THE YEAR IS 2015 A.D.
[A satellite film taken from low Earth orbit. The coastlines of the Earth's continents have been irrevocably altered by the Second Impact. Bays and lakes and islands where there were once coastlines, valleys and mountains. Heavy cloud cover over northern Europe obscures much of the Baltic Sea.]
[Another angle pointed at the Southern Hemisphere. Devastation. Much of South America and southern Africa has been rendered barely recognizable from flooding and seismic upheaval. The Southern Ocean is a dark shade of violet at its edges, fading into a dark maroon at its center. Apart from a few large rocky islands, the South Pole is devoid of land.]
THE THIRD ANGEL
[Tokyo-3. It is raining. Images of soldiers mobilizing on the mountains surrounding the city. The low rumble of thunder.]
AZAZEL ATTACKS
[The Angel has crawled out of the lake. It has two pairs of deer antlers. It is bipedal. It is blue-gray. It has four stalked eyes. It has four arms ending in spearlike claws. It has too many legs hanging uselessly from its segmented body. It has a red core on its belly. It looks like a gigantic mantis shrimp.]
[The sound of alarms blaring distantly over the pounding rain. The air is misty with summer humidity.]
THE ANGEL ARRIVES ON THE SHORES OF ASHINOKO
[The Angel shambles into the waterfront of Tokyo-3. Its limbs make creaking sounds as its chitinous plates slide over each other. A sudden flash of light and an enormous explosion. The sky turns white. An N
2 mine.]
CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS PROVE INEFFECTIVE AGAINST THE ANGEL
[The Angel stands in a crater where the Tokyo-3 waterfront used to be. Despite many superficial injuries from the mine, it is still alive. A bright green glow surrounds its head, making it difficult to make out details. Hundreds of missiles streak across the sky and collide with the Angel, creating a ball of fire at the northern reaches of Lake Ashi. The smoke clears after four cracking sounds. JSSDF forces are swept out of the air by an unseen force.]
CONTROL OF THE OPERATION TRANSFERRED TO SPECIAL DUTY ORGANIZATION "Nerv"
[The NERV logo printed on a concrete wall in red. It is shaped like half of a fig leaf partially covering its name. Below the logo is the tongue-in-cheek slogan, "
God's in His Heaven. All's right with the world."]
THE FIRST QUALIFIED INDIVIDUAL
[A girl, seen from behind, wearing a white plugsuit with the number 0 printed on its back. Her hair is a dull shade of light blue. She stands in front of a violet Evangelion.]
REI AYANAMI
THE FIRST CHILD
[The girl's face. She has pale skin and dark red eyes. Her features are delicate and feminine, but her countenance is unsettlingly expressionless. She does not look fully alive. There's a barely perceptible frailty of body and spirit beneath the mask of apathy.]
FIRST LAUNCH OF TEST TYPE EVANGELION UNIT-01.
[A violet Evangelion restrained to an elevator, rocketing up a metal shaft at breakneck speeds. Its head is tilted just slightly upwards, revealing its orange throat.]
NERV'S FIRST BATTLE
TOKYO-3 WATERFRONT DESTROYED
[The ruins of the waterfront. Water from Lake Ashi begins to flood the impact zone from the mine. A building lists precariously towards the choppy waters of the lake. A great splash from just out of frame.]
PRESENCE OF AN AT-FIELD CONFIRMED
[Evangelion Unit-01 rips through the air, which glows with the orange outline of the Angel's Absolute Terror Field.]
A STRUGGLE, THEN
[Unit-01 plunges its Progressive Knife into the Angel's body. A viscous blue fluid erupts from the new wound.]
EVANGELION UNIT-01 DISCONNECTED FROM POWER SUPPLY
[Unit-01 tumbles across the flooding waterfront, sending up great pillars of water.]
[A timer showing remaining operational time rapidly counting down.]
THE ANGEL'S FINAL ATTACK
[The Angel, having been pinned down by Unit-01, vibrating its mouthparts to create an indescribably horrific sound. Its body bursts and leaks viscera. Unit-01 cuts into its core.]
TARGET DESTROYED
MODERATE DAMAGE TO TOKYO-3
[The ruined waterfront, sinking into Lake Ashi.]
MODERATE DAMAGE TO EVANGELION UNIT-01
[Unit-01 slumped over silence. Many dents and deformities are visible in its armor. Reddish-orange blood runs down its front.]
169 DEATHS CONFIRMED IN THIS INCIDENT. NAMES AND EXTENT OF CASUALTIES SUPPRESSED.
Excerpt from essay by Toji Suzuhara
My kid sister's only in the second grade. She got hurt in that mess the other day. And she got hurt from our side overdoing it too, not the enemy. What a goddamn joke. I'll never forgive them. I'd like to show the adults who made that robot the extent of my sister's pain and my anger!
THE FOURTH ANGEL
[The first quarter moon. A white line extends from its bottom.]
SARIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel is a glowing thread. It is stretching down from the moon. It is the same color as the moon. It is making a low buzzing noise like a dying fluorescent light. It is accelerating.]
VISUAL CONTACT WITH ANGEL LOST AFTER LESS THAN THREE MINUTES
[An image of the Null Zone of Tokyo-3, located directly above Central Dogma. It is now a crater in the ground.]
[The shattered remains of the first armored plate protecting the Geofront.]
SHELTER IN PLACE ORDERED
[The skyscrapers of Tokyo-3 sliding down into the earth.]
THE FOLLOWING NIGHT
[Remarkably visually similar footage of the white line extending from the moon. It almost looks reused.]
ONCE AGAIN, SARIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel smashing into the Null Zone. Earth and metal fly upwards on impact.]
ANGEL WITHDRAWS AFTER THREE MINUTES
[The thread retreating upwards into the moon.]
THE NEXT NIGHT
[JSSDF vehicles with LN deployment equipment rolling into the devastated central district of Tokyo-3.]
JOINT JSSDF-NERV OPERATION
[Unit-01 approaching a cloud of white vapor, from which emerges the Angel.]
[The Angel looks like a great stony hand with six fingers. It has one too many knuckles in each finger. Its fingers end in six fingered hands. Their fingers end in six fingered hands. It glows white like the surface of the moon. It is hard to look at. It is emitting ultraviolet radiation.]
FIRST DIRECTLY OVERHEAD BATTLE
[Unit-01 breaking free from the grip of the Angel. Unit-01 tearing through the Angel's AT-Field.]
THE ANGEL RETREATS AFTER DAMAGING UNIT-01
[The Angel ripping off Unit-01's hand.]
Excerpt from essay by Hikari Horaki
We'd always had evacuation drills at school with my friends, so by then it was basically no big deal. The boys were all acting up like they were on a field trip, and none of the girls seemed afraid either.
Even so, nobody expected this evacuation to last so long. But everything ended up alright in the end, so it doesn't bother me.
NERV ACTIVATES PROTOTYPE EVANGELION UNIT-00
[An orange and white Evangelion with a single large eye.]
FIRST DEPLOYMENT OF EVANGELION UNIT-00
[Evangelion Unit-00 climbing up the Angel's body to an exposed red core located in its wrist. The Angel's body snaps in two after a bombardment from the JSSDF. Unit-00 finishes the Angel off by cutting into its core.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
[The core, with incision.]
ANGEL'S CORE RETRIEVED MOSTLY INTACT FOR STUDY
[A computer generated image of the Angel's karyotype. It appears to have 46 chromosomes.]
HOWEVER, A REPORT ON FINDINGS HAS YET TO BE FILED…
THE FIFTH ANGEL
[Afternoon. A rumbling sound from the direction of Mt. Fuji.]
ARAKIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel is a black sphere. It is rolling down Mt. Fuji. It is covered in strange geometric patterns. It is the color of obsidian. It shines like volcanic glass. It is ten times the size of an Evangelion. It shakes the earth.]
THIRD JOINT NERV-JSSDF OPERATION BEGINS
[JSSDF vehicles deploying dilatant fluid outside of Tokyo-3.]
THE THIRD QUALIFIED INDIVIDUAL
[An unremarkable-looking boy wearing a blue and white plugsuit seen in profile. He looks anxious. He is looking up at something.]
SHINJI IKARI
THE THIRD CHILD
[From behind. The number 1 on the back of his plugsuit. Before him is Evangelion Unit-01.]
DESIGNATED PILOT OF EVANGELION UNIT-01
[His clenched fist.]
FIRST DEPLOYMENT IN BATTLE
[Unit-01 and Unit-00 emerging from below ground to confront the Angel.]
THE ANGEL EMERGES FROM AN EGG
[The shell of the Angel being blown off.]
[The Angel is a jagged vertical rod. Its body is divided into geometric sections of irregular radius. Its body appears to be made of sharp multicolored crystals. The crystals are glowing. The crystals are mostly warm colors. The crystals are composed of poisonous minerals. The Angel is flying. The Angel is entering the perimeter of the city. The Angel is screaming.]
JSSDF DECISIVELY ROUTED
[JSSDF tanks being flattened and overturned by the Angel's assault. Sharp multicolored crystals stick out from the ground.]
HOWEVER…
[Evangelion Unit-01 fires at the Angel's core. The Angel explodes violently. A cloud of dark orange dust and crystalline shards blots out the sun.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
[Evangelion Unit-00 pinned to a skyscraper, with Unit-01 in a protective stance in front of it. They're covered in dust.]
Excerpt from Kensuke Aida's personal notes
Ikari wouldn't say anything, but I think Unit-00 drew the Angel's fire from Unit-01. I'm certain of it, actually. The reason I'm so certain is Ayanami herself. Because she places no value in her own existence. It's not pessimism, or depression, or something like that. It's just how she is, I think.
It's hard to believe she's the same age as us.
ZONE OF CONTAMINATION DECLARED AROUND TOKYO-3
[Rei Ayanami retrieved from Unit-00. She appears to have sustained no serious injuries.]
WORST ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER IN JAPANESE HISTORY
[Images of the blankets of toxic dust and piles of crystals in Tokyo-3.]
CLEANUP EFFORTS ARE STILL ONGOING
[Cleanup crews in full hazmat suits engaging in soil-washing operations outside of an elementary school.]
THE SIXTH ANGEL
[An eerie fog descending on a fleet of battleships. It's raining. The sea is gray and choppy.]
ANANIEL INTERCEPTS THE UNITED NATIONS FLEET
[The Angel is underwater. It cannot be seen fully due to the fog. It has at least one tentacle at least twice the length of the ship. Its skin is covered in red-violet ring-shaped bioluminescent photophores spaced irregularly. Its skin is transparent. Its skin stinks of decaying algae. Its tentacle is filled with translucent multicolored organs of an unknown purpose. The Angel has just broken a destroyer in half.]
From meeting notes of ****** *********** of the Human Instrumentality Committee.
The incident deviated slightly from the script. But it was within acceptable parameters. We can make the necessary adjustments.
THE SECOND QUALIFIED INDIVIDUAL
[A Caucasian-looking girl with red hair in an even redder plugsuit with her hands on her hips looking directly at the camera. She has a determined frown on her face.]
ASUKA LANGLEY SOHRYU
THE SECOND CHILD
[A close-up of her face.]
DESIGNATED PILOT OF EVANGELION UNIT-02
[A red Evangelion with four green eyes.]
FIRST DEPLOYMENT OF UNIT-02 IN BATTLE
[Unit-02 wearing a sheet like a cloak, then throwing it off.]
FIRST DUAL DEPLOYMENT OF PILOTS IN SINGLE EVANGELION UNIT
[Rei Ayanami with Asuka Langley Sohryu sitting on her lap, trying to control the Evangelion. Both look uncomfortable.]
AND
FIRST BATTLE AT SEA
[The Angel from above: Seventeen tentacles in two rings stick out of the ocean, encircling a whirlpool at the center. Needle-like teeth can be seen in the very center of the whirlpool.]
MELEE IN THE OCEANS ABOVE FORMER ITO
[Unit-02 cutting through the seven inner tentacles with the Progressive Knife.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
[The Progressive Knife destroying a small core on the Angel's oral disc. The flesh around it is green and black.]
From meeting notes of ****** ********** of the Human Instrumentality Committee.
The United Nations lost at least a third of its fleet in this encounter. The ships mostly belonged to America. It was a trivial loss. Honestly, it's quite fortunate that the damage in this battle was so minor.
THE SEVENTH ANGEL
[Night in Tokyo-3. The skyscrapers retracting.]
KOKABIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel has three spindly legs with many joints like a crane's. It is several times taller than the tallest building in Tokyo-3. It is dark purple. Its flesh is glossy. It is shaped like a tripod. The Angel's body is shaped like an obelisk. The Angel's core is at its apex. The Angel is surrounded by a cloud of soft, shimmering blue lights.]
FIRST SIMULTANEOUS DEPLOYMENT OF ALL THREE ACTIVE EVANGELION UNITS
[The three Units in question, all firing a Positron Rifle beam at the Angel.]
FIRST ANGEL TO INDEPENDENTLY CONTROL DETACHED PARTS OF ITS BODY
[The cloud of lights surrounding the Angel disperses throughout the city. Some hang in the air, and others attach themselves to surfaces or the ground.]
[A line of garnet spheres approaching the Null Zone.]
WITH COMBINED EFFORTS OF ALL THREE EVANGELION UNITS AND JSSDF
[The JSSDF destroying the garnet spheres with munitions.]
[Unit-02 leaping over barely-visible clusters of razor wire to approach the Angel.]
[The Angel toppling over.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
[Unit-00 throwing its Progressive Knife.]
[Unit-02 running up the Angel through molten liquid and destroying its core.]
Excerpt from the personal notes of M. Horaki
This one was a real doozy. We've already had our hands full trying to contain the damage done by the Fifth Angel poisoning the whole place, but this one turned Tokyo-3 into a death trap until we could remove all the debris. The roads are shot citywide.
People have been leaving the city in droves. I don't blame 'em. If I didn't have a job to do here and the pay wasn't so good, I'd take my daughters and get the hell out of here, too. I worry about them staying here, but they insist they don't want to move away from their friends.
I don't know how much more this city can take.
THE EIGHTH ANGEL
[A mountainside covered in red foliage.]
TAMIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel is a white serpentine thing. Its body is covered in a chitinous exoskeleton. It is wrapped around the upper reaches of Mount Daigatake. Its body is loosely covered in curved yellow spikes. Its tail ends in a stinger. Its head is on the far side of the mountain.]
JOINT JSSDF-NERV OPERATION AT MOUNT DAIGATAKE
[The mountain bursting into flames after missile bombardments. A pillar of dark gray smoke blotting out the mountainside.]
UNIT-02 LEFT LEG SEVERED ABOVE THE ANKLE
[The head of the Angel is shaped like a ring, with a large hole right in the middle of its head. Its white exoskeleton turns dark gray in a gradient approaching the head. On the near side of the ring opposite to its neck are two long, scissor-like mandibles, presumably guarding a mouth. They look wickedly sharp. There are no visible eyes.]
[The Angel cruelly tears through Unit-02's leg. It hisses as acid drips from the Angel's jaws.]
UNIT-01 INCAPACITATED BY UNKNOWN TOXIN
[Unit-01 emerging from the smoke, crawling out in a halting, convulsive scuttling motion.]
WITH THEIR COMBINED STRUGGLE…
[An explosion around the Angel's head as it rears up to strike.]
[The Angel decapitated by Unit-00. Its head looks partially melted.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
[The Angel decapitated by Unit-00. Its head looks partially melted.]
JSSDF ATTACK FORCE ANNIHILATED
[A cloud of red smoke swallowing up the mountain and aerial units engaged with the Angel.]
Excerpt from personal notes of Cad. Y. Yamashita
The brats piloting those oversized action figures got off pretty much completely uninjured. And of course, the media wants to talk about the great sacrifices they make. What about us? My little brother died that day.
Those kids don't know a damn thing about war, but they get to play pretend soldier while the rest of us get used as cannon fodder. I don't think those NERV assholes even need us. It just plays well on TV that they're working with us.
I've been hearing a conspiracy theory that they're deliberately trying to thin our numbers out. I don't buy that kind of crap usually, but…
MOUNT DAIGATAKE DESIGNATED EXCLUSION ZONE
[Yellow signs adorned with skulls and crossbones along a chain link fence in the woods.]
THE NINTH ANGEL
[Waves of shambling black figures in the streets of Tokyo-3.]
SATHARIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel is shaped like a great manta ray. It is flying. It is covered in dirty dark gray fur. It has dull green feathers on the tips of its fins. It has crocodile-like teeth sticking out of its mouth. It has eight circular holes on its belly. They are leaking a black liquid in great tarry drops. The drops are forming into black humanoid figures. The figures are shaped like inhabitants of Tokyo-3.]
TOTAL BLACKOUT IN TOKYO-3
[The abandoned streets of Tokyo-3. The traffic signals are dark. It's eerily quiet.]
FIRST EVACUATION OF TOKYO-3
[Every lane filled with traffic as hundreds of cars attempt to escape the city at once.]
WITH ONLY FIVE MINUTES OF POWER, THE EVANGELIONS DEPLOY
[Units-01 and -02 climbing up skyscrapers while Unit-00 approaches the Angel below.]
FIRST ANGEL TO MAKE HEAVY USE OF POLYMORPHIC ABILITIES IN BATTLE
[The Angel collapses into a puddle of black goop. Then, from the puddle, a fountain of roiling fluid forms into an unfamiliar form. The Angel is shaped like an enormous insect. It has ten spiky, insectoid legs. It has eight comblike appendages like moth antennae between each leg. The Angel has two headlike protrusions, one on either end. The heads each have a long, spearlike proboscis. One is straight, and the other is curved. The heads have no eyes. The Angel's exoskeleton is dark blue and covered in lime green rings.]
[Unit-01 throwing a feathery ball at Unit-02, which smacks the Angel with the Smash Hawk out of the air. Unit-00 opens fire on it before it's crushed underfoot by Unit-02.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
POSSIBILITY OF INCURSION INTO GEOFRONT RULED OUT BY NERV
[A damaged security checkpoint outside of NERV HQ, being attended to a number of NERV Cleanup personnel. DO NOT ENTER tape appears in the foreground of the image.]
THE TENTH ANGEL
[A bright flash in the early morning sky.]
URIEL ATTACKS
[The Angel is bright point of white light. The Angel is extremely hot. It leaves a trail of burning destruction in its wake. The Angel emits a shrill whistling noise like a tea kettle. The Angel is flying. The Angel is zero-dimensional.]
58.4% OF MISHIMA'S INFRASTRUCTURE DESTROYED IN AN INSTANT
[The city of Mishima, burning. The sky above the city is an apocalyptic red, and filled with smoke. A building in the distance collapses into the street, spreading the fires even further.]
41% OF CITY POPULATION KILLED
[Rows of corpses under white sheets.]
NERV UNDERTAKES SPECIAL DEPLOYMENT OF D-TYPE EQUIPMENT
[Unit-02's face peeking out of a bulky gray suit. It looks vaguely like a combination of an astronaut's suit and a diving suit. The words D-TYPE are printed on it.]
UNIT-02 EXECUTES OPERATION WITH SUPPORT OF UNIT-01 AND UNIT-00
[Unit-02 ramming into a glowing mass and holding it in place with her AT-Field. White vapor leaks from the back of the D-Type equipment. A green-white beam appears onscreen, followed by an absolutely massive explosion.]
ANGEL DESTROYED
Excerpt from marketing notes of NERV Public Relations
While the death toll from this Angel encounter is the highest yet, our teams have done an admirable job of explaining to the public what occurred to prevent misunderstandings. This mission was a success, and all messaging here should be unequivocal about that fact.
Additionally, the spectacular valor demonstrated by all three pilots should be emphasized. A limited set of photographs of the damage done to the Evangelions will be distributed to the media. Take care when photographing Unit-01, as the damage looks worse than it is.
Progress in convincing the Second Child to allow us to make a figure based on the D-Type configuration remains at a standstill. I thought we were getting somewhere with her with her rebrand, but she's always been very particular…
THE ELEVENTH ANGEL
[The Angel is a black cube. Its exterior absorbs all light. It is accompanied by six smaller cubes hovering in place over each of its faces. It is hard to see. It is flying. It makes no sound. It is rapidly approaching Tokyo-3.]
FACTS CONCERNING THE ATTACK ARE CURRENTLY UNCONFIRMED
[The Angel, backlit by spotlights. It looks like a collection of black holes in the sky.]
WILD RUMORS OF A DIRECT INVASION OF CENTRAL DOGMA
[The exterior of the Geofront pyramid at night, seen from above.]
A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY COMMITTEE TO BE CONVENED…
To Be Continued
つづく