, "I was just playing out the scenario Misato instructed me to follow."
"True," Misato nodded. She waved them to their seats, "Okay, what mistakes did you make?"
"Well, we didn't get weapons fast enough," Shinji nodded. "Did Jet Alone access the weapons locker before we started?"
"WE all started at the same time," Mana said, "but my starting point was closer."
Misato shrugged as Shinji gave her a look. "It was two against one," she said casually, "I had to give her some edge."
"True," Shinji admitted.
Rei leaned forward, "I think Shinji and I are getting predictable too. We should have got light arms and tried to hunt Jet Alone, rather than splitting up."
Mana nodded, "If you want I can help run through some of the tactics involved. I'm doing military courses with the JSDF, I'd be happy to pass it along."
Misato sat back and let the kids talk, glad to see they seemed to have a real chemistry. Especially Rei and Mana, interestingly. Now if she could just figure out why Mana seemed so damn familiar too... this was getting annoying.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"I'm a little disturbed Mana won that easily," Yui Ikari noted with a frown as she sat on the edge of her husband's desk in his office.
Gendo shrugged slightly, "Misato gave her two major advantages: the Evas didn't have their AT fields and Jet Alone was given easier access to weapons."
"I still don't know if we should give Jet Alone one of our trained pilots, either," Yui fretted, conveniently ignoring that Mana was just a pilot trainee.
"Maya Ibuki feels confident in her," Gendo pointed out patiently, "and she's bonded well with the kids in Rei and Shinji's class."
"I know I'm being irrational," Yui admitted after a moment. "I guess it's nerves from Naoko rejoining the facility."
Gendo just nodded slightly. He could certainly understand her nerves, and changes always made people somewhat uncomfortable. "Well, I have some good news," he offered mildly.
"Oh?" Yui brightened a bit.
"Despite various issues we finally have our third Evangelion pilot on the way..." Gendo smiled.
To be continued...