Chapter 20: Stowaway
Chapter 20:
Stowaway
TEN KILOMETERS AWAY from Yomotsu Hirasaka Island, the Akashima’s support vessel, the I-409 Revamped, resurfaced in order to ventilate. This particular feature had been retained even after its enhancement. Not everything went as scheduled, however. They’d picked up a stowaway when the vessel resupplied at Chichijima.
“Over here!”
Mari let go of the ladder to make a foothold for Azuchi, the golden retriever. The big dog stepped on her hands and leaped out, then followed through the hatch and hopped out of the vessel herself. She easily slipped by the guard who’d been posted on sea level.
“Sorry for the free ride. You can bill Nerv U.S.A.,” the girl said. She and the dog jumped into the ocean.
They didn’t send any lifeboats for her. They couldn’t, really.
Alarms notifying the approach of a bogey blared, and the crew scrambled to their battle stations. Sonar picked up the propulsions of several large submarines retreating from Yomotsu Hirasaka. It was as if Azuchi and Mari were trying to replace them by swimming toward it.
Ogasawara Mobile Command wondered if they were up against large submarines of American, Chinese, and Australian origin. The order to halt resurfacing procedures was immediately issued after a preemptive noisemaker was fired from the extended VLS to the nose of the unknown vessel.
“Don’t shoot!” the unknown party responded. The bogeys surfaced, revealing themselves to be super-class submarines that dwarfed the I-409 Revamped. They continued advancing, ignoring all warnings.
The XO of the I-409 Revamped heard a strange sound ring throughout the inside of the approaching ships.
“Their load is a lot lighter. There aren’t any soldiers within their cargo. What happened to the people they left on the ground?”
They’d deserted the landing party, wanting to get away from this place as soon as they were attacked.
The sky at the northern tip of the island rumbled.
Eva-01 Final Model flew 1,200 kilometers in a straight line from Hakone at blinding speed and decelerated instantly over Yomotsu Hirasaka, as if he were weightless. He stretched out his arms, and the trail left behind by his wings of light dispersed, scattering particles that looked like burning feathers.
If the landing party’s cameras had still been rolling, they would have recorded the soldiers being contaminated by the life-form data streaming out of the Ark. Not only that, they would have captured the Angel Carriers regenerating from those scattered bits of data and rising to intercept the Eva.