Chapter 2: Hostage Situation

Jack doesn't really understand. "Oh, right." He stands there, looking out the window, for a few moments.

"Hey, band practice tomorrow sound good?"

After Commander Veidt’s unexpected appearance and announcement, Central Dogma falls back into its normal state of organized chaos; tech’s work diligently at their stations crunching numbers or organizing logistical assets. For the scale of operations undertaken by the Evangelions and their various support units, a huge amount of paperwork had be to done in an amazing short time. While NERV staff did not require all of their orders to be written down and signed, the UN Fleet and the countless contractors employed by both organizations required that the right people be notified and the proper forms filled out.

On the other side of the equations, while not at bureaucratically bloated as other government agencies or the UN, NERV also processed a staggering amount of information for both itself and other institutional bodies, like the Prometheus Foundation. Such things require large amounts of organization and man power to both process and distribute information to the right places.

As Johann watches the staff around him work, it dons on him what a wonderful juxtaposition it is comparing the strategic and tactical level aspects of doing what he does. Decisions were made quickly at the command level, but it took time for orders and plans to go into action and produce results. On the ground, it took time for orders to come down from the top, but once received, things happened very quickly.

The Operations Director was left to think about that for little less than an hour before receiving a text from the S2 Chief on duty that all pilots except for the new arrival were waiting for him in the pilot ready room off the Cage. Shortly after that, he was notified that the various principals involved in the planning and execution of the upcoming operations were on their way to the ready room as well.


Before Renny can answer Jack, the door leading out to the Cage is thrown open, admitting the din of pre-deployment Cage work as well as a rather heated argument. Standing in the door way is a rather irate looking tech that seems to be arguing with a Section Two goon.

“Do I look like a God-damned babysitter? I though it was Duce’s job to keep an eye on the little brats? I’ve got to organize transfer and maintenance orders for five Eva’s, not to mention the bullshit I have to deal with last minute with a whole new unit getting dropped in my lap. Now piss off and go do your job so I can get on with mine!”

The Section Two agent does not get a chance to reply as the tech quickly shuts the door in his face. Turning around, he stops dead in his tracks when he sees the pilots; obviously he was not expecting them.

The pilots all vaguely recognize the man as a senior member of the maintenance staff. They’ve seen him a few times before over seeing work in the Cage or during Sync testing, normally yelling at his fellow workers. From their brief exposure to his conversation with the Section Two agent, it becomes apparent to the pilots that this man may very well be the Chief Engineer who is in charge of maintaining all of their Evangelions.

The man himself looks to be in his late 20s, with a rough look about him. His dirty blond hair is getting to be rather shaggy; a fact probably not helped by the two headsets he is wearing, one around his neck, the other only half on his head. In the place where his name would have been stitched on his orange coveralls was instead a piece of duct tape with the name KOWALSKI written in black marker.

“Well,” he finally says after several moments of slightly awkward silence. It had become amazing silent in the room after the brief burst of noise from the Cage had been silenced, “At least they only lost one of you.” He says, regaining his composure and walking over to the long briefing table.

Chief Engineer Kowalski drops down heavily into a chair and starts to flip though the thick clipboard he was holding, apparently content with ignoring the pilots around him. Within short order, various other personnel begin filtering into the room; five more of Kowalski’s orange clad gear-heads, several NERV personnel who’s uniforms give them away as science and bridge staff, and a small group of smartly dressed airmen, all gravely serious looking with their garrison caps tucked neatly under their passants and their uniforms creased razor sharp.

A dull murmur of idle chitchat and minor operations planning settled over the room as people prepared for the Operations Director himself to show up.

Jack Lewitz

Jack is sort of offended at being called a brat, but he appreciates the awkwardness of the situation, chuckling and looking around to see if anyone else thought it was funny. He then resigns himself to yo-yo tricks, trying with limited success not to hit any of the personnel flooding into the room with his around-the-world trick.

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

Amanda watches Kowalski for a moment, then wheels her way over to where she can keep an eye on Unit 08 on the other side of the Cage - and to distance herself from Jack's yo-yo. She was not looking forward to having to sync with that monster again, she never was - but this was what she had been trained for for the last few years, and she would do her job. After all, she seemed to be the only competent one among the pilots. Chloe and Jack were obviously civilians... and she still couldn't make heads or tails out of the freaky twins, or how they were able to sync to the same Eva.

Johann takes what papers he deems necessary from his station and what he cant take he makes note of before standing. As acting commander he passes on command to the next ranking officer below him as he leaves as none of his superiors are there as of yet. After taking the elevator Johann begins the short walk to the ready room.

He enters and dismisses the attention of any military personnel with an 'at ease' if necessary. "Everyone please be seated," he says with a casual but authoritative tone before he begins. (If there is no way to pull up a map digitally, Johann takes out a copy of the map and unfurls it on the table)

"Now, if there are no immediate concerns I will begin." Johann adds with a long enough pause in case any of the technicians, engineers or others had something important they needed last minute approval or advice on.

(if no one interrupts (apologies, but I was working without elevation or distance references so if my measurements are way off, correct me and i'll fix my post.))

"I intend to employ three Eva units in this operation, Unit Eight - will be assigned to mobile power port one here." He adds referencing the map and the island's overlook of the angel crash site. "From this location, Amanda aided by the pilots of Firefly one and two shall paint the enemy with Marker lights to enhance the UN fleets targeting for easier barrages. So long as you two and unit eight are not in danger and if fleet weapons are effective with Evangelion aid your primary objective will be to continue to target the angel with the marker-light arrays." He adds before moving to the next point on the map.

"As there is no word on the new unit or the pilot, they will remain behind with one other unit and pilot in case the angel simply escapes and comes straight for us, or the worse alternative." He adds as if it was not necessary to name the other possibility of their defeat and a possible inability to recover and repair the damaged units before the angel arrived at their location. "The other two Eva's, will be deployed either at ports two and three or three and four - regardless I have prepared two spare power stations in case of damage and left this central zone of the island abandoned due to it being in the path of the fleets projected line of fire. The other units will focus on weakening the enemies AT field, distracting it's attention from Unit Eight and doing as much damage to the enemy as possible in this time." He adds taking a breath.

"If one of you wishes to volunteer to stay behind to be part of the secondary defensive line, do so now and it will not be held against you and the two remaining eva's will be sent." He adds not expecting more then one and would be surprised if this were the case. "If there are no volunteer's I will make the decision myself."

The last personnel to be a part of the briefing, the admiral in charge of CVBG-Kirishima, as well as the Kirishima’s CAG and the captain of the Oklahoma, appear on one of the larger monitors in the room just as the Operations Director walks in. Right on cue, the lights dim and the room falls silent as a map of the AO is projected on one wall and Johann begins his briefing. Throughout his presentation, there is minimal chatter, only the scribbling of notes and shuffling of papers. Only once the Captain is finished and the lights have come back up, does anyone speak.

“I do not like how small the designated drop zones are. Dropping the Eva’s exactly where you want them will require a lower altitude approach than I would like; meaning possible exposure to my carriers by the target,” The Colonel in charge of the Eva Carrier plane wing says gruffly.

“Not to worry sir, me and my boys will be flying CAP over the area. We’ll engage the moment we see any activity from the target and do our best to keep the heat off you while you get into position to deploy the Evangelion’s,” Kirishima’s CAG pipes up.

“Not to mention the rest of the fleet will be in position and ready to open fire before you even enter the area. Don’t worry Colonel, we’ve got your back,” The admiral adds.

“If it’s not too much to ask though, do we have any information on what we may be up against?” The Oklahoma’s captain asks, “We got a nasty little surprise with the last one, something I’d very much like to avoid this time around.”

The members from Science Division in the room all fidget uncomfortably and whispers amongst themselves for a bit before one finally stands and speaks.

“At this time,” the scientist starts, adjusting her glasses, “Information on the target is limited. Satellite and lone range radar scans are still having difficulty picking up anything specific, but preliminary scans from the Arcturus Array show that the target appears to be in some form of…cocoon,” She glances back at one of her colleges who taps out a quick command on his tablet, and several hazy computer generated images appear on some of the wall monitors. Not much can be made out, as the picture is little more than a dark gray blob on a lighter gray background, “There has been no activity from the Angle since it landed; we believe the stress of reentry has caused it to slip into a sort of hibernation while it regenerates. At this time, we really have no idea of its offensive or defensive capabilities besides the fact that it does have an active AT Field.”

"Unfortunately, the green zones are the only places capable of establishing the forward power stations according to Magi Projections." Johann adds after the everyone has commented. "It's uncertain but we could possibly land the Eva's in a slightly larger zone and have the pilots walk to and plug themselves in instead, but the Eva's available battery life is limited so I'd prefer not to risk this valuable time - or does the time recharge if they're plugged in to these forward stations?" Johann inquires uncertain if the mobile units had the same juice as their city counterparts or how long it would take to recharge time in that situation.

"Other then that, our primary hope is to get in place while the enemy is still in hibernation since our overall offensive capability will be severely limited as long as that AT field is in place - So as long as the Angel isnt active before everything's in place, we will delay our initial salvo until the Eva's have started neutralizing the enemy AT field. If the angel Hatches or begins attacking from its stationary location before the Eva's are in place, I will give new orders... If for some reason we lose communication for an extended period," He adds not doubting it a possible ability or interference from an angel. "Follow the chain of command of your own vessel, or the admirals orders through alternate means of communications if you are within range." He adds picturing someone flashing flags in various formations or lights turning on and off repeatedly.

"As for the pilots, follow the strategy unless the enemy makes it difficult or fatal to do so, in which case i'll leave it up to each of you to decide on the best course of action." He adds assuming the same interference would block their own communications.

=Amanda Loup-Archambault=

"The closer you can drop us to the Angel, the better off we will all be because it will allow us to neutralize the Angel's AT Field, Colonel." Amanda chimed in from her seat near the windows to the Cage. "We will need to be within about 200 meters of the target before we can do anything about its AT Field... Given our area of operations... What exactly is the scale on this map?"