Things looked grim. The battle had not gone well. Rei and unit one were out of it, the apparent causality of Rei’s disregard for her own life and the N2 mine she carried. Auska was down, the arms of her Eva sliced off, and the head as well. Shinji....well Shinji wasn’t doing well either. The severed cord had cut his time short, and now the batteries were about to run out. The only thing he could do was pray for a miracle.
*********
“Commander!” Screamed a tech from her panel. “I have a radar contact descending from orbit!”
Gendo Ikari looked up in surprise. “Is it an Angel?” If it was he might just die of surprise. Another angel from orbit right now would be so far out of the scenario, his or SEELE’s, as to be impossible.
“No sir, no pattern blue.” The tech consulted her instruments again. “In fact no pattern at all! Conventional sensors show some sort of metallic mass, nearly the size of a battleship or carrier!”
Gendo considered his options. He decided he didn’t have any. If it wasn’t an angel, it wasn’t a problem.
***********
Above Tokyo-3 a strange object appeared in the sky. Though never before seen on Earth, it was obviously a creation of man. Hundreds of feet of metal, it bore the hallmarks of human engineering, though very advanced human engineering. Wide ports on the underside of the object were belching fire as it descended. Obviously the object was some sort of craft, having descended from orbit, it was obviously a spacecraft of some kind, but on a grand scale.
It slowed, approaching a large park, obviously with the intention to land. Just before the giant struck the ground, a ramp began to lower from the front. The moment the ramp touched the ground, massive vehicles charged out onto the ground and toward NERV.
***********
“Sir, the....spacecraft....has landed and deployed a lot of land vehicles!” The tech didn’t know if she should be frightened or not. Dying was dying, but the thought of dying at an angel’s hand somehow seemed far more horrific then dying at the hand of a fellow human.
Gendo again considered it for a moment. He decided it was of no consequence. Only the battle against the angels mattered. A battle his son seemed to be losing just now. “Ignore them for now. They are of no consequence.”
Had Gendo been a bit more observant, he would have seen Fuyutsuki smile behind him.
************
At the entrance to the underground highway to the Tokyo-3 geofront, a guard looked in dismay at the massive array of what appeared to be armored vehicles bearing down at him at impossible speeds. Dedicated to the NERV concept of protecting humanity at all costs, the young, idealistic guard did what he thought was right. He stepped out and commanded the vehicles to stop. After all, this was a restricted area.
The lead vehicle, it’s scarred bow skirt bearing the cartoon of a wyvern both belching and farting flame didn’t even flex as it’s unforgiving steel met what was left of the guard. He didn’t feel it either, since the antipersonnel strip on the iridium hull had fired a few milliseconds before, shredding the hapless guard from the waist up. The air cushion vehicle and those behind it didn’t even feel a bump from the remains.
************
“Sir, vehicles from the surface have broken through to the geofront!” By this time the tech was so frightened of everything that she was just doing her job until the bitter end.
Looking quickly at the situational displays, Gendo Ikari decided that he had to act. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, he felt a dull blow to the back of his head. Had he retained consciousness, he would have noticed Fuyutsuki standing over him with a triumphant expression.
*************
Shinji was expecting the worst as the angel got ready for it’s final strike. His power was gone, and he was no longer receiving any signals from NERV or the other EVAs. He knew he was about to die. There wasn’t any other outcome. Strangely the thought didn’t bother him as much as he thought it might..
Suddenly, his situational display came alive. There was a bright flash, and one shoulder of the angel seemed to be devoured by the light. Shinji quickly focused on many vehicles pouring out of the entrance to the Geofront. They looked like tanks and armored vehicles, but they had no tracks! They seemed to float across the ground by some invisible means.
One by one, then in a massive barrage, the tank like things began to fire, massive flashes of cyan light that seemed to disintegrate whatever they touched. The angel turned to face them, but didn’t seem to know what to do. There were too many point sources for it to attach them all at once. It’s massive beam and slicing arms reached out, and destroyed many of the vehicles. Still it wasn’t enough. Slowly but surely, it began to slow, then topple. The invaders didn’t stop however until the massive angel was nothing but a cooling pool of molten...something......
*************
Fuyutsuki looked at the massive hover tank as it snarled up to him and slowed. The driver’s helmet was just visible above the curve of the iridium hull. The extra antennas marked this as a command tank, not one of the regular line tanks. Two line tanks and a pair of combat cars flanked the command tank. Finally it came to a stop a mere step and a half away. The driver’s skill was obvious. It would have only taken a minor mistake for the 150 ton tank to smear the aging NERV second in command across the pavement.
A hatch opened in the cupola of the tank, and a lanky figure clambered out and down the hull. The man dropped off the hull and on to the ground. Straightening he turned and strode towards Fuyutsuki, his major’s insignia flashing in the light.
“Major Danny Pritchard, reporting in sir!” The salute that followed was text book correct, but somehow managed to convey the mercenary’s vague contempt for his employer.
Fuyutsuki chose to ignore the gesture. “Thank you Major. My congratulations on a textbook attack. Colonel Hammer promised results, and it seems he was correct.”
Major Pritchard looked pleased. “When you hire the best sir, you GET results! Besides, I have two company of panzers supported by four companies of combat cars commanded by Mad Dog, I mean Major Slade. It was a cakewalk.”
It was almost irritating. This man was implying that fighting angels was EASY! Still, the only reason he had contacted them to begin with was that he wanted to ensure the continuance of the human race. Gendo and Seele may have had big plans, but the human race would endure. Fuyutsuki just wondered if he would be seen as savior or villain.
“Well, well done Major. Here is the rest of your assignment, “ he handed over several typed sheets of paper. “I trust you can accomplish them soon?”
Pritchard seemed almost affronted. “Of course sir, why else would you have hired Hammer’s Slammers?”