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The recent discussion about Macross mecha against an Evangelion made
me think about a crossover with Macross (or Robotech) and Evangelion.
It resulted in a very interesting idea (to me, at any rate) for
starting such a crossover. So I wrote it down. This is a rough draft
(probably with glaring grammar, spelling, and plot errors all over the
place).
If you haven't seen Evangelion, and don't want any spoilers
whatsoever, then I must warn you that there are some spoilers in the
fic (it could be hard to tell what's a spoiler and what I made up
though).
=====begin=====
No title as of yet
by Yoo C. Chung (wacko@laplace.snu.ac.kr)
Preface
Evangelion is copyrighted by Gainax. Macross is copyrighted by
someone, I'm pretty sure of that.
Prologue
A few months ago, there was an expedition to the South Pole. It
was pretty routine, except on the return voyage there was an area
in T??? [Must find area in Antarctica that begins with a T.] where
all the magnetic fields were screwed. A few decades ago, the expedition
could have been doomed since all the compasses went hairwire, and
compounding the problem no stars were visible because of the cloud
cover. Fortunately, there was little risk of getting lost thanks
to the use of GPS.
Back at civilization, analysis showed that the magnetic fields
were almost perfectly symmetrical around a certain point in the
area. The scientist who discovered the result was an Arthur C.
Clarke fan, so he dubbed it TMA-1 (T??? [Whatever the area was named
in the above.] Magnetic Anomaly One).
A geological expedition was organized and sponsored by the UN
to investigate the anomaly. That was why Joseph Weber, a geologist
who specialized in magnetic fields, was setting up a magnetic field
detection grid in the freezing cold of Antarctica.
``OK, the instrument's set in. Base camp, is the data link up?''
he asked through the radio.
``Sure, it's working fine. We should be able to plot out the
center of the field in no time. Why don't you guys come in and
thaw yourselves out in the meantime?'' came the response.
``Sure, we'd be glad to,'' Joseph said, and switched off the
radio. Turning to Kaji Shuuichi, an explorer who was reasonably
experienced with Antarctica, he said, ``Let's get back in, I feel
like I'm going to freeze and crystallize if we stay out here.''
``Ha, this isn't cold. You should come to the South Pole more
often,'' Shuuichi said.
``Well, this *is* the first time I've been here.''
``True enough. I hope they have some hot choco ready.''
They headed back to base camp on their snowmobiles.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A few hours later, Weber and Kaji were out again and were at
the center of TMA-1.
``I don't see anything weird. But then again, I'm not a geologist,''
Kaji said.
``I don't see anything anomalous either. I have the feeling
that whatever is causing the anomaly is underground,'' Weber said.
``Better call base camp. I'm sure they'll want to call the mainland
to bring in more equipment,'' Kaji suggested.
``Right,'' Weber said, and switched on the radio. ``Base camp,
we're at the center.''
``So, did you find the black monolith?''
``A what?''
``Never mind, it's an old joke. What's there?''
``We don't see anything above ground that might be causing the
anomaly. I think the source is underground.''
``Understood. Set up the instruments and get back. Base camp
out.''
Weber switched off the radio, and they headed towards the snowmobiles
to start set up the instruments.
While setting up the instruments, Kaji asked ``What do you think
might be causing the anomaly?''
``I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever heard of anything like
this. It could be anything, from a giant lodestone, to a superconducting
cavity,'' Weber answered.
Kaji, feeling like he was being teased, turned towards Weber
and started to say, ``A super-'' But he immediately noticed where
Weber was heading, and shouted ``Joe, watch out!''
``Huh?'' Weber said, while not quite stopping. He immediately
regretted not having stopped immediately, since he felt the ground
give away moments later.
``Whoa!'' he yelled as he fell down. He saw Kaji starting to
sprint towards him just before the ground rose above him. `I'm
dead,' he thought, just before he hit a thick layer of snow.
`Wait, I'm not dead?' he wondered. He thanked the Lord that
he fell into a very shallow crevasse. Normally, a crevasse was
too deep for any rescue even if one was lucky enough to have survived
the fall. He groaned at the thought of being chided by Kaji for
being careless later on, but he was glad that he was still alive.
Up at the opening Kaji shouted, ``Are you OK down there?''
``Yeah, I'm OK. I don't even feel bruised,'' he shouted back.
``Wait a moment while I lower a rope to you!'' Kaji shouted.
Weber tried to sit up, but then he heard a crack, and the ground
gave way under him again. `Darn, maybe I'm going to really die
this time,' he thought. A split second later he hit the ground
again. `Geeze I must be really lucky,' he thought right after
he hit the ground.
This time the ground was hard, icy in fact, that it hurt a lot
when he fell down on his rear. He had closed his eyes in pain,
so he didn't notice it at first, but soon he realized that there
was light.
He slowly opened his eyes. What he saw shocked him. He was
in a chamber of ice. That wasn't particular strange. The chamber
was large and rectangular. That was somewhat strange, but wasn't
something to be shocked at. What did shock him was the large glowing
object in front of him.
He didn't know what it was at first, but with a little exploring
along the walls (there was just enough space for Weber to go through
the space between the walls and the glowing object), Weber was
even more shocked to realize that the glowing object was a *giant
of light*, lying horizontally in the ice chamber.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Soon after, everything about TMA-1 was put under wraps. It was
a miracle that something sponsored by a multinational entity like
the UN was able to have been swept into absolute secrecy. (Decades
later, it would become a legend for having been one of the longest
kept major secrets of all time with absolutely no leaks.)
A few weeks later, an investigation commission headed by Dr. Katsuragi
was set up to investigate the giant of light. The giant was dug
up from its resting place underground, and a major research base
was built around it. Luckily, civilian reconnaissance satellites
didn't observe Antarctica, so there was no need to raise suspicions
by banning surveillance of Antarctica.
Chapter 1
The Crash
In the year 2000, a huge gravimetric disturbance was detected near
Earth. Telescopes were immediately used to identify the source.
The astronomers and the military were shocked when the source turned
out to be something that looked very much like a large spaceship.
An hour later, when the governments of the world were still discussing
on what to do, the spaceship entered the atmosphere. It entered
somewhere above Western China. It swept across the sky, heading
southeast. Everything on the ground below its path was destroyed,
which included several major cities.
Soon, it became major news that a spaceship was going to crash
into the Earth, with various satellite photos (visible and infrared),
photos that were taken from the ground (from the lucky and competent
few who had been close enough to photograph the spaceship properly
and survive) and other material becoming available.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Meanwhile at the investigation site at TMA-1, Dr. Katsuragi was
busy directing an x-ray scan of the giant of light, when suddenly
his daughter, Misato, came out of the building next to the giant
and called to him.
``Dad, there's a spaceship entering the atmosphere!''
``Not now, Misato, I'm busy,'' he said absentmindedly. Why did
Misato have to bother him with something as routine as a spacecraft
reentry?
``Dad it's an alien-,'' Misato started to say, when the glowing
giant suddenly became a lot brighter.
``What the hell is going on?'' Dr. Katsuragi asked the sensor
room through his comm link.
``We're not sure, Doctor, but there seems to be marked increase
in electrical and magnetic activity within the giant,'' came the
answer.
Just after the answer came, the giant started moving. Everyone
was so surprised that no one neither moved nor talked. But when
the giant was completely standing, it began to smash everything
around it. That's when the panic started.
Dr. Katsuragi still wasn't moving from the surprise, until the
giant smashed down with one of its fists on the building right
next to where her daughter was standing. A lot of debris hit her
and she fell.
He ran towards where Misato had fell. She was unconscious, and
was bleeding in several places, but was otherwise fine. He picked
her up to take her to safety. That's when some debris hit his
back and one of his legs. The pain only made him more determined
to get his daughter to safety.
He remembered that there were several escape pods scattered from
the base a couple of hundred meters away, just in case (no one
seriously thought that they would ever be needed). He started
to head towards one of them.
At first he ran, but the pain in his back and one of his legs
eventually forced him to start limping. Fortunately, they were
far enough away from the giant that there was little danger of
being further injured.
As he approached one of the escape pods, he could feel the pain
from his injuries steadily becoming worse. He started to think
that he couldn't walk anymore. But he forced himself to keep on
going. He had to get Misato as far as possible from the destruction
that was happening behind them.
Finally he managed to reach the escape pod. He opened the hatch
and gently laid Misato in the escape pod, which was large enough
for only one person. As he began closing the hatch, he saw Misato
wake up. He considered telling her something, but decided against
it and locked the hatch. He activated the launch controls, and
the pod launched itself into the air. It became too far away to
see in just seconds. Absently he thought about the tremendous
acceleration that would have been required, but he knew that the
interior of the pods were extremely well padded.
He fell down from exhaustion and the pain from his injuries,
and just lay there in the snow. He was too exhausted to do anything
else. He began to regret about not being a better father for Misato,
because he suspected that he would not get another chance. He
was right.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
At the same time, the spaceship was streaking through the atmosphere,
destroying everything in its path. Eventually it crashed on a
very large island near the coast of Antarctica called Macross (an
unusual island with an average elevation of 100 meters). The resulting
explosion made thermonuclear detonations seem puny in comparison.
Several minutes later, an explosion centered around TMA-1 occurred.
It covered nearly the entire continent of Antarctica (and a small
portion of the Atlantic Ocean), melting most of the ice. The explosion
was so large that it actually managed to change the tilt of the
Earth significantly, caused hundreds of powerful earthquakes around
the world, and raised the sea level by dozens of meters. The heat
released in the explosion also managed to significantly change
the climate of the Earth.
The repercussions were so severe that global war broke out (later
dubbed the Global Civil War). And in just half a year, the population
of the world was reduced to half of what it was previous to the
explosion.
A year after the explosion, mankind had sufficiently calmed down
enough (though nowhere near what one would call stable) that an
investigation to the cause of the explosion was started. Everyone
knew (or so they thought) that it was the spaceship that appeared
an year earlier was the culprit. And that was what the investigation
commission announced.
The actual cause of the explosion was kept under absolute secrecy,
and the various governments encouraged the belief that it was the
impact of the spaceship that had caused the explosion. The impact
event was called Second Impact (with First Impact referring to
the asteroid strike that had wiped out the dinosaurs).
The world began to plan a reconstruction of the spaceship at
Macross island, recognizing that there were aliens in the universe,
and that they might attack Earth. The project was called the Robotech
Project, and the spaceship itself was dubbed the SDF-1 (Super Dimensional
Fortress One). A large number of scientists and engineers were
committed to the project. Oddly enough, no one noticed that the
most brightest and capable of scientists and engineers were not
committed to the project and were instead sent elsewhere.
=====end=====
Notes:
I need a title. Any ideas?
I also need a location in Antarctica that begins with the letter T.
It's for the meaningless joke above (you read or saw 2001, didn't
you?).
I'm not sure where to take this, or even if I should continue at all.
Any opinions? (Though to tell the truth, given my track record, it
would take a month for the second part to come, two months for the
part after that, and four months for ...)
Hope you enjoyed it...
- --
Yoo C. Chung <http://plaza.snu.ac.kr/~wacko/>
School of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
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