41"I am not a dashing rogue. I am not a free spirit. I am a claw in the throat of the dark, and I will draw blood."
Chapter 2: Reunion I (Damsel to the Rescue!)
The Hole, Tokyo-3 Ruins
"Phew damn," Mari whistled as another Fallen Captain fell to her Hunter's new weapon, the semi-automatic rifle quickly proving all the effort that went into acquiring it was worthwhile.
Her Hunter didn't reply, as someone who operated solo most of the time he had grown out of the habit of talking during fighting since there was no one to talk to most of the time. Well, there was Mari but she seemed to be fine talking enough for them both. Instead he shifted his scope again and spotted a Fallen Vandal, they looked similar to the captains but were without the helmet crest, cape and were only the height of an average human adult. Most importantly though they lacked the shields and had much lighter armor.
So knowing that from experience he aimed centre mass before pulling the trigger, not bothering to waste time on a headshot, and the bullet slammed into the alien, blowing a hole straight through his target's chest.
"Pow!" Mari 'jumped' at that, "he went down like a bitch!"
He just sighed at her excessive excitement. Shinji himself would admit he had grown to enjoy fighting to an extent. When you do it as often as he did for as long as he had been a Guardian you had to, it was either that or go insane, but Mari could get a tad carried away. His rifle empty he reached down to the ammunition pouch on his belt, Mari having already filled it with magazines for Stillpiercer, grabbed a fresh magazine before dropping the empty one. After inserting a magazine full with four high-power rounds he worked the charging handle.
Rifle loaded he was ready to rock and roll again.
'Centre the target…pull the switch…'
Stillpiercer barked once more.
"Holy shit!" Asuka swore when she saw a fourth alien, which her HUD labeled 'Fallen Vandal', get slapped down in one shot by the sniper that was covering her like…some kind of murderous guardian angel, coating the ground in a dark violet liquid. Asuka guessed that was blood. She also felt a little frustrated, she had no weapon, not even a knife, and while she didn't exactly mind help considering this was all so new to her she did dislike being a fucking invalid. That was what she felt like right now, a useless extra.
She eyed the form of Unit-01 in her peripheral vision, she knew it was silly but in the presence of both the corpses of Units-01 and 02 she felt the need to show off in front of them, put on a show for her mother and Shinji. She beat the wish down though as she remembered what a similar urge had resulted in during the first battle with the 7th Angel. It was her single most humiliating defeat, sure it lead to her getting closer with Shinji via their synchronization training but she had to admit she was lucky neither of them were hurt during the sortie.
"Sorry Shinji, no show for you today..." she mumbled to herself, "when we meet again though? I'll blow your mind…"
She eyed her motion tracker and saw it was clear, still she knew the range was limited so she stayed alert.
[Guardian] her Ghost's voice popped up in her head [Mari, ah that's what the other Guardian's Ghost likes to be called, sent me coordinates to a derelict APC that may have weapons that still work. I'm popping it up on your HUD.]
"Gotcha," she nodded, "and call me Asuka or something to keep things from getting confusing."
[Understood, Asuka-san]
A small diamond appeared on her HUD, marking something in the distance while an arrow on her tracker's edge pointed in the same direction. She popped her head up over the top of the hull and spotted another pair of Fallen marked 'Fallen Dreg', they were smaller than the Vandals with very little armor but she could see a pistol and a dagger held in their arms, of which they only had two. She jumped in her armour as the Dreg' chest exploded in quick succession, killing them, before the crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier rang in her ears shortly thereafter. Quickly turning around she faced her HUD marker and ran as another bullet cracked overhead and she knew she didn't have to worry about getting shot in the back.
The sniper was good, she would give him or her that much credit.
Still, just in case, she kept her head low as she sprinted among the vehicles she had wrecked a millennia ago, the ground crunching under her armoured boots, making sure to zig-zag when in the open in case of enemy snipers. Asuka remembered her Ghost telling her something about reviving her but that didn't mean she wanted to know what getting gunned down felt like.
A part of her felt like she was abandoning Shinji but once again she kicked that back hard, she was going to see him again, she couldn't afford to doubt herself now.
"Finally," she murmured as she saw the APC's rusted out hull and she sprinted even faster before getting down and sliding up to it, her armored boots impacting against the hull with a soft 'clang.' She listened and heard…nothing, no footsteps and no cracking of bullets but she was sure the sniper was still covering her.
She walked to the back of the APC, a boxy model she didn't know the name of, and saw that the door had been blown off in the past.
'Huh, how lucky,' she thought to herself as she crawled inside and saw that the machine was partially crushed, and from the looks of it the troops inside had no chance to disembark before she killed them. She guessed that her Eva had stepped on the APC so quickly and with such force that the air inside compressed and the pressure killed everyone inside before blasting out the back and blowing off the door like an explosion. Some of the skulls and bones were crushed, probably from the pressure wave she guessed.
"I fucked them up good huh," she couldn't help but murmur before she realized what she said and who was in her head…boy that was a weird thing to think. "…Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, Ghost."
[It's fine] she continued to search through for something usable [times were different then.]
She nodded…and she picked up a pistol and information entered her mind. There was even statistics on performance and once again she couldn't help but be amused with how video game like it all was. The gun was the standard sidearm for the JSSDF, a Browning Hi-Power 9mm pistol, this one was made in Canada by John Inglis and Company. "Ghost…did you just?"
[Yes, Ghosts exist to find and support Guardians, provide you with information, hack electronics systems, manage your equipment, etc.]
"Right…uh, thanks," she chucked the pistol aside, it was rusted quite badly and she had no faith in its ability to survive being fired. Asuka knew she was covered from head to toe in heavy armour, even her hands looked more like gauntlets than anything else, but she still didn't fancy the idea of a gun blowing up in her hands. So she kept searching, hoping to find something bigger but it was hard with how much crap there was in the old APC. She then grabbed a big rectangular block of a rifle and information went into her brain. It was a German H&K made G11 and-
[I wouldn't waste your time with that Asuka-san] her Ghost spoke up in her head [the caseless ammunition has probably deteriorated by now.]
"Gottverdamnt" she swore and chucked it aside. 'What am I supposed to do, point my fingers at the aliens and shout 'Bang! Bang! Pew! Pew!'?…come on, something useful…'
[There!] an indicator popped up on her HUD [try that one quick! It's in working order.]
She quickly pushed the skeleton out of the way, knowing time was short, and grabbed a black rifle that was lying there. It was a Japanese Type 89 assault rifle made by Howa in 5.56mm NATO. She recognized it as the JDF standard issue, and had a red dot sight which, to her delight, ran off of ambient light and fiber optics so it still worked even after…however many years had passed.
"Score," she shouldered it and it felt natural enough in her hands, she checked the magazine and after seeing it was full she reinserted it, flicked it off safe and into full-auto before racking the charging handle. "Locked and loaded baby," an ammo counter appeared on the bottom left of her HUD, indicating the weapon's 30 round capacity. She was about to start looking for more magazines when she noticed she had somehow gained 263 rounds of spare ammunition.
[Guardian I've already transmatted extra ammunition, we need to leave now!]
"Right," she nodded and ran out of the APC before checking her ammo pouch just in case. "Where to Ghost?" she asked, her voice once again sounding confident.
Finally, she could fight back with some firepower of her own!
"Well well, Princess made it after all," Mari commented as her Hunter reloaded Stillpiercer once more. "Her Ghost is asking where to go next."
"Can you set up voice communications between us?" he asked her in the calm voice that seemed to always take hold when he was behind the scope of a long range rifle...or anything that went 'bang!' really. "It would be better than just having a nav-marker over her head."
"Negative Puppy-kun, I've already tried, it's hard enough sending text and directions to her Ghost, anything more is impossible unless we get closer...I think the Fallen are up to something her, there's way too much interference in the air. A rag tag band of Fallen with no House shouldn't be able to do anything that could fill the air with this much ambient noise on so many wavelengths."
"Where? Nothings seems out of place here and we took the only tunnel left that leads from here to the surface, aside from Fallen there wasn't anything I saw out of place from when I was...before I was a Guardian."
"Maybe down in Central Dogma…or what's left.," she glanced at her Hunter in concern, Central Dogma was home to one of his most traumatic memories. She didn't even try to read his Light, he had become quite good at calming himself down to a zen like state , times like these she wished Guardians didn't wear helmets since she couldn't see his face "…um…Shinji?"
"Yes?" he raised a brow under his faceplate, she almost never called him by his name.
"Are you…alright?" she asked slowly.
The former Third Child smiled a bit, it was nice to be cared for. "I'm just putting it aside for now, we can think about it later when we're safe"…'last thing I need now is a mental breakdown, I've gone years without one and I rather not have one in the middle of a fight, thank you.'
"Ignore it for now, roger dodger."
"Do you think they're trying to set up a new House here?"
"What? Like those crazy House of Exile guys on the Moon?"
"Exactly."
"Hmmm...I hope not, we don't need another gro-wait. They've contacted us, where do we send our Princess?"
"Have her come meet us here, we'll extract on the roof. Prepare the Damsel for a landing."
"Got it…done. Shields are up, weapon's ready and the Damsel is ready to come in on your word, with guns blazing if need be."
"Good." He lined up a kill on a Fallen sniper and fired, taking him (or he thought it was a him) down. "Still, the UN destroyed anything even vaguely useful when the Colapse happened. There's nothing down there but empty space...and maybe a few Khostovs the UN troops left behind."
It wouldn't surprise him if there were a few of those old rifles left, the standard UN rifle during the Golden Age was the first gun of many a Guardian. Shinji himself was among them, given to him by the Guardian who had chosen to escort Mari to Japan on her search for him, much like he was doing now.
Mari 'nodded', she knew that since she was the one who told him years ago. "Still, the tunnels and caverns make a good base, even if there's nothing usable the sheer amount of space is useful in and of itself."
"True enough," Shinji sighed, "notify the Vanguard once we're in the air and clear of interference. They'll probably order more recon here after that, maybe even a strike."
"Planning to volunteer for those missions?"
"…Yeah, I can't give up on her you know?"
"I understand Shinji, I'm behind you all the way!"
"Thanks," Shinji chuckled. Mari didn't really have an option considering she lived in his head but it was nice of her to encourage him regardless.
Shinji then stood up as the 'Princess' was about to move out of the area he could see from the nest they had set up. Quickly he grabbed Monte Carlo and put it on his back before running out of the room, Stillpiercer still in hand and into the room next door, it was at the corner of the building so he had a good wide view. Sadly there wasn't anything he could use to help steady his aim, with the wall seemingly blown off or crumbled into nothing he couldn't even use a windowsill. So instead he crouched at the edge, his cloak and hood fluttering in the wind as Mari flashed and disappeared, they were too exposed for her to be out and floating about.
Scoping down his rifle he found their new friend and he panned to the side, wanting to clear the way for her. He spotted a Vandal and lined up a shot right at the che-
[SHINJI!] he flinched and stopped [look, we have trouble.]
A nav-marker got his attention and he looked into the distance, around one and a half kilometres away…
"…I don't need a scope to see that," he murmured. Even from his far away vantage point he could see the distinct long insect like form of a Fallen Skiff, a dropship. What made him nervous though was what it carried. Underneath, hanging upside down, was the four legged spider like body of a Fallen Walker, complete with the dreaded tank like turret and canon. Even without using either his rifle's scope or the zoom built into his helmet he could see the dropship descending to deploy the Walker on the other side of the devastated Geofront. Shinji sighed, there goes the plan. "Mari we can't have the Damsel pick us up here, we might get shot down."
Shinji scoped down his rifle, again, found the Vandal he was aiming at before and put the alien out of its misery.
"Hopefully that's the only thing in her way," he put down his sniper rifle and Mari flashed it away before shouldering Monte Carlo and flipping off the safety.
[The Damsel could perform an airstrike, blow shit up.]
He shook his head as he stood and hopped off the edge, "I think you're right, there is something happening here." Just before he hit the ground the boosters on the bottom of his boots activated with a loud 'whoosh', cancelling the majority of his downward momentum, before he landed in a crouch. He quickly checked his tracker to see it all calm but he still took a minute and listened for anyone who saw or heard his fall. "These rag-tag band of Fallen shouldn't even have a Walker, who says they have more than one?"
[Good point, so what's the plan? I've had them take a defensive position.]
Shinji hummed in thought as he stored his auto rifle on his back before snapping his fingers as he remembered something. When he was revived himself the Guardian who had come with Mari, a female Warlock called Noir, hadn't left her ship in low orbit like he had left the Damsel. Instead she had actually landed her ship in the Geofront, hiding the jumpship in the caved in ruins of a destroyed warehouse.
He smiled under his helmet, it was the perfect evac site. It was at the opposite end of the Geofront from the walker and safely out of sight, obstructed by crumbling ruins, of its dangerous main canon. The rubble of the warehouse walls were high enough to give him cover and the basement had collapsed, forming a square bowl that the Damsel could go down into. It would provide some cover from any unseen Walkers during the dangerous few seconds the Damsel would need to hover above the ground to pick them up. Add all those things together and you had a very defendable position.
"Remember where Noir-senpai parked her ship?"
[The Crypt Hammer? Yeah, I remember where she parked it.]
"Tell them to go there. It's defensible enough, it'll have to do, we've started to attract attention so we have no time to fight to the surface."
[Yeah these guys have upgraded since then, I don't think we saw a single Captain when we first met.]
Plan in mind he called up rapid transport and a flash of light summoned his S-10V Sparrow, a motorbike-esque jet powered hover bike. He quickly hopped on and the engine roared as he sped off, a tail of flame blazing behind him.
"This guy…or gal has to make up his mind," Asuka grumbled as a new nav-marker popped up, "I hate this following blindly crap."
As she stood up she saw a reflection of her in a puddle of water and she had to admit she looked badass. A flexible armoured suit hugged her form while light armour plates protected her shoulders, thighs, abdomen and the back of her hands. A thick plate of armour protected her chest, while a gleaning silver helmet protected her head and light greaves covered her legs. If this is what the stop gap armour looked like she couldn't wait to try the good stuff.
She chuckled as an amusing thought came to mind, the image of Shinji dressed in a similarly impressive get up, 'finally, he'll be wearing something other than that damn boring school uniform…'
*Achoo!* Shinji sneezed. "Ugh, great, now I have to clean the inside of my helmet when this is over."
[That was odd] Mari commented [Guardians can't get sick.]
Shinji frowned as he murmured, "I think someone's talking about me."
She sped up into a superhuman sprint, her boots thundering with every step, and while she could feel herself gradually getting tired she was going so fast so quickly she couldn't help but smile a bit as she felt like a superhero. Now all she needed was the pilot of Unit-01 beside her, maybe with a cape trailing behind him, and she'd be all set.
She couldn't help but laugh. The Red Devil and…hm, what's a cool name for Shinji?
[Asuka-san, is something the matter?]
"No, Ghost, just some…thoughts on the future."
Eventually they reached a giant foot shaped hole in the ground, it looked to her like a tunnel had collapsed during either her or Shinji's battle here due to the Evas stomping around. There were a few of them under the Geofront's floor she remembered, originally built for servicing the Evangelion launch elevators that lead up to the Geofront, they were also used for transporting various cargo.
She made a mental note to ask Ghost to show her any remaining records of the battle when they were safe. The only thing she really remembered was waking up, getting to her Eva and the fight that followed. What happened before then? Why was Shinji delayed?
Most importantly of all…how did he die?
[I don't know what's in there, I suggest going around but going through there is the fastest route, your call Asuka-san.]
"Fuck it, I'm not scared of no tunnel," she muttered and was about to jump down before she paused. "Ghost, how do you know the rest of the tunnel isn't collapsed from the Evas fighting?"
[Before coming here I made sure to download any maps we had. A few scouting missions had been sent here before and a Guardian had reported using this tunnel a few years ago. That said, creepy dark hole in the ground? I'd expect trouble.]
Asuka nodded, checked her weapon over one more time and took a deep breath…and exhaled. This was it, in that tunnel she was going to face her new enemy for the first time, she could feel it in her blood.
"Ikuhayo, Asuka."
Once more unto the breech.
Shinji frowned as he noticed the marker on the new Titan disappear from his HUD but ignored it for now as Mari would have said something if she died and he guessed she was too deep underground…or something. Maybe she had found that tunnel he used before?
Cranking on the accelerator his sparrow howled and whirred as he raced down a trench gouged out of the rubble of NERV's final moments, even if the situation was serious and the scenery bleak he couldn't help but smile. Every single Guardian loved their sparrow, regardless of how good it was they were all fast and nimble and the sound they made when you pushed them to the redline? It was music to his ears. As he reached a bend he slammed on the air breaks, leaned to the right and executed a tight drift turn before disengaging the breaks and gunning the throttle again, feeling the G-force push into him as he engaged the sparrow's boost.
As he approached his destination he saw an unlucky Captain walk into the path in front of him. Feeling a little creative, and channeling what he called his 'Inner Asuka', he reached up with his right hand, keeping his left on the controls, and held Monte Carlo. As he closed with the Captain the alien finally noticed the screaming vehicle and turned to face him but it was too late by then. Shinji held the auto rifle and pointed it's bayonet forward like a spear, and aimed right at the massive alien's face.
Before the Fallen could raise his weapon Monte Carlo's blade speared into him like the lance of the mounted cavalry of old. With the force of a mounted guardian screaming forward at roughly 200 kilometres per hour behind it the bayonet easily pierced both shields and armor, the blade running all the way through, only stopped by the dead Fallen's faceplate impacting the gun barrel.
Shinji grunted as the force of the impact pushed against him, the feet of the the alien's limp corpse dragging behind him. He pulled the trigger and fired a burst to obliterate the Captain's head and free his rifle, splattering him and Monte Carlo's pristine white form in alien blood, the Captain's body tumbling behind him.
Obstacle cleared he holstered Monte Carlo on his back again before cranking on the boost to gain the speed he lost due to his impromptu cavalry charge, not wanting to give any Fallen under the Captain's command a chance to even see what killed their leader.
Soon he was at his destination, the collapsed form of a large warehouse, the wall of the Geofront on the other side, meaning he wouldn't have to worry about an attack from behind.
He dismounted his sparrow, which soon disappeared in a flash of light, and made his way to a hill of ruble that some of the collapsed wall had formed, searching for a good firing position. After a few minutes of searching he found a good foxhole and hopped down into it, it was fairly big, deep enough for him to stand and still have plenty of cover. In a flash of light a light blue and gun metal grey belt-fed machine gun appeared in his hands. In a second flash several boxes, each holding a 75 round belt, were on the ground at his feet. It wasn't as rare as most of his other gear but it could still tear targets into ribbons.
It was a Phenomena CSM, a rapid fire machine gun. He preferred the slower firing models that packed more punch per round but this was the best he had.
Shinji placed the heavy weapon on the rubble in front of him before he leaned on the side of his foxhole, crossing his arms and taking a moment to catch his breath and rest. Still, his guard was up as he scanned the ocean of rubble, destroyed vehicles and gouged earth in front of him, waiting for the Fallen to crawl out of their hiding places like cockroaches.
"Where is she?"
"These tunnels are a lot bigger than I thought they were," Asuka murmured as she walked through the tunnel. It was wide at around four lanes total, two for each direction. She held her Type 89 up while she scanned for threats, keeping her head on a swivel, once again putting her Evangelion training to good use. "What's with the lights though?"
She could see most of the built in lights had long since died, or were destroyed, and instead orange and yellow lights were sloppily hung from and were bolted onto the ceiling, wires trailing off every which way. It was way too disorganized for NERV. That said it did give the tunnel a creepy orange tint as she walked through.
[The Fallen must have built this] her Ghost murmured in her head and she nodded as she once again checked her tracker before checking her six o'clock.
"You sound surprised," she whispered, not wanting to be heard in the hollow silence of the tunnel.
[The Fallen are organized into Noble Houses, very few exist outside of them and those that do are more like rag-tag gangs, unorganized and small. To our knowledge the Fallen here shouldn't be this organized, they shouldn't have the capability to set all of this up.]
"So that's why we haven't seen many?" she whispered back.
[Yes but there's…they have Captains, they're experienced and powerful and hold similar status to human nobility.]
"So why are they here?" she narrowed her eyes, her genius intellect going to work, "if they had it good they shouldn't want to leave and should have no reason to leave one of these Houses."
[They could be disgraced but there still shouldn't be this many of them, Houses would execute them if their crimes are too severe to keep order and prevent them from joining a rival House. Something's fishy here, we need to link up with the other Guardian] he said urgently. [We need to leave now, before we get a nasty surprise. The Vanguard needs to hear about this.]
She nodded and jogged forward, the situation was urgent so she decided to ask about the Vanguard later, concentrating on keeping aware for enemies since she was making a lot more noise now.
"Mari, where are they now?" The sun was starting to come down now, the sunken floor of the Geofront quickly being washed in shadow. Shinji glanced at his motion tracker and frowned, the fringe of the section right in front of him was lighting up and he guessed the Fallen were coming up the trench he followed in his sparrow. Knowing his break was over he stood up and shouldered his Phenomena CSM, resting the barrel on the rubble in front of him to help keep it steady. It wasn't really necessary, a Guardian's superhuman strength meant that a heavy weapon was more than usable firing from the shoulder. That said firing with support was still much more accurate when firing long sustained bursts, and he had a nagging feeling he was going to be burning through his ammo today. "Don't be afraid to take out more ammo if we need it."
[Gotcha, and they shouldn't be too far now…]
"I hope you're right…" Shinji murmured as, in the distance, he saw the distinct glow of the four eyed fallen through the sight on his machine gun. With his left hand he grabbed the charging handle and racked the action before holding the stock, to help brace him against the weapon. "Here we go Mari…"
A roar echoed in this distance-
[Let's fuck them up!]
-Shinji sighed, before grinning behind his faceplate. He was absolutely sure that out of all the Ghosts out there Mari was the only one who was insane, he didn't mind though.
Even if she did tend to wreck the mood.
As he looked down his sights he saw a small crowd of the two armed dregs charging him, knives coated with lightning in their hands as they screamed, he assumed, bloody murder at him.
Taking aim he pulled the trigger, letting loose a burst of rapid-fire machine gun rounds at 900 round per minute. The Phemonema blazed to life, the blue muzzle flash crackling with lightning as bullets coated in arc light tore through the Dreg's light armor.
"Let's hope they get here quick, as weak as the Fallen in this area are heavy ammo isn't easy to come by."
Asuka raised and shouldered her rifle, aiming at a group of four dregs in front of her, currently unaware, before she spotted an old truck and sprinted for cover.
*Craaa!*
She grinned when she heard their cry as she slid into cover behind the truck and popped around, seeing a dreg charge her with electric knives she aimed for the head and fired a burst. The full metal jacketed 5.56mm NATO rounds made quick work of the alien's head, ripping it apart and a wisp of white escaped from the now headless body.
Shifting her aim she mowed another one down, before she felt bolts of light slam into her, crackling against her shields.
"Fuck," she went back behind cover before looking up and grinning to herself and, with her new found superhuman strength, she jumped up onto of the truck, surprising the one who shot her. "Say hello to my little-fuck!" she shouted as he shot at her again and she just gunned him down.
"Fucking interrupting me…" she grumbled as she hopped down and reloaded before she froze as she remembered something, "where's the last one?"
She eyed her motion tracker...to see the centre section glowing, 'ABOVE!'
"FUCK!" she dived forward, dodging the dreg falling from the ceiling with a hairs breath and, not even thinking, she spun around and sent an armored fist straight into the alien's chest. The punch landed with a satisfying 'thump!' and sending it flying into the truck, denting in the metal slightly before the body slumped onto the ground, dead.
Asuka blinked at that, "damn..." she looked down at her fist, a grin on her face, "that was awesome."
[Asuka-san] Ghost chimed in as she loaded a full magazine [I think I found something that might interest you.]
Asuka shrugged, she could definitely use anything she could find. Another nav-marker popped onto her HUD, right at the closed loading gate of the truck she had jumped on top of and used as cover. Walking around to the back she reached for the handle and pulled up…and the rusted handle snapped.
"Oh for fucks sake…" she couldn't help but mumble, how was she going to open it now?...She grinned under her faceplate. She was a clad head-to-toe in a few hundred pounds of armour and had superhuman strength and speed. If she had no way in… "I'll just make one."
Asuka stood back a few paces back before her Ghost seemed to get her idea [might want to put your rifle away, it's not as tough as you are. Put it up against your back, magnets in your armour can hold it in place.]
"Thanks," she did as was suggested before she thundered into a full sprint and, just before she hit the back of the truck, she leapt into the air and crossed her arms in front of her, slamming into the fragile door. The old steel easily broke behind the force of a few hundred pounds of armour and former Eva pilot and Asuka skid to a stop. Ghost flashed into existence over her shoulder, the small drone projecting a cone of light like a flashlight. What greeted her was what she could only describe as a red and black treasure chest, the lid was curved and covered in a few thick hose like wires and green glowing lights.
"A loot stash," her Ghost commented, "let's see what presents our four-eyed friends left us."
She approached it carefully, "there's no chance for it to be booby-trapped?"
"No," the calm, which seemed to be his default natural tone, artificial voice of her Ghost replied. "The Fallen are a greedy bunch, they love to horde and steel, they'd never risk damaging their loot in any way. If it's stolen then they'd just take it back…or that's their logic anyway."
Nodding with satisfaction Asuka opened the chest…and was dazzled by almost blinding blue and white light. Filling the chest was a small stash of cube shaped crystals, emitting the bright glow.
"What is this stuff Ghost?" she asked. "Is it safe to touch?"
"Glimmer, programmable matter," to her that was just gibberish, not surprising considering how far in the future she was. "Perfectly safe to handle and high in demand back home, you can use it to buy all kinds of stuff."
"…so it's just fancy glowing money?"
"…I suppose that's true, as far as most people are concerned."
The glimmer vanished, Asuka wasn't surprised and guessed Ghost had zapped it to wherever he was putting in all the stuff he was picking up, like the ammo he was poofing into her ammo pouches, keeping them full. What did surprise her, pleasantly, was what was at the bottom of the now mostly empty chest.
A big pump-action shotgun.
It wasn't a design she recognized and she guessed it was stolen by the Fallen or scavenged somewhere and had somehow made its way back into the Geofront. The barrel was massive, the smooth bore bigger than the 12-gauge shotguns she'd seen some of the base security in Germany wielding during her stay in NERV's Hamburg base. The barrel was black in colour, and so was the pistol grip, stock and the slide and pump under the barrel. The receiver was a simple white and the weapon had simple iron sights.
Picking it up with a smile information flowed into her head. It was a Preacher Mk. I, a simple and common but powerful and popular shotgun with a four round capacity.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!" she couldn't help but cheer. She always wanted to shoot a shotgun, sadly the arsenal Evangelions wielded didn't include giant shotguns. She had even tried to get Misato to have NERV commission a giant shotgun, or at least program one into the simulators for trials, but it had never worked out.
At last her dream comes true.
"Not a lot of ammo left for it though," she only had four shells, all of them already loaded in the gun as her ammo counter indicated, the shotgun's supply appearing under her Type-89's.
A flash at the edge of her motion tracker got her attention. It didn't surprise her, in fact she was somewhat expecting someone to say 'hello' after she killed the four dregs, they seemed too light security for a loot cash.
Seeing the enemy come closer on her tracker she leapt into action, leaping out of the truck, her shotgun held at the ready. As she soared through the air a strange flying drone greeted her, it was larger than her Ghost, as wide as her shoulders. It's main body had three yellow eyes, one engine pod was attached on either side while a gun was slung underneath, the name 'Shank' was above it on her HUD.
She pulled the trigger and fired a blast of buckshot into the drone, the massive shotgun shoving into her shoulder, the force clear even through her armour. The shank exploded as she landed on her side with a grunt. A dreg came into view, two lightning coated knives in hand, a vandal with a long rifle right behind.
Quickly she rolled to a stand and sent her fist into the dreg's face, the force caving it in and sending the body flying into the vandal who dodged and aimed at her. The muzzle blazed to life, electricity arcing around the barrel as the weapon prepared to fire. Asuka charged as the weapon fired, the bolt from rifle flaring against her shields, taking a fair bit out of them. She ignored them and closed, grabbing the barrel of the rifle as it cycled again and shoved it to the side before kicking her foe to the ground, the force making the vandal let go of his weapon. Asuka tossed the rifle aside as she put her foot down on the vandal's chest, pinning it, before she chambered another shell, the ejected shell clacking onto the floor.
Deciding not to fire off a one liner this time she aimed point blank and pulled the trigger, blasting the head off the vandal.
She was about to complain about using half of her ammo supply when she noticed the ammo counter of the shotgun indicated she now had 6 rounds in reserve.
[I can forge ammo for you from bits of some of our enemies' equipment] his voice chimed in which surprised her, she hadn't known he had popped back into her head. [I can't do it all the time though since I can't always find the right components and it takes a few enemies to collect enough so I suggest using your shotgun ammo wisely. I can make ammo for your rifle too but the materials for your shotgun ammunition aren't as common.]
"Huh," she couldn't help but find her Ghost extremely convenient as she loaded a shell, racked the pump to chamber the round, and loaded a fourth shell into the tube. "I think we're going to get along just fine Ghost."
'No end to them,' Shinji thought with a frown as more Fallen surged forward.
He held down the trigger, filling the air with a storm of lead, the arc rounds leaving streaks of blue light as they tore through the air and shredded their targets. Shinji had been forced to shift his shooting stance, his left hand no longer supporting the stock, instead it supported the ammunition belt. Having chosen to eschew reloading due to the sheer volume of enemies Mari was now floating at the bottom of the foxhole, transmatting ammo belts directly and connecting them onto each other instead of in the usual portable ammunition boxes. It meant he could fire without stopping but he had to support the belt to keep the gun feeding properly. He could see the heat coming off of the barrel shroud, the cooling gel that usually kept the barrel cool being overwhelmed as Shinji did his best impression of a first world war machine gunner mowing down enemy troops as they charged through no-man's land.
If this kept going he'd be forced to stop to change barrels, assuming his ammunition didn't run out.
As he mowed down another charge of suicidal dregs it seems like his prayers were answered…and finally he could let go of the trigger.
"All's quiet on the Western Front," Mari commented as she floated up over his shoulder to look over the battlefield with him. In front of them was a small sea of bodies, Dregs, Vandals, the wrecks of several dozen Shanks and even a few Captains, some having come as close as a dozen metres. The rubble around him was scarred with scorch marks and the signs of battle. "I thought it'd never end."
"Yeah…" he couldn't help but sigh in relief as he looked down at the floor of his foxhole, covered in links from the belts and empty brass casings. Reaching down to his belt he unclipped a water bottle, opened it, and poured the water over the Phenomena's barrel, the water instantly evaporating with a hiss. "Where's our Titan friend?"
Mari vanished back inside his head as her voice entered his mind [not too far now.]
A nav-marker popped up in the distance, his Ghost having taken the liberty to put the nickname 'Princess' right beside it on his HUD.
"Really Mari…" Shinji held back a sigh at her antics. He smiled in relief though to see the new Guardian still alive and back on the surface. Something in the distance got his attention, in the air, approaching at concerning speeds were the unforgettable silhouettes of a pair of Fallen Skiffs. "Damnit. Mari clean up the CSM," the machine gun vanished in a flash of light and and he hopped out of the foxhole.
Static cover would just attract the fire from the gunships, he needed to keep mobile to dodge their fire and the grenades they rained down to clear their drop zones. He called up his light and a trip-mine grenade appeared in his left hand. The explosive device looked similar to the old German hand grenades used during the World Wars, the explosive head attached to a long handle. Reaching behind him with his right hand he grabbed Monte Carlo and held the auto-rifle at his side.
"Call down the Damsel, have her target those Skiffs, looks like you get your airstrike Mari-chan."
[Hell yes!...She can't get down here in time to stop them from dropping off their troops though, you do know that, right?]
"I can take them on just fine," he casually flipped the tripmine in his hand, his voice holding a calm confidence that anyone from his old life would have found alien. After being a Guardian for a few years though this was just another day in the office really. "I just want the dropships' guns taken out."
"FINALLY!" Asuka shouted as she reached the top of the stairs, exiting the tunnel and into the crumbling lobby of some building she didn't recognized. In her hands she held her Type-89, her new shotgun resting on her back.
A new nav-marker popped up on her HUD.
[Almost there, let's double time, the Fallen really don't want us to leave. They've been assaulting our evac-point for awhile now.]
"Scheiße!" Asuka ran out of the lobby and saw a trench gouged into the earth.
[Follow it! Let's go!]
"Right," Asuka hopped down and doubled time, running as fast and as hard as she could, her steps shaking the ground as she thundered forward.
A pair of long insect like ships flew overhead, "what are those Ghost?"
[Dman, dropships, Fallen Skiffs, not good.]
As her destination finally came into view, the collapsed ruins of some building, her breathing was starting to become labored but she pressed onward, knowing that those ships were probably the first of many. In front of her the two Skiffs hovered two stories above the ground, a dozen fallen dropping out of them, each group lead by a Captain.
It was then she finally saw the Guardian who had been covering her all this time as he, she assumed it was a he, hopped out of cover. He was fairly slim, judging by his build and height she guessed they were the same age as her. Their armour was lighter than hers, armour plates only covering a few important parts but even at this distance she could tell her new comrade's black, violet and green armour (a fan of Shinji's she guessed) was more intricate and advanced than hers.
What really caught her attention though was the flowing blue cloak. Damn, when she got her Baka back she was getting this person to teach him a thing or two about style.
The Skiffs opened fire, the caped Guardian dodging and weaving as the large blue energy bolts exploded around him. He threw something at both of the Captains, sticking onto their fronts before they exploded, turning the two into mist and shredding the troops who stood in front of them, wiping out most of the landed Fallen. The herd successfully thinned he started firing at the dazed survivors with an automatic rifle.
[Damn] her Ghost commented [that was…impressive.]
Asuka couldn't help but agree as she surged forward, out of the trench. She came across what could only be described as a killing field, bodies of dead Fallen everywhere. It really seemed like this more experienced Guardian knew their stuff, he was a venerable murder machine from what she'd seen.
A pair of missiles screamed from above and slammed into the Fallen ships, exploding in to two brilliant blazing fireballs.
"Hell yeah!" Asuka couldn't help but cheer, what could she say, she loved explosions.
A bronze blur roared overhead shortly after, too fast for her too see anything aside from the flaming exhaust of the engines, diving down into the cover of the destroyed warehouse.
[That's our ride!]
"No, really!" she couldn't help snap with sarcasm as she finally reached the warehouse. Her fellow Guardian seemed to notice her as he waved her over and fell back behind the wall of rubble and rusted steel.
Using her superhuman strength she jumped half-way up the wall and started to climb up.
[Asuka! Behind!] she turned to see the sight of another Fallen Skiff racing down at them.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" She climbed up as fast as she could as the Skiff opened fire, the blue energy bolts smashing into the wall just as she jumped over the top and to the other side.
Her fellow Guardian waited for her, his white autorifle aimed at the top of the wall, his cloak fluttering in the wind.
Hovering above him was the gleaming bronze form of, what looked to be, a futuristic fighter plane. It was bug, larger than any fighter plane she had ever seen with a pair of swept back wings and two small vertical fins near the tail end of the ship, at the base of the wings, angled diagonally outwards while a larger swept back vertical one was mounted to the middle of the ship. What she assumed was the cockpit was placed in between a long two-pronged nose. Well she guessed it was the cockpit, it was covered in black metal and not glass so she assumed cameras let the pilot see from inside. Two rectangular missile pods were mounted on the top of the hull, where the body met the wings. A pair of single-barrel canons with a three pronged barrel were mounted on top of the hull on either side of the cockpit while a third one was mounted under the cockpit. Another pair of, what she assumed were weapon pods considering how heavily armed the ship was, were mounted on the underside.
Asuka had to admit she was damned impressed with the ship, hoping that one day when she came to get Shinji back she'd have something as impressive to pick him up with.
On the side of the hull, near the cockpit, written in white was what she guessed the ship was named.
"Quite Content Damsel, huh? Damn," she whistled, "paint it red and-"
A trio of roars from behind her snapped her out of her reverie and she spun, rifle at the ready to the site of three captain standing on top of the wall, the white Skiff hovering behind them. Her mind raced as she saw the two chin-mounted turrets aim at the ship behind her, looking to destroy their means of escape.
A crack of energy answered her prayer, sounding as if Aries himself had crashed down from Olympus behind her. Glancing over her shoulder she saw her fellow Guardian, his form covered in yellow fire and in his hand was a massive revolver, blazing like the sun itself.
He fired once, twice, three times and three beams of light flew over her head with the sound of thunder, their passing reverberating through her armour and into the air in her lungs, each shot leaving a sizzling trail through the air.
Turning forward again she saw one of the Captain's disintegrate in a shower of yellow light, flames and ash as the dropship's guns were no more, nothing but fire and molten metal.
Automatic gunfire roared from behind her, shredding the two Captains' shields and she took that as her cue to run for it, she couldn't die here, Shinji was counting on her! Spinning on her heels she ran for the ship which, worriedly, hadn't dropped a ramp or anything for them to use to get inside.
Then in a flash of light her fellow Guardian disappeared.
"What the?" she was so surprised she skid to stop. "Where did he-" a rapid flashing light from the corner of her HUD caught her attention and she glanced at her motion tracker.
To see an enemy coming from behind!
"Fuck!" she dove forward, a lightning covered blade swinging where her head used to be.
Then there was a flash of white light and the Titan was gone. Passengers picked up the Quite Content Damsel pitched up, thrusters blazing to life as she shot up into the sky, vaporizing the unfortunate Captain who got too close.
*clang!*
Shinji flinched at the sound and raised his brow, what in Pen-Pen's name was that? He turned around and cringed at the sight of the female Guardian on the ground, her faceplate up against the wall of the Damsel's cargo bay. Not exactly the most dignified pose he had to admit and he could feel the Titan's silent embarrassment from where he was standing…where he could also see a small dent caused by the impact on the steel grey wall.
The former Eva pilot sighed inside, the dent he could see was going to be awkward to explain to Amanda, the resident head shipwright back home. Well at least she didn't smash into his sparrow resting at the opposite end of the cargo compartment, that was a lot more fragile than his beloved Damsel.
Mari then flashed beside his head as she materialized and he could just see her grinning from ear to ear in amusement…metaphorically of course, she didn't have a mouth to grin with. He could even see her shaking slightly as if she was fighting her body to keep in her laughter, which of course was just some acting on her part. Shinji was actually sure the cheerful little drone had just muted herself.
"Puppy-kun," she turned to him and he could practically hear a cat grin in her voice. "I'll be in the cockpit," the door opened in front of her and she floated off, chuckling silently in his head.
Shinji just sighed at his Ghosts antics, he was pretty sure the new Titan didn't appreciate the amusement in her tone. He was also pretty sure no other Guardian had to deal with a Ghost like his Mari. Still, he couldn't help but smirk behind his helmet, 'I wouldn't change her for the world.'
He then turned around to go to the cockpit himself, the Damsel could fly itself just fine but he loved flying. As he walked up to the door to the rest of the small ship he turned to the Titan who was starting to stand up, feeling a little bad she had ended up in such an embarrassing position.
So, before he left the Titan to gather herself he said the only thing that came to mind.
"Sorry."
Asuka froze as the door hissed and clicked close.
"It couldn't be…" she murmured, her bright blue eyes wide.
'Sorry', how many times had she heard him say that word? She was intimately familiar with every possible way he could say it, or she liked to think she was.
And the way that Guardian had said it…it was so familiar. The tone, the softness, everything about it reminded her of…of him. She could feel herself shake, 'no it can't be…no…'
She shook her head, everything about her life had taught her that if something was too good to be true then it was. But…it was him, there was no doubt in her mind.
She eyed the door as she stood up and took off her helmet, her fiery red locks finally flowing free.
"It's you, isn't it? Shinji..."
The image of Unit-01's fallen form flashed in her mind...and tears rolled down her cheeks as she smiled.
Her Baka was alive.
Chapter 3: Reunion II (Cohabitation Part 2)
AN
Damn, sorry this was so late guys. I wanted to get this out prior to Rise of Iron's release but work got in the way and then Rise of Iron released and...well, great DLC, lot's of fun.
Need I say more? Hahaha
Well here it is guys, the next chapter of Fireteam Tokyo. Wow, a lot longer than I thought it would be. I've always thought of this as a short series, keeping chapters around 4-6k in length, not my usual 8-10k but oh well.
I know a lot of people may be upset about the ending but I really wanted to cut it off here. This chapter had a lot of fighting and next chapter will FINALLY have Shinji and Asuka reunite. So next chapter will be much more mellow and full of WAFF, with Shinji helping Asuka settle in at The Tower and, as the next chapter's name indicate, they live together again.
Also to anyone that may be afraid Shinji is a little too OOC please keep in mind that A) he's in the middle of a mission this chapter and B) he's been a Guardian for a few years and that's changed him. Asuka and you guys will get to see what Shinji is like now in the next chapter, so wait until then for your judgement please.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to go and play some more Rise of Iron.
Stay safe, Guardians.