Part 94: Mission 53 - Soul's Refrain - Part 2
*BOOM!*
: Radar sites eight through seventeen have gone dark!: We’ve federal troops invading the Goura defensive perimeter!: Another two battalions advancing through Gotenba!
: Squadrons of Dragoons are inbound from Mishima! They’re attacking our weapon facilities!
: A surprisingly daring move, considering the growing battle against the MU happening everywhere else… : And, so, NERV’s final enemies will not be Dolems or Angels… but our fellow men, just as we expected.
: …All hands, battle stations.
: Battle…? But these aren’t Angels… they’re humans.
: I don’t think those guys care about that, though.*Beep!*
: We’ve an incoming transmission from the commander of the Federation Army’s First Division!
: Is he going to order our surrender?: Put it through.: R-Roger!*Beep!*
: People of NERV, this is Miwa Sakimori, commander of the Far East Forces. 
: H-Him…?!: Hmph… an unexpected actor has taken to the stage.: Miwa Sakimori…? Wasn’t one Keiichi Morito the new commander?!
: Not only that, this man was supposed to have been court-martialed during the Baam War…: My guess is that SEELE came to his rescue.: What, they figured he’d be the right man to command a war of extermination against their enemies…?!: I suppose so. Hrm, the old men’s direction is atrocious.: My troops already have you HQ completely surrounded. Lay down your weapons and surrender now.
: Excuse me…?! Isn’t the entire world under attack by the MU?! Do you have any idea what you’re doing right now?!: Of course I do. NERV is trying to take advantage of the global chaos to trigger the Third Impact and destroy the world. 
: Which makes you the enemies of mankind – no different from the Baamians or the MU! It is the federal army’s duty to eradicate you!: That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!: You’ll still play innocent?! Traitors! Rebels!: You’re being used by SEELE, you idiot! How can you not see that?!: “Used”? Heheheh… Maybe, maybe. But I’m also using them.: I’ve a chance to recover my old commission by slaughtering you traitors. And, then, the aliens will be next…! This time, I’ll drive those Baamians straight out of our Solar System!: You’re still hung up on that…?!: …I think it’s safe to say we’d be executed even if we surrendered. 
: Th-That’s…!: Cut the comm.: But!: We’re wasting our breath talking with that man. Do it.: Hmhm… I take it that’s your answer?: And, in that case… troops! Open fire!!*BOOM!*
: Invading forces that broken into the first level!: There’s fire at the fifth western freight entrance!
: Those western platoons are a decoy! If they want to capture the EVAs, they’ll prioritize the pilots…
: Have Shinji stand by at the #01! Hurry!: Yes, ma’am!: What’s Asuka’s status?!: Still in the infirmary – room 303!: Put her in the #02 anyway!: But her synchronization with the EVA hasn’t been restored…!: She’ll be killed if she stays where she is. Inside the EVA’ll be the safest place for her.: Roger that! Cancelling the pilot’s medication and having the #02 prepared for deployment!: Once Asuka’s inside, hide the #02 inside the underground lake. They’ll find it quickly but it’s better than leaving it at its cage.
: Roger!MXP Version only:
: And where's Suzuhara?
: He's in this layer since he was slated to run some sync tests!: Meaning we can't get him to his EVA right now...! Then have him stand by where he is and on alert!: Yes, ma'am! Common ground - PS2 version skips the Touji bits and goes straight to Rei. Guess they forgot about him!
: What about Rei?: Unknown! We can’t locate her!: Find her, quickly… they’ll kill her if we don’t.: The #02’s been launched via route 8! It’ll stop about seventy meters underwater.: Ready the #01 next! Deploy it inside the Geofront!: We can’t! The pilot hasn’t arrived at Block F!: What…?!*BOOM!*
: The third underground bulwark’s been destroyed! They’ve made it to the second level!: … They’ve sent an entire division after us. It’s only a matter of time before they capture HQ.
: … Professor, I leave the rest in your hands.
: Understood. Give my regards to Yui.*Gendou leaves.*
: The fifty second linear rail has been destroyed!: This is terrible…! I’d take any Angel or Dolem over this.: (We all would. None of us are used to killing our fellow men.): Invaders inside the third level, B-Block! We can’t hold them back!: Same with F-Block! Main bypass under crossfire!: Abandon levels one through three! All troops, pull back! Pour bakelite into all passages and pipes up to sector 803!: Yes, ma’am!: This should slow them down a bit…!: Maj. Katsuragi! Route forty seven has been cut off – group three is pinned down! Shinji’ll be helpless!: !!: The only way to safeguard him now would be…: Tell all our non-combatant personnel to avoid engaging the enemy; we’re up against professionals. If they can’t retreat into Dogma, then they’re better off surrendering.: That’s assuming Miwa would accept it…: Hm… The Magnate Ten are still on the far side of the moon, so we’re on our own for this.: Maj. Katsuragi…?: Sorry. Take care of things here for me.: …Yes, ma’am. Be careful.*Misato takes off.*
: We should probably grab our guns, too.: Still, things aren’t looking good. HQ was never well equipped with anti-personnel defense systems.: Yeah, just enough to stop terrorist attacks.: And we’re up against a full-on army offensive… This won’t last long.: Now that I think about it… the cuts in the counter-invasion budget was likely in preparation for this.: Guess so.*Craaaaash! Shots fired!*
: Urgh! They’ve made it here!: We need to fight back! Take your gun!
: I-I…!: Hurry – safety off!: B-But… I can’t shoot…!: Didn’t you run target practice a bunch of times?! : None of those were against real people!*Bang!*
: Don’t be stupid! Start shooting or you’ll die!
: …: Rei…: …: I figured you’d be here… It’s time. Let’s get going.
: I’ve located the Third. Moving to eliminate.
: … (His face is obscured here but screw it): Sorry, kid. No hard feelings.*Bang!*
: ?!*Machine gun fire!*
: Y-You!: No hard feelings, indeed.*Bang > dead!*
: …: Come on. Let’s get you to the #01.: …: Hurry up, Shinji.: …: Listen, are you going to run off or are you coming with me to the EVA? Pick one. : …: Because if we stay here, we’ll just die for nothing!: …: Are you fine with that?! Didn’t the Magnate Ten teach you not to give up until the last second?! Did you forget all that?!: …But… I was never taught to kill a friend.: !: …Help… Asuka, help me…: All hell is breaking loose and you’re hiding behind a little girl like her?! You’re going to turn the other cheek and lie to yourself…?! : Giving up halfway is worse than never trying at all!: …Enough… Just let me die… I don’t want to do anything…: Stop behaving like a spoiled brat! You’re still alive, aren’t you?! Then hold onto that life and leave dying for later!*Shootout!*
: Forget us! Give top priority to isolating Terminal Dogma!: They’ve blown up everything else but not here. Why are they pulling their punches now…?!: They’d probably love to bomb us sky high… but we’re sitting right on top of the original MAGI. : And they’d prefer to get it undamaged, huh?: Not that it’ll make any difference if TERRA’s operation fails.: I doubt that guy, Miwa, cares about that.: But we’re practically defenseless against biochemical weapons. If they bust one of those out, we’ll be in a lot of trouble…!
: What was that?!: Th-The city is gone!: They blew up the top of the Geofront!: A-Are they using nukes against us?!: Hmph… There is another actor, it seems.: Why do they want the EVAs so badly?!
: SEELE’s plan is to trigger the Third Impact… Not with Angels but with the EVA Series.: …: The Second Impact, fifteen years ago, wasn’t caused by accident. It was planned by people. : Their intent was to minimize potential damage by reverting Adam to an embryonic state before the other Angels awakened. : Originally, Adam’s salvage operation was supposed to have been done by having the Zeorymer’s Dimensional Coupling System open the Doors of Guf. If anything went wrong, the System would shut the Doors completely.: But then the Zeorymer was stolen by Masaki Kihara… which is what made things in Antarctica end the way they did.: …: I was there when the Second Impact happened, Shinji. I was accompanying my father’s research group… and I was the only survivor. : Thinking back on it, it’s possible even that event was part of SEELE and Bähbem’s script… the script for the “Pluridimensional Instrumentality Project”, meant to bring destruction and, then, rebirth to our world.: …: Shinji, we, humans, were born of Lilith, a source of life just like Adam… We are the Eighteenth Angel. We were one of the forms ancient humans found when seeking to escape the destruction of their world. : So it’s possible ours wasn’t even the first time the Angels were fought. : …: It's all to maintain the worlds that became pluralized, each developing along various different possibilities, due to the loss of the Observer; to defend against another universal collapse triggered by their colossal masses.: And, above all, to make sure that the human being… or, rather, a life form that used to be human would continue to exist even should the collapse hit.: All the events leading up to this point have been trials, set up in order to awaken the being that’d conduct that process. : It was all a rite of passage… to create what could be called a Deus Ex Machina. A mechanical god with full control over both death and rebirth. : …: But only one life form can be chosen throughout that process… The other Angels and the Mulians are all other possibilities of what we could have become. And although we are fundamentally the same, we unfortunately couldn't coexist.: …: Listen, Shinji. You need to destroy every single one of the EVA Series. That’s the only way to survive.Rest of this mission should be up tomorrow - Tuesday, at most.