Chapter 21: An Invitation to the Final Battle
Chapter 21:
An Invitation to the Final Battle
CRIMSON A1, the Asuka/Eva synthesis, left the city, where recovery operations were underway, to visit Shinji’s watermelon patch, as had become her habit. She bounded across the countryside, landing beside the field.
She sat on the northern side, so as not to block the sunlight, and noticed three small, round dots weaving through the watermelons. Rei Six had come to water the plants, and the three Type-N robots had accompanied her, along with the two golden retrievers, Azuchi and Momo. But Asuka/Eva must have thought the robots were harmful pests. She plucked one from the ground and flicked it away with a loud pwing that reverberated through the caldera. And just like that, with a little help from Earth’s decreased escape velocity, the Type-N robot began its journey through space.
“Noooo!” Six shouted as she ran up to Asuka/Eva’s feet. She waved her arms furiously while the dogs barked in objection. And so, the other two robots, currently running in fear, were spared the same fate.
The straightest section of the Hakone Caldera’s outer ridge lay along its southern rim, from Mount Daikan to Mount Shirogane. Before the caldera had been leased to the UN, the area was known for its picturesque driving routes.
But now, Six was ruthlessly blasting apart those peaks with Eva-00 Type-F’s rifle, Angel’s Backbone.
After her A.T. Field-accelerated baryon cannon flattened the land, Nerv engineers compacted the ground with a monomolecular vibrating ribbon, and where that wasn’t sufficient, they used soil-hardening agents to reshape the sediment. This feat of rapid construction remade the ridgeline into a four-thousand-meter-long runway for what was provisionally being called the Daikan Airport.
But the new airport wasn’t finished in time for Commander Katsuragi Misato’s return from the United Nations conference. Instead, her heavy VTOL craft landed at the Nerv HQ heliport, which was crowded with containers and pallets of supplies.
Deputy Commander Suzuhara Toji met her as she deplaned.
“Welcome back, Commander,” he said. “The Yamato will be coming from Hiroshima to be refitted with our N2 reactor at the end of the month. We’re going to provide them the one we were planning on using for Power Plant Number 2. Is that all right?”
“It’s a generous gift, but with everyone stretched thin from all these disasters, wielding our power like a stick will only take us so far.”
“So,” Toji said, broaching the main topic, “how did the Security Council respond to the Euro’s op?”
“They approved the plan. The council said they were still narrowing down locations for launching the offensive. And they’ve given us some work to do to prepare.”
“That must mean they’ve seen enough evidence that the imitation heartbeat will lead the carriers where we want.”
Toji opened the depot door, and Misato walked through, keeping a hand on her officer’s cap so that the wind wouldn’t blow it away.
On the other side, she removed the cap and said, “We can lure Armaros’ underlings to any place of our choosing, and we’ll have total freedom to set up the ambush how we want it. If we set the bait, we’re sure they’ll come. At least, we’re mostly sure.”