Title: Third Genesis Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion Type: Continuation/Divergence Links: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1321921/42/Evangelion_Third_Genesis http://shanejayell.dreamwidth.org/23491.html http://shanejayell.livejournal.com/338175.html Part Thirty Eight The Evangelion Carrier descended like clockwork, the heavy freight hauler extensively modified to carry the massive entity. Within the Archangel waited to be deployed, the buffed up humanoid figure held firmly by massive clamps. "Moving within range of target," Misato announced from where she was monitoring events in the command center. "Ready to go," Asuka said confidently, a smile on her face, her eyepatch giving her a more pirate like look. "Anti-aircraft missiles on radar!" Maya Ibuki yelped a warning, the commander going pale as she ordered, "Evade!" "We're too low!" the pilot cried as the plane wobbled into a attempted turn, "It's too close!" Asuka cursed loudly and inventively as the missiles exploded in a spread all around the carrier, enough hitting it to severely damage one wing. What was a controlled descent soon became a wild plunge, the plane burning brightly as it raced towards the hard earth. "Eject the Archangel!" Ritsuko yelled out the order, her hair fading from blonde to brown as she let it return to it's natural color. "And the pilot too," Misato noted dryly. "Clamps are fused!" the carrier pilot sounded desperate as he hit switches and pulled leavers, "No way to release Archangel!" The carrier, still holding the Archangel in a death grip, spiraled down and crashed, crumpling up and burning wildly. After a moment the remaining fuel tanks in the carrier went up, the explosion engulfing the wreckage and the Archangel. "Asuka!" Rei yelped, the light blue haired girl watching the screen with alarm, her school skirt flowing around her legs. "I'm all right," Asuka sounded frustrated, "but the Archangel is pinned! I can't get enough leverage and get free." "Oh hell," Ritsuko whimpered as if almost on cue a rogue Evangelion emerged from the desert sands, striding towards the fire. The misshapen, inhuman machine studied the scene for a moment, then picked up a good sized piece of wreckage. Stepping close it used the metal as a improvised club, pounding on the Archangel's head and shoulders as Asuka cursed furiously. Misato ran a hand through her hair as she got up from where she sat above them, watching. "I think we can shut the simulation down...?" she said with a sigh. "Agreed," Maya said, hitting the switch to end the simulation and revealing the Archangel sitting safe and sound nearby, a very annoyed Asuka sitting in the cockpit. "All right, we'll meet in briefing room one for a review in a half hour," Misato smiled wryly, "don't be late. I'm ordering in lunch." "How did it feel going down in flames?" Maya asked Makoto Hyuga, the brown haired man having been filling in as the carrier pilot. "Not fun," Makoto admitted. He smiled wryly, "Wonder who programmed in the surface to air missiles?" "Wanna bet Misato?" Yui Ikari offered, looking disturbingly adult dressed in a labcoat over her son's borrowed body. Meanwhile Rei was helping Asuka out of the entry plug, the smaller woman helping her towel off. "Damn it, that was cheating," Asuka grumbled as they walked away from the Archangel. "We don't know what defenses might be waiting for us," Rei offered mildly as she reached out to take Asuka's hand. Asuka wanted to argue, but she knew Rei had a point. So far they had just practiced doing unopposed landings on actual airstrips, nothing like a possible combat drop. "Damn it," she sighed, "I guess we have to expect the enemy to fight as dirty as Misato." "Or as dirty as Aoba," Rei noted, referring to their rather underhanded martial arts teacher. Asuka shuddered, "That's frightening." Most of the crew was already gathered there as Misato was organizing the boxes of takeout. "Food first," she decided cheerfully as paper plates were also gotten out, "we'll eat and talk about the test at the same time." "Won't that kind of spoil the meal?" Yui asked wryly. "Nah," Ritsuko said as she dished up for herself and Maya, both women sitting close together. "Besides," she added, "if it gets really annoying I'll just concentrate on feeding Maya." "Heh," Asuka chuckled as she loaded up her plate and Rei's. "All right," Misato asked seriously between bits of takeout, "what went wrong?" "You fired a surface to air missile at us?" Motoko noted dryly. "Before and after that," Misato pointed with her fork. "We didn't do a spin around the field at higher altitude," Maya offered as Ritsuko fed her some sweet and sour pork, "we might have spotted the launchers." "Exactly!" Misato agreed excitedly. Asuka forked up some rice with pork, blowing on it before eating. "From how high up can we safely drop the Archangel?" she wondered. "I mean, that way we could keep the carrier well above missile range, maybe." There was a long moment of dead silence as everyone considered that. "You know," Misato had to admit, "I have no idea." She looked over at the science types questioningly, "Ritsuko, Maya, Yui?" "It's a good question," Ritsuko admitted, unaware a noodle was stuck to her chin. "We'd have to run some simulations on it...." "Here," Maya plucked the noodle with a chuckle. She looked at Misato, "It's possible it could be dropped even higher if the AT field is used to cushion the landing." Yui shook her head wryly as she said, "Let's not jump ahead of ourselves. First we'll run some simulations, then we'll give you answers." "Fair enough," Misato agreed. Rei hesitated, "I was very... distressed, when Asuka was trapped in the burning carrier. Why couldn't she get free?" Ritsuko fielded that question, "To carry the Archangel, the new Carrier has to have a substantial structural strength. To be honest, even I didn't realize she couldn't bust out." "There were some special circumstances too," Motoko noted dryly, still stinging a bit from being shot down, "the crash crumpled the virtual airframe around her." "Can we modify the design with safety features?" Misato asked seriously. Maya hesitated, as did Yui. "Possibly," Yui admitted as she frowned boyishly, "on one hand we need to keep the structure intact, but it needs to break away on cue...." "Install explosive bolts?" Maya offered thoughtfully. "Those could work," Ritsuko mused, "though I'd be concerned about accidental detonation." "All right, folks, I want proposals on my desk tomorrow," Misato informed her team, "we'll work modifications into the simulator and see how they play out. We're on a clock with these new Evangelions, and I want us to hit the ground running." There was some grumbling as the team broke up into smaller groups talking and eating, but Misato could take that. She knew it had been a bit unfair suddenly dropping the missiles into the program, but they needed to be ready for worse case scenarios. And speaking of worse case.... Ritsuko looked up from where she was talking to Yui and Maya. "Yes?" she asked politely. "Evangelion Unit-02 is still functional, right?" Misato checked. She didn't think the science team had salvaged it for parts, but you never knew.... "Fully functional," Maya nodded, clearly not aware where her boss might be going with this. "How hard would it be to reconfigure it for a new pilot?" To be continued....