Adeptus Evangelion 0.96 Rebuild of Strange War

[Fearan]

Adeptus Evangelion 0.96: Rebuild of Strange War
Episode 1: It is(not) a drill

OOC link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289747)
Obligatory opening link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5cz0V18_7s)

http://cs405417.userapi.com/v405417782/5fbb/AHqlGNDDCCs.jpg


Breaking News!

Today, Aug 31 2017, the self proclaimed President of the Independent Orbital State, Chao Xiang, has declared capitulation before UN forces. After two months of confrontation and strike exchanges, the Second Star War is finally over. As the UNSC representative Mr. Chang Hua commented, “We didn’t expect such quick capitulation, but we’d like to express relief concerning overcoming another crisis, which threatened cooperation and joint efforts towards restoring the civilization into its pre-Impact state”. In the nearest future, the negotiations will take place to discuss the terms of capitulation and the following peaceful coexistence. Stay tuned for the up-to-date information on XYZ News.



*Somewhere up in the sky*
- Third and fifth silo are down!
- Fourth silo not responding. Emergency repair team is dispatched.
- Inform the HQ, at once!
- Done, sir! What the hell is it?!
- Who cares?! Just keep firing
- Unable to lock-on! Firing manually!!
- No effect!
- Silos from six to nine are down! The target is refocusing towards command center! May the Heavens have mer…AHHH!!! *static*

*NERV Geofront 01 Project “E” HQ, 20 minutes later*
The peaceful serenity of the early morning was suddenly smashed by wailing alert sirens – a sound painfully familiar to base’s inhabitants from countless drills. Yet this time, something was different – the message translated by the speakers was something totally new.
“Attention! This is General Kaworu. It is not a drill. I repeat - it is not a drill. Project “E” R&D department is to assemble at section 21-c urgently. I repeat - Project “E” R&D department is to assemble at section 21-c urgently. All base personnel are on standby until further notice. All leave warrants are canceled.”
The message repeats itself, and the sirens don’t stop wailing, although the lightings are normal, as opposed to emergency lights, which are lit during the drills. There’s no doubt – something’s happening.

The R&D departements test team was supposed to sleep peacefully in their habitat block - a dorm with a room for each pilot and a joint kitchen. The team manager supposingly in her private habitat. Of course, that was only the Section 2's assumptions.

[Ulm11]

The moment he heard Kaworu scram that this wasn't a drill Alex was already dashing out of his room. No thought was given to the assignment he was working on, some complex theories about combat, all his being was instead focussed on three simple words, This is it. He had no idea what exactly was going on but he felt it in his bones that now was the time for Petrov to prove himself worthy of being here, that it was right for him to have been rescued from the slums. With his suit jammed into his backpack alex was at the door ready to go when he hollered out to the rest of his team "We need to get out of here now!"

[Tuv]

Kelly loved camo fatigues. Not because they were pretty, or particularly comfortable, but because they fit a lot of roles.

If you were an important person, carrying yourself with an air of unapproachability, you looked like the pinnacle of a soldier. If you were joking around with friends, you look like a part of the group, just another face, maybe a little uptight.

If, however, you have the tendency to be woken up at all hours of the day and night, and don't want to walk over to the closet because your pain-meds haven't kicked in yet? When you need something that is official-looking enough that they don't dock your pay, but comfortable enough to sleep in and not have to iron?

They are a godsend.

And to think NERV tried to make her wear a skirt all the time, a skirt! She had a very short conversation that involved twelve reasons why making her wear a skirt was a safety hazard for her, and three reasons why making her wear a skirt was a safety hazard to that particular requisitions officer. They gave her the mens' slacks.

=====

So there she lay, sirens blaring.

The good news was that she hadn't been woken up by the sound. The bad news was that she had woken up, about thirty minutes before, because her legs felt like they were trying to rip themselves apart, and she was waiting for the pills to fully kick-in.

"Welp." It didn't seem like a drill, the announcement made it really obvious that this wasn't a drill of any kind... probably... and it would probably be a terrible idea for her to wait in bed for another fifteen minutes.

"They probably don't want me leaving the kids to fend for themselves either..." she sighs to nobody in particular. With no obvious way of squirreling out, she just swings her legs off the bed with a wince, and begins the slow trek to her front door. On the way, she picks up her ID, and one of the many prescription bottles laying around. In a few minutes she should be able to walk at full speed, ignore the pain, and be at the kids' rooms in time to complain that they were moving too slow. Then she just had to usher them to the appropriate sector.

No problem, right?

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna was having a dream. It wasn't a good dream- she never had those. In fact, when she first moved to the relative peace of a geofront and had heard the expression "in your dreams", she hadn't understood what it was supposed to mean. Dreams for her were things to be feared, ignored if possible, but certainly not desired. Dreams were a chink in the armor that let in all the doubt and pain that she knew she needed to extinguish. Dreams were weakness.

Still, she dreamt.

She awoke to the sounds of the siren, temporarily unsure of her location. She tried to leap out of bed, to respond to the frantic summons whose intent she still couldn't remember, but she knew she was needed. Somewhere. For some reason. And it was very important . . .

But her legs didn't move, and she fell out of bed in a tumble. There should be pain, but her legs felt nothing, and wouldn't respond to her mind's demands. That's right. Her thoughts moved slowly towards coherence, like a fish swimming through molasses. The accident . . . and the program. I'm at Geofront 1. She shook her head to clear away the fear and uncertainty of the much younger, weaker woman that she had been in her dream. There had been darkness, and such unbearable pressure.

She jerked in sudden realization of the meaning of the alarms. Project "E"! They were scrambling the Evangelions!

A bare minute later she wheels herself into the common area, upset and ashamed that she is probably the last to arrive, but determined not to make any excuses for herself. If there is disciplinary action as a result of her slowness to respond, she will accept it.

Her plug suit is laid across her lap, and she is wearing her flannel pajamas with her hair sticking up in all directions, but she yells out a greeting to her fellow pilots, unembarrassed. "About time they started playing our song! This gonna be a stand-up fight or just another simulated bug-hunt?" She flashes them a reckless smile with still a little bit of sleep in it, and hopes that there will at least be enough time to change in private.

[Amaril]

Michael started awake just in time to hear Alex bolting out the door yelling at the rest of the team to get moving. For a brief moment, as he shook the remaining cobwebs of sleep from his head, he didn't understand what his teammate had meant--then he heard the sirens and the alerts. He sat bolt upright in bed, mind suddenly racing. So is this it? he wondered. For real this time? Excitement and terror vied for dominance--he silenced both as best he could, and tried to focus on just doing his job. He failed miserably.
Come on, Michael, stay calm, he told himself. You've been training for this, it's just like in the drills--you know what to do. He quickly snatches his plugsuit from the drawer by his bed and runs out the door, feet carrying him automatically along the route he has now followed at least ten times.
He skids through the door to the common area to find Alex and Shanna have both beaten him there. To his relief, they're also both still in their pajamas--so he wasn't expected to suit up before coming here.
"So is this it?" he asks. "Is it really one of them this time?"

[Steel Mirror]

"If it's not one of them, then whoever had the bright idea of running a drill while screaming that it wasn't better stock up on painkillers," Shanna replies cheerfully. "You don't wake up the pilot of ten thousand tons of ****-off unless you want someone's **** to be pushed in, and one way or the other, I'm more than happy to oblige."

[Amaril]

"I hear that," Michael replied, grinning in spite of his screaming nerves. "So where the hell is the Captain? I thought you military types were all supposed to have impeccable timing."

[Steel Mirror]

"You talk big for a guy who got to the common area after the team cripple," Shanna teased. "Anyway, you know the Captain. When she gets here, she'll snap at us all for arriving out of uniform and loitering around in the common area during an emergency. Impeccable timing in the military means hurrying up so that you get to your destination in time to wait for further orders."

Shanna was glad for the banter- it distracted her from the squirming in her stomach. This was it. What they had all been training for. She looked at the members of her team present, and relaxed another fractional notch.

Alex was a terror in the cockpit. Try as she had, she still couldn't match his ferocity and bloody-minded competence in the simulations, and she had spent hours pouring over his training footage in an effort to improve her own performance. His Eva was as scary as he was- sometimes it seemed to have a life of its own, and shared all the lust for violence that its pilot displayed. It would be a bit scary, if Shanna allowed herself to feel such a thing, but right then she was just relieved to have him on her side.

Then there was Michael. Shanna didn't begrudge him his fortunate upbringing, though she did sometimes worry that it hadn't sharpened his instincts for survival as their experiences had the rest of the pilots. Still, she liked him, he was always working hard, and he was smart. That was something Shanna wasn't used to, and knew she didn't have. The things he could do with his AT field might as well be magic to her. And he understood more things, like math and chemistry and history, that she had never learned. She felt stupid around him once he started in on cerebral topics, to be honest, and she was glad to have someone with a brain on board.

[Tuv]

"-ex military thank you very much. You'll find that I can be quite punctual when something interesting is going on. I half expected having to find you cowering somewhere Mikey, so we're already to a wonderful start."

Kelly briefly looks over herself, then the mass of teena-pilots still kicking around in their night-wear.

"Good enough. If you've all got your plugsuits, we'll get a move-on. Is Serkan not up and skulking yet? Oh well, leave a note or something. I figure 25% attrition is acceptable losses. Or hey, maybe he's just ahead of us instead of dead. I could do with some good news this morning."

[Steel Mirror]

"Yes, sir." Shanna salutes and gets ready to roll out. "Just one question, sir. Do we get to finally kick some Angel ass today?"

[Tuv]

Kelly takes a good hard look at the saviors of humanity. They're just kids.

"I sincerely hope that day will never come."

[Ulm11]

Alex just stared coldly at Michael as Kelly laid into him. Of course the idiot had to open his mouth and reveal just how little he actually understood of what it meant to be a soldier being the pampered little prince of the group. Taking his mind off the boy he turned his attention to the cripple of the room. She was displaying her usual enthusiasm that from almost everybody else would have set his teeth on edge, however Shanna was different no matter what areas she may be lacking, she actually pushed herself to do something about it. Now was the time to see how the rookies handled actual combat.

Alexander then turned quickly towards Kelly and snapped off a salute. "Ready to move out when you give the command sir." Of course the most aggravating part of his unit was the officer of said team. Everything about her seemed to go against what he was taught a officer should be like, and what was worse that she seemed to not give a damn about everything he had bleed to accomplish. Hearing her final comment forced him to speak up. "But sir, what has been the point of our training if not to give us the tools needed to slay those freaks?"

[Tuv]

"Hey now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. It IS my job to be a good role model, stare wistfully into the distance and speak of better times and all that. My idea of better times obviously involves fertilizer bombs, but they would dock my pay again if I encouraged that sort of thing again..."

She lowers her head for a moment, muttering something about 'supplies' and 'chicken-scratch' before clearing her throat.

"Anyways, if the Angels are here, there's a fat lotta good that wishing they weren't will do. And for the billionth time, stop calling me 'sir' like it means anything. We are pretty much equals, you guys pilot the giant death-machines, and I make sure your curfew doesn't get any later.

Equals."

[Steel Mirror]

"Sounds like a deal to me." Shanna looked at her teammates, and imagined that they were feeling the same sour nervousness that she was. Well, maybe not Alex.

She felt another smile coming on, and decided that a little bravado would go a long way to conquering the pregame jitters. "But remember, it's your job to turn us into well-behaved little bloody-minded soldiers. It's our job to rip alien godzilla a brand new ***hole for surprise insertion of a ballistic N2 mine." Then, because she couldn't resist, she added, "Sir."

[Amaril]

"So do we have any indication that an Angel is attacking?" Michael asked. "It definitely seems like something big is going down, I've never heard any of the alerts in the drills sounding this serious." He still couldn't decide whether to be excited or wetting his pants--he'd been looking forward to the chance to pilot outside the sims for weeks, but now that the prospect of facing an Angel in real, live-fire combat was actually on the table, he found himself wondering whether any amount of preparation would be sufficient. He contented himself for the moment with mentally reviewing the launch procedure for the hundredth time that week, and trying to remember all the advice everyone had been giving him on improving his less-than-stellar gun skills.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan was sleeping heavily when the alerts came. Well, more heavily than normal. At first, he barely stirred - not because he didn't hear the sirens, but because they were something that happened in his dreams every now and then. Particularly the less pleasant ones, like this one.

"Lanet bir edil..." he all but shouted as he nearly shot out of bed. He looked around for a minute, numbly, trying to undestand what was going on and where he was. Right, the more rational part of him says. This is the NERV base. You are here, along with the rest of those smartasses. You are NOT THERE. So get yourself ready, since it must be important.

Again.

He clothed himself quickly, but without the practiced air of someone who had done it with a chronometer thousands of times before. In his experience, the important part was being there when you had to be, and being ready. He went to the bathroom and threw some cold water on his eyes. Whatever happened, he wanted to be awake for it.

He fit himself in the plugsuit and nearly dashed to the door when he remembered to pick up his NERV ID and actually listen to the alarm. Project E. That was them. Yippie-kay-yay and all that. Oh ****. These guys were either getting creative in their drills or stuff was really happening. What he knew about military types suggested the latter.

He hurried to the room that he'd spent countless minutes waiting for something to happen in. Well, now it was happening, he thought to himself. Happy?

The voices there indicated people were already there. He entered quietly, almost furtively, appearing in a corner just like he'd always been there. If it was important, they'd wait until they were all there. If it wasn't, he didn't care.

If it was important enough, and they did start before him, well, he would just have to live with it.

[Tuv]

*bop* Kelly grinds a knuckle into Shanna's scalp. "Do I need to make them cut your sugar intake or something? You need to calm the **** down. Stop with the swearing too, I'm the only one old enough to swear in this room, and if the higher-ups hear you, they'll blame me. I'm sick of living off instant noodles."

Cupping an ear to the wall briefly, she continues. "I don't hear anything exploding, dissolving, resonating, or crumbling, so I figure we aren't under attack right now. It isn't like they tell me when these things are just drills or not, besides..." she suddenly notices Serkan standing in a corner.

"Wha? Buh... you weren't..." she sighs heavily "-whatever, gang's all here. Let's go see if they are serious about this or not."

[The_Shaman]

Serkan nods a greeting at Kelly and the other pilots, straightens up and makes a small effort to look apologetic. "Didn't want to interrupt, director. Mind you, if the higher-ups think us old enough to fight and die, they shouldn't think us too young for bad words. So... anything else we need to know?"

As they set out to leave the room, he permits himself a small smile and looks to his sides to gauge the reaction of his teammates.

[Ulm11]

Alex sighed to himself. He would prefer not to call Kelly sir as he agreed with her, nothing about her seemed like an officer, but of course if he didn't say it then more unprofessional descriptors would take it's place. Anyway with Serkan here they were finally ready to move out. As he followed everybody he took a moment to look at his hands. It will have been worth it he thought to himself before snarling to banish away all thoughts other then that of what he will be required to do in the coming confrontation,

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna grinned when Kelly's fist caught her on the head. It was relatively rare for the older woman to join in with the pilots' antics. Maybe the prospect of finally putting Project "E" to the test had put her in a good mood.

Or maybe, like the rest of them, she just needed the moment of levity, right then.

Whatever the case, Shanna followed dutifully along as the group headed towards the Eva hangars. "By the way, Si-Kelly. Kelly. Will I have time to get my plugsuit on before we deploy?" She gestured at the skintight garment, and then vaguely at her paralyzed lower body. Shanna didn't make any excuses for her condition, but there were some things that were just a matter of physics. No amount of determination, practice, or creative use of lubricants would let a person without the use of their lower body easily slip into and out of a plugsuit by themselves. She had tried all three, energetically. She still blushed furiously when anyone mentioned the 'pear candy spray' incident (it had seemed odd that they were selling flavored lubricant, in retrospect), and one of her spare plugsuits smelled like bacon no matter how many times she had sent it to be cleaned.

"I can be in and out in about four minutes if there are no . . . suitable assistants available," she said apologetically. While avoiding making eye contact with anyone.

[Fearan]

music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDyeOpPCZw0)

As soon as the team leaves the habitat, it is approched by section 2 agents - fully geared for immidiate combat, no less. Escorted by them, the pilots Kelly have reached the section 21. As far, as the most base inhabitants knew, it was nothing more then a laboratory, put in dead storage, for economy reasons. Right now, the previously sealed doar to this part of the NERV base was wide open. As you approach it, inside you see the scenery, which can only be a command bridge (http://www.nervarchives.com/images/icon.200x150.command.jpg). It is in the middle of an activation process, which is performed by over a dozen technicians. The giant main screen is still of-line, but auxilary systems are operational and manned by R&D personnel. You caught a glimpse on some indicators - they're mostly red. The alarms are still ringing, and the overall situation on the bridge is rather chaotic, as the R&D personnel and the technicians are trying to perform an emergency activation on, along with reporting the data collected by half-active systems, and dealing with the tension of urgency
Tuv:
Kelly got a weird feeeling - with all the buzz and urgency, it seems, NERV was caught by surprise, despite all efforts. She obiously wasn't the only one, who wished that day to never come
As soon as the last pilot enters the section, General Kaworu rises from the Commander's seat and declares in a strict military tone.
Attention! NERV-Geofront 01 is set up to condition Red, due to the Stage 2 of project "E". We have the confirmation of the extraterresrial entity and it's hostile intent. No information of it's current location yet, awaiting it in the next 5 minutes. The pre-emptive measures taken are following.

NERV Project "E" test group of R&D departement is disbanded. Instead, NERV Operational Departement is formed.

Former test group overseer Kelly Sullivan is reinstated in the military rank major and is appointed to the position of Head of Operational Departement.
Former test pilot Serkan Mutlu is appointed to the position of pilot of Project "E" unit Trishula and is given the military rank of Ensign.
Former test pilot Shanna Kingsley is appointed to the position of pilot of Project "E" unit Ascalon and is given the military rank of Ensign.
Former test pilot Michael Caldwell is appointed to the position of pilot of Project "E" unit Excalibur and is given the military rank of Ensign.
Former test pilot Alexander Petrov is appointed to the position of pilot of Project "E" unit Durandal and is given the military rank of Ensign.

Major Sullivan is taking command of the operation. Acquire information and prepare for battle. You are given full authority over Colonel Topolev's forces.

Prototype AI, designation "Oracle" is to be activated and deployed under authority of Dr Aozaki, Head of the R&D Department.

Project "E" Operational Departement is to sortie and be ready to counter extraterrestial hostility. The R&D Departement is to perform full activation of the bridge in 15 minutes maximum.
Dissmissed. And I wish you luck. We'll need it

With this words, the general returns to his seat. He looks worried and out of the water, but tries to hold firm. As soon as he dissmissed the group, the R&D have returned to their posts and dug in the monitores. The activation of the bridge was continued.

Current situation:
- The extraterrestial entity is confirmed. No intel on location, or the characteristics
- The joint operation with the UN forces is not yet established. The strengh of the conventional units are lowered by 1
- The bridge is half activated. No mechanical penalties, as it will likely be ready, when the enemy arrives.

People present on the bridge:
General Kaworu, the commander.
Dr Aozaki, head of the R&D.
Stella, Mirialia anmd Arnold, R&D.
uplink to Col. Topolev, the merc.
The AI "Oracle".

[Steel Mirror]

"Congratulations on your promotion, sir." Shanna saluted smartly, trying and failing to keep herself from snickering. Former military her left buttcheek.

Yet she couldn't help being caught up in the excitement on the command bridge. She turned toward the fastest route to her Eva and charged ahead, sending unwary and slow members of the newly formed NERV Operational Department scattering in her path.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan looked a bit uncomfortable when the assistants were mentioned. "Er, I can try to help, so it goes faster," he says, a bit unsure.

Whichever way this goes. he is in the control room as the instructions come. His eyes narrow a bit, and he tries to control the jitters in his stomach. It was what it was, he thought, and fingered the small amulet in his pocket, looking down in a few moment of silent prayer.

Looking back up, he looks at the towering colossus that is the Evangelion he is meant to pilot. He knows something about it now, but he knows more than ever that there is so much he does not know about his Evangelion. Trishula was... temperamental, he heard it said, and a flash of remembered pain lit his head. It - she - was... possessive, in a way. It had a lot of limiters, supposedly, but he couldn't forget the way it seemed to intrude on him. He hadn't asked any of the other yet how their EVAs felt, but he sometimes felt that Trishula had hooks in him, never really letting go.

It was a mix of anxiety, fear, and familiarity. Whatever she was doing to him, Trishula almost felt like a part of him, and as he watched her now, he realized he had been missing the feeling. In his look, there was a hint of yearning as he remembers the rush that Trishula's barely suppressed battle rush felt.

"Good luck," he repeats, somewhat half-heartedly as a greeting to everyone else, then his confidence reasserts itself. "Congratulations, ma'am... major. So?" he looked at her, unsure how this was supposed to proceed.

[Ulm11]

"Sir, yes sir!" Alex could not hold back his excitement as he saluted the General. Finally, the charade of being anything other then a soldier. he thought to himself he ran towards Dundural with all possible haste.

When he finally arrived he took a moment to look over the war machine he piloted, though the true term for Durandal would be beast of war. There was nothing natural about it, the many eyes staring down at him made that quite clear, but it was more then just how it looked. Alex knew better then anyone that it constantly screamed to be let loose, to destroy everything it could see until there was nothing left but corpses. He smiled grimly at that thought It's ironic that me out of everybody should be the one to control a beast so much like myself.

Alex turned around and directed his attention to Kelly. "What are our orders now sir?"

[Amaril]

So it's really happening, Michael thought. The Angels are here. And we have to stop them. God, I hope I'm ready for this.
He turned his gaze upward, towards the helmeted face of his Eva. In more than one sense, Excalibur was different from the other units. For one thing, it was built differently--the smallest of the four by a fair bit, light, sleek and nimble where the others were big, bulky and tough. The differences seemed to go beyond that, though--for reasons no-one could seem to explain, Excalibur's reality-bending A.T. Field was noticeably stronger than those of the others even with little effort on Michael's part, and it looked subtly unique somehow. On occasion, Michael swore he'd heard the techs muttering something about "Pattern Blue" after synch tests and simulations, and somehow he doubted they were talking about Excalibur's armor color.
It was the most beautiful machine Michael had ever seen in his life. Just looking at it helped him steel his resolve.
He turned towards his new commanding officer. "I guess I should congratulate you on your promotion too" he said, managing a smile. "I look forward to serving under you, ma'am.". He paused uncertainly for a moment, then snapped a quick salute and strode off after Shanna and Alex.

[Steel Mirror]

"Er, I can try to help, so it goes faster,"
Serkan's offer of assistance stops Shanna's reckless charge, even if the cries and shouts of hapless NERV personnel hadn't. She coasts to a stop, then turns around to look at him with a determined expression on her face.

Judging from all the frantic activity and the startup procedures consuming everyone's attention on the command bridge, there weren't a lot of people with time to spare to help her out. Least of all Major Sullivan, who was about to have her hands full directing the most important military action in the history of mankind. And while Shanna would have loved to be able to do this by herself, the truth was that sticking to her pride in this case would only slow her team down, and that wasn't something she could countenance.

Beggers can't be choosers, as the saying went. "Ok, here's how this is going to work. You are going to close your eyes, and hold up a towel so no one else can see anything. Then I'm going to . . . disrobe, and you will keep your eyes very tightly closed. And facing the other direction. And closed."

"Then you'll follow my instructions very carefully with, and this is very important, your eyes closed." She gives him her fiercest look, marred somewhat by the redness blooming high on her cheeks. "You got it?"

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

Small sigh. You'd think she'd say it twice at most. Four times, what does she think he is, stupid? ... not like her at all. "I won't peek. Geez. I'm doing this to help you get ready quicker, remember?"

Ok, he might be tempted at other times, as much out of curiosity to see how she looks out of that wheelchair as to see her naked, but now? Must be the jitters, he thinks, then realizes he mutters "jitters" out loud. He was still curious if that woman - the Major - won't start barking commands again, and he wasn't quite as dead-set on racing towards the Evas as the others. Haste makes waste. And sometimes kills people.

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna narrowed her eyes at Serkan when he muttered the word 'jitters', but he weathered her glare with nary a sign of discomfort. Finally, aware that she was wasting time when she had expressly been trying not to, she huffed in frustration and wheeled herself to the closest thing to a private corner that she could find.

Once the towel was in place and she was satisfied that the other boy was facing the other way with his eyes properly closed (She made faces at the back of his head . . . to makes sure he wasn't peeking. Of course.), she stripped off her pajamas and left them on the floor. The pants were a lot more difficult than the shirt, of course.

Then, her breath frosting in the chill hangar air, she picked up the plug suit and threw it at Serkan. "Ohh k-k-k-kay," she shivered. "Hold out the p-plugsuit so that I can put my f-f-feet into it." She waited for him to respond (very observant to make sure those eyes stayed closed) so that she could begin the tedious process of picking up her legs with her hands and guiding them through the suit's clingy fabric.

At least the suit was expanded so to several times its fitted size, right now. It would contract to skin-tightness only once she had fully gotten into it. If it weren't for that, she really would have problems putting it on. It wouldn't be enough for Serkan to just hold it for her, he would probably have to help her pull her uncooperative body into it . . .

Well thank the gods for small favors, she thought, and tried to put the thought out of her head and focus. It really, really was cold in there.

[Amaril]

At the sound of Shanna and Serkan's conversation, Michael briefly turned to listen, going completely against both his better judgement and his manners. He knew this was quickly going to turn into something that he really shouldn't hear, but he couldn't help it--jealousy was a powerful creature unbound by such pitiful notions as "logic" or "courtesy".
Calm down, man Michael told himself as forcefully as he could. This doesn't mean anything, it's not like either of them is happy about this. It 's better that you're not in his position anyway, you'd just screw something up and then she'd hate you forever. Just don't worry about it. He felt a sudden overwhelming desire to cause Serkan grievous injury, mixed with guilt that he hadn't thought to offer Shanna help himself when she clearly needed it. He quickly turned away and went in search of another private spot to suit up himself.

[Tuv]

'Well, I didn't expect that.'

She just stands there for a while, suddenly overwhelmed by the... the everything. She was a Major now... Major Sullivan, yes, and this was all hers, by a less-than strict definition of ownership at least. Time to own it.

NERV got caught with their pants down. An Angel is coming, they know nothing about it, and the bloody command-center isn't even on yet. At least the command bridge seemed nicely fortified.

Three of the pilots have since run off on their own, and Kelly was just sitting there looking dumbfounded. The commander was clearly not in the best of states, and neither was Kelly.

Fake it till you make it.

"Get the comms up as priority. We don't have any info, but it won't matter what we get if nobody can hear it.

We don't even know anything about whatever this thing is, other than: it is pissed, and it is coming for us.

The pilots need to get suited up and in standby at the cages yesterday. Can someone go and make sure they aren't doing anything stupid please?" 'Hurry up and wait. It's good to be home, in a way.'

"Alex, get the stick out and get going."

There aren't really any orders to be given yet, and Kelly would just get in the way of the egghead technical stuff. There's no point in giving instruction when everyone knows what they should be doing.

"Anything else I need to know? Anyone?" she turns to Kaworu "How about you, sir? ...Actually, I'll handle the pilots. I'll be back in a few minutes when I'm finished doing my real job."

It doesn't take but a minute to get to the locker rooms adjoining the cages, but the voices from the other side of the door... Oh boy, those aren't good sounds.

Kelly bursts down the door. "Okay okay, everyone with a Y-chromosome needs to get out, right now. Change in the hallway if you have to. This is a travesty. Here Shanna, I'll help."

[Steel Mirror]

"Okay okay, everyone with a Y-chromosome needs to get out, right now. Change in the hallway if you have to. This is a travesty. Here Shanna, I'll help."
As the boys reacted to their CO's sudden appearance, Shanna quickly covered herself up as best she could, her eyes widening in shock and embarrassment. If a single one of the boys so much as moved so that she could see the whites of his eyes, she was going to have to take corrective measures later to address the issue. Potentially involving acute head trauma resulting in amnesia.

But she was confused enough by the Major's barked-out command that it forestalled her wrath with momentary puzzlement. "Are we supposed to have a 'Why Cormizon' with us? I don't think I was ever issued one."

She never was much good with school things.

[Amaril]

Kelly, I take back everything bad I ever said about your timing Michael thought as he quickly hustled out of the locker room, pressing the button on his wrist to activate his plugsuit's form-fitter as he went. The blue-and-white garment tightened instantly, shaping itself to fit him perfectly. The plugsuits were more comfortable than they looked, but that wasn't 't saying much. Right then, though, he couldn't have cared less, as long as he could keep putting distance between himself and that room.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

The pilot assists Shanna with a resigned air. Girls. He doesn't notice Michael and tries not to let his nervousness show. The major's voice snaps him out of it, and he turns his head to her and opens his eyes (it doesn't count, it's not at Shanna). He starts to go away on a common sense expectation that she doesn't want others with Shanna and is about to hand her anything she needs, but her orders just get him confused and he blinks in her direction. "A why what now? What's a why chormosdrome?" he asks, completely confused, then he sees the other boys making a run for it. I'll get you for that, he thinks. He hands Kelly everything and makes a beeline for the door, mumbling a "you want me to get out, right?" as he slows down for a moment next to her.

[Tuv]

"When we finish fighting off the horrible sky monster, my first act as a ranking officer is going to be hiring a goddamned remedial Bio tutor. YES, that means I want you to leave the room Serkan. You can get changed outside, and wait for me to come get you."

Kelly can't help but hold back a sigh. 'Whose bright idea was co-ed changing rooms for teenagers again? It was different when there was time for everyone to change in private. Just more that needs fixing I guess.'

[Steel Mirror]

Bafflement was downright magic for dispelling righteous fury, and by the time Shanna remembered to be enraged at the boys for existing nearby while she was unclothed, they were gone and Kelly was helping her to tug on her plugsuit.

They got one slender, atrophied leg suited up, and started on the other one. "Do you think we can win, Kelly?" Shanna asked. The room was still cold, and her arms were wrapped tightly around her chest to stave off the chill. Someone watching the scene might confuse it for fear, if they didn't know any better.

"All the simulations were bull****, weren't they? Charlie was saying that NERV has no idea what the Angels might be capable of. That's why there were so many different kinds of training scenarios. We might be completely outmatched." She looks at the older woman's face, hoping that she will be able to say something comforting, but afraid that, at this moment, there might be nothing that anyone could possibly say.

[Tuv]

"If I thought we were doomed, I wouldn't be here being all serious. I would be out having the time of my short, insignificant life.

Simulations are simulations, they use things we know. We don't know a lot right now, so yeah, they tried to cover a lot of possibilities. If I'm wrong- and remember that I can have you court-martialed now -it won't matter a whole lot anyways. But think of how big the explosions will be!"

Kelly clears her throat awkwardly.

"Just don't worry about the after. Do what you were trained to do, because it's my job to clean up the mess now, I guess, and it's never stopped you four before."

[Ulm11]

Hearing his orders Alex rushed to the locker room and began to quickly put on his uniform, which put him in a prime position to overhear Shanna's instructions to Serkan about how to help her change. That caused him to stop for a moment , partly because of the absurdity of the situation, but also because of something deeper within him. When it had come to training him little time was given to a reading through of Whats Happening To Me?. So when Kelly came in and started to yell at the bearers of Y chromosomes to get out Alex took the opportunity to get out of there as quickly as possible. Abominations would be a lot easier to deal with then that mess.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ensign Petrov reporting in. Unit Durandal now ready for active combat." With the words spoken Alex smiled as he looked around inside the Entry Plug. In here was the one place where all the background noise of the outside world faded away. His training had focused on doing just that, but there was only so much that Alex could remove the weights that tie him down to the world, but once in Durandal all that changes. Here he is free to focus on the art of combat.

When the umbilical cord finally began to pump energy into Durandal his entire body tingled as he felt the machine wake up. At that moment Alex reached out and stroked the plug before whispering "This is it, no more games. It is finally time to unleash ourselves upon our foe."

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna wriggled her waist into the suit as Kelly held the fabric, then sat back in her wheelchair. Everything from there on was pretty easy, she just shrugged the suit on like a pajama onesy and pressed the button to draw it in skintight.

"That . . . was actually pretty inspiring, Major. The promotion suits you. You think we can make that our unit motto? We might end the world, but think of how big the explosions will be!"

Shanna left the locker room for the hallway which, if they were smart, the boys had already left to get into their Evas. She could keep it together- the major was right. They were trained for this, they were the best of the best, and they were about to climb into robots the size of modest geographical features that cost more than many countries. All the worrying about maybe getting killed and losing the whole planet could distract you from what was really important.

This was going to be awesome.

------

Shanna made her way to the Eva cages. Climbing into the entry plug was difficult, but familiar. She just had to take advantage of the rungs placed strategically above the plug entry to haul herself into place, then wait for the automated sequence to seal off the plug and begin the preflight sequence.

This was her least favorite part. Really it wasn't anything like being trapped under tons of concrete, gasping desperately for breath for days on end- but apparently her brainstem hadn't gotten the memo. She closed her eyes and waited for the plug to flood with LCL, and for the screens to come to life and her synchronization to engage. Shutting her eyes didn't really help, but it felt like she should be doing something.

"Ensign Kingsley," a sourceless voice boomed into the cockpit. "Report."

"Uhh, Ensign Kingsley testing, one two one two."

She felt the hum as Ascalon received a surge of power from the hangar umbilical, the precursor to her unit's activation. "Can you hear me up there?"

[The_Shaman]

Serkan leaves the room, confused and embarassed, with an offended "I didn't peek, you know," said just before he closes the door without turning. Great. Whatever, just hope they get it out of their system.

He idly wonders if, considering the degree of weirdness of the people around him, the girls' biggest problem is that they may be, you know, girls. Probably not, he decides with a degree of grim fascination. He suits up with a series of quick motions - though they may not have the edge of experience of some other pilots, they make do well enough.

Focus, he tells himself. If you survive, if you win, there will be plenty of time to fix this mess or, even better, not bother. First, you need to win. And for that, you need to get in Trishula.

The thought, as usual, is sobering. Get in, synch with the Eva, go out, kill something. Alright, he knows how to do that.

Some time after, he stands before the olive green and brown-grey machine, looking up expectantly. He touches the charm and says a few words, then climbs in with a mixture of hesitation and yearning, entering the entry plug. Once inside, he takes the required position and waits. Alright, time to do this. He closes his eyes and cleans his mind, waiting for either instructions or Trishula's own activation. When the voice in his cockpit came, he replies "Ensign Mutlu, reporting. Everything in order."

[Tuv]

With the potentially apocalyptic stuff out of the way, it was time to how things were going with the incoming Angel. Kelly hadn't taken more than a couple minutes for the entire little excursion, so nothing too terrible should have happened. She finally gets back to the bridge.

"I know we are going for that whole 'disused research facility' aesthetic, but after we blow this Angel up, we need to have a talk about accessibility.

So, who needs to have words with me first?"

[Amaril]

Forget about all that stuff Michael told himself as he climbed into Excalibur's open entry plug. You've got more important things to worry about right now--like getting this thing ready to launch. As the hatchway to the plug closed over his head, plunging him temporarily into darkness, his worries of a moment ago faded from his mind--climbing into Excalibur always helped him calm down and stay focused. He supposed it must be survival instincts taking over.
The tech on the other end of his comms went through the process of waking up Excalibur while Michael confirmed the success of each step. When the plug began to fill with LCL, Michael had to take several deep breaths to stave off panic again before the sticky, viscous liquid reached his head. None of the others seemed to mind the LCL, but after two months, he still found breathing it extremely uncomfortable. He doubted having his lungs filled with fluid--even life-supporting oxygenated fluid--was something he would ever get used to. On top of that, the stuff always seemed to smell sort of like ozone--that was a smell that brought back bad memories.
Once the LCL was injected, the techs moved on to the really interesting part--synchronizing him with Excalibur psychically. In preparation, Michael leaned back in the pilot's seat and closed his eyes, relaxing his entire body and trying to completely wipe his mind of whatever nervousness he still felt. There was the brief shock of the initial contact, followed by a slowly spreading tingle as he began to sense the energy from the umbilical cable circulating through Excalibur's systems. Faintly he could feel the presence of emotions and perceptions not his own, and he knew, as he had since the first time he climbed into the plug, that they were coming through the psychic link from his Eva. Right now, it was excited--raring to go, straining at the leash. Its lack of fear gave Michael strength--nothing could hurt him in here.
As the synch process finished, the walls of the entry plug lit up and became viewscreens, showing him his surroundings through Excalibur's eyes. To his left he could see the white-and-yellow armor of Durendal, which Alex must be plugged into at this moment--to his right, Shanna's Ascalon's massive red frame towered over his Eva by a full head height at least. The Evas were the most powerful machines humanity had ever produced, their last, best, and only line of defense against the Angels. At least, that was what they'd told him in his initial briefing. He just hoped, for his team's sake, that these things really were all they were cracked up to be.
"Synch complete, everything looks good" Michael spoke through his comms. "Unit Excalibur reporting ready for combat." Then, despite the Eva's effect on his nerves--or perhaps because of it--he opened a private comm-link to one of his team.
"Hey Shanna? You there?"

[Steel Mirror]

[I]"Hey Shanna? You there?"
Shanna looked over to her left as a small window appeared in her heads up display. It was Michael.

"Yeah, I'm here," she said, hoping that he hadn't seen anything in the locker rooms. You'd think that something like that wouldn't matter on the verge of a historic battle for survival, but somehow her mind kept cycling back to that moment. They had all been looking the other direction, correct?

"How is Excalibur feeling today? Ready to stretch his legs a bit?"

[Amaril]

"Oh, Excalibur's so excited it's practically drooling-- but what else is new?" Michael replied. Come on, man, why are you even talking to her? You need to stay focused! Nonetheless, he kept talking.
"Anyway, um...can I ask you a question?"

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna continues to click away on buttons as she checks and rechecks everything about her Eva. She does her best not to feel self-conscious about the plugsuit which leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.

"I'm sure you can. What's up?"

[Amaril]

"Should I be scared?"
Dammit Michael thought, cursing himself for not watching what he was saying. We, should we be scared, what you said sounded weird. Now what the hell is she gonna think? He didn't really know why he was asking--he suspected he wanted to talk to somebody he knew wouldn't be the least bit worried about this to help reassure himself, but why the hell was he talking to Shanna? She didn't want to deal with this, she had more important things to worry about. He kept a close eye on the video communicator window in the corner of his HUD.

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna paused in her preflight checks, and then brought her full attention to Michael's picture in the communication window.

Way to be self-absorbed, Shanna. While she was worrying about the cut of her clothing, her teammates were trying to focus on their mission. And she was letting them down.

She looked at Michael's worried expression, and saw the determination beneath. The determination not to let his team down, not to panic. And she recalled something that her brother used to tell her. "It's ok to be a little scared," she said to Michael, repeating what her brother had told her years ago. Right after they had lost their mother. "I'd be worried if you weren't a little scared- only crazy people are never afraid. But being brave doesn't mean you don't feel fear, it means overcoming your fear to protect your . . ." her brother had said 'family', because that is what they were fighting to protect at the time, from the very same bandits that had killed their mother. But it didn't make as much sense in this context.

Or maybe it did- Michael's family was still alive, after all, and if they lost here today, the whole planet would pay the price. "To protect your team and your family," she finished.

Then, aware that she had gotten pretty somber-faced as she quoted her brother's words, she gave Michael a big smile. "Besides, any Angel who wants a piece of you today is going to have to go through me and Ascalon to get it. And we aren't in a cooperative mood."

"Trust me like I know I can trust you, Michael. We'll all make it through just fine."

[Fearan]

The bridge is slowly coming on-line. The R&D staff is doing it's best to optimize the process and get the connections working - the communcaton lines are allready established, and the bridge staff can communicate with the pilots. After the Major's request, there was a moment of relative silence, which was was broken by lively and optimistic voice from the speakers:
Oh, I do, I do. Now, how do they do it...oh, right. Oracle reporting for duty! Will I have a military rank? And uniform? Oh, the report. I'm desighned to collect the data on targets and perform secondary monitoring of the Evangelions and the Geofront states. I also have a database ful of various and not always useful information. And I have THE biggest plasma screen in the world - check it out - with these words, the main screen comes to life, depicting a map of the Geofront and surroundings.
Mirialia then reported. We have a connection to one of still operating sattelites. Patching to the mainscreen
The tactical map then moved to one of the auxilary displays, while the main screen showed the orbit - and the rebellous colony. This is the information, we've got from our men out there. We have visuals now. - Mirialia commented.
The picture on mainscreen was far from optimistic. The orbital missle emplacements, built by the colonistis to use against the metropoly and the UN right now are firing in wholy different direction. The auxilary screen showed their target - a blurry figure of totaly unearthly creature - a scorpion-like (http://cs418519.vk.me/v418519663/2ab4/vSzC5q5BNaw.jpg) cristalline (http://cs418519.vk.me/v418519663/2abb/OE9QHDUqPA8.jpg) construct, build around a sphere of light. The thing retaliates with series of light impulses, much like the classic "blaster" from Earth's fiction novels. Even more, it looked like, the missles was doing absolutely no damage, and the enemy seemed to have unlimited resreves of power - no ammo shortahge for that one. The futile battle had ended in less then ten minutes. After dealing with the missle emplacements, the creature moved its attention towards the colony itself, raining energy bolts onto defenceless habitats. It was the fiery end - the colony's mainframe exploded under the enemy's bombarding. A moment of silence fell onto the NERV's bridge.
Wow. Now, that's what you call an Angel. Designation - "Type-Mars". Awaiting your order to activate the lure system, to drag him here to destroy him with Evangelions. - the Oracle have broken the silence with the same lively and optimistic machine voice.

Some bits for the pilots
Shanna
Say, did you know, that LCL smells like synthetic champagne
Michael
Michael happen to remember the quantum knife, which was used in the cancer treatement of Michael's mother. And what do you know - the LCL has the same ozonous smell
Alexander
There was that distingushed synthetic brew in Eastern European Geofront, to which Alexander was brought from the survival horror of Moscow. And The LCL smells exactly like it
Serkan
Remember the medikit, which you have found in that abandoned building. With stimulators and shock relievers, that helped you survive until you got out. The LCL smells like that medikit

Current situation
- The Angel will be near the Geofront in 2 hours. You'll be fully prepared and deployed, should you wish so.
- Since the pilots are right now preparing to get into the Evangelions - it is for OD to decide, what do they will know of the Angel, and the destruction of the colony.
- The Angel will descent slowly from the side of section F. It is not an orbital threat, but a more common floating thing
- Thatks to MadGod for drawing the thing for me

[Amaril]

For a brief moment, Michael just sat silently, unsure how to respond. He wanted to think of something cool to say, something that would sound tough and impressive--but nothing came to mind. So he decided to just be honest.
"Thanks, Shanna" he said into the comms window, grinning this time without any trace of worry or fear. "That makes me feel a lot better."
He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and placed his hands on the Eva's manual controls. "But don't worry about protecting me out there" he continued cheerily, suddenly feeling much more confident. "I think I can handle myself." Then he cut the channel.
Michael leaned back in the pilot's seat, looking around at Excalibur's interior. Ah, relax, man he thought. What's the worst that can happen?

[The_Shaman]

Serkan's mind races with minutae as the pre-synch checks went on, then he somewhat absent-mindedly listenes in to the chatter between Michael and Shanna. He rolls his eyes, but knows enough to be aware of how important stuff like that is occasionally... especially when you don't have to worry about that when the important part kicks in. He smiles at the thought of treating someone older as the flakey rookie. The things you get used to during a crappy childhood. He felt a bit of a pang when he heard Shanna's reply - there she goes, sounding like her again.

"Chill, people. Shanna's right - and if we do our parts right, Almighty willing, everything will go down right. Don't panic, and good luck"

He tried to calm before the synch came in, but as he tried to relax, a whispered "Don't die" came from his mouth. Or was it from somewhere near his head? A split-second later, Trishula was in his head and it was all he could do to not get overwhelmed.


As the information feeds came and went, he watched at the screen with grim determination. Don't face away, he told himself, even though this was one of the worst sights he'd seen. He felt lucky he didn't see any faces or people there, but he'd seen firsthand what a building toppling - sort of like that - looked like. He knew what it felt like. And he felt what it would be like for the few blessed - or cursed - souls who managed to survive somehow and look around, who'd see their world shattered and pray futile prayers that some of their friends and loved ones would survive. As his hands tightened, he whispered a quiet prayer for the dead. He was far from religious, but this was one of the things he'd picked up... and used plenty of times.

This time, he and the rest could do something about it.

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna blinked for a moment when Serkan's comm window opened up next to Michael's- she had forgotten it wasn't a private link. But she nodded at his words and drew strength from his apparently unruffled presence.

She glanced over at the last member of the team, who hadn't joined the open channel yet. All she could see was Durendal's impassive multifaceted stare, which showed as much expression as Alex's probably did just then.

"Good luck to you, too," she says to everyone.

[Tuv]

Kelly checks to make sure that the outgoing comms to the pilots are off after a quick "Stand by for orders".

"Bwahahaha! Those kids. Do we record these communications?" Of course, the bridge had descended into mostly solemn silence by that point.

"So, that is an Angel? Could be a better situation, looks like we can't wear it out, and it can intercept attacks. But it also seems to prioritize threats, so we don't have to worry about it ignoring our defenses and just bombarding us...

It would be great if we had some way to ground it, but considering the state of the bridge, I doubt we are that prepared ya?

Well then, make sure we evacuate Section F as best we can. We'll use the buildings to hide the Evangelions, distract it with what forces we have on the ground, and attack it with all four Evas at once. Any objections? No? Good."

She opens the outbound to the pilots back up. "So, kids. This thing is gonna come in around Section F. It responds to attacks so we're going to draw it in so you can all hit it at once. Try to keep out of sight of it for as long as possible, and we'll coordinate the attack from here. We still don't know everything about it, so if it starts acting strangely, prioritize the safety of the Evangelions; you can't fight it if you get put out of commission.

The name of this sortie will be Red Dawn.

Let's begin the operation."

[Steel Mirror]

Some time later . . .

Shanna exulted in the feeling of synching with her Evangelion. Ascalon, her second body. Calling her a pilot was the roughest sort of metaphor that she could imagine- pilots control their machines with sticks and pedals.

When she was in the entry plug, she became Ascalon.

Now deployed to section F on the surface of the Geofront, she gave her spear yet another practice swing, feeling the harsh buzz of the progressive edge vibrate along the weapon and through her arm. The Eva's arm. As always, she laughed at the feeling of ultimate power that only someone who has been 40 stories tall and impervious to sustained artillery barrage could understand. The sensation was only magnified in her case- synching with Ascalon freed her from her ruined body and let her walk, run, and jump again. What had she been worried about? She was invincible.

She didn’t remember what it felt like to be truly alive and whole except when she was in her Eva.

She glanced at some displays. “AT field still holding strong at maximum spread,” she relayed to the bridge. She hoped that they would give them a status report on the Angel’s position soon. She was eager to begin.

She looked back at her teammates, arrayed in battle positions with some space between them in case the enemy had area saturation capabilities. “Remember the plan, everyone. I draw aggro, you guys tear it into tiny little shreds. Any questions?”

[Amaril]

"None coming to mind" Michael replied. "My field's still holding up too. I'm ready to go as soon as it shows up."
Michael peered down the sights of the pallet rifle he held in Excalibur's massive hands. The weapon still felt somewhat awkward, and he hated having to rely on it for fighting at range--its complete lack of ability to breach an A.T. Field had become something of a running joke among the program's staff. The customized storage rack along the rifle's side held an extra clip of its ammo--Excalibur's right-side shoulder pylon was occupied by an M7 hand cannon that he planned to use as an emergency backup if the rifle ran dry or malfunctioned. In the right-side pylon he'd stored his standard-issue prog knife, which he sincerely hoped he wouldn't have to use--if the angel was that close to him, then something would have to have gone horribly, horribly wrong.
At least he had his own A.T. Field, the only weapon he felt comfortable with. From his first simulations, Michael had discovered that he had something of a gift for controlling its powerful, almost magical properties. In its current configuration, it was the only known means of defense that offered any protection from an Angel's attacks. Focus it a little differently, and it could be formed into a spear that would slice a target's own field like paper. It could even be used to detect the presence of other A.T. Fields nearby--the process of expanding it out into the surrounding area and gauging enemy positions by the way it bounced back reminded Michael of a bat's echolocation.
He refocused his attention on it every few minutes to keep it at its maximum strength, and kept watching up above for any sign of the Angel's approach.

[Ulm11]

The taste of the LCL brought back unbidden memories of the time just after he was rescued from Moscow. The feeling of being helpless, of struggling to survive, of seeing everything burn around him made Alex for the first time since the incident feel weak causing him to growl out in anger, to which Durendal seemed to respond in kind."That can't be right" he muttered to himself as the comm link turned on. In a strange way hearing Michael and Shanna talk actually helped him regain his composure. Unlike almost everybody else on the team he was a soldier. He had been trained to fight for so long that his entire being revolved around the thing. Now was the time to bury all doubt in his mind and fight.

"Ensign Petrov moving out."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just before combat

So close to combat Alex was almost totally self absorbed, only paying mild attention to what his comrades were doing. All focus instead was on visualising his role in the coming fight. He was to get as close as possible to the damn thing and from there preside to break it. No subtlety, no finesse, just pure destruction. When watching the others in the simulators it became quite clear to everyone that he was the only one who had the aggression needed to fulfil such a role. At least that was the official explanation anyway. In reality he knew exactly why he was given such a role.

He had already proven once that he perform such a monstrous act.

Alex was unsure who in the comrade structure knew about his leash, but he was determined to make sure they never thought of using it. So now it was time to prove that it made sense keeping a monster like him alive and in the team.

He grimaced slightly when he heard Shanna began to relay orders. No matter how much grit she showed during training Alex still had doubts about how she would perform in battle. "I suppose that will work for a plan. Well at least until I can start mutilating the ч****в thing." He didn't really care that he slipped into speaking russian during the sentence. He doubted any of them would understand anyway.

With all doubts of his mind he mentally moved Durendal into a kneeling position which allowed him to truly feel the muscle mass of the machine. There was always something thrilling about using such a beast and now was the time to truly stretch it's legs. Alex flicked the switch to get the spear running before speaking once more to the team, saying, "Ready to move in for the kill." Now all Alex could do was begin the slow process of activating the A.T. field, letting it surround Durendal slowly. To Alex it always felt that at this stage was the moment that his unit donned it's armour and truly became a war machine.

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna brought up a tactical area display in her HUD, more to occupy her mind than for any practical purpose. If she wasn't ready now after almost two hours of waiting in position, she would never be, but reviewing the situation report was better than stewing in impatience.

"Secondary objective everyone: protect the railroad." She had mentioned it half a dozen times already (not to mention the fact that it had been in their actual briefing), but giving out instructions to her team (even though they were all technically the same rank) was almost as good a distraction as clicking through displays.

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 6
Ammunition: NA
FP: 3
Fatigue: 0

[Fearan]

It's an Angel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TxIetzEtLI)

The sky was blazing from the remains of the colony dropping down and burning in the atmosphere. The severe winds were blowing, provoking a sandstorm in the wasteland beyond the relative stability of Geofront's outskirts. And under this blazing sky, under the biggest meteor rain the piltos saw in their lives, IT came.
The TYPE-MARS advanced seemingly slowly, yet somehow it did manage to get to the Geofront from orbit in merely two hours. Neither the pilots, nor Kelly had any idea, what was the bait, that lured IT to the geofront, but apparently, it worked - IT was coming right to the NERV's base.
On the outskirts of the city, the security forces, along with the stationary defences have established a makeshift defence line. They were short on tanks, short on heavy weapons and the artillery was almost non-existant, save for the pop-up turrets - besides, the pilots never knew, they have that many pop-up turrets near the Geofront. But there were two things, Topolev's mercs had plenty - they had plenty of iron guts. And they outnumbered the Angel four to one with the 40-meter tal giant robots.

The situation
*Angel is 500 dam afar and closing. The altitude is 15 dam above the Evas
*The Evas are battle ready. You may try to Defence Line the Angel for bonuses to MAGI Oracle roll
*Ready, steady, go!

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna eyed the approaching Angel under Ascalon's optical magnification. It looked, unsurprisingly, like nothing planet Earth had ever seen. She unconsciously tightened her grip on the control handles, and Ascalon clamped down on the shaft of the spear in sympathetic mimicry.

Standard Tactical Doctrine called for the defense line to engage the Angel first, but those procedures were devised in order to buy time for the Evangelions to deploy. It was a bloody, desperate sort of conflict to wage, with no real hope of victory. She had always thought of it as a particularly expensive way to commit mass suicide.

"Major Sullivan, can you hear me?" Her voice was tense, devoid of the levity she' had before. But it was a focused tension, with a clear goal in mind and the determination to see it through. "Permission to advance and engage the Angel at the defensive line."

[The_Shaman]

Serkan has been mostly silent and focused, except for a mild frown at the newly minted major's laughter. He didn't find anything that funny about the situation. Hopefully it wasn't the pills getting to her. Last thing they needed now was a tripped-out officer.

He ran additional checks on the rifle - yeah, right, rifle, it was a freaking cannon - to make sure it checked right. As far as he understood, it was some fairly new and not really checked out tech. During the testing he was impressed - it was incredibly accurate and could land shots that almost shouldn't be possible - but he wanted to make sure he could trust it now.

In the fight, as far as he could understand, he was to move to a good position and provide fire support. Shanna would normally try to draw the thing to attack her (it had to be the girl, of all things), Alex would pounce on it and hit it hard, and Michael was doing some weird stuff to make it stop working. AT fields and all that. Ideally, his job would be at the side, hitting any exposed spot, especially after Michael and the rest had bugged its AT field. If he could get a good headshot, it could spell the end of the fight, right then and there. Up close, he had a spear...either for melee or, more likely, a finishing point-blank throw. Alright. He could do this. For a moment, he wished it was possible to sneak up on that thing. In a huge robot, no less. He snickered.

Trishula spread its field as they went out and Serkan studied the map for any possible features he could use for cover. Ideally not something that would be missed in case of return fire. Then again, the initial fire would come at the mercenaries, that was the plan. Serkan had no love for them, but found it quite absurd for them to be so willing to do this. He had a huge robot, and still expected it to be a fight to the knife. They had... what? Trishula surveyed the battlefield for a good position, and spotted the Angel far away and some distance in the air. Hmm, they needed to get it on the ground if possible - Alex in particular was most effective when he could get in close.

Eva:
Trishula

Body part: armor/HP
Head: 2/4
Right arm:2/7
Left Arm:2/7
Body:4/11
Right leg:2/7
Left leg: 2/7

Do I need to roll something to see if Serkan spots any good cover he can shoot from and possibly use to remain unseen until he shoots?

[Amaril]

Oh my God...it's real. It's really here, it's an Angel... Michael struggled to process what he was seeing as the crystalline entity sped towards the Geofront. He'd fought Angels before in the sims, but the whole time, there had been a part of him that wondered whether any of this could really be possible--whether Nerv had been wrong or deceptive, and whether these beings that wanted to annihilate them had ever really existed. But now one was staring him in the face, and there was no doubting it any longer. They were looking at alien life.
Michael tightened his grip on his rifle and considered his options. At the moment, the Angel was much too far away for him to neutralize its A.T. Field--unless it got closer or they moved up to meet it, taking the field down would be up to Shanna.
"Am I the only one who thinks that ball of light at the center looks like the Core?"

[Tuv]

Was it cold feet she was getting? The prospect of leaving all those men to die left the pit of her stomach cold. They were mercenaries, they sell their lives for cash, and this was a fight for the survival of humanity. So, why was it so hard when it was the smart thing to do, the right thing to do?

Because you've been there, in the middle of hell?
Because you just lied to four children?
Because people will die?

"Tch, damned idealism! All units, move forward to engage the Angel at the defensive line! Ascalon, move to support the mercenaries; Excalibur, Durandal, Trishy-Trith-Truhaha-SERKAN, you three move to pincer once Ascalon and the mercenaries engage. Keep spread out, and try to come at it from all sides. Time's a-wastin'- Go!"

[Ulm11]

For a moment Alex was caught off by the alien nature of the Angel in front of them. Looks like those lessons on anatomy were useless. Though to be fair that isn't that surprising as we are dealing with alien identities. He quickly brought himself out of that train of thought and instead turned to the assignment at hand. The angel was to high up for him to engage it in close combat, so for now all that he could do was open up the bubble to allow Serkan a clear shot at the thing.

Hearing Shanna speak to the bridge caused him to stop for a moment. This would be the first time that he would be fighting in real life under Kelly's direction. Hopefully she would be able to keep her cool and order to hold until the Angel attacked so that E unit could strike more effectively, yes many of the soldiers would die, but in the end that was their job. In the end it seemed that idealism won out over practicality and so they were tasked to move out. He should have argued with the order, but in the end an order was an order, but more importantly it gave Durendal a chance to actually do something, so Alex forced his EVA to edge into position, waiting for the final order to engage.

Still feeling frustrated with the order Alex decided to experiment with his A.T. field. So he concentrated as much as he could to send out what was roughly an A.T. ping that instead of detecting entities would hopefully carry a message to his fellow pilots. Turning roll [roll0] need to get below 38 to work. If the roll is successful and this can work then the message carried out it, "Looks like efficiency dose not matter to our CO."

[Steel Mirror]

To be honest, Shanna had expected to hear orders to wait for the Angel to engage the mercenaries. She smiled a mirthless little smile as Kelly surprised her with a welcome command. "Understood, Major. Ascalon moving out!" She willed her unit into a dead sprint, flattening the spear to her side and ejecting the umbilical once she had moved out of its range. "Is there any chance of grabbing a new umbilical in the combat area?"

Meanwhile, she kept her attention fully focused on the Angel before her. It would only take her a couple of minutes to close with the enemy, but that was plenty of time for it to wreak havoc with the forces arrayed against it. "I'm not sure about the big swirly light thing being the core," she said to Michael. "How about I gut it with my spear and let you know?"

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 6
Ammunition: NA
Power Remaining: I'll need to get a GM ruling on how much is left when Shanna joins combat, and whether a new umbilical is available in the combat area
FP: 3
Fatigue: 0

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

The pilot all but snorted in the EVA. "Trishula ready to move out, Major Kell... Sulheivan," he said with a notable inflection. "I'd like to take a shot when the target moves in optimum range, though. This loadout works best from a distance, and being shot may make the target move down for cover, which should help the rest." If it connects, at least. The simulations had shown the new weapon showing remarkable ability to pass through the "Angel"s defenses, but it was far from guaranteed. It would certainly help to be able to take a clear shot before everyone got in close.

"If anyone can get some information about weak spots, let me know. Or anywhere you'd want me to weaken." It sounded borderline cocky, but in the training he'd realized that just shooting the thing wherever made no sense. They needed to find a weak spot - or generate one - and focus on it. The rest tended to work a lot better at shorter ranges.

He set on the course, taking some time to reduce the EVA's exposure to minimum. He checked the readings on the gun again. This cannon should be able to shoot accurately at ranges well outside what the others could deal with. Sadly, the "Angel"'s defenses would likely be too hard to crack. "Anyone have any idea what field strength we can expect on that thing?"

[Tuv]

"Topolev, that means your men are to start a tactical withdrawal back to the city limits. We have an Eva on the way to support you. Stay safe out there. Major Sullivan out."

[Fearan]

Wasteland outside the city
The TYPE-MARS advanced slowly, looking confident in it's ability to fullfill his intent. The couple of shots, made from long distance with the few anti-air missle launchers the merc unit have seemingly didn't bother the otherworldy creature. Yet his slow and steady movement gave plenty of time for the bridge to do its work
The bridge
Technobabble. All that was heard on the bridge was technobabble, barely recogniseable to anyone without at leas Ph.D on physics. Oh, and there was Oracle, making comments - they've apparently installed the trolling function into the thing.
MAGI roll[roll0]
- Ooocay, Major, sir, we have a visual. Since we've never seen anything like it - it's clearly an Angel. Check out the screen - Oracle adressed Kelly with his usual optimistic tone after a ten or so minutes of discussing quantum physics with Dr. Aozaki. The main screen showed the unearthly visage of the Angel.
AT-field confirmed. It's reccomended, that you dedicate at least two units to tear through it. Whach out, he's extra blasty, though. And there's an issue with its core - that damn ball of light obscures vision - we can't target it directly. Troublesome, isn't it? Oh, and here's the data from integrity sensors. You know, I've always wanted to do it - with the last words, a green line appeared on the mainscreen just above the Angel. Arnold almost choked, when he saw it.
- Wait, is it a HEALTHBAR? You gave the damn thing a Healthbar...oh, I'm sorry, Major.
An awkward silence fell to the bridge, as the extraterrestial monstrocity approached to exterminate first the Geofront than the Mankind, and the resident tactical AI was shoving it as a video game.
OOC:

The Type-Mars advances 32 dam per round. Apparently he haven't sensed the Eva's yet, and not attacking. Feel free to figure, to what distance you are willing to let him come before firing at him
His core can't be targeted with a called shot. Random shots are still a fair game. You know, he has a Pozitron Beam AT-power, and you have +10 to roll against angelic fear. It's hard to fear an enemy with a healthbar, after all.
Also, feel free to roll for research. 2d10+4

[Steel Mirror]

Ascalon's charge faltered as the bridge informed Shanna of the lack of umbilicals beyond the city limits. The unit slowed to a stop and stared impotently at the abomination casually floating past the defensive line. Shanna glanced at her unit's power timer- it was just passing 4 minutes left, and there was plenty of ground left between her and the enemy. Then there was the small matter of having enough juice at the end of the race to do something other than slump to the ground puking.

She wouldn't make it.

"Damn it! Who the hell had the bright idea of not putting power sockets in the Defensive Line? What the **** is it defending against exactly with all those toy tanks and planes? The goddamned Israelis? I'M WAITING FOR YOU YOU TECHNICOLOR BASTARD, HURRY UP AND FLOAT OVER HERE SO I CAN KEBAB YOUR ELDRITCH ASS!"

With the childish tantrum out of the way, Ascalon shuffled a few reluctant steps back, timer still counting down. Eventually Shanna turned around and jogged back to within range of the umbilical, hoping that she would be forgiven for being unable to come to the aid of the brave men in the useless little machines a few kilometers away.

[Amaril]

"Relax, Shanna, it doesn't seem too interested in the soldiers--looks to me like they'll be fine" Michael said as Ascalon returned to the group, looking somewhat disappointed. "I guess it must be smart enough to know we're the only thing that can hurt it--we'll take care of it and let the soldiers stay safe."

[Steel Mirror]

"I am relaxed," Shanna said as Ascalon gripped its spear tightly enough to crush a nuclear submarine like a soda can. "You have some AT hocus pocus up your sleeve to deal with this thing? Any chance you could mess with that core shield or whatever it has?"

The Angel was getting closer. The moment it hit the city limits, it was her job to begin neutralizing its AT field. Then she'd duck under cover and hope that Serkan got in a lucky shot; barring that, it was full-contact blocking time.

[Ulm11]

Alex breathed in deeply. Looks like they were going to play the waiting game, which while making sense on a strategic level did not sit well with his need to go out and fight. So now all he could do is wait until the Angel gets closer. So instead he turned his attention to Michael. "We shall see. Though personally I think no matter what we do they will end up taking substantial casualties."

OOC: I don't think I need to make a fear check as thanks to Damaged Goods, Fearless, and Invincible soul I have an insanity score of either 40 or 60 when it comes to fear effects.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan takes up his position, runs a last check on his EVA's readings and the weapon prototype, and after he's reasonably secure they are as normal as they could be, tries to calm down and focus. He is fairly certain that he can hit the Angel from here, but with the AT field and all the lights on the chances of actually landing a solid hit are low at best. He waits, partially obscured by the features he is behind, as he keeps his eyes on the distance between them.
"Yeah, it's a pity about the line. Maybe they didn't want to make it fragile or something...

Anyway, from here I can probably hit the middle part with that glow, but nothing particular. People, at what range can you start messing with its field? By the sims, this weapon works best within 150 dams. If you want a shot, I take it."

The round it nears normal range, Serkan will spend the round aiming so he can get the max bonuses and shoot when it enters normal range.

Also, research roll: [roll0]

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna glanced at her tactical map. Her position was almost at the limit of her umbilical's reach, about 100 dam from their starting position, where Trishula was positioned with the experimental rifle. It was plenty of space for him to line up a shot, and had the added benefit of getting her out of the way in case the damn thing exploded when he tried to fire it.

"I can begin neutralizing when it is 120 dam from your location. Further than that and it's out of range of my AT field. I'll tell you when I begin. Alex, you in position to neutralize at that range?"

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 6
Ammunition: NA
FP: 3
Fatigue: 0

Nice roll on research! Masers here we come! :smallbiggrin:

[The_Shaman]

Serkan mulled over the numbers shortly, then nodded. He'd prefer more range, but that would have to do. He tried to remember some bits from the briefing, then gave up."Good. I will keep it in my sights in case we need to improvise. Be careful, though... it's got some nasty shooting from what we've seen. Don't take too much risk... okay?" he added with a pinch of insecurity in the last word. Yes, Ascalon was probably the toughest of them all, but dammit, it was Shanna who was inside him. "Then you better make sure they're safe" he heard, and Trishula's head turned left and right hectically, as if looking for something. "Huh, thought I heard something."

As the Angel was moving towards it, still notably out of range, Serkan turned the channel to the bridge. "HQ, do we have an estimation of the optimal range on that thing's weapons from that video we saw before?" In the meantime, he readied his gun and was following the thing in Trishula's sights.

OOC: okay, he'll try to hide if possible, and he'll spend his turn aiming

[Steel Mirror]

"Be careful, though... it's got some nasty shooting from what we've seen. Don't take too much risk... okay?"
Shanna had been so worked up in the lead-up to this fight that she had forgotten to be afraid. She was nervous and jittery, yes, but this thing was pissing her off. That and stupid extension cords.

When she heard the touch of concern in Serkan's voice, it came as a surprise. He was usually so calm, almost uninterested. She looked at his image in the visual display to see him glancing over his shoulder, as though trying to see something that had flitted in the corner of his vision. He definitely looked less than usually composed. Almost emotional.

And why not? She wanted to say something reassuring to him, or even make another boast, but that thing was getting closer, and she had tried hard to reassure her team already. It clearly hadn't worked, and all there was left was to step out and fight, and make sure that none of her allies suffered any more for her lack of leadership. She looked back at the last few mercenary aircraft flitting through the skies ahead of the Angel, like flies before a charging beast.

Well if they could do their jobs, so could she. She crouched Ascalon even deeper behind the office building she was using as cover and waited for the moment of truth.

It was approaching fast.

[Amaril]

"Well, sounds like you all know what you're doing" Michael said uncertainly. "I can 't really do much to its field at range, and if I get closer it'll tear Excalibur apart...I'll keep my distance and back Serkan up with my rifle once Shanna and Alex have its field breached." He readied his weapon once more, then stopped--"Serkan, will it mess up your shots if I'm firing at the same time?"

[Ulm11]

Alex nodded slightly before responding to Shanna."Due to the umbilical cords that is the maximum range for me as well." Finally feeling in complete control of his emotions Alex continued on. "As Michael said we will engage the enemy together so as to provide an opening to our rear specialists, and during this time we will hopefully be able to drag it down so that we can really contribute."

Alex smiled to himself as he faced the angel once more. Of course he and Shanna would end up working together on the battlefield. For in what they were doing she was the only one who would not slow him down. Michael still had not yet experienced true carnage, hence Alex doubted that once the bleeding began that he would be able to have the courage needed to hold his ground. Serkan on the other hand, as his sync tests showed, lacks the deep connection with Trishula needed to be of much use of fully engaging with the beast. Of course Alex almost burst out laughing as the realisation came that it would be up to the cripple girl to protect the two other pilots, for though they would be working together she will have to give it her all to keep up with him.

"Slight change of plans, with Duredal I will engage the
Angel first and Shanna can come in behind me when she finally catches up."

OOC:I have to agree that was a very nice research roll. Anyway, thanks to the leaper build my EVA is twice as fast as everybody else's so if we want Ascalon and Durendal to engage at the same time then Ascalon will have to start running a turn before Durendal does.

[The_Shaman]

"Not likely", Serkan replied, a bit annoyed for some reason - probably due to people distracting him while he was aiming. "Just do what you can to interfere with its AT Field. The rest will get done. "

I mean, really. All he wanted was a good shot.

[Steel Mirror]

The meters counted down on her tactical display, signifying the approach of the Angel.

1325 meters

The chatter over the group channel finally died down. The creature would be slowly growing in Serkan's sights, she knew. She couldn't see the thing directly herself, crouched behind a building, but she had called up a camera feed from one of the enumerable installations throughout the city.

972 meters

The Angel continued its approach, implacable and entirely unconcerned with all the power that humanity had mustered against it thus far. The chatter from the bridge and the various reports from the field continued, but Shanna blocked them out. Nothing in the world just then seemed as loud as the sound of her own breathing as she lay in concealment in her massive war machine.

471 meters

Almost within engagement range. She couldn't resist the urge to peek Ascalon's head out from behind the building to get a look.

Strange how proximity could change perception, even when the numbers themselves remained unchanged. Mars looked a lot bigger in her primary view, even though the live camera feeds had supplied scale information and laser measurements of its dimensions. And while it had seemed that days had passed during its last approach through the defensive line, now that it was nearby, it seemed to be barreling down on them with reckless speed.

200 meters

"Neutralizing the phase space with my AT field, maximum power!" She yelled out the announcement the moment the Angel passed into range, and willed Ascalon to carry out the command. Through a process that she understood not one bit, but could feel in the marrow of her bones, she reached through the space between herself and the angel and tore at the wall of invisible energy that made it all but unstoppable.

She poured everything that she was into that rebuke: all her anger, all her drive, the thousands of hours of physical therapy and stubbornness, the iron determination not to let the people back home or her team here down. She poured, too, her frustrations, her self-doubt, her feelings of helplessness, even the embarrassment and fury over what had happened in the locker room; all of it went into that one blow which was somehow both physical and spiritual, forging her will into a weapon which leapt out at the Angel like a thing alive.

The maneuver left her panting for breath, but she could feel the Angel's barrier weakening under her assault. She readied her spear for action, still behind the building, and waited for her team's first moves- and the Angel's inevitable response.

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 0
Ammunition: NA
FP: 3
Fatigue: 0

That's a half action to Neutralize with all 6 of Ascalon's ATP, and the rest of her turn is spent under cover [EDIT: Except that there is apparently little cover out in the area we're in, so in that case she just waits for the Angel to come to her]. Let's get this party started!

[Ulm11]

*Thud Thud. Thud Thud* To the rest of the world Alex seemed perfectly calm as he waited for the angel to approach their position but right now he was doing the final check before he truly wrestles with the Angel. *Thud Thud. Thud Thud* As he sank into the LCL he thought he could hear both his heart, and that of the Evegnelion itself beat, but to his mind the sound had an entirely different meaning, that of a mad scramble that he could never have imagined ending so badly.

*Thud Thud. Thud Thud* Every second it felt like it was getting louder as he began to feel what he felt that day, a mixture of fear and excitement. *Thud Thud. Thud Thud* Eventually he felt as though he could feel the physical sensations, that of exhaustion and soreness.

*Thud. Thud. Thud.* It was to late at this point to do anything but think about the conclusion, about what he had ended up causing. *Thud. Thud. Thud.* He felt the rage and anguish of that moment and without even thinking he mentally reached and grabbed something within Durendal and embraced it. Suddenly, for a single second it felt as though he was truly one with the EVA. The moment passed but now he was truly ready for what was to come and so he looked out and to his delight he saw the Angel was almost on them.

With a single thought he made Durendal push off and sprint towards the Angel until he was almost upon it. (Moves so that he is 20 decameters away from it). From there he forced his spear into the ground and quickly began to focus his A.T. field around his hands. "I will begin neutralising it's A.T. field using my full power now." With that said he smashed Durendel's arms into the protective barrier around the Angel, where upon he began to tear away at the field in order to create the gap needed for the incoming shots.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan put the chatter behind him and focus once more fully on his target. The readings were stable the last time he checked - and he checked them plenty of times - so that would have to suffice. Now it was time for the shot, and he wanted it to count. For himself, for the rest of the group, and for everyone who ever didn't believe he had what it takes.

It might not save the world - on its own, at least - but he always liked feeling vindicated. And he really, really hated it when people looked down on him. The feeling of him being shooed out of the locker room came uninvited, and he tried to get it away.

Shoot now, deal with bull**** later. Shooting, at least, he knew.

At 200 dams, he had the thing in his sights. He'd been looking for weak spots for a while, and had to console himself with not hiding any. He tracked this thing, adjusting for speed - it was deceptively fast - trying to predict where it would go, what it would do. He felt ready, waiting for the inevitable shock that would come when Shanna hit the field, and trying to adjust for it so it doesn't throw his aim off. He wanted that shot. He needed that shot.

He takes his time to aim, and when he sees the change from Shanna's disruption, he took that shot.

[Amaril]

Dammit Michael thought as he watched Ascalon and Durendal tearing into Mars' A.T. Field. I didn't think about getting out to a range where the rifle would be effective. Guess I'm gonna have to break cover and get out there. He took a brief moment to steel himself, then darted out from his vantage point and spurred Excalibur into a dead sprint towards the melee out in the dunes. Excalibur's small size may have made it lighter and more agile than the other machines, but now he saw its disadvantage--short legs meant slower movement. He urged the Eva on continuously, struggling to reach his weapon's effective range in time to be of use.

Spending the turn running 16 dam to get closer to the pallet rifle's effective range of 50.

[Fearan]

Bridge
The main screen have shown the wasteland, trembling as the giant mechs advanced towards the unearthly apparation, hovering before them. The reports from the bridge crew was coming right into Kelly's communicator
AT-field confirmed. The neutralization is commencing - Mirialia reported first from the most ezoteric of Nerv's sensors - the one, who are supposingly should detect the defiance of the laws of physics, which is the AT-Field.
All sensors have gone haywire, Major Sullivan, m'am. The interfrence between AT-field is disrupting the work of...evereything - meanwhile, when godly powers clashed, mundane machinery failed to observe such a marvellous sight -which was reported to the Operation Director by Stella.
Attack! - Stella suddenly shouted, when Trishula fired its mas rifle. Despite the Angels somewhat clumsy attempt to dodge, it connected, and...nothing?
The attack had no effect. I repeat, no freaking effect - the Oracle have commented the obvious outcome. And of course, the healthbar haven't moved an inch

Serkan
It was a strange feeling - the opening shot of NERV's forces against the extraterrestial invader was nearly an ideal one - at least, it was one of the best ones, Serkan could remember. Through his digital sight, he saw, how slowly the Angel tried to dodge the beam - and how spectaculary it failed. The shot connected right to the central sphere of light - and than - nothing. As if Serkan's skills and the best weapon Nerv's scientists had to offer mattered not against this opponent. And then as in the slow-mo, Serkan saw that the TYPE_MARS retaliated - not against him, but against his fearless teammates, who rushed towards it to clear the shot for him.

Ulm11 and Steel Mirror
The pilots have commenced the procedure of neutralising the enemy's AT-field. It looked like all was going well, especially after Serkan fired at the thing. And then came the rain of light. Out of the shining sphere countless beams descended towards the Evangelions as heavenly retaliation

Rain of light attack against Ascalon [roll0] vs 60
Rain of light attack against Durendal [roll1] vs 60

OOC:

Distance to the Angel
Ascalon - 20 dam (may change after resolving the angel's attack) - test wp(+0) vs Angelic Fear, pls
Durendal - 20 dam - test wp(+0) vs Angelic Fear, pls
Excalibur - 104 dam - you do know, you can fire from double listed range at -10? do you?
Trishula - 200 dam
conventionals - 120 dam
Ascalon is hit - post dodge (if any) in OOC.
Both Ascalon's and Durendal's Umblicals are destroyed

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna shut her eyes against the brightness of the experimental maser discharge. When she opened them, the Angel stood motionless in the air above, mocking their pathetic resistance by its very existence.

And it was unharmed.

"You cheeky ****er," Shanna muttered under her breath. Yeah, these things were supposed to be tough, but that was a good shot. She had felt it on her skin- well Ascalon's exterior thermal sensors. The thing should be microwaved clean through, or at least on fire or singed or something.

She hesitated a moment, and it was almost her undoing. The deadly rain of energy bolts slammed into the arid ground around her, kicking up clods of earth and vaporizing rocks and sand wherever it impacted. Ascalon wasn't built for acrobatics- it was a huge, ugly, tough-as-a-wolverine brute, and she loved it for that. Somehow, though, some instinct told her to roll to the right. Ascalon did so, tucking into an awkward ball and kicking up more dust and debris than the rain of death, and an instant later one of those bolts annihilate the place she had just been crouching.

She got quickly back to her feet, panting from exertion even though, physically speaking, she hadn't done anything. Her chest hurt from the increased work of rapidly inhaling and exhaling LCL, which was much heavier than air. Her trainers had told her that she needed to control her breathing in combat situations, that her body would think it needed to breathe fast, but that the LCL would be able to oxygenate her blood directly. She had done breathing exercises, but not in front of the grim majesty of an honest to God Angel of death. What if it was just invincible?

She felt panic mounting as her body interpreted the difficulty of drawing breath as the beginning of suffocation, and tried to hyperventilate even harder. She knew that she was only seconds away from a physiological panic response, and once that started, she would be useless. Ascalon would be useless. She would be incapacitated as surely as if that blast of energy had hit and killed her.

Well not bloody today. She shot a glance at the video feeds of her fellow pilots, all grim-faced but still focused on the fight. Right. They all had a job to do, but she was the one who started up the dance. They were counting on her.

"Bridge," she demanded over the open channel. "Can you verify that the Angel's AT field is completely neutralized? Do we need to get another unit out here to finish the job?" As she spoke, she broke Ascalon into another dead sprint, aiming for the patch of ground directly beneath the Angel. She spared a scrap of concentration to maintain the pressure on her enemy's AT field, sending up everything that she was against the obdurate, alien presence above her.

It was only when she approached her destination that she noticed her umbilical was gone and her unit's battery timer had already engaged. She snorted in resigned ironic amusement. So much for staying within range of her extension cord. "And where is one of those damn umbilical ports? Durendal and I need to recharge."

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 0
Ammunition: NA
FP: 2
Fatigue: 0
Power Remaining: 4 rounds

Free action to maintain Neutralize, full action move to get approximately underneath the Angel. Spent 1 FP to overcome fear, and 4 rounds of battery power remaining.

[Tuv]

The worst part was probably not being able to do anything, anything at all to help.

Kelly quickly searches her pockets for her keys. "Fu-oh wait there they are." She ignored the strange looks that would inevitably follow the outburst.

A quick look over the 'non-essential' personnel, and Kelly finds a new guy who doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do. "You there, what's your name? Nevermind, I don't care. Go get my ride from parking, and get it idling out front. Leave it running."

She tells him where she parked, and how to disarm the booby-trap, before handing him the keys and shooing him on his way. Then she turns back to the big screen.

"Oracle, Touko, do either of you have any idea why that didn't work?"

Spending a fate point to get my keys if I didn't have them. I never mentioned picking them up, so yeah.

[Ulm11]

Alex grinned as he watched Serkan's well place shot hit the Angel dead center. The improvised plan had worked, everybody but Michael had done their jobs and he could get back and start chewing him out for that. However all was not right with the world as the Angel just took the shot without making even a hint that anything had happened to it, and then the skies seemed to open up above him and reigned down divine retribution.

Thanks to constant training Alex managed to start moving in time for the possibility of dodging the shot, but that was all for nothing as some how the reign of destruction missed him completely. The feeling of relief was short lived as he suddenly felt a surge of electricity run through Durendal, as while he had managed to avoid the attack, his umbilical cord was not so lucky as it had been
destroyed.

With barely any effort Durendal stood up, a bit frazzled but otherwise unharmed and looked up at the Angel. Alex knew he should be feeling terrified at this moment, which the beeping noise of his EVA running out of power should have only intensified, but he refused to back down. He had seen everything break around him before, and in fact still remembered the smell of smoke from Moscow, so the idea of letting that happen again disgusted Alex, so with not even a second thought to his safety he continued to glare daggers up at the EVA.

"Bridge, as Shanna said we need support out here as fast as possible. Either find a way to bring it down to us or send out new umbilical cords. Anything that command can do to help keep up the pressure will be appreciated." With that request sent Alex turned his attention to the rest of his team. "We will keep the field down Serkan so as soon as possible shoot at this damned thing again. Michael prove to us that you actually have a purpose out here and actually help fight this thing! Alex had managed to keep his voice calm during most of the broadcast, but by the end he had started to yell at the other pilot.

Now turning his attention to his own job he picked up his spear and began to strafe around the Angel keeping his A.T. field spread in order to counter the Angel's, while all the while he was waiting for the ideal moment to strike at the thing.

OOC: Durendal moves so that it is as close to Trishula as possible whilst staying close enough in order to Neutralize Mar's deflection bonus. With this turn done with Durendal has two rounds of power left.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan watches the afterglow of the shot for a moment. It's a good shot, he's fairly certain. It might not down the angel, but it would make it hurt.

And then it doesn't. Instead, the thing bathes the nearby two EVAs in light and he as much sees as senses they were hurt. As Trishula's sensors survey the aftermath, he sees both umbilical cables severed. Oh, crap. Oh crap. "Oh, crap," he says out loud, as he thinks what he is supposed to do now. "Shot didn't seem to do anything. They've lost their cords. Are there any spares nearby?"

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try again. Maybe the thing had better ATs than those during the training, or the calibration of the prototype was off, or something. If bad comes to worse, he could try to distract the thing enough for the others to get to new umbilicals, or... well, he'd have to make something up. Right now, he agreed with the Russian, he had to keep firing - as much to distract that thing from the others as to actually hurt it. "I know, I'll keep firing."

Trishula comes a bit closer, then quickly raises its gun and fires another shot. It wasn't time to panic... yet.

Half action move, half action wire w. +10 from aiming (due to the maser being a precise weapon, for a total of +30 before any modifiers.
BS Roll: [roll0], BS in suit: 51, reroll if failed due to well-placed: [roll1]

[Amaril]

"Jeez, Alex, calm down! I'm coming, I'm coming!" Michael replied irritably into his comms, exasperation with Alex clashing with his relief that the melee fighters were both apparently unharmed. It's definitely taking notice of us now, he thought. If we don't take it down fast, Alex and Shanna will be annihilated before long. He couldn't afford to wait until he was within optimal range anymore--he had to get Excalibur into the fight as soon as he could.
Slowing his Eva's pace slightly to a steady jog, he raised the pallet rifle to his shoulder and aimed down the sights. Stay calm, Michael he told himself, it's just like in the sims. Targets in the center...the pair of targeting reticules lined up on the Angel....pull the switch--struggling to correct for Excalibur's movement and compensate for the increased range, he pressed the trigger button on the right-side hand control. Please hit, please hit, please hit...

Half action to move to a range of 100 dam from Mars, another half to fire a semi-auto burst from the pallet rifle (as per its Burst quality) at a -10 penalty from long range, with an effective BS of 24.

BS roll: (1d100)[24]

Wow, how 'bout that--success, barely, assuming it fails to dodge (and assuming I'm doing this right, I'm still learning the rules).

[Fearan]

The blast from Serkan's rifle teared off one of the Angel's cristaline limbs. The vibrant display of colours, flashing out of "wound" made all the observers avert their eyes. After the falsh fades, the observers could notice, that the Thing drawed the remaining limbs as well as scorpion-like tale closer to its core, now exposed and not protected by the sphere of light.
OOC:
He's stunned for [roll0] rounds, and the core is now targetable

[Steel Mirror]

Ascalon slows to a stop as the bright display above her temporarily overloads her visual sensors. Once the view is clear, Shanna looks back up at the injured angel, taking heart at the apparent damage inflicted by the experimental rifle.

"Ha! Can't handle the heat, can you? This is our planet, *****! Go back to space, and tell your friends how we deal with rude guests." The crystalline limb crashes to Earth a few dozen meters away, shaking the ground with its impact and sending up yet another spray of dirt and rocks.

Then, as an afterthought, she adds, "And good shot, Serkan. Now we just have to hit him in the big glowing tenders." She squints up at the glowing red target, sets Ascalon into a wide stance, like an Olympic javelin thrower, and balances the spear in one hand, aimed up at the otherworldly monstosity. "We'll keep it distracted."

Then she lets the spear fly, hoping that she gets lucky and scores a hit, or that she at least distracts it long enough for her allies to finish it off before it recovers its wits. Otherwise, she might be missing that spear very soon . . .

Ascalon Status

{table]_____|Armor|Wounds|Critical
Head|5|8/8|0
R. Arm|5|10/10|0
L. Arm|5|10/10|0
Body|7|14/14|0
R. Leg|5|10/10|0
L. Leg|5|10/10|0[/table]
Synch Ratio: 50
ATS: 0
Ammunition: NA
FP: 2
Fatigue: 0
Power Remaining: 3 rounds

Maintaining neutralize as a half action, which increases the breach with Ascalon's spear by 6. Free action to aim (spear is accurate), last half action to attack (+10 from aim, -20 from called shot, -10 from range . . . target is 23. And you said Michael is a bad shot :smallbiggrin:). This is probably a bad idea . . .
[roll0]

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

Trishula's arm was immobile for a bit, as if it remained stable to guide the shot. Whatever it was, it seemed to do the trick, and though nothing in the expression of the giant mecha changed, the glare of the blast seemed to give it an almost smug expression.

Inside, Serkan's stare went from pensive and tense to jubilant. "Hah!" he half-laughed, half-snarled. "This time it worked. I got it wounded, people - get to it and finish it off before it recovers. Hurry, you two don't have cables, " he added, then thought. "Bridge, can you get the soldiers to shoot it too?"

He smiled at Shanna's words. "It feels good to be a hero, heh. Can you go on for a while?" he added, then realized he should be finishing the thing off, not chatting. "Moment," he added, then cut the channel to reduce incoming noise. Hey, maybe it was time to really kick it up a notch. He got it injured, so how about trying to hit the same place for even more damage? From what he was told, a definite wound was a lot better than several minor ones.

Plus, it would look totally badass. Ooookay, here goes nothing, he thought and aimed... This better work...

Ok, will move as half towards the others and aim/shoot as half (precise weapons can get +10 aim on a half action shot). If possible, I will go for a called shot at the same location for maximum damage.
Ballistic skill: [roll0] +20 from aiming with an accurate weapon, -20 for called shot if possible, maybe other modifiers for it being stunned?
- using well-placed for a reroll if necessary: [roll1]

Edit: oh, drat. Well, I still have some FPs, and I want to end this thing asap before it manages to pull some crazy stuff. I will use FP and the Lucky Bastard survivor trait to invert the digits on the first shot (should be possible since it is activated when you see the result) instead of a reroll. 07 instead of 70 sounds a lot better :smallwink:

[Ulm11]

Alex smiled in relief as he saw the Angel's limb being blasted off it's unnatural body. "Second times the charm then Serkan?" he says with a chuckle before turing back to his display. That rapidly brought him out of his good mood as he saw that his battery life was now rapidly dwindling away and if this combat didn't end soon then he would be rendered helpless to do anything against the angel.

Time to take matters into my own hand Alex thought grimly as he cocked back his right arm. With the unnatural glow gone he could see what he assumed to be the Angels core, and now was the time to take advantage of that fact. Moving as if he had all the time in the world he put his left arm out in front of him and pointed it up at his target. Each of Durendal's eyes locked onto the target, each providing the data needed to focus on the Angel until he was completely ready. With a single thought he forced his A.T. field out once more to neutralize the Angels last form of defence he let out a cry of rage before launching the spear with all he had at the beast.

OOC:
Maintaining neutralize as a half action, which increases the breach with Durendal's spear by 6. Free action to aim (spear is accurate), last half action to attack (+10 from aim, -20 from called shot, -10 from range)Maintaining neutralize as a half action, which increases the breach with Ascalon's spear by 6. Free action to aim (spear is accurate), last half action to attack (+10 from aim, -20 from called shot, -10 from range
Attack roll
[roll0]23 or lower to hit
[roll1] use of a fate point if the first one fails
Damage rolls assuming I hit the thing.
[roll2]
[roll3]

[Amaril]

"Holy crap, Serkan, that was awesome!" Michael called out exultantly. One more like that and we can pack this in!
With its core exposed, it looked like Mars had stopped its advance. At this rate, Excalibur would never get within optimal range in time to get a good shot at the core--on the plus side, however, now that Shanna and Alex weren't in danger of getting blasted, he could take the time to line up his shot properly from here. He bent his will, and Excalibur skidded to a halt, rifle braced for another volley. Moving the hand controls subtly, Michael waited for the crosshairs to line up right on the Angel's weak point, waiting until he was sure the rounds would find their mark.

Spending a full action aiming. Next round, I'll fire a full-auto burst at a total of 64 BS.

[Fearan]

Yet another shot, yet another hit. The beast, that destroyed an entire colony hovered helplessly in the sky under the Evangelion's fire.
The spear, thrown by Durendal have pierced the protective layer of the core, shattering the crystals and making the shards of Angel's body rain all over the battlefield. And then the light came.
The shot of Serkan's rifle, pierced the core, yet it seemed to be not enough to destroy it. The light of the shot have reflected in the cristalline form of the Angel, colouring the sky in rainbow patterns, but nothing else.
- Maybe it wasn't that good idea to send a light-based weapon against a cristalline creature - murmured someone on the bridge. The following five seconds felt like an eternity. And then, yet again, light came.
Back at the bridge, Touko suddenly screamed IT'S A CHAIN REACTION! DROP! NOW! The colours inside the Angel's form swirled violently, and suddenly splashed outside, as the wave of white light so pure, it seemed to cleanse the surroundings of all imperfection - colours, life and existance. And, unfortunately, the Evas.
OOC:
It's an explosion, that ignores deflection, and deals 1d10+8 pen 10 damage in a 30 dam blast. It's of course dodge-able

[Tuv]

It was beautiful, if you could call it that, but then Touko yelled out, and so did Kelly. "CUT SHANNA'S SYNCH TO ASCALON. WE NEED TO GET A RESCUE TEAM OUT THERE RIGHT NOW."

There wasn't time for the smoke to clear, for sensors to come back up, to survey the damage, there was only time for action. She calms down just enough to sound commanding instead of crazed. "I'm going. Keep me posted."

Then she ran, to where she hoped her ride would be waiting, to drive as fast as it would go.

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna pumps Ascalon's fist in celebration as Durendal's spear cuts into the Angel's core. Then the deadly accurate Maser shot slams home again, and she throws in a celebratory hop. "Take that yo-"

The explosion catches her flat-footed, in the middle of a mouthy taunt. She doesn't even have time to curse or curl up. The wave front of expanding incandescent energy lifts her Eva bodily into the air, sending them both tumbling with no sensation of up, down, or anything but incandescent, unbelievable pain.

At some point, she realizes she is screaming. She feels the panic rising within her, and phantom pain from her paralyzed lower back adds to the cacophony of sensory overload and neural feedback.

A few instants or eternities later, Ascalon fetches up against the side of a dune, the surface of the ground blasted into molten slag from the sheer energy that was just released.

Warning lights are skittering around the edges of her cockpit display, as well as a rush of static that resolves into a view of the apocalyptic landscape after a moment.

She takes a quick moment to examine her unit's status. At some point, the command bridge apparently overrode her unit's A10 linkage, cutting her synch rate into the low actives. She is thankful for that, as it mutes the pain signals flooding through Ascalon's nervous net. It doesn't cut them completely, though, and she winces as a totally unreasonable amount of pain from her leg- her paralyzed, normally sensationless left leg- lances through her scattered thoughts.

"Oh you've got to be ****ting me." She cranes Ascalon's head to look down at its left leg. Which is gone. A narrow stump of ripped flesh, melted armor, and something like splintered bone is all that is left. Apparently the blast stopped just short of annihilating her unit entirely, but it's hard to feel grateful for her life when her unit's hydraulic fluid is spurting over the molten ground, hissing and boiling where it touches the scorched earth. "I JUST got these legs! Of all the damn things . . ."

She continues to curse and moan, her indignant fury helping to compartmentalize the pain and distract her from the panicky feeling of deja vu as she is once again immobilized and left injured by a deafening explosion. Unfortunately, the continued fluid loss is going to be a problem, and her onboard computer warns her that it will reach critical levels, whatever that means to a giant robot war machine, in a matter of moments.

"Command, please advise. My damn leg is torn off. Should I tie a tourniquette, or what?" Then, as an afterthought (she feels guilty about that, but she IS bleeding to death after all), she adds, "And please update me on the other units' status. Alex, you all right?"

She feels tears of repressed pain forming and dissolving into the LCL, but she doesn't have time for them. Not when her team might still need her.

[Amaril]

"SHANNA!" Michael heard himself scream as Excalibur sprinted towards Ascalon's smoking wreckage, moving faster than he had thought it ever could. Holy f***, holy f***, holy f***...come on, please be ok, oh God oh God oh God... His brain seemed to have stopped functioning, he was acting on instinct alone--he reached the wreckage of the downed Eva, barely registering the smoking stump where its leg used to be...he knelt Excalibur down in the sand by Ascalon's head and reached for the plate covering its plug socket, grasping its edges with both hands (he must have dropped his rifle somewhere) and pulling as hard as he could. Even if command had managed to cut Shanna's synch right away, the pain of losing a limb would still be immense--he had to get her out of there, staying in that plug would be torture...come on, Shanna, please be ok, please please please...

I don't know if pulling another pilot out of there Eva manually is something we can actually do, or how it actually works, but Shinji did it in episode 6, and even if it's not something they taught us, Michael's damn sure gonna try it now.

[Ulm11]

Alex grinned up at the Angel as Serkan's shot tore right through the core, and then everything went white. Years of training got his body to move just as he could no longer see, and that was all that allowed him to escape for as he hit the ground he could feel the sound of the explosion roar above him.

As the sound roaring death started to lessen what came next was so much worse, as he could hear Shanna scream in agony. It had been awhile since he had heard that type of scream, which brought up memories that were better left in the past. Nothing else mattered at that moment though, especially not his own personal failures, so he forced himself to get Durendal up to it's feet and with the last vestiges of it's power to dash towards Ascalon.

Despite being trained from the age of six to handle combat, the sight of what had happened to Ascalon was disturbing. The entire EVA was scorched and the stump where the left leg attached to the chassis was pumping out blood as the rest of the leg was little more then a charred piece of meat and metal. Having no idea what to do he made Durendal bend down and used it's right hand to try and stop the bleeding.

All he could was sigh to himself as Shanna began to worry about him.Her EVA's leg got blown clean off and one of the first thing she does is start worrying about me. Shaking his head slightly he spoke as calmly as he could to her. "There is no need to worry about me, I managed to avoid the explosion. Right now just focus on staying calm and we should be able to get you out as quickly as we can."

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna winces as Durendal appears out of the smoke and tries to stop the bleeding. She appreciates the help, but damn if it doesn't hurt all over again. "Good to hear it, Alex," she says through clenched teeth. "I might have to-" Another wince of pain. "Have you teach me some of those fancy soldier dodge moves before the next battle."

The gore continues to pump, spraying out in a torrent like a broken sprinkler head. Really, what was the point of putting the Eva's hydraulic fluid under that much pressure? And where did it keep all that blood?

Then Michael is shouting at her, and Excalibur is reaching down to cradle Ascalon's head. She is starting to feel a little light-headed, herself, and she tries to reassure him. "Don't worry, man. I'm fine. You think they can make a wheel chair for Ascalon?"

[Amaril]

Shanna's remark called Michael back to his senses. Suddenly extremely embarassed, he momentarily stopped trying to dislodge the plug cover, leaving Excalibur awkwardly kneeling there. Wow, nice job, bro. Really smooth how you reacted to that just now. Ten out of ten for style.
Oh...um...yeah, uh, that's good, then" he said slowly, trying to sound calmer. "So, um...need any help getting out of there?"

[Steel Mirror]

"I wouldn't," another pant, "object." She tries to catch her breath, but the heavy LCL is making it hard again, and without the ability to breathe evenly, the pain is starting to catch up to her.

Then the power cuts out.

In the sudden blackness, the pain fades somewhat, but the ghost of sensation is more than enough to make her wish she were somewhere else. It doesn't seem fair that her useless leg should feel so terrible, and she still hasn't caught her breath. The dark and the cramped quarters aren't helping. The whole situation is feeling far too familiar.

"Michael? You still there?" Her voice starts to take on a more nervous twinge. "Guys? Alex? Kelly? Can someone get me out of here?"

[Amaril]

"Whoa, hey, Shanna, you just went dark. Is your comms still working? Do you copy?" When there was no answer, Michael redoubled Excalibur's grip on the plug cover and kept trying to remove it. "Urgh...is there some trick to these? Damn thing won't budge an inch..."

[The_Shaman]

Serkan winces as the shot hits home and yet seems to have no effect. "Damned fancy prototypes," he mumbles. Ok, sure, the rifle was accurate as a curse, but it's only as good as what it does, doesn't it?

Then he sees what it does. He feels a jubilation, quickly followed by concern, and he dashes to see what is happening to the others. "Oh, ****," he mutters as he sees Shanna's EVA. Ironically, he has some idea about how to patch up someone living, but an Eva? How the heck should that work? "Oh, damn. Shanna! What's happening in there?" Not getting an answer, he tries other channels. Dammit, whatever's happening there should be something working!

He notices what the others are doing, and Trishula crouches near the downed EVA unit. "What are you doing?" he asks Michael with worry obvious in his voice.

[Ulm11]

"I don't no if I can teach instinct, but I will try my..." Trying his best to keep Shanna calm he suddenly stops speaking when he sees what Michael is trying to do. This is the one issue he had with half of his team, letting their emotions getting the better of them. While he is not perfect Alex at least knew that trying to rip out an entry plug from an EVA was pure lunacy, because at best the attempt will just damage the thing, with the more likely result being that the entire thing just shatters in his grip.

Hoping to snap Michael to reality he begin to bellow at his inept squad mate, in the slim hope that it will prevent him from doing anything stupid. "What the hell are trying to do? Even if you do get it out a single slip of control and you will break the Entry plug and crush Shanna to death, so calm down and start acting like a soldier." Worse come to worse he could force the idiot to move, but that hope soon fades as he feels Dundural powering down around him. Most people would have been scared in this situation, and even normally Alex would have felt some degree of doubt, but right now all that he could feel was rage at the risk Michael was taking.

[Amaril]

"So what, you want to just leave--" Michael's angry reply was cut off by Alex's comms going dark as well. "Dammit! Fine, we'll wait for cleanup to get here. And I'm so sorry I don't have your comprehensive knowledge of exactly what to do in this situation that I was never trained for, on account of only having been here for two goddamn months!" He felt bad about what he'd said the moment he finished his rant, even though he knew Alex hadn't heard it. Guilt and embarrassment feeding each other, he released his grip on Ascalon's armor and slumped dejectedly back in his pilot's seat.
Why the hell am I even in this thing? he found himself thinking as he looked around him at the interior of his Eva. I don't belong here, I have no f***ing idea what I'm doing...I should just tell the Major I'm quitting.

[The_Shaman]

Trishula looks around, as if scowling. "Damn it, you two, stop this s..t, it isn't helping. Does anyone here know what the hell we are supposed to do?" he adds, this time towards the bridge. Simulations have not included this case, at least while Shanna's EVA is out of power... huh. Wait. "Smart boy, stop sulking, check with bridge. You're the one who's supposed to have the good ideas, think of something with them."

"Hey, comms are out...What happens if we plug her EVA to one of our cables? They should work, there's got to be some system or stuff that could help her. All that life support this and protection that" Serkan says, looking around for any comments as his Eva reaches around for her umbilical. If not stopped, he will plug Trishula's cable in Ascalon.

[Amaril]

Serkan's suggestion about the cables shook Michael out of his discomfort somewhat. "That's not a bad idea, actually...the cables are universal, we can transfer one of ours over to Ascalon so Shanna can eject on her own or whatever you were thinking we should do." He realized what Serkan had said could almost be worked out to a compliment, which cheered him up marginally more.
"Command, are you getting all this? Type-Mars is down and Ascalon's pretty badly damaged, we're waiting on extraction out here. Anything we should be doing until it arrives?"

[Fearan]

As the light of the last explosion and the thrill of battle faded, the cameras showed to the bridge the scorched battlefield. Where Angel once was, there was only a crater with the classy surface to which the molten dunes hae transformed by the heat of the explosion. There was Askalon, lying on the dunes, and its torn-of leg, lying near the crater. The crater, the surrounding wasteland, and the Ascalon's leg was fulli devoid of any color, it previously had - all that left was a dull shade of grey. The camera's pictured the mercs, who was looking at the battlesite, still not believing, it was over. And the camera shoved the Evas, to which the extraction teams allready moved in the medical helicopter. With that, the first day of the Strange War was over.

Breaking news!
The terrible explosion have destroyed the orbital colony. The quantity of victims is not yet revealed, but we can allready say - it's massive. The cause of the explosion is supposed to be a cataclysmic reactor failure, but, given, that it occured on the day of surrender declaration, there are suspitions of a diversion, terrorist attack, or even a suicide action by a splinter group within the colony itself. Anyway, the colony is destroyed, and it's remnants fell to earth in the wasteland near the Geofront 01, where, apparently caused secondary explosions and damaging of the NERV's asset. The UN counsil is assembled for the emergency meeting, while the NERV still haven't made any comments. Stay tuned for the up-to-date information on XYZ News.

OOC:

Okay, here be the episode 1 end. The pilots will be extracted, the post-battle clean-up will be made and, while the R&D try to dig something useful out of the sensors and the battle remains, the Operational departement is given a day-off.

The aftermath:
Research gained: 23
Collateral inflicted:
Running - 4
Angel firing - 6
Eva's missed shots -1
Final blast - 15
Eva losing a limb - 5

31 total for a Very succesful battle. 35 surplus is added to NERV's funding.

EXP time:
All of you got your 200 xp episode basis.
Plus:
Tuv gets extra 50 for enduring doing nothig and not sending the pitiful low-level conventionals to their sure death.
Amaril gets 50 for impressive roleplay
Ulm11 gets 50 for teamwork and poking the Eldrich abomination with a stick
Steel Mirror gets 100 for being EXTRA AWESOME
And finally, The_Shaman gets an extra 100 for nearly one-shotting the poor thing *Unkillable concepts, sure*


Next Episode - coming up tommorow. Feel free to interact, plot your Time management routines and such in the mean time. The next episode would be more of a social one, with reports, negotiation, and of course, PLOT

[Fearan]

Episode 2: It is (not) a filler


It is the next day after the joint forces have the TYPE- MARS dispatched. Due to the effort, that major Kelly Sullivan have put in conserving the conventional forces and the bold charge into the wasteland of the Evanglion squad, the human losses of the NERV was negligable - that couldn't be said about the colony.
The world is in mourning - the fact, that the colony was destroyed was impossible to hide, and it's loss was the biggest disaster that hit humanity since the Impact itself - even the Chinese conflict has paled before this calamity. And thus, the people mourned - of course, the world has no idea, what actually happen.
But all this didn't concern the group sleeping peacfully deap incide the NERV G-01 after a long and tiring day. For them, it was morning. And for the most of them - a day off.

Kelly
Kelly will find a message on the communicator in her room - it is a call from the Base Commander, demanding her presence in his office - today at 10.00. Hopefully, Kelly isn't a long sleeper

Shanna
Shanna, however, haven't slept all that peacefully. Her rest was interrupted by a sequence of weird dreams. She saw a bizarre alien world, covered in toxic-green clouds which were lit by a periodicaly flashes of lightning. She saw the pitch-black ocean of something resembling more tar, then liquid. She saw the rocky spires ascending from that ocean - and they were crumbling. And finaly, she saw inhabitants of this place - there was TYPE - MARS, firing it's light beams at a gigantic dark figure, which somehow looked like... a EVA? Then her vision blurred, and she open her eyes. It was her room - and the clock showed 4 AM

[Steel Mirror]

4 AM. The clock blinks at her in the early hours. Not so awful early, really, given that she normally wakes at 6 in order to get started on her regular routine of physical therapy and combat training. But she'd had trouble getting to sleep, the night before. She couldn't even remember falling asleep, in fact. She hadn't been sure she would ever sleep again.

The light is still on in her room- she hadn't wanted to risk a whole night in the pitch black. It was too easy to imagine still being trapped, still inside the plug. Or under a pile of crushing stone.

The pain in her leg hasn't passed, but it has been eclipsed by the strangeness of her dream. Just a figment of her disturbed mind, a fragment of mental trauma. She tells herself that, but doesn't quite believe it. For one, it had seemed so immediate, and real. Stranger than anything she could think up on her own. For another thing, saying that it was a result of her breaking psyche would mean admitting that the psychiatrists had been right about her all along.

Well, no point in trying to go back to sleep. She levers herself out of bed, and onto her wheelchair nearby. She rolls quietly out of her room and into the common area, wondering if there's a place nearby to grab a cup of something warm and comforting.

[Ulm11]

Alex groaned as he forced himself out of bed. The day after piloting Durendal always left him feeling a bit strange, so it came to no surprise to him that they day after his first actual engagement with the enemy left him sore. Of course remembering what happened yesterday spoiled any chance of him being in a good mood. No matter what was said he only managed to survive what happened yesterday due to pure luck. After being trained constantly to be able to handle such a conflict, this feeling of inadequacy disgusted him.

Twenty minutes later he finally forced himself out of the shower. It had managed to cool down the more damaging feelings from earlier on. Decked out in his sweatsuit for his morning routine Alex poured himself a bowl of cereal. He wondered for a moment if anybody was up but he couldn't be bothered to investigate. He felt like he should talk with his squad-mates about yesterday due to how chaotic everything had been after the fight, but that could wait. Anyway it would be better to talk after the run so that he could have given himself a bit more time to calm down. He groaned slightly as he looked at the clock. It's only 6:30? Looks like it is going to be a long day he thought to himself.

[Steel Mirror]

"Breakfast of champions," Shanna calls out to Alex as she re-enters the common area. Her morning workout routine, performed a little early and powered by caffeine and stubbornness, had invigorated her, even if it hadn't taken her mind off the strange dreams. She wasn't about to share those, though. Her comrades might start thinking that she was cracking.

She tried not to worry about whether that evaluation might, in fact, be correct.

"I wasn't kidding about practicing dodging, by the way. I'm not sure what the higher-ups have planned for us following our debut, but if we get some simulator time, would you mind showing me some tricks? I'm not exactly footloose here in the real world." She taps the wheels lightly and rolls into the kitchen, looking for something sugary to start her morning.

[Ulm11]

Alex chuckled softly as he took a shovelled some of the tasteless pieces into his mouth. "Compared to what I have had to eat before this is the food of the gods." It seemed as though the LCL had unearthed more memories then he was comfortable with as the less said about the past the better.

"Judging from how the last fight went that's going to be an important skill for the both of us to work on so yeah I will help you out." Alex took a quick bite before continuing to speak. "As a side benefit it would be good chance to help familiarise our selfs on going head to head in EVA scale combat feels like, as I doubt there will be another battle where we basically just end up on the sidelines." For a moment he wanted to ask her about how she felt at the end of the battle, but that would be a topic better left to later. "Anyway, do you need any help getting anything or is it all still where you left it?

[Steel Mirror]

"Anyway, do you need any help getting anything or is it all still where you left it?

"What, do I need help because I'm not as far off the ground as the rest of you?" She smiles to signify that she's joking, but it's a little more brittle than it usually is. She knows that he doesn't mean anything by it, but she prefers to pretend that her disability doesn't exist. His comment reminds her of it, even if he didn't mean anything by it. Even if he wasn't even talking about it.

"Or is it because I'm not a soldier boy? Or because I'm not a boy at all?" She rolls by and gives him a punch- playful but still fairly strong- in the hip.

"Yesterday was a special occasion, you boys shouldn't get used to getting to help me get dressed. I'll be able to get everything myself, I think." She gets a bottle of cold water from the refrigerator and rolls the chill plastic against her forehead to cool down. "What about you? You need any help getting your plugsuit on?" She grins a little more mischievously, and more genuinely, and meets his eyes.

[Tuv]

"Paperwork, paperwork, PAPERWORK. If they were out of materials to build it all, they could have just used all this BLOODY PAPER. I'm not even allowed to sleep anymore!"

Kelly slams her head into a pile of supply requests that she had started crumpling up and stacking to retain her sanity.

"He gives me a job, promotes me from a civilian to a major, and now demands my presence, probably to complain about doing my new job wrong..." she sighs softly "Well, let's go see what commander useless wants."

It doesn't take terribly long for her to arrive. She looks at a nearby clock on the wall. [11:00]

"FFFFfffff-"

[Ulm11]

Alex only grinned as Shanna spoke. He had just basically said the one thing that he never should around her, so he was very grateful that she was taking it so well. "It's more because I end up sticking the more fun stuff on the top shelves so that Kelly does not know how much junk food we actually eat." He starts to chuckle as he feels her punch him. "You may not be a soldier boy but you sure do know how to fight like one."

Everything seemed to be going like normal but then of course she had to bring up the locker room incident from yesterday, which of course he had almost succeeded in forgetting but all he can do now is blush slightly. "Uhh, well of course that was a one time only event." Boot camp did nothing to help with this situation. "And I suppose if you really want to you could help me out but I should be fine."

[Steel Mirror]

"And I suppose if you really want to you could help me out but I should be fine."

Shanna snorts. "Keep dreaming soldier boy. I'll meet you at the simulators. If you see anyone, tell them what's up in case they want to join in on the fun. Heaven knows it's probably more exciting than whatever debriefing the brass has planned for us."

She opens the bottle of water and scoots toward her room to grab a plugsuit.

[Ulm11]

"You were the one who asked about it. Anyway the debriefing shouldn't be too long because what can they really say. Try to be careful about Angels blowing up? The only one who has anything to really worry about is Michael."

With the change of plans Alex finished his cereal and headed back into his room to change into his plugsuit. Note to self. Look into getting a new plugsuit. During the last battle it didn't feel as though it was giving me the protection that I needed.

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

It had been a big day yesterday, the exhilaration of the victory and the worry about Shanna's EVA draining him emotionally, and the happenings afterwards being a lot physically. He sleeps long and reasonably solid, waking up a fair bit after the others.

Sleep, like some other things, are a matter of opportunity. You take them as they come, and if you have the chance - you stock up.

As he awakes, he strives to remember what he dreamt about. He did dream about something, but he can't remember it now. He has this weird idea that Trishula had something to do with it. He tries to consider her - it - just a weapon, but on some level he knows it doesn't work that way. Trishula is not something you pick up and then leave. When you pilot it, it hooks up in you. Though, frankly, if she'd perform as well as she did there, he doesn't really mind.

He goes to the breakfast area, ready to star his hopefully reasonably boring day. "Hey," he shortly greets anyone there.

[Steel Mirror]

It is surprisingly difficult to shower when you are confined to a wheelchair. Nerv had supplied a custom bathroom setup to help around that issue, and they had done a pretty good job. But it is still a time consuming and frankly annoying process.

So she doesn't bother. Shanna strips off her exercise clothes and mops herself off with a sponge and a bucket, relishing the coolness of the drying water on her skin. Then she applies some deodorant and ties back her hair, and wiggles into her plugsuit in preparation for the simulators.

Her A10 clips are in her lap when she wanders back into the common area, and says good morning to Serkan. "Nice shots yesterday," she adds. "We would have been pretty useless without you there to show us how it's done. Actually, we were pretty useless. If they could just invent some kind of gun that could blast through those AT fields, you wouldn't need us at all!"

"Hope they give you a performance bonus for that. You freaking saved the world, buddy."

[Ulm11]

After quickly getting the plugsuit on Alex heads back into the general area. He sighed slightly as he heard Shanna begin to talk. "I am glad to see you got your plugsuit on just fine. Anyway, I know for the most past yesterday's battle went well, but I doubt it's going to be that straight forward ever again. All that Angel really did was float around until Serkan burst it like a bubble. We can not take these things lightly or else we really will end up dying like those colonists."

Alex grabbed his water bottle from the fridge and headed towards the door before turning back to the face both of them. "Anyway me and Shanna were about to head to the simulator if you want to join us."

[The_Shaman]

"Heh, you really think so? Can I have it in ice cream?" Serkan smiled widely at the compliment as he was getting his breakfast - milk, cereals, and tea. . Man, it did feel good to be a hero... even though it was a bit by chance. But then again, most things that went good in his life were from making the most of his chances. "Still, that's how was supposed to go - you and Alex hold it down and beat it up, Michael does whatever he does, I shoot. It worked. How are you holding up? I was a bit worried when your Eva's leg broke and you went black on us."

He sat down at the table, pouring the wannabe-milk in the cereal, and looked across at Alex "We didn't take it lightly," he said, trying to keep himself from rolling his eyes. The soldier seemed to have any sense of humor or even enjoyment of life amputated out of him. "I guess it was nastiest up close. Anyway, I want to do some exercises first, I've been getting cooped up in here. I'll pass by the sim in case you're still there, okay?"

[Ulm11]

"I know that you didn't take it lightly. You might be surprised to hear that I was actually in said battle. What I was referring to was about possible future battles against other Angels." To Alex it always felt slightly strange interacting with the rest of his team, as even though they had been living together for a year or so, it still felt very clear that he had grown up in a very different world then they had. "Chances are it will be more likely that we will meet up again during our debriefing session as I am sure they will want to talk to us about what we should and should not have done." With nothing more to say Alex began to head down to the simulators.

[Fearan]

Nerv simulator facility, deep in the dome of Geofront:

The facility looks deserted - only the duty shift of the engeneers and maintenance staff is doing its daily routine near the four contact capsules set up in the hangar-like compartment. The facility itself is in dark, probably conserving the energy, and the most catching detail the pilots could notice - is, as always, the smell of LCL - different for each pilot.
As the members of the Eva squad entered the hangar, they hear a voice from the top of Shanna's simulator capsule - Hi! What's you're doing here on your day off? - the pilots recognised Stella (http://static.diary.ru/userdir/7/6/6/1/76611/77646122.jpg), one of the R&D members. She waved to the group smiling and slipped down from the capsule and moved to the elevator down, which would take her to the entrance and the pilots.

General Kaworu's office
General was in his chair digging in some papers. Apparently, Kelly wasn't the only one with tons of paperwork and bureacracy. As Kelly entered, he lifted his eyes and declared.
Attention! For failing to fulfill the order in time, Major Sullivan is charged of two weeks salary. For exceptional performance of Nerv operational departemnt in the operation 'Red Dawn', Major Sullivan is awarded two weeks salary. At ease! - then he continued in a slightly less official tone. Yet the atmosphere in the room still filled like an iceberg.
I'm glad, I have an opportunity to make myself clear before another TYPE shows up - while it is hard to get back to military lifestyle in an instant, you haven't been chosen for nothing - I will tolerate no more of the discipline violation - do I make myself clear?

[Tuv]

She turns her head to the side, letting her neck crack as the commander chews her out.

"With all due respect sir, your idea of 'discipline' seems to involve a complete lack of preparedness in the face of an imminent threat, complete disregard for the physical and mental safety of children, total willingness to put all the responsibility on a civilian, and then expecting punctuality from someone who has a physical disability in a non-emergency.

I'll keep your concerns in mind, but you will NOT intimidate me. I don't even care if I end up doing this job pro bono, I won't let you abuse your position to enforce terrible ideas.

I don't know why you are doing things this way, but I plan on fixing your mistakes. With that in mind I need to go have a serious conversation with an architect, give a bunch of tweens the talk that they never seemed to get, and then requisition a stun-gun and have a talk with some of these so-called 'teachers' you have assigned to the pilots.

Anything else, sir?" she salutes smartly.

Geez, when did I become my mother?

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna grins and waits for the elevator to reach the bottom. "Hey Stella! There are no days off for the defenders of Earth!"

She waits until the researcher is visible again, and stepping out of the lift. "I'm sure you've heard what happened to me and Ascalon yesterday. I was going to try to get Alex to teach me a few dodging moves, but we sort of need the simulators to make any progress in that area." She gestures at herself. "Think we could get a program fired up and a pair of simulators online? Pretty please?"

[Ulm11]

Alex nodded slightly as Shanna continued to speak."Who needs rest? It is our job to be as prepared as possible for the next time those things come as who else on this planet will be able to stop them? For I much rather not end up seeing anything else like what happened to that colony happen again. That and during the last battle we had a surprisingly passive role so I thought it would be a good idea to get in some actual fighting practice in so that we can get used to fighting Eva scale foes."

Keeping pace with Shanna Alex began to roll his shoulders in order to banish the last remnants of sleep from his body.

[Fearan]

General's office.
I see - Kaworu seemed unimpressed with Kelly's raging outbreak. We are to report to th UN Special Committee - based on it, the army will deploy in Geofront 01 to assisit in Nerv's effort in exterminating the extraterrastial threat. You are to collect the information from the R&D, the mercenary unit and prepare the technical report. The deadline is today, 18.00 - it's a pity, I had no opportunity to deliver the order earlier. - the General lifted his eyes. -Listen carefully - he continued - while the Eva units proved themselves capable in the battle with the Angel-class entities, their weapon capacity is limited. We need them to breach the AT-fields, if I'm reading the reports correctly, but I want as much actual killing power on support as possible. Make this report damn convincing if you care for safety of the pilots. Questions?

Simulation room
Stella raised her eyes towards the heavens in a over-dramatic manner, with all her face displaying confusion. - Jeez, not you too. - she said in a surprised tone. - First Michael comes and makes me power-up the facility, now you. I mean, what's up with you - it's a day of, allright? You'll have ton of drills starting tommorow, why don't you go and relax - besides, I know a wonderous place in the outskirts - she looked then in the faces of the pilots, and uttered a sigh - Okay, okay, i'll get your sims up and running. Go join Mychael - he's in the shower, preparing himself - the girl then went off towards the consoles, murmuring something about "wannabe heroes"

[The_Shaman]

Serkan

The youngest member of the pilot group nods at Stella as he walks with the others before heading his own way. Nerds and their games. "Yeah, they're quite serious about the whole thing? I'll head out for some walking, maybe a jog or two. What is this place you mentioned," he adds, looking quizzically at the R&D girl.

[Ulm11]

"You do now that we still have the rest of the day right? Anyway for about as long as I can remember training has been a part of my life so it actually does help me relax." Alex gives a slight shrug as he walks in to the locker room to go take a shower. The whole wannabe hero comment irked him but he had better things to worry about then what one of the support staff thought of him. However he was surprised to hear that Serkan had similar sentiments. From what little he knew about his upbringing Alex was sure that he would take whatever chance he got to improve his skills.

After quickly stripping down Alex got into the showers to give himself a quick rinse to ready himself for the simulation session.

[Tuv]

"It shall be one of my top priorities, sir. Along those same lines, I'll save some time and request a formal meeting with the UN representative. Maintaining good relations, or even securing a partnership, could provide us with more... resources to work with."

[Steel Mirror]

Shanna

"In the shower?" Shanna blanches, but Stella is already walking away. "Umm, I already showered and all that this morning . . . " And I think I've had enough of being put on show for the menfolk around here. "You think it would be all right to wait for him here? I've got my plug suit on and everything." Shanna motions to herself, then grabs the clips and fixes them in place on her head.

"In fact, I'm ready to go when you are."