For the first time in many generations, the Zentradi knew
fear. Two aces, seemingly death personified, flew with the enemy's
forces, and none could stand against the two of them The fighter
bearing the skull and crossbones emblem, and the fighter edged in icy
blue were fearsome alone, and together were nearly unstoppable.
Even the Angels, the greatest aces of the Zentradi forces,
seemed unable to stop them. Of the thirteen three had already been
slain, casting a spell of fear over the entire army. The only thing
that gave them any hope was that a leader had been unable to harness
these Angels of Death as a weapon against all enemies. If he or she
arose from the enemy ranks, they were likely doomed.
Suddenly, and without warning, Lt. Asuka Langley sneezed
loudly. "Excuse me," she wiped at her nose as she looked the bulky
fighter over dubiously.
Gendo Ikari's latest creation rested on it's special the
launch bay, the armored Evangelion. Nearly twice the size of the
previous generation of mobile fighter, it was laden with a new kind of
lightweight, advanced protective armor.
"Isn't it magnificent?" Gendo's eyes were oddly wild.
Asuka looked at him dubiously then back at the fighter, "Are
the engines powerful enough to carry all the extra weight?"
Gendo looked at the plane a moment, "Hmm, good point." He took
her by the arm, and Asuka sighed with relief as they moved away from
the first prototype to another one. "The strike Evangelion," he said
proudly.
Asuka's eyes widened as she circled the sleek craft. It
actually looked lighter that the previous Evangelions, but the cannon
it carried was impressive. Instead of standard missile racks, stylized
pods of mini- missiles were mounted on the wings. She climbed up to
look into the cockpit, and sighed dreamily at the advanced control
systems. She frowned suddenly.
Hopping down from the plane Asuka asked him pointedly, "OK,
what's wrong with it?"
"What do you mean, what's wrong with it?" Gendo said
defensively.
"This is the prototype that got that other pilot, Hunter,
killed isn't it," Asuka gestured to the deadly looking fighter plane.
"Well, yes," Gendo admitted glumly. He perked up, "But I'm
sure we've worked out that little problem with the missile launchers
jamming that destroyed the last prototype."
Asuka looked at him and sweatdropped, "I need a beer."
"Ahh, that hit the spot," Misato sighed happily.
"Captain!" Ritsuko scolded her.
Misato put the can of beer down by her command chair, being
very careful not to spill any. "You know if I don't have my beer I get
cranky," she defended herself, "and if I'm cranky, I don't make
decisions well."
"You are such a lush," Ritsuko sighed.
Maya sweatdropped. A alarm sounded on her board, and Maya
quickly worked to bring up the crisis data. "Enemy ships, inbound,"
she reported.
Fully professional Misato crisply asked, "Class of ships?"
"Just two light cruisers," Maya reported, "but they've brought
along two full compliments of fighters with them!"
Over a thousand enemy fighters. Their pilots would be
operating at a grave disadvantage, outnumbered nearly three to one.
Ritsuko began to give the fighter launch commands even as she asked
Maya, "Are there any Angels in the mix?"
"Two," Maya reported grimly.
The Angels were an unusual class of fighter the Zentradi
possessed, much faster and more powerful than any of the normal
Evangelion fighters. So far, only a few human pilots had survived
against them, but thankfully there only seemed to be a very small
number of the Angel fighters in the enemy force.
"Make sure Ayanami and Ikari are directed to where the Angels
are," Misato ordered grimly. The Angels of Death had survived against
the enemy Angels before, they might once again.
"Is Langley still assigned to them?" Ritsuko asked as she
passed on another set of orders.
"She's still over with Gendo," Maya reported, "you authorized
her transfer a week ago."
"Too bad," Misato frowned as she snuck a slurp of her warm can
of beer, "I think we could use her help out there."
The battle raged wildly outside the ship, Ayanami bobbing and
weaving as she tried to shake the bandit on her tail. Rei punched the
velocity higher, curling up and over, then cut her power as if she had
stalled out. The enemy swooped in for the easy kill only to be blown
away by her rail gun as she shifted into EVA mode.
Hovering on her boot thrusters Rei tried to access the overall
battlefield, and didn't much like what she was seeing. They were badly
outnumbered, and while the human pilots were fighting valiantly, they
were ultimately losing. The light blue haired girl shifted back to the
fighter mode, and tried to reach their newly assigned lieutenant. No
answer.
Shinji Ikari's face came on the screen. Pushing dark hair out
of his eyes he casually reported, "Looks like the new lieutenant
flamed out on us."
Rei felt a bit of pity for the slain young man, and oddly
wished that Asuka Langley were still flying along with them. The
redhead had been the first commanding officer to keep up with them in
ages, and she found that she missed that. Missed it quite alot. A
tactical alert came up on her view screen, and Rei cursed softly.
"Two Angels, incoming," Shinji confirmed what she had picked
up.
Rei switched back to EVA mode, hefting the heavy main gun. Her
red eyes narrowed as she quietly said to Shinji, "I wish Asuka were
here."
Asuka took the headphones off, an odd look on her face. She
had been trying to get a feel for what was going on outside, but she
hadn't expected to hear that. She ran back to the prototypes lab and
burst in, yelling, "Dr. Ikari?"
The rather eccentric looking scientist was using a crowbar to
peel hunks of armor off of the first Evangelion he had shown her.
"Yes?" Dr. Ikari asked mildly.
"Is the Strike ready to go?" He nodded, so Asuka continued, "I
want to take it out, test it under actual battle conditions."
"You want to.." Dr. Ikari echoed. Suddenly, really scary large
throbbing hearts appeared in his eyes, "No test pilot's ever said they
WANTED to take one of my prototypes out before! I always have to order
them."
Asuka gave him a wary look, "If you try to hug me, I'll hurt
you."
"Right," Dr. Ikari called the tech teams to help get the
fighter ready to launch. After giving her a quick rundown on the
controls he quietly asked Asuka, "Are you sure you don't want to try
this in a simulator, first?"
"No time," Asuka said crisply as she ran through the
pre-flight checklist, "my wingmen are in trouble, and I'm going to
help them."
"Good luck," Dr. Ikari brought the canopy down and moved away
from the plane.
'Let's see what this baby can do,' Asuka thought. She brought
the engines on, made sure the launch bay doors were open, and opened
up the throttle. Only to be thrust right back into the seat as the
plane rocketed out of the ship and right into the firestorm outside.
"Wha-HOO!" Asuka laughed as she swiftly ripped through enemy
formations, the new auto-cannon tearing battlepods apart, often with a
single shot. She connected with the bridge and crisply asked, "Where
are Ayanami and Ikari?"
Maya quickly called up the tactical data, even as Misato and
Ritsuko exchanged a surprised glance. "Was that Lieutenant Langley?"
Misato asked.
"Sounded like her," Ritsuko agreed.
Rei scowled as the dance went on, her weapon firing at the
enemy Angel who managed to stay ahead, barely. Previously, she and
Shinji had worked together to slay the Angels, something the enemy had
obviously figured out. A screening flight of battlepods kept their
allies away, while two Angels fought her and Shinji at the same time.
A near miss rocked her cockpit, and Rei softly muttered, "If
we don't get some support soon, we're as good as dead."
A burst of fire blossomed in the battlepod line as a sleek,
deadly fighter tore through, leaving them in disarray. Homing in on
Rei's EVA it transformed, moving in synch with her fighter. The two
humanoid robots bracketed the stunned Angel, then their combined
firepower blew it away.
Almost as if they were reading each other's minds they
switched to the fighter mode simultaneously, rocketing off to back up
Shinji. The Angel realized it's danger and broke off, accelerating
away from them at high speed.
"Out of the auto-cannon's range," Asuka muttered, looking
rather warily at the new missile launch system. She brought it
on-line, lined up the Angel in the cross-hairs, and opened fire. The
missiles launched perfectly, but a flight of Battlepods blocked their
path, sacrificing themselves to that the Angel could escape.
"Damn," Asuka muttered softly. She activated the
communications system to ask them, "Ayanami, Ikari, you two all
right?"
"Yeah," Shinji smiled wryly, "thanks to you."
Ayanami was actually smiling a bit, "Good to see you."
"Couldn't let you hog all the glory," Asuka shrugged
uncomfortably.
The battle raged on around them, but with the departure of the
Angels the spirit of the enemy pilots seemed to have fled as well.
Oddly, when Rei, Shinji and Asuka's Evangelions arrived to offer
support, the enemy all but turned tail and ran.
Kagi's chin was still covered with stubble as Asuka Langley
reported to his office. With her stunning victory the other day, the
young redhead could likely request anything she wanted, and have a
very good likelihood of getting it. She opened her mouth to speak, and
he braced himself.
"I want Ayanami and Shinji assigned to me as my wingmen,"
Asuka said.
"What?" Kagi blurted.
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