Chapter 37: Lunar Mirage
Chapter 37:
Lunar Mirage
Lunar Mirage
A
SUKA THOUGHT
she heard Hikari singing.
On the far side of the moon, near the source of the magnetic anomaly, she brought Eva-02 Allegorica to a stop. Ahead, the ground swelled into a rise followed by a sudden drop, as if the surface had been split open. The lunar crust in this area hadn’t sustained as many extreme changes as other parts of the moon, but now that the satellite had swollen to 1.4 times its original diameter, very few places remained unperturbed. Case in point—the great cleft in the ground here.
And within…
Asuka and Eva-02 both reflexively raised their hands to cover their eyes—the Eva acting independently but in unison with its pilot.
Something
inside the giant rift was refusing their approach.
Asuka felt like she was being buffeted by a strong wind, to the point where she thought—falsely—that the flow of her entry plug’s LCL had quickened.
“Wh-what is this?”
Forcing reason to overcome instinct, Asuka opened her eyes and looked out through the gaps between her fingers.
“A structure…made of glass? Is that a building?”
The structure was transparent and partially buried in the lunar soil, and it was impossible to tell how far below the surface it went, or the shape it took. Though the mysterious force tried to keep Asuka’s eyes away, the blueness of the crystalline structure captivated her and made her want to look anyway. It was a bright blue—the color of the sky on Earth.
“I could make a scan using an artificial earthquake…but this close to the surface, the sand might absorb the sounding waves. I wonder if the sun ever reaches an angle where it could illuminate the inside for me.”
The structure seemed worthy of investigation. Asuka was considering whether she could use solar energetic particles to take a tomographic picture of it, or if the magnetic field would interfere, when four glowing blots appeared on its surface.
The lights trickled down the many-faceted crystalline exterior and gradually changed shape. One became a larval body Asuka had seen before. The larva reached an overhanging edge and began to form a droplet, along with the other three.
“It can’t be!” Asuka said. “Sandalphon?”
This structure gives birth to Angels.
“I don’t… I don’t… I don’t believe it!”
Anger built within Asuka. Her body trembled.
Whatever this is, it’s an incredible discovery! Is this the key to everything?
The four glowing drops fell toward the ground but never reached it, as twenty-some white hands thrust up from the soil and claimed them.
Without sparing a glance at her controls, Asuka readied her weapons systems. In what might have been record-setting time, the Powered 8 railgun was in the Allegorica’s hands, but by then, the swarm of arms had vanished back into the ground.
“Agh!”
The arms began to reemerge. Asuka readied the Powered 8. But only eight arms came back out of the ground, attached to four bodies rising from the lunar soil.
They had wings. Asuka hadn’t seen those yet.
“They’re a new kind of Angel Carrier!”
An electronic chime announced that the Powered 8 had finished charging. Of its own accord, Asuka reflexively squeezed the trigger. She hadn’t even realized she’d put her finger on it in the first place, but subconsciously, she wasn’t going to let the same enemy escape twice.
Shit! Now I’ve done it.
Now I’m going to have three Carriers coming after me, and I don’t even have a battle plan!
Asuka had taken perfect aim, and the intense electromagnetic force accelerated the shell with incredible speed—but the shot didn’t strike its target. The Angel Carrier’s shield hadn’t repelled the projectile, nor had it dodged the shot. In the far distance, a massive column of sand erupted from the ground.
“My bullet passed right through?”
The Angel Carrier didn’t seem to notice that it had been shot at.
What’s going on?
Asuka fired again for confirmation.
The 8’s tremendous kinetic energy ionized the moon dust and rocks where its shot landed, and the projectile’s charged particles traveled along the flow of the magnetic field, creating several rainbow-colored arches against the starry sky.
Asuka roared in frustration. Her mind raced with everything that had happened from the battle with the Angels three years ago to her voyage to the moon. She lingered on Rei Cinq’s death, and Shinji—
Shinji…
As a full magazine’s worth of regolith swirled in the rarified air, Asuka realized something.
Her bullets weren’t only passing through the Angel Carriers. The 8’s attacks had also sailed harmlessly through the sky-blue structure that, even to this moment, tried to repel her.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
But this might be the source!
It’s right there. I can see it!
Overcome by extreme frustration, she ground her molars, pounded the controls with her fists, and screamed.
Shaking with rage, she watched as the events proceeded like nothing had happened at all. The four Carriers tucked the larvae into their bellies, stood erect, and sank back down into the ground.
Where are they going?
No—that’s not what’s important now. This crystal structure is.
Her attacks had passed straight through, but she didn’t believe for a moment that the structure was a simple mirage. She could feel the tremendous resistance telling her,
Go away.
Fighting the mysterious force with all her body, Asuka spurred Eva-02 Allegorica forward.