Jump 064: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Jump 064: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Location: Tokyo-3, 2015
Age: 27
Identity: Pattern Orange
Drawbacks: [+300] Hark The Herald

[100/1300]  Foreign Exchange Fluent
[200/1300]  Cool Headed
[400/1300]  Classy, Casual, Comfortable!
[600/1300]  Appropriate Paranoia
[700/1300]  Pattern Ultraviolet
[1000/1300] Genre Savior
[1300/1300] Verified Accolades

No one at NERV could really remember when they hired the pilot liaison. Much as many of the other larger-than-life personalities that existed at NERV, he had his own distinctive style of dress, an accent that was difficult to place, and a large amount of obscure knowledge that indicates a possibly broadly religious background in addition to military knowledge. Not that this was an uncommon thing, especially at NERV, of course. But when Pilot Ayanami's plug test went south, he helped see to her needs and relocation to a more appropriate home during and after her convalescence, as well as helping Pilot Ikari settle in and plan out a proper training schedule rather than simply leaving it Major Katsuragi.

In time, Pilot Soryu joined, and got put through the paces alongside the others. Both physically and mentally - the liaison ensured that the pilots were given training exercises to work through together, and were rapidly put into decent shape. While Pilots Soryu and Ayanami were initially in the best state for that, it did not take long for Pilot Ikari to be brought up to speed. Between the three of them being brought into fighting shape and working together both in the simulators and simply talking through tactical scenarios, the bond between them was made more tight-knit and smoothed out potential issues before they could become problems.

(If Ayanami's eyes tended to be brighter red than one was used to, no one commented.)

>"I disagree with your methods, chaplain. That isn't part of the Scenario."
"Come now, Mr. Ikari, you know as well as I that the scenario is flawed; no one has been working with all the information available. All that matters at this stage should be results, and these results cannot be denied. Sync ratios through the roof. Evangelion more combat effective than imagined. We must commit to this path, your Scenario would damn us."
>"And yet what alternative is there? We are committed to this path, death awaits us otherwise."
"Instrumentality will merely erase individuality and annihilate humanity's souls wholesale. It is no more immortality for humanity than throwing frogs in a blender is immortality for them."
>"Are you truly so certain?"
"Yes. As I've told you, Adam and Lilith are merely alien terraforming engines. The best hope is that it might be a lotus-eater situation, but even that is likely to be very temporary indeed. We can't expect God to do all the work; I'll be giving the Children the tools to keep us all alive to the end. If I may offer some unsolicited and unwelcome advice?"
>"As though it were possible to decline? Very well."
"Make amends with your son. If things go properly, you'll both get Yui back. If they go wrong... I believe you would rather have Shinji Akari in your corner when the dust settles, if anything is left at all."
>"I'll take it under advisement. That will be all, chaplain."

The Angels attacked, as they always would. The Angels were repelled, as a matter of course. But the Dead Sea Scrolls apparently lied; the Angels weren't coming in the order foretold, nor on the schedule foretold. Nor were all the Angels that attacked even on the Scrolls. And so NERV scrambled to cover their bases. Other pilots were added to the roster; they, too, were added to the training program.

More Evangelion were pressed into service as quickly as possible, and risky experiments were shelved. NERV's staff brainstormed anti-AT Field weaponry as quickly as they could. The battery life of Evangelion was extended, to the point that they did not need umbilicals. And the one time that the pilots were caught out of their Evangelion while an Angel attacked, they were able to make their way through the shut-down NERV Headquarters in shockingly quick time to fight off the attack.

The pilots' training was clearly paying off; the more time that passed, the more effectively they could control their Eva and mold the AT fields to their will.

(If pilots' eyes tended to glow like a cat's in the dark, no one found anything wrong with it.)

>"I have severe misgivings about this, chaplain."
"Even the most naive man would have misgivings about this, Mr. Ikari."
>"There must be an alternative. I do not wish to carve 'abandon home, all ye who enter here' above the entrance to the geofront."
"No, you should not, but would you prefer a return to the status quo when the dust settles? What was it that Milton said? Better to reign in Hell?"
>"I have no urge to become Lucifer in the modern retelling."
"Oh, Mr. Ikari, you weren't Lucifer. Your role was Judas."
>"Then that, at least, is a fate that I have avoided."
"Ah, the young man is talking to you again after all?"
>"Once he got the violence out of his system. I was pleasantly surprised by that. We are reconciling, slowly."

Things came to a head when one of the pilots chose to be ... incompatible ... with the method of training. The other pilots present felt that something was off, but had trouble identifying it. Pilot Ayanami had no issues, but Pilot Nagisa was a different issue altogether. The Angel attacks had tapered to a stop - after nearly TWO DOZEN! - and, miraculously, there had been no casualties among the pilots, even with critical injuries to Pilots Ayanami and Suzuhara, they still survived... and recovered in a matter of weeks.

(If anyone thought it unusual that two teenagers could go from full body casts to perfect health in thirteen days, they remained silent.)

But as it turned out... Pilot Nagisa was in fact an Angel assuming human form.

As it turned out, Pilot Ikari had a much stronger support structure in the form of NERV, a formerly-distant father who showed care, and a family among his fellow pilots and Major Katsuragi, among others. Shinji Ikari leapt upon the mortal body of Kaworu Nagisa and demonstrated humanity's resilence. When Pilot Ikari's Evangelion destroyed Kaworu Nagisa in the form of Tabris, no tears were shed.

SEELE thought this the perfect moment to attempt to force Third Impact, sending the Mass-Produced Evangelion series to attack NERV in concert with the JSSDF. The mass-produced Evangelion were routed by all of the Evangelion pilots working together in concert, without overmuch complication, and though the Eva were all destroyed in the defense there were no casualties. No one within NERV ever commented about how the JSSDF were repelled, but it is well known that they were, the bodies of those who did not surrender torn asunder.

(Survivors claim a man in clerical attire, followed by a small army of demonically possessed girls, cut a bloody swath through them. Such claims were too fantastic to be believed, even in this era. But Dr. Akagi never did say what happened to the now-empty tank of the Rei, all swimming about and seemingly self-aware, their eyes glowing a demonic red.)

The true crimes of SEELE were never made public, but what was leaked from the closed trial at the Hague indicated Kiel Lorenz at the core of a conspiracy to create biomechanical monsters in a bid to overthrow world governments and take control; SEELE was a means to an end. According to the leaked information, the 'Angels' were made with prototype data that created the Eva, and were thrown at the Earth in order to destroy NERV before SEELE's Eva would swoop in, invincible; the paper trail showed the bribes paid to the JSSDF, which was the only thing in the report that was remotely true.

Of course, no one really had the chance to dig any deeper into the conspiracy theories, in the face of Outworld's conquest and subsequent assimilation of the planet a week later.

>"This is what you meant by reigning in Hell, isn't it?"
"It's better this way, Mr. Ikari. You were otherwise going to be damned to a loop of this course of events, over and over again. At least now you have Yui back, as wrong as she was."
>"What of the Children?"
"Oh, they will retain their link to the Well of Argent D'Nur and myself through it, but they will be free to live their lives as they see fit. They'll have a natural span longer than humans, but not thousands of years. Not without rejuv treatments, at any rate, which are common enough in Outworld."
>"They will not turn into demons?"
"Ha! No, no. Even Rei Tres, Quarte, Cinq, and so on... they will be free to live their own lives. Augmented, as the other Children, but still human. Well, as human as the Rei are, anyway."
>"And my son?"
"Why do you think I recommended you reconcile, Mr. Ikari? He has a much more stable head on his shoulders, he is intelligent, and his cohort are loyal. Outworld is his oyster, should he so choose. Perhaps he could challenge for Khan, one day. What of yourself?"
>"I have all I desired. I see retirement in my future."
"Wise man."