Nevada, NERV's United States branch.
At midnight in the Grand Canyon, wind drove grit against EVA Unit-04's armor, producing a faint patter.
The silver-white machine stood motionless in the center of the launch shaft, its streamlined shoulder armor gleaming coldly, starkly out of place among the rust-stained metal supports.
EVA Unit-04
It was the "touchstone" of the Human Instrumentality Project, equipped with a brand-new infinite-energy device, an artificial S2 Engine. It was undergoing its final startup checks.
Green lights lit up one after another on the console, and a shrill buzzer pierced the desert's deathly silence.
"Synchronization rate at thirty percent... core reactor pressure stable..." The operator's voice came through the communicator with a barely perceptible tremor.
Pale blue light shone in EVA Unit-04's eyes. The core reactor in its chest gave a low hum, like a sleeping behemoth slowly waking.
Heat radiating from the machine swept up the grit, forming a swirling ring of air around it.
Suddenly, the buzzer became a piercing alarm.
"Warning! Abnormal core reactor synchronization! Pressure has exceeded the critical threshold-"
Before the operator could finish, a blinding burst of red light erupted from EVA Unit-04's chest.
The red light was like an inferno breaking free from the depths of hell, ripping through the silver-white armor in an instant.
Amid the crackle of electrical currents, the armor plates fractured inch by inch, exposing the tangled conduits within.
The conduits burst immediately afterward. Scalding liquid metal splashed onto the launch shaft's walls, eating into them with a sizzling hiss.
"Hurry! Cut the power-"
The order was never finished.
A deafening roar swallowed everything.
A crimson shock wave exploded outward in a ring centered on EVA Unit-04.
The launch shaft's reinforced concrete walls were torn apart like paper. Fragments hurtled into the night sky on superheated currents,