Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Who Said They're Right ❯ Why Me? ( Chapter 1 )

"Why me"? Whined a young man from behind the wheel. The day had started full of promise. ATBASH sent him to his physiotherapy session, and he had the rest of the day off in the Galilee Hotel for serviceman. But then they called him just ten minutes after the session that he had to retrieve the leading pilot and be ready to move her or for further instructions. Despite being Lieutenant-Major (S.R.B, Seren Bachir) by appointment, his actual rank was only Captain (Seren), and his advancement seemed as far form him as his return to his home unit.

 

Captain Jacob Saar was by any point of view not a happy camper, ever since two years ago, while peacekeeping in Egypt, his patrol APC took a direct RPG shot. The ricochet from the impact hit his right leg, tearing muscle, blood vassals and nerves, rendering his leg almost useless. He was about to leave to the Academy and the Company Commander Course, but the wound and the hospitalization brought his military career to a grinding halt. Jacob had at least some hope that he will get an appointment inside the Nakhal Division, but the Staff Branch decided to send him to ATBASH.

 

Now, despite the rumored subversion of ATBASH to NERV, which gained it the nickname "NERV Israel", the organization was only loosely cooperative with NERV and loyal to the government of Israel only. Though ATBASH could provide more time for the physiotherapy which he needed very much, one can't forget old allegiance, so he still wore the bright luminescent green beret of the Nakhal, and not the bluish beret of the combined peace command to which ATBASH belonged.

 

Speeding his car on the serpentine road up the Golan Heights he cursed his fait again, for having to serve as a driver for the Lead Pilot. Couldn't the command give them bikes, if they want them mobile at all times, why do they bother me? Wasn't I supposed to be the Operations Coordinator or something?

 

In a direct line the distance between him and the person who on his opinion ruined his day was only ten miles, the drive would take at least twenty minutes due to the condition of the road. That fact was still unknown to him as they simply said "Drive to the HaMapalim junction and wait for a call form her".

 

"Her" referred to the strange looking girl who walked down the road form Camp Hushniyah to the "main" road which ran towards checkpoint Fares. She righted the guitar case across her back and pulled out the emergency protocol card out of one of the many pockets in her leather vest. Debra Bar-Raban also cursed her fait, but to a much lesser extent than Jacob, partially due to the fact that she was waiting for this moment ever since her "main father" read the Dead Sea Scrolls to her. Even the long black skirt and very tight vest couldn't hide her rounded buxom body; the strands of purple hair sticking from under her bandana completed the lethal looks of the said lady.

 

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number form the card.

 

"Allo, is this Captain Jacob?" she asked with an annoyed voice.

 

"Yes"? A voice if possibly even more annoyed then hers answered with a question.

 

"Where are you"?

 

"Just past 7th Brigade junction on my way to Ha…" he didn't even get the chance to finish.

 

"Drive to Hushniyah, I'm there waiting for you. There might be a hovercraft waiting for us in Tzemach"? By now the reader should be informed that Israeli people always speak in questions over the cell phone, this is some kind of a national curiosity.

 

"How do you know?" he asked with disgust, as he was beyond annoyance at the fact that the Lead Pilot knew more than him.

 

"I have a hunch. How long will it take you"? The content of the card was marked top-secret personally.

 

"Five Minutes and I'm there, Lehit?"

 

"Lehit!"

(Lehit is an abbreviated version of Lehitraot, which is good bye in Hebrew, though Bye is also used, this is a bit more formal).

 

Debra pulled a much wrinkled map out of her seemingly endless pockets, and traced the path which Jacob will have to take. To hell with the young leadership forum, this might be even more interesting. Despite serving in the same unit, Debra couldn't recall the way Jacob look, as she was in Wing, and he was in the ground crew. Such separation was due to the unique nature of ATBASH equipment which demanded two different sets of skills.

 

Altogether the other young leadership scholars where nice, the choice of Keshet pre-army training school was for her opinion wrong. Despite the face all of her organization was founded on religious material, she herself where an atheist or rather a moralist with her own set of morals. Being told what to wear to the forum… sigh, those religious boys are so shy she pitied them, everyone without exception.

 

Less than four minutes later a civilian looking pick-up came to a screeching halt in front of her. Its color, red, and its brand, a Toyota, stood for an ATBASH issue vehicle. Debra skidded over towards it, and jumped in the passenger seat next to the driver.

 

"You are Jacob?"

 

"Yes, you little freak, move your guitar form my leg!" he yelled in a mix of anger and pain. Why was everything coming down on him today?

 

"Sorry, but it's no reason to yell"!

 

"Sigh, it doesn't matter" he said, pulling the manual throttle and speeding the car towards the town where there should be a boat waiting to take them to Sodom Institute for Biomechanics (MASBIM). Boat is due to the fact that the map of the middle east had changed drastically whilst I2.

 

First, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE the lower areas of Iraq, up to Baghdad where totally flooded when the sea rose 150 meters with the south pole ice melting due to the impact. The coasts of Egypt, Libya, Sudan and the North African nations underwent major changes, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Turkey to a lesser degree. Because of the tsunami-like flood 75% of the Arabs, residing in the coastal areas and the lowlands perished instantly, forcing the most decadent group of regimes to rethink or go extinct. Egypt, the country having lost 80% of its population and most of its fertile land tried in a last desperate attempt to keep the old ways forged a coalition of the surviving Arabs and attacked Israel one last time.

 

I2 was the strangest affair in Israel's history, as for half an hour (the time it took the flood to hit) an earthquake 5.6 Richter rumbled, and all of Israel's populated areas where lifted 150 meters up. The Grate Syria-African rift had now a head-plume under mound Hermon. Only 1% of Israel's population perished in the earthquake, but almost half of the population became homeless, as old buildings (built before 1980) crumbled. The state's emergency services acted marvelously and up to the war of 2004 the infrastructure had actually improved to that which was before I2, and residential solutions where found, mostly. Israel's experience with disasters also carried it through the Final War. The main geographic change was the fact that the Jordan valley 7 kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee became a Fjord.

 

The main stage of the conflict lasted only 9 day in which the IDF became effectively the only fighting force in the Middle East, causing an additional 20% losses on then remaining number of Arabs. By the time the UN intervened, only 45 million Arabs remained alive, making them the ethnicity hardest hit by I2.

 

To allow them to survive and find a place in the world, in the Naquada accord (UN Proposal 6593) the Arabs where placed under mandate of those country nearest to them who could at least lend them a hand. Morocco went to the Spanish Coalition, Alger to France, Tunis to Sicily and the Neapolitan People's Republic, Libya to the states of Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan to Israel, all the Arabian Peninsula was united under Saudi Arabia, Iraq went to Turkey and Iran to Pakistan.

 

That's why Israel's Peace Keepers where in Cairo2 and why you could sail form Tzemach to Sodom…

 

On board the hovercraft, Debra re-read the instructions on the card. It stated clearly that the Ops Officer will have a file for her to read. They where on their way for 10 minutes and he still didn't produce it, maybe he should be gently shaken out of his

Shock and do his work.

 

"Jacob, where is the papers you should give me".

 

"Oh, I forgot about them, the Rabbi told me to give you these" and he pulled out a paper folder form his bag, and gave it to the girl. While now he wasn't angry at all, he still distrusted the purple haired freak child.

 

She opened the file, also labeled top secret and started reading the instructions, cursing out loud as she went. It was disturbing to think that the Rabbi's information service was this good and that section 3 of NERV where this sloppy. In her hands was a translated (though without need, as she knew Japanese) copy of an internal NERV memo stating the date they expect something called "M3". Then followed the orders form the C&C of the IDF to activate "The Camp" program and arm unit A for any possibility.

 

The hovercraft landed just seconds after Debra finished reading the instructions. A monorail led form the Salt-stone mines to the flourishing industrial city of Mitzpe-Ramon. On this last means of transportation she took her time to change form the casual clothes to the pale green military work uniform. The train stopped a mile before town and the two, Officer and pilot ran to a tunnel, leading into Camp Mercy, the headquarters of ATBASH.

 

In the headquarters the control room as already fully staffed and the teams in the "cooler pond 3" where working the final steps of preparation on a gigantic bio-robot, Unit A. The purple and white machine had two six tube heavy short range missile launchers, two AA missile tubes and a folding "pine tree" radar which when unfolded looked like a pair of wings, black wings. This entire ensemble, one of the crown jewels of the IDF was nicknamed Orev, Raven.

 

In pond 1 another machine was being prepared, even more frantically as its pilot was sitting in the control capsule on hold as a support fighter. His machine was yellow and red, with a set of energy sensors on its head, giving it a resemblance to a desert fox, and armed with a long range 125mm ETC cannon (HVAP DPU shells). It was code name "Unit b" and named by its loving technical crew, fox.

 

The pilot was not in the best condition as two days ago a malfunctioning life support circuit gave him burns on his back. He lamented the fact that he won't be the one leading today, as he considered himself the best pilot. 21 year old Gabriel Shapira was proud of himself, and for all the good reasons. At his age to be a university graduate, Israeli Olympic and Practical shooting champion AND a pilot was much further than anyone had went.

 

The clear LPC bubbled behind him, being oxygen enriched form a set of tanks at the back of his multi-seat capsule. He could not speak out, as the liquid in his breathing system prevented his vocal cords form being of any use, but the decent I/O running to and from his brain via the two optic fibers allowed him to communicate.

 

"Where's the freak"? He thought and the question sounded out loud, as he meant it to, to the controller room.

 

"She's inside, on her way to the plug".

 

"Good, because you…"

 

Debra was being briefed on the walk by the Rabbi's deputy, Dr. Lt. Col. Michael Shaldag. The thirty and something year old chubby and livid man was talking fast.

 

"Gendo had opened the gates of Lower worlds in his attempt to provoke the emptying of the room of Gauf. We expect a Nephil to attack us in twenty minutes. As the power level needed by the monster to go over to our world is very large, and we have a sound and working theory, you'll ride your Hava and destroy it, thus granting us a window of about 165 hours until the next attempt. That's the theory."

 

"Why me"?

 

"Because Gabriel is in no condition to ride leader and Fox will berserk with Chuck at the helms. Unit C isn't ready yet. You get my point"?

 

"Yes".

 

"Good, a carrying VLTA will carry you and Gabriel out as soon as you ready".

 

The horns inside the base roared and all lights went yellow.

 

"Five minutes till contact, begin preparations to launch".

 

"Run you freak" yelled Jacob, grabbing Debra by her hand and pulling her to pond 3 where her entry plug was half loaded into the unit. In 30 seconds she was jammed in and the launch sequence begun.

 

"Entry plug in, begin synchronization" Jacob commanded.

 

"Plugs in, Synch begun".

 

"Release secondary supports" Jacob continued with the procedure.

 

"Done" Came form the mechanical post

 

"Synch level minimal achieved in both units" came form Life Support.

 

"Test systems, lock loading rams".

 

"Communication"

 

"Kiss my @$$!"- Debra "yelled"

 

"Finally some action"- came form Gabriel.

 

"Life support, check, synch at 30% and rising"-came form life support.

 

"Tactical implements, check"

 

"Power form carriers, batteries for 10 Minutes charged".

 

"Bio machine life support, check and the ram locked"

 

"Release main supports"

 

The two bio-robots slumped slightly as they now stood momentarily by their own strength only. Then their shoulders where grasped by a harness and they where ready to go.

 

"All ready to lunch, rabbi" Jacob spoke into the intercom, waiting the go form the commander, as it is custom.

 

"Hava A and B are cleared for first operative use, good luck you two. GO!" the two robots where hoisted form the bunker-hangar by the harnesses to two armored VLTA and locked into place, with the vector-thrust machines flying up in a wide circle, waiting for the designation, underneath them two robots dangled.

 

"Egypt Cairo west station has visual, go" and the vector-thrust aircraft broke formation due west-south-west.

 

End Entry.

 

A/N:

Whew! I can't believe that I'm actually writing this, even Less that it's coming out. If only I had time like this more… Four more moths to Demobilization and I'm still un-living!

 

I followed on the NGE example and gave the acting figures the names or family names related to the Israeli navy.

 

Debra Bar-Raban - Dvora/ Super Dvora- Medium patrol boat with some naval combat abilities.

 

Jacob Saar- Saar Class corvettes are the main naval platforms of the IDN.

 

Gabriel Shapira- Gabriel is the Local Sea-Sea rocket, superior to the Harpoon.

 

Michael Shaldag- Shaldag boat is a very quick patroller-chaser built for CT action, light a very maneuverable, yet still packing a serious punch.

 

Comments, reviews and any kind of feedback would be much appreciated.

 

1/11/2004 17/2/5765, Karmiel