Raising Hell 3
- Location
- Texas
Raising Hell
3.0
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3.0
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A/n: Huge thanks to @Sunshine and @Readhead for helping me roll this thing out here in time for the 4th of July
Tanya
After the battle at sea, the remaining journey to Tokyo 3 was thankfully both prompt and peaceful. A couple days of settling into our new accommodations to rest and reorganize followed, but soon enough I found myself facing my appointment with the heart of NERV's operations, and quite possibly the origin of its rot.
The city itself was… unique.
It was hardly the largest city I'd ever visited, of course. It had nothing on the megaopoli of New York, London, or even Tokyo 2. The verdant skin of Hakone's natural mountains had yet to be overtaken by Tokyo 3's urban sprawl. The air wasn't yet choked with pollutants. Its skyscrapers and highrises failed to entirely dominate the city skyline.
Instead, the new metropolis felt almost as if it had been planned for an eye towards something like harmony. Bleeding edge technology was sunk into every corner of the city, yet didn't choke out the natural Hakone landscape. Towering slabs of metal rose high into the sky, but only sparsely, in carefully planned blocks to keep from overly crowding the skyline. Affordable housing, extensive public transportation networks, a thriving job market, all supported by an organization trying to save the world.
It all seemed perfect.
Too perfect.
Walking through Tokyo 3, when compared to all the old mega cities, felt… off.
It may have been in harmony with nature, it may have been designed to be perfect for human habitation, but it didn't feel like it was made by humans. There was no history here, none of the little imperfections, none of character that came from the old world. It was a perfect paradise scrubbed clean of everything that made us human.
Its inland location also deprived it of the seaside location so iconic to the first Tokyo, long since lost in the Impact Wars. In many ways, it made me wonder why NERV even bothered to call it Tokyo 3, especially when Tokyo 2 was still around and currently the capital of Japan.
Perhaps it is a testament to their ego, I mused, continuing through the city. The arrogance to take a dead symbol's name, already honored, and claim it for their own. And the power to back it up.
The morning truly began when I met up with Misato at our scheduled rendezvous in front of one of Tokyo 3's mag-lev train stations.
"Colonel!" Misato greeted me with a smile far less genuinely carefree than the first one she had met me with. "Glad you could join me for this little jaunt at the crack of dawn."
Beside her were NERV's two other children. Shinji I'd met already, though in this case he only looked barely awake. Hardly surprising, given his age and the early hour, but his schedule required adjustment sooner rather than later. The morning before school was an excellent time to get some basic PT in.
A decided lack of military discipline aside, forward intelligence had given me at least something of a handle on Shinji. Ayanami Rei, on the other hand, was a complete blank. She had seemingly sprung from nothing, appearing fully formed and in NERV's custody as soon as she was officially named as the prototype's pilot. Legally, she was also under Ikari Gendo's guardianship, but wasn't listed as his child in Japan's registry, which was equally devoid of any mention of her mother. My first meeting with the girl in person entirely failed to ease my concern in regards to any of these points.
If anything, the meeting had done nothing but raise my blood to a boiling heat.
She looks like a doll, I thought, looking the pale girl over. Perhaps that is why every so-called adult here seems content to treat her as one?
Between alabaster skin that looked like it had never seen the sun, dull red eyes that looked on with a glassy disinterest, and fine powder-blue hair, NERV's first pilot had an almost ethereal appearance. Eerie perhaps would be the better descriptor, especially considering the empty hopelessness clear in her face. If Shinji looked like a child soldier that NERV only pulled out of a box to fight giant monsters before shoving him back in, Rei looked like an empty toy soldier they'd wind up whenever they needed another sacrifice.
Seeing such a gross mishandling of vital resources was one thing, but a direct confrontation with a vision of how well my niece would have fared under NERV's tender care? Getting a perfect look at just how inept and uncaring NERV was of tending to even the most fundamental needs of a child, and seeing how clearly they perceived their miracle Children as little more than objects?
I couldn't help but be reminded of another war, another set of cold commanders whose desperation and icy detachment drove them to sacrifice the flower of their country's youth. Those days in Germania, of Being X's machinations in the Great War, had seen desperate slaughter from the enemy and chilling disinterest in the welfare of the fighting man from our leaders. I may have been the first child thrown into battle during those terrible days, but I was hardly the last. How many cadets and high school students were ripped from their classrooms to knit our tattered lines back together, shoulder to shoulder with old reservists called out one last time? How many young faces made ancient had flown, briefly, beside me?
Perhaps more to the point, how might Mary Souix have lived had Being X not gotten his claws into her? What talent that girl had possessed, what natural gifts? All twisted in the service of an uncaring parasite, all squandered! Looking at my supremely talented niece, endowed with incredible gifts of mind and spirit…
How might Asuka have suffered if I'd allowed NERV to get their claws into her?
I'm sure the UN will be most interested to hear how NERV treats the Children they find to pilot their Evangelions, upon whose efforts all our lives depend, I thought. "Think of the children" is an evergreen trope, after all, time-honored by propagandists and politicians across generations for a reason. Namely, that it frequently works and is difficult at best to defend against.
Still, I tucked that thought aside. I was not truly at war with NERV, after all. Not yet.
"A splendid morning to you as well, Major," I replied, burying my rage under ironclad professionalism. "I hope we can get this matter settled quickly and cleanly. I'm sure we both have busy schedules, after all."
"Yep!" She smirked, though it looked a bit strained. "But… uh… I have to admit, I didn't expect you to bring half your brigade with you."
Standing at my shoulders were Lieutenant Colonels MacMillian and Dufrane. The bear of a Scotsman was resplendent in his dress uniform, adorned with the regimental insignia of the Parachute Regiment, topped with a maroon cap, and sporting a confident grin under his red mustache. Dufrane, by contrast, wore her pilot's wings with the languid pride that was her signature, the slim Frenchwoman of North African descent looking almost painfully tidy with her dark hair pulled back into a tight bun.
They were flanked by my adjutant, Major Karius. The German officer reminded me, somewhat, of my old colleague General Lergen, as if a younger version of him had reincarnated to serve as my junior in some bizarre twist of fate concocted by Being X. A sharp bespectacled face was all but pressed to his tablet, monitoring the constant flood of data coming in from the upkeep of running a brigade. He stayed on top of that flow of updates and urgent reports with the utmost efficiency and professionalism that had earned him his place as my aide-de-camp in less happy times.
Finally, all but glued to my side was Asuka, who by contrast to the other two pilots looked bright and full of energy after our morning run.
"I certainly wouldn't want to wander into the beating heart of the enemy alone," I remarked lightly, offering the woman a smile to let her know I was joking.
"Ah… haha… Yeah…" Misato chuckled nervously for some reason.
I looked at MacMillian, who just shrugged, and Dufrane, who just gave me a raised brow. I didn't need to look at Asuka to feel her smug grin radiating off her face, nor know that Karius was holding back a long-suffering sigh.
"So, how about we get going then?" Misato said, gesturing to the car that would take into the bowels of NERV.
I sighed, once again wondering about the confounding irrationalities of humanity at times. "Very well."
A few minutes of travel later, and the train car passed through the last layer of Tokyo 3's armored surface, and I was finally able to lay my eyes upon the fabled landscape of NERV's Geofront.
The sight was breathtaking.
It was more than a mere underground city or buried fortress, it was an entire landscape, a fully realized ecosystem, contained entirely underground. A massive dome, kilometers in diameter, stretched across the space, perfectly illuminated by a dizzying array of powerful lights and vast shutters open to let in the sun. Fields of emerald green topped with a verdant forest rolled down to the shores of a crystal clear lake brimming with sparklingly pristine water.
The impossibly idyllic scene was completed with a view of NERV's Central Dogma, the core of their HQ. Out of the scenic landscape rose a gleaming pyramid, a shining diamond surrounded by the beauty of nature, all while the city of Tokyo 3 hung above.
Except, of course, there was nothing natural about it. The artifice of the entire landscape was highlighted by the frigate sitting at anchor in the lake.
…What? I thought, mind blanking at the absurd sight of an entire warship being placed in an artificial underground lake barely large enough to hold it, and buried beneath a bustling city. …I have so many questions.
Such as, how the hell did NERV even get it down there? And it is a Nerv warship… it has their markings and a pennant number, so are there more of these things? What even is the point of the damn thing?
I could already feel the headache pulsing behind my eyes and the day had barely even started.
"And here's the Geofront, the beating heart of NERV itself," Misato said with a smirk, sweeping a hand across the view provided by the panoramic windows. "Quite the spectacular view, eh?"
I could tell the moment Dufrane noticed the ship by the way her eye twitched.
MacMillain's awkward, coughing attempt to bury a laugh did not help.
I turned to give Misato a look. "...Is this what NERV is spending its budget on?"
She gave me a look like I just told about my cat's hairball. "Eh… What?"
"How much did all this cost?" I asked, gesturing to the underground sunlit forest NERV had around their HQ, complete with a naval escort. "Either you made this whole… paradise or whatever down here yourselves, or you made the roof that holds Tokyo 3 up above us. In either case, how many taxpayer dollars did you waste on this vanity project while the rest of us were trying to survive?"
"Ah…" Misato glanced around nervously, obviously caught flat footed.
"That's not even getting into the entire warship you decided to smuggle down here to guard this place," I continued. "I dearly hope there isn't a nuclear missile submarine hiding down here with it, but at this point I'm not sure I'd even be surprised."
Dufrane, deciding to tap into the combined aloof disdain of being a Frenchwoman and a fighter pilot, scoffed and turned her nose up at the whole thing.
MacMillian just looked on with an empty smile only betrayed by his twitching mustache, the giant of a man no doubt screaming on the inside.
Karius didn't say a word, but I could practically feel the sympathetic migraine building behind his own temples.
None of this seemed to be helping the poor major deal with my reaction.
I might have been fine with that, but I caught the smug expression creeping up on Asuka's face, and the way Shinji's shoulders shifted, and decided to not be too hard on the girl.
"...I suppose you would have still been serving in the JSDF when all this construction was being done, no?" I admitted.
Slowly she nodded. "Yeah… I… Well, I gotta admit, I don't know how they did it, but Tokyo 3 was already built by the time I signed on. And…"
Misato winced, winced, sending a guilty look towards the idyllic scenery below. "After the Impact Wars, working at a place like this? It… it is like paradise."
I gave the verdant underground forest another look. For a moment, the beautiful landscape was overtaken by images of the war ravaged battlefields, as arsenals of hyper advanced weapons, sharpened for decades, were used to lay waste to the world.
And it's not like the futility of Germania's "Great War" was any better, I thought.
"I suppose I can understand that," I said, only a tad bit grudgingly, "However, the point still stands that most of the world is still putting itself back together again after the 2nd Impact, and the UN is giving NERV a truly absurd amount of funding to prevent a 3rd. To see that funding used on something as frivolous as their own personal Eden… Is…"
"The incompetence is almost as insulting as the arrogance," Lt. Colonel Dufrane supplied, the contempt of her French accent turning her words into a lash. "Honestly, I am amazed you haven't yet choked on it."
"Hah!" MacMillian barked a laugh. "At least when the Ruskies scam the budget, they try to hide it!"
Karius let out a faint hum that told me he was very much marking all this down for a future report.
Misato groaned and massaged her head, clearly seeing exactly how "fun" working with us would be.
For some reason, I couldn't find it in my heart to pity NERV.
An opinion that I found myself reaffirming when I finally saw the heart of NERV.
Central Dogma was an enormous building full of a labyrinthian mess of winding corridors lacking any clear layout. To make matters worse, if the name didn't make it clear enough, much of the colossal structure seemed dedicated specifically to fluffing NERV's ego with a thin veneer of scraping before the altar of technological sophistication. In that, it was consistent with the rest of Tokyo 3 and the Geofront, and when we finally stepped foot inside Commander Ikari's office, I found myself utterly unsurprised to see more of the same.
Though the sheer scale of it all does boggle the mind, I thought, eyes roaming across the massive expanse Ikari Gendo had carved out for himself. The room he called an office was utterly absurd in its dimensions, likely having more square footage than any entire house I'd ever lived in, and all of it was filled with nothing.
What on earth could he need all this space for? Presentations?
It was, admittedly, something of an intimidating setting to meet the head of the shadowy agency, in its own way. The enormous wraparound window flooding the room with the bright scenery of the Geofront certainly provided quite the atmosphere, especially considering how the almost searing light somehow only made the room darker by its contrast.
A throne room of sorts then?
I looked out across the vast expanse to where Commander Ikari Gendo sat at his desk, hands folded before himself, waiting for me to approach. Standing dutifully behind him was Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, NERV's head scientist and miracle worker, and Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki, an old professor of metaphysical biology and Gendo's right hand in this operation. All of it screamed of a king holding court with his loyal advisors whispering in his ear.
It certainly fits.
"Commander," Misato clicked her heels as she greeted her boss, displaying a surprising amount of professionalism in the gesture. "The NATO delegation, as ordered."
"Thank you, Major, that will be all," Gendo rumbled, not even bothering to look at his subordinate as he dismissed her. Instead, his eyes stabbed out through orange tinted glasses, fixed squarely on me.
"Sir," Misato bowed fractionally and stepped over to join her colleagues on Gendo's side of the line.
So Ikari has his witch, his wizard, and his general, all ready to confront little old me. All that's missing is his spymaster. I bit back a smile. I suppose that's fair. I didn't come alone either.
"Welcome to Tokyo 3, Colonel Zeppelin," the commander said with an empty smile, the eyes of a dead fish staring back at me from behind his glasses. "I hope the city is treating you well."
"Thank you, Commander Ikari. Thus far, the city has been an experience unlike any I've seen in the world," I replied, entirely honest. "After the excitement of my trip here, it has been a relief to find Tokyo 3 so accommodating for my brigade and I. Asuka, in particular, has been enjoying many of the technological innovations our new home has to offer."
I could practically feel my niece fidget behind me, but she knew how to behave herself in circumstances like this.
"The pleasure is all mine," Commander Ikari murmured from behind his folded hands. "I'm happy to hear that you've been enjoying yourselves here. I do hope it stays that way."
"And I hope this is the start to a most productive working relationship between us," I said, smiling pleasantly as I let the veiled threat wash over me like rain over a mountain. "After all, we all want the same thing, don't we?"
"Ensuring the bright future of humanity," Gendo agreed, words falling from his lips like a mantra.
"Indeed," I nodded. "The 2nd Impact nearly destroyed us. I'm sure that we can all agree that the last thing we want is to see a 3rd, no? And if we are to survive this existential threat to all mankind, cooperation is paramount."
Gendo looked at me carefully, something inscrutable passing behind his eyes. "...You are correct, Colonel. We must all play our part in this crisis. The UN can rest assured that NERV has made it its mission to solve the problem of the Angels, whatever it takes. When extinction is on the line, no measure can be too extreme."
"Wunderbar! I am quite relieved to hear you say that, Commander. In that case, I have a present for you." I let my smile grow a few teeth. "Major Karius?"
At my word, my adjutant stepped up to my side and produced a thick binder stuffed with printed files.
"Thank you, Major." I took the papers from his hand and placed them neatly on Commander Ikari's desk, right before his folded fingers. "These, Commander, are a series of reports and recommendations I have composed on how NERV can improve its readiness rating and combat effectiveness against the Angels."
"As you said, Commander, we must do whatever it takes to survive." I gestured to the reports. "Consider this constructive criticism from my position as NATO's oversight representative. What I, in my professional opinion, believe it will take to accomplish this mission."
Commander Ikari looked at the reports on his desk with a stoney expression. I was quite sure he would have looked happier if I'd thrown a rotting badger on there instead. "...I see."
I could see the gears turn in his head, recalculating his position behind his mask.
"Thank you for the…'gift', Colonel. I will take it under advisement." He smiled up at me, the amiable mask of a professional pulled onto his lips. "Was there anything else I could help you with today?"
"I am so glad you asked, Commander." I held up an open hand. "Major?" Dutifully, my adjutant placed a second binder in my hand.
"This," I placed the equally thick bundle of paperwork on the Commander's desk, "Is a series of requests for joint training sessions and proposals for team building exercises. To start, I am inviting all the Evangelioin Pilots and their guardians over to my place tonight, so we may discuss unit cohesion among the Children over dinner."
For the briefest instant, I could swear Gendo's eye twitched.
I smiled.
"I do hope you'll attend."
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Tanya
I looked over the airport from my position in the observation room in the air traffic control tower. After my meeting with Commander Ikari, I'd dropped Asuka off at our new house to start preparing for tonight while I went off to address the other half of my job here in Tokyo 3.
Below me, the bustling aprons, hangers, and runways stretched out in the early hours of the morning, the sun's early light somehow making the asphalt shimmer into something approaching an appealing vista. An impressive vision of human achievement in its own way, functionality almost overcoming the dearth of form.
Tokyo-3's airport was enormous, easily one of the largest in the world despite how new it and the rest of the science city were. Just like many other aspects of Tokyo-3, the airport was decidedly excessive in its scope. It was strange, again just like the rest of the city. Some of the monolithic structures and advanced technology interwoven into every fiber of the sprawling complex were admittedly impressive, while others seemed more like exercises conducted by NERV in the hopes of exploring the outer boundary of just how much money they could waste. Still more constructions seemed… almost religious in their designs, the influence of Christian iconography as clear as it was out of place.
For instance, I wondered, why make a traffic control tower in the shape of a monolithic cross? What possible benefit do the arms serve?
Not to mention the peculiar layout of the runways below me. Squinting down at the intersecting lines criss-crossing the pavement below me, an image straight from the Nazca Lines swam into focus.
Still, at least it's within the bounds of reason, unlike the Geofront. I shivered at the thought of that enormous waste of taxpayer funds. And, at least here on the surface, the JSDF has jurisdiction.
"Major Karius," I started, "how is the brigade settling into Air Base Hakone?"
"Quite well, Colonel," Karius nodded, the screen of his tablet reflecting off the lenses of his glasses. "The JSDF has been most accommodating so far, and most of our squadrons are almost back to full operational readiness."
Something of an impressive feat given how many had to be partially disassembled for the trip over here.
"Per your orders, priority has been given to getting the Condor Heavy VTOL transports up and running, as well as the hardware of the new Evangelion Support Battalion," Karius continued without looking up from the tablet.
I glanced over to my corner of the sprawling air base, taking note of what aircraft I could spot sitting outside of their cavernous hangers. The Condor was a massive aircraft, comparable to the old C-17 Globemaster, but built around four rotating engine nacelles capable of providing considerable lift and thrust. The combination allowed the Condor to rapidly transport all but the heaviest armored vehicles into even the most remote locations. Rugged as they were, the big Condors still required oceans of fuel and a massive ground crew to keep running.
Despite their thirst, they were supremely useful, given how much heavy machinery the Evangelion Support Battalion required. Cranes, military engineering vehicles, power generators, the massive power cables to link them into an Evangelion, and more. When lifted by the Condor Squadron, and supported by my own infantry, the support battalion could go anywhere across Japan and set up a temporary HQ. From there, the battalion could power an Evangelion, provide field repairs and re-arming, and even conduct limited recovery missions. That was to say nothing of what a fire base could do for my brigade as a whole to support the Evangelions.
At least, so went the theory. In practice, the experimental doctrine had never been tried in the field against an actual Angel.
Or, should the worst occur, something more… human.
"Following which, the Assault VTOL Squadron and Air Command Squadron have a secondary and tertiary priority, respectively," Karuis said, scrolling down to the next item of his report. "The Assault VTOL Squadron will require more maintenance checks before they are at full readiness, but the Air Command Squadron estimates that it will take at least two weeks to put everything back together and regain full operational capacity."
The Assault VTOL Squadron under my command had a mix of a few different types, but the general idea was to combine a mix of infantry transport birds with attack birds. The primary core of the squadron was the YAGR-3B "Jaeger" close air support craft. It was functionally similar to the Russian Hind in performance, acting at times as both an attack and transport helicopter, though its rotating engines and small wings allowed it the speed and range of a plane.
Beside it was the much smaller MV-6 Dragonfly light VTOL, which functioned something more like the old American Little Bird, a quick-moving craft best used in urban environments to move troops and provide light support. It also had the benefit of being relatively low maintenance and cheap.
Rounding things out was the AV-22 Sparrowhawk attack craft, which was almost as nimble as the Dragonfly, but built around a powerful Tactical Laser System, or TLS, and enough ordinance to match the Jaeger. All that capability came at a cost, however. The Sparrowhawk had a not undeserved reputation as a hanger queen model.
"The Jaegers and Dragonflys are ready to go at your order, Colonel," Karuis continued. "The Sparrowhawks, however, are proving temperamental."
"We will make it work, Major. Furthermore, it is good that we have our transport craft already prepped and waiting to go." I nodded, satisfied. "If we are to be an Evangelion Support Brigade, we best be able to rapidly deploy our support teams as quickly as possible. We may never know when the next Angel will strike, but when it does, the Evangelions have proven they will be the tip of the spear, not us.
"Our job is to be the shaft that braces them, and the blade that follows through."
I turned to face the other two people I'd gathered in the room. "Lt. Colonel MacMillian, how are your troops settling in?"
It was an inescapable fact of war that, no matter how much hardware you had, or how much ordinance you dropped on an objective, at some point you'd have to set boots firmly on the ground to actually take the objective. Fighting giant alien monsters changed that equation somewhat, but it didn't change the fact that NERV's HQ and Tokyo 3 as a whole were critical to the survival of humanity. Outside the city, an elite infantry unit on tap and ready to deploy alongside the rest of my air-mobile forces was an invaluable asset that could serve all manner of roles, such as recon, security, and even extra hands.
For that purpose, Lt Colonel MacMillian was my boot of choice.
The Scotsman smiled and replied in his thick Gaelic accent, butchering my mother tongue in the process. "Aye, Colonel, the 1st Air Assault Battalion has been getting a damn fine lay of the land with the JSDF and your own Air Force Battalion. Already we're coordinating on strategies to rapidly deploy in the city and defend the Geofront, with or without your Assault VTOL Squadron."
"And when deploying with the support battalion in an Angel operation?" I asked.
"We've wargamed as well as we can, ma'am," he readily replied, before qualifying. "But, there's only so much we can really do without an Angel to actually cut our teeth on, and given how different they've all been so far, well… It's a bit hard to train for a fight that could include everything between a giant bloody fish to an angry fucking laser cube, but we're mak'n a damn fine go of it."
The redhead's smile became a toothy grin, "And we wouldn't've become Paras if we wanted it easy, would we ma'am?"
Battle hungry masochistic lunatics, the lot of them, I thought as I looked up at the towering trooper. But they're my lunatics, and they're damn fine professionals when it counts.
"Excellent job, MacMillian," I replied with a firm nod. "Keep this up, and I'll see about making knives for your battalion out of the first Angel they help kill."
The twinkle in his eyes told me my joke had the desired impact on his morale. I could already picture the rumor being spread around to the rest of his battalion faster than dysentery in a communist prison camp. If I'd pegged them right, hopefully it would be received with far more enthusiasm.
"Lt. Colonel Dufrane?" I prompted the woman.
"My squadron has achieved moderate readiness," the mocha-skinned woman replied languidly. Given her standards, that may as well have been a sterling compliment. "Some of the new weapon systems are still being…" She paused, rolling a word around in her mouth for a moment before deciding on, "...moody."
I frowned. "The same problem as the Sparrowhawk? The TLS again?"
"The TLS, the MPBM, the Gauss Cannon…" she shrugged, "The Tempest is the most bleeding edge strike fighter ever devised by Europe… but it did not quite have the most gentle birth."
"True…" I nodded, well aware of the Tempest's development history. "With how the War went then, and Angels now… Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention, and desperate times call for desperate measures. And we are quite desperate now."
"How diplomatic, Colonal," said Dufrane, smiling thinly. "Given that my pilots and I will be flying these fantastical death machines, I would prefer to say the desk jockeys who came up with these things were half geniuses, half monkeys flinging feces at the wall until something happened to stick."
I repressed a shudder as my mind spun back to my old old days with Schugel and the Type 95.
"Fair enough, Lt Colonel," I acknowledge. "Workarounds? Your pilots are my heavy hitters in the Brigade, it'd be a shame to see their wings clipped."
"As if I would allow them to be so lazy!" Dufrane scoffed. "If we stick to the more conventional munitions, the problems are minimized. The plane itself is superb, when it cooperates, and minimizing the points of failure helps smooth things over. We are still working through the teething pains, but if you require us to dominate the skies or bury your foes in bunker busting bombs, we can deliver at your command, ma'am."
"Hmm… I'll see about sending more technichans over to sort out the kinks," I said. "And tapping the JSDF for help too. Their Shindens were developed in a comparable program, so they might've found similar problems."
"Assuming they are willing to help, ma'am," the Frenchwoman pointed out. "Not always a given."
"True," I agreed with a nod. "But I have a good feeling about this."
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
I grinned. "Speak of the devil."
A gesture had the soldiers manning the door swing it open to reveal two JSDF officers.
"General Shindou." I saluted the old battleax of an intelligence officer. "An honor to meet the Grey Man in the flesh."
The fabled "Grey Man of Japan" was something like a legend in intelligence circles, at least as far as the Pacific was concerned. Given his job, I hadn't heard much about him personally, and everything I had was suspect to say the least. But, if even a quarter of the rumors were true, then I would be very glad to have him on my side. Or, at least, aiming his icy glare NERV's way, rather than my own.
"Colonel Zeppelin," he replied curtly, returning the gesture. "Or should I be calling you Titania? I'll admit, it's something of a pleasure to meet the woman who was such a pain in Ivan's ass."
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the overly dramatic moniker I'd picked up. Being called the "Queen of the Fairies" didn't feel nearly as flattering as I'm sure most people thought it was. Unfortunately, it being a catchy way to mangle my name to "honor" me probably only half the reason it had stuck. It never would have gotten to the public eye in the first place if my colleagues didn't know how much it annoyed me.
Still, I suppose fair was fair.
"Simply doing my job, General," I said breezily, hoping to wave the nickname off entirely.
"You say that like you aren't the most decorated living ace in Europe," Shindou remarked, something like a grin tugging at his lips as he twisted the knife. "Why, a little birdy told me that by the end of the war your pilots were practically hunting Migs for sport! I would hardly call putting the Bear on the endangered species list just doing your job, Colonel."
I shrugged, smiling with the full awareness that the Grey Man was trying to get a rise out of me and refusing to play into his hands. "It's good for a woman to enjoy what she does, General."
He chuckled, a low grim thing that promised prolonged discomfort, or perhaps incredibly short and acute suffering, for someone, somewhere. "Indeed, Colonel, indeed. And may we never work a day in our lives, eh?"
I allowed myself to return the smile with a hint of "sincerity" that wasn't entirely feigned. "I couldn't agree more, General. And on that note…" I turned and gestured out the window of the tower, out to where my brigade's birds had set up shop. "I must thank you and the JSDF for their hospitality. My soldiers have certainly been enjoying the work you have put in to make us feel welcome."
"Heh," Shindou chuckled bitterly, "Truth be told, Colonel, I hate the fact that you and your people are here."
I blinked. That… seems awfully blunt for a supposed master of the spy game.
"Your brigade being here is basically a giant signal flare to the world that Japan is admitting it can't handle its own affairs," the general grumbled, stepping up beside me to scowl out across the airfield. "I'm only being this frank with you, Colonel, because there's three things I hate more than watching NATO sniff around in my backyard."
He shot me a glare. "Communists, NERV, and losing. In that order." His lip twitched up into something that could almost be called a smile. "Given your own history, I'm sure you can appreciate that."
A spike of something hot and hateful ripped through my heart. I clenched my jaw and focused for a moment on a set of magical formulae, running through the advanced calculations in an attempt to filter out my knee-jerk response.
Just a power play, no doubt, I told myself. The Grey Man tugging on his strings to let me know I'm sitting in his web. Don't get distracted.
"I can," I replied coolly. "I assume this is about more than your stolen positron gun?"
"Hmph. Damn right it is." Shindou's mouth twitched, and for a moment it looked like he was about to spit. He glanced at me, grunted with distaste, and then continued. "You took a tour of NERV's HQ today, Colonel. What did you think of the place?"
I bit down on my knee-jerk response, that damn boat, and thought about my response for a moment before saying, "I found it an egregious waste of resources spent on creating their own artificial Eden for a purpose entirely unknown to me and to my superiors. From my understanding of the situation, the Diet has declared Tokyo-3 a Special District under NERV's exclusive control, essentially turning it into Ikari Gendo's personal kingdom."
"More like an overgrown cult compound," the general caustically remarked. "NERV's been spreading their message of a 'bright new future for humanity' all over the place, and after the Impact Wars, plenty of people are willing to bite. They take the best and brightest from all over the world, draw them in with the lure of their little technological garden paradise. Then they put them to work deep in the secret bunker of theirs making hyper-advanced kaiju-killing superweapons that they say won't be turned on us."
This time, Shindou didn't bother restraining himself, turning his head to spit somewhere other than at my feet as he scoffed. "I don't believe it. Not for a moment. Weapons like the Evangelions? NERV isn't going to be content to just put their toys away once they're through with the Angels, not with how greedy for power Ikari is."
"I'd been wondering about that," I commented. "It seems to me like NERV has been attempting to utilize its monopoly on anti-Angel measures to effectively bludgeon others into playing its games."
"Unfortunately," Shindou agreed, glowering at the cityscape through the control tower's broad windows. "Commander Ikari is not one for 'cooperation'. To him, you're either a tool or you're an obstacle." Shindou glanced up at me. "And your presence here, Colonel, has made you quite the obstacle for him. In my experience, Ikari has no patience for obstacles."
"Into every life a little rain must fall," I vaguely replied with a suggestion of a smile. "What a shame for Commander Ikari that he will simply have to learn to deal with me."
"A shame indeed…" Shindou replied noncommittally, slate grey eyes boring down on me. "Perhaps you should be worried about him doing exactly that, hmm?"
"Better have tried," I shrugged. "I'm still here."
As if I'd let another one of Being X's puppets get the best of me now.
General Shindou's gaze shifted to focus on my right eye.
I felt the socket itch.
"Hmph! Most of you, anyway." He grunted again, a ghost of a smirk on his pale lips. "In that case, Colonel, let me say that for all I hate NATO's presence here, I can at least tolerate you. Whenever NERV isn't a three ring circus run by a cult of mad scientists, it's a damnably cryptic and controlling new power. And the Angels…well good luck getting those monsters to negotiate."
"Now, I'm not alone in my doubts about you and your fancy brigade, Colonel," the general cautioned to my complete lack of surprise, "but your actions in the Pacific taking down Gaghiel proved your credentials to me more than all the salad on your dress. Most importantly, they proved we can actually work with you. The glory the Navy is raking in with the Kaga is proof enough of that."
I nodded along with his words, silently enjoying the ever-transient glow of victory as I received confirmation that my plan to signal my intent had worked.
It only reaffirmed the value of strategically sharing credit to me. Once again, cooperation had proven not only a rational idea and an effective plan for the moment, but a sound investment towards furthering my future goals. Politics might not be my favorite game, but one didn't become a colonel without at least acknowledging the game existed.
Likewise, signaling to others that I was a true team player, and doing so often and in public, would hopefully yield rewards in the future, both from reciprocity and by encouraging others around me towards a path of mutual benefit. It was, in essence, a matter of marketing. The marketing of reason. By spreading my message of cooperation and success far and wide, accompanied by the most evocative spin the propagandists back home could dream up, my investment would see returns from those willing to work with me to find profit. Especially when compared with Commander Ikari and NERV's isolationist infamy.
Truly, he provided an excellent negative example of how to run a large organization.
And it seems like yet another of my investments have paid off! I nearly smiled.
Still… I've lived enough years by now to know that mankind is so frequently irrational, I thought, lip involuntarily curling at the thought. Case in point, I have no idea what game Commander Ikari thinks he's playing with the fate of humanity in his hands.
"The first time an Angel has officially been killed by organizations outside of NERV, at least in part, and the politicians are eating it up. We're all milking this win for all it's worth, and NERV can't do a damn thing about it." Shindou laughed softly to himself, the hard lines of perpetual disgruntlement softening for a moment with malevolent amusement.
"It's all a bunch of political theater," he continued, the disparaging tone shifting to something almost whimsical. "We're all patting one another on the back for a job well done, talking about how Japan, the US, UK, France, and Germany, are all happy friends, but all the while probing for advantage. All business as usual there, but now that the sharks have a nostril full of blood… Well, Ikari's lost just a sliver of his room to maneuver…"
General Shindou turned and regarded me with a smirk. "I've even heard that you and your niece have become quite the media darlings as well. Something about Asuka being your second coming?"
"I've heard that as well, and it's patently ridiculous," I grumbled, irritated by the consummate laziness of members of the Fourth Estate the world over. "I simply did my job, did my best to stay alive, and that's it. I certainly never undertook something as fantastical as fighting Kaiju to save humanity. The talking heads have somehow managed to bury the lead."
…That said, I should probably give Asuka some pointers on how to deal with the public. Publicity can be a volatile commodity, though quite valuable if wielded correctly. Though sometimes one has to swallow a bit of pride to deal with the banality of press tours.
For some reason that drew a snort from the man.
"Regardless, you've proven yourself competent and cooperative, which is more than I can say of NERV. With your niece, you have a rare opportunity to carve out their monopoly on power, and I'd be a fool to simply dismiss this chance entirely." General Shindou turned and gestured to the subordinate who'd followed him in here. "To that end, I am assigning you Captain Tahata as your liaison for the JSDF and DIH. He'll be able to smooth things over for you while you're on our soil."
The captain stepped forward, immediately presenting an interesting contrast with his superior. Compared to the general's almost vampiric appearance, the much younger and far more conventionally handsome officer almost seemed to radiate vitality and life. Despite all that, his gaze was a near approximation of General Shindou's. Clearly, he was trying to play the good subordinate by imitating the general's piercing stare. To his credit, it wasn't a bad second option, although he had yet to replicate the Grey Man's incisive sharpness.
"A pleasure, Colonel," Captain Tahata said by way of greeting, snapping off a crisp salute.
"Indeed, Captain," I returned the gesture, then shot the two JSDF officers a careful look. "And I'm assuming your job will also be to keep an eye on me?"
Tahata gave me a smile that wouldn't melt butter. "Why, Colonel, my only job is to make sure your stay in Japan is as pleasant as possible for all involved."
Which, conveniently, could include making sure I don't cause any undue trouble for your people.
"Fair enough." I nodded, having expected something along these lines as a rider to any cooperation with the JSDF. "Then I suppose I should welcome you aboard my team. And…"
I checked my internal clock to make sure everything was exactly when it was supposed to be.
"...and it seems you've joined us at the perfect time." I smiled, stepping back to the massive window of the observation deck. "The two of you will get to see our final member of this motley crew join us."
Shindou huffed and put on a vaguely amused look. Tahata was almost unreadable, but I could see the slight confusion in his eyes. Something that vanished when he saw what I was talking about.
"...Ah, I see." He said simply. "The Americans."
"Displaying all the grace of a drunken hippo." Dufrane commented. "And twice the gluttony."
"Aye, but if you want the experts in superheavy transports…" MacMillian replied.
"...What better place than the people that invented them?" Tahata supplied.
"I've always found it wise to go to the proven experts first," I said, gazing at the massive shapes descending from the sky, "and in this field, NERV is admittedly skilled, but they aren't the best quite yet."
That honor, of being the greatest rapid-heavy transportation force, still belonged to the United States and their fleet of Superheavy aircraft.
In particular, the USAF Liberty, her air fleet, and the Superheavy Transports she was escorting to Tokyo 3.
The Superheavy Airframe, developed and extensively utilized by the United States during the Impact Wars, was such a massive craft that very few airports could support them, and oftentimes the craft went for water landings. A fact not helped by their incredible thirst, the covnentionally powered variants of the frame required enough fuel for one sortie to bankrupt a small country. Tokyo-3 was one of the few cities capable of servicing them, with NERV utilizing their own second-hand Superheavies to transport their Evangelions by air.
Today, they were getting four more.
"Say hello to the 205th AirLift Squadron," I introduced the new arrivals.
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Asuka
"I'm home."
My ears perked up as the front door slid closed behind Aunt Tanya, but most of my focus remained on the task before me.
"Hey," I muttered back.
"How has it been coming?" Aunt Tanya asked, her boots stomping down the short hall towards me.
"Alright," I absently replied, maintaining my focus on piping out the last of the strawberry macarons onto the baking sheet.
"Good," she said, stopping by the kitchen to give me a brief one armed hug. She was gentle enough not to disturb me as I worked, which I appreciated almost as much as the hug itself. "They look wonderful. Filling?"
"Chocolate." I pushed my shoulder into the embrace without letting my hand waver. I jerked my chin in the direction of the microwave. "Ganache is in there."
"Hmm…" Aunt Tanya dropped the embrace and stepped away, a certain hum in her voice as she did.
"Oi! No tasting yet!" I snapped, turning from finishing the last macaron to shoot her a glare.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Aunt Tanya said innocently as she glided past the microwave.
"Don't give me that innocent look," I grumbled, putting the piping bag away and preparing the cover for the macarons for them to dry. "There's a reason I put it in the microwave. You and your sticky chocolate fingers."
"What a rude thing to say to the one who helped encourage your baking talents in the first place," my aunt said, her blandly unemotional tone somehow sardonic, all while retrieving a bar of chocolate from the pantry and snapping off a square for herself.
I gave her a pointed glare.
She bit into the square with a loud crack.
"Would you like some?" She held the bar out for me.
"...Yes." I reluctantly muttered.
She snapped the bar in half and threw the fraction still in the wrapper at me at an odd angle. I was able to catch it easily enough, but only with a brief use of the thought acceleration formula she'd taught me. Of course, by the time I looked up, she had already disappeared into her bedroom without so much as a glimpse or a whisper.
"...I need to learn how to do that," I muttered, privately impressed with her abilities as always.
I shook my head and focused on the task at hand. A quick bite into the candy bar, some incredibly sweet local variety I'd never heard of before, and I threw myself into cleaning up the organized chaos I'd left in my wake from baking. There were still a few things left on my list to take care of, the ganache filling for the macarons after the bake, as well as the German chocolate cake currently finishing in the oven. All of which had to be taken care of before I put in the pretzels if I wanted the bread to be nice and warm in time for when the others got here for dinner.
So much to do, so much to do I thought to myself as I worked through the unfamiliar kitchen.
I'd been baking for a while at this point, and I could call myself a pretty good hand at it, but most of it had been done in the same kitchen, one I'd grown accustomed to. This new place in Tokyo-3 was certainly state of the art, Aunt Tanya had spared no expense when it came to our accommodations and the city was a technological wonder, but it was still new. Getting truly in rhythm for how everything worked, where it all was, and how to optimize my work here would take some time.
But…that's part of the fun of it. A small smile graced my lips as I tossed the used bowls in the sink and started putting together the dough for the pretzels.
I'd always enjoyed overcoming challenges and perfecting difficult tasks. Baking was, as Aunt Tanya had pointed out to me, a constructive way for me to direct those energies into something I could enjoy immediately. Granted, some part of me wondered how much that might have been because she wanted her own private pastry chef, given how quickly she'd tear through my confections.
…Not that I mind. My smile widened as memories held with pride came to the surface. Maybe if I do a good enough job, the other pilots will like me? I mean, Aunt Tanya did say the stomach was the best way to get to a-
My face flushed at the thought. Fortunately for myself, the bedroom door swung open before I had to think about it too much.
"Ah! Aunt Tanya!" I jerked, pausing in my mixing of the ingredients. "The stove is ready for you to use, and the cake will be out of the oven in five min…utes.'
Glancing up, I saw that she'd changed out of her work uniform and into what I liked to think of as her cooking uniform. Much of her pale skin was covered in loose fabric, to better cover her from potential splashes. Simple black pants, slippers, and a loose green blouse with long sleeves. Her blonde hair was tied in a tight bun to keep it out of her eyes. Completing the look was a stupid gift I got her that she's inexplicably kept around all these years, a disgustingly pink frilly apron with the words "World's Leading Distributor of Mig Parts" on the front.
Then I noticed something missing.
I stopped and stared. "...Uh… Aunty?"
"Hmm?" Tanya looked back.
"Did you forget something?" I tapped at my cheek under my left eye.
An empty socket blinked back. "Forget what?"
I'd long since lost my ick factor when it came to Aunt Tanya and her missing eye. This was hardly the first time I'd seen her without her prosthetic, not after the Frog Incident. It was, however, still a little odd to see just the lone blue orb stare back at me, like seeing someone without their glasses.
I knew it unsettled most people, including, I'm ashamed to say, my younger self when I'd first met her again after she'd come back from the war. Things had, quite obviously, gotten much better between the two of us, but not so much that she seemed eager to talk about how she'd lost it in the first place.
There's a lot about the war she doesn't like to talk about, I thought. How she knows magic too…
Then again, considering the few answers she has given me, I suppressed a shiver, I might be better off not knowing.
"...Your eye, Aunt Tanya," I explained. "It's-"
"At its docking port," she interrupted. "The memory buffer is full and the battery is almost dead. So I plugged it in while we worked on dinner."
"Don't you have spares? Or an eyepatch?"
"Yes, but those itch."
I frowned. "You're not going to use your war scars to freak out Shinji when he gets here, are you?"
She raised a challenging brow. "Do I need to? I can bring out the shovel if you wish, but I hadn't expected things to move along quite this fast."
That brought another blush to my cheeks. "S-Shut up! You're the one who wanted me to make friends!"
The smug expression she sent me was, if anything, only enhanced by the missing eye. "I don't believe I'm the one who told you to wear a flattering sundress on your first meeting."
My ears burned. "S-Shut up and make your s-stupid stew already!"
"Hmm…my 'stupid' stew, is it? And here I thought it was your favorite." Aunt Tanya glided over to the crock pot where the beef had been slowly cooking overnight "Perhaps, then, I should be worried about you and this 'stupid Shinji' of yours."
"Shut up!" I shrieked again, putting all my energy into furiously mixing together the dough.
Aunt Tanya's gentle laughter was her only reply.
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A/n:
And that's the 3rd chapter of this.
The next one will cover that dinner, and will be coming out who the fuck knows when.
Writing this chapter was at time a lot of fun, namely Asuka and Tanya's bit at the end, and other times and absolute bitch, namely writing Gendo.
Fuck Gendo.
There was also a fair bit of fun had actually fleshing out Tanya's Brigade. Big thanks to @Sunshine and their server for helping me sort things out there, since that's pretty out of my wheelhouse. @Readhead , as always, a huge help actually figuring out how to NGE, as well as punching everything up.
In any case, I hope ya'll enjoyed.