Chapter 1
Memories of the Watermelon Field/The Raid of NERV

December 31st, 2015

...From that junction point.

As a result of the final actions of Kaji Ryoji of the NERV Special Inspection Section attaché, SEELE's intended scenario for the invasion of NERV Japan was sabotaged. SEELE's true colors were brought to light, and the truth behind the Human Instrumentality Project was unveiled to the United Nations and the Japanese government, leading them to call off the JSSDF invasion of NERV. Despite this, the disease known as SEELE had spread far in the world's anatomy, and a number of spies had infiltrated both the UN and Japan. Bringing about chaos within each of these organizations, concrete support measures had been indefinitely postponed for NERV.
NERV HQ had been left alone to combat SEELE's assault.
At the forefront of their planned attack lay the culmination of Project E, the Mass Production Evangelions. Out of a planned twelve, more five of these were completed at NERV's various branches, beginning China, after which they had disappeared. Faced with the alarming possibility that the MP Series were armed with anti-Evangelion equipment SEELE had kept secret from the world, the odds had clearly been drawn in SEELE's favor.
The gap in power was clear; Evangelion Unit-00 was considered lost after its fateful suicide and in the process of being rebuilt, and Evangelion Unit-02 was considered unoperational due to the poor state of its primary pilot. Unit-03 and 04 had been destroyed months ago, leaving NERV with no choice but to sortie a single Evangelion against the MP Series.
Preparations for live combat readiness of the Experimental AT Field Deflection and Control Unit, nicknamed Evangelion F, a project once frozen under SEELE's intervention, were hastened. Unit-01 is deployed. In these extreme circumstances, Ikari Shinji and his friends had no recourse than to give their best to save those in the Geofront.



Battle Contaminated Ward
Summer Begins

Asuka Langeley Sohryu frowned as the wind tugged at her scarlet hair from atop her beautiful city bicycle. Running with the wind behind her back until the twinkling sun would have been refreshing, if not for the painful contrast of the battled-scarred wasteland that stretched on for miles around her. Once upon a time, this had been a forest that would have been noisy with all the implicating chirping and buzzing of life.
The azure pools of her eyes scanned the waste, and in the corner of her eye she caught sight of an optical sensor's flash. A hard working, twenty-four hour AI-san; the laser that had briefly darted into her eye had just confirmed her as the Second Children.
Asuka smiled in silent scoffing at the JSSDF's security policies and returned to the day's task, the all-important top-secret mission of “Patrol the watermelon field”.
The frown returned as she caught sight of a certain boy and his thin ponytail. Every time she thought of him, a babel of difficult questions and memories floated to the surface of her mind.
Why's he imitating Kaji? Ah, I'll forgive him— but why should I forgive him?
Ikari Shinji had been watering Kaji's watermelons for the past year.
He needn't worry about others ruining his work; here in the theater bloodied by Evangelion and the JSSDF, normal people were kept out by the hushed rumors of “contamination” by the Eva's blood.
Shinji stayed his hand, the flow of water ceasing as he looked out at the mountains. The violence of man and Angel had many times remapped these stone ridges. From here he could glimpse the silhouette of the Sarcophagus' canopy, the place that was once called the Geofront.
Inside a light dome built from high-density heavy insulators, the Sarcophagus held a low-energy environment in a state of almost complete vacuum, mankind's attempt at keeping the 'Something' inside from going berserk.
That day, three years ago.
Once more it crept back through his mind, he was compelled to run the event over again.
Tracing this memory over...surely I...have been reset.



Condition Ultimo
+ Fourteen minutes

“Shinji-kun! Calm down! You're exceeding the control margin for the deflector AT Field!” He could hear Misato cry out, the interface glaring a warning into his eyes. Evangelion Unit-01 was sprinting fast enough to present the human eye with rufous afterimages, the S2 Engine producing more energy than the combined sum of four nuclear submarines.
The S2 Engine's output had begun to glaze the very air, the heat sink array layered in the rear armor glistening in the heat haze like an open wound. Piling up device after device in order to control Eva was wrong. The F-Type Equipment, built by the hands of men to arm the god Evangelion, was lacking in efficiency; 20% of all energy produced by the S2 engine was lost as a blistering heat in the transfer, the equivalent to a single nuclear submarine.
Yet in refute of this, the Evangelion itself showed no loss of energy during the transfer. So much for the conservation of energy.
Before the Eva's feet could stride upon the ground at 0.2 seconds per step, the trees and earth below were compressed by the ruddy angles of an AT Field. The F-Type equipment was a trial unit for AT Field control— to deflect, control, and concentrate the AT Field into a single, controlled space, like the hands or feet. Working through the F-Type equipment, Shinji deployed the AT Field below Unit-01's feet as a foothold, avoiding destroying the ground below with the Eva's strides.
It was a necessary precaution; Eva-01's feet could easily crush any of the miniscule structures below, or abruptly sink into a mass of weak soil. The widely spread Field prevented the ground from collapsing altogether under the impact of Eva's strides, striking the earth with the weight of 14,000 main battle tanks.
Entering the battlefield 93 meters per second, Shinji's line of sight jumped to Evangelion Unit-02, swarmed by the Mass-Production Evangelions on the forest line. It was like a macabre work of oil pastels, Unit-02's head skewered by the pallid replicas of the Lance of Longinus.
Impaled as it was, Unit-02 could not respond. Shinji Ikari's lips did not have time to remember that as they screamed.
“Asuka!”


STAFF
Direction - Main Design - Illustration: Ikuto Yamashita
Character Design: Hiroyuki Utatane
Novelization: Takuma Kageyama
Prop model production: GAS, Masanari Kakuta
Planning assistance/writing:
Chief Editors:
Collaboration: Bandai - Boy's Toy Division

Scans: TMBounty_Hunter
Translation: 04choiy, Crinn Cashim, Hoshikawa-kun
Localization: Hoshikawa-kun
Special Thanks to: 04choiy, TMBounty_Hunter

Battle Contaminated Ward
Summer Begins

Shinji was brought back from the world of memory by the prompt screech of an electric 4WD's treads chewing through the sand, soon followed by a feminine cry for his attentions.
“Yoohoo!” Turning, he saw Katsuragi Misato stepping out of an unsightly military vehicle, crossing her arms over her voluptuous chest as she studied the boy.
“What, you've grown taller again, Shinji-kun? Man, you're really not a child anymore.” These days Misato was busting about helping the integrated JSSDF headquarters and NERV collaborate smoothly. Officially, she was a Major General attached to the staff HQ, but the truth was that she was fighting hard to help NERV get through an impossible route, “I wonder what kind of man you'll grow into...Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.”
“I get tired of hearing 'Yeah, I'm looking forward to it,' you know.”
“Oh, isn't that a fast answer. You're all grown up!”
There was no reply. Misato moved to Shinji's side and followed his gaze.
“...Thinking about that day again?”


Condition Ultimo
– 50 seconds

“Lieutenant Colonel Katsuragi. The results of the briefings?” Ikari Gendo inquired.
“The Eva pilots and the top brass have been informed. The simulation of the Human Instrumentality Project has everyone quite devastated.” Misato reported.
“Including the Japanese government.” Gendo grunted, then let out a hoarse little laugh, perhaps the first time Misato had ever heard him so jubilant, “I'll have to thank Kaji. The Administration didn't want to lose the “individual” either. If SEELE had scared them off, they would have pretended to postpone action in fear of SEELE's retribution...”
“All that awaits us is the loss of physical individuality, then?” Katsuragi interjected.
“Yes. Have the Mobile Support Units been readied?”
“We've finished transferring Evangelion Series' combat data and repair data to the MAGI's memory banks, as well as material and equipment information. We secured the survival of the computers themselves by deploying them in a decentralized arrangement in 82 armored vehicles, so their survival is guaranteed. The loading of service parts and restraining equipment will be completed in another nine hours.”
Commander Ikari nodded and turned to the official recorder.
“It is currently 02:35. I grant you full authority for the duration of SEELE's attack.”


“Contacts, impact! A partial trajectory, low level ballistic bombardment, estimated number of impacts is 2,024, 12 seconds to wave 4...links to HQ are down, but the simulation model predicts no damage inside the Geofront!”
“Just 26 hours since the transfer of power, but damn they showed up fast!” Misato cursed from inside the rattling vehicle.
The heavy armored car in which Misato was riding was already 40 kilometers from the Geofront, but SEELE's raid had arrived in force, far beyond their estimated capacity.
“The sensor array is destroyed. Even though we had armored them so much!”
“The sensor's position must have been leaked. In a modern war, if you don't move, you don't survive.” Misato concluded grimly, “What happened to the Mobile Support Units?”
“In operable condition. 35 seconds until inter-vehicle communication restores.”
The Geofront was safe; no matter how great the attack, it was still human. Geofront's walls couldn't be penetrated by anything but an Eva or an Angel.
“Well then...” Misato straightened herself, before announcing in a level voice:
“By order of the Commander, I declare this Condition Ultimo. All strategic decisions and right to command Eva support systems are hereby delegated to me. Transmit this to the Mobile Support group as soon as the information link is reestablished.”
Ultimo was the official code granted to Misato. After the declaration, the combined information network from the mobile groups, scattered amongst several hundred square kilometers, would begin supporting the Evangelions. Of course, no one could tell whether this or the decentralized movement of the Geofront would be safer.
“Large flying machines spotted, bearing 2400, estimated to be Eva carriers!”
“And the F-Type equipment of Units-00 and -01?”
“The information link is down, so their status is unknown. Unit-01 is estimated to launch in 470 seconds, Unit 00 in 620. According to the simulation model, at least another 116 seconds each. Unit-02 is the only Eva with a working link— Oh!”
Ibuki Maya had been in charge of monitoring the Evas, a startled gasp exhaling form her mouth.
“The synchronization rate of Asuka in Unit-02, currently within the underground lake, is rising! Harmonics are stable, no spikes exceeding regular deviations. Given the estimated levels, this...right now, she's at 29%...38%...53%...!”
Maya's trembling voice was abruptly cut off.
“Misato, I can do it!” Asuka exclaimed, “Are the enemy the MP Series?”
Even without looking at the mental analysis, you could tell from her voice. That arrogant little girl that had dove into magma and danced an Angel to death was back.
And yet—
Misato hesitated, but the judgment of the field commander took precedence over the guardian's misgivings.
“Unit-02 is to sortie and engage. Transmit the status of Units-00 and -01!”
“Easy, I'll just go out and welcome them. Just watch!”
“New contacts, flying nap-of-the-earth and closing! Wait, IFF signal confirmed. They are the JSSDF's unmanned combat aerial vehicles, ten of them or so...link established.”
What the automated UCAVs transmitted was sensor airdrop warnings. They were like smart, mobile, armored new style sensors.
“Well then, standing here staring at the sensors won't be enough. By direction, I'd say they want to take over HQ with Evas...” Misato considered, a threatening smile manifesting on her lips. A change cut across the central display screen.
“Enemy Evas, descending!”

Battle Contaminated Ward
Summer Begins

Asuka took the cooling pack from beloved cycle's side bag and made her grand entrance into the watermelon field. She signaled to Shinji “where are you looking?”, knowing full-well he was staring at her one-piece dress, before quickly turning to Misato and saluting.
“Major General, with regards to the enhancement equipment I reported about before, I would like to ask your permission to—“
“All right, that's enough! And what's with you calling me 'Major General', anyway?”
“Itchy, aren't we? We kids are mean, you know. Here, have a snack.”
“I don't like kids growing taller than me...” Misato sighed, unable to shake the feeling that these seventeen-year-olds were a little bit too big, “Hey, well done, mutt! Your boobs grew while I was gone...”
“I told you, I'm tired of hearing you talk about my boobs!”
A lot of people were getting tired of things Misato said.

Condition Ultimo
+15 Minutes

“Transmission from the JSSDF! The airdropped AI sensor group has finished setting up the battlefield information network. The data link is— now! JSSDF is heading...”
“Unit-01 has entered the battlefield! We are receiving video feed from his LOS— enemy are Mass-Production Evas, being deployed!”
Misato gripped the edge of the console as though to rip her own nails, and stared at the screen, seeing through Unit-01's eyes.
“Why couldn't I tell? How could I forget that SEELE are the masters of the S2 Engine?! Their regeneration should have been obvious as well, and we already knew they were trying to create prototypes of the Lance of Longinus. This is the definitive battle for them. So, prototype or not, it's not in the playbook to bet everything in one move!” Maya noted Misato's tortured rage with apprehension, awaiting an order.
Misato finally noticed Maya's gaze. Her inner commanding officer drove a wedge of sarcasm right into her human heart, ravaged by irritation and self-condemnation.
“Without strategy, there can be no orders, and shouldn't you be acting like a commander anyway? Yeah.” Misato gritted her teeth, “It's not over yet! With Ayanami's Unit-00 ordered into hiding, we still have a chance. I can't fail to spot it!”
“...It's good!” Makoto Hyuga's voice broke in suddenly through the headset, the simulation model sending to Misato's console as he yelled, “Commander, the report!”
Misato looked to the model and gasped.
“JSSDF's AI sensors scanned the Mass Production Evas in detail from all points in the battlefield. The Lances of Longinus are invincible, but if they hadn't thrown them...the model fits Ayanami's throwing pattern! The one used against the Fifteenth!”
“All right! Hyuga, I'll get you a beer later! Aoba, the link to Unit-01 must stay live. That's an order!”
“I'm not dropping it! Leave it to me!”
Misato watched as the staff broke into simultaneous movement.
“What drive to run models that predict the future. Sensor information links, system configuration...not bad at all. The JSSDF and SEELE may have their electric warriors, but they're nowhere has fast.” Misato noted with a laugh, “I'm not letting this chance get away.”
The biologically refined MP Series numbered nine in all. The Eva's support network displayed ever changing enemy positions, but could hardly predict their intentions. It wasn't like Shinji had time to ask for that anyway.
All that was in his mind now was the bloodied Unit-02. He could think of nothing else but to break through the enemy line and save Asuka, even at Unit-01's expense.
A warning siren swam through the LCL to box at Shinji's ears, a display opening up to obstruct his advance.
JSSDF/Link23/CAI.Net/ Attention! High Command has agreed to link to your machine. Compulsory link disconnection will be automatically deactivated.
“Shinji, we're getting data support from the JSSDF! We'll get some high power electrical and optical jamming with it. That's all the presents we'll be getting, though. We're going to send you the enemy attack prediction model in a flash message. Don't miss it; if you don't take care of yourself, you're gone!”
Shinji could hear the parallel computers in Eva's support network grinding as they analyzed the JSSDF AI's information and increased the precision of the prediction model with each cycle. In a moment they noted the MP Series were taking a throwing stance, a warning flashing in Shinji's cockpit, but with so many enemies and only a margin of milliseconds to react...
The MP Evas had him cornered, moving in perfect concert with the fearsome power of their psychic links. And yet, the JSSDF's electro-optical jamming had the sensor units used to communicate with them down, preventing the MP Series from displaying its true speed.
Shinji threw the Eva about in dodging maneuvers, the movement in the LCL magnified by his Eva's size. Unit-01 stepped to the side, waves of air and plumes of white singularity brushing harshly against its armored cheek as the lances hurtled by. Twice he felt a fearsome shockwave in his Eva's shared skin.
A warning klaxon and the battlefield map reported that Shinji had penetrated the MP Series lines. In front of him he could see the crimson tomato of Unit-02.
“Asuka! Are you alright? Your status—“
Shinji opened a short-range laser line and called to her. What answered him was a scream and a shout of Asuka's familiar rage.
Asuka was using up all of her willpower trying to get the badly damaged Unit-02 and her own broken self back onto their feet.
Again the warning signal blared and the battlefield map took over his vision. The nine MP Evas had surrounded them in an instant. Five of them still had their lances, and the remaining four flexing their stringy white fingers in anticipation of tearing the two Evangelions apart.
“I need more time, even one more millisecond!” Shinji prayed that Ayanami was safe. “It's not the time to defend, it's the time to strike!”
Faster than the words, the primeval limbic system of the mind devoted to the base act of murder took a combat stance. Shinji opened a menu and selected the option with his eyes, a command bellowing from his young lips— but the input of the elctromyographs in the LCL was much faster than speaking.
“S2, unlocking all bolt limits! PURGE!”
The armored pylons of the F-Type Equipment burst, twin launchers peeking from the shoulder canals. The AT Field squeezed down to fold over space, creating a reverse-phase space in which packets of electrons were trapped at sub-light speed and compressed into a density comparable to iron. Like the S2 Engine and so many other things related to the Eva, the input and amplification principles were not fully understood, but understanding wasn't necessary when it would work regardless.
The ebon impact bolts thundered out, the MP Series quickly raising their AT Fields. History's strongest capacitors, surrounded by the same Field, pierced the shimmering crimson of their AT Fields and broke out into a brilliant explosion, a fierce light dying the battlefield violet: 40% of the JSSDF's AI sensors were burned out in the next moment, the MP Eva's optical sensors erupting into smoking, crippled circuits.
The released high energy electron packets attacked the enemy machines without relent. First, the sound of the explosion vanished; then a thick luminous cloud cloyed at their frames. The atmosphere between the site of the explosion and the MP Series became ionized and heavily charged, arcs of lightning rising from the ground toward the heavens following the course traced by the electron packets.
The MP Evas, their sensors and antenna clusters burnt out, could not relay data to their masters, and with only the dictations of their Dummy Plugs, the frames were effectively restrained. The old men of SEELE were only men; they lacked the courage to set any Evas completely free of their control.
But that wouldn't last long. The S2 Engine's marvelous regenerative abilities extended to the equipment man had infused upon the Eva. If data transmission were to be restored, the now free MP Evas would slaughter Shinji and Asuka both.
Shinji hadn't noticed this himself, and moved to a location from where he could protect Unit-02 from the five Evas that still held their lances. All he had at hand was the Magorox, the Magaroku-Exterminate sword built of flexible materials and easily able to cleave an enemy in twain, with its accompanying countersword. Shinji stared down at the MP Evas, rapidly regenerating their outer layers and repairing themselves, and clutched at the Magorok's grip to steel himself for battle.
And then, Unit-01's vigilant sensors picked up a strange flash from the base of a distant mountain. Seven flashes sparked in fractions of a second, seven of the MP Evas stopping as if frozen. Shinji did not have time to stop and think of what happened, for the remaining enemies that had already restored their psychic links ascertained the situation even faster than him and moved to attack. One of them closed in trying to pry its Lance of Longinus from Unit-02's head, while the other took evasive maneuvers and raced toward the Geofront.
The enemy assaulting Unit-02 gripped the Lance, driven deep in the Eva's blood, in one handed and pointed the other toward Shinji, casting a strong AT Field from its palm. Shinji in turn concentrated a deflector AT Field Unit-01's left shoulder and crashed into the MP Eva's AT Field. The conflicting patterns blazed crimson as the light of their souls intermingled, Shinji stepping forward on his right foot, spinning on it to slide on the enemy's chest and bring his Magorox to bear.
In that unstoppable moment Shinji felt the weight of the sword cleave reinforced polymer and the light marrow of the MP Eva's skeletal frame, the Eva's whale-like head sliding off with a ruptured breath, crashing into the forest below in a bloody mass.
Shinji gasped, his chest still swollen with the excitement of killing, Unit-01 sending him the analysis of the frozen MP Evas. By the time their 'real-time' systems had noticed the distant flashes, their Dummy Plugs had been destroyed by piercing fire, hapless without Kaworu's personality data to manipulate them.
“Thank you, Ayanami.” Shinji spoke his apology softly to the girl, who had to be outside the battlefield. Her F-Type Unit-00 received detailed information on enemy locations future predicting models from the Eva support network, and with her AT Field Cannon Angel's Spine she had pierced through the ground, the mountains, and the sky from beyond the horizon line to shoot out the MP Eva's plugs.
Shinji did not wait long to drop the close combat fever; Unit-01's sensor array starteed searching for the enemy heading for the Geofront by themselves. However, there were no signs of battle in the Geofront, visible through the mountain line. The sensors tried to catch any abnormality in temperature or radiation, even the smallest disturbance, but there was no time. Rescuing Asuka from her damaged Unit-02 took priority.
He activated Unit-02's ejection remotely, half the entry plug protruding from the neck. No matter how much advice or relief he sought from the support network, there was no answer. While trying to avoid the leaking LCL, Shinji punched on the authentication panel on the plug's side, the system quickly analyzing his DNA and opening the armored hatch.

Battle Contaminated Ward
Summer Begins.

“That day.” Asuak thought on that again while looking at the Sarcophagus. “I didn't quite understand it myself, but Shinji saved me...I think I was crying. After the medical check, three days passed before I saw him again.”
I think I sat, raised my index finger, said something like “Now listen up!” and started lecturing him.
“First of all, I'm the ace that dealt with nine MP Evas. Second, even despite that, if I were to die all alone and helpless people would say “it's a catastrophe!” Got it?”
When Asuka remembered how she had acted back then, she laughed inside.
“I was the perfect child. Not good. Thank goodness Shinji didn't try to be a partner or something from that day...but it's like he's been doing nothing but prancing around these last three years. Is that alright, Shinji?”
Asuka peeked at Shinji discreetly, who was standing next to her, and found herself shocked. For a brief moment, she'd thought him Kaji— the man who had stood here, just like this, looking like this, three years ago.
What the hell, Shinji? You're still a kid. Not like my Kaji. Being a critic was the only way she could still her heart.

The reason why no information support was there for Asuka's rescue was not because the links were down. Due to fears of Third Impact, or rather the Human Instrumentality Project being put into action, both NERV and the JSSDF dedicated all sensors and simulation models to examining the Geofront.
The last MP Eva that had run away from the battlefield managed to penetrate the Geofront. SEELE's hopes were in vain; the Geofront that had 'swallowed' the MP Eva was silent. By orbital imaging analysis, it was found out that the place was surrounded by a jet black “egg-shaped boundary”, and “frozen”.
The fact that SEELE's directors either fled or committed suicide may help to understand the nature of this phenomenon. NERV personnel under Commander Ikari, that had been leading similar research, are inside the sphere, and their personnel logs are already registered as KIA.
Three years later, Shinji and the others advance into an unknown tomorrow.

It was a nightmare brought about the fall of battle...or by Rei?! Neon Genesis Evangelion ANIMA three years into the future, main story, start!

Seventeen years worth of snow has fallen the last three years in Tokyo-3...

THE STORY
Tokyo-3

SEELE had been rejected by the world.
The political situation for NERV HQ, Japan had become quite delicate in light of this rejection; NERV had suffered severe injuries, losing most of its staff and facilities in the final battle with SEELE. Under these circumstances, independence was a luxury not easily maintained.
In fact, the branches of NERV worldwide had detailed information on the Eva series, and NERV's outside contacts had been seized by the Japanese government. Deep in Central Dogma lay frozen a relic of humanity, an incomplete plan not meant for any organization or branch.
Evangelions were powerful machines, so powerful only three were permitted in any regional force, and it had been questioned just how such a force as NERV Japan would handle itself when subjected to continuous attack.
There was an urgent need for a strengthening of arms and money to rebuild NERV. Amidst the wreckage of the captured aircraft produced in the defense of NERV-01 was a Mass Production Eva. The aircraft in question had its control system go out of control, and the dummy plug maintained that it had been lost, and despite the bodies within showing signs of biological death they were fully restored by the time of the aircraft's recovery.
A new weapon is to be assembled based on the data recorded when the craft was destroyed. This was designed as an answer to any enemy force invading from land, sea, or air, the proverbial Sword of Damocles.
This sword was created as part of a decision that fortifying Tokyo-3 took precedence over all else. Established as a sniper in third orbit, Rei was assisted by a newly constructed, invincible AT Field weapon and S2 engine, harvested from the Mass Production series and implanted in the reconstructed body of Eva-00. Originally active as a long-range sniper weapon made in defense of NERV Japan, the original intent was to use the Angel's Spine as an AT Field weapon. This was made impossible by the enormous mental contamination that transpired during the production of the Unit-01 type Spine.
The construction was difficult, and the Angel's Spine was ultimately converted to a laser. Yet despite this weakening, so terrible was the Spine, that its output— empowered by an S2 Engine— would unfailingly penetrate any AT Field.
The Angel's Spine was plagued with difficulties. After almost a year of combat as the Sword of Damocles, strange things began to occur. Finding a pilot that could handle the weapon was a problem; Toji Suzuhara refused to pilot, and so the First Children Rei Ayanami played the role of test pilot. This was followed by Second Children Asuka Langley Soryu, and Shinji, the Third— all of which returned with the same result. The only one capable of starting the Angel's Spine was the First Children, Rei. What caused the dummy-plugged MP Eva to be thrown off course, and the diversions that prevent all but Rei from operating the Spine?
There is no time to pursue the cause, even if the Angel Spine plan were to fail completely.
The Sword of Damocles had been planned to operate at medium and high orbit as multiple machines. A defense force for the city of Tokyo-3, two new pilots remain in the orbit above Tokyo-3, while one remains in the airspace of the city. Moreover, the dummy plug system was considered too dangerous for these purposes, as it was ever fraught with the danger of going rogue.
The idea began with Rei. She had three bodies remaining: an accident had transpired with Ayanami's tank adjustments, the results of which were only three remaining clones— a “paradox of twins” where these three clone bodies were already active, but incapable of life without Rei's personality to sustain them. Despite this, activity was possible using the three bodies— Rei could utilize remote sensing to project herself, remotely operating the Rei clones without any lag in action. Thus, three new Evas, piloted by Rei Cinq, Rei Quattre, and Rei Six, are utilized in the two year interim to protect Tokyo-3.

In the course of this story, the Instrumentality of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is not triggered, and instead the world of the Shinji Ikari who reached a different future is depicted.
Illustration: color Hiroyuki
© GAINAX
· cool orchid house color


Expression Control Region
Test Model: The Machine Breaks its Scripts
O.O Eva
The prototype parts had been transplanted to Rei's Eva, stored in Central Dogma. Based on the Mass Production Eva wreckage captured by the Japanese defense service NERV, three orbital Evas were stationed in the sector. Their possible attack range at any given time was within the limits of Tokyo-3, with at least one Eva ready to defend it at all times.
To prevent enemies from entering the headquarters of NERV Japan, the S2-enabled Evas were armed with a long distance laser affixed to a high-output engine, and had stood in wait for two years. Piloted by two Reis specialized for long-duration space missions, each Rei— Rei Quattre, Rei Six— each is operated by the third Rei's system.
Ayanami's clone bodies are adjusted to low activities in the entry plugs, and are usually only activated in a state of emergency or to secure the airspace of Tokyo-3. This is because it takes a great effort to synchronize the operation of the earthbound Rei Ayanami with the Rei clones in space. The simultaneous launch of multiple Rei clones would be an incredible burden on the original Rei, enough to strip her of her self entirely.
Installing the S2 engine from the Mass Production wreckage was a difficult operation in and of itself, involving the restoration of the self-destructed Unit-00 and the integration of parts from a full production-model.
Not all of Unit-00 could be restored. Cybernetic limbs and compressed sensory organs had to be installed in the place of genuine articles. Eventually the Eva's tuning to the S2 engine was complete, though steep power fluctuations would still occur. The danger of the S2 engine causing an excess power charge put the Eva at constant risk, as vast excess power is exerted momentarily at start-up. Fraught with the danger of runaway energy bursts from the S2 engine's continuous output, the damage the engine could exert is limited in space operations and as a result such operations become quite attractive to NERV.

Last Plot
Japanese Raid on NERV Headquarters/Memories Of the Watermelon Field
The activities of Ryoji Kaji, the Japanese headquarters of NERV, SEELE's foreseen invasion with the Mass Production equipment, and Rei's promoted regeneration and strengthening of the first unit came to a crossroads. The most apparent risk at the time was the initial combat of F-Type Unit-01 and its pilot Shinji Ikari. Rei in the F-Type Unit-00 brought down the Mass Production series and completed the rejection of SEELE. It was through these children that NERV survived SEELE's incursion.