Prologue
“As for Rei-chan, she was created as a pilot for Evangelion….in other words, she is a clone of a human being. When we humans are born, in general, we just show up without having a purpose in human life. Later, we find a purpose and choose our own way and decide how to live our life. Rei-chan’s case is not like that. She was created with the purpose solely of being an Eva’s pilot, and I’m not quite sure if she’s happy."
Hideki Anno, creator of Evangelion
"It began when the director told me, ‘It's not that she doesn't have emotion, but that she doesn't know what it is.’ His technical request was that I should read my lines as flat as possible. But she's obviously not a machine; she's a human being, flesh and blood. It's a huge difference between ‘not having emotion’ and ‘not knowing emotion.’ After all, she could develop feelings, once she learned..."
Megumi Hayashibara, voice actress
Out of the large windows of a giant observation tower, the man watched the sun creep over the mountains of the east as it rose. It was 4:59 AM in the high desert of Nevada. The sunlight slowly progressed westward, revealing a gleaming city in the desert. Modern, glass and steel buildings were spread out over a wide distance from the tower, an oasis surrounded by mountains and sand. That early morning was quiet and still.
The man turned his attention to the two biomechanical giants that he observed moving through the training range below him. Both of the forty meter- tall giants were called Evangelions, a name intended to convey a spirit of salvation that the machines were supposed to provide. To the man however, today was not about salvation, but about destruction.
The two Evangelions, or EVAs as they were commonly called, moved through the simulated city in a tightly coordinated effort, one taking cover and watching as the other moved quickly and carefully into another position of cover and then watching as the first one bounded forward. One of the EVA units was painted gunmetal black, while the other was a silvery white. Both of the giants moved as two soldiers would, equipped with helmets and rifles, and focused on perceived enemies in the distance.
As the white unit moved through a city block it began to take fire from an auto-cannon hidden nearby. The white EVA ducked behind a building while the black unit it was paired with took careful aim and opened fire with its rifle at the source of the blast. A billowing cloud of smoke appeared over the buildings. Both of the units moved quickly to where the smoke came from and found lying down in an exploded state another large humanoid figure. The now-destroyed unit resembled the other two, but was painted purple and had a horn-like antenna on its helmet. Pieces of the destroyed Evangelion unit were strewn throughout the city block, and the two giants quickly examined the remaining parts of the destroyed beast, then proceeded to move forward again in tandem through the maze of city blocks.
Only a few steps later they again took fire from the horizon above the buildings and both giants dove for cover. The black EVA stood up and started firing on its own while the other quickly bounded between buildings, moving closer to the source of the fire. The white monster leaned against a building, brought up its rifle, and fired at the new target with a quick set of bursts from it's giant-sized rifle. It was rewarded with another explosion, this one nearby. The black unit caught up to the other and both spotted the shooter who was now also destroyed: another giant Evangelion unit, this one painted yellow, with a single large round "eye" on its helmet. The white EVA prodded the dead beast with its rifle, and it moved around noisily while it fell apart in pieces; their enemy was only a mechanical target, not an actual Evangelion like the two hunters.
The two EVAs continued to move deliberately towards the center of the training range. In the center of the simulated city they spotted their third target, a red-painted EVA unit with four green eyes, which began firing at the EVAs with two rocket launchers that were mounted on its arms. Both units dodged the incoming rockets, which fell against the buildings behind them and destroyed much of the facade scenery in the training range. The silvery-white EVA jumped up and shoulder-mounted its rifle, firing a continual burst at the mechanical red beast, while the other black unit reached back and grabbed a giant fighting knife that was ejected from an upper shoulder mount. Upon grabbing the knife the black EVA ran at full speed down the boulevard straight towards the red figure.
The four-eyed head of the red EVA swiveled to meet the oncoming black unit but by the time it reached it was too late. The black Evangelion swiftly jumped directly in front of the target and moving quickly, reached back with its arm and in a single motion slashed the red target's head clean off with the Progressive Knife. A spout of fire and smoke exploded from the neck of the robot and the red simulated Evangelion collapsed to the ground.
Inside the observation tower, a voice was heard over the loudspeaker. "Master Control, Evangelion Units 03 and 04 have completed the training range. All targets confirmed destroyed." The voice on the speaker was young and confident. The man in the tower looked over the city at the burning carnage below and the two giants standing amid the fire and smoke, and then he smiled to himself.
We're ready!
