LNCrawler

Chapter 58: Interlude

Neon Genesis Evangelion ANIMA — LNCrawler · All chapters

Chapter 58:
Interlude
A CTING DEPUTY COMMANDER Toji Suzuhara hadn’t known where the Hakone window would take Super Eva, but he hoped that since Trois was with Shinji, he wouldn’t do anything rash. Now he wished he hadn’t let Shinji go.
The pilot hadn’t reported in—which meant he’d likely been sent somewhere outside transmission range. The telecommunications networks were in worse shape than Toji had realized.
He hadn’t recognized the view from the other side of the portal. This last time, the other side had been sunny—midday. The craggy mountains in the background hadn’t offered much in the way of landmarks, but they had provided shadows. By measuring the angle of the incoming sunlight, the technicians had narrowed the possible location down to a ring-shaped area centered in the Atlantic Ocean, which meant it could have been in Europe, Africa, or even part of South America. Without knowing where, Toji couldn’t send anyone else after Super Eva.
An interesting piece of outside information provided a possible hint. The European military was redeploying with extreme haste from the Mediterranean to northern Africa.
So, is he in Africa?
The only other transmissions were cries for help from one disaster or another, of the sort that were occurring everywhere across the globe. The airwaves were filled with more and more people turning to prayer, which was only natural. But Armaros’ voice had been heard all over the world, and more than a few had been taken in by his words. No matter the cause, the widespread breakdown of terrestrial communication was inconvenient, especially now that the satellites had gone dark.
When daybreak came, opinions were divided on how to handle recovery operations in Hakone. Toji Suzuhara and his aide, Fuyutsuki, were spending the early morning reexamining the options.
The acting deputy commander was worried about Shinji—actually, he was worried about a lot of people and a lot of things. He decided to bring up the message the JSSDF Akashima’s pilot had delivered.
“You mean how they want to move the seat of government to Tokyo-3?” Fuyutsuki asked. “I’m not sure what to think about that. But the land inside the caldera is UN leased territory, so I suppose it’s like a landlord kicking out his tenant, or maybe they’ll just want us to move to the edge and make room in the center.”
“But…” Toji protested. “We get attacked here, and fairly often, wouldn’t you say?”
“They think they can lure the enemy away with that fake heartbeat. But I’m not sure how much of their story is authentic. I have a feeling they’re still making up their minds about the move, too.”
As he spoke, Fuyutsuki went down the list of unresolved matters for the recovery efforts. The majority were tagged URGENT, and he quickly untagged them.
Whoa, he’s merciless, thought Toji, who tended to deliberate endlessly over each and every measure. The indecision often caused delays.
“If they’re really going forward with this move,” Toji said, “it’s going to have serious implications. This isn’t like when Tokyo-3 was contained on top of the Geofront. The city surrounds our HQ. Plus, you’ve got the fortified districts, and then everywhere else is at capacity with Nerv staff and the civilians and businesses that support us.”
“You’re right,” said Fuyutsuki. “So, do you think we instruct the Japanese government that they can set up camp in Gora to the west and in the northern part of the alluvial fan that got filled in when Mount Kami collapsed? That could work, but I don’t think they’ll like being confined to camps when the city’s right there…”
Fuyutsuki looked like he’d just remembered something.
“You have to understand,” he said, “the Japanese government throws out these kinds of requests every now and then. What would you do if, say, they wanted us to incorporate Eva Euro-II into Nerv Japan?”
“Huh?” Toji balked. Where in the heck did that come from? “No, we fought Euro-II in Hokkaido. And then the European planes got caught in that plague of locusts and crashed all over the mountains. Come on, you don’t seriously think that’s a possibility, do you?”
But of course, no matter how ridiculous that notion seemed, Toji couldn’t help but think of Hikari—Euro-II’s pilot.
Toji suspected that Fuyutsuki was needling him. Maybe that’s how old people like to add spice to their conversations.
“I don’t know about that,” Fuyutsuki said. “On a structural level, that whole incident was an internal conflict between two divisions of the United Nations—and one that entangled the militaries of several different countries. Someone has to take responsibility and fix this situation. The UN split up Nerv in the name of restoring order; there’s a nonzero chance they’ll decide to join us back together.”
Toji realized that the old man was trying to teach him something, so he stopped his work and listened.
“Besides,” Fuyutsuki continued, “the Europeans may have stolen our technology, but without the proper manufacturing resources, they’re stuck with the Eva components they already have. If Euro-II comes, it’ll come with a lot of crew—including engineers.”
And that could be beneficial. Toji had trouble accepting that Hikari was piloting an Eva that had once nearly killed him, but if it meant she could come home, then—
Wait.
“Uh… Couldn’t they try to take us over from the inside without a fight?”
Fuyutsuki smiled. He liked hearing Toji give an answer that reflected the duty of his station.
“That’s right,” the older man said. “It’s possible they might not settle for taking our knowledge but hijack our organization instead.”
Toji grumbled as he returned his attention to the relief efforts.
When Super Eva disappeared through the spatial gate that had been opened by Victors Two and Three, Ayanami Rei Six was piloting the Type-F Eva-00. She was tasked with finding the remains of the Angel Carrier that Shinji had barreled through on his way to the gate. The operations lasted late into the night, and it was more than Six’s roughly six-year-old body could handle.
That night—last night—the tuning room staff had recovered her from the entry plug, where the exhausted girl had been curled up like a cat, and put her in bed.
When morning came, she appeared before the primary staff in the command center, who’d either been up all night or taken only meager naps. Looking perfectly rested, she gave them a cheerful, “Morning!”
“It must be nice to be so young and able to recharge so quickly,” Toji remarked.
“We all could say the same about you, Deputy Commander,” a nearby technician said. “I don’t know how you’re still standing.”
“Believe me, I’m beat,” Toji said with a dry chuckle.
Six grabbed his pant leg. “I hear a rumble coming from below.”
Toji’s expression grew more serious, and he turned to look at the main screen.
“Excuse me,” he said to a technician. “Put the environmental data on the display.” Then he added, “Um, it’s been twenty-three hours since you slept, hasn’t it?”
A timetable log appeared on the screen and quickly rewound. The technician scrolled too far, and the log automatically closed.
“I got it,” said a technician from the middle deck below. “According to the Magi system, it’s volcanic gases.”
Though the Hakone caldera didn’t have any natural hot springs, large volumes of sulfuric gas and other gases vented in various locations; the local bathhouses used steam from those vents to boil their water.
Toji looked over the data and said, “It looks like the gases are coming out to the southeast…near where Owakudani used to be. They’re coming from the south, but I don’t think we need to worry about that, right?”
The technician who’d accidentally scrolled past the log data offered a defeated grin. “These kinds of minor gas movements happen all the time, what with the four-ton Evangelions stomping around. Frankly, I’m impressed she noticed such a small, low-frequency vibration at all. We could be lying down and still easily miss it.”
Toji patted Six on the head. “Nice going, Zashiki-warasix.”
She scowled.
Of all the Ayanamis, Six was by far the most expressive.
It was no coincidence that, three years ago, all the Eva pilots had been fourteen years old.
A pilot’s brain development directly affected their synchronization rate. The peak was thought to come at age fourteen. Shinji and the others had now passed that age, but through a combination of experience and artificial equipment, they’d attained far higher synchronizations than at their supposed peak. Still, that would likely only last so long.
Six had been purposefully removed from her artificial womb before reaching peak age.
Part of the assumption had been that the brain and body were simply vessels, and if a seventeen-year-old consciousness was put inside, she would think and act like a seventeen-year-old. But that wasn’t how it worked.
Differences emerged between intellectual memory and muscle memory. The younger the mental age, the more her thought processes were affected. Those differences were supposed to have been balanced out by linking the four Ayanamis together. No one had expected the girls would manifest individuality and distinctive personalities.
For Six, that meant a superior capacity for concentration but only for short periods of time. She was good at making quick judgments but poor at thoughtful deliberation.
“Begin a structural inspection of the tunnels near the underground transport system leading to the Mount Komagatake sniping post,” Toji barked at a technician, “and perform maintenance as needed.”
With that, the discussion was over, and a bored-looking Rei Six left the command center.
That was another of her unique traits. She was the only Ayanami who ever got bored. Outside the command center doors, three Type-N brain activity monitoring robots were twirling in circles waiting for her.
One robot had been assigned to Six, and the others were to monitor Cinq and Trois. With two Ayanamis absent, their robots had been left behind so that the machines could maintain communication with each other. When they did, they tended to group together like this.
As Six walked away, the three robots followed after her in a line.
Outside of Nerv HQ, Tokyo-3 was busy as usual. A large force came and destroyed, and the people rebuilt. That old familiar cycle had begun again after a three-year absence. The people couldn’t pack up and escape to somewhere else, because Lilith was here. Meanwhile, the rest of the world continued to provide the resources necessary to repeatedly rebuild and remake Tokyo-3 because the global community recognized the benefit in concentrating all the damage in one place, rather than spreading potential targets across the globe.
Six and the three robots put the city and its ceaseless construction behind them and went to Lake Ashi’s shore.
There, Six craned her diminutive neck and saw a man sitting on the cliffside, fishing.
Beside him, a large dog had sprawled out on the rocks and was looking in the same direction as its master.
Six thought for a moment and then called out to the man.
“You must not be from around here,” she said. “If you’re trying to blend in, you should have just stuck with the dog. There’re no fish in this lake.”
Clearly, Ayanami Six wasn’t the little girl she appeared to be. But then again, risking trouble like this for the sake of a little diversion wasn’t the kind of decision or action a seventeen-year-old would make, either.
The man yelped in surprise. “You startled me.”
He and his dog—a golden retriever—turned to look at her. Almost predictably, he wore a blue baseball cap and sunglasses.
Six’s interest immediately shifted to the dog. She held out her hands in front of her chest. The dog considered her and then looked to its master.
He smiled and said, “Azuchi, say hello.”
Azuchi rose. The dog was bigger than Six, and all at once, the three N-Type robots hid behind the girl’s back in single file. The group formed an odd lineup—giant dog, Six, robot, robot, robot.
Don’t be afraid, another girl might have told herself, but not Six. She let Azuchi sniff her and then stroked the dog’s cheek with her little hands. The big dog was soon at the small girl’s mercy.
To the dog, Six said, “I’d run away from here if I were you. Trouble’s coming.”
The man replied. “Oh? What do you mean? Like a cop or somethin’?”
“No. There’s something underground.”
The man set down his fishing pole, crossing his legs as he sat on the cliffside. He said, “You ought to tell a grown-up to look into it.”
“They’re all busy,” Six replied. “I could even do it myself. If it was another Rei, like Trois, they’d give me remission,” she said, tripping on the word, “to go out by myself.”
“ Permission to go out, you mean,” he corrected. “So, what do you think you should do about it, er…Miss…?” He pointed at her.
“Six,” she filled in.
“Six! What do you think you should do?”
“I should put vibration sensors on these robots, for one.”
The N-Type robots had rock-paper-scissored for priority and were now fishing with the man’s rod.
Six continued. “And investigate with the Eva.”
“Whoa. That sounds serious.”
“Unit Zero’s other sensors are better than its sight.”
“I see,” the man said. “Azuchi, come.”
Six didn’t want the dog to go, but the man had called it back because the dog had been dotted by several laser sights. Apparently, someone had finally noticed that an Eva pilot was in contact with a suspicious individual, and snipers had been put into position. From the juddering movement of the laser dots, the snipers were probably a thousand meters away in the HQ’s tower. Security officers would be coming soon.
“Easy. Easy now.”
The man was gone in a flash, and he managed to throw the security and intelligence agents off his trail. When Six returned to HQ, she was met by Toji, who was shouldering a large-caliber anti-material rifle (so called because they were only used against equipment—a big, fat lie told by every country). He was about to lead her to the interrogation office for a stern scolding when an alert sounded.
In the command center, Fuyutsuki ordered the alert to be downgraded to a warning. “No cause for alarm,” he said. “We’re all friends here.”
Alarmed, Toji rushed into the command center. “Fuyutsuki-sensei, report!”
“The JSSDF Akashima is crossing over the caldera’s rim again,” Fuyutsuki said.
The mechanized giant’s tank-like bulk came in and out of view over the ridgeline to the south of Lake Ashi. Last night, Nerv had allowed the intrusion…but that was last night.
“We’ve received no advance notice,” Hyuga reported. “Nothing.”
“Ask them what they think they’re doing,” Toji said. “Get through to someone at Matsushiro, too!”
Without knowing why the mecha was on the move, the command center had been thrown into confusion. After all, the JSSDF had assaulted Nerv in the past; Nerv couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye.
“Is there any other movement from the JSSDF forces?”
“Just disaster relief operations,” Hyuga said, “and that’s in another prefecture altogether.”
Toji couldn’t read their intentions.
“Six, get to the cage,” Toji ordered. “I’m sending Unit Zero Type-F to the sniping post.”
The girl noticed something she hadn’t seen in the nighttime. Now that it was bright out, she saw a small design on the mecha’s armor—a squad insignia, maybe. The design was of a dog. Six made a small noise of recognition.
“What?” Toji asked. “Did you notice something?”
“Nope. It’s nothing,” Six replied, running for the elevator.
“Leave those monitoring robots,” Toji called out. “You aren’t gonna need them!”
But the girl and the robots had already bounded through the closing elevator doors.
<< Command center to Unit Zero—you don’t have to do anything more than keep Akashima in check, >> Hyuga said.
“Unit Zero Type-F, Six acknowledged.”
Walking on one real leg and the large metal post that had replaced the other, Eva-00 moved onto the platform that would carry it at high speed through the underground tunnels and knelt down to anchor itself in place.
“Locks engaged.”
<< The route to the Komagatake Sniping Post is green. >>
“Launch!”
Six’s little body pressed back into her seat as all 3,560 metric tons of her Eva launched toward the south.
From the command center, the Nerv staff oversaw the takeoff of an unmanned, four-meter-long, pusher-prop helicopter to try to get a picture of the JSSDF’s movements, but aside from that, no new information came in. The general mood in the room was perplexed.
Fuyutsuki said, “What was the name of the man who contacted us from the Akashima last night?”
Toji thought for a second. “Endo, was it?”
Fuyutsuki nodded. “And now he’s back. From the way he spoke, I didn’t take him for the kind of guy who’d recklessly try to provoke us.”
An alarm sounded. Startled, Toji and Fuyutsuki both turned and looked up at the main screen, where the map switched from the deployment status of the city’s fortified districts to a traffic map.
Some of the underground tunnels were marked in red.
“Unit Zero,” Toji said, “get off that platform!”
<< What? Why? >>
A camera inside the tunnel swiveled to show the conveyance platform, which had completed an emergency stop. There, absurdly small in the middle of the platform, was a single, N-type robot, looking like a rice cooker with arms and legs.
Toji nearly fell over, but he managed to say, “Unit Zero! Six, are you okay?”
<< Fine and dandy, thank you! >>
Hyuga read the telemetry data aloud. “Pilot vitals normal. No damage to the Eva.”
That was a relief, at least. But then the technician watching the outside camera said, “Akashima has crossed the ridge into the caldera!”
“Here we go!” Toji said, and the command center bustled with the anticipation of violence. But tempers quickly settled, and the room fell silent as the staff watched the Akashima through the exterior video feed.
“What the hell is he doing?” Toji remarked.
Akashima had crossed the ridgeline—only to sit down on it, looking toward Nerv HQ with a posture resembling a sleepy spectator in the outfield bleachers.
Toji groaned. “Is everyone out of their minds?”
But then Aoba shouted something that once again changed the mood.
“Abnormal heat readings on the southern wall of the Geofront! Be careful, Unit Six, it’s right by you!”
Eva-00 Type-F found an opening to the next level down and jumped. The floor below collapsed under the giant’s weight, and the Eva crashed through to the Geofront’s ground level. Just ahead, the wall glowed bright red with heat.
It shattered. And out came—
“Sandalphon! The larva!” Toji said, watching the feed. “I thought the larva died along with its Carrier!”
It wasn’t an unreasonable assumption. When killed, Angel larvae inside the Carriers’ cocoons didn’t burst into cross-shaped phase explosions as their adult versions had. They simply disintegrated, and no larva had developed far enough to establish a core.
Without a Carrier to furnish energy, it was hard to imagine a larva could survive for long.
Fuyutsuki put Maya on the screen.
“Ibuki-kun,” he said, “What’s your take on what we’re seeing?”
<< We first discovered Sandalphon within the magma of Mount Asama. If we assume that the Angel shares a significant biological connection with geothermal energy… >>
“Mount Hakone is also a volcano,” Toji said. “Are you telling me that thing can’t die as long as it’s here?”
As evident from the large volume of volcanic gases spewing forth, Mount Hakone was not an extinct volcano.
But neither was it a volcano with shallow conduits of magma that could lead to frequent eruptions.
Just to the north of Hakone, the Philippine Plate jutted into the North American Plate like a pointed finger, and the fault lines ran up the fingertip like a split nail.
The Hirayama Fault extended from the north of Hakone, and the Tanna Fault from the south. Each fault split east and west, forming a rhombus-shaped deformation of the ground (called a pull-apart basin) at Mount Hakone. The tectonic movement periodically opened up new fissures above the magma chambers, which could cause a steam-blast eruption, or even induce the whole volcano to swell.
When the first seismic surveys of that geological battleground revealed the large, egg-shaped hollow that was the former Geofront, the geologists thought the hollow was a small caldera formed by a collapsed lava dome in some earlier era. But upon excavation, the presence of the unnaturally smooth walls suggested the space had been formed by Lilith, who was buried in its center.
In short, though humans had unearthed the former Geofront, Lilith was the one who’d constructed the hollow. It wouldn’t have made any sense for humanity to go to the extreme expense and effort to construct a space large enough for an entire underground city at a place where the tectonic plates clashed.
And now that same Lilith had created a black, spherical space where time stood still and had retreated within it. Like the Geofront, the sphere was egg-shaped, too—a fact that hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Sandalphon, the Angel of volcanoes, had arrived at the egg sleeping in the bosom of the volcano.
“This is Unit Six, commencing fire.”
Unit-00 Type-F had no right arm or leg; they’d been removed in favor of the Angel’s Backbone weapon system. By integrating the baryon cannon with the Eva’s body, the giant could drive the weapon with its A.T. Field—the primary advantage was its phase-shifted A.T. Erosion Field, which could pierce the target’s Field and cause it to collapse. That gave the weapon its other alias, the Field Piercer.
One direct hit would bring the battle to an immediate end, but this particular match-up was the worst-case scenario for the Eva. With only one leg, Eva-00 Type-F had poor mobility, while Sandalphon was comparatively nimble.
The Angel leaped toward Eva-00, and Six fired. The shot blasted through the many-layered ceiling and up into the sky.
Using its long arms skillfully, the Angel easily evaded the Eva’s fire and hurled a ball of flame at it. The surrounding temperature quickly rose.
Eva-00 raised its left arm to shield its face. The fireball burned its arm, and Six cried out.
Her face twisted in pain, but Six swung the Backbone to put Sandalphon in her sights. The long barrel, lined with Field-based accelerators, was usually a strength; but right now, the cannon’s length was all disadvantage. She couldn’t keep up with the Angel’s movements.
Pain came again, and this time, it stole her breath away. Sandalphon had burned her back.
Wheezing, she said, “It hurts…”
The Type-F Eva’s movements were slowing. Showing no mercy, Sandalphon proceeded destroying its restraint armor with its fireballs.
In the command center, the Nerv staff were beginning to panic, unsure of what to do.
“Unit Zero still has a left arm!” Fuyutsuki shouted. “Can’t we deliver it any close-quarters weapons?”
Toji was also getting flustered. He knew he had to do something, but he wasn’t sure what. “Maybe the fortified districts could blast open a tunnel to her with surface-to-surface weapons.”
Calm down! Toji told himself. Soryu already defeated this Angel in its larval state, didn’t she? According to the combat records…
“That’s it!” Toji exclaimed. “Coolant! What about water? A fire hydrant!”
But Aoba shook his head apologetically. “There’s a supply station with fire suppression equipment two levels up, alongside the transport rails, but because of draining issues, it’s only equipped with foam and carbon-dioxide-based extinguishers.”
Sandalphon continued making a plaything out of the slower Eva.
“All I need to do is hit the dang thing once!” Six whined.
The temperature had continued to rise. It was hard to say if the Angel was creating the heat directly or pulling up steam from the depths of the volcano, but either way, Eva-00’s performance was beginning to suffer. Sooner or later, the heat would be more than the Eva could withstand.
“It hurts,” she said. “It hurts…and I want ice cream…”
The command center staff nervously watched the telemetry data coming in.
Eva-00’s body was taking damage. Of greatest concern was its left leg, where the wounds and fatigue were most heavily concentrated. Once the Eva’s leg was immobilized, the giant would be dead in the water.
This is bad, Toji thought. He wanted to tell Six to escape, but her opponent was faster. Sandalphon would easily overtake her.
“Six!” he said. “Be careful not to let the enemy circle to your left. You can’t aim your cannon that direction.”
But that advice was hardly going to turn the tide.
Isn’t there anything better I can offer? Toji clenched his fists. Shit! This happened because I didn’t listen to what she was telling me. ’Cause I have a little sister, I’m used to ignoring kids. I fell into that pattern of thinking.
Unprompted, Fuyutsuki said, “What’s the structure like underneath us right now?”
Aoba replied, “It’s…not as compartmentalized as it used to be. We basically have the aboveground levels, and we occupy the next two levels down. Third and fourth are sealed off, and the fifth is the basin of the old Geofront.”
“Really? We use all the way to the third? Oh, because the outer ring uses the old underground transport rails, right? So, basically, we don’t have any personnel on levels two and below.”
What the heck is he going on about? Toji wondered.
Then it came to him. But the idea left him speechless.
Seeing Toji turn pale, Fuyutsuki said, “The cleanup will be hard, I know, but just think—we’ll have a new view to enjoy. And we have the perfect method to do the digging.”
Come on, old man!
<< Aaaaaiiee! >>
Six’s left leg was done. She’d lost all hope.
As her Eva staggered back and began to topple over, Toji shouted, “Six! Blast a hole through the south-southwestern wall! Try to avoid the support columns as best you can, but give it your full power!”
The Eva’s breaker system had already switched off the feedback from the left leg, but the terrible pain remained in Six’s brain. She was about to break down and cry, but Toji’s forceful shout snapped her out of it, and she fought back the tears.
As her Eva continued to topple, Six held out against the pain. She closed one eye, aimed the crosshairs where Toji had told her, and unleashed her cannon at full blast.
VWOOM!
The cannon roared, and dust flew as an intricately colored beam of phase light, like a tunnel made from shards of broken glass, shot off to the south and propelled the glittering baryon projectile.
The shock wave shook the ground all the way to the surface; all of Tokyo-3 felt it.
Not paying any heed to where the missed shot had gone, Sandalphon leaped toward the fallen Eva.
That was when it happened.
The front end of a surging wave of water slammed into Sandalphon’s side and swept the Angel away.
Inside the JSSDF Akashima, Endo was strapped in tight to his harness (it was regulation, so he didn’t have a choice) as he watched Lake Ashi through the observation unit. But then he noticed something strange happen to the lake.
Reflexively, he lifted his sunglasses. A water vortex had formed on the lake’s northern side.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “What did you do?”
Lake Ashi’s water flooded into the former Geofront with tremendous force, scattering—and then submerging—everything in its path.
Just as the Angel’s Backbone had been strong enough to destroy multiple mass-production Evas in the Battle at Nerv HQ, so too was the weapon powerful enough to drill through the volcanic strata all the way to Lake Ashi in a single shot.
The lake water was too cold for the larval Sandalphon to overcome, and as had happened to its previous incarnation, the Angel disintegrated in an explosion of steam.
By the time the recovery team lifted slumbering Eva-00 Type-F out from the water, and fished up the three N-Type robots with a landing net, the former Geofront had been completely filled. Nerv Japan and Tokyo-3 now rested atop a gigantic underground lake.
On that day, Lake Ashi lost much of its water, and here and there the bottom of the lake had surfaced.
Word arrived that a massive tsunami was coming north from the South Pacific.