Heh. I'd wondered if anyone would catch the QL/S blending. Now, anybody figure out the Tunguska event? ![[Image: smile.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/smile.gif)
I really didn't think there was any more story here, at least not for this Insertion. But I guess my muse likes positive feedback, b/c it looks like I'm going to do at least the First Angel battle, now.
Here's the next installment:
------------------------------------------------------------------
It was your classic good-news, bad-news situation.
The good news was, I had managed to bust loose and save Shinji and Rei from that ceiling cave-in. The bad news was, I hadnt figured out how- Id done it, or how to do it again.
The worse news was, I hadnt been able to wipe that smug smirk off Gendos face as he watched the three of us.
But theyd bunged Shinji into an entry plug and jackscrewed it into my spinal column, and as he synced up I could feel- the difference suddenly all my parts were there again. I wriggled my toes
Okay. Tech note: EVA units do not, apparently, -have- toes. Important to keep in mind. Not sure what that would do to my balance, but Yui had managed, so I could too.
I just hoped Id be able to figure it out in time.
Things still werent quite right I felt like I had two of each limb, not-quite-perfectly overlaying each other, as if there was some sort of weird echo in my nervous system. But Ive fought under bigger handicaps.
That EVA catapult is one heck of a ride a lot like the I-forget-how-many times Ive ridden an ejection seat out of a doomed airframe, albeit not quite- as spine-crushing. We slammed to a stop, the building unfolded around us, and there was the 1st Angel, big as life and twice as fugly. I stepped towards it as the clamps opened, and ate pavement.
If Id had time to be embarrassed, I wouldve been I can honestly claim skill levels ranging from basic competency to grand mastery of variable fighters, hardsuits, K-suits, Megadei, a dozen different varieties of Gundam, BattleMechs of all weight classes, Buster and Getter machines, and the first time I am- the giant robot, I cant even keep my balance. Idve begged someone to just shoot me, but the ground vibrations told me that Angel-boy was already on his way to do the deed.
All I could do was lie there and thrash like a fish out of water. Nothing worked, and the harder I tried, the worse it got. It was as if my body was fighting me, as if it had a mind of its own, every limb trying to follow two conflicting commands at once
A steel clamp close around my head and hauled me upright, twitching like an electroshock patient. Oh, great, I knew- what was coming next.
SNAP. Right on schedule. EVAs apparently do- have human-style forearms, with two bones I distinctly felt both of them give way. It didnt hurt all that much, which actually made it worse Id never realized before how beneficial a nice haze of excruciating pain could be, blocking out the sensations of each and every little bone splinter grinding and slicing and well, you get the picture.
The worst part was Shinji. Poor kid was getting the full pain treatment, even if it was mostly psychosomatic, and while I couldnt hear him screaming in the plug, the jangling of his nervous system was reverberating through my own like fingernails on a chalkboard
Reverberating. Echoing.- Oh, spam, I knew what was happening: Shinji and I were both trying to drive, and we werent even close to being in sync with each other, even if our nervous systems were synched up.
But with Shinji halfway to passing out from the pain, maybe I could get control. I mentally grit my teeth and concentrated on my good arm, trying to get it to do something, anything. It worked I felt myself make a fist. Now to do something with it.
WHAM!
Oh no. The piledrivers, how could I have forgotten? If I didnt do something now,- I was going to get to experience a spike through the brain firsthand. And there was no guarantee Id survive that the Insertion process isnt entirely consistent, ranging from mere possession to QL-style full replacement with an overlay aura. I didnt know where I fell on that scale, and I really didnt want to test it the hard way.
WHAM! The second hit made Shinjis heart flutter, which pissed me off but I wasnt going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I swung my good arm up, got a grip on the angels wrist, dropped the arm and put everything I had into my fingers. I felt my thumb dig in to a soft spot and clamped down
WHAM! The third hit smashed through my cranial armor, dug into my skull, but failed to penetrate. It pulled back and jammed. Id guessed right: I could crush the channel through its forearm, not enough to stop the forward stroke, but (like so many similar systems) the return stroke was weaker.
Of course, he still had me by the head, with two good arms to my one. There was no time to sigh with relief. I shifted some concentration to my legs, gambling that I wouldnt lose hand control, and kicked blind for the first potential vulnerable spot I could think of.
Spend any time fighting mecha, and you learn that joints are always- vulnerable, at least in context. I didnt feel anything in the angels knee give way, but it did stagger a bit. I rechambered and kicked again as fast as I could, trying to drive my heel into its patella equivalent. This time it staggered heavily, and between its fingers I caught a flash of motion that had to be its free arm coming to bear.
There was no time to think I swung both legs up and planted one foot square in the angels face, the other against his far shoulder, and pushed-. It was enough to keep him from jamming his free hand against my ribcage, but there was nothing to stop him from using the other piledriver. I twisted as I felt the impact, and the glowing spike dug a long gouge through my torso armor before glancing off.
This was going nowhere fast. If I didnt break loose soon, I might die, but Shinji almost certainly would die. Gendo would throw Rei into Unit-00 as a desperation mesure, and shed die. Then everyone would die, including that SOB Gendo, but without even the few redeeming qualities of Annos original ending.
I set my jaw and put my back into it. One of the reasons I have the rep I do is my Good Samaritan complex. The company shrinks know all about it, and bank on it even when Im in way over my head, I just cant resist the reflex to do something stupid and heroic. Or maybe Im just too much of a stupid, stubborn Scot to quit. Either way, Id displaced the person who would- have saved them in canon, and be damned if I was going to let my presence here get a lot of innocent people killed without a fight. Yui had dismembered this thing with a straight arm pull with my whole body behind it, I ought to at least be able to pull off a dislocation.
The next piledriver shot speared through my lower ribcage at an angle and lodged in my back armor for a moment, passing maybe a meter under the entry plug. I bent at the waist without thinking, and caught a break the spike jammed in the overlapping plates of my torso armor. Darned if the thing didnt somehow give the impression of blinking- in surprise.
I kicked it in the facemask, planted both feet in its armpit, and heaved-. There was an gristly stretching sensation, followed by a pop. I ripped my head free of the suddenly looser grip and felt the other piledriver pull loose from my ribs. My feet hit the concrete and I twisted the arm I still held with a vague notion of going for some kind of joint lock, but the angel twisted double-jointedly and took a shot with its remaining piledriver that barely missed my eye and skidded off the sloping armor over my cheekbone. I ducked, and for a moment it had me at twice arms length, still crushing its wrist in my one good hand.
Then I saw its eyes light up.
I ducked the shot somehow -maybe flinging its own arm into its face blocked part of the blast-- but as I sailed over a block of structures, I felt a sudden twitch through my whole body. I landed and ran like heck, stealing a glance behind me. Yep my power cable was flapping in the breeze.
This had- to be a Monday.
I really didn't think there was any more story here, at least not for this Insertion. But I guess my muse likes positive feedback, b/c it looks like I'm going to do at least the First Angel battle, now.
Here's the next installment:
------------------------------------------------------------------
It was your classic good-news, bad-news situation.
The good news was, I had managed to bust loose and save Shinji and Rei from that ceiling cave-in. The bad news was, I hadnt figured out how- Id done it, or how to do it again.
The worse news was, I hadnt been able to wipe that smug smirk off Gendos face as he watched the three of us.
But theyd bunged Shinji into an entry plug and jackscrewed it into my spinal column, and as he synced up I could feel- the difference suddenly all my parts were there again. I wriggled my toes
Okay. Tech note: EVA units do not, apparently, -have- toes. Important to keep in mind. Not sure what that would do to my balance, but Yui had managed, so I could too.
I just hoped Id be able to figure it out in time.
Things still werent quite right I felt like I had two of each limb, not-quite-perfectly overlaying each other, as if there was some sort of weird echo in my nervous system. But Ive fought under bigger handicaps.
That EVA catapult is one heck of a ride a lot like the I-forget-how-many times Ive ridden an ejection seat out of a doomed airframe, albeit not quite- as spine-crushing. We slammed to a stop, the building unfolded around us, and there was the 1st Angel, big as life and twice as fugly. I stepped towards it as the clamps opened, and ate pavement.
If Id had time to be embarrassed, I wouldve been I can honestly claim skill levels ranging from basic competency to grand mastery of variable fighters, hardsuits, K-suits, Megadei, a dozen different varieties of Gundam, BattleMechs of all weight classes, Buster and Getter machines, and the first time I am- the giant robot, I cant even keep my balance. Idve begged someone to just shoot me, but the ground vibrations told me that Angel-boy was already on his way to do the deed.
All I could do was lie there and thrash like a fish out of water. Nothing worked, and the harder I tried, the worse it got. It was as if my body was fighting me, as if it had a mind of its own, every limb trying to follow two conflicting commands at once
A steel clamp close around my head and hauled me upright, twitching like an electroshock patient. Oh, great, I knew- what was coming next.
SNAP. Right on schedule. EVAs apparently do- have human-style forearms, with two bones I distinctly felt both of them give way. It didnt hurt all that much, which actually made it worse Id never realized before how beneficial a nice haze of excruciating pain could be, blocking out the sensations of each and every little bone splinter grinding and slicing and well, you get the picture.
The worst part was Shinji. Poor kid was getting the full pain treatment, even if it was mostly psychosomatic, and while I couldnt hear him screaming in the plug, the jangling of his nervous system was reverberating through my own like fingernails on a chalkboard
Reverberating. Echoing.- Oh, spam, I knew what was happening: Shinji and I were both trying to drive, and we werent even close to being in sync with each other, even if our nervous systems were synched up.
But with Shinji halfway to passing out from the pain, maybe I could get control. I mentally grit my teeth and concentrated on my good arm, trying to get it to do something, anything. It worked I felt myself make a fist. Now to do something with it.
WHAM!
Oh no. The piledrivers, how could I have forgotten? If I didnt do something now,- I was going to get to experience a spike through the brain firsthand. And there was no guarantee Id survive that the Insertion process isnt entirely consistent, ranging from mere possession to QL-style full replacement with an overlay aura. I didnt know where I fell on that scale, and I really didnt want to test it the hard way.
WHAM! The second hit made Shinjis heart flutter, which pissed me off but I wasnt going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I swung my good arm up, got a grip on the angels wrist, dropped the arm and put everything I had into my fingers. I felt my thumb dig in to a soft spot and clamped down
WHAM! The third hit smashed through my cranial armor, dug into my skull, but failed to penetrate. It pulled back and jammed. Id guessed right: I could crush the channel through its forearm, not enough to stop the forward stroke, but (like so many similar systems) the return stroke was weaker.
Of course, he still had me by the head, with two good arms to my one. There was no time to sigh with relief. I shifted some concentration to my legs, gambling that I wouldnt lose hand control, and kicked blind for the first potential vulnerable spot I could think of.
Spend any time fighting mecha, and you learn that joints are always- vulnerable, at least in context. I didnt feel anything in the angels knee give way, but it did stagger a bit. I rechambered and kicked again as fast as I could, trying to drive my heel into its patella equivalent. This time it staggered heavily, and between its fingers I caught a flash of motion that had to be its free arm coming to bear.
There was no time to think I swung both legs up and planted one foot square in the angels face, the other against his far shoulder, and pushed-. It was enough to keep him from jamming his free hand against my ribcage, but there was nothing to stop him from using the other piledriver. I twisted as I felt the impact, and the glowing spike dug a long gouge through my torso armor before glancing off.
This was going nowhere fast. If I didnt break loose soon, I might die, but Shinji almost certainly would die. Gendo would throw Rei into Unit-00 as a desperation mesure, and shed die. Then everyone would die, including that SOB Gendo, but without even the few redeeming qualities of Annos original ending.
I set my jaw and put my back into it. One of the reasons I have the rep I do is my Good Samaritan complex. The company shrinks know all about it, and bank on it even when Im in way over my head, I just cant resist the reflex to do something stupid and heroic. Or maybe Im just too much of a stupid, stubborn Scot to quit. Either way, Id displaced the person who would- have saved them in canon, and be damned if I was going to let my presence here get a lot of innocent people killed without a fight. Yui had dismembered this thing with a straight arm pull with my whole body behind it, I ought to at least be able to pull off a dislocation.
The next piledriver shot speared through my lower ribcage at an angle and lodged in my back armor for a moment, passing maybe a meter under the entry plug. I bent at the waist without thinking, and caught a break the spike jammed in the overlapping plates of my torso armor. Darned if the thing didnt somehow give the impression of blinking- in surprise.
I kicked it in the facemask, planted both feet in its armpit, and heaved-. There was an gristly stretching sensation, followed by a pop. I ripped my head free of the suddenly looser grip and felt the other piledriver pull loose from my ribs. My feet hit the concrete and I twisted the arm I still held with a vague notion of going for some kind of joint lock, but the angel twisted double-jointedly and took a shot with its remaining piledriver that barely missed my eye and skidded off the sloping armor over my cheekbone. I ducked, and for a moment it had me at twice arms length, still crushing its wrist in my one good hand.
Then I saw its eyes light up.
I ducked the shot somehow -maybe flinging its own arm into its face blocked part of the blast-- but as I sailed over a block of structures, I felt a sudden twitch through my whole body. I landed and ran like heck, stealing a glance behind me. Yep my power cable was flapping in the breeze.
This had- to be a Monday.