Chapter Four: Visiting Hours

"Line is secure," the electronic voice anounced, followed by two beeps. And Major Won Jing-Kai was awake and at attention, sitting upright on his bed, rubbing his eyes with a moderate degree of ferocity.
   What the damned time is it? Jing-Kai wondered, realizing that despite all his attempts at awakening completely, sleep kept tugging for his attention. It was barely past one o' clock, and Jing-Kai found that his sentiment towards this interruption in his slumber after a tough day of extra training was shared by the rest of the men on the phone.
   "Team One, rise and get ready to shine," Eddie's stern voice commanded over the encrypted phone line. "NERV's intel boys from the second division spotted a bird coming your way."
   "What is the story on this bird?" asked Sergeant Lukas Metzger, clearly alert in his room a floor above. A graduate from Germany's renowned mountain school, Lukas was most likely the physically toughest of the group, and he showed it.
   A new voice -- the tactical guy from the bridge, Hyuuga. "We believe that it's a Russian model, a personel carrier -- Probably a Ka-60. We're already trying to figure out what it's doing here." In the background, the sounds of machinery and people served to support the point.
   "Heavy stuff," noted Joseph in a low tone. "So are we on standby or what?"
   "That's affirmative," Colonel Price confirmed. "You boys stay up and frost up. I'm going to head down to the bridge, and contact you boys."
   Jing-Kai had stretched a bit by now and was jumping into awareness. "Wait, what happens if they start some action right here instead of the base? It wouldn't be to hard to guess what objectives they have, would it?" By now, the sound of the helicopter was reaching the apartment complex, emphasizing the point. Jing-Kai went towards his curtain windows, but dared not look out, lest he be spotted by the potential enemy. Then he realized something -- there was fear within him. It was not much, but it just went to show what too many years of non-action could do to a warrior's self-confidence. And as the sound of the helicopters rotor blades became louder and clearer, the leader of the world's foremost group in the field of armed combat found his stomach becoming heavier and heavier. A light -- the chopper's nightlights -- scanned over his curtains, and Kai nearly took a step back from the corner where he crouched observing.
   "The guys from NERV will be the primary recon and defense assets for this one," the boss assured him. "Those guys know how to do their jobs, and they're better equipped for things like this. I'm going down, and I'll have you on the line in a few minutes. Standby." The phone clicked off, and the men were left to discuss among themselves the nature of the situation.
   "Thoughts, boys and girls?" Jing-Kai asked. Scott Covington decided to get things rolling a bit.
   "It's raining pretty hard, man. Bitchy vision and sound. If this is going to be a shoot-out, it was a pretty well-planned one." The young man cleared his throat, yet another sign of pre-battle tension. Jing-Kai assumed the worst.
   "How many of those guys doing the shadowing gig are there out there protecting the kid's ass?" Joseph wondered aloud.
   This one the major had the answer to. "Major Katsuragi told me that they had a team of four per Child. The German counts, so I'm guessing eight out there. Eight against one helicopter."
   Lukas spoke up again. "Ka-60 Kasatka's are pretty popular models; they've been around for some time. There are better versions, though."
   Makoto Hyuuga carried on the topic. "Yes, they're some twenty years old by now. Pretty tough, still -- nothing you guys are armed with would be able to put a dink in it. They carry nine passengers, typically-" Suddenly the captain broke off midspeech. There were commands and other noises in the background, louder now, but still barely clear through the pouring rain outside. He took a breath, and then anounced as calmly as he could: "It's slowing down." Jing-Kai stood some twenty feet from the doors out to the balcony. Lights flashed over the curtains again, and for some reason, the soldier felt himself get a little angry. But at least that was slightly better than being afraid. "Seeing as how you guys are stationed with nothing around you in a few kilometers' radius, I think they're going to make a drop within the minute."
   Well that's just dandy, Jing-Kai thought as the helicopter's noise level began to steady out. "Hey, man, shouldn't you be working with your own boys right about now?"
   "I am going to now, in fact. The colonel's coming in soon. See you all." And with that, the man clicked out.
   Good luck, the men didn't get to say.
   "So," Jing-Kai said somewhat loudly. "Do I have to ask if anyone's got their guns ready yet?" He got some chuckles in reply. At least the mood was a bit lightened now, the calm before the storm was settling in. "Maybe Santa decided to say hello. I'm going to take a leak." Before Jing-Kai put his phone down on the nightdesk, he heard some others do the same. Hopefully, it would all be resolved soon, and maybe there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why a Russian chopper would be out flying during the middle of the night towards the most desolate part of New Tokyo-3, which just happened to be where Shinji lived.

Hyuuga watched over the display fed in from the city cameras what was happening. Luckily, the old Katsuragi residence stood far from the heart of Tokyo-3, and so had avoided the impact of the non-nuclear bomb that had dug the crater five years ago. That also meant that, with just a few jobs here and there around the Katsuragi household, the surveillance over the area was top-notch. Strategically, Makoto was in a cautious mood. The weather was not something the intelligence teams outside would be ready for. They had on slickers to cover them from the rain, but wore business suits under them. The rain would make the logistics side of this confrontation a mess, as dress shoes faired poorly against the mud and moist asphalt that stood between the men in black and the apartment complex. Hyuuga could only hope that the men's expertise would save them in that regard. The next problem was that his boys were armed with little more than 9mm handguns. If whatever cargo inside the helicopter was as military as the chopper itself, then, again, only the men's expertise could save them. That is, until the calvary -- being the JSSDF -- arrived. "Better equipped?" Hyuuga wondered. Actually, not really.
   "What's the ETA of our support?" Hyuuga shouted.
   "The JSSDF official I'm speaking to is hoping it'll be within ten minutes, sir," was the reply.
   The tactical captain took a deep breath. Ten minutes. All he had to do objectively was get Shinji, who was probably still asleep, to somewhere safe until the city's military forces made it. In other words, he had to run. And then, he focused on the display with as much concentration as he could muster. The helicopter doors opened on both sides, and within were the silhouettes of many men, ready to drop down. The doors had not been open for a second before lines were thrown over the Ka-60's sides and the enemy inside, who had their backs facing the rain, hopped off. Within seven seconds, the chopper was empty, and dipped down, presumably to land somewhere nearby, like the roof, a matter of meters away. By now, the three people within Major Katsuragi's apartment room were awake and wondering what that noise was.
   But wait...
   "Play that back on another window," the commander above articulated with an old man's calm. "Slowly, please."
   The display showed eight people ziplining down in a quiet fashion as the Kasatka was dipped low and then rose, so that any observer without the digital support the bridge was getting would barely have seen the helicopter empty its cargo in the darkness of night as it did. Again, the blasted rain was working against them.
   "Nicely done," Colonel Eddie Price murmured from the side. On the display, the seconds between the helicopter doors opening and its contents disappearing were played in slower motion. It quickly became confirmed that only eight figures jumped, whereas nearly everyone on the bridge was expecting nine, since it had become common knowledge a minute ago that the Ka-60 model carried that many as its quota. The ninth passenger was hanging on another's back, and they dropped together.
   What kind of stunt is that? Hyuuga wondered. It may have been a while since Hyuuga commanded any soldiers on the field rather than giant humanoid mechas, but he was quite sure there was no such procedure for such a maneuver in the book. Quickly, he began wondering what the little anomaly could hint at.
   Eddie Price was back on the phone again. "Team One, we've got nine subjects, they just made a drop and are coming down. Standby." With that, Price hung the phone on his shoulder and stood up from the consoles to watch as several men threw off their raincoats and sprinted towards the complex. They would be heading up, the enemy would be charging down -- this was bad. But at least the good guys knew the terrain, so called, and the enemy sure as hell did not. Watching the figures run down the outside stairways in order to avoid using the elevators, it was clear that the enemy had only a blueprint to work with, not actual experience within the complex. What was more was that they did not have the recon and constant surveillence NERV did. They moved quickly, but were cautious and constantly breaking around corners, expecting their adversary to be there waiting for them, when in fact the defenses they were watching for were barely in the building. Time was the golden ball in the sky for this one. Now it came down to using what each person had. The men from the Ka-60 had position and equipment in their favor (they clearly had sub-machine guns in their inventory). The dedicated souls with the pistols had knowledge of placements and paths working for them. Hopefully, knowledge would prove to be power.
   "Move!" Hyuuga nearly screamed in Central Dogma.
   NERV had eight agents in the area, and would most likely be the first and only line of defense. There were two flights of stairs on opposite sides of the building, four went up each. Colonel Eddie Price watched with little opinion towards what was happening. This type of warfare, commanding units from afar, the way a general did rather than a colonel, who made decisions on the field, was alien to him. It had always been looked down upon by infantry units, because it put whoever was in charge out of the danger, without the vicarious experience to make more fitting and accurate judgements for the men in the action. But as cowardly in that way it might have been, it was certainly effective. It was obvious from the camera angles that Captain Makoto planned to use the stairways to his advantage, as a choke point to hold off the enemy with four men while the other four got the pilot Shinji Ikari the hell out of the area. But with all the events happening in realtime on the screens and monitors in the command center, Makoto could adapt his plans with more greater effectiveness and efficiency than the enemy.
   Eddie Price held back a smile. Maybe things won't be too boring once I'm too old to shoot a gun with the big dogs.
   "We're not going to make it," Fuyutsuki observed. He was right, for at the rate the soaked agents were moving, they would not be able to intercept the intruders a floor above where the Katsuragi residence stood. That meant that the shooting would be happening right outside the apartment doors, and Ikari Shinji would best be evacuated some other way than the front door. "Team A," the commander spoke out, referring to the four men who would meet the enemy first. "Hold your position, use the enemy's lights to your advantage." Price was going to suggest that himself. The enemy had flashlights attached to the barrel of their sub-machine guns, but while that gave them good vision, it effectively made them easier to spot and anticipate. "Team B, send two to support A. The other two are to cross the complex from above and flank the enemy."
   Hyuuga added, "Good luck," and felt slightly better. Position was no longer to the enemy's advantage, they would be surrounded from the front, back, and the top.
   Team A quickly split themselves up as well. Two men quickly snuck towards the other side of the interior complex, hugging the walls and shadows as they went along. They were now directly under the enemy, who were pointing their lights down the middle opening in the interior of the complex, scanning the floor below for enemies. They would not see or hear with the rain the two men below them, or, once they reached the lower and target floor, the two men that would be behind them at the top of the flight of stairs that went a floor lower. Because the way the architecture of the building made it so that anyone at the bottom of one flight of stairs had to make a 180-degree turn to head towards the flight of stairs that would lead even lower, that would put the two remaining members of Team A directly behind the enemy as they landed on this level. There would be two more men on the other side of the level, across the gap in the apartment infrastructure, hiding behind the solid concrete railings, while the other pair the other from Team B would meet the confrontation from following the enemy on the stairs coming down. If things went well, the two men from Team B who were still stair-climbing would be able to sneak up and around the action, cutting off the enemy at the stairs from behind up above. Hopefully, this would end up with the unknown enemy toting sub-machine guns out in the open while the defenders would be hiding all around them behind concrete cover.
   Pretty tricky in actual effect, yet it looked so simple on the displays. But good flow of information definitely helped good commanders and good soldiers, Colonel Eddie Price saw.
   But, nearly everyone thought, after all this planning, why wasn't the enemy splitting up, covering one another's backs from multiple angles the way we are? If they had studied even mere blueprints, surely they knew of the poor position they were coming into. Even if they knew exactly how many agents to expect, how could they overlook the places where they could be potentially massacred?
   Eddie Price shifted his attention completely to the enemy's movements now. They were still all in one group. He lost track of which one had hitched a ride on the way down from the helicopter because the quality of the display did not allow for him to tell one shape in black fatigues and gear from another. They were approaching the critical flight of stairs now, and Eddie watched for them to suddenly break into groups, but they did not.
   What the hell is going on? he wondered.
   "Stay sharp, everyone," The commander cautioned from his seat above.

There was no doubt in Won Jing-Kai's mind that this was the closest he had come to being nervous in a very long time. From how it sounded coming from the boss, things would be weird, and they would be ugly. The major had his .45 Beretta in his hand, and found that his grip was beginning to grow warm. Since his days in 160th Nightstalkers, performing secretive operations to keep the world at relative peace with itself while the war with the beings called Angels went on, Won Jing-Kai's grip on his gun never sweated before, during, or after the shooting. But then, Jing-Kai had always been an excellent innovator, not a creator. He was the guy good at doing what he had done and then doing it better. First times were not when he was at his most confident.
   But hey, the soldier told himself. I've done well enough to make it this far, why should things change now?
   Then, from outside, the sound of gunfire signaled the beginning. It was from a pistol to be sure. That probably meant the good guys got in the first shots, and hopefully the kills along with it.
   This was all wrong. Rainbow should have moved out and supported the NERV boys a long time ago. The official word was that this was not Rainbow's business, at least not yet. How could it not be, though, Jing-Kai wondered. We're here to protect, aren't we? No, actually, they were not, according to the guidelines they had set out with NERV's military division. This is so damned stupid. If Shinji, Misato-san, or even Asuka were killed as a result of this, then why the hell had Team One even taken on this assignment, anyway?
   Strange. Not a minute ago, Jing-Kai had been a wreck, and now he was practically begging to get in on the action. Once a soldier, always a soldier, he supposed.
   Good luck, Jing-Kai thought again.

"I hope you are ready to play your role, little lady," said Captain Li, some impatience in his tone. He had just dropped unto the stairs in time to avoid being shot. He was lying on his side against the wall, his lieutenant captain was crouching low against the stairs' concrete railing. It was a good thing the railing was tall and thick enough to provide for cover. The rest of his team was still on the floor above them, gathered near the stairwell. "The turtle has come out of its shell."
   The girl behind him wore the same gear his men did, in order to hide her importance from the surveillance the Japanese surely had overlooking the area. However, at this proximity from one another, identifying which member of his team had red eyes was a simple matter. She carried a weapon, which was fine, since she would not be used as a fighter, anyway.
   "NERV Intelligence!" shouted one of the shooters from across the floor in Japanese. "Identify yourself!" Instead, Li held up a three fingers, to which the child nodded.
   Three, two, one.
   Suddenly, the railing Li was lying behind exploded outwards, revealing four bodyguards behind the opposite railing. Except now they were shaken, distracted at the sight of broken concrete flying towards them. One was covering his eyes with an arm, two of the others had ducked for cover. The other was dead, riddled with bullets from the lieutenant captain's firing. Didn't expect that, did you, you Japanese cowards.
   Captain Li stood up and snuck near the edge of the stairs which suddenly had no railing to keep him from falling off of. "Kuai Zhao! (Hurry!)" he hissed, waving. His men complied and charged down the stairs, systematically spreading out around the stairways. Li stayed halfway upon the stairs where he could watch everything.
   His men were out in the open, with absolutely no cover other than a layer of burning light. The source of that light skimmered down with the men, making sure she would be able to shield them from enemy retaliation. From below to the right, two more bodyguards had been waiting underneath the stairway, hoping to catch Li's men off their guard. They were only so fortunate for less than a second before they were spotted. One of Li's men pulled out a basic issue fragmentation grenade, and pulled the pin while bringing his arm back. He lobbed the frag underhanded just over to the stairs when it bounced off of the wall and unto the stairs below. In a brilliant puff of smoke, debris flew upwards. The Japanese agent who had been shooting promptly hit the wall and fell over. The soldier who had tossed the grenade was about to follow up and make sure the other bodyguard was dead, but Li waved him back. They had to remain together to ensure no casualties on this mission.

"Well," Eddie Price muttered in frustration. "Shit." He hoped that whatever Japanese babbling the bridge was pouring out at the moment had some reason to it, or this would be a very bad night, or morning, rather.
   "What do we do now, Commander?" came the static inquiry from the two surviving men at the door of the Katsuragi residence. Hyuuga felt a bit insulted that he, the direct higher link in the chain of command, was not asked to, but rather, the man on top. But then, Makoto also felt somewhat relieved, because he had no idea what to do, either. But, at least, to feel useful, he shouted out before the commander could reply, "Get an ID on which one of those is doing that!" He pointed at the group of enemies huddled together and sweeping the floor around the railing like a train quickly approaching its destination. He got a few hai's in reply.
   Fuyutsuki, for his part, remained silent in his seat above, grim.
   "Commander!" shouted the agent once again. His comrade had just been at the receiving end of about a dozen nine millimeter bullets. The last agent standing, or rather, lying on the floor, his pistol under his chest and pointed towards the door, was more frustated than fearful at this point. On the bridge monitors, the enemy was rapidly approaching the last bodyguard, as well as where Shinji was undoubtedly being sheltered by the Major Katsuragi, who, at this second, had been informed over phone what the situation was.
   "Retreat, and regroup, any way you can." Kozo got a few quizzical looks in response.
   "No, wait!" Shigeru pointed at one of the displays zoomed in on an agent quickly charging up the stairs again. "Agent Daiki! What's your position?"
   The reply was in pants. "I dove off the railing through the center when that grenade came my way. I still got pelted a bit, but my chest is the one not doing too well." By now there were two displays rewound and showing the man leaping one-handed over the railing into the the complex's hole down its center, just in time to have shrapnel from the grenade thrown a moment earlier to just scrap by him. It was enough, however, to disorient the man enough to have him miss the the railing on the floor below, his left hand clawing at the concrete sides before he went down another level to land on the railing there square on his ribs. He had rolled over the edge to land on solid floor, and had taken the time to vomit something...
   And now he was doing his best to get back into the action, despite what he had seen. But now was not the time for admiration.
   "Agent Daiki," Fuyutsuki ordered, I want you slow down and not worry about your primary responsibilies, because they are changing; Your job is to stay alive, do you understand?" Hyuuga would have been touched, except he understood the objective reasoning behind the command -- they needed a survivor from this experience. "The remaining man will come down and take whatever supplies you can offer." There was no doubt that Daiki was intrinsically in awe towards the fact that there stood only one more man other than himself.
   Meanwhile, Colonel Price, who had watched and realized what was happening, had already addressed his team. Neither Hyuuga nor Fuyutsuki directly questioned his actions.
    "It doesn't sound very happy from here, Ed," Jing-Kai reported with a sense of foreboding. He nodded with one hand on the telephone and one over his ear as another member of Team One had just dropped in through the balcony door. Jing-Kai had ordered that everyone get to his room if possible without being noticed. Team One had not let him down, and every single one of them had eventually managed to shimmy about the outer side of the building to reach his room.
   "That's everyone, shut it," said Joseph, who had gotten in first and kept count.
   "This is hell, son. They're loaded, and have what they're calling an A.T. Field to boot." Jing-Kai froze. Throughout all his travels around the world, he had only read about and studied theoretical information on the nature of A.T. Fields. Any solid information on the phenomenons, however, were secret and denied to his eyes. But he and every military official in the world knew enough about it to know what it did, if not how it worked. "We're getting burned, and there are no ideas as to what we can do about it. Men are becoming martyrs out there."
   Fuck! was all the major could think of in light of this revelation. He had been ready to go out and join the scene, but now he was not so sure anymore. "So, what now?" Jing-Kai did his best to remain calm and cool in the presence of his men, some of whom were loading and unloading their magazines, tapping them against the wall in order to check if the clip was full, which they were, as they perfectly knew; macho and pre-mission anxiety projected in the form of anticipation.
   "This isn't our game, son; this isn't Rainbow's game."
   Jing-Kai stayed silent, although by now his team was watching him, trying to determine what was going on, and what was going to happen. There were only the sounds of noise from the phone's background, and the gunfire from outside the door.
   "But," Price the said. "Lots of things we've done haven't been our game." Jing-Kai smiled a very contorted smile. "I want you guys to worry about yourselves for this one. But we've got no time -- in fact, this'll probably all be over in less than a minute. But we're not civilians, so I want you to do what you can, keep an eye out, and shoot smart. But then, that's what you've all always done." Shouting that could be heard from outside, the shooting had died down considerably. "They've made the door," Eddie grumbled. A second later, he finished, "Try to win something out of this, but make it back in one piece. Six out."
    The thought at the moment was that something was better than nothing, and freak chance was better than no chance...
   But wait. The door to Shinji's home was shot open, and three of the enemies had gone inside. One of the lightly armored men went in with his sub-machine gun lowered.
   "That's the one," Hyuuga said with some hope. He looked up slowly at the commander, who nodded in anticipation and a degree of excitement. ""The source of the A.T. Field is out of the ring for now. This is it."
   "Colonel," Kozo said in his foreign English. Eddie Price, who set the phone back on his shoulder, looked up. "Good luck," and a nod.

Jing-Kai, major and leader, stood firmly while he took a quick survey of his men's level of readiness. But it was really just a routine and obligatory act; Rainbow was a group of the world's finest, and they would always be ready for action. The room was dark so that Jing-Kai could barely guess where most of his men stood. Never had he had to prepare for combat with his team under such circumstances -- it reminded him of his nights on a field or in the ruins of some Middle East neighborhood, when he could only communicate by whispering, without any lights. Tonight, whatever happened, Won Jing-Kai had never been so proud of his boys.
   "It's our show now, everyone."

Author's note: yes, I realize that the EVA cast didn't get much screen time and this whole event seems a bit out of place. Don't worry -- the next chapter will take care of it, EVA-style (flashbacks and all). I'm off to Japan soon, so I did not get to make as many checks as I had originally hoped, but I think this still turned out okay. Wish me a great trip, and I'll be back on Monday.