The Drone jerked and an ear-splitting screech echoed through the Shatterdome. Its arms twitched up and its weapon discharged, blasting a hole deeper into the halls behind the collapsed LOCCENT. It staggered, smashing a burning forklift. Kaiju blood spurted out through the seams in its head, burning on the alloy exterior and wreathing its head in smoke. Jake looked across the bay and saw the same thing happening to the other Drone. The screeching noise faded as both of the Drones overbalanced and crashed down.
* * *
On the holo screen in Newt’s lab, the satellite view of Honolulu Harbor showed the circle of Drones reeling and toppling over as one. Their particle beams flickered and went out. From the churning water inside the circle, a Kaiju had begun to emerge from the Breach, clawing its way out of the Anteverse. When the energy sphere failed, the Breach disappeared, slicing the Kaiju in half. Its blood boiled in the water and its death throes sent up waves that surged over the piers of Honolulu’s waterfront.
“Yes!” Gottlieb cheered. “Jake! Liwen disabled the Drones! The Breaches are closed—”
He stopped when he saw that the holo screen now displayed three blinking circles, and an ominous message:
KAIJU DETECTED
“Oh, no,” he said.
“What?” Jake called back. Gottlieb didn’t answer right away. Jake called his name.
Slowly, Gottlieb gave him the news. “Three Kaiju have gotten through. South Korea, Russian coast, East China Sea. Two Cat-Fours and a Cat-Five.”
There was silence on the line as Jake registered the enormity of this. Kaiju of that size were often more than a single Jaeger could handle, as they had learned during the war. Three of them made for a threat that would require all the PPDC’s resources… if there were any left after the Drone assaults.
“Copy that,” Jake said. “Get back to the ’dome. We’re going to need all the help we can get.”
26
TOP NEWS
PACIFIC RIM SHUDDERS UNDER DRONE JAEGER ATTACKS
Terrorist Feared to Hack Drone Jaegers
Disaster For Shao Industries
Drone Jaegers Attack Shatterdomes, Civilians; Thousands Feared Dead
Will Shao Industries Survive the Drone Attacks?
Analysis: What did Shao Liwen Really Know?
Drone Jaeger Attacks Raise Questions about Obsidian Fury
Who Are the Kaiju Cultists and Why Are They Attacking Now?
12 Reasons Why the Kaiju Cults Have Nothing to Do with Obsidian Fury
PPDC on Verge of Collapse After Attacks on Council, Shatterdomes
In Dark Corners of the Internet, Dark Rumors: Did Shao Industries Use Kaiju Parts in the Rogue Drone Jaegers?
Kaiju Cult Claims Kaiju Have Returned: ‘God Sends His Messengers Again’
A Look Inside the Black Market Trade in Kaiju Parts
Shao Liwen Destroys Own Drone Force… But Not Before Drones Cripple PPDC Jaeger Corps
Did Shao Liwen Stage the Drone Attacks?
A Defense of Shao Liwen
Markets Plunge in Aftermath of Drone Attack; Tech Stocks Hit Hardest
A few of the J-Tech medics were veterans of the Kaiju War, and had hard-won experience with mass casualty events. Many of the younger medics had lived through Kaiju attacks as children, but this was different. Then, all they had thought about was surviving, and later mourning. Now they had to tend to dozens, maybe hundreds of casualties, triaging and rendering aid in the middle of the devastation in the Shatterdome. The older generation tried to keep them focused and on task, as all of them grappled internally with memories of a time they had thought was past. Everyone was pitching in, trying to evacuate the wounded and get people out from under fallen debris. Jake and Lambert strained against a concrete slab pinning Tahima, as Amara and other cadets tried to work him free from underneath it. “Medic!” Jules called, waving one over. Tahima was alive but seriously injured.
Jinhai tried to joke with him to keep him together—and hide Jinhai’s own concern. “Always lying around,” he said. Tahima tried to smile. Nearby another team of medics was working on Meilin, who had also suffered wounds from the falling debris after the destruction of the LOCCENT.
Lambert saw Jules and called for a status report. With the LOCCENT out of commission, he’d asked her to get a sense of what the Shatterdome’s operational situation was. “What do you got?”
“Reports are still coming in, but Drones took out Jaegers and Shatterdomes across the Rim,” she said.
“How many Jaegers do we have here?”
“Operational? Gipsy Avenger. Barely.”
“That’s it?”
“Have to get more up and running or it’s gonna be a short fight.”
“Even if we can, all our other pilots are dead or—”
Lambert cut her off before she could demoralize all of them. “One disaster at a time. Let’s focus on those Jaegers.”
“Think you can help with the repairs?” Jake asked Amara.
“Me? Thought I was kicked out.”
Jake could have pointed out that she no longer had a ride off the Shatterdome because the Drones had destroyed every helicopter and Jumphawk on the tarmac, but right now they needed all the positivity they could get, so he took another approach. “I’m kicking you back in. Nobody has more experience turning junk into Jaegers.” He glanced over at Lambert. “You good with that?”
“Outstanding,” Lambert said with a grin. They were going to need all the help they could get.
Amara was touched by their belief in her. Could she live up to it? She looked around the Jaeger bay, realizing that she was about to take a big step. Building Scrapper was one thing; getting Bracer Phoenix and Saber Athena ready to go was another.
But she could do it. She knew she could.
“We got incoming!” Jinhai said, looking out through the bay doors to the tarmac. Jake and Lambert, along with a crowd of curious techs, rushed to the doors. None of the Kaiju should have been close already. Was it more Drones? If so, the lights were going to go out at the Moyulan Shatterdome real soon.
Once Jake
