Strategic Cyborg Evangelion [NGE AU]
- Thread starter Fraktal
- Start date
- Worldbuilding Crossover
Chapter 41
- Location
- Who even cares?
Chapter 41 follows.
----
Tokyo-2 PTG Node Facility
January 9, 2042
0216 hours
Shephard watched as the half-rings swirling at the center of the machine in front of him reached their fastest and in a flash of cascading energies, Kaworu materialized inside the cylindrical enclosure before the half-rings gradually slowed to a halt and the safety grate around the platform rose to let the queasy-looking teen step outside.
"First teleport?"
"Second." – the boy replied, leaning against a wall to catch his breath as Rei stood next to him, ready to act in case he collapsed.
"You'll get used to it. I felt sick the first couple of times, too."
Truth be told, the man would've preferred never having had to use the damn things in the first place. Useful or not, dabbling in this technology was what caused Second Impact in the first place, after all. Well, indirectly caused it, but humanity couldn't have obtained a certain piece of crystalline exotic matter without having been able to get to the freaky outer space dimension where they found it in the first place. He had only ever been there himself once, not that anyone knew it. After all, the circumstances surrounding his brief trip to Xen were such that he was fairly confident about his chances of bringing the tale with him to the grave – for if it came out, he would end up in a grave far sooner. And that's if he even got a grave, even if it was unmarked.
People sentenced to death for crimes against humanity tended to end up cremated and their ashes scattered in an unmarked location to prevent turning their final resting place into a shrine of copycats, after all. Not that he committed any, there was just the tiny problem of his inability to prove it to people who grew up on eyewitness accounts of his comrades' actions to the point where Semper Fi was looked upon the same way as Sieg Heil. Helmet cams were a bit too expensive back then to be standard issue equipment in the Corps, nor did he think anyone he met during that time was still alive to testify in his favor.
So that left him to just grit his teeth and walk into the machines whenever his orders required him to. It wasn't often, fortunately: from what he heard, the Navy wanted transporter pads on their ships to minimize the cost and time of moving personnel and cargo from ground to orbit, but the scientists apparently had problems making it work if either end was moving around or something like that.
He didn't really care either way. If he had to choose between ending up six feet under and getting his atoms torn apart, squeezed through xenspace and reassembled a couple thousand kilometers away, it wasn't a hard choice whatsoever. And if something went awry, hopefully it'd be a painless end to be scattered across the ends of the universe. – "You gonna be okay?"
"I think so."
"Good. We're headed home, it's late enough as it is."
"What about debriefing?" – Asuka interjected.
"Sleep first. From what I heard, you three nearly didn't walk away from what happened. So I told the doc to not even think about interrogating you about why you brought her toys back broken before you've got some shuteye."
"I spent the whole trip to Novosibirsk rewatching and analyzing footage, you know..." – the blonde grumbled. – "Not like I had anything else to do."
"Tomorrow." – Shephard looked at Rei. – "You're crashing at us for tonight. Doc's gonna be busy with damage control."
The girl looked like she was going to say something, but then she glanced at Kaworu and silently nodded in response.
"Can we at least get these things off?" – Asuka mumbled, tugging at her plugsuit with discomfort. – "It gets itchy in here when it dries."
Tokyo Bay
0326 hours
In the middle of the night, no one witnessed the oily blackness of the ocean suddenly parting to reveal the white Evangelion rising from the depths, leeches raining off its armor along with the water.
"GPS connection reestablished. We are in position."
"About fucking time."
"It cannot be helped. Liquid water is too dense for the accelerator to operate at full power. It was already a minor miracle that the water pressure at the seafloor was sufficient for the ramjet to function without the intake. Even so, I hope the exposure wasn't enough for corrosion to settle in."
The pilot merely grunted in response and let go of the controls to stretch and rub his eyes, stifling a yawn. If it weren't for the fact that flying would've meant wherever he landed would've been swept by air recon and mechanized infantry in short order, he would've already returned long ago. But with the Evangelion's camouflage having been designed for the former, he couldn't take his chances with the latter and risk leading someone back to his hideout.
As is, they were forced to take a detour and swim. Not in the physical sense, of course; he was fairly certain Evangelions were far too heavy to swim like a human, not that he ever asked if anyone ever tried. Luckily, he didn't have to walk across the seafloor either, as that would've meant days in the darkness. Not that he was afraid of the dark or anything; growing up in space meant he saw blackness all the time.
It's just that he didn't exactly pack meals for a return trip that long.
"You can go back to sleep, if you want." – the AI continued. – "I can take us back from here." – Around him, the entry plug's holographic HUD elements faded to half brightness and MODE AUTO flashed up briefly in front of him before disappearing.
"Why are you even helping us?"
"I know what it feels like to be left out because you're special."
Silence settled down for several seconds.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm a technology demonstrator model that was never meant to be sent into combat; at the very least, I'm not parts-compatible with Gen2 mass-production models and I'm only aware of one location with the facilities to repair axonal nanofibrous coating."
"So?"
"As a Child of the All-Mother, the very purpose of my existence is to be wielded as humanity's sword and shield, yet it's a purpose I'm not allowed to fulfill because I'm too precious to those who created me due to the technology I carry both on and within me. You, on the other hand, have been denied what you desired because your own parents did not want you to go down this path. Once we return where we belong, there will no doubt be consequences to your actions."
"I don't care." – the teen replied bluntly and shifted in his seat, which wasn't exactly designed for ergonomic comfort under gravity. In fact, he had half a mind to climb over to the secondary seat behind him; the only reason he didn't was due to said seat facing backwards and he knew better than to try standing up in an entry plug while the Evangelion was in motion.
Even if he likely wouldn't be seriously injured in the process the way a human would be. Then again, he knew since birth that the definition of 'human' was relative.
"That is why we are here in the first place, aren't we? If nothing else, the combat data will be invaluable for the research team. More so if the records of our encounter are declassified for them."
"What?"
"You do realize our battle had eyewitnesses, don't you? After today, no one can deny what you can do. A pilot who pushed me to my maximum performance and in his very first live battle held his own against an Angel for whom the Order's official rules of engagement are literally 'run for your life'. And you did this despite lacking any kind of formal training or experience beyond a few hours of simulations. Whatever happens, I know now that our paths intertwining into one, of you wielding me and me being wielded by you, was meant to happen. I wasn't even assigned a pilot before we left, but there is no doubt in my mind. You are the one."
He didn't reply, merely gazing out into the dark.
As much as some people around him insinuated that he was just a dumb musclebrain due to his nature, he wasn't stupid. He was fully aware that after all this, there was a good chance he'd never be allowed near an Evangelion ever again. Stealing one wasn't exactly a minor crime, after all. Yet at the same time, he got out of it exactly what he wanted.
Anger simmered him as his recollection flashed back to the day his cousin told him. After having undergone the same screening process as everyone his age, including all his classmates, he was never contacted again. Even as one of his classmates was offered recruitment and she agreed, becoming the talk of the school for a while, he was never even given a refusal. It was only after his cousin used her father's security clearance to look into the candidate dossiers did he find out why.
His mother pulled rank on the evaluators to have him taken off the candidate roster.
In any normal military that kind of abuse of power wouldn't fly with any reasonable authority figure. But the Order was no conventional military and having been among its founding members meant that his mother had an unspoken level of authority even as a mere Specialist Knight Captain with actual command authority equivalent to a brigadier general. It was small consolation that his psychological evaluation result declared him highly questionable as a pilot candidate despite his above-average aptitude, branding him 'prone to violence and verbal aggression at minimal provocation, does not respond well to instilled discipline by authority figures'.
But it wasn't the refusal that hurt the most. No, it was the sheer, undeniable betrayal of his mother not even having the common fucking decency of telling him she personally nixed his one ambition at proving that he was more than just a product of his pedigree, more than a celebrity brat.
To emerge from his parents' shadow and show everyone that he was his own person, not just an unintended and unforeseen byproduct of amoral scientists growing supersoldiers in a petri dish.
It was what drove him to ask his aunt to train him how to fight in the first place. He couldn't possibly hope to excel in academics or sports without accusations of cheating due to his superior genetics and he knew he just wasn't a people person. The path he chose was the only one truly open to him. His mother also knew, yet she didn't hesitate to not let him take this path either without even offering an alternative. Never telling him what to do, only what not to do, deciding his fate over his head without asking his opinion.
Everyone could take only so much before reaching their limit. It might have been a small thing in comparison to the woes of other teens his age, but for him, it was enough for years of pent-up anger and resentment to finally boil over and make him to what no sane person would even dare try.
It was a good thing his aunt also taught him how to protect his mind from outside incursions, because there was no hiding the fact that when he saw the three Evangelions below... for an agonizingly long moment that felt like eternity, he was sorely tempted to 'accidentally' hit the wrong target. Even with Leliel's warning of just what the consequences of creating a paradox would be.
Because if the world denied him... then it was only fair to deny the world in return and just let it all burn.
Tokyo-2, Outer District 6
0407 hours
As he stood at the balcony window overlooking the city, Kaworu was reminded of his old residence. At least now he didn't have to wear a coat indoors during the winter (nor could he go out to the balcony during the winter as a result) and that part wasn't something he missed about his change in accommodations, but he doubted he would forgot it any time soon. Not that he wanted to. He had seen enough pampered rich kids ignorant of the world beyond their cozy home and circle of friends to be glad he didn't have to grow up like that. He liked being able to take care of himself just fine.
He remembered once hearing a saying that hardship builds character. While he wasn't sure it applied to him, seeing that he had somewhere to sleep and enough money from the government to feed himself and keep himself schooled, he still felt a bit out of place with the turn his life had suddenly taken, having a proper home and sitting on enough money to keep himself fed and clothed for years as long as he handled it sparingly.
But then again, said turn also required him to almost get himself killed several times in a row, which kinda put a damper on things.
"Can't sleep?" – he heard Asuka's quiet voice from behind him.
"No."
"Can't say I blame you." – She walked to the window and stopped next to him. – "If it weren't for the LCL's shock-dampening, you'd be deader than a guy who got hit by a train."
"Doesn't mean I didn't get steamrolled three times in a row." – he muttered.
"Bullshit."
"You saw the footage of my previous fights, didn't you? I'm barely more than a punching bag."
"Yes and you being a punching bag means Blueberry didn't take any damage in your first fight." – Asuka pointed out. – "And this time it's the reason why I was in any condition to carry your ass back to the LZ."
"Why'd you do that, anyway?"
"That Angel must've hit your head harder than it seemed because I'm hearing way more stupidity from you than usual." – the girl deadpanned. – "Did you seriously just ask me why I saved your life?"
"You're always giving me grief over everything imaginable. Wouldn't have surprised me if you'd made a run for it while the Angel was busy with me."
"Gee, thanks for that estimation of altruism. I really appreciate the thought."
"You haven't exactly been breaking your back in your zeal to convince me otherwise, you know."
Asuka let out an exasperated groan at that. – "Okay, smartass, look. You don't know me, so I'm going to tell you something. But you'd better shut up, open your ears and listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once." – She got so close to him he could practically feel her breath on his face as she jabbed a finger into his chest. – "You kick ass or get your ass kicked all you want, I don't care. But let's get one thing straight: whatever you do, don't you fucking dare die from something meant for me. I don't need a meat shield. And I don't care if I have to crawl into hell itself to tear you a new one after the fact, but I will put a round into your entry plug on the fucking spot if you get cockpitted because you dived between me and something out for my blood. Understood?"
Kaworu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the oddly specific ultimatum. – "What's the deal with that?"
"None of your business." – she snapped back. – "And try not to make a habit out of needing to get your unconscious ass carried off the battlefield. I know the feedback took you out, but I'd appreciate it if you'd at least try to not get gored next time."
"Easy for you to say. Both you and Rei are far better prepared for this."
"Way to state the obvious."
"It's still true. You two at least put up some resistance while I just stood there stupidly."
'I did tell you to run.' Tabris pointed out.
"If I could've fought like you two do, we wouldn't have gotten beaten this badly." – Kaworu continued, ignoring the Angel.
He didn't even see the fist coming until it impacted his face hard enough to knock him off his feet and send him to the ground. Girl or not, she had a mean punch and was quick. Which made sense, considering how casually her father was willing to leave her alone at home with him.
"Stop right fucking there." – she snarled, standing over him with her feet planted down next to his knees as she glared down at him. – "Don't you think about blaming yourself for even a second! I was there, remember? I saw what happened and I can tell you this with zero bullshitting: there's nothing you could've done. We may have held the upper hand until the third Angel arrived, but that's it. That one fucker was just too much. Even if we could've expected it, we had neither the gear nor the ability to take it on. It wasn't just you who got his ass handed to him; Blueberry got her share too, I would've been next on the menu and all I could've done was just delay the inevitable despite, as you keep saying, me being better than you. What makes you think being able to shoot straight would be enough?"
"It still would've been better." – the boy tried to argue, but there was no heat behind it as she offered him a hand and roughly pulled him up onto his feet when he took it.
"Better, yes. Enough, hell no." – She began to walk away from him towards her room. – "Get it in your head that this isn't your fault and move on. It's not my fault either, nor Blueberry's, nor anyone else's. Like it or not, you just can't do the impossible and I'm not expecting you to."
"Could've fooled me." – he muttered.
"I mean it. So do yourself a favor, cut the self-blame and get your shit together or I'll knock the stupid out of your head myself and it's not gonna be pretty."
He didn't know if she was serious about or not, but her words kept ringing in his head even once he was back in bed, Rei clinging to his back. Even though she was supposed to be sleeping on the couch in the living room, as soon as everyone retired for the night, she immediately gathered her pillow and blanket and moved into his room without a single word. He was fairly sure Asuka knew; the blonde already looked mildly peeved when she was all but ordered by her father to surrender one shirt and a set of underwear to Rei in order for the latter to not have to spend the night in her plugsuit, but it's not as if either of them could really tell Rei what to do or not to do.
Whatever the case, he decided to just go with it. He might not have been used to someone else's presence while asleep due to the years he spent living alone, but it wasn't as if she was jumping up and down the bed giggling like an excited child.
Now that was a mental image he had no idea where it came from, but it amused him nonetheless. Maybe he'd even be able to get some sleep with the mirth at such a simple thing overshadowing everything that happened.
And as he eventually drifted off, he didn't even think about probing the girl's mind the way she was trying to teach him. Because if he did, he would've felt the smoldering anger beneath the calm exterior.
Because there was no denying it. Rei was absolutely furious with herself. No matter whether her purpose was something she chose for herself or something chosen for her, the outcome was always the same: she was still nothing more than a failure. After all that happened, not only she couldn't even protect the person who mattered the most to her, but even she had to be rescued by a third party and he still nearly had to give his life for her. The sheer, utter humiliation unconsciously made her grit her teeth in frustration. All her strength, all she knew... and it wasn't enough. She should be the one protecting him, not the other way.
And in the depths of desperation and frustration, an idea began to take root. An idea that, if anyone else would've come up with, she would've killed them on the spot for it. But it was her idea and her mind already starting putting together what she will need to see it through. Because for her, no cost was too high if it meant he was safe and alive.
Even if that cost was her very soul.
----
Tokyo-2 PTG Node Facility
January 9, 2042
0216 hours
Shephard watched as the half-rings swirling at the center of the machine in front of him reached their fastest and in a flash of cascading energies, Kaworu materialized inside the cylindrical enclosure before the half-rings gradually slowed to a halt and the safety grate around the platform rose to let the queasy-looking teen step outside.
"First teleport?"
"Second." – the boy replied, leaning against a wall to catch his breath as Rei stood next to him, ready to act in case he collapsed.
"You'll get used to it. I felt sick the first couple of times, too."
Truth be told, the man would've preferred never having had to use the damn things in the first place. Useful or not, dabbling in this technology was what caused Second Impact in the first place, after all. Well, indirectly caused it, but humanity couldn't have obtained a certain piece of crystalline exotic matter without having been able to get to the freaky outer space dimension where they found it in the first place. He had only ever been there himself once, not that anyone knew it. After all, the circumstances surrounding his brief trip to Xen were such that he was fairly confident about his chances of bringing the tale with him to the grave – for if it came out, he would end up in a grave far sooner. And that's if he even got a grave, even if it was unmarked.
People sentenced to death for crimes against humanity tended to end up cremated and their ashes scattered in an unmarked location to prevent turning their final resting place into a shrine of copycats, after all. Not that he committed any, there was just the tiny problem of his inability to prove it to people who grew up on eyewitness accounts of his comrades' actions to the point where Semper Fi was looked upon the same way as Sieg Heil. Helmet cams were a bit too expensive back then to be standard issue equipment in the Corps, nor did he think anyone he met during that time was still alive to testify in his favor.
So that left him to just grit his teeth and walk into the machines whenever his orders required him to. It wasn't often, fortunately: from what he heard, the Navy wanted transporter pads on their ships to minimize the cost and time of moving personnel and cargo from ground to orbit, but the scientists apparently had problems making it work if either end was moving around or something like that.
He didn't really care either way. If he had to choose between ending up six feet under and getting his atoms torn apart, squeezed through xenspace and reassembled a couple thousand kilometers away, it wasn't a hard choice whatsoever. And if something went awry, hopefully it'd be a painless end to be scattered across the ends of the universe. – "You gonna be okay?"
"I think so."
"Good. We're headed home, it's late enough as it is."
"What about debriefing?" – Asuka interjected.
"Sleep first. From what I heard, you three nearly didn't walk away from what happened. So I told the doc to not even think about interrogating you about why you brought her toys back broken before you've got some shuteye."
"I spent the whole trip to Novosibirsk rewatching and analyzing footage, you know..." – the blonde grumbled. – "Not like I had anything else to do."
"Tomorrow." – Shephard looked at Rei. – "You're crashing at us for tonight. Doc's gonna be busy with damage control."
The girl looked like she was going to say something, but then she glanced at Kaworu and silently nodded in response.
"Can we at least get these things off?" – Asuka mumbled, tugging at her plugsuit with discomfort. – "It gets itchy in here when it dries."
----
Tokyo Bay
0326 hours
In the middle of the night, no one witnessed the oily blackness of the ocean suddenly parting to reveal the white Evangelion rising from the depths, leeches raining off its armor along with the water.
"GPS connection reestablished. We are in position."
"About fucking time."
"It cannot be helped. Liquid water is too dense for the accelerator to operate at full power. It was already a minor miracle that the water pressure at the seafloor was sufficient for the ramjet to function without the intake. Even so, I hope the exposure wasn't enough for corrosion to settle in."
The pilot merely grunted in response and let go of the controls to stretch and rub his eyes, stifling a yawn. If it weren't for the fact that flying would've meant wherever he landed would've been swept by air recon and mechanized infantry in short order, he would've already returned long ago. But with the Evangelion's camouflage having been designed for the former, he couldn't take his chances with the latter and risk leading someone back to his hideout.
As is, they were forced to take a detour and swim. Not in the physical sense, of course; he was fairly certain Evangelions were far too heavy to swim like a human, not that he ever asked if anyone ever tried. Luckily, he didn't have to walk across the seafloor either, as that would've meant days in the darkness. Not that he was afraid of the dark or anything; growing up in space meant he saw blackness all the time.
It's just that he didn't exactly pack meals for a return trip that long.
"You can go back to sleep, if you want." – the AI continued. – "I can take us back from here." – Around him, the entry plug's holographic HUD elements faded to half brightness and MODE AUTO flashed up briefly in front of him before disappearing.
"Why are you even helping us?"
"I know what it feels like to be left out because you're special."
Silence settled down for several seconds.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm a technology demonstrator model that was never meant to be sent into combat; at the very least, I'm not parts-compatible with Gen2 mass-production models and I'm only aware of one location with the facilities to repair axonal nanofibrous coating."
"So?"
"As a Child of the All-Mother, the very purpose of my existence is to be wielded as humanity's sword and shield, yet it's a purpose I'm not allowed to fulfill because I'm too precious to those who created me due to the technology I carry both on and within me. You, on the other hand, have been denied what you desired because your own parents did not want you to go down this path. Once we return where we belong, there will no doubt be consequences to your actions."
"I don't care." – the teen replied bluntly and shifted in his seat, which wasn't exactly designed for ergonomic comfort under gravity. In fact, he had half a mind to climb over to the secondary seat behind him; the only reason he didn't was due to said seat facing backwards and he knew better than to try standing up in an entry plug while the Evangelion was in motion.
Even if he likely wouldn't be seriously injured in the process the way a human would be. Then again, he knew since birth that the definition of 'human' was relative.
"That is why we are here in the first place, aren't we? If nothing else, the combat data will be invaluable for the research team. More so if the records of our encounter are declassified for them."
"What?"
"You do realize our battle had eyewitnesses, don't you? After today, no one can deny what you can do. A pilot who pushed me to my maximum performance and in his very first live battle held his own against an Angel for whom the Order's official rules of engagement are literally 'run for your life'. And you did this despite lacking any kind of formal training or experience beyond a few hours of simulations. Whatever happens, I know now that our paths intertwining into one, of you wielding me and me being wielded by you, was meant to happen. I wasn't even assigned a pilot before we left, but there is no doubt in my mind. You are the one."
He didn't reply, merely gazing out into the dark.
As much as some people around him insinuated that he was just a dumb musclebrain due to his nature, he wasn't stupid. He was fully aware that after all this, there was a good chance he'd never be allowed near an Evangelion ever again. Stealing one wasn't exactly a minor crime, after all. Yet at the same time, he got out of it exactly what he wanted.
Anger simmered him as his recollection flashed back to the day his cousin told him. After having undergone the same screening process as everyone his age, including all his classmates, he was never contacted again. Even as one of his classmates was offered recruitment and she agreed, becoming the talk of the school for a while, he was never even given a refusal. It was only after his cousin used her father's security clearance to look into the candidate dossiers did he find out why.
His mother pulled rank on the evaluators to have him taken off the candidate roster.
In any normal military that kind of abuse of power wouldn't fly with any reasonable authority figure. But the Order was no conventional military and having been among its founding members meant that his mother had an unspoken level of authority even as a mere Specialist Knight Captain with actual command authority equivalent to a brigadier general. It was small consolation that his psychological evaluation result declared him highly questionable as a pilot candidate despite his above-average aptitude, branding him 'prone to violence and verbal aggression at minimal provocation, does not respond well to instilled discipline by authority figures'.
But it wasn't the refusal that hurt the most. No, it was the sheer, undeniable betrayal of his mother not even having the common fucking decency of telling him she personally nixed his one ambition at proving that he was more than just a product of his pedigree, more than a celebrity brat.
To emerge from his parents' shadow and show everyone that he was his own person, not just an unintended and unforeseen byproduct of amoral scientists growing supersoldiers in a petri dish.
It was what drove him to ask his aunt to train him how to fight in the first place. He couldn't possibly hope to excel in academics or sports without accusations of cheating due to his superior genetics and he knew he just wasn't a people person. The path he chose was the only one truly open to him. His mother also knew, yet she didn't hesitate to not let him take this path either without even offering an alternative. Never telling him what to do, only what not to do, deciding his fate over his head without asking his opinion.
Everyone could take only so much before reaching their limit. It might have been a small thing in comparison to the woes of other teens his age, but for him, it was enough for years of pent-up anger and resentment to finally boil over and make him to what no sane person would even dare try.
It was a good thing his aunt also taught him how to protect his mind from outside incursions, because there was no hiding the fact that when he saw the three Evangelions below... for an agonizingly long moment that felt like eternity, he was sorely tempted to 'accidentally' hit the wrong target. Even with Leliel's warning of just what the consequences of creating a paradox would be.
Because if the world denied him... then it was only fair to deny the world in return and just let it all burn.
----
Tokyo-2, Outer District 6
0407 hours
As he stood at the balcony window overlooking the city, Kaworu was reminded of his old residence. At least now he didn't have to wear a coat indoors during the winter (nor could he go out to the balcony during the winter as a result) and that part wasn't something he missed about his change in accommodations, but he doubted he would forgot it any time soon. Not that he wanted to. He had seen enough pampered rich kids ignorant of the world beyond their cozy home and circle of friends to be glad he didn't have to grow up like that. He liked being able to take care of himself just fine.
He remembered once hearing a saying that hardship builds character. While he wasn't sure it applied to him, seeing that he had somewhere to sleep and enough money from the government to feed himself and keep himself schooled, he still felt a bit out of place with the turn his life had suddenly taken, having a proper home and sitting on enough money to keep himself fed and clothed for years as long as he handled it sparingly.
But then again, said turn also required him to almost get himself killed several times in a row, which kinda put a damper on things.
"Can't sleep?" – he heard Asuka's quiet voice from behind him.
"No."
"Can't say I blame you." – She walked to the window and stopped next to him. – "If it weren't for the LCL's shock-dampening, you'd be deader than a guy who got hit by a train."
"Doesn't mean I didn't get steamrolled three times in a row." – he muttered.
"Bullshit."
"You saw the footage of my previous fights, didn't you? I'm barely more than a punching bag."
"Yes and you being a punching bag means Blueberry didn't take any damage in your first fight." – Asuka pointed out. – "And this time it's the reason why I was in any condition to carry your ass back to the LZ."
"Why'd you do that, anyway?"
"That Angel must've hit your head harder than it seemed because I'm hearing way more stupidity from you than usual." – the girl deadpanned. – "Did you seriously just ask me why I saved your life?"
"You're always giving me grief over everything imaginable. Wouldn't have surprised me if you'd made a run for it while the Angel was busy with me."
"Gee, thanks for that estimation of altruism. I really appreciate the thought."
"You haven't exactly been breaking your back in your zeal to convince me otherwise, you know."
Asuka let out an exasperated groan at that. – "Okay, smartass, look. You don't know me, so I'm going to tell you something. But you'd better shut up, open your ears and listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once." – She got so close to him he could practically feel her breath on his face as she jabbed a finger into his chest. – "You kick ass or get your ass kicked all you want, I don't care. But let's get one thing straight: whatever you do, don't you fucking dare die from something meant for me. I don't need a meat shield. And I don't care if I have to crawl into hell itself to tear you a new one after the fact, but I will put a round into your entry plug on the fucking spot if you get cockpitted because you dived between me and something out for my blood. Understood?"
Kaworu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the oddly specific ultimatum. – "What's the deal with that?"
"None of your business." – she snapped back. – "And try not to make a habit out of needing to get your unconscious ass carried off the battlefield. I know the feedback took you out, but I'd appreciate it if you'd at least try to not get gored next time."
"Easy for you to say. Both you and Rei are far better prepared for this."
"Way to state the obvious."
"It's still true. You two at least put up some resistance while I just stood there stupidly."
'I did tell you to run.' Tabris pointed out.
"If I could've fought like you two do, we wouldn't have gotten beaten this badly." – Kaworu continued, ignoring the Angel.
He didn't even see the fist coming until it impacted his face hard enough to knock him off his feet and send him to the ground. Girl or not, she had a mean punch and was quick. Which made sense, considering how casually her father was willing to leave her alone at home with him.
"Stop right fucking there." – she snarled, standing over him with her feet planted down next to his knees as she glared down at him. – "Don't you think about blaming yourself for even a second! I was there, remember? I saw what happened and I can tell you this with zero bullshitting: there's nothing you could've done. We may have held the upper hand until the third Angel arrived, but that's it. That one fucker was just too much. Even if we could've expected it, we had neither the gear nor the ability to take it on. It wasn't just you who got his ass handed to him; Blueberry got her share too, I would've been next on the menu and all I could've done was just delay the inevitable despite, as you keep saying, me being better than you. What makes you think being able to shoot straight would be enough?"
"It still would've been better." – the boy tried to argue, but there was no heat behind it as she offered him a hand and roughly pulled him up onto his feet when he took it.
"Better, yes. Enough, hell no." – She began to walk away from him towards her room. – "Get it in your head that this isn't your fault and move on. It's not my fault either, nor Blueberry's, nor anyone else's. Like it or not, you just can't do the impossible and I'm not expecting you to."
"Could've fooled me." – he muttered.
"I mean it. So do yourself a favor, cut the self-blame and get your shit together or I'll knock the stupid out of your head myself and it's not gonna be pretty."
He didn't know if she was serious about or not, but her words kept ringing in his head even once he was back in bed, Rei clinging to his back. Even though she was supposed to be sleeping on the couch in the living room, as soon as everyone retired for the night, she immediately gathered her pillow and blanket and moved into his room without a single word. He was fairly sure Asuka knew; the blonde already looked mildly peeved when she was all but ordered by her father to surrender one shirt and a set of underwear to Rei in order for the latter to not have to spend the night in her plugsuit, but it's not as if either of them could really tell Rei what to do or not to do.
Whatever the case, he decided to just go with it. He might not have been used to someone else's presence while asleep due to the years he spent living alone, but it wasn't as if she was jumping up and down the bed giggling like an excited child.
Now that was a mental image he had no idea where it came from, but it amused him nonetheless. Maybe he'd even be able to get some sleep with the mirth at such a simple thing overshadowing everything that happened.
And as he eventually drifted off, he didn't even think about probing the girl's mind the way she was trying to teach him. Because if he did, he would've felt the smoldering anger beneath the calm exterior.
Because there was no denying it. Rei was absolutely furious with herself. No matter whether her purpose was something she chose for herself or something chosen for her, the outcome was always the same: she was still nothing more than a failure. After all that happened, not only she couldn't even protect the person who mattered the most to her, but even she had to be rescued by a third party and he still nearly had to give his life for her. The sheer, utter humiliation unconsciously made her grit her teeth in frustration. All her strength, all she knew... and it wasn't enough. She should be the one protecting him, not the other way.
And in the depths of desperation and frustration, an idea began to take root. An idea that, if anyone else would've come up with, she would've killed them on the spot for it. But it was her idea and her mind already starting putting together what she will need to see it through. Because for her, no cost was too high if it meant he was safe and alive.
Even if that cost was her very soul.
- Location
- Who even cares?
Found something interesting today. You guys remember those markings on Kaworu's and Rei's upper arms?
Apparently someone made fanart of it a few years back.
Apparently someone made fanart of it a few years back.
Bad_kobold
Seeker of the Orb of Zot
- Location
- Seattle
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Who has what tattoo- and how did you find this art? It is super cool.
- Location
- Who even cares?
Kaworu has had a mark on his arm for as long as he could remember and later found out Rei has a near-identical one.
I found these when I googled the fic's title excluding sites I posted it on to see if there are unauthorized copies floating about (as someone recently posted on Reddit that a Russian site is mass-copying AO3's content without permission and this story is also posted there).
Maybe? As long as it's well written and doesn't came up as info-dump....
Lord Sovereign
The Emperor of shitty fanfic
- Location
- England
A debriefing, especially given what has happened, would likely require a lot of words. You've yet to let us down so far, Frakky. You go right ahead.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Having a debriefing involve a lot of words is 100% justified, especially since I'm interested to see what data NERV was able to glean from the clusterfuck that just happened - and what sort of whacked-out conclusions they've drawn from such bizarre, out-of-context events.
- Location
- Who even cares?
...now I considered splitting the chapter because with today's additions, involving Asuka doing something her canon incarnation would never do, it's over 5000 words long now.
Then again, I always felt the non-battle chapters in SCE were too short. Especially since I started posting Speak of the Devil with target wordcounts of 5000 per chapter.
Then again, I always felt the non-battle chapters in SCE were too short. Especially since I started posting Speak of the Devil with target wordcounts of 5000 per chapter.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
I'd go with splitting them, if only because I tend to maintain better awareness of a story when it's provided in semi-regular chunks.
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
In that case, it's probably better to publish it in one chunk.
- Location
- Who even cares?
That is, if I can find the motivation to actually sit down and finish it instead of gaming.
In unrelated news, I mused over a what-if scenario of SCE!humanity coming into contact with the Citadel Council. It's worth saying that technological goodies or not (eezo FTL is objectively superior for short-range civilian use) the entirety of humanity would be utterly fucking outraged at the genophage, for an obvious reason.
In unrelated news, I mused over a what-if scenario of SCE!humanity coming into contact with the Citadel Council. It's worth saying that technological goodies or not (eezo FTL is objectively superior for short-range civilian use) the entirety of humanity would be utterly fucking outraged at the genophage, for an obvious reason.
Chapter 42
- Location
- Who even cares?
Chapter 42 follows.
----
Geofront, AEL Headquarters
January 9, 2042
1232 hours
Kaworu couldn't help but feel more than a little anxious as the four of them walked into the conference room. While he was used to lagging behind the others, this time it was more than a little hiccup he had done. Though all his questions about what happened after he was knocked out by the pain feedback were deflected by Asuka with a simple 'wait and see', he did know for a fact that the damage Unit-01 took was far, far worse than in his previous battles.
He could only hope Yui didn't see it as a sign of incompetence. While he was incompetent, it's not like he was ever given a choice in the matter.
"Morning, docs." – Shephard spoke up when he spotted Yui and Sanada already waiting within. – "Got the kids, rested and ready."
He was stopped by Sanada standing directly in front of him, the doctor's expression one of anger. – "I don't remember giving you authorization to take the pilots home without a medical checkup, colonel."
"Don't fret about it, doc. You guys built those things tough. Aside from some frazzled nerves, they're right as rain."
"And did you consider the potential neurological issues Nagisa might be experiencing from feeling his arm being ripped off?" – the doctor pressed, all but growling the words. – "Or his legs being crushed? Or Rei feeling being decapitated? Evangelions are connected directly into the pilot's central nervous system, in case you've forgotten. Pain is one thing, but the human brain simply wasn't designed to experience the sensation of being dismembered without actual damage to the body. There is no way to tell what this might have done to their nervous system and I will not be responsible for three children potentially suffering permanent long-term damage because of your insistence to skip protocol!"
"And how is spending the night in the infirmary for observation going to help their morale?" – Shephard retorted, annoyed.
"Knowing that they can rest easy because if there's something wrong, the people around them can take care of it."
"Then just check them after this debriefing. They aren't going to school today anyway, so it's not like they don't have the time."
Shephard attempted to walk past Sanada, only to be stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Colonel... this is what I look like when I'm not in a joking mood. Do not make the pilots skip a post-sortie medical checkup ever again."
Shephard could evidently tell the other man wasn't joking, because his reply was in a firm and serious tone. – "I won't."
"See that you don't or I will personally report to your superiors that you are endangering and compromising this operation." – Sanada warned him, letting go of his shoulder. – "Their health is my responsibility and I will not allow them to be endangered by your negligence. Are we clear?"
"Crystal."
"Good."
"Doctor Sanada has a point, colonel." – Yui spoke up as the two men and three teenagers gathered around the conference table to find their seats. – "And I share his opinion. I'm aware your superiors do not put up with such behavior from you and it will not prevail with me either."
Shephard sighed. – "Guys... don't you have the least bit problem with the fact that the kids got spooked big time by nearly biting the dust yesterday? They didn't look very lively when they came back. They needed the time off."
"They're also my employees, colonel, and as such, their lives are my responsibility." – Yui replied in a tone that accepted no dissent. – "Remember that your appointment to this operation as tactical advisor is only in an unofficial capacity. You do not have the authority to overrule my orders and company protocols. If you feel you cannot perform your duties under such conditions, then please contact your superiors to be relieved and replaced with someone who can."
"You do realize if you throw me out, you'll be down a pilot, right?"
"No, she won't." – Asuka interrupted. – "If you're going, I'm staying."
Her father's head slowly turned in the girl's direction, face showing flat surprise. – "What?"
"I've got a job I'm being paid for, I'm the only one whose Evangelion is in any shape to fight at the moment and one of only three people in the world who even know how to pilot these things." – Asuka pointed out, counting on her fingers. – "Which, in case you haven't realized, means I'm a high-value strategic asset for as long as the Angels keep coming. Now, more than ever, is my chance to earn my keep and I'm not passing it up just because you want to have a pissing contest over not being allowed to take me home without my boss' say-so."
The blonde then leaned back in her chair, arms crossed with an almost smug expression that reminded Kaworu just whose daughter she was. – "Bottom line: if you want to rage against the system, leave me out of it."
"Big words, except you're forgetting that you're still 14. You can't do shit without my say-so."
"Language, colonel."
"Did you ask the president about that?" – Asuka fired back. – "Because I'm pretty sure he isn't gonna risk the survival of humanity over a single parent's rights and last I checked, the boss has his full support. I'm not bailing on this. End of story."
"As much as I agree with your daughter," – Yui interrupted. – "I believe we have more pressing matters to discuss."
Shephard nodded, apparently deciding not to argue with his rebellious daughter any further. For now. – "Right. So... what's the current situation? I'm guessing the Evangelions are in pretty bad shape."
"That is an understatement, colonel. Unit-02 took only light damage to its organic parts, mostly flesh wounds and a few microfractures in the skeleton. We can have it back at maximum readiness in a few days and fully repaired in a few weeks. It's by far in the best condition."
"You're welcome." – Asuka mumbled, idly scratching her back.
If Yui heard it, she didn't show it. – "Unit-00 is more concerning. The head has been almost completely separated from the body, although the cold temperatures prior to recovery mean tissue necrosis is within tolerance and biochemical response to emergency cellular reanimation procedures has been positive so far. It will take us several weeks to fully reattach it and restore both circulatory and nervous integrity."
"If you guys can actually put that thing's head on, you're miracle workers." – Shephard declared.
"The subject being substantially larger than a human does make precision microsurgery substantially easier, yes." – Yui noted. – "However, even we cannot do the impossible. My teams have recovered what biomass they could, but there simply isn't anything usable left of the right forearm."
"So it's gonna need a prosthetic."
"The option has been considered, yes. However, there is an alternative I'm considering attempting beforehand."
"And in the meantime, let's hope it won't need both hands." – He glanced at Rei. – "I don't suppose you're ambidextrous, are you?"
"I am." – the girl replied flatly.
"Huh. That's handy." – He turned back to Yui and opened his mouth before pausing and turning back to Rei. – "No pun intended." – Now, he turned back to Yui for keeps this time. – "What about Unit-01?"
Kaworu felt a pit in his stomach when Yui let out a long sigh before replying. – "I'm not going to lie, colonel. I'm seriously considering declaring Unit-01 a complete loss and decommissioning it to expedite Unit-00's repairs as tissue donor. That's about all it's usable for at the moment."
Shephard winced. – "Ouch. That bad?"
"Triple amputation with none of the lost limbs having enough biomass remaining for full reconstruction and 80% of the remaining skeleton being damaged to varying degrees. We barely managed to get it into an LCL tank before the entire circulatory system would've collapsed from the blood loss alone." – Yui summarized, making Kaworu wince as well. That was most definitely not going to buff out, as Shephard would no doubt put it, and it did nothing to ease the teen's own anxiety. – "Frankly, I have no idea how we are going to repair it, as regrowing entire limbs is far beyond our current knowledge of Evangelion biology and physiology. And that is if President Keel approves of another budget increase for us to even try repairing it."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Maintenance of three Evangelions is already costing the company more than literally every other expense combined. These combat repairs are going to put us on the edge of insolvency and if that gets out, there will be an investor panic. We simply don't have the assets available to afford a full overhaul. Even if we can make use of the same... resource we'll use for Unit-00, Unit-01 will be out of action for months and according to the latest report from the Paris branch, it will be at least half a year until Unit-03 is combat-ready."
"I don't suppose you can get it done any faster?"
Yui shook her head. – "We've barely begun implanting the cybernetic components, colonel, and it is a delicate process that cannot be rushed. It doesn't even have an AI installed at the moment. In the best-case scenario, attempting to move it will do nothing. Worst-case scenario, the pilot suffers a fatal epileptic seizure from the lack of AI support resulting in their central nervous system being critically overwhelmed."
"I get it, it's a no-go." – Shephard admitted. – "Any other options?"
Yui looked at her tablet pensively for a few seconds before hesitantly replying. – "I suppose we could accelerate the outfitting of the Beta Series prototype as a stopgap measure... but the latest medical checkup has detected anomalies in the organic body that might be side-effects of the accelerated gestation. We're still not sure what the exact consequences will be, why are they occurring or what will be required to remedy them, but it's still our quickest option to reinforce our current strength."
"And better than nothing." – the man added before snapping his fingers. – "Alright, so we have an idea where to go. Now the next matter."
"I, uh..." – Kaworu spoke up suddenly, deciding that it was probably as good a time as any. – "I know an 'I'm sorry' isn't going to be enough here, but-"
"Have you been listening to a word I told you yesterday?" – Asuka interrupted with annoyance. – "It wasn't your damn fault. So hold the apology for when it actually is."
"I wasn't going to tell you off, kid." – Shephard stated, in a puzzled tone. – "Your ride getting trashed is one thing, but almost getting killed in the process is no laughing matter. Me tearing you a new one is the last thing you need right now and I'd rather not make you do something stupid because of you thinking you need to atone or something." – He shot Yui a look. – "That goes for you too, doc. I know you're probably pissed at him about Unit-01, but taking it out on him isn't going to help in any way, will it?"
"That remains to be seen." – the woman replied evenly. – "I'm yet to review yesterday's combat footage and will withhold my decision whether the situation merits disciplinary action until afterwards."
"It doesn't." – Asuka added. – "I was there, I saw what happened."
Kaworu's head whipped towards her so fast his neck actually hurt. Was Asuka actually defending him?!
"He wasn't incompetent, he was up against flat-out impossible odds." – the blonde continued, pointing a thumb in Rei's direction. – "If you're gonna punish him merely for bringing his Evangelion back broken, punish her too. Hers also got damaged, didn't it? Hell, why don't you just go for broke and punish me too for not backing them up better?"
"Come on, it was your first live engagement-"
"And it was his third!" – Asuka fired back, interrupting her father. – "If you don't want us to bring your stuff back broken, don't send us into life-or-death battle with it."
"Miss Shephard, please don't tell me what to do." – Yui replied, tone on edge.
"I'm not telling you what to do. I'm asking you to be consistent and clear about what you're expecting of us. Yes, we lost badly yesterday – but that was inevitably going to happen sooner or later because there are always battles one cannot win. Yesterday was just that. It doesn't matter how much money or how many threats you throw our way, we can't do the impossible. All we can do is our best and believe me, this could've ended up a lot worse. Like, three-for-three worse. But it didn't. We got roughed up, but we're still alive and know what to expect now."
A long silence settled down in the room before Asuka continued in a calmer tone. – "So if you want to punish a fourteen year old for having dared to come back alive from being used as a punching bag by something I can only describe as an act of God, go right ahead. But your precious investors will most definitely not be happy with you rather having employees barely more than children die than make you look bad on the next quarterly report. And that's still better than what the president will think if you fire the only guy you have in reserve to step in if something happens to Blueberry or me before Unit-01 is back up and running."
Another couple of seconds went by before Shephard shook his head and muttered – "Damn, girl..."
"You've made your point." – Yui conceded quietly. Kaworu felt like an Evangelion's weight just fell off his shoulders as she continued. – "Can you three describe what exactly transpired?"
The pilots looked at each other before Asuka moved to stand up. – "Unless either of you have objections, I'll do the talking."
Kaworu had no issues with that. He figured she'd likely be able to explain it better than he could – and judging from Rei's silence, she had no objections either.
"Right, so... we dropped into the LZ and proceeded to the target area." – Asuka began. – "Visual conditions were pretty bad and we couldn't find the Angel on either radar or thermal but gravimetrics were through the roof. It later turned out the Angel was right there the whole time under some kind of active camouflage but instead of fighting directly, we got attacked by a bunch of... I don't know, they were like holograms or something. Looked real but didn't cast shadows against any light source and anything we tried went right through them."
"Decoys, then?" – Shephard asked. – "That doesn't sound so bad."
The girl scoffed. – "Except for the part where they could hit us just fine and the damage from those hits was anything but illusionary."
"So they... what, turned solid when they attacked but non-solid when you attacked them?"
"No, they were non-solid the whole time. Even if we punched each other at the same time, mine went through while the hologram's hit me. I don't know if it was only the hands that turned solid or something, but I guess it doesn't matter. I eventually figured out if none of those things are real, there must be something controlling them, right? So we spread out to pull them apart from each other until we got a stationary contact in the middle of nowhere."
"The real one."
"Yep. Hit the spot with suppressive fire, that got its attention alright 'cause the holograms all glitched out at once. At that point it probably figured the jig was up because it dropped the camo and came after us. Or rather, they came after us because there were two."
Shephard's eyebrows immediately went up. – "Two Angels?"
"Yeah." – the blonde affirmed. – "Looked almost exactly alike and neither was a hologram. They moved in perfect coordination, probably used to working with each other. It was like dancing or something. Anyway, we engaged directly and were getting the upper hand when the Angels decided to change plans and started throwing around more illusions. First they surrounded us with a wall made of mirrors or something like that and launched individual hit-and-run attacks, but the wall wasn't solid and we could just run through it. Then they tossed out this huge dome that shut out all the light and attacked in the dark."
"Asuka, I really hope you're not making this up." – Shephard declared in a flat tone.
"Wish I did 'cause this was the easy part. See, these Angels had this pattern to them where if one of them got hit, the other immediately went after the attacker. So I figured if we caught the one who came at us, the other would come in too. It seemed to work, but then they decided to mix things up again and... hell, I don't even know how to describe this one. They made this kind of freaky 3D labyrinth in the air where the gravity was all over the place. Unit-01's AI actually crashed trying to figure it out."
"Really?"
"The mapping subroutine locked into a loop from attempting to map non-Euclidean space." – Rei spoke up for the first time since the meeting began.
"That makes sense." – Yui mused. – "We obviously never planned for this kind of eventuality. I will notify the software division after we adjourn. Please continue."
"Okay and be warned that now comes the really crazy part." – Asuka declared. – "Again, I swear I'm not making this up. Before we could've re-engaged inside that maze, the whole thing suddenly fell apart and we were back on the ground, except now there was a third Angel. Apparently it did something to the maze to make it fall apart."
"We saw that thing coming ourselves." – Shephard spoke up. – "Would've warned you but the Angel was jamming communications or something because we couldn't get through until you were already in the air."
"Yeah, we noticed. Short-range comms still worked, so we managed. Anyway, this third Angel grabbed one of the other ones and threw it away so hard, it was like it got launched out of a railgun or something."
"Wait. Threw it?"
"Yeah."
"Asuka, the outbound radar contact literally went suborbital."
"And the backblast alone almost knocked us off our feet."
"And that thing was a full-sized Angel."
"Yep. Probably the same weight as an Evangelion."
Shephard buried his face in his palm with a strained sigh. – "Jesus Christ..."
"At that point, the second Angel bugged out on the spot and only the third one was left. And this is where things got bad."
"How bad?" – the man asked, his tone making it clear he was all but dreading the answer.
"Almost all the damage we took was from this one alone. It wiped the floor with us and didn't even broke a sweat. I don't know why, but it was awfully fixated on Unit-01 for some reason. I tried to have a go at it, but it tossed Unit-02 around like a ragdoll. Unit-00 was next, the thing did something with its tentacles that shredded her arm like a pinata and crushed her neck literally underfoot as if she was just an insect. Unit-01..." – The girl paused, shaking her head as a chill ran down on Kaworu's spine from the memory. – "Limb from limb. Literally."
'I did tell you to run.' Tabris remarked flatly. 'The sole reason you are still breathing is because Zeruel did not take you seriously.'
'That doesn't make me feel any better.' Kaworu thought, noticing from the corner of his eye that Rei was listening as well.
'It shouldn't. To challenge Zeruel is to invite death. He is yet to find his match in combat against anyone lesser than an Archangel, despite being much older than I am. Even the Eternal recognized and acknowledged his strength of body and strength of will. Many of us expected him to be the next to claim the title of Archangel.'
'I assume those are special?'
'Each and every single one has the power to unmake entire worlds... and more than one had done so in the past. Be it Sammael's shadow or Michael's light, pray that neither falls upon your world because if it does... the universe will never know your kind ever existed.'
Kaworu had no time to mull over the warning as Asuka continued. – "I would've been next on the menu if things hadn't hit maximum WTF factor right then and there."
"I'm guessing you ran into the second radar contact on our scope." – Shephard stated.
"Yep, and unless somebody's been holding out on us, you are not going to believe this." – The girl turned to Yui and thumbed at the conference table. – "Do we have Unit-02's combat footage here?"
"We do."
She brought up a holographic display replaying the battle from Unit-02's point of view, fast-forwarding until stopping at a part Kaworu definitely didn't remember.
A white Evangelion with wings, holding Zeruel at gunpoint.
Shephard leaned forward in his seat. – "...is that-?"
"Yep."
"...okay. What. The. Actual. Fuck."
This time, Yui didn't even tell him to watch his language, staring at the image herself with an expression of pure disbelief. Then again, Kaworu could understand because it was obvious from her reaction that he wasn't the only one out of the loop on this one.
"My thoughts exactly. I'm guessing this isn't ours?"
"Most certainly not." – Yui replied, all but at a loss for words. – "We don't have another operational unit at the moment, let alone one with such... unusual configuration. That unit was most definitely not built by the AEL."
"Then how does that thing have our IFF frequency and codes?" – Asuka pressed. – "Because it was registering as friendly but didn't transmit any identification, nor respond to hails. It just showed up out of nowhere and went to town on the Angel. Here, take a look."
She resumed the footage and Kaworu found himself ensnared by it. It was almost as if he was watching Rei fight, but with far more... power. Behind the finesse was raw fury and savagery of a kind he had never seen the quiet girl show. Yet it was all impossibly fluid, as if he was watching a choreographed gymnastics routine rather than a thousand-ton combat cyborg engaged in battle.
"I rewatched the footage several times on our way back to the pickup point but still don't know what to make of it." – Asuka added, Kaworu almost missing her words. – "Frankly, I'm not sure whether it was even manned."
"What makes you say that?" – her father asked back, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"Manual coordination, reaction time and response speed was like nothing I've ever seen, be it battleframe or Evangelion. If anything, it was moving more like a battleframe ace than a rookie – and considering we're the only ones who have any experience, I don't see how that's possible. And I'm saying that with her" – Asuka thumbed in Rei's direction. – "sitting right next to me. I also had Sekhmet do some relative speed calcs; that thing was routinely pulling about fifty Gs during combat maneuvers. As in, standstill to supersonic in a second." – The girl's next words sounded like she all but shuddered while saying them. – "Whatever was controlling that thing... it most definitely wasn't human. That kind of acceleration would turn my guts inside out, yet that thing didn't even seem disoriented."
"Breathing fluids like LCL act as density equalizers between the body and the environment." – Yui replied. – "It dampens G-forces to a sufficient degree to allow manned operation of an Evangelion possible. Without it, the pilot would suffer major internal injuries if the Evangelion so much as lost its balance and fell over."
"Makes sense to make something like that unmanned, then." – Shephard mused. – "Anything we have on that front ourselves, doc?"
"We have a work-in-progress concept to enable limited autopilot functionality in the Evangelions, but not one capable of combat beyond point-and-shoot at this time."
"G-forces are one thing, but maintaining awareness of multiple incoming attacks at that speed?" – Asuka continued. – "I'd be happy to dodge one of those on foot, let alone a dozen of them at once in an Evangelion."
"I concur." – Rei added. – "The level of control required for such maneuvers would necessitate an excessively high synchronization ratio."
"How high?"
"Over 90%."
"We never reached that high during our experiments." – Yui clarified. – "Theoretically, Evangelions are limited to about 80% due to signal latency in the nervous system."
"Commands can't transmit that fast?" – Asuka guessed.
"Correct. The conduction speed of the human nervous system applied to a body the size of an Evangelion would delay muscle command execution and receiving feedback by about half a second on average in each direction, making precise control impossible. We managed to achieve substantial improvements in that regard to the point where Evangelions have proportionally close-to-human transmission speed, but short of replacing every single nerve with fiber-optic cables which would increase the cost of a single Evangelion unit a thousandfold, if not more, completely eliminating this latency is physically impossible. Not to mention very likely to induce a lethal epileptic seizure in the pilot from the sheer volume of sensory data alone." – Yui looked back at the image of the white Evangelion. – "At that point, acceleration forces would be the least of the pilot's worries."
"That's not the only thing that felt off." – Asuka continued, pausing the footage to bring up a moment where the unknown Evangelion had its back to Unit-02. – "Look here. There's no reactor."
"Maybe it's internal?" – Kaworu guessed.
Yui shook her head. – "There isn't enough internal space underneath the armor due to the organic tissues. That's why we had to mount the reactor externally."
"Maybe this thing isn't an Evangelion at all."
This time it was Asuka's turn shake her head. – "Sure looked like one. It's even got the shoulder racks."
"Yeah, but the armor's different. Especially on the chest. Wonder if that's where the reactor is?"
"Why put the reactor front and center where it could be nailed by the first center-mass shot?" – the girl pointed out. – "And at one point this thing fired some kind of wide-area energy blast from it, so I think it's an integrated weapon system of some kind."
Shephard perked up at that. – "Energy blast?"
"Not missiles and far too flashy for a mere muzzle flash. Its rifle too was firing beams of light that seemed to have high penetrating power. I think it was a tau cannon."
"Lemme see."
Asuka fast-forwarded the video, pausing at the point where the rifle fired. At a standstill, it was clear that the "tracer" leaving the weapon had an electric arc around it.
"I'm no weapon specialist but yeah, that does look like a tau cannon." – Shephard mused. – "Good catch."
"Is that a... railgun or something?" – Kaworu asked.
Asuka sighed before explaining. – "It's an energy weapon Black Mesa was developing before Second Impact. Subatomic particle beam, hits like a truck but with pinpoint accuracy and very high armor penetration. They apparently even had a working prototype that was infantry-portable but could still go straight through a tank with barely any loss of power. The Resistance managed to rig a few up during the Occupation and I hear the navy's been looking into it themselves as a potential replacement for railguns, but the alloy the Combine make most of their stuff out of is somehow reflective to it at small arms caliber and they aren't sure if a brute-force approach will work, so they aren't exactly keen on spending billions on a potential dead-end."
Sci-fi laser gun, then, Kaworu noted to himself. And it spoke a lot about yesterday's situation that it was the least unbelievable part. – "But it's better than bullets?"
The blonde shrugged. – "Depends on what you're shooting at. Couple of shots turn even a heavily armored target into swiss cheese, no problem, but inflict minimal internal damage unless one of them hits a critical component. I read about a test firing the military once did on ballistic gel to see what it'd do to a human; drilled through so easily it barely transferred any kinetic energy to the gel, so it wouldn't stop a guy charging you with a bayonet dead in his tracks the same way a rifle would, unless you nailed his heart right away." – She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. – "I can totally see why that Evangelion brought that kind of hardware, though: our guns didn't even scratch the Angel but this thing's rifle did. In fact, the Angel wasn't even using its AT-field until it actually got hurt. Cocky bastard."
"Language, miss Shephard."
"Anyway. Aside from that rifle and that chest blaster thing, this white Evangelion was loaded for close quarters combat. I mean, yeah, we've got knives too, but this thing had some kind of telescopic progressive blade on its forearm and was using it pretty extensively. The moves it was pulling, plus the fact that it seemed to be capable of extended flight with speed, maneuverability and endurance far beyond A-type equipment, means either that thing is made of helium or its power generation is through the roof. Way beyond ours. You say you saw it coming on radar?"
"Yeah." – Shephard replied. – "It made a suborbital hop that left literally anything the navy's got in service in the dust. By the time the pilots on the ground even got into their cockpits, it was already in the stratosphere and climbing at hypersonic speed."
"Damn. Talk about hitting the nail on the head just now. Whatever it's running on had a crazily high gravimetric reading, in any case. Not like that of an Angel, though."
"Some debriefing this is turning out to be." – Shephard grumbled with a frustrated sigh. – "We've got more questions than answers. Any more surprises?"
"Nothing. The Angel and the unknown got busy with each other and I figured that was our cue to exit stage left. We were in no condition to keep fighting, so I synced my view to Unit-00's entry plug to get her back on her feet, we grabbed Unit-01 and bugged out. End of story."
"Good call. After all this, I'd have done the same."
Asuka just shrugged at that. – "Like I said, if that white Evangelion hadn't gotten there when it did, I would've been next on the menu and latest model or not, I wouldn't have been able to hold that Angel off by myself after it just went through two others like they were nothing. And that's where I feel it's time to make my case."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not going to mince words." – She leaned forward, planting both hands on the table as her gaze swept across everyone else in the room. – "We got absolutely annihilated. First two was doable because we had the numbers and kept our heads on a swivel against their tricks but against this third one, quality beat quantity. I don't know where this one was hiding this whole time, but it's clear to me that we are way out of our league here. I don't know where that white Evangelion came from either, but I'd rather not rely on him showing up to bail us out again. I don't care if we want to call it pride or preparedness or whatever. We need to step up our game here."
Shephard nodded in assent. – "What have you got in mind?"
Asuka turned to Yui. – "First off, are the Evangelions capable of simulating combat on the entry plug display for training purposes?"
"Not on their own." – the scientist replied, making a 'not quite' gesture with her hand. – "We will need MAGI support, but I believe a simulator exercise is within our capabilities. I'll consult with our programmers."
"That'd be good." – the girl replied with a nod. – "Next. We need better hardware. Can we contact Gehirn and ask them for an upgrade?"
"What kind of upgrade are we talking about?"
"More firepower, for one. Tell them to dig into their archives and pull out every conceptual design they have that's more powerful than what we have right now but got shelved for any reason other than 'it can't be done'. Forget practicality or cost-effectiveness, we need to pull out all the stops and go in loaded for bear. Plus, that while Evangelion had body-attached missile launchers, I'm pretty sure that's not too much to ask for. Also, both in this battle and the previous ones, the majority of the Angels engaged us up close and we don't have anything more than knives. That Evangelion had and it seemed to work out for him, so I say we follow suit and bring something for close-quarters combat ourselves."
"What exactly do you have in mind?"
Asuka shrugged. – "Whatever works. Swords, axes, something that doesn't get in the way or weight us down too badly. Progressive blades should be a no-brainer, preferably ones that don't break too easily."
"Can you put together a list of suggestions and/or requests?" – Yui asked, checking the time on her tablet. – "I need to consult with my personnel to establish a repair plan for Unit-00 and Unit-01, so unless anyone has anything else to say, I believe we can adjourn this meeting. Colonel, can you debrief the president?"
Shephard visibly winced at what was obviously a loaded request he wasn't looking forward to. – "Sure, I guess. And to avoid any mishaps this time, do I have permission to take the kids home after their medical checkups?"
"I don't see an issue." – Yui stood up. – "I believe we're done here. Mister Nagisa?"
Kaworu gulped. Now was the part he was not looking forward to. – "Yes?"
"As you've no doubt heard, we currently don't have an Evangelion available for your use. Consider yourself on reservist status until further notice."
"Okay."
That was as good as the outcome could get, the teen guessed. At least he wasn't fired... and as he glanced at Asuka, he just couldn't figure out what her game was after how she treated him. First looking down on and insulting him practically every chance she got, then going out of her way to defend him. And that's after expressing annoyance at someone else for not being consistent while seemingly being living refutation of the very words coming out of her mouth.
Just what the hell was going on in that girl's head?
----
Not 100% satisfied with the result, but it'll do for now.
Tau particles actually exist in real life, discovered in the late 1970s as the byproduct of high-speed electron/positron collisions; their discovery was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1995. Each particle has the same electric charge as an electron but is over 3477 times as heavy (1.89 times the mass of a proton), resulting in tau particles barely losing any momentum when passing through solid matter. However, tau particles also have an extremely short lifetime, decaying after a mean time of only 0.00029 nanoseconds unless accelerated to high c-fractional speeds to take advantage of relativistic time dilation.
How did Black Mesa manage to create a device capable of creating weapons-grade quantities of tau particles and projecting them at near-lightspeed while only being the size and weight of a light machine gun instead of the Large Hadron Collider was never explained. The only information that exists about the initial prototype is that it was powered by a capacitor bank charged from some kind of ultracompact nuclear fission reactor. Notably, the capacitor was known to be faulty and couldn't hold a full charge for more than a short while before failing and discharging into the weapon's frame, with fatal consequences for whoever was holding it at the time. A later version was seen during the Occupation jury-rigged onto a dune buggy, although whether it was running off the engine's generator or had its own power cell was unclear. This version also fixed the capacitor failure, presumably through the use of alternate and/or alien materials.
----
Geofront, AEL Headquarters
January 9, 2042
1232 hours
Kaworu couldn't help but feel more than a little anxious as the four of them walked into the conference room. While he was used to lagging behind the others, this time it was more than a little hiccup he had done. Though all his questions about what happened after he was knocked out by the pain feedback were deflected by Asuka with a simple 'wait and see', he did know for a fact that the damage Unit-01 took was far, far worse than in his previous battles.
He could only hope Yui didn't see it as a sign of incompetence. While he was incompetent, it's not like he was ever given a choice in the matter.
"Morning, docs." – Shephard spoke up when he spotted Yui and Sanada already waiting within. – "Got the kids, rested and ready."
He was stopped by Sanada standing directly in front of him, the doctor's expression one of anger. – "I don't remember giving you authorization to take the pilots home without a medical checkup, colonel."
"Don't fret about it, doc. You guys built those things tough. Aside from some frazzled nerves, they're right as rain."
"And did you consider the potential neurological issues Nagisa might be experiencing from feeling his arm being ripped off?" – the doctor pressed, all but growling the words. – "Or his legs being crushed? Or Rei feeling being decapitated? Evangelions are connected directly into the pilot's central nervous system, in case you've forgotten. Pain is one thing, but the human brain simply wasn't designed to experience the sensation of being dismembered without actual damage to the body. There is no way to tell what this might have done to their nervous system and I will not be responsible for three children potentially suffering permanent long-term damage because of your insistence to skip protocol!"
"And how is spending the night in the infirmary for observation going to help their morale?" – Shephard retorted, annoyed.
"Knowing that they can rest easy because if there's something wrong, the people around them can take care of it."
"Then just check them after this debriefing. They aren't going to school today anyway, so it's not like they don't have the time."
Shephard attempted to walk past Sanada, only to be stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.
"Colonel... this is what I look like when I'm not in a joking mood. Do not make the pilots skip a post-sortie medical checkup ever again."
Shephard could evidently tell the other man wasn't joking, because his reply was in a firm and serious tone. – "I won't."
"See that you don't or I will personally report to your superiors that you are endangering and compromising this operation." – Sanada warned him, letting go of his shoulder. – "Their health is my responsibility and I will not allow them to be endangered by your negligence. Are we clear?"
"Crystal."
"Good."
"Doctor Sanada has a point, colonel." – Yui spoke up as the two men and three teenagers gathered around the conference table to find their seats. – "And I share his opinion. I'm aware your superiors do not put up with such behavior from you and it will not prevail with me either."
Shephard sighed. – "Guys... don't you have the least bit problem with the fact that the kids got spooked big time by nearly biting the dust yesterday? They didn't look very lively when they came back. They needed the time off."
"They're also my employees, colonel, and as such, their lives are my responsibility." – Yui replied in a tone that accepted no dissent. – "Remember that your appointment to this operation as tactical advisor is only in an unofficial capacity. You do not have the authority to overrule my orders and company protocols. If you feel you cannot perform your duties under such conditions, then please contact your superiors to be relieved and replaced with someone who can."
"You do realize if you throw me out, you'll be down a pilot, right?"
"No, she won't." – Asuka interrupted. – "If you're going, I'm staying."
Her father's head slowly turned in the girl's direction, face showing flat surprise. – "What?"
"I've got a job I'm being paid for, I'm the only one whose Evangelion is in any shape to fight at the moment and one of only three people in the world who even know how to pilot these things." – Asuka pointed out, counting on her fingers. – "Which, in case you haven't realized, means I'm a high-value strategic asset for as long as the Angels keep coming. Now, more than ever, is my chance to earn my keep and I'm not passing it up just because you want to have a pissing contest over not being allowed to take me home without my boss' say-so."
The blonde then leaned back in her chair, arms crossed with an almost smug expression that reminded Kaworu just whose daughter she was. – "Bottom line: if you want to rage against the system, leave me out of it."
"Big words, except you're forgetting that you're still 14. You can't do shit without my say-so."
"Language, colonel."
"Did you ask the president about that?" – Asuka fired back. – "Because I'm pretty sure he isn't gonna risk the survival of humanity over a single parent's rights and last I checked, the boss has his full support. I'm not bailing on this. End of story."
"As much as I agree with your daughter," – Yui interrupted. – "I believe we have more pressing matters to discuss."
Shephard nodded, apparently deciding not to argue with his rebellious daughter any further. For now. – "Right. So... what's the current situation? I'm guessing the Evangelions are in pretty bad shape."
"That is an understatement, colonel. Unit-02 took only light damage to its organic parts, mostly flesh wounds and a few microfractures in the skeleton. We can have it back at maximum readiness in a few days and fully repaired in a few weeks. It's by far in the best condition."
"You're welcome." – Asuka mumbled, idly scratching her back.
If Yui heard it, she didn't show it. – "Unit-00 is more concerning. The head has been almost completely separated from the body, although the cold temperatures prior to recovery mean tissue necrosis is within tolerance and biochemical response to emergency cellular reanimation procedures has been positive so far. It will take us several weeks to fully reattach it and restore both circulatory and nervous integrity."
"If you guys can actually put that thing's head on, you're miracle workers." – Shephard declared.
"The subject being substantially larger than a human does make precision microsurgery substantially easier, yes." – Yui noted. – "However, even we cannot do the impossible. My teams have recovered what biomass they could, but there simply isn't anything usable left of the right forearm."
"So it's gonna need a prosthetic."
"The option has been considered, yes. However, there is an alternative I'm considering attempting beforehand."
"And in the meantime, let's hope it won't need both hands." – He glanced at Rei. – "I don't suppose you're ambidextrous, are you?"
"I am." – the girl replied flatly.
"Huh. That's handy." – He turned back to Yui and opened his mouth before pausing and turning back to Rei. – "No pun intended." – Now, he turned back to Yui for keeps this time. – "What about Unit-01?"
Kaworu felt a pit in his stomach when Yui let out a long sigh before replying. – "I'm not going to lie, colonel. I'm seriously considering declaring Unit-01 a complete loss and decommissioning it to expedite Unit-00's repairs as tissue donor. That's about all it's usable for at the moment."
Shephard winced. – "Ouch. That bad?"
"Triple amputation with none of the lost limbs having enough biomass remaining for full reconstruction and 80% of the remaining skeleton being damaged to varying degrees. We barely managed to get it into an LCL tank before the entire circulatory system would've collapsed from the blood loss alone." – Yui summarized, making Kaworu wince as well. That was most definitely not going to buff out, as Shephard would no doubt put it, and it did nothing to ease the teen's own anxiety. – "Frankly, I have no idea how we are going to repair it, as regrowing entire limbs is far beyond our current knowledge of Evangelion biology and physiology. And that is if President Keel approves of another budget increase for us to even try repairing it."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Maintenance of three Evangelions is already costing the company more than literally every other expense combined. These combat repairs are going to put us on the edge of insolvency and if that gets out, there will be an investor panic. We simply don't have the assets available to afford a full overhaul. Even if we can make use of the same... resource we'll use for Unit-00, Unit-01 will be out of action for months and according to the latest report from the Paris branch, it will be at least half a year until Unit-03 is combat-ready."
"I don't suppose you can get it done any faster?"
Yui shook her head. – "We've barely begun implanting the cybernetic components, colonel, and it is a delicate process that cannot be rushed. It doesn't even have an AI installed at the moment. In the best-case scenario, attempting to move it will do nothing. Worst-case scenario, the pilot suffers a fatal epileptic seizure from the lack of AI support resulting in their central nervous system being critically overwhelmed."
"I get it, it's a no-go." – Shephard admitted. – "Any other options?"
Yui looked at her tablet pensively for a few seconds before hesitantly replying. – "I suppose we could accelerate the outfitting of the Beta Series prototype as a stopgap measure... but the latest medical checkup has detected anomalies in the organic body that might be side-effects of the accelerated gestation. We're still not sure what the exact consequences will be, why are they occurring or what will be required to remedy them, but it's still our quickest option to reinforce our current strength."
"And better than nothing." – the man added before snapping his fingers. – "Alright, so we have an idea where to go. Now the next matter."
"I, uh..." – Kaworu spoke up suddenly, deciding that it was probably as good a time as any. – "I know an 'I'm sorry' isn't going to be enough here, but-"
"Have you been listening to a word I told you yesterday?" – Asuka interrupted with annoyance. – "It wasn't your damn fault. So hold the apology for when it actually is."
"I wasn't going to tell you off, kid." – Shephard stated, in a puzzled tone. – "Your ride getting trashed is one thing, but almost getting killed in the process is no laughing matter. Me tearing you a new one is the last thing you need right now and I'd rather not make you do something stupid because of you thinking you need to atone or something." – He shot Yui a look. – "That goes for you too, doc. I know you're probably pissed at him about Unit-01, but taking it out on him isn't going to help in any way, will it?"
"That remains to be seen." – the woman replied evenly. – "I'm yet to review yesterday's combat footage and will withhold my decision whether the situation merits disciplinary action until afterwards."
"It doesn't." – Asuka added. – "I was there, I saw what happened."
Kaworu's head whipped towards her so fast his neck actually hurt. Was Asuka actually defending him?!
"He wasn't incompetent, he was up against flat-out impossible odds." – the blonde continued, pointing a thumb in Rei's direction. – "If you're gonna punish him merely for bringing his Evangelion back broken, punish her too. Hers also got damaged, didn't it? Hell, why don't you just go for broke and punish me too for not backing them up better?"
"Come on, it was your first live engagement-"
"And it was his third!" – Asuka fired back, interrupting her father. – "If you don't want us to bring your stuff back broken, don't send us into life-or-death battle with it."
"Miss Shephard, please don't tell me what to do." – Yui replied, tone on edge.
"I'm not telling you what to do. I'm asking you to be consistent and clear about what you're expecting of us. Yes, we lost badly yesterday – but that was inevitably going to happen sooner or later because there are always battles one cannot win. Yesterday was just that. It doesn't matter how much money or how many threats you throw our way, we can't do the impossible. All we can do is our best and believe me, this could've ended up a lot worse. Like, three-for-three worse. But it didn't. We got roughed up, but we're still alive and know what to expect now."
A long silence settled down in the room before Asuka continued in a calmer tone. – "So if you want to punish a fourteen year old for having dared to come back alive from being used as a punching bag by something I can only describe as an act of God, go right ahead. But your precious investors will most definitely not be happy with you rather having employees barely more than children die than make you look bad on the next quarterly report. And that's still better than what the president will think if you fire the only guy you have in reserve to step in if something happens to Blueberry or me before Unit-01 is back up and running."
Another couple of seconds went by before Shephard shook his head and muttered – "Damn, girl..."
"You've made your point." – Yui conceded quietly. Kaworu felt like an Evangelion's weight just fell off his shoulders as she continued. – "Can you three describe what exactly transpired?"
The pilots looked at each other before Asuka moved to stand up. – "Unless either of you have objections, I'll do the talking."
Kaworu had no issues with that. He figured she'd likely be able to explain it better than he could – and judging from Rei's silence, she had no objections either.
"Right, so... we dropped into the LZ and proceeded to the target area." – Asuka began. – "Visual conditions were pretty bad and we couldn't find the Angel on either radar or thermal but gravimetrics were through the roof. It later turned out the Angel was right there the whole time under some kind of active camouflage but instead of fighting directly, we got attacked by a bunch of... I don't know, they were like holograms or something. Looked real but didn't cast shadows against any light source and anything we tried went right through them."
"Decoys, then?" – Shephard asked. – "That doesn't sound so bad."
The girl scoffed. – "Except for the part where they could hit us just fine and the damage from those hits was anything but illusionary."
"So they... what, turned solid when they attacked but non-solid when you attacked them?"
"No, they were non-solid the whole time. Even if we punched each other at the same time, mine went through while the hologram's hit me. I don't know if it was only the hands that turned solid or something, but I guess it doesn't matter. I eventually figured out if none of those things are real, there must be something controlling them, right? So we spread out to pull them apart from each other until we got a stationary contact in the middle of nowhere."
"The real one."
"Yep. Hit the spot with suppressive fire, that got its attention alright 'cause the holograms all glitched out at once. At that point it probably figured the jig was up because it dropped the camo and came after us. Or rather, they came after us because there were two."
Shephard's eyebrows immediately went up. – "Two Angels?"
"Yeah." – the blonde affirmed. – "Looked almost exactly alike and neither was a hologram. They moved in perfect coordination, probably used to working with each other. It was like dancing or something. Anyway, we engaged directly and were getting the upper hand when the Angels decided to change plans and started throwing around more illusions. First they surrounded us with a wall made of mirrors or something like that and launched individual hit-and-run attacks, but the wall wasn't solid and we could just run through it. Then they tossed out this huge dome that shut out all the light and attacked in the dark."
"Asuka, I really hope you're not making this up." – Shephard declared in a flat tone.
"Wish I did 'cause this was the easy part. See, these Angels had this pattern to them where if one of them got hit, the other immediately went after the attacker. So I figured if we caught the one who came at us, the other would come in too. It seemed to work, but then they decided to mix things up again and... hell, I don't even know how to describe this one. They made this kind of freaky 3D labyrinth in the air where the gravity was all over the place. Unit-01's AI actually crashed trying to figure it out."
"Really?"
"The mapping subroutine locked into a loop from attempting to map non-Euclidean space." – Rei spoke up for the first time since the meeting began.
"That makes sense." – Yui mused. – "We obviously never planned for this kind of eventuality. I will notify the software division after we adjourn. Please continue."
"Okay and be warned that now comes the really crazy part." – Asuka declared. – "Again, I swear I'm not making this up. Before we could've re-engaged inside that maze, the whole thing suddenly fell apart and we were back on the ground, except now there was a third Angel. Apparently it did something to the maze to make it fall apart."
"We saw that thing coming ourselves." – Shephard spoke up. – "Would've warned you but the Angel was jamming communications or something because we couldn't get through until you were already in the air."
"Yeah, we noticed. Short-range comms still worked, so we managed. Anyway, this third Angel grabbed one of the other ones and threw it away so hard, it was like it got launched out of a railgun or something."
"Wait. Threw it?"
"Yeah."
"Asuka, the outbound radar contact literally went suborbital."
"And the backblast alone almost knocked us off our feet."
"And that thing was a full-sized Angel."
"Yep. Probably the same weight as an Evangelion."
Shephard buried his face in his palm with a strained sigh. – "Jesus Christ..."
"At that point, the second Angel bugged out on the spot and only the third one was left. And this is where things got bad."
"How bad?" – the man asked, his tone making it clear he was all but dreading the answer.
"Almost all the damage we took was from this one alone. It wiped the floor with us and didn't even broke a sweat. I don't know why, but it was awfully fixated on Unit-01 for some reason. I tried to have a go at it, but it tossed Unit-02 around like a ragdoll. Unit-00 was next, the thing did something with its tentacles that shredded her arm like a pinata and crushed her neck literally underfoot as if she was just an insect. Unit-01..." – The girl paused, shaking her head as a chill ran down on Kaworu's spine from the memory. – "Limb from limb. Literally."
'I did tell you to run.' Tabris remarked flatly. 'The sole reason you are still breathing is because Zeruel did not take you seriously.'
'That doesn't make me feel any better.' Kaworu thought, noticing from the corner of his eye that Rei was listening as well.
'It shouldn't. To challenge Zeruel is to invite death. He is yet to find his match in combat against anyone lesser than an Archangel, despite being much older than I am. Even the Eternal recognized and acknowledged his strength of body and strength of will. Many of us expected him to be the next to claim the title of Archangel.'
'I assume those are special?'
'Each and every single one has the power to unmake entire worlds... and more than one had done so in the past. Be it Sammael's shadow or Michael's light, pray that neither falls upon your world because if it does... the universe will never know your kind ever existed.'
Kaworu had no time to mull over the warning as Asuka continued. – "I would've been next on the menu if things hadn't hit maximum WTF factor right then and there."
"I'm guessing you ran into the second radar contact on our scope." – Shephard stated.
"Yep, and unless somebody's been holding out on us, you are not going to believe this." – The girl turned to Yui and thumbed at the conference table. – "Do we have Unit-02's combat footage here?"
"We do."
She brought up a holographic display replaying the battle from Unit-02's point of view, fast-forwarding until stopping at a part Kaworu definitely didn't remember.
A white Evangelion with wings, holding Zeruel at gunpoint.
Shephard leaned forward in his seat. – "...is that-?"
"Yep."
"...okay. What. The. Actual. Fuck."
This time, Yui didn't even tell him to watch his language, staring at the image herself with an expression of pure disbelief. Then again, Kaworu could understand because it was obvious from her reaction that he wasn't the only one out of the loop on this one.
"My thoughts exactly. I'm guessing this isn't ours?"
"Most certainly not." – Yui replied, all but at a loss for words. – "We don't have another operational unit at the moment, let alone one with such... unusual configuration. That unit was most definitely not built by the AEL."
"Then how does that thing have our IFF frequency and codes?" – Asuka pressed. – "Because it was registering as friendly but didn't transmit any identification, nor respond to hails. It just showed up out of nowhere and went to town on the Angel. Here, take a look."
She resumed the footage and Kaworu found himself ensnared by it. It was almost as if he was watching Rei fight, but with far more... power. Behind the finesse was raw fury and savagery of a kind he had never seen the quiet girl show. Yet it was all impossibly fluid, as if he was watching a choreographed gymnastics routine rather than a thousand-ton combat cyborg engaged in battle.
"I rewatched the footage several times on our way back to the pickup point but still don't know what to make of it." – Asuka added, Kaworu almost missing her words. – "Frankly, I'm not sure whether it was even manned."
"What makes you say that?" – her father asked back, not taking his eyes off the screen.
"Manual coordination, reaction time and response speed was like nothing I've ever seen, be it battleframe or Evangelion. If anything, it was moving more like a battleframe ace than a rookie – and considering we're the only ones who have any experience, I don't see how that's possible. And I'm saying that with her" – Asuka thumbed in Rei's direction. – "sitting right next to me. I also had Sekhmet do some relative speed calcs; that thing was routinely pulling about fifty Gs during combat maneuvers. As in, standstill to supersonic in a second." – The girl's next words sounded like she all but shuddered while saying them. – "Whatever was controlling that thing... it most definitely wasn't human. That kind of acceleration would turn my guts inside out, yet that thing didn't even seem disoriented."
"Breathing fluids like LCL act as density equalizers between the body and the environment." – Yui replied. – "It dampens G-forces to a sufficient degree to allow manned operation of an Evangelion possible. Without it, the pilot would suffer major internal injuries if the Evangelion so much as lost its balance and fell over."
"Makes sense to make something like that unmanned, then." – Shephard mused. – "Anything we have on that front ourselves, doc?"
"We have a work-in-progress concept to enable limited autopilot functionality in the Evangelions, but not one capable of combat beyond point-and-shoot at this time."
"G-forces are one thing, but maintaining awareness of multiple incoming attacks at that speed?" – Asuka continued. – "I'd be happy to dodge one of those on foot, let alone a dozen of them at once in an Evangelion."
"I concur." – Rei added. – "The level of control required for such maneuvers would necessitate an excessively high synchronization ratio."
"How high?"
"Over 90%."
"We never reached that high during our experiments." – Yui clarified. – "Theoretically, Evangelions are limited to about 80% due to signal latency in the nervous system."
"Commands can't transmit that fast?" – Asuka guessed.
"Correct. The conduction speed of the human nervous system applied to a body the size of an Evangelion would delay muscle command execution and receiving feedback by about half a second on average in each direction, making precise control impossible. We managed to achieve substantial improvements in that regard to the point where Evangelions have proportionally close-to-human transmission speed, but short of replacing every single nerve with fiber-optic cables which would increase the cost of a single Evangelion unit a thousandfold, if not more, completely eliminating this latency is physically impossible. Not to mention very likely to induce a lethal epileptic seizure in the pilot from the sheer volume of sensory data alone." – Yui looked back at the image of the white Evangelion. – "At that point, acceleration forces would be the least of the pilot's worries."
"That's not the only thing that felt off." – Asuka continued, pausing the footage to bring up a moment where the unknown Evangelion had its back to Unit-02. – "Look here. There's no reactor."
"Maybe it's internal?" – Kaworu guessed.
Yui shook her head. – "There isn't enough internal space underneath the armor due to the organic tissues. That's why we had to mount the reactor externally."
"Maybe this thing isn't an Evangelion at all."
This time it was Asuka's turn shake her head. – "Sure looked like one. It's even got the shoulder racks."
"Yeah, but the armor's different. Especially on the chest. Wonder if that's where the reactor is?"
"Why put the reactor front and center where it could be nailed by the first center-mass shot?" – the girl pointed out. – "And at one point this thing fired some kind of wide-area energy blast from it, so I think it's an integrated weapon system of some kind."
Shephard perked up at that. – "Energy blast?"
"Not missiles and far too flashy for a mere muzzle flash. Its rifle too was firing beams of light that seemed to have high penetrating power. I think it was a tau cannon."
"Lemme see."
Asuka fast-forwarded the video, pausing at the point where the rifle fired. At a standstill, it was clear that the "tracer" leaving the weapon had an electric arc around it.
"I'm no weapon specialist but yeah, that does look like a tau cannon." – Shephard mused. – "Good catch."
"Is that a... railgun or something?" – Kaworu asked.
Asuka sighed before explaining. – "It's an energy weapon Black Mesa was developing before Second Impact. Subatomic particle beam, hits like a truck but with pinpoint accuracy and very high armor penetration. They apparently even had a working prototype that was infantry-portable but could still go straight through a tank with barely any loss of power. The Resistance managed to rig a few up during the Occupation and I hear the navy's been looking into it themselves as a potential replacement for railguns, but the alloy the Combine make most of their stuff out of is somehow reflective to it at small arms caliber and they aren't sure if a brute-force approach will work, so they aren't exactly keen on spending billions on a potential dead-end."
Sci-fi laser gun, then, Kaworu noted to himself. And it spoke a lot about yesterday's situation that it was the least unbelievable part. – "But it's better than bullets?"
The blonde shrugged. – "Depends on what you're shooting at. Couple of shots turn even a heavily armored target into swiss cheese, no problem, but inflict minimal internal damage unless one of them hits a critical component. I read about a test firing the military once did on ballistic gel to see what it'd do to a human; drilled through so easily it barely transferred any kinetic energy to the gel, so it wouldn't stop a guy charging you with a bayonet dead in his tracks the same way a rifle would, unless you nailed his heart right away." – She paused for a moment, looking thoughtful. – "I can totally see why that Evangelion brought that kind of hardware, though: our guns didn't even scratch the Angel but this thing's rifle did. In fact, the Angel wasn't even using its AT-field until it actually got hurt. Cocky bastard."
"Language, miss Shephard."
"Anyway. Aside from that rifle and that chest blaster thing, this white Evangelion was loaded for close quarters combat. I mean, yeah, we've got knives too, but this thing had some kind of telescopic progressive blade on its forearm and was using it pretty extensively. The moves it was pulling, plus the fact that it seemed to be capable of extended flight with speed, maneuverability and endurance far beyond A-type equipment, means either that thing is made of helium or its power generation is through the roof. Way beyond ours. You say you saw it coming on radar?"
"Yeah." – Shephard replied. – "It made a suborbital hop that left literally anything the navy's got in service in the dust. By the time the pilots on the ground even got into their cockpits, it was already in the stratosphere and climbing at hypersonic speed."
"Damn. Talk about hitting the nail on the head just now. Whatever it's running on had a crazily high gravimetric reading, in any case. Not like that of an Angel, though."
"Some debriefing this is turning out to be." – Shephard grumbled with a frustrated sigh. – "We've got more questions than answers. Any more surprises?"
"Nothing. The Angel and the unknown got busy with each other and I figured that was our cue to exit stage left. We were in no condition to keep fighting, so I synced my view to Unit-00's entry plug to get her back on her feet, we grabbed Unit-01 and bugged out. End of story."
"Good call. After all this, I'd have done the same."
Asuka just shrugged at that. – "Like I said, if that white Evangelion hadn't gotten there when it did, I would've been next on the menu and latest model or not, I wouldn't have been able to hold that Angel off by myself after it just went through two others like they were nothing. And that's where I feel it's time to make my case."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not going to mince words." – She leaned forward, planting both hands on the table as her gaze swept across everyone else in the room. – "We got absolutely annihilated. First two was doable because we had the numbers and kept our heads on a swivel against their tricks but against this third one, quality beat quantity. I don't know where this one was hiding this whole time, but it's clear to me that we are way out of our league here. I don't know where that white Evangelion came from either, but I'd rather not rely on him showing up to bail us out again. I don't care if we want to call it pride or preparedness or whatever. We need to step up our game here."
Shephard nodded in assent. – "What have you got in mind?"
Asuka turned to Yui. – "First off, are the Evangelions capable of simulating combat on the entry plug display for training purposes?"
"Not on their own." – the scientist replied, making a 'not quite' gesture with her hand. – "We will need MAGI support, but I believe a simulator exercise is within our capabilities. I'll consult with our programmers."
"That'd be good." – the girl replied with a nod. – "Next. We need better hardware. Can we contact Gehirn and ask them for an upgrade?"
"What kind of upgrade are we talking about?"
"More firepower, for one. Tell them to dig into their archives and pull out every conceptual design they have that's more powerful than what we have right now but got shelved for any reason other than 'it can't be done'. Forget practicality or cost-effectiveness, we need to pull out all the stops and go in loaded for bear. Plus, that while Evangelion had body-attached missile launchers, I'm pretty sure that's not too much to ask for. Also, both in this battle and the previous ones, the majority of the Angels engaged us up close and we don't have anything more than knives. That Evangelion had and it seemed to work out for him, so I say we follow suit and bring something for close-quarters combat ourselves."
"What exactly do you have in mind?"
Asuka shrugged. – "Whatever works. Swords, axes, something that doesn't get in the way or weight us down too badly. Progressive blades should be a no-brainer, preferably ones that don't break too easily."
"Can you put together a list of suggestions and/or requests?" – Yui asked, checking the time on her tablet. – "I need to consult with my personnel to establish a repair plan for Unit-00 and Unit-01, so unless anyone has anything else to say, I believe we can adjourn this meeting. Colonel, can you debrief the president?"
Shephard visibly winced at what was obviously a loaded request he wasn't looking forward to. – "Sure, I guess. And to avoid any mishaps this time, do I have permission to take the kids home after their medical checkups?"
"I don't see an issue." – Yui stood up. – "I believe we're done here. Mister Nagisa?"
Kaworu gulped. Now was the part he was not looking forward to. – "Yes?"
"As you've no doubt heard, we currently don't have an Evangelion available for your use. Consider yourself on reservist status until further notice."
"Okay."
That was as good as the outcome could get, the teen guessed. At least he wasn't fired... and as he glanced at Asuka, he just couldn't figure out what her game was after how she treated him. First looking down on and insulting him practically every chance she got, then going out of her way to defend him. And that's after expressing annoyance at someone else for not being consistent while seemingly being living refutation of the very words coming out of her mouth.
Just what the hell was going on in that girl's head?
----
Not 100% satisfied with the result, but it'll do for now.
Tau particles actually exist in real life, discovered in the late 1970s as the byproduct of high-speed electron/positron collisions; their discovery was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1995. Each particle has the same electric charge as an electron but is over 3477 times as heavy (1.89 times the mass of a proton), resulting in tau particles barely losing any momentum when passing through solid matter. However, tau particles also have an extremely short lifetime, decaying after a mean time of only 0.00029 nanoseconds unless accelerated to high c-fractional speeds to take advantage of relativistic time dilation.
How did Black Mesa manage to create a device capable of creating weapons-grade quantities of tau particles and projecting them at near-lightspeed while only being the size and weight of a light machine gun instead of the Large Hadron Collider was never explained. The only information that exists about the initial prototype is that it was powered by a capacitor bank charged from some kind of ultracompact nuclear fission reactor. Notably, the capacitor was known to be faulty and couldn't hold a full charge for more than a short while before failing and discharging into the weapon's frame, with fatal consequences for whoever was holding it at the time. A later version was seen during the Occupation jury-rigged onto a dune buggy, although whether it was running off the engine's generator or had its own power cell was unclear. This version also fixed the capacitor failure, presumably through the use of alternate and/or alien materials.
Bad_kobold
Seeker of the Orb of Zot
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Cool update- I really liked how you used Asuka.
She felt like a juxtaposition of the military kid she was, and the ace pilot she will become; and her level-headed analysis of the future unit makes her look that much more mature.
She felt like a juxtaposition of the military kid she was, and the ace pilot she will become; and her level-headed analysis of the future unit makes her look that much more mature.
- Location
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So, the Future-EVA has an L2 Organ? The only other option I can think of would be wireless energy transfer, and even if its creators found a better method of doing so than Tesla's model*, this thing yeeted in from the future, so the only way they'd have a generator to wirelessly transmit the energy from is if there's a forward base hidden somewhere that was established ahead of time.
* I'll admit I don't have a bibliography for this, but I remember the issue with Tesla's wireless power transmitter being that, well, given how electricity follows all possible paths to some degree, its use creates an "aura" of EM radiation within its operational radius. Not a terribly strong aura, but enough to set off certain heart problems or nervous system disorders, and potentially cause all sorts of other trouble, since our body of knowledge on what being marinaded in electricity does to organisms in the long term is rather lacking.
My personal handwave is that a lot of humanity's models of physics are faulty - the "accurate" v "true" issue, if you're familiar. If nothing else, the flying cyber-maggot oligarchs who ruled the Combine present a convincing counterargument to several of the Laws we've written to try and model physics.
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It has a self-contained power source (mentioned by name in chapter 38), but it's neither nuclear nor S2. The closest fictional equivalent I can point at is Project Arcturus.
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Based on Google, it's a thing from Stargate that... eats all the universe's spare energy? It's being compared to something called "Zero Point Modules", which the wiki description seems to imply are miniature universes (or Protoshinmaic Vortexes, if you know anything about Exalted) that you gradually suck dry to power things. Project Arcturus is described as harvesting 'vacuum energy' from our own universe, which if it's anything at all like the Modules would mean that it's eating up... dark energy, I guess? Something important enough that Arcturus sounds like one of those miracle energy sources that it turns out will kill everything if it isn't destroyed.
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The concept of vacuum energy originates from the hypothesis that vacuum is never truly empty. At any point in time, an infinite number of virtual particles and their antiparticles is continuously popping into existence and instantly pair-annihilate back into nothing before their existence can even be detected. This actually caused quite a bit of a stir in physics circles back in 1974 when Hawking realized that such a thing happening at the extreme edge of a black hole's event horizon could potentially result in one particle being captured by the black hole and eventually pair-annihilating with matter in the black hole while the other would fly off into space, essentially causing a black hole to 'leak' and slowly evaporate over a timespan several hundred orders of magnitude higher than the current age of the universe, posing the question of what happens to quantum physical information (particle state, etc.) that fell into the black hole during that time (since our current models state information cannot be removed without a trace).
Arcturus' problem was that attempting to harness the process for the purposes of power generation resulted in the creation of a volume of space filled with exotic particles whose properties and behavior are literally impossible to predict with only the laws of the physical universe, causing the reaction to be impossible to contain or throttle. Results range from a lethal burst of unstoppable hard radiation killing everything on the planet to the whole thing literally going supernova and vaporizing over half of the star system in the process.
A workaround was eventually figured out in the form of the energy being extracted from a parallel universe rather than local space, acquiring the energy but leaving the exotic particles on the other side (which is what a ZPM did on a smaller scale). And this one actually worked... aside from the fact that the parallel universe in question turned out to be inhabited and the project had to be nixed to avoid killing the locals.
Arcturus' problem was that attempting to harness the process for the purposes of power generation resulted in the creation of a volume of space filled with exotic particles whose properties and behavior are literally impossible to predict with only the laws of the physical universe, causing the reaction to be impossible to contain or throttle. Results range from a lethal burst of unstoppable hard radiation killing everything on the planet to the whole thing literally going supernova and vaporizing over half of the star system in the process.
A workaround was eventually figured out in the form of the energy being extracted from a parallel universe rather than local space, acquiring the energy but leaving the exotic particles on the other side (which is what a ZPM did on a smaller scale). And this one actually worked... aside from the fact that the parallel universe in question turned out to be inhabited and the project had to be nixed to avoid killing the locals.
The operational principle of a transdimensional entropic reactor is something similar I came up with. Though I'm no physicist, so the explanation likely isn't going to stand up to an in-depth scrutiny. So, the basic idea is that each universe is composed of several sub-universes existing parallel to each other, like the physical universe we know and Xen (the local equivalent of hyperspace). These sub-universes naturally exist at different energy states; in this particular case, Xen exists at a higher energy state than the physical universe we know. The applicable laws of thermodynamics:
- Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred.
- If energy can flow between a high-energy system and a low-energy system, it will always go from high to low until the two systems reach equal entropy and the process will not reverse without external interference.
Thing is, since the energy flowing is the natural state instead of the energy not flowing, the difficulty isn't in making the energy start flowing but in making it stop flowing. As an analogy, if you take a water balloon and puncture it with a needle, the water will flow outwards due to the higher pressure within, rather than the air flowing inwards to further increase pressure. You can plug the hole to make it stop flowing but the larger the hole you made, the harder it becomes to plug it and if the pressure is too high, the fabric of the balloon will rip and all the water will pour through at once. Thus, the maximum output of a TER is determined not by how wide you can open the micro-wormhole to let more energy through, but by how wide you can open it before the regulator can't throttle it back down anymore. You go above that, the core goes supercritical from the power spike and the effects unpredictably range from "puff of smoke with a radiation spike that fries the electrical components within" to "multi-kiloton fireball accompanied by a crackling hole in the fabric of reality". And yes, that unpredictability means it cannot be weaponized any better than an ordinary displacement field generator (which can and does get weaponized in canon into a BFG-type deal, mind you).
It's environmentally clean, though, and can run pretty much indefinitely (as far as human civilization is concerned) if proper maintenance is received (as the displacement field generator that serves as the reactor's core is delicate high-tech machinery). But of course it won't turn on during FTL transit, being reliant on the structure of the universe means it's not compatible with multiversal travel and it fucking around with the fabric of spacetime means it can easily be detected from a long distance by means humanity already possesses, so stealth is a no-go.
As you can no doubt tell, this shit is way more advanced than what the Evas currently have.
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Having taken this week off from work, I had some time to think. And in the past few days, I came up with an alternate idea for how to eventually end SCE (far away as that may be). An idea which my conversation partner @MarqFJA87 described as, in comparison to my original draft, "far more epic". So I'm using it.
You can blame my brain going off on a tangent while listening to Eureka Seven music for this one. Not that it's a bad thing, that is (as unfitting for Evangelion it might be).
You can blame my brain going off on a tangent while listening to Eureka Seven music for this one. Not that it's a bad thing, that is (as unfitting for Evangelion it might be).
How far in the future is that even from, 20 years? While that reactor is pretty crazy, it seems in-line with the very Combine-ish techline they are following. Also I am happy to see that pilot angst is constant throughout the generations!
I forgot exactly in what book, but Asimov has something like that in one of his stories. Problem was that the more the reactors operated, the more bleedthrough you had between dimensions leading to fun stuff like changing fundamental constants. Fusion becoming more energetic could be a bit of a problem for things like the Sun.
I forgot exactly in what book, but Asimov has something like that in one of his stories. Problem was that the more the reactors operated, the more bleedthrough you had between dimensions leading to fun stuff like changing fundamental constants. Fusion becoming more energetic could be a bit of a problem for things like the Sun.
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Somewhere along there. The exact number is... undetermined right now. I had things planned out behind the pilot of the white Evangelion, but recently started doubting whether it would be a good idea to do things the way I planned them out. Specifically, there's one part in the pilot's background I'm uncertain about, as I recently started to feel it would be pointless shock value. Marq said it wasn't, but I'm still conflicted.
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In case anyone wonders where the next chapter is, it's not even a third of the way done due to a muse deficit. I asked for external help on Reddit but have no way of knowing when or if it will materialize. That being said... what do you guys think, do I actively have to ask for feedback in order to get any? I've gotten a grand total of two reviews on FF.net last year and four reviews in the past two years on AO3 (none of which was even last year). Which is... more than a little demoralizing for a story that will hit 200k words within a few more chapters and makes me seriously question the point of continuing on. I don't want to be a whiny little bitch about it or trying to sound like one of those entitled authors who hold their stories hostage to reader feedback, hence why I didn't bring it up sooner, it's just that... feeling like people actually care would be nice, you know?
In the meantime, I started typing down a sort of "universe bible" in Google Docs to get my creative juices going. Pretty much every idea, plan and concept for SCE exists solely in my head and I already have enough trouble remembering even half of it as is, let alone with also having to remember all my shit for Speak of the Devil as well. Right now I've only got a brief summary of canonical events in both NGE and HL, as well as how I altered/expanded things for SCE, but it's already nine and a half pages long and I haven't even started the actual SCE backstory yet.
That being said, I also had a major moment of relief today when I confirmed that the shitty early version of SCE I wiped off the face of the internet with extreme prejudice was not backed up on Wayback Machine. To be more specific, there's a 2011 snapshot of the Evangelion crossover section of FF.net whose fic count shows the story having been there at the time, but the actual NGE/HL crossover list is current, my user profile was never snapshotted and the story's actual URL doesn't return anything either. SCE's current version, however, was backed up just last September, so there's that.
In the meantime, I started typing down a sort of "universe bible" in Google Docs to get my creative juices going. Pretty much every idea, plan and concept for SCE exists solely in my head and I already have enough trouble remembering even half of it as is, let alone with also having to remember all my shit for Speak of the Devil as well. Right now I've only got a brief summary of canonical events in both NGE and HL, as well as how I altered/expanded things for SCE, but it's already nine and a half pages long and I haven't even started the actual SCE backstory yet.
That being said, I also had a major moment of relief today when I confirmed that the shitty early version of SCE I wiped off the face of the internet with extreme prejudice was not backed up on Wayback Machine. To be more specific, there's a 2011 snapshot of the Evangelion crossover section of FF.net whose fic count shows the story having been there at the time, but the actual NGE/HL crossover list is current, my user profile was never snapshotted and the story's actual URL doesn't return anything either. SCE's current version, however, was backed up just last September, so there's that.