"Okay. Keep monitoring the shelters."
Ken got on his radio and pushed the PTT button on his vest. "Everyone, we need to double time and make sure the Evas are good to go. Give them whatever support is necessary. Our allies in the UN are going to hold them off until they can deploy."
He turned around and he was told by someone, who was from Tac Ops, that he needed personnel had arrived.
"All right. Let me know if anything else comes up."
The Blinder
Kurt Trager looked around, he stepped out of the elevator and stayed against the wall beside it. Then he heard it, The Children are in route! Kurt smiled, His girl was going to go fight monsters. Her mother would be proud.But for now, he would just wait. Out of everyone's way, which, as he learned in the army was the best place to be.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Loke had already started undressing in prepartion for the plug suit, not paying attention to the over two in the elevator with her, She was smiling, clearly excited at the concept of meeting an Angel. "You two excited?" she asked.
edited 23rd Sep '14 7:49:27 PM by TroyandHawk
Good to be back
Yuto stood there trying his damnedest to calm down. His fellow pilots could keep their cool. His fellow pilots could face this challenge. His fellow pilots weren't crying on the inside. His fellow pilots were strong, and he wanted to be strong too. It was obvious Yuto was shaking, and he was cursing himself silently. He didn't want them to see him as weak, and he definitely didn't want them to think he needed their help staying calm.
He was pulled out of his stupor by Eikichi and Loke's comment and question. He wasn't going to respond, but started to choke in surprise when he noticed that Loke was starting to undress. He had never had much luck with people of the opposite gender, so this was far from his comfort zone. He could feel his face heat up quickly, and he just knew he was glowing red. But hey, at least he wasn't thinking about the angel now.
As the door closed and the elevator continued to descend, Gabe took in a deep breath, then let it out.
"So this is it. Do we have an initial data read on what we're up against?" Gabe had helped run probably dozens of theoretical combat situations using the Magi. Of course, computer simulations, even incredibly detailed ones, could only say so much, but they were a start, and breaking things down to concrete numbers helped put Gabe's mind at ease.
And you don't seem to understand...
"So you dug up something you don't even get? Great." Sometimes Georgia honestly though NERV was going to end the world they were trying so desperately to save. She scoffed, rolling her eyes and walking a bit away from Beard Guy.
"Whatever. I'm still going to be babysitting thing thing then? I won't ask anymore questions. I know you guys like it that way. Let's get this show on the road, then. Unless there's something else you're bursting at the seams to tell me?"
"Who am I, Elisha Otis?"
Shona couldn't help but feel a little glad that Jacqueline had retired for now. The commander's style may serve her well in some circles, but it wouldn't be a good fit on the bridge during a pitched battle.
She paused and met the eyes of the pilots as they filed out of the lift, giving them a firm nod before the elevator doors hissed shut again. She pushed all thoughts of regret or guilt aside and turned her focus back to the barrage of voices sounding over the comm.
"Status on the city's defenses?" She hoped it wouldn't come to a battle in the cit itself - if she could intercept the target, whatever it was, out in the boonies she would.
"I'd settle just a course estimation and speed." She said, half in response to Gabe and half for the ears in the rapidly-approaching HQ. "And I want a visual on this thing. Observation post, spy plane, I don't care."
-♌-
UCLA NERV
"If humans never explored we would never have come this far in the first place." The gaunt figure continued to inspect her from his stoic vantage at the elevator's open doors, foreboding silhouettes cast across the crevasses of his harsh face, contorted as it was into an ever so slight sneer. Adult condescension at it's finest, aged to perfection. "Even one like yourself would know that, Miss Jenks. I assumed your precious skateboard didn't magically present itself to you one day, after all." He grunted and a few bones creaked as he began to trudge off and away from the elevator and Georgia, into the darkness.
"You've got it, so there's nothing else I need to say. Just be ready to depart. Elevator only has two functions, so I'm pretty sure you can figure it out." On that miniscule jab Beard Guy vanished into the darkness, no doubt up to something clandestine and ominous. That was all that was ever really done when NERV was involved, or at least it's American branch.
Tokyo-3 NERV, Bridge
Within a microsecond the elevators opened up for Gabe and Shona, the bridge's formless chaos had settled into the honed and regimented efficiency that was the hallmark of a NERV operation. Even with only a second-rung in command the jobs got done without a hitch. Gabe could have been the highest up present and things still probably would have run smoothly. Suzume silently detached herself from the duo coming from the elevator with only a singular finger gesturing for Gabriel to follow her. His post was on her side of the command center, the terminals equipped to handle the intensive flow of information between observations of the battlefield and the Magi's super-fast number-crunching. There was a lift to that tier of the bridge, but taking the stairs was faster and more prudent for all but the Commander, who wasn't actually present.
Thus command fell into the hands of MacNamara almost the moment she arrived.
"Wiped out within a second, Major!" That voice that yelled out was the voice from over the comm, already aware of the change in spatial relationship between herself and the target of her information. "It surfaced on the Arakawa, which already puts it dangerously close to city center, and behind a good chunk of the automated turrets!"
"Not like those would have done us any good, considering how fast the ones that were in position got wiped out!" A brawny man's voice followed on the heels of his female compatriot in the surveillance team. "We've also lost contact with the UN forces on the ground, Major! Most likely wiped out by the angel attack."
"We're still alive, don't worry about us." A voice that was shell-shocked yet still somehow found the energy to adopt an edge of sarcasm resounded over the comm. "But I can confirm, at it's present velocity the subject will make landfall in downtown within five minutes. It's big and slow. I'd say the size of one of your giant robot things."
"Visual up!" Someone or anther put up camera feeds from a flying drone that was tailing the Angel and taking pictures. A large, hulking beast of alien-colored muscles, with geometric proportions that didn't seem to quite fit. Angles where there should have been curves. Veins that were more square than they were tubular as would be logical. A mask covered it's face, thick bone in a crude facsimile of a ribcage enveloped some thick red mass. According to the readouts from the Technical terminals, the ones Gabe and Suzume would be seated at by now, the 'essence' of the creature would be in that red orb hugging it's core.
"ETA on our cavalry, folks?" The vacuum of silence over the comm following that comment was quick lived, as another explosion in the distance echoed over the airwaves.
Tokyo-3 NERV, Pilots Bay
"They're still working it out in the bridge, Mr. Homura." One of the workers presented him with his distinctly tinted plugsuit in it's shriveled up and formless form, as other workers did the same for the other two. Loke's didn't even bat an eyelid at her state of half-undress. "We'll have data for you by the time you're deployed." The gangways were being extended to the plug entries even as the workers began to corral them in that direction. No time for a locker room, no time to need to feel decent.
edited 27th Sep '14 8:58:30 AM by Bassetete
♌
Sandwich Summoner
Eikichi had to resist the urge to facepalm when he saw Loke undressing that eagerly. He thought girls had some modesty. Not that view was half bad, but he didn't see any purpose beyond making Yuto feel awkward.
"Acknowledged, thanks". He added to the technician. He then caught the plugsuit in his hand. Well maybe Loke was right, he should be stripping down. He did so, ignoring the people around him, doing a couple of hops when putting the legs of the suit. His clothes were all strewn over. There would be time to pick up those later.
"What an ugly sucker." Eikichi muttered under his breath, breaking his dutiful boy face for the briefest of moments, contemplating on how to fight that thing.
edited 28th Sep '14 11:34:28 PM by AtomicNut
Ken had just heard the latest update before they lost contact with UN forces on the ground.
"Check in with UN Military Command whether any active units are still up and about. I want UAVs launched at once! Tell the surveillance planes to keep their distance from Angel! We don't know if it'll try and take them out."
He then looked at his Kentex wristwatch to check on the time. He hoped that they're on schedule.
"Relay the message to them at once. Tell them that to expect backup from the Geofront within a few minutes."
The ex-special forces officer made contact with the maintenace crew via radio.
"Someone give me a status report on when the Evas can launch. Our friends in UN command are getting impatient."
edited 29th Sep '14 12:34:41 AM by Ominae
Yuto took his own plugsuit, and changed into it like the others were. Now was not the time for him to be modest and, with things getting as real as they were, now was not the time to panic. He had to keep his mind calm and focused on victory. I don't want to lose.
The Blinder
Kurt froze, staring at the...the thing. "Loke is going to fight that?!" he asked, suddenly unsure if he felt good about sending children to fight that. It, was like aphysical god, but even those words fell flat. "You can't send children against that!" He all but shouted,
______________________________________________
"Yeah, trust me, wearing clothes under this is fucking uncomfortable," Loke told the others, flexing her fingers and twisting about in her plugsuit, making sure that it fit properly. Yep. Snug as a glove. "So...What do you guys think the angel will look like?"
edited 29th Sep '14 8:07:51 PM by TroyandHawk
Good to be back
"My god..." Gabe couldn't help but stare for a moment in dull surprise at the grotesque image filling the main screen before collecting himself and going up the stairs to meet Dr. Miyahara at his workstation. It was one thing to be privy to the reams of classified data from Second Impact describing what these Angels were capable of. It was quite another to be looking at one of the abominations on a live feed taking place not miles away up on the surface. In any case it would be his job to monitor it and keep Major Mac Namara appraised of the situation as those kids were out there fighting it. He sat down at the terminal and called to her.
"Major, I'm at my position. No data from the pilots yet, but I'll be ready to monitor them as soon as they're in."
Yuto was pretty much zoned out when Loke asked her question. He heard it, and responded, without even thinking. "Probably big."
He was ready. He was finally ready. He was scared, terrified really, but he was also ready.
And you don't seem to understand...
Blah, blah, blah. Of course he would give her that "humans are destined to explore everything ever" shit. Had they never heard of the term "curiosity killed the cat"? Cause they were clearly fucking around with stuff that could easily backfire on them. As Beard Guy took his leave Georgia turned to gaze at the shrouded thing again. It gave her the heebie jeebies — but as long as she just got it where it needed to be she'd never have to deal with it again, ideally.
Sighing, she turned around and headed for the elevator, eager to get this show on the road.
"Who am I, Elisha Otis?"
Sandwich Summoner
"It has to bear some similarities to our EVA's." Eikichi replied, his hand reaching for his chin. He didn't want to dwell more, as he wasn't quite sure how both other pilots were acquainted with the design and inner kinks of an EVA.
Shona strode out onto the bridge, her eyes fixed on the huge display that dominated most of the cavernous room. So that's an angel. She grit her teeth as the projected casualty reports rolled in. Damnit, it's like... throwing sand at a bulldozer...
"All remaining ground forces, pull out of its attack path. You can't do us any more good in there. Take up observation positions and report target's movements. Any long-range artillery we have left, aim to interfere, not destroy. Slow it down as long as you can. Airborne assets, do the same, but don't stay on station. Get in, drop your payloads, get out."
Gabe got a curt nod in response to his report, Shona's gaze not leaving the displays. "Good. As soon as they're ready, deploy the Evas downtown. Unit 01, position D5. Unit 02, D12. 3 to D9." That placed Loki directly in front of the angel, Yuto and Eikichi in flanking positions. "Patch me through to the pilots as soon as they're in the plugs."
-♌-
Tokyo-3 NERV, Pilot's Bay
The clothes left haphazardly strewn about by the pilots were as ignored by the attending NERV personnel as they were by the teens who had just shed them, it was a miracle they weren't trampled and tracked over in the hectic chaos. Plugsuits were on and hopefully fit correctly. The pace of the shepherding went up several notches as a trickle of muffled reports came in from the command bridge into comm sets waiting by the ears of the staff. The plugs were opened each by two drably dressed men or women, sliding open smoothly as they were designed to and waiting for the entry of the Children like a cradle. The process was being expedited to the point where the LCL was already forming deep pools in the splayed out plugs even though they weren't yet in the Evangelion. No words were exchanged to the children as they entered, and all sound died once the doors sealed them in and the familiar stifling warmth of primordial ooze surrounded them.
"I've patched us through." The familiarly stony voice of Miyahara was the first knife to cut through the deadened air within the now LCL saturated plugs. The conversation on the bridge was now the Children's as well.
Tokyo-3 NERV Bridge
As Miyahara made that concise call to her peers at their various other stations in the command center, a set of explosions flared up on the visual feed. The sound was a full roar that distorted the audio feed into a banshee's scream for a few seconds before the sound cut completely. Flame and smoke engulfed the entirety of the lumbering beast as what had to have been an entire month's worth of stockpile detonated all at once, all in roughly the same place. For any other target, nothing would have been left but dust and empty dreams.
So it was to the immaculately brief terror of one of the piloted UN aircraft that the Angel yet unknown as Sachiel emerged from the cloud of brimstone with nary a scratch to it's name, and a parting gift to it's bomber. The blast of power from the hollow eyesocket of the monster was perfectly aimed, and the extremely expensive jet that represented one of the many pinnacles of man's triumph over nature disintegrated into a cross-shaped flare of light.
"... That's another man down. Major, Captain. What's left of my and your ground personnel have been safely retrieved. All artillery is down or no longer in position to fire on the target. That's all I can do." A cough, and the feed from the UN advance forces went quiet with a snap of static.
"Hm." Miyahara was, for the moment, done with monitoring pilot vitals and what was possible to be monitored of the bizarre and alien readouts from the Angel. "Mr. Scott, you were back in America when the had the Magi in MIT run simulations on the projected behavior of the Angels, correct? If I'm not mistaken they weren't supposed to be this smart or responsive in the models." Miyahara sounded more like she was disinterestedly engaging in a casual conversation over coffee instead of being in the middle of what amounted to an active war zone, but then she always sounded like that. She wasn't facing him either, her dispassionate gaze locked over the readout from the dogged drone still tailing the incessant pace of their quarry.
"The EVA's have been fully moved to the corresponding launch points, Major. Launching on your go."
In the organized kerfuffle of the bridge nobody really payed Kurt any mind.
UCLA NERV, Storage Bay
The elevator had been left fully functional for Georgia's perusal, a panel now open with exactly two options. One would be back to the train system she'd arrived on. The other was marked 'Primum Mobile', which she would know was the codename for the bay where her EVA was stored. Sans Beard Guy, it seemed she had no particular restriction on where she could go.
♌
"Understood." Ken replied to the transmission from UN forces. "Just make sure you can exfiltrate whoever needs medical attention in one piece."
He sighed, deciding to ask the Major on the need to get a UAV or two out there and conduct recon on the said Angel.
"This is Captain Ohara. Do we have any assets still out there conducting recon on the Angel?"
Gabe responded to Dr. Miyahara's question off mic. "Well ma'am, in all honesty the data we had was hardly comprehensive. We did develop a handful of simulations that presumed some degree of intelligence, but they were all purely speculative. And in any case, nothing we could have modeled would be directly relevant to the situation right now since this one appears to have a somewhat different composition than the so-called giant of light that appeared in Antarctica 15 years ago."
Dr. Miyahara's casual response to this monster that, by the sound of it, had just obliterated an entire platoon of UN troops should have alarmed Gabe, but he somehow found himself answering in a similarly clinical tone. Thinking about it in terms of cold numbers and data did that kind of thing to him. Were he out there, personally facing down its very real destructive power, he wouldn't have been able to say if he could have held it together quite so well.
The Blinder
"You guys excited?" Loke asked the fellow pilots, not even bothering to hide her optimistic anticipation of her first real piloting experience, "We're going to be heroes!"
Good to be back
Yuto slid back in his seat, now a little more calm than he was earlier, but not by much. He had never really thought about being seen as a hero, and he had to admit that the idea had an air of comfort around it, but...
"That's only if we win."
He cringed when he realized that he had said that out loud. He prayed no one had heard him, but he knew they must have. Now he just hoped they'd ignore his comment.
Sandwich Summoner
"I am concerned, pilot Kinipela. Never before a foe like this has ever been encountered." Eikichi duly noted as he stared to Loke. "I would advise you do the same." He frowned as he pondered his role and Yuto's. Loke would be the point member of the mission.
For our sake, let us hope Loke finishes that foe quickly. He thought. If not, I may have to be the one next with Yuto covering me, and there's a possibility he might cave in. Eikichi thought to himself, while he switched his comm from the revealing plugsuit of Loke's towards Yuto's cockpit.
"Persevere. Steel yourself. Do not make mistakes, follow your training. And the opportunity to win will appear before our eyes, pilot Ando." He said while flexing his hand.Now how do I tell Yuto how should be feeling right now? Might as well make a cheesy battlecry while I'm at it. Ah, I know. "Fire and wrath. Eva 02 ready, HQ."
edited 9th Oct '14 3:03:55 PM by AtomicNut
And you don't seem to understand...
Georgia went up the elevator and didn't hesitate to hit the button for Primum Mobile, stepping in and leaning back against the wall with her arms crossed. Even though NERV left her with not so good feelings, she had to admit that the one shining beacon of light in this whole deal was her Evangelion. It was pretty badass. She was never one for sci-fi shows with giant robots and the like but this... this was something on a whole other level. Georgia felt her chest swell with pride when she thought about her current position as one of the chosen few who could operate one of the technological marvels.
Yeah. She was a bit conceited.
And now she was being transferred to Japan to meet up with the other pilots. The jury was still out on them — though she already prepared herself to be wholly underwhelmed. It was just her nature. Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed when things turn out to be superbly shitty. Nothing wrong with that, right?
"Who am I, Elisha Otis?"
The Blinder
"Well, we could be considered heroes for fighting until were all brutally slaughtered." Loke said jokingly in response to Yuto's suggestion, "Come on guys," She chided, "If you guys keep being too depressive, you're going to get your asses kicked."
Good to be back
Eikichi visiblely frowned as he eyed his surroundings tentatively. So that was it. The definitive battle. What he had been training for. So many unknowns, so many ways it could go south and so little time to think on contingence plans.
He eyed his hand, which quivered slightly. He clenched his fist to get a grip and do not show further hesitation. If the other kids discovered it, it would not be nice. Not because Loke. That girl would probably simply make an embarrassing statement... it was because of the new pilot. More than ever, he had to appear calm and collected. He couldn't afford to be the boy. He had to be the pilot.
"I want the readings of that attack on the EVA feeds." Eikichi commented to his peers. But it's not surprising. That thing has an AT field. It's like trying to take out a tank with rubber bullets. He thought to himself.