The Descent

"Rei, what do you think is happening out there...?"

In the EVA hangar, Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami had already changed into their plugsuits. They sat on the floor with their knees drawn up.

They had no idea what was going on. Misato had suddenly hurried them over here.

"I don't know."

Rei looked a little dazed. She was always like that, but it seemed to have become even more noticeable over the past few days.

Just then, Misato, who had told them to stay put, hurried back inside. Her face was tense and worried.

"We're in trouble. A special forces team has broken into the underground sector. We don't have any effective way to deal with them, so I'm afraid we'll need you to step in..."

NERV's underground sector was enormous, six times larger than the city above. It had sprawling forests and artificial lakes.

NERV lacked a professional special operations team.

At a time like this, all they could do was deploy the EVAs...

Although the EVAs were designed to fight Angels, their convenient neural connections also gave them an overwhelming advantage against ground troops.

That was especially true in the open spaces of the underground world.

The trees weren't exactly cover against an EVA...

"W-what do you want us to do?"

Shinji looked confused. Did she expect them to pilot the EVAs and kill people?

Given his personality, it would be hard for him to make up his mind to do that, especially at a time like this.

"Namikaze Minato isn't here, so we have no choice. And you don't actually have to fight them. Just scare them off."

Misato looked at Shinji and couldn't help sighing.

Rei might be able to fight without feeling much pressure, but as for Shinji, it would be enough if he