Hello Again!  Thanks for all of the excellent suggestions, comments, etc.
They all help, so if you have anything to say, send it in.  This ones a big
one...  I probably should have split this up into another two chapters, but
that's how it goes.  Enjoy, and remember that C&C is always welcome.

Neon Genesis Evangelion:
The End is the Beginning.

Chapter 3:  Engagement, a Battle!

An EDF Production.

Written by Helix and Rune.
aka Travis Carr and Jonathan Lloyd.

"After the beginning of the Second War, it soon became apparent that the
Evangelion class 1 series was completely outdated, outgunned, and simply
outclassed by our opponents.  Thus, the proposal to construct the Evangelion
Class 2 and 3 was placed before the UN Security Council..."

The Beginning:  The history of the EDF.  30 AR.

"That had to be one of the most embarrassing experiences of my life!"  Ryan
muttered to himself as he stepped out of the shower.  Snagging he large
towel draped on the rack, he began to vigorously dry his hair, hoping that
he had gotten the last of the LCL out during his shower.  "Of all the stunts
that they pulled, they just HAD to introduce us to the LCL that way..."

Ryan pulled on a talk top, snagging a pair of pants off the wall as he
stepped out of the bathroom.  There was a clatter, and Ryan dove behind the
door with a hoarse cry.  "Just what in the HELL are you doing in my room???"

Rei Ikari was just setting down a suitcase next to the bunk bed on the
other side of the room.  Upon seeing Ryan, she turned to the door and
shouted "IS THIS THE PERSON WHO YOUR MAKING MY ROOMMATE????"

"Commanders orders."  the gruff voice of Sargent Stickily replied.  "Your
to be treated the same as the rest of the cadets, and the same goes for your
brother.  We'll find a fourth roommate for you sooner or later, so be
prepared to live with the fact that this is your company for the next
portion of your training."  Another boy walked into the room before the door
was slammed shut behind them.

"What do you think your doing???"  Rei shouted as she pounded on the locked
door.  "Let me out of here!!!  How can you expect me to live with these
ravening barbarian men..."

"Ravening barbarian men?"  Ryan muttered to himself.  "I've been called
some bad stuff in my time, but never something as...  pointless."  He
finished pulling on his pants, and stepped out into the room.  Rei was now
rather pointlessly ranting at the door, but her brother was going about the
business of getting his gear packed away.

Ryan picked up one of his bags, walking over to his new room mate.  "Do you
mind if I lend a hand?"

The boy looked at Ryan out of the corner of his eye.  "No, I don't mind."

Ryan set down the bag, pulling a few articles of clothing out.  "What's
your name?"

"Karou."  Karou went back to unpacking his clothing and putting in in his
dresser, moving with a carefully measured pace.

"Not the talkative type, eh?"  Ryan murmured.  "Ah well."  Ryan pulled
another article of clothing out, handing it to Karou.  They continued like
this without words for a few minutes, with only Rei's shouting still going
on in the background.  Finally, Ryan turned and walked away as his roommate
put the last of his things away.

"Damn it..."  Rei swore as she turned back into the room.  Stalking over to
her bed, she rounded. "Just what are you looking at???" she shouted at Ryan.

"I'm apparently looking at a spoiled little brat who hasn't gotten his way.
Is that what I'm supposed to be looking at?"  Ryan responded a little
testily.  He was quite frankly getting sick of Rei's shouting, demands, and
threats, and wanted to be able to get some sleep tonight.

He regretted that comment almost immediately, and had he had the time or
inclination, he would have compared Rei's explosion of temper to one of the
volcanoes that he had seen a few years ago...

...

Later that night, a lone figure crept along the cadets wall, moving towards
the exit.  It paused as it passed the main lounging area, looking at the few
cadets who had fallen asleep in front of the TV.  Ryan paused and looked at
Keith, who was holding a young girl with rather pretty blond hair, both of
them fast asleep.  "Lucky bastard."  Ryan muttered as he walked out to the
exit to the cadets quarters.

Ryan put his ear to the door, listening for any movement outside.  Not
hearing any, he slowly opened the door, glancing outside the moment that he
had opened it a crack.  Sargent Stickily was sleeping on a chair outside,
oblivious to the world around him.  Ryan tiptoed past him just in case,
finally reaching the door to the outside of the base.

Ryan wandered the base for a moment, looking for a map around.  The halls
high arched ceilings were lost in the shadow of the bases reduced light
mode, giving a gloomy effect to the passages.  Ryan wandered the dark halls
for a half an hour, looking for one specific area of the base.  Finally,
Ryan found it.  A sign on the wall marked the area as "Pilots Quarters".

"Jenkins...  Cummings...  Johnson.  Here we are."  Ryan paused at the door,
listening quietly.  He heard someone talking, to themselves perhaps, and no
one was answering them.  Ryan put his ear to the door, listening.

"Hmmm... we had three cadets drop out after the incident with the LCL.
That leaves 42 cadets left.  Not too bad for my first time as a teacher...
but I shouldn't have lost any of them..."  A sigh.  Ryan pulled his ear away
from the door, and then rapped soundly on it.

"Who can that be?"  Ryan heard as someone stood up and walked towards the
door.  "It better not be Jenny again..."  The door slip open with a snap,
and a rather tired looking Sam Johnson looked out at Ryan.  "Yes, who are
you, what do want?"

"Um, Sam, don't you remember me?"  Ryan looked at his brother, up close,
for the first time in several years.  The resemblance between the two was
uncanny, enough so that if Ryan were a few years older, they could use each
other as shaving mirrors.

Sam's eyes narrowed as he looked at Ryan.  "That's right, your one of the
cadets.  Look, if your hear to complain about the LCL procedure, you can
take it up with the commander and the security council.  I don't make the
training procedures, I just implement them."  With that Sam slammed the door
shut.

Ryan swore quietly, and then shouted at the door.  "SAMUEL JOHNSON FUSHA, I
NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!!!!!"

There was a clatter, and the door opened again as Sam grabbed Ryan by his
collar and lifted him into the air.  "Who the HELL are you???  How did you
know that name?"

"You don't remember me, do you Sam?  Figures, you were always out in the
fields, never coming back inside, vanishing for days at a time.  Mom just
figured that you just ran off one day, not really caring about you."  As
Ryan spoke, Sam slowly lowered him to the ground, an expression of
incredulity spreading across his face.

"Ryan...?  My little brother Ryan?"  Sam looked at him for a moment, before
pulling him into a tight embrace.  "I'm sorry...  I'm so sorry that I left
you..."

...

Ryan looked at the mug of coffee that Sam had handed to him, staring
blankly into the liquid within.  He glanced up as Sam sat in the chair
opposite to him, with his own mug in hand.

"Sam, what happened?  One day you had just...  vanished.  Mom and Dad went
nuts looking for you, looking everywhere.  They checked the entire farm, and
asked almost everyone within a ten mile radius if they had seen you or heard
from you."  Ryan leaned back and sipped his coffee has he watched Sam digest
this piece of news.

"That's surprising...  I didn't think that either of them cared about me
enough to look for me."  Sam sipped at his coffee a bit before continuing.
"You know how they though about us...  as field hands, not their children.
I just couldn't stand it anymore.  Then, there was an attack.  An Angel
landed about a mile off to the west, and an Evangelion was dispatched to
battle it.  They fought for a while, and I watched the entire thing from a
tree nearby.  Finally, the Eva destroyed the Angel, but it was heavily
damaged in the process."

Ryan cut in at this point.  "Yeah, there was a huge clamor in town about
how the hell demon had destroyed on of God's Messengers, and the EDF
removing both of the bodies.  But I didn't hear anything about you relating
to that."

Sam chuckled.  "Of course you didn't.  The pilot of the Eva ejected,
landing close to me.  I pulled his out of the entry plug, right before the
damn thing exploded."  Sam rubbed his arm as if remembering an old wound.
"I took him to the nearest base as fast as I could.  You know I couldn't
stop at the town, because of what those fanatics would do to the pilot.  And
once I got here...  I stayed.  It turned out that I had a better sync ratio
than most of the cadets who had been in training for six months.  So I
joined."

Ryan leaned back, the mystery of his brothers disappearance solved at last.
At least partially.  "So you joined the EDF.  Well, I know why you never
told anyone.  Mom would have broken down, and Dad would have gone ballistic
and hunted you down.  So how did you get promoted to team commander?"

"The same way as everyone else.  You see when I passed my graduation exam,
I was assigned to Lance Squadron..."

...

At the same time, Shinji Ikari was sitting in his study, staring with an
expression of disgust at the terminal screen.  Finally he swore sharply and
stabbed at the power button, terminating the link.  "Sorry to inform you
my..."  he said as he stood up, stretching his legs after his four hour
conference call.  "Those idiots...  they can't actually expect us to operate
like this..."

"Honey, what's wrong?  Why are you still up?"  A sleep Auska asked from the
study doorway.  "You weren't arguing with the UN Security Council again,
were you?"

Shinji looked over at Auska, who was dressed only in her usual red night
dress, before he started pacing.  "Those idiots on the Security Council
refused our requests for improved conditions, a bigger budget, and even for
more improved medical supplies.  Most of the equipment that's currently in
the med stations is at least 50 years out of date, and if it wasn't for the
number of pilots that are killed, we wouldn't be able to provide habitable
accommodations for our pilots, let alone the cadets."

"What about our main request?"  Auska asked.

"That's the worst part!!!  They said that under no circumstances are the
training methods to be changed, no matter what the casualty and dropout
rates are!"  Shinji walked out into the kitchen of he and Auska's apartment,
now much emptier now that the kids were gone.  "I just don't know why I keep
doing this sometimes..."

Auska wrapped her arm around Shinji.  "We do this because there is no one
else who can.  We tried to stay out of this...  and neither of us could
handle it.  Come on, Shinji.  Lets get back to bed..."  A mischievous grin
crossed Auska's face.  "After all, I know something I can do to cheer you
up.."

Shinji grinned, but his reply was cut off by an alarm siren, followed by
the arrival of a call to their apartments emergency line.  Asuka swore
profusely as she slapped the receive call button.  "What is it???  Why the
hell is the alarm going off?"

The tech on the other end of the line swallowed, members of the control
room night shift had rarely seen Mrs. Ikari's formidable temper in action,
and then continued.  "We have four contacts sighted about 50 miles off
shore, heading our way.  Estimated time of arrival...  2 hours."

"Damnit!"  Auska shouted as she bolted back into her bedroom.  Shinji
thanked the tech, and told him that they would get to the control room as
soon as possible.  The screen flipped off, and Shinji too ran into the
bedroom.

...

Five minutes later, both Shinji and Auska arrived at the Evangelion Defense
Force Strategic Command Bunker, located near the bottom of the EDF base.
Techs were still scrambling to get everything to full combat readiness as
Auska assumed her usually position of breathing down their necks at the
front of the command center.  "Status Report!"  she shouted as she tied her
last ponytail in place.

"The contacts appeared about twenty minutes ago off the North Carolina
coast.  Their moving our direction, and we've revised the time of arrival to
1 hour 32 minutes."  The tech looked at his display, punching a few buttons.
Asuka watched as the main display at the front of the room change to show
the targets current locations as well as their projected path.

Shinji took his seat at the primary command desk, fastening his collar as
he sat down.  "Alright, who do we have on standby?"

Asuka checked one of the nearby displays, scanning for the correct date and
names.  "Lance Team is on call.  Should I contact Lieutenant Commander
Johnson?"

Shinji nodded.  "Contact him and move the Lance Teams Eva's to the launch
bay.  Prepare three F-55 transports for immediate launch, and inform base 23
that their about to have company.  What's Lance Team's composition?"  The
last question was directed at one of the techs.

"Two close combat Evas and one sniper."  The tech shot the information out
as soon as it passed over his display.

"Then inform base 23 to prepare their power substations for sniper support.
And get a hold of Johnson."  Shinji leaned back in his chair, a slight
expression of regret on his face.  Now there was nothing to do but wait.

...

"Lance Team, Lance Team.  Will Lance Team please report to the launch bay
at once.  We have targets incoming, I repeat, targets incoming."  the
announcement blared over the loudspeaker in Sam's quarters, as well as the
rest of the Lance teams accommodations as well, utterly destroying any
chance for sleep that their occupants may have had.   Sam turned to Ryan as
he got up from his chair.  "You should get back to your room, Ryan.  They
usually put the cadets under lock down during a battle."

Ryan nodded his head.  "Damn Angels.  Get in touch with me, K Sam?"

"Count on it."  Sam replied as Ryan slipped out of the room.

...

      Day dawned, the red sun's light spilling over a small hill as three
Evas fell to earth, the air transports that had dropped them there turning
to make their way back to the main complex. The massive mechanical beasts
quickly took up a clearly defensive position on the hill outside Base 23.
One of the Evas lowered the massive form of a positron rifle onto a ridge,
carefully lying beside it and sighting beyond the ridge.  A pair of steel
doors in the ground swung open, and trucks carrying the link up cables to
the positron rifle wheeled out to where the Evas had landed, allowing tech
crews to lock the massive cables in place before retreating back to the
underground bunker.  The remaining two Evas took up positions below the
ridge, concealed by massive outcroppings of rock.  These close combat
Evangelions were armed with both Eva sized handguns as well as the deadly
progress knives.

     "EDF Lance Team, in position mamn." Lt. Commander Samuel Johnson
announced from inside his entry plug.  He checked the last of the
connections to his Eva for the third time, to ensure that nothing had come
loose during the drop."

"Good Lt, take this group out as quick as possible. Your targets should be
in your visual range in three min. Targets are 3 class 3 angels and 1 class
5 angel. Good luck Alpha squad, take one of them down for us."  There was a
click as Auska cut the link from the Command Station.

Sam quickly checked the valley they were in up and down. There was a rage
of mountains to both sides of them, a small opening providing a view to a
large grassy plain that seemed to extend for miles...  all the way to the
coast.  The opening would be good to lay an ambush at, especially with their
sniper to provide support and covering fire. He clicked the visual com to
address his team, an air of cool confidence in his voice. "Ok team, here's
what were ganna do. Tom!"

Tom Jenkins face popped up in a holo screen in Sam's entry plug. "Yes Lt?"
At 16, Jenkins was the youngest person in Sam's group, though by looking at
him you would of guessed he was 25.
A small goatee grew about his chin, and a pair of dark ray  ban glasses
covered  his eyes.  If you ever did get a look at Jenkins without his shades
on, his childlike eyes would definitely betray his mature, military
attitude.

"Tom, you and I will frame the opening up ahead, I want you on the left,
stay hidden behind the rocks as much as possible. When those angels get in
range, jump em."

"Yes sir!" Sam watched as Jenkins' jet black Eva ran towards the
outcropping of rocks, kneeling behind them to hide as much of his Eva as
possible. Sam then addressed their sniper.

"Jenny, are you set up?" Jenny's face appeared beside Tom's in Sam's
monitor.

"Yes sir, Betsy and I am ready to punch a hole in something."  Jennifer
Cummings Texan accent rang out across the con. Jenny, the designated pilot
of Eva Sniper unit 25 was one of the best snipers, as well as the prettiest,
that Sam had worked with. At 22, Jenny and her rifle "Betsy" had 70 kills to
her name. There has always been a bit of a joke going around the dorm since
she took out here 69th angel, but her talent with her Eva and rifle is still
respected by all.

"Ok, your the lure, sit tight, and knock out the class 5 as soon as you see
it.  Whatever you do, don't give it a chance to fire. Tom and I will take
out the scouts."

"Sure thing Sam." The confidence in her voice was not unusual of most
snipers, who all thought they could kill anything that came into range. Both
holo monitors clicked off as Sam switched to sound only. He and his Eva
moved into position beside Tom's, the Eva accepting all of his commands as
he thought them. It was as if they were one, his Eva and him, held together
by what the techs called sync, and what the pilots called friendship. You
help your Eva live, and they help you, that was the general mummer around
the dorms.  At least amongst the veteran pilots.

As soon as all the Evas were in position, Sam checked his countdown clock.
"Two minuets till sighting, damn, were moving fast today, now arn't we you
little bastards...?"

"As always Sam." Jenny's voice called over the radio. "Kill em quick!"

"Kill em Dead!" Both men replied at once, repeating the phrase they had
learned in training. All three pilots chuckled, the mood seemed to lighten
for a moment.

"So, Lt, I've heard your brother's being transferred into the outfit soon
." Tom's voice said across the con.

"Oh no, not two Johnsons running around." Jenny cracked "It'll be hell on
earth!" Again all of the pilots had a quick laugh.

"Yep, Ryan's in B company now. A month or so and he'll be fighting along
side us.  Jenny, did you bug my room again?" "

"Now just what makes you think I would do something like that, Sam?"  Sam
could hear the smile that Jenny must be forecasting.

"Good thing I'll be gone before he's around long enough to cause too much
trouble."  Sam meant the comment to be a joke, but there was a brief moment
of silence.

"Oh right, your out in 1 year aren't you. Shit, time flies. Damn crashes."
Tom's voice filled the void of silence.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for the crashing, I'd be able to fight till I die. But
all I can do is hope I don't go insane. Ok, talk time is over, target is 10
seconds till acquisition." The mood of the group suddenly became very tense.
"Tom you ready?"

"Affirmative sir." Tom tight voice came as his Eva pulled out the massive
handgun out of it's holster and jamming a clip into it.

"Jenny?"

"Rifle has been sighted down the valley sir. I'll have a shot as soon as
they're in view." Jenny's dark  green Eva hunkered down closer to the sight
of the rifle, steadying it until it was motionless.

"Right then, here they come, hit em when you can Jenny." Sam's Eva pulled
it's handgun from it's holster as the distant tromping of huge feet could be
heard. The 4 contacts slowly moved across the valley. Three scouts in front,
with their short statures and beak like faces, and the huge, cube like
fortress floating along behind them. They had just started to pass about 500
yards in front of the opening when a large blue beam erupted from behind the
two crouched Evas, streaking towards the cube. Jenny's aim had been true,
and the beam struck home, slicing clean through the angel, brilliant
explosions started to from around it as it crashed to the ground. The three
scouts turned towards the source of the beam, all three of them firing at
once with their beams, blowing the mountainside to pieces, but fortunately
missing the crouching Evas.

"That got their attention!" Jenny cried as her Eva rolled behind the hill
for more cover.

"Reload and cover Jen, well take it from here." Sam said. "Tom, go on one."

"One! GO!" in one fluid movement Both Evas half turned and stood side by
side, now blocking the entrance to the valley. There targets were quickly
sighted as they stood against the red backdrop of the sun. Both Evas fired,
massive bullets  spewing from their weapons,  hitting their targets AT
fields and causing no damage. The two Evas slowly advanced in lock step,
circling around to flank the angles, who now stride by side, their energy
blasts having no affect against the Evas own AT fields.

"Ok Tom, now that we know their AT fields work, time to get up close and
personal, Jenny, take out the middle one, Tom and I will engage the other
one. Move!"

The two Evas broke into a run, quickly closing the gap separating them from
their enemies.
"YEAH HA!" Jenny's Texas accent cut through the com as another one of her
blasts rocketed
between the two Evas. Sam and Tom both felt the heat of the beam's passing.
The beam was a
little off, only hitting the legs of the angel, but that was good enough Sam
thought as he saw both of the angels legs disenigrate. The Angel fell to the
earth with a crash. A second shot from Jenny completely engulfed the angel's
torso. The other two angels leaped clear just as the first angel exploded in
a brilliant fireball.

"Hey!! Whatever happened to one shot, one kill Jen?" Tom cried.

"Oh shut up you little twerp and get to fighting, I've only got one shot
left before I drain all of this station's power."  Jenny cried as her Eva
positioned herself for one last shot.

Tom got to the angel first, his Eva clanging into the AT field that the
scout had produced. "Time to make a door." Tom holstered his gun and
activated his prog-knife. With delicate, practiced ease, he sliced through
the angles AT field while expanding his own AT field, neutralizing the
Angel's field in the process.  With the odds, evened, Tom went on the
attack.  Tom's Eva grabbed the angels arms, swinging the angel in a wide
arc, propelling
it towards the mountains.  The Angel landed, astonishingly picking its self
back up and fired it's
beam cannon at Tom.  Tom expected something like this, but it was all he
could do to wrench the controls around and send is Eva into a jump.  Thus
his Eva was already high in the air by the time the blast sizzled the spot
where he had just been.  Gliding through the air, the Eva preformed a flip,
landing squarely on top if the Angel. Taking his prog-knife, he began
slamming it into the Angels core as fast as he could will the Eva to. Each
hit produced a jarring clang, until the prog knife finally broke through,
cutting straight through the core of the angel, putting it out of business
for good.

Meanwhile, Sam had encountered an unexpected problem, as the Angel that
Jenny had shot had suddenly stood back up, already regenerating from its
damage. Bolt after bolt of energy lashed out at the Eva, tearing huge chunks
of earth out of the ground around Tom.  Though the heat became intense, Sam
threw his who effort into slamming his AT field into the angel's,
effectively neutralizing it. Grabbing his Prog-Blade, which was as least
twice as long as Tom's version, he face the angel. The Angel's beaklike face
twisted a little, making Sam wonder what it could be thinking, would it run
away? No dice, the angel created it's own blade of energy and squared off
with Sam. Sam lunged, the Angel parried, the angel lunged, Sam blocked the
shot just in time. The battle raged for what seemed like 5 minutes, Sam
starting to sweat from the mental toll of the sycn with his Eva. Finally,
the Angel got a lucky break, as Sam lunged forward, too eager to end the
fight, and was sent sprawling to the side as the angel blocked.  It quickly
used its  advantage to send it's blade slicing towards Sam's unprotected
rear.  Sam willed his Eva's jets on to jump out of the way, but the link
jammed.  The Eva hesitated for a moment, and jumped, but at that point it
was to late. The Angel's blade sliced clean through the Eva's right leg. Sam
screamed, the feedback from the cut making him feel as if his own leg had
been cut. The Eva crashed to the ground, the angel towering above it. It
readied it's lance for one final blow, when a blue beam sliced through is
midsection, the beam was so large the the creature's entire torso was
vaporized, cleanly cutting it into two halves.

"Thanks Jen." Sam said, still clutching his right leg.

"No problem Sammy." Jenny replied smoothly.

Tom's Eva came beside Sam's. "Need some help back to base Lt?" Tom's face
popped up in
Sam's cockpit.

"Sure Tom, sure." Sam managed to crack a small smile to reassure Tom. "I've
had worse. Let's get home ok?"

"Sure thing Lt." Tom's Eva pulled Sam's to a standing position, helping him
to hobble over to the pickup zone in the valley.

"This is Unit 22 to base. Successful completion of mission, though my Eva
has incurred some damage. Request pickup at coordinates."

"I hear you, Unit 22, air pickup will be there in 20. Good to see your all
still alive."  The voice that replied over the con was not Commander Langley
Ikari's, but one of the techs manning the Command Center.

"It's good to be alive base"

...

IN THE NEXT CHAPTER:

Analysis of the Newest Angelic War

Ryan continues to train.

Sword Team is formed, with Rei as temporary commander.

Jonathan Lloyd
Rune

"The only thing necesary for evil to triumph,
is for good men to do nothing."
Alucard, Symphony of the night.