So! Late to the party on the reading-this front, on account of it having been so long since I'd (re)read NXE I'd forgotten what went on, or how it was executed, and I had to go read it again to feel like I'd make sense of anything, and that took all week.
(short version of my experiance of that: I enjoyed it more than the first time I read it, probably not quite as much as the last time though - not until I got back to Exodus 3:1 and beyond, where it stopped being quite so....well, Evangelion.)

On with the show, then. I am primed for inevitable spoilers to Evangelion 3.0, which I have yet to watch, and XCOM2, which I have yet to play.

> Special Agent Phil Coulson, MIB Southwestern US. Welcome to Fort Alcatraz

Oh hello, agent. I was expecting the first new guy I'd recognize was to be Central Officer Bradford. I guess not!

> Nothing happened at first, but within a few seconds, the surface of the water started to roil and bubble, as if something huge were rising up from the bottom of the sea.

NXE 2, Terror From the Deep! Just like a reskinned version of the first, only with a broken difficulty curve and game-breaking bugs!
(sorry)
(not sorry)
Look, it was that or a Pacific Rim joke. :)

> "Evangelion Unit 02-alpha,"

Oh, wow. That's not a thing to bring back lightly, is it?
Makes sense, though. I doubt the Archangelion's are significantly functional without their celestial component. Or maybe they are and there's another reason. I shall read on and see!
It'd probably have been simpler to just build a new unit and paint it red, of course, but where's the joy in that?

> DJ turned back to the glass, taking a long look at EVA-01′, and nodded. "Though that invites the question: why EVAs and not the Archangelions?"

Aha, I knew that would come up. And the answer was much as I suspected.

> "We've got a lot of work to do before you're operational again, and I don't know how much time we have."

This is the sort of question one should not -ask- in these sorts of situations. I'm pretty sure it automatically negates 60-80% of whatever time you had.

> "Bradford, this is the Brigadier. What's the situation?"

Ah, there he is. :) I'm expecting Vahlen next and then Shen.

> "In Vancouver?"

The downside to non-Angel incursions is that they aren't so instinctively drawn to your doorstep to fight. I suspect eventually they also won't have the courtesy to do it one at a time either.

> "It... didn't go well."

Ominous!

> His job on Combat Team 1 had been the same, in broad strokes, as Asuka's on Team 2.

I don't think either of them ever had to play Mark, did they?

And then a glorious fight scene happened, and SEELE proved themselves not only not sufficiently dead but also working with...EXALT? Unless I miss my guess. Interesting times

I look forward to more. In particular, looking forward to seeing San again. :)

~Silv'