Robotech Crossover question

[Alpha 11]

A bit of a short add-on, but I hit the text limit.
********
Captain Stovesh stared as time/space warped a mere 500,000 kilometers to starboard. At first, a hint of purple lensed through the distortion, and then the purple/blue whale-belly shape of the Ascendant Retribution forced it's way out of the slipspace wormhole. A few seconds later, it had wholly emerged, already launching Seraph fighters and Sprit dropships. The Seraphs winged towards the enemy fighters, while the dropships plunged hard into the atmosphere, friction-induced flames flaring off of their energy shields.

Stovesh, while reluctant to ask for assistance from the newly allied Sangheili forces, had to admit that their backup was sorely needed. The Sherman hadn't been outfitted for such heavy combat; this was the first NG-rated world that had such a devastatingly nasty set of twists to their armoury. And they were still no closer to figuring out what was altered.

Hopefully, the Sangheili forces could turn the tide. Although he was pretty sure that Beloi was grinding his teeth into dust from frustration at having to ask the Arbiter for assistance. One didn't simply ignore or forget decades' worth of mutually genocidal warfare across a hundred worlds.

Another good one!

Desperation makes for strange bedfellows....

Agree. History is full of them.

The NERV deck officer turned from watching the second wave of missiles and lances launch and immediately ordered the third wave into the tubes and ready to launch. So focused on his work, he barely had time to register the rippling explosions above him before the flaming debris struck him and the launch tubes, setting off a chorus of secondary explosions in the launch bays and hangers.

The battle with the UEG Forces had pretty much fried the sensors on the surface. Moreover, the explosions and heavy combat had rendered useless the seismic sensors that would have warned the deck officer that the VA-6B Mothra Monster had come within firing range.

Thus, the second wave had launched blindly into the path of a salvo of 40cm, Type 3 shells fired by the massive vertech. The Lances not swatted out of the sky by flaming buckshot were thrown spinning into the ground by the detonations of their own missiles.

Meanwhile, deep in the Geofront, Master Sergeant Himmons, got his team to the rodevous point and awaited the medivac. Unbenounced to him, a squad of NERV troops lead by Misato, had been tracking them all the way from the last ambush. Katsuragi, cocked her gun and keyed her mike to report the contact with the enemy when she heard a childlike voice behind her.

"Attacking hurt people isn't nice!"

She and her men went down in a hale of gunfire and tear gas without seeing their attackers.

Himmons turned toward the sound of gunfire, "It's about time you got here! I've got wounded men who need immediate evac!"

As the squad of Tachikoma uncamoflaged themselves, the blue one holding the unconscious Misato saluted Himmons with it's stubby arm. "Yes Sir!"

I'm just loving this lastest story!

Wyrmraker SRoss I love what you two are posting about the battles with Nerv, good work.

Agree!

Thanks. I'm trying to make it interesting without getting overpowering.

Your doing a great job so far!

Thanks. I'm trying to make it interesting without getting overpowering.

*** for tat and pay for every foot of ground gained.
D-Day may have looked like a curbstomp from the perspective of those who landed on JUNO and GOLD beaches, but if you were on OMAHA, the outcome wasn't clear until you'd managed to crawl inland and behind the ####ing Nazi fortifications.

That is an understatement.

[Kargan3033]

Thanks. I'm trying to make it interesting without getting overpowering.

I know and it shows quite well, most curbstomps are boring but with what you are doing you make the battle intresting enough for me to bother reading although I generaly know who's going to win in the end.

[SRoss]

Thanks. I'm trying to make it interesting without getting overpowering.

I know and it shows quite well, most curbstomps are boring but with what you are doing you make the battle intresting enough for me to bother reading although I generaly know who's going to win in the end.

If I wanted to be over powering, the VA-6B would have had a special cannon mode and these two rockin the cockpit.

[taalismn]

Or simply sic The Culture on the opposition....
Special Circumstances---The Culture's way of saying '@@@@ you, Prime Directive'.

[Kargan3033]

Or simply sic The Culture on the opposition....
Special Circumstances---The Culture's way of saying '@@@@ you, Prime Directive'.

" Loopholes, mankind's best and worst friend. "

[taalismn]

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

[Kargan3033]

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

Well since I don't know anything about the Culture/GSVs and very little about Bolos I'll have to take your word on that.

[taalismn]

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

Well since I don't know anything about the Culture/GSVs and very little about Bolos I'll have to take your word on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

GSVs---General Systems Vehicles, are basically HUGE spacecraft(we're talking tens of miles big) run by AIs that are much smarter than humans, and have capabilities in the Techno-God level, with the ability to manipulate forcefields and space/time. Worse, some of them have HOBBIES, like wandering off into the fringes of space and building battlefleets of drone warships to play with. And if they go eccentric....Fortunately they tend to be protective of those little organic squishies of the Culture, because if a GSV ever went evil and took to enjoying exploding stars...

[Kargan3033]

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

Well since I don't know anything about the Culture/GSVs and very little about Bolos I'll have to take your word on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

GSVs---General Systems Vehicles, are basically HUGE spacecraft(we're talking tens of miles big) run by AIs that are much smarter than humans, and have capabilities in the Techno-God level, with the ability to manipulate forcefields and space/time. Worse, some of them have HOBBIES, like wandering off into the fringes of space and building battlefleets of drone warships to play with. And if they go eccentric....Fortunately they tend to be protective of those little organic squishies of the Culture, because if a GSV ever went evil and took to enjoying exploding stars...

God like Space Hippies?

All in all that is way cool thanks for sharing it with me and the rest of the borad.

[taalismn]

[
God like Space Hippies?.

Post-capitalism/need-economy socialists. The citizens basically do what they want, supplied by the horn-of-plenty technologies, and can live virtually forever as fleshies or VR avatars(most tend to succumb to enuii and eventually opt to self-terminate after several centuries of existence). in fact, most of the Culture's citizens live on artificial space habitats, rather than planets. The god-like AIs really run things behind the scenes, ruling benignly, but every now and then they send the agents of Special Circumstances(who, more often than not, are the social misfits who aren't content with being lotus-eaters) to deal with pesky little societies who don't play nice..

Space Hippies----reminds me of David Brin's 'The Postman'(not the hideous Kevin Costner film) where the US Government, after their first attempts to create supersoldier 'augments' show signs of going sour(gung-ho survivalist nuts who decide to overthrow the government) decide to go with less physical aug, and more mental training...essentially creating zen supersoldiers. What Lynn Kyle MIGHT have been if he'd had more commonsense and a better attitude towards the military.

[Kargan3033]

[
God like Space Hippies?.

Post-capitalism/need-economy socialists. The citizens basically do what they want, supplied by the horn-of-plenty technologies, and can live virtually forever as fleshies or VR avatars(most tend to succumb to enuii and eventually opt to self-terminate after several centuries of existence). in fact, most of the Culture's citizens live on artificial space habitats, rather than planets. The god-like AIs really run things behind the scenes, ruling benignly, but every now and then they send the agents of Special Circumstances(who, more often than not, are the social misfits who aren't content with being lotus-eaters) to deal with pesky little societies who don't play nice..

Space Hippies----reminds me of David Brin's 'The Postman'(not the hideous Kevin Costner film) where the US Government, after their first attempts to create supersoldier 'augments' show signs of going sour(gung-ho survivalist nuts who decide to overthrow the government) decide to go with less physical aug, and more mental training...essentially creating zen supersoldiers. What Lynn Kyle MIGHT have been if he'd had more commonsense and a better attitude towards the military.

I see, I'll have to look up The Postman one of these days, some how seeing Kyle with super kick ass ninja moves would not be all that scary unless the augmentation knocked a few screws lose and he goes all Super Syian(sp) on everyone's ass.

Hmm maybe Lang and a few of his flowers decied that to combat the near consent zent attacks on the way back to earth as well as to **** down on combat fatuge Lang and his folwers start spicling the SDF-1 combat troops DNA with FOL/protoculture as well as gentic exspermentation which could go hideously right/comical which would scare the crap out of or confuse the zents.

Hmm protoculture powered/agument/spliced Guyvers crossed with martial arts and mecha Awww HELL YES!

[taalismn]

Read the original David Brin book rather than see the movie. David Brin's one of my favorite authors, and while he writes top notch space opera, he packs it full of IDEAS. He's also(warning here), an unabashed optimist who avoids the trap of dystopian grimdark(s opposed to say, Steven Baxter, who cheerfully kills off Humanity and individual human beings every other chapter of his works). He actually thinks we can MAKE it.

[Kargan3033]

Read the original David Brin book rather than see the movie. David Brin's one of my favorite authors, and while he writes top notch space opera, he packs it full of IDEAS. He's also(warning here), an unabashed optimist who avoids the trap of dystopian grimdark(s opposed to say, Steven Baxter, who cheerfully kills off Humanity and individual human beings every other chapter of his works). He actually thinks we can MAKE it.

I see I'll have to keep that in mind, thanks for the heads up.

[taalismn]

My favorite has to be his ‘Uplift Universe’.
Summary:
Humanity arrives late to find a VAST galactic community that’s been around continously for MILLIONS of years, so long that it’s become rigorously stratified and codified out of necessity by Galactic Institutes, which lay down the regulations for everything from colonization(because of the limited amount of usable real estate) to warfare(general guidelines and accepted protocols), and beholden to the Library, a vast storehouse of galactic knowledge.
Key to the galactic society is the practice of Uplift, where a starfaring species finds a promising pre-sapient species and, through various means, uplifts it over centuries and millenia into full starfaring sapience. In return for the gift of such patronage, the uplifted ‘clients’ serve a period of indentureship to their patrons. Uplift is virtually the coin of the galactic economy and has also led to a social lineage pride that would put Terran blue-bloods to shame; the most powerful patron-clans boast long lines of distinguished ancestral patrons extending back in time, and forwards branch into dozens of uplifted patrons. Having a gaggle of successfully uplifted and loyal client-species attending your clan is a mark of power and success. Uplifted clients give a species assistance and credibility when they’re in their ascendancy, carry on their patrons’ names and deeds when the patrons Retire from the galactic scene, and take care of their legacy when the Retirees pass on or Ascend to the next Order of life.
Problem is, the practice of uplift has become so engrained in galactic society that the galactics can’t concieve of any species becoming intelligent and achieving starfarer status WITHOUT the intervention of a patron species. Galactic society has also been around so long that it suffers from stagnation and the perception that everything that can be learned, HAS been learned, and has been filed away in the Library to be found if one knows where to look. Innovation has stagnated, and it’s simply easier to get technology templates from the Library, than waste time and develop stuff on your own.
Enter Humanity, who has no apparent patrons to speak of. As ‘wolflings’, our status is very much in doubt; previous wolfling species have proven to be the result of grievous neglect by patron species and have either been quickly force-adopted by another Patron-clan, or have been exterminated for lacking the necessary refinements to exist in galactic society. Humanity has managed to acquire interstellar travel on its own, though, by the time of Contact(fortunately with a rare sympathetic species) and worse, we independentally uplifted two species, chimpanzees and dolphins, which instantly accords us status equal to a middling patron-clan. Unfortunately, early on, Humanity manages to p-off a couple of the more powerful patron-clans, and our policy of resisting the temptation of the Library and testing everything we acquire brands us as something of heretics even amongst the moderate Galactics. What’s even worse is that our ‘wolfling’ explorations and tactics seem to WORK, giving us a reputation for being cunning/unsportsmanlike/lucky bastards, so while we’re, as a species, trying to lay low and play catch up, clans much older than we’ve been around are trying to obstruct us as the arrogant new kids on the block/force-adopt us and make us into ‘better’ galactic citizens/exterminate us as heretics and abominations. Our list of reliable allies is slim(can be counted on one hand) and our list of enemies many, while the list of species that would stand aside and watch us get wiped is even greater.
And then, by a result of a major discovery and bad timing, Earth gets thrust into the hot seat and the major patron-clans are given an excuse to openly attack us. The Uplift Universe gets thrown into upheaval as alliances change, galactic laws are broken, corruption in the highest offices of the Institutes is discovered, and ancient secrets harkening to the beginnings of galactic society, are uncovered.

It’s a wild ride, full of space opera goodness, big ideas, and memorable characters, many of them not human.

GURPS did a module for it, which was spiced up with Brin’s original input, so it can be considered to be a sourcebook for it, although the art in it, and the Uplift Universe Aliens Guide, leaves something to be desired(could be better, to better capture the exotic nature of many of the aliens, as the artists seem to have only done minimal reading of the source material).

Brin’s other works are also very good; Kiln People was passable, the original Postman was quite good, Earth was fantastic, and his two short story collections, The River of Time and Otherness, are also fantastic. His most recent works are also good, but can be a bit daunting, though they compare well to, say, Greg Bear.

[Kargan3033]

My favorite has to be his ‘Uplift Universe’.
Summary:
Humanity arrives late to find a VAST galactic community that’s been around continously for MILLIONS of years, so long that it’s become rigorously stratified and codified out of necessity by Galactic Institutes, which lay down the regulations for everything from colonization(because of the limited amount of usable real estate) to warfare(general guidelines and accepted protocols), and beholden to the Library, a vast storehouse of galactic knowledge.
Key to the galactic society is the practice of Uplift, where a starfaring species finds a promising pre-sapient species and, through various means, uplifts it over centuries and millenia into full starfaring sapience. In return for the gift of such patronage, the uplifted ‘clients’ serve a period of indentureship to their patrons. Uplift is virtually the coin of the galactic economy and has also led to a social lineage pride that would put Terran blue-bloods to shame; the most powerful patron-clans boast long lines of distinguished ancestral patrons extending back in time, and forwards branch into dozens of uplifted patrons. Having a gaggle of successfully uplifted and loyal client-species attending your clan is a mark of power and success. Uplifted clients give a species assistance and credibility when they’re in their ascendancy, carry on their patrons’ names and deeds when the patrons Retire from the galactic scene, and take care of their legacy when the Retirees pass on or Ascend to the next Order of life.
Problem is, the practice of uplift has become so engrained in galactic society that the galactics can’t concieve of any species becoming intelligent and achieving starfarer status WITHOUT the intervention of a patron species. Galactic society has also been around so long that it suffers from stagnation and the perception that everything that can be learned, HAS been learned, and has been filed away in the Library to be found if one knows where to look. Innovation has stagnated, and it’s simply easier to get technology templates from the Library, than waste time and develop stuff on your own.
Enter Humanity, who has no apparent patrons to speak of. As ‘wolflings’, our status is very much in doubt; previous wolfling species have proven to be the result of grievous neglect by patron species and have either been quickly force-adopted by another Patron-clan, or have been exterminated for lacking the necessary refinements to exist in galactic society. Humanity has managed to acquire interstellar travel on its own, though, by the time of Contact(fortunately with a rare sympathetic species) and worse, we independentally uplifted two species, chimpanzees and dolphins, which instantly accords us status equal to a middling patron-clan. Unfortunately, early on, Humanity manages to p-off a couple of the more powerful patron-clans, and our policy of resisting the temptation of the Library and testing everything we acquire brands us as something of heretics even amongst the moderate Galactics. What’s even worse is that our ‘wolfling’ explorations and tactics seem to WORK, giving us a reputation for being cunning/unsportsmanlike/lucky bastards, so while we’re, as a species, trying to lay low and play catch up, clans much older than we’ve been around are trying to obstruct us as the arrogant new kids on the block/force-adopt us and make us into ‘better’ galactic citizens/exterminate us as heretics and abominations. Our list of reliable allies is slim(can be counted on one hand) and our list of enemies many, while the list of species that would stand aside and watch us get wiped is even greater.
And then, by a result of a major discovery and bad timing, Earth gets thrust into the hot seat and the major patron-clans are given an excuse to openly attack us. The Uplift Universe gets thrown into upheaval as alliances change, galactic laws are broken, corruption in the highest offices of the Institutes is discovered, and ancient secrets harkening to the beginnings of galactic society, are uncovered.

It’s a wild ride, full of space opera goodness, big ideas, and memorable characters, many of them not human.

GURPS did a module for it, which was spiced up with Brin’s original input, so it can be considered to be a sourcebook for it, although the art in it, and the Uplift Universe Aliens Guide, leaves something to be desired(could be better, to better capture the exotic nature of many of the aliens, as the artists seem to have only done minimal reading of the source material).

Brin’s other works are also very good; Kiln People was passable, the original Postman was quite good, Earth was fantastic, and his two short story collections, The River of Time and Otherness, are also fantastic. His most recent works are also good, but can be a bit daunting, though they compare well to, say, Greg Bear.

Intresting, very intresting, I'll have to look into this, thanks for the heads up.

[taalismn]

To tie in back to crossovers...no, I've never heard of any crossovers with Brin's Uplift'verse, and I don't think he's one of the ones who allows fanfics..or else, the Uplift universe is just so dense that it's difficult to fit fanfiction in, despite the rich possibilities. However, given the Orders of Life, some of the higher sub-space/Ascended ranks could cross entire universes. And given some of the more exotic drive types and recent events in the Uplift universe, it's possible that Five Galaxies ships might find their way into other dimensions(this would be particularly terrifying if patron-clans like the Tandu, whose philosophy is 'kill everything else' were to be transposed into another universe where there's nothing to reign them in. Also, since one of their Client-species is the Episarch, which is essentially a living space/time fabric manipulator who alters space by DENYING REALITY, even more scary). There's also several missing major characters---Tom Orley, genetically engineered operative for Earth, may be trying to find a shortcut back to Earth. Captain Creideiki, a neo-dolphin, is shown to be tapping into some underlying universal sense of DOLPHINESS, and may be able to swim through space/time(or maybe astrally project).
Robotech characters appearing in the Uplift universe would be at a severe disadvantage, since humans aren't large and aren't in charge, and their technology would be seen as backwards in most regards. Their saving grace might be if they had fertile Flowers of Life and Protoculture technology; a spacefaring BIOFUEL would be seen as extremely impressive, especially if FoL could be introduced as a bioremedial or terraforming tool(the Uplift Galactics are big on ecological management, since it's life worlds from which new Client species merge, and healthy planets are regularly recycled---once a species moves on, its still-viable planets are returned to a fallow state, cities are deliberately built on vault lines to be subducted under the crust, and wastes cleaned up and recycled). Earth, being a late-comer, has been given probationary title to several colony worlds that were ruined or worked hard by previous owners---our custodianship and success in managing these hardluck worlds determines what grades of planets we're allowed to colonize in the future...FoL rehabilitation would GREATLY improve our planetary management efforts and status(and would make a great gift to one of our allied tribes, the pacifistic Linten 'gardeners'.

An Uplift Earth ship in the Robotech'verse, on the other hand, might find themselves in a pretty good spot, even with the grimdark Earth getting invaded three times. Robotech Earth is primitive and harkening back to the bad old days of pre-Contact in many ways, the chimps and dolphins are feral un-Uplifted, but Earth-Clan is pretty much one of the dominant forces, if not THE big boys on the block, and frankly, Uplift Galactic tech ROCKS, with all manner of fun gadgets(including anti-matter projectors as point defense systems, and stasis fields.

[Kargan3033]

To tie in back to crossovers...no, I've never heard of any crossovers with Brin's Uplift'verse, and I don't think he's one of the ones who allows fanfics..or else, the Uplift universe is just so dense that it's difficult to fit fanfiction in, despite the rich possibilities. However, given the Orders of Life, some of the higher sub-space/Ascended ranks could cross entire universes. And given some of the more exotic drive types and recent events in the Uplift universe, it's possible that Five Galaxies ships might find their way into other dimensions(this would be particularly terrifying if patron-clans like the Tandu, whose philosophy is 'kill everything else' were to be transposed into another universe where there's nothing to reign them in. Also, since one of their Client-species is the Episarch, which is essentially a living space/time fabric manipulator who alters space by DENYING REALITY, even more scary). There's also several missing major characters---Tom Orley, genetically engineered operative for Earth, may be trying to find a shortcut back to Earth. Captain Creideiki, a neo-dolphin, is shown to be tapping into some underlying universal sense of DOLPHINESS, and may be able to swim through space/time(or maybe astrally project).
Robotech characters appearing in the Uplift universe would be at a severe disadvantage, since humans aren't large and aren't in charge, and their technology would be seen as backwards in most regards. Their saving grace might be if they had fertile Flowers of Life and Protoculture technology; a spacefaring BIOFUEL would be seen as extremely impressive, especially if FoL could be introduced as a bioremedial or terraforming tool(the Uplift Galactics are big on ecological management, since it's life worlds from which new Client species merge, and healthy planets are regularly recycled---once a species moves on, its still-viable planets are returned to a fallow state, cities are deliberately built on vault lines to be subducted under the crust, and wastes cleaned up and recycled). Earth, being a late-comer, has been given probationary title to several colony worlds that were ruined or worked hard by previous owners---our custodianship and success in managing these hardluck worlds determines what grades of planets we're allowed to colonize in the future...FoL rehabilitation would GREATLY improve our planetary management efforts and status(and would make a great gift to one of our allied tribes, the pacifistic Linten 'gardeners'.

An Uplift Earth ship in the Robotech'verse, on the other hand, might find themselves in a pretty good spot, even with the grimdark Earth getting invaded three times. Robotech Earth is primitive and harkening back to the bad old days of pre-Contact in many ways, the chimps and dolphins are feral un-Uplifted, but Earth-Clan is pretty much one of the dominant forces, if not THE big boys on the block, and frankly, Uplift Galactic tech ROCKS, with all manner of fun gadgets(including anti-matter projectors as point defense systems, and stasis fields.

Really well that's something to think about but if what you say about Uplift not lending it'self well to fan fiction then I get the feeling that it would not lend it'self well to an RT/Uplift cross over game all though if someone could pull it off and do it well it would be one hell of a game from the sounds of what you have posted.

[taalismn]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

[Kargan3033]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

[taalismn]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

"Damnit, he knows how to type with his FOREHEAD!"

[Kargan3033]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

"Damnit, he knows how to type with his FOREHEAD!"

"At lest he's using his head for more then a hatrack."

[taalismn]

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

[Kargan3033]

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

I'll grant you that, espeicaly if the preson in question is a rubber neck geek.

[taalismn]

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

I'll grant you that, espeicaly if the preson in question is a rubber neck geek.

Or..still alive...
Pair of glasses sitting on a zombie's neck is just grotesque...

[wyrmraker]

Still writing. This one's some background within the scenario.
********
Maya Ibuki, now the head of NERV's R&D department, scowled at the readings that the improved MAGI were giving her. Even now, the invaders were still trying to hack the supercomputers, and only dedicated reshunting of trunks were reliably working to keep the hackers at bay.

'It could be worse', she mused, remembering the JSSDF invasion in 2015. She was one of the few that had actually retained her full memories of the Third Impact, one of the very, very few who knew exactly what had happened when the rest of humanity had had amnesia for a week.

Musing back, she remembered Shinji bringing her back from the puddle of LCL that she'd been de-evolved into. Shinji had been able to revive the people who had been turned into such, but not the ones who had died before the Third Impact event. Which meant that Ritsuko and many others stayed dead even after Shinji had become God.

It turned out there were limits, even for deities.

To her credit, she only freaked out for a few hours unlike the rest of the bridge crew, who were still in sanitariums. Not many people realized what had happened, but the NERV personnel mostly remembered.

As it happened, Gendo Ikari had survived. It took weeks to regrow his hand with Evangelion regeneration technology, but there was a side-effect in that he lost both of his legs due to an unusual infection that couldn't be halted. Gendo himself found it bizarrely humorous, stating, "Looks like she finally got her revenge." Maya never was clear on what that meant.

A few years later, after Shinji had finished college, the world was still in fear of another Angel attack. Never mind that they hadn't been seen in all that time, humanity was still scared. After all, not 20 years prior half of all humanity had been wiped out by the First Angel.

Shinji had managed to reestablish NERV's credentials with the UN, regaining funding and resources to rebuild defensive facilities in case of another attack. Maya had been promoted to head of Research after completing her own additional degrees in AI Theory and High Energy Physics.

When she arrived back at NERV, the place had been radically altered. All of the stations, the Pribnow Box, the MAGI, even the Command Center, had been relocated, the original stations largely abandoned. Moved deeper into the Geofront, below Terminal Dogma, where apparently the Geofront had been dug out even more.

She immediately got to work, setting everything up properly. And that's when Shinji told her the true, original purpose of NERV, a secret that only Gendo, Rei, and himself were aware of. The truth of the Evangelions, the real reason that all the angels came to Tokyo-3, everything. She was horrified, but after Shinji told her that the new NERV needed someone moral, as she had always been, she relaxed quite a bit. Then Shinji gave her the master lockout codes for the Geofront that only he could override.

New personnel came in, recieved training from her and others. Gendo would occasionally roll around in his wheelchair in the earlier days of NERV's rebuild, dropping unexpected pearls of wisdom to new personnel.

That didn't stop him from looking like a creepy uncle.

Maya was kept from sinking too far into her work, mostly by Shinji, citing Ritsuko Akagi as an example of what not to do. So she had a social life, and a girlfriend a couple of years younger than herself to come home to. She was on passable terms with Rei, who seemed to have come out of her shell a bit. She smiled a bit more often, but it was still rare. Since Rei headed up the Biotech division, they worked rather closely together.

Rei herself had developed into an exotically beautiful young woman, and had leveraged her intimate knowledge of the Evangelion systems into a Biotech PhD. Between Third Impact and college, she had changed, becoming less still and servile, and more decisive and willing to grab for what she wanted. Rei had dated some, but quickly tired of college-aged men bragging to their buddies that they were 'Banging an Eva pilot.' Never mind that not a one of them got past First Base before she broke something on them.

She also remembered when Shinji lost Asuka. The car wreck had been devastating, nearly shearing off half the car. Shinji came out of it completely untouched, but Asuka... Maya had seen the wreckage, the body. Asuka had died almost instantly. The new Section 2 had taken the remains away. A few days later she visited Shinji, who was weeping and punching holes in the walls in frustration. "All that power, everything we went through, and a ****ing CAR ACCIDENT!"

Maya listened to him rant for a while, then stood up and slapped him hard enough to spin him around. "Would Asuka want you to do this? Would Rei? Me? Shinji, it was a horrible accident, but you don't get to turn into your father over this. You don't get to become a broken shell of a man. You have responsibilities. Man up!"

Within a few months, Shinji had indeed changed quite a bit. Harder, a bit more bitter. But nowhere near what Gendo had been. Instead he became focused, more interactive with every step of NERV. She actually had to slow down his micromanagement.

But sitting in her direct link to the upgraded MAGI systems, she pored over the telemetry feeds. Being formerly a tactical advisor, she had a knack for directing combat units. But these readings were throwing her off.

First, the sheer amount of energy being thrown around by the ship in orbit were off the charts; if she hadn't definitively known better, she would've sworn that the Angel of Might was firing particle beams around again. And then there was the design of the ship. Clearly an alien design, and yet there were humans invading the Geofront with a few aliens.

The tech of their arms and armor was fascinating to her. Directed energy blasts, man-portable small missiles that could easily take out a modern tank, and armor that actually took two hits from the modified Zeruel cannons she'd rigged up for Section 2 before failing.

And then there was the new team. The one in the mascot outfits. While silly, she understood the chilling psychological effect that they were having on Section 2. These were professional, battle-hardened soldiers in advanced powered armors with energy shields. This team was butchering their way through NERV like Section 2 was barely there. They'd suffered a few casualties, but nothing near what the invading Geofront teams had.

And now, massive gravitational fluctuations were occuring in orbit. She stared as an ultra-tech whale nosed out of the wormhole, gliding out to reveal a ship even more alien than the first.

And then it appeared to be ejected mass. A higher magnification revealed them to be smaller ships, some headed to the surface, others heading towards Unit-01.

[taalismn]

Gendo= Doctor Strangelove?

[wyrmraker]

Gendo= Doctor Strangelove?

Kind of, but not quite. I had to envision what Gendo might be like after the realization of the Human Instrumentation project and extrapolate from there. I could easily see him lightening up considerably, now that the weight of humanity's future is off his shoulders. And don't forget, he was quite the s***-stirrer in college; that's how Fuyutsuki met him, bailing him out of jail after a bar brawl.

[SRoss]

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

[wyrmraker]

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

[wyrmraker]

The story is still writing itself, amazingly enough. Looks like all that fanfiction I've read over the years is paying off.
********
Shinji was displeased. While the unmanned fighters (he could tell; there was no living AT-Field. Instead there was an odd artificial one) were easily dispatched, this particular combat mech was being... problematic.

It was using something akin to an AT-Field, but not sufficently similar to cancel it out withis his own modulating anti-AT-Field. As it was, the smaller mech was deflecting his every blow, as well as using militant martial arts to attempt to strike at Unit-01's vital points. And Shinji couldn't simply blast it out of the sky; the field was too concentrated.

And, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the data feed stating that Section 2's forces were gradually losing ground. Aida was reporting that he was at the point of releasing the Minions, a contingency that was considered to be an absolute last resort. Reaching out, he flicked a switch to show his approval.

The other mechs, similar to the one he was combatting, were swarming around like flies, and of little consequence as they couldn't affect his field.

And then the impossible happened. He felt the light of his soul refract, Unit-01's AT-Field eroding fast.
***
"This is Sergeant Sagara. All units get clear! I am deploying the Fairy Feather system!"

All of Urzu Squad began retreating to a safe distance; Sasuke using the Fairy Feather meant that everything was bad, all was woe, and he was down to last resorts.

As soon as Urzu was clear, he activated the Fairy Feather system that his fiancee had designed. Almost instantly, he felt the enemy's field begin to collapse. Pressing his advantage, he launched a full barrage of anti-AS grenades. he watched as the massive bipedal robot's armor exploded at several points, shin and thigh armors being blasted off.

That's when his eyes widened. Instead of the hydraulics and wires he expected, he saw gray flesh, and hints of kneecap bones.

"Sherman, this is Urzu-7", he radio'd out. "What IS this thing? I am seeing flesh, not robotics. Confirmation of target is required immediately!"

Almost instantly came the reply of, "Urzu-7, this is Sherman C&C. That is your confirmed target."

Sasuke sighed. "Understood, Sherman. Sagara out."

Reacting with a thought, massive vibro-knives lauched from the sub-arms, stabbing deeply into the goliath's legs, now unprotected by armor. He could feel the roar of the creature's pain echo through his Arm Slave, even in the rareified atmosphere. Frowning at this, he nonetheless flitted to the side, aiming the boxer cannon at the thing's lower back when he felt the thing's 'field' shove the Laevatein several thousand feet away.

"Mao, the enemy's field is too powerful to maintain the Fairy feather. Al says it keeps inverting. Ideas?"

"Not really, Sousuke. Kurtz says his rifle is just pinging off the shield, and Yamara claims that none of her rockets are doing anything. At this point, you're about our only shot at this."

"Damn. Wait, what are *those* things?"

Urzu squad stared, still dodging Unit-01's AT-Field blasts, at the piscine teardrops that identified on their IFF systems as Seraph fighters. In a corner of Urzu squad's viewscreens, a video chat popped up. "Attention human forces," stated the armored alien figure with four jaws. "We are rendering assistance in accordance with the treaty. Please upload combat telemetry along the indicated communations channel."

"Understood, Seraph group," Mao replied, uploading her battle recorder. "Any chance of getting fire support from your mothership?"

"Uncertain," the alien replied. "The Ascendant Justice is not designed for ship-to-ship combat. We are currently rigged for infantry deployment and starfighter offense. Dropships are deploying a mixed legion of warriors to the planet's surface while we assist you."

"Excellent. We are going to fall back slightly to resupply. Cover us while we do so."

"Understood, humans. Sangheili forces out."

[SRoss]

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

It would have been better if Celine had been ON the ship when Asuka threw it.

[wyrmraker]

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

It would have been better if Celine had been ON the ship when Asuka threw it.

Well, we can't have EVERYTHING we want, aftter all.

[SRoss]

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

[taalismn]

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

Ouch again....but at least getting zorched by the likes of Char is understandable in the afterlife.
"Dude! You got killed by the Red Comet! Welcome to the club!"
"Dude, you got smoked by a little girl! Go sit at the losers' table!"

[SRoss]

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

Ouch again....but at least getting zorched by the likes of Char is understandable in the afterlife.
"Dude! You got killed by the Red Comet! Welcome to the club!"
"Dude, you got smoked by a little girl! Go sit at the losers' table!"

Suddenly, a voice booms through Tarterus...

SRoss: "IN YOUR FACE CRUISE!!!"

[taalismn]

Yep, because even in the afterlife, sudden testosterone loss can hurt like a bastard....

[Alpha 11]

Thanks. I'm trying to make it interesting without getting overpowering.

I know and it shows quite well, most curbstomps are boring but with what you are doing you make the battle intresting enough for me to bother reading although I generaly know who's going to win in the end.

If I wanted to be over powering, the VA-6B would have had a special cannon mode and these two rockin the cockpit.

Or simply sic The Culture on the opposition....
Special Circumstances---The Culture's way of saying '@@@@ you, Prime Directive'.

Or simply sic The Culture on the opposition....
Special Circumstances---The Culture's way of saying '@@@@ you, Prime Directive'.

" Loopholes, mankind's best and worst friend. "

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

Well since I don't know anything about the Culture/GSVs and very little about Bolos I'll have to take your word on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

GSVs---General Systems Vehicles, are basically HUGE spacecraft(we're talking tens of miles big) run by AIs that are much smarter than humans, and have capabilities in the Techno-God level, with the ability to manipulate forcefields and space/time. Worse, some of them have HOBBIES, like wandering off into the fringes of space and building battlefleets of drone warships to play with. And if they go eccentric....Fortunately they tend to be protective of those little organic squishies of the Culture, because if a GSV ever went evil and took to enjoying exploding stars...

And wow, indeed.

GSVs are basically spaceship Bolos, given another millennium of technological evolution.

Well since I don't know anything about the Culture/GSVs and very little about Bolos I'll have to take your word on that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

GSVs---General Systems Vehicles, are basically HUGE spacecraft(we're talking tens of miles big) run by AIs that are much smarter than humans, and have capabilities in the Techno-God level, with the ability to manipulate forcefields and space/time. Worse, some of them have HOBBIES, like wandering off into the fringes of space and building battlefleets of drone warships to play with. And if they go eccentric....Fortunately they tend to be protective of those little organic squishies of the Culture, because if a GSV ever went evil and took to enjoying exploding stars...

God like Space Hippies?

All in all that is way cool thanks for sharing it with me and the rest of the borad.

Agree!

[
God like Space Hippies?.

Post-capitalism/need-economy socialists. The citizens basically do what they want, supplied by the horn-of-plenty technologies, and can live virtually forever as fleshies or VR avatars(most tend to succumb to enuii and eventually opt to self-terminate after several centuries of existence). in fact, most of the Culture's citizens live on artificial space habitats, rather than planets. The god-like AIs really run things behind the scenes, ruling benignly, but every now and then they send the agents of Special Circumstances(who, more often than not, are the social misfits who aren't content with being lotus-eaters) to deal with pesky little societies who don't play nice..

Space Hippies----reminds me of David Brin's 'The Postman'(not the hideous Kevin Costner film) where the US Government, after their first attempts to create supersoldier 'augments' show signs of going sour(gung-ho survivalist nuts who decide to overthrow the government) decide to go with less physical aug, and more mental training...essentially creating zen supersoldiers. What Lynn Kyle MIGHT have been if he'd had more commonsense and a better attitude towards the military.

Interesting.

[
God like Space Hippies?.

Post-capitalism/need-economy socialists. The citizens basically do what they want, supplied by the horn-of-plenty technologies, and can live virtually forever as fleshies or VR avatars(most tend to succumb to enuii and eventually opt to self-terminate after several centuries of existence). in fact, most of the Culture's citizens live on artificial space habitats, rather than planets. The god-like AIs really run things behind the scenes, ruling benignly, but every now and then they send the agents of Special Circumstances(who, more often than not, are the social misfits who aren't content with being lotus-eaters) to deal with pesky little societies who don't play nice..

Space Hippies----reminds me of David Brin's 'The Postman'(not the hideous Kevin Costner film) where the US Government, after their first attempts to create supersoldier 'augments' show signs of going sour(gung-ho survivalist nuts who decide to overthrow the government) decide to go with less physical aug, and more mental training...essentially creating zen supersoldiers. What Lynn Kyle MIGHT have been if he'd had more commonsense and a better attitude towards the military.

I see, I'll have to look up The Postman one of these days, some how seeing Kyle with super kick ass ninja moves would not be all that scary unless the augmentation knocked a few screws lose and he goes all Super Syian(sp) on everyone's ass.

Hmm maybe Lang and a few of his flowers decied that to combat the near consent zent attacks on the way back to earth as well as to **** down on combat fatuge Lang and his folwers start spicling the SDF-1 combat troops DNA with FOL/protoculture as well as gentic exspermentation which could go hideously right/comical which would scare the crap out of or confuse the zents.

Hmm protoculture powered/agument/spliced Guyvers crossed with martial arts and mecha Awww HELL YES!

... Cool.

Read the original David Brin book rather than see the movie. David Brin's one of my favorite authors, and while he writes top notch space opera, he packs it full of IDEAS. He's also(warning here), an unabashed optimist who avoids the trap of dystopian grimdark(s opposed to say, Steven Baxter, who cheerfully kills off Humanity and individual human beings every other chapter of his works). He actually thinks we can MAKE it.

That's always good to hear.

My favorite has to be his ‘Uplift Universe’.
Summary:
Humanity arrives late to find a VAST galactic community that’s been around continously for MILLIONS of years, so long that it’s become rigorously stratified and codified out of necessity by Galactic Institutes, which lay down the regulations for everything from colonization(because of the limited amount of usable real estate) to warfare(general guidelines and accepted protocols), and beholden to the Library, a vast storehouse of galactic knowledge.
Key to the galactic society is the practice of Uplift, where a starfaring species finds a promising pre-sapient species and, through various means, uplifts it over centuries and millenia into full starfaring sapience. In return for the gift of such patronage, the uplifted ‘clients’ serve a period of indentureship to their patrons. Uplift is virtually the coin of the galactic economy and has also led to a social lineage pride that would put Terran blue-bloods to shame; the most powerful patron-clans boast long lines of distinguished ancestral patrons extending back in time, and forwards branch into dozens of uplifted patrons. Having a gaggle of successfully uplifted and loyal client-species attending your clan is a mark of power and success. Uplifted clients give a species assistance and credibility when they’re in their ascendancy, carry on their patrons’ names and deeds when the patrons Retire from the galactic scene, and take care of their legacy when the Retirees pass on or Ascend to the next Order of life.
Problem is, the practice of uplift has become so engrained in galactic society that the galactics can’t concieve of any species becoming intelligent and achieving starfarer status WITHOUT the intervention of a patron species. Galactic society has also been around so long that it suffers from stagnation and the perception that everything that can be learned, HAS been learned, and has been filed away in the Library to be found if one knows where to look. Innovation has stagnated, and it’s simply easier to get technology templates from the Library, than waste time and develop stuff on your own.
Enter Humanity, who has no apparent patrons to speak of. As ‘wolflings’, our status is very much in doubt; previous wolfling species have proven to be the result of grievous neglect by patron species and have either been quickly force-adopted by another Patron-clan, or have been exterminated for lacking the necessary refinements to exist in galactic society. Humanity has managed to acquire interstellar travel on its own, though, by the time of Contact(fortunately with a rare sympathetic species) and worse, we independentally uplifted two species, chimpanzees and dolphins, which instantly accords us status equal to a middling patron-clan. Unfortunately, early on, Humanity manages to p-off a couple of the more powerful patron-clans, and our policy of resisting the temptation of the Library and testing everything we acquire brands us as something of heretics even amongst the moderate Galactics. What’s even worse is that our ‘wolfling’ explorations and tactics seem to WORK, giving us a reputation for being cunning/unsportsmanlike/lucky bastards, so while we’re, as a species, trying to lay low and play catch up, clans much older than we’ve been around are trying to obstruct us as the arrogant new kids on the block/force-adopt us and make us into ‘better’ galactic citizens/exterminate us as heretics and abominations. Our list of reliable allies is slim(can be counted on one hand) and our list of enemies many, while the list of species that would stand aside and watch us get wiped is even greater.
And then, by a result of a major discovery and bad timing, Earth gets thrust into the hot seat and the major patron-clans are given an excuse to openly attack us. The Uplift Universe gets thrown into upheaval as alliances change, galactic laws are broken, corruption in the highest offices of the Institutes is discovered, and ancient secrets harkening to the beginnings of galactic society, are uncovered.

It’s a wild ride, full of space opera goodness, big ideas, and memorable characters, many of them not human.

GURPS did a module for it, which was spiced up with Brin’s original input, so it can be considered to be a sourcebook for it, although the art in it, and the Uplift Universe Aliens Guide, leaves something to be desired(could be better, to better capture the exotic nature of many of the aliens, as the artists seem to have only done minimal reading of the source material).

Brin’s other works are also very good; Kiln People was passable, the original Postman was quite good, Earth was fantastic, and his two short story collections, The River of Time and Otherness, are also fantastic. His most recent works are also good, but can be a bit daunting, though they compare well to, say, Greg Bear.

More cool info, thanks!

To tie in back to crossovers...no, I've never heard of any crossovers with Brin's Uplift'verse, and I don't think he's one of the ones who allows fanfics..or else, the Uplift universe is just so dense that it's difficult to fit fanfiction in, despite the rich possibilities. However, given the Orders of Life, some of the higher sub-space/Ascended ranks could cross entire universes. And given some of the more exotic drive types and recent events in the Uplift universe, it's possible that Five Galaxies ships might find their way into other dimensions(this would be particularly terrifying if patron-clans like the Tandu, whose philosophy is 'kill everything else' were to be transposed into another universe where there's nothing to reign them in. Also, since one of their Client-species is the Episarch, which is essentially a living space/time fabric manipulator who alters space by DENYING REALITY, even more scary). There's also several missing major characters---Tom Orley, genetically engineered operative for Earth, may be trying to find a shortcut back to Earth. Captain Creideiki, a neo-dolphin, is shown to be tapping into some underlying universal sense of DOLPHINESS, and may be able to swim through space/time(or maybe astrally project).
Robotech characters appearing in the Uplift universe would be at a severe disadvantage, since humans aren't large and aren't in charge, and their technology would be seen as backwards in most regards. Their saving grace might be if they had fertile Flowers of Life and Protoculture technology; a spacefaring BIOFUEL would be seen as extremely impressive, especially if FoL could be introduced as a bioremedial or terraforming tool(the Uplift Galactics are big on ecological management, since it's life worlds from which new Client species merge, and healthy planets are regularly recycled---once a species moves on, its still-viable planets are returned to a fallow state, cities are deliberately built on vault lines to be subducted under the crust, and wastes cleaned up and recycled). Earth, being a late-comer, has been given probationary title to several colony worlds that were ruined or worked hard by previous owners---our custodianship and success in managing these hardluck worlds determines what grades of planets we're allowed to colonize in the future...FoL rehabilitation would GREATLY improve our planetary management efforts and status(and would make a great gift to one of our allied tribes, the pacifistic Linten 'gardeners'.

An Uplift Earth ship in the Robotech'verse, on the other hand, might find themselves in a pretty good spot, even with the grimdark Earth getting invaded three times. Robotech Earth is primitive and harkening back to the bad old days of pre-Contact in many ways, the chimps and dolphins are feral un-Uplifted, but Earth-Clan is pretty much one of the dominant forces, if not THE big boys on the block, and frankly, Uplift Galactic tech ROCKS, with all manner of fun gadgets(including anti-matter projectors as point defense systems, and stasis fields.

Ya, they would have a hard time.

[Alpha 11]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

"Damnit, he knows how to type with his FOREHEAD!"

[Alpha 11]

It may be just me nobody's enough into BOTH universe settings to have contemplated it before.

*Snap!, Crackle!, Pop!*

" You hear that?, that's the sound of your left shoulder being dislocated a millimeter at a time, you know need on hand and arm to type out an RT/Uplift cross over game, RRRIIIGGGHHTT? "

"Damnit, he knows how to type with his FOREHEAD!"

"At lest he's using his head for more then a hatrack."

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

I'll grant you that, espeicaly if the preson in question is a rubber neck geek.

Because glasses look odd just sitting on a neck...

I'll grant you that, espeicaly if the preson in question is a rubber neck geek.

Or..still alive...
Pair of glasses sitting on a zombie's neck is just grotesque...

Still writing. This one's some background within the scenario.
********
Maya Ibuki, now the head of NERV's R&D department, scowled at the readings that the improved MAGI were giving her. Even now, the invaders were still trying to hack the supercomputers, and only dedicated reshunting of trunks were reliably working to keep the hackers at bay.

'It could be worse', she mused, remembering the JSSDF invasion in 2015. She was one of the few that had actually retained her full memories of the Third Impact, one of the very, very few who knew exactly what had happened when the rest of humanity had had amnesia for a week.

Musing back, she remembered Shinji bringing her back from the puddle of LCL that she'd been de-evolved into. Shinji had been able to revive the people who had been turned into such, but not the ones who had died before the Third Impact event. Which meant that Ritsuko and many others stayed dead even after Shinji had become God.

It turned out there were limits, even for deities.

To her credit, she only freaked out for a few hours unlike the rest of the bridge crew, who were still in sanitariums. Not many people realized what had happened, but the NERV personnel mostly remembered.

As it happened, Gendo Ikari had survived. It took weeks to regrow his hand with Evangelion regeneration technology, but there was a side-effect in that he lost both of his legs due to an unusual infection that couldn't be halted. Gendo himself found it bizarrely humorous, stating, "Looks like she finally got her revenge." Maya never was clear on what that meant.

A few years later, after Shinji had finished college, the world was still in fear of another Angel attack. Never mind that they hadn't been seen in all that time, humanity was still scared. After all, not 20 years prior half of all humanity had been wiped out by the First Angel.

Shinji had managed to reestablish NERV's credentials with the UN, regaining funding and resources to rebuild defensive facilities in case of another attack. Maya had been promoted to head of Research after completing her own additional degrees in AI Theory and High Energy Physics.

When she arrived back at NERV, the place had been radically altered. All of the stations, the Pribnow Box, the MAGI, even the Command Center, had been relocated, the original stations largely abandoned. Moved deeper into the Geofront, below Terminal Dogma, where apparently the Geofront had been dug out even more.

She immediately got to work, setting everything up properly. And that's when Shinji told her the true, original purpose of NERV, a secret that only Gendo, Rei, and himself were aware of. The truth of the Evangelions, the real reason that all the angels came to Tokyo-3, everything. She was horrified, but after Shinji told her that the new NERV needed someone moral, as she had always been, she relaxed quite a bit. Then Shinji gave her the master lockout codes for the Geofront that only he could override.

New personnel came in, recieved training from her and others. Gendo would occasionally roll around in his wheelchair in the earlier days of NERV's rebuild, dropping unexpected pearls of wisdom to new personnel.

That didn't stop him from looking like a creepy uncle.

Maya was kept from sinking too far into her work, mostly by Shinji, citing Ritsuko Akagi as an example of what not to do. So she had a social life, and a girlfriend a couple of years younger than herself to come home to. She was on passable terms with Rei, who seemed to have come out of her shell a bit. She smiled a bit more often, but it was still rare. Since Rei headed up the Biotech division, they worked rather closely together.

Rei herself had developed into an exotically beautiful young woman, and had leveraged her intimate knowledge of the Evangelion systems into a Biotech PhD. Between Third Impact and college, she had changed, becoming less still and servile, and more decisive and willing to grab for what she wanted. Rei had dated some, but quickly tired of college-aged men bragging to their buddies that they were 'Banging an Eva pilot.' Never mind that not a one of them got past First Base before she broke something on them.

She also remembered when Shinji lost Asuka. The car wreck had been devastating, nearly shearing off half the car. Shinji came out of it completely untouched, but Asuka... Maya had seen the wreckage, the body. Asuka had died almost instantly. The new Section 2 had taken the remains away. A few days later she visited Shinji, who was weeping and punching holes in the walls in frustration. "All that power, everything we went through, and a ****ing CAR ACCIDENT!"

Maya listened to him rant for a while, then stood up and slapped him hard enough to spin him around. "Would Asuka want you to do this? Would Rei? Me? Shinji, it was a horrible accident, but you don't get to turn into your father over this. You don't get to become a broken shell of a man. You have responsibilities. Man up!"

Within a few months, Shinji had indeed changed quite a bit. Harder, a bit more bitter. But nowhere near what Gendo had been. Instead he became focused, more interactive with every step of NERV. She actually had to slow down his micromanagement.

But sitting in her direct link to the upgraded MAGI systems, she pored over the telemetry feeds. Being formerly a tactical advisor, she had a knack for directing combat units. But these readings were throwing her off.

First, the sheer amount of energy being thrown around by the ship in orbit were off the charts; if she hadn't definitively known better, she would've sworn that the Angel of Might was firing particle beams around again. And then there was the design of the ship. Clearly an alien design, and yet there were humans invading the Geofront with a few aliens.

The tech of their arms and armor was fascinating to her. Directed energy blasts, man-portable small missiles that could easily take out a modern tank, and armor that actually took two hits from the modified Zeruel cannons she'd rigged up for Section 2 before failing.

And then there was the new team. The one in the mascot outfits. While silly, she understood the chilling psychological effect that they were having on Section 2. These were professional, battle-hardened soldiers in advanced powered armors with energy shields. This team was butchering their way through NERV like Section 2 was barely there. They'd suffered a few casualties, but nothing near what the invading Geofront teams had.

And now, massive gravitational fluctuations were occuring in orbit. She stared as an ultra-tech whale nosed out of the wormhole, gliding out to reveal a ship even more alien than the first.

And then it appeared to be ejected mass. A higher magnification revealed them to be smaller ships, some headed to the surface, others heading towards Unit-01.

Wow! Another great update!

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I know it wasn't the best move, but I did like it.

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

The story is still writing itself, amazingly enough. Looks like all that fanfiction I've read over the years is paying off.
********
Shinji was displeased. While the unmanned fighters (he could tell; there was no living AT-Field. Instead there was an odd artificial one) were easily dispatched, this particular combat mech was being... problematic.

It was using something akin to an AT-Field, but not sufficently similar to cancel it out withis his own modulating anti-AT-Field. As it was, the smaller mech was deflecting his every blow, as well as using militant martial arts to attempt to strike at Unit-01's vital points. And Shinji couldn't simply blast it out of the sky; the field was too concentrated.

And, out of the corner of his eye, he could see the data feed stating that Section 2's forces were gradually losing ground. Aida was reporting that he was at the point of releasing the Minions, a contingency that was considered to be an absolute last resort. Reaching out, he flicked a switch to show his approval.

The other mechs, similar to the one he was combatting, were swarming around like flies, and of little consequence as they couldn't affect his field.

And then the impossible happened. He felt the light of his soul refract, Unit-01's AT-Field eroding fast.
***
"This is Sergeant Sagara. All units get clear! I am deploying the Fairy Feather system!"

All of Urzu Squad began retreating to a safe distance; Sasuke using the Fairy Feather meant that everything was bad, all was woe, and he was down to last resorts.

As soon as Urzu was clear, he activated the Fairy Feather system that his fiancee had designed. Almost instantly, he felt the enemy's field begin to collapse. Pressing his advantage, he launched a full barrage of anti-AS grenades. he watched as the massive bipedal robot's armor exploded at several points, shin and thigh armors being blasted off.

That's when his eyes widened. Instead of the hydraulics and wires he expected, he saw gray flesh, and hints of kneecap bones.

"Sherman, this is Urzu-7", he radio'd out. "What IS this thing? I am seeing flesh, not robotics. Confirmation of target is required immediately!"

Almost instantly came the reply of, "Urzu-7, this is Sherman C&C. That is your confirmed target."

Sasuke sighed. "Understood, Sherman. Sagara out."

Reacting with a thought, massive vibro-knives lauched from the sub-arms, stabbing deeply into the goliath's legs, now unprotected by armor. He could feel the roar of the creature's pain echo through his Arm Slave, even in the rareified atmosphere. Frowning at this, he nonetheless flitted to the side, aiming the boxer cannon at the thing's lower back when he felt the thing's 'field' shove the Laevatein several thousand feet away.

"Mao, the enemy's field is too powerful to maintain the Fairy feather. Al says it keeps inverting. Ideas?"

"Not really, Sousuke. Kurtz says his rifle is just pinging off the shield, and Yamara claims that none of her rockets are doing anything. At this point, you're about our only shot at this."

"Damn. Wait, what are *those* things?"

Urzu squad stared, still dodging Unit-01's AT-Field blasts, at the piscine teardrops that identified on their IFF systems as Seraph fighters. In a corner of Urzu squad's viewscreens, a video chat popped up. "Attention human forces," stated the armored alien figure with four jaws. "We are rendering assistance in accordance with the treaty. Please upload combat telemetry along the indicated communations channel."

"Understood, Seraph group," Mao replied, uploading her battle recorder. "Any chance of getting fire support from your mothership?"

"Uncertain," the alien replied. "The Ascendant Justice is not designed for ship-to-ship combat. We are currently rigged for infantry deployment and starfighter offense. Dropships are deploying a mixed legion of warriors to the planet's surface while we assist you."

"Excellent. We are going to fall back slightly to resupply. Cover us while we do so."

"Understood, humans. Sangheili forces out."

Your really good at this.

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

It would have been better if Celine had been ON the ship when Asuka threw it.

[Alpha 11]

Somewhere Deep in the Geofront...

Rei: "Commander. Our naval reinforcements are engaging the alien ship in the lake."

I prefer this mashup, but I adore the humor of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFFX45iAZxw

It would have been better if Celine had been ON the ship when Asuka threw it.

Well, we can't have EVERYTHING we want, aftter all.

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

Nice!

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

Ouch again....but at least getting zorched by the likes of Char is understandable in the afterlife.
"Dude! You got killed by the Red Comet! Welcome to the club!"
"Dude, you got smoked by a little girl! Go sit at the losers' table!"

In the lake, NERV's Iowa-class battleship got the jump on the first of the Seraph dropships, but now it found itself being raked by 40 cm cannon fire and missiles. Listing heavily to port, with the main and most of the secondary turrets gone, the citadel a flaming wreck, the Captain gave the order to abandon ship.

Meanwhile the UN Carrier out in the bay launched a strike package of F-35s escorted by JSSDF F-22s. Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell looked to his right and saw pink haired girl on a blue and white machine move to intercept his men. Naomi, switching her AW-CBR115 Glaive to Destroyer mode, neatly bisected "Maverick's" plane with her sword.

Naomi's fight theme.

High above them, Lt. Tamagochi, in his F-22 barely had time to shout a warning before Char's red Alpha fighter shot him to pieces...

Ouch again....but at least getting zorched by the likes of Char is understandable in the afterlife.
"Dude! You got killed by the Red Comet! Welcome to the club!"
"Dude, you got smoked by a little girl! Go sit at the losers' table!"

Suddenly, a voice booms through Tarterus...

SRoss: "IN YOUR FACE CRUISE!!!"

Yep, because even in the afterlife, sudden testosterone loss can hurt like a bastard....

[wyrmraker]

Beginning the wrap up. I have a couple of endings in mind, but this is slowly crawling to the finish line.
***
Shinji frowned. the mecha were difficult, but he was confident that he'd find a way to deal with them in time. These new vessels were far more problematic. Fast, maneuverable, transatmospheric vessels using plasma and laser cannons, with energy shields. Unit-01's targeting cluster simply wasn't up to the task of effectively tracking them, and their shielding was taking the brunt of his AT-Field attacks.

Added to that the new ground troops that were gradually swarming NERV, the warships in the lake that were getting decimated, and the most advanced fighter aircraft currently available to modern military forces were getting CUT IN HALF... And then Rei called to inform him that she was hunting someone who'd broken into the new lower level of Terminal Dogma.

There was only one thing remaining.

"Maya, this is Shinji," he transmitted over the supposedly hack-proof communications array. "This battle is unsustainable. I am sending you what I believe to be their command frequencies. Tell the UN to call them, get them to call off the attack. I will retreat and regroup."

Gathering his will, tightening his AT-Fields, he felt the light of his soul brighten as he released the last trick Kaworu Nagisa had taught him.
***
"Captain, Unit-01 has vanished. It's not showing up on ANY sensors whatsoever."

"That's unusual. Graviational?"

"Not even that, sir. It's like it vanished into thin air!"
***
As Unit-01 plummeted back to earth, Shinji gritted out a smile within his concentration. Using the AT-Field to mask the evangelion's presence was something used by Nagisa to guarantee that they wouldn't be interrupted in Terminal Dogma, all those years ago. Light, electromagnetic activity, even neutrinos would be stopped by the field. Granted, Shinji could only do it temporarily, but it would work long enough for him to make an effective retreat. He just hoped that Maya would be in time to spare NERV's troops a repeat of the JSSDF incident.
***
Thirty minutes ago....
Darkraven had noted Terminal Dogma's emptiness. No Lilith, no patrol boats, all the side rooms completely empty. Dusty. The lake of LCL was still there, but far lower than reports claimed it should be.

Eventually he found the door leading down. Reactivating his stealth field (thanking whatever powers that be that the LCL held enough life energy to refill his quite meager PPE reserves), he glided his armor down the hallway, which gleamed with newness. Clearly not a part of the original construction, it's stark newness hinted not only at recent construction, but also severe budget constraints. No paint on the metal walls save for signs. Simple flourescent lighting, unlike the subtle and muted lights of the upper sections.

After several minutes, he heard a noise. A female voice, sensors confirming as Maya Ibuki, according to the records. Retuning his sensors, he also managed to detect voices coming from elsewhere, but the echoing nature of the hallway made the words indeterminable.

He was also displeased about the lack of reception with the Sherman, much less the Aleph unit. Even with the repeaters he'd been dropping, something down here was blocking his communications array. And since he didn't exactly have a TW Magic Pigeon module built into his armor, he was kind of out of luck.

Advancing, he heard from the open doorway, "I understand, General, but NERV has no idea where these combat units came from. We can definitely use reinforcements; our combat director says that our forces are completely outmatched. We need every available combat unit here immediately, or else we'll be severely crippled in our abilities to fight the angels. Thank you General, we appreciate your cooperation."

Dropping the stealth field in the doorway, he watched the woman move...

[Kargan3033]

Beginning the wrap up. I have a couple of endings in mind, but this is slowly crawling to the finish line.
***
Shinji frowned. the mecha were difficult, but he was confident that he'd find a way to deal with them in time. These new vessels were far more problematic. Fast, maneuverable, transatmospheric vessels using plasma and laser cannons, with energy shields. Unit-01's targeting cluster simply wasn't up to the task of effectively tracking them, and their shielding was taking the brunt of his AT-Field attacks.

Added to that the new ground troops that were gradually swarming NERV, the warships in the lake that were getting decimated, and the most advanced fighter aircraft currently available to modern military forces were getting CUT IN HALF... And then Rei called to inform him that she was hunting someone who'd broken into the new lower level of Terminal Dogma.

There was only one thing remaining.

"Maya, this is Shinji," he transmitted over the supposedly hack-proof communications array. "This battle is unsustainable. I am sending you what I believe to be their command frequencies. Tell the UN to call them, get them to call off the attack. I will retreat and regroup."

Gathering his will, tightening his AT-Fields, he felt the light of his soul brighten as he released the last trick Kaworu Nagisa had taught him.
***
"Captain, Unit-01 has vanished. It's not showing up on ANY sensors whatsoever."

"That's unusual. Graviational?"

"Not even that, sir. It's like it vanished into thin air!"
***
As Unit-01 plummeted back to earth, Shinji gritted out a smile within his concentration. Using the AT-Field to mask the evangelion's presence was something used by Nagisa to guarantee that they wouldn't be interrupted in Terminal Dogma, all those years ago. Light, electromagnetic activity, even neutrinos would be stopped by the field. Granted, Shinji could only do it temporarily, but it would work long enough for him to make an effective retreat. He just hoped that Maya would be in time to spare NERV's troops a repeat of the JSSDF incident.
***
Thirty minutes ago....
Darkraven had noted Terminal Dogma's emptiness. No Lilith, no patrol boats, all the side rooms completely empty. Dusty. The lake of LCL was still there, but far lower than reports claimed it should be.

Eventually he found the door leading down. Reactivating his stealth field (thanking whatever powers that be that the LCL held enough life energy to refill his quite meager PPE reserves), he glided his armor down the hallway, which gleamed with newness. Clearly not a part of the original construction, it's stark newness hinted not only at recent construction, but also severe budget constraints. No paint on the metal walls save for signs. Simple flourescent lighting, unlike the subtle and muted lights of the upper sections.

After several minutes, he heard a noise. A female voice, sensors confirming as Maya Ibuki, according to the records. Retuning his sensors, he also managed to detect voices coming from elsewhere, but the echoing nature of the hallway made the words indeterminable.

He was also displeased about the lack of reception with the Sherman, much less the Aleph unit. Even with the repeaters he'd been dropping, something down here was blocking his communications array. And since he didn't exactly have a TW Magic Pigeon module built into his armor, he was kind of out of luck.

Advancing, he heard from the open doorway, "I understand, General, but NERV has no idea where these combat units came from. We can definitely use reinforcements; our combat director says that our forces are completely outmatched. We need every available combat unit here immediately, or else we'll be severely crippled in our abilities to fight the angels. Thank you General, we appreciate your cooperation."

Dropping the stealth field in the doorway, he watched the woman move...

Nice, I can't wait to see how this pans out.

[wyrmraker]

I'd intended to write more than this today, but there were some interruptions.
***
Maya Ibuki was never a violent person. Even during the JSSDF invasion, she could bring herself to harm another human being.

Time had changed her.

As soon as she sensed the figure in the doorway, her hand automatically reached down, pulling the pistol from the holster alongside her chair. With ease borne of hundreds of hours of practice, her hand came up, two rounds firing off. Then she stared at the armored figure in the doorway, the inch-wide cannon aimed at her over it's shoulder.

"Wow. That was the most amazing double-tap I have ever seen, Miss Ibuki," the figure stated in a masculine voice. "As a professional sniper, I can honestly say that if I hadn't been wearing armor, you'd have caught me right in the T-square. I'd already be dead now. Excellent control. And from a snap shot, no less!"

Maya blinked at the praise, a portion of her mind wondering why the figure hadn't killed her yet. The analytical section of her brain noted her shots, one where the figure's right eye would be, the other where his nose would be. That section also noted the massive barrel with a three centimeter bore targeting her.

"So why am I not dead yet?" she asked, the handgun not wavering in the slightest.

"A couple of reasons, Miss Ibuki. First, that firearm is no threat to me, and I take no pleasure in killing unarmed opposition. In fact, I take no pleasure in killing at all. Second, you are one of the very few on the 'No Kill' order when dealing with these dimensions. Seems that you, Aoba, and Hyuga are the registered 'good people'. Third is that you are one of the insiders, and can answer a lot of questions."

"And why would I answer the questions of men invading my home?"

"Because our forces are working to avert the Third Impact and the loss of all life on this world."

Maya blinked, slowly lowering the handgun. Relaxing into her chair, she laughed. "Third Impact? That was thirteen years ago. Commander Ikari fixed it, bringing back most of humanity from the sea of LCL."

The barrel retracted, swinging up and sliding back over his shoulder. "Wait, what? Seriously? So why are the angels attacking now? I thought there weren't supposed to be any more one the Instrumentality happened."

"Oh, it turns out there were more angel embryos around the world," she replied, sipping her coffee as she put her handgun back in it's holster. "The Commander says that he sensed that the angels would continue to assault humanity by coming after the latest holder of Instrumentality."

"So... Gendo Ikari. That would explain why he's in the Room of Gauf. It's one of the most heavily armored rooms in NERV."

"Gendo?" she asked incredulously. "Gendo is one of our scientists; his PhD is in Evolutionary Divergence Theory. Basically, he oversees repairs on our Evangelions. Shinji is the commander now."

The armoured figure slumped slightly, leaning against the doorframe. "Well, crap. So we're staging a takeover against a non-hostile facility that's fully prepared for a ground war. We're the bad guys here."

"Pretty much, yeah. So who are you?"

"Master Sergeant Jeremiah Darkraven, dimensional operative for the United Earth Defense Forces. Your Earth is the seventh Earth I've been to. Parellel dimensions are such a pain."

[taalismn]

"Yeah, we got bad intel...."
"You THINK?!"

[Kargan3033]

I'd intended to write more than this today, but there were some interruptions.
***
Maya Ibuki was never a violent person. Even during the JSSDF invasion, she could bring herself to harm another human being.

Time had changed her.

As soon as she sensed the figure in the doorway, her hand automatically reached down, pulling the pistol from the holster alongside her chair. With ease borne of hundreds of hours of practice, her hand came up, two rounds firing off. Then she stared at the armored figure in the doorway, the inch-wide cannon aimed at her over it's shoulder.

"Wow. That was the most amazing double-tap I have ever seen, Miss Ibuki," the figure stated in a masculine voice. "As a professional sniper, I can honestly say that if I hadn't been wearing armor, you'd have caught me right in the T-square. I'd already be dead now. Excellent control. And from a snap shot, no less!"

Maya blinked at the praise, a portion of her mind wondering why the figure hadn't killed her yet. The analytical section of her brain noted her shots, one where the figure's right eye would be, the other where his nose would be. That section also noted the massive barrel with a three centimeter bore targeting her.

"So why am I not dead yet?" she asked, the handgun not wavering in the slightest.

"A couple of reasons, Miss Ibuki. First, that firearm is no threat to me, and I take no pleasure in killing unarmed opposition. In fact, I take no pleasure in killing at all. Second, you are one of the very few on the 'No Kill' order when dealing with these dimensions. Seems that you, Aoba, and Hyuga are the registered 'good people'. Third is that you are one of the insiders, and can answer a lot of questions."

"And why would I answer the questions of men invading my home?"

"Because our forces are working to avert the Third Impact and the loss of all life on this world."

Maya blinked, slowly lowering the handgun. Relaxing into her chair, she laughed. "Third Impact? That was thirteen years ago. Commander Ikari fixed it, bringing back most of humanity from the sea of LCL."

The barrel retracted, swinging up and sliding back over his shoulder. "Wait, what? Seriously? So why are the angels attacking now? I thought there weren't supposed to be any more one the Instrumentality happened."

"Oh, it turns out there were more angel embryos around the world," she replied, sipping her coffee as she put her handgun back in it's holster. "The Commander says that he sensed that the angels would continue to assault humanity by coming after the latest holder of Instrumentality."

"So... Gendo Ikari. That would explain why he's in the Room of Gauf. It's one of the most heavily armored rooms in NERV."

"Gendo?" she asked incredulously. "Gendo is one of our scientists; his PhD is in Evolutionary Divergence Theory. Basically, he oversees repairs on our Evangelions. Shinji is the commander now."

The armoured figure slumped slightly, leaning against the doorframe. "Well, crap. So we're staging a takeover against a non-hostile facility that's fully prepared for a ground war. We're the bad guys here."

"Pretty much, yeah. So who are you?"

"Master Sergeant Jeremiah Darkraven, dimensional operative for the United Earth Defense Forces. Your Earth is the seventh Earth I've been to. Parellel dimensions are such a pain."

Must be a Monday.

[wyrmraker]

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

[Kargan3033]

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

[wyrmraker]

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

Yeah, but I was referring to the bolded mispelling.

I figured that the 'good guys' were due for an epic screwup at some point. And I wanted to do something around some ideas my wife and I've been soft-RPing with. We do a lot of conceptual crossover stuff with our own characters.

[Kargan3033]

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

Yeah, but I was referring to the bolded mispelling.

I figured that the 'good guys' were due for an epic screwup at some point. And I wanted to do something around some ideas my wife and I've been soft-RPing with. We do a lot of conceptual crossover stuff with our own characters.

Ahh ok then..so the love of your life like RPing? nice, I'd like to hear about some of your crossover ideas if you don't mind, you seem to have a gift for crossovers.

[Alpha 11]

Beginning the wrap up. I have a couple of endings in mind, but this is slowly crawling to the finish line.
***
Shinji frowned. the mecha were difficult, but he was confident that he'd find a way to deal with them in time. These new vessels were far more problematic. Fast, maneuverable, transatmospheric vessels using plasma and laser cannons, with energy shields. Unit-01's targeting cluster simply wasn't up to the task of effectively tracking them, and their shielding was taking the brunt of his AT-Field attacks.

Added to that the new ground troops that were gradually swarming NERV, the warships in the lake that were getting decimated, and the most advanced fighter aircraft currently available to modern military forces were getting CUT IN HALF... And then Rei called to inform him that she was hunting someone who'd broken into the new lower level of Terminal Dogma.

There was only one thing remaining.

"Maya, this is Shinji," he transmitted over the supposedly hack-proof communications array. "This battle is unsustainable. I am sending you what I believe to be their command frequencies. Tell the UN to call them, get them to call off the attack. I will retreat and regroup."

Gathering his will, tightening his AT-Fields, he felt the light of his soul brighten as he released the last trick Kaworu Nagisa had taught him.
***
"Captain, Unit-01 has vanished. It's not showing up on ANY sensors whatsoever."

"That's unusual. Graviational?"

"Not even that, sir. It's like it vanished into thin air!"
***
As Unit-01 plummeted back to earth, Shinji gritted out a smile within his concentration. Using the AT-Field to mask the evangelion's presence was something used by Nagisa to guarantee that they wouldn't be interrupted in Terminal Dogma, all those years ago. Light, electromagnetic activity, even neutrinos would be stopped by the field. Granted, Shinji could only do it temporarily, but it would work long enough for him to make an effective retreat. He just hoped that Maya would be in time to spare NERV's troops a repeat of the JSSDF incident.
***
Thirty minutes ago....
Darkraven had noted Terminal Dogma's emptiness. No Lilith, no patrol boats, all the side rooms completely empty. Dusty. The lake of LCL was still there, but far lower than reports claimed it should be.

Eventually he found the door leading down. Reactivating his stealth field (thanking whatever powers that be that the LCL held enough life energy to refill his quite meager PPE reserves), he glided his armor down the hallway, which gleamed with newness. Clearly not a part of the original construction, it's stark newness hinted not only at recent construction, but also severe budget constraints. No paint on the metal walls save for signs. Simple flourescent lighting, unlike the subtle and muted lights of the upper sections.

After several minutes, he heard a noise. A female voice, sensors confirming as Maya Ibuki, according to the records. Retuning his sensors, he also managed to detect voices coming from elsewhere, but the echoing nature of the hallway made the words indeterminable.

He was also displeased about the lack of reception with the Sherman, much less the Aleph unit. Even with the repeaters he'd been dropping, something down here was blocking his communications array. And since he didn't exactly have a TW Magic Pigeon module built into his armor, he was kind of out of luck.

Advancing, he heard from the open doorway, "I understand, General, but NERV has no idea where these combat units came from. We can definitely use reinforcements; our combat director says that our forces are completely outmatched. We need every available combat unit here immediately, or else we'll be severely crippled in our abilities to fight the angels. Thank you General, we appreciate your cooperation."

Dropping the stealth field in the doorway, he watched the woman move...

I'm really loving these and always look forward to and hope every time I come here, there is an update. This has been a fantastic read, and I hope you continue to write these!

I'd intended to write more than this today, but there were some interruptions.
***
Maya Ibuki was never a violent person. Even during the JSSDF invasion, she could bring herself to harm another human being.

Time had changed her.

As soon as she sensed the figure in the doorway, her hand automatically reached down, pulling the pistol from the holster alongside her chair. With ease borne of hundreds of hours of practice, her hand came up, two rounds firing off. Then she stared at the armored figure in the doorway, the inch-wide cannon aimed at her over it's shoulder.

"Wow. That was the most amazing double-tap I have ever seen, Miss Ibuki," the figure stated in a masculine voice. "As a professional sniper, I can honestly say that if I hadn't been wearing armor, you'd have caught me right in the T-square. I'd already be dead now. Excellent control. And from a snap shot, no less!"

Maya blinked at the praise, a portion of her mind wondering why the figure hadn't killed her yet. The analytical section of her brain noted her shots, one where the figure's right eye would be, the other where his nose would be. That section also noted the massive barrel with a three centimeter bore targeting her.

"So why am I not dead yet?" she asked, the handgun not wavering in the slightest.

"A couple of reasons, Miss Ibuki. First, that firearm is no threat to me, and I take no pleasure in killing unarmed opposition. In fact, I take no pleasure in killing at all. Second, you are one of the very few on the 'No Kill' order when dealing with these dimensions. Seems that you, Aoba, and Hyuga are the registered 'good people'. Third is that you are one of the insiders, and can answer a lot of questions."

"And why would I answer the questions of men invading my home?"

"Because our forces are working to avert the Third Impact and the loss of all life on this world."

Maya blinked, slowly lowering the handgun. Relaxing into her chair, she laughed. "Third Impact? That was thirteen years ago. Commander Ikari fixed it, bringing back most of humanity from the sea of LCL."

The barrel retracted, swinging up and sliding back over his shoulder. "Wait, what? Seriously? So why are the angels attacking now? I thought there weren't supposed to be any more one the Instrumentality happened."

"Oh, it turns out there were more angel embryos around the world," she replied, sipping her coffee as she put her handgun back in it's holster. "The Commander says that he sensed that the angels would continue to assault humanity by coming after the latest holder of Instrumentality."

"So... Gendo Ikari. That would explain why he's in the Room of Gauf. It's one of the most heavily armored rooms in NERV."

"Gendo?" she asked incredulously. "Gendo is one of our scientists; his PhD is in Evolutionary Divergence Theory. Basically, he oversees repairs on our Evangelions. Shinji is the commander now."

The armoured figure slumped slightly, leaning against the doorframe. "Well, crap. So we're staging a takeover against a non-hostile facility that's fully prepared for a ground war. We're the bad guys here."

"Pretty much, yeah. So who are you?"

"Master Sergeant Jeremiah Darkraven, dimensional operative for the United Earth Defense Forces. Your Earth is the seventh Earth I've been to. Parellel dimensions are such a pain."

Well, Shinji hasn't been telling her everything it seems.

"Yeah, we got bad intel...."
"You THINK?!"

I'd intended to write more than this today, but there were some interruptions.
***
Maya Ibuki was never a violent person. Even during the JSSDF invasion, she could bring herself to harm another human being.

Time had changed her.

As soon as she sensed the figure in the doorway, her hand automatically reached down, pulling the pistol from the holster alongside her chair. With ease borne of hundreds of hours of practice, her hand came up, two rounds firing off. Then she stared at the armored figure in the doorway, the inch-wide cannon aimed at her over it's shoulder.

"Wow. That was the most amazing double-tap I have ever seen, Miss Ibuki," the figure stated in a masculine voice. "As a professional sniper, I can honestly say that if I hadn't been wearing armor, you'd have caught me right in the T-square. I'd already be dead now. Excellent control. And from a snap shot, no less!"

Maya blinked at the praise, a portion of her mind wondering why the figure hadn't killed her yet. The analytical section of her brain noted her shots, one where the figure's right eye would be, the other where his nose would be. That section also noted the massive barrel with a three centimeter bore targeting her.

"So why am I not dead yet?" she asked, the handgun not wavering in the slightest.

"A couple of reasons, Miss Ibuki. First, that firearm is no threat to me, and I take no pleasure in killing unarmed opposition. In fact, I take no pleasure in killing at all. Second, you are one of the very few on the 'No Kill' order when dealing with these dimensions. Seems that you, Aoba, and Hyuga are the registered 'good people'. Third is that you are one of the insiders, and can answer a lot of questions."

"And why would I answer the questions of men invading my home?"

"Because our forces are working to avert the Third Impact and the loss of all life on this world."

Maya blinked, slowly lowering the handgun. Relaxing into her chair, she laughed. "Third Impact? That was thirteen years ago. Commander Ikari fixed it, bringing back most of humanity from the sea of LCL."

The barrel retracted, swinging up and sliding back over his shoulder. "Wait, what? Seriously? So why are the angels attacking now? I thought there weren't supposed to be any more one the Instrumentality happened."

"Oh, it turns out there were more angel embryos around the world," she replied, sipping her coffee as she put her handgun back in it's holster. "The Commander says that he sensed that the angels would continue to assault humanity by coming after the latest holder of Instrumentality."

"So... Gendo Ikari. That would explain why he's in the Room of Gauf. It's one of the most heavily armored rooms in NERV."

"Gendo?" she asked incredulously. "Gendo is one of our scientists; his PhD is in Evolutionary Divergence Theory. Basically, he oversees repairs on our Evangelions. Shinji is the commander now."

The armoured figure slumped slightly, leaning against the doorframe. "Well, crap. So we're staging a takeover against a non-hostile facility that's fully prepared for a ground war. We're the bad guys here."

"Pretty much, yeah. So who are you?"

"Master Sergeant Jeremiah Darkraven, dimensional operative for the United Earth Defense Forces. Your Earth is the seventh Earth I've been to. Parellel dimensions are such a pain."

Must be a Monday.

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

Ummm..., the way I was reading it, isn't Shinji trying to do, what Gendo tried to do?

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

Yeah, but I was referring to the bolded mispelling.

I figured that the 'good guys' were due for an epic screwup at some point. And I wanted to do something around some ideas my wife and I've been soft-RPing with. We do a lot of conceptual crossover stuff with our own characters.

Sweet!

Well, at least I don't make *that* many mispellings.

I'm still typing. Mixing bits of background with the thoughts and actions of characters. And I have a big smack-talking scene coming up that I'm currently planning out.

No that's not what I'm getting at, the point I was trying to play up for laughs is that the UEG screwed up and attacked a " Friendly/Good NGE Earth " and that people usualy screw up badly on Mondays given how much people hate mondays and what not.

Yeah, but I was referring to the bolded mispelling.

I figured that the 'good guys' were due for an epic screwup at some point. And I wanted to do something around some ideas my wife and I've been soft-RPing with. We do a lot of conceptual crossover stuff with our own characters.

Ahh ok then..so the love of your life like RPing? nice, I'd like to hear about some of your crossover ideas if you don't mind, you seem to have a gift for crossovers.

Agree!