Naoko Akagi simply stared at the wall while Captain Mathias made his vigorous defense of the performance of the conventional forces.  "You were lucky, captain."  Naoko said simply, summoning up footage of dozens of UN VTOLs being destroyed by a single gout of flame from Gazardiel.  "This is the enemy we must face; this is the scale we must work on.  I suggest you abandon childish fantasies of fighting the creature head on, and rely on the power of the MAGI computer network to save you."<br/><br/>Naoko slipped disconcertingly close to Solomon, almost as if she was going to touch him, a claw like hand hovering just centimeters from his skin.  She was like some strange, predatory flightless bird, with rows of sharp teeth and an imperious attitude that cared nothing of the illusion of humanity.  "By some absurd oversight, I have no authority over the funds dedicated to your project, but I am certain that if you construct additional facilities for the science division... my daughter will make it worth your while."  She whispered, even as Ritsuko quietly began tapping away very intently at her tablet.<br/><br/>Wedge spoke up for himself, ignoring any sort of dressing down he'd been given earlier.  "Sir, you don't have to listen to this....  lovely and intelligent woman."  He said, biting back his words carefully while Naoko turned to seek the next target to tear apart in her talons.  "Despite your position in NERV as commander of the Evangelions, you're also responsible for the conventional forces at our disposal here.  By filling out a few forms, I imagine you could requisition a pretty decent base for us, maybe even get a few of those fancy N2 missiles...  We never did get to see what happens when you launch one at an Angel, because the naysayers in the science division said it would be too risky."<br/><br/>Even while the pilots remained quiet, Ritsuko seemed to be seething with growing irritation, as she glared at Maria in particular, wondering why they couldn't have used 14 year olds for this.  At least they would be vocal in a situation like this.  No matter...  there were still seven more moves before checkmate in her chess game.