Unlike Tokyo-3, which seemed to have fallen into deathly silence in an instant, Fuchu City, roughly seventy kilometers to its northeast, still had ample power.
But the generals at Fuchu General Headquarters had already assembled.
"Surveillance radar has detected an object of unknown shape. Its projected landfall is in the Old Atami area."
Before the generals, a huge screen displayed a terrain map drawn in green lines. As the reports came in, the red overlay predicting the unknown creature's route shifted.
"Probably the ninth one," a somewhat younger, middle-aged major general guessed.
All three generals at the base served under the United Nations and had participated in the attempt to intercept Shamshel.
They knew what they were protecting, but they did not know that an Angel had fallen at the Old North Pole. To them, this was merely "the ninth one."
"Yes, it looks like an Angel." The youngest of the three generals sat on the left. "What do we do?"
The elderly lieutenant general occupied the center seat, mimicking Gendo Ikari's seating arrangement. "Go on alert first," he said gravely. "That's protocol."
"That thing's target is Tokyo-3 anyway." The young general gave a slight nod.
The elderly lieutenant general nodded. "Yes, just as well. There's nothing for us to do anyway."
It was not that the three generals simply washed their hands of anything that did not concern them. With an undefeated pilot and Unit-01 at Headquarters, they genuinely saw no reason to worry.
Unlike the navy that had come from Europe, they were stationed here and got to witness the Third Child's heroic slaughter of Angels every few days.
But after a considerable wait, they still received no response from Tokyo-3. Instead, an urgent report arrived from their subordinates.
"The Angel has made landfall!"
"It's still advancing!"
One