Chapter 9:
Stray Beast

 

HAVING GONE ROGUE at the end of the Novaya Zemlya operation, the U.S. Evangelion, Wolfpack, had reached the northern coast of Norway after swimming across the Barents Sea. There were reports of the quadrupedal giant breaking land on the beaches of Norway, but the military and local authorities could do little about it. By the time they found out, Wolfpack had already fled into the forest, heeding its primal instincts.

Mari, its pilot, didn’t seem to have a goal in mind—but she did. She was on the prowl.

The U.S. Evangelion had been created by splicing its pilot’s genes with those of multiple animals. The A.T. Field surrounding it contained remnants of the beasts’ souls. Despite Mari’s inexplicable statements about herself and the Eva, she’d never failed to comply with her orders.

Or at least, not until she found her ideal. Once she did, she’d ignored Nerv U.S.’s command to withdraw and gone rogue.

Mari was hunting for the Asuka/Eva synthesis, current designation Torwächter A1. Asuka had encountered the Ark on the moon, where the data of all organic life existing from the beginning of time had flowed through her.

Data and matter were equivalent to each other on the Ark, and Eva-02 had synthesized with its pilot to prevent Asuka’s organic data from being overwritten. Most of the organic data had been spent in North Africa, and Asuka/Eva had managed to retain her amalgamated form. However, a mass of individual information continued to swirl inside her, dormant.

To Mari, this was the ideal self. She would stop at nothing to find her role model and quarry.

 

Wolfpack was surrounded by over twenty atmospheric distortions.

Mari and her Eva, Wolfpack, were Nerv U.S.’s answer to Nerv Japan’s rigorously high sync rate requirements. The idea of splicing animal and human genomes together to allow for lower sync rates was an ambitious one, although officially their scientists swore that no animal souls were harmed during the production of Wolfpack. In fact, they maintained that Mari’s unsettling references to her “pack” were all in her head. She disagreed, of course. She and her shadows were as real, and as dangerous, as wolves.

Mari had been looking for a way to live in peace with her pack. She sensed that Asuka would know how after surviving the onslaught of organic data.

“Hrr,” Mari growled. Her pupils had become feline slits.

BEEP!

Her console somehow understood her command and displayed a window containing a special task. Voice commands no longer worked with Mari, but mental commands did. The cursor flickered, waiting for her to phase in.

The emergency program imitated Super Eva’s heartbeats by using N2 ignitions. Its primary function was to summon humanity’s enemies, the Angel Carriers and Torwächters. How convenient for her that Asuka/Eva was now also a Torwächter.