A Kaiju Jaeger emerged from the ocean, joining four more that gathered just off the shore of the Santa Monica slums. They formed a circle as blue-tinged particle beams erupted from their chest reactors. The beams slammed together in a thunderclap of raw energy. The water between them churned. They were opening a breach!
At the Moyulan Shatterdome, Marshal Quan rushed to the command center, a bit roughed up from his journey. “Where are my pilots?”
Red circles popped up across a holo screen map. Kaiju drones were opening up breaches all around the Pacific Rim!
“Breaches detected! Multiple locations! It’s the drones, sir!” said Xiang.
Quan’s eyes widened in shock. “All pilots! Breaches detected! Drones in the field—” said Quan over the comms.
But suddenly, plasma missiles screamed over Jake and slammed into the command center. Quan and everyone inside were annihilated. Jake, Jules, and Nate dove behind Titan Redeemer as the building crashed down.
In the lab, Gottlieb eyed the breaches on Newt’s holo screen in complete horror.
“Why? Why would you do this?” he asked.
“He wouldn’t. Or maybe he would. Maybe he hates all of you. For laughing at him. For treating him like an insignificant little joke of a man.” The words came out of Newt’s mouth, but the message seemed to be from someone else.
Then a shock of recognition slammed Gottlieb.
“You . . .” he said.
Behind Newt’s eyes, Gottlieb glimpsed the insect-like alien nightmares that were controlling Newt.
“Precursors,” said Gottlieb.
Newt twitched. The malevolence in his eyes was replaced by fear as he struggled to break free of the mental hold.
“Help me, Hermann. They’re in my head . . .” said Newt.
“Fight them, Newton! Fight them—” said Gottlieb. He remembered how awful—how powerful—the Kaiju’s mental control had been when he and Newt drifted with the Kaiju during the war. Newt must have never broken completely free from it.
Newt spasmed. The Precursors clamped down. He backhanded Gottlieb, sending him crashing against a lab table.
“He isn’t strong enough. None of you are,” said the Precursors.
The sound of a bullet being chambered split the air. Newt whirled. Shao had slipped into the lab—and she had the gun Newt had set down leveled right at him. Newt chuckled, unfazed.
“Hey, boss. Finally figured it out, huh? What was it? The diagnostics?”
“My numbers weren’t aligning with yours. How did you do it without me knowing?” asked Shao.
“Thirty-eight percent of your company is fully automated. Wasn’t that difficult to reallocate a little here and there over the years without being detected.” Then Newt switched to perfect Mandarin: “Especially since you always thought you were the smartest one in the room.”
“In about half a second, I’m going to be,” said Shao.
She squeezed the trigger and BLAM! Gottlieb knocked her hand up with his cane, causing the shot to go wide.
Newt tossed Gottlieb into Shao and ran. They went down in a tumble. Shao whipped the gun up but Gottlieb grabbed her arm.
“Stop! It isn’t him! It’s the Precursors! They must have infected his mind when we drifted with a Kaiju brain during the—”
“Shut up. And don’t ever touch me again,” said Shao. She stabbed an intercom on Newt’s holo terminal. “Security, find and detain Dr. Geiszler. If he tries to resist, do whatever you need to do to stop him.”
Explosions rocked the bay outside the Moyulan Shatterdome. Amara, Jinhai, Vik, Ryoichi, Suresh, Ilya, and Renata rushed to join Jake, Jules, and Nate. They all took cover behind Titan Redeemer.
“We told you to get to quarters!” said Jake.
“Corridor’s blocked!” said Amara.
“Where’s Tahima and Meilin?” asked Nate.
“I don’t know!” said Amara.
“What do we do?” asked Renata.
“Stay here. We’re going to try to get to Gipsy,” said Jake.
Explosions rocked the bay between them and Gipsy. Jake shared a look with Nate. Chances of making it weren’t on their side.
“You ready for this?” asked Jake.
“No. You?” said Nate.
“Nope. On three. One, two—”
They tensed to run into the inferno of destruction when suddenly Gottlieb’s voice came over the comm: “—ello? Anyone there?”
“Gottlieb?” said Jake.
Shao worked Newt’s holo screen. Her fingers flew as Gottlieb spoke into a comm at a nearby terminal.
“Jake, thank goodness! I’ve been trying to reach the command center—” said Gottlieb.
“It’s gone! We’re under attack! You have to force Shao to shut down the drones!”
“It isn’t her,” said Gottlieb. “It was Newt. Precursors infected him and got into his head.”
“Gottlieb, it’s me,” said Nate. “Can you make him disable the drones?”
“No. He—he got away. It was my fault. I—” started Gottlieb. But then the holo screen suddenly shifted. Data blocks smashed aside.
“I’ve penetrated the subroutine. Initiating shutdown protocol,” said Shao.
The Kaiju drones stormed into Jaeger Bay, blasting everything in sight. Jake shouted into his comm. “Shut ’em down!”
“Stand by,” said Gottlieb.
Shao’s fingers flashed across the holo screen. The shutdown protocol was unresponsive! The smashed data blocks started reforming.
“It’s trying to lock you out,” said Gottlieb.
Shao had an idea. “Feedback loop.”
Her fingers flew, racing against the closing data blocks.
“Brilliant! If you modify that algorithm—” said Gottlieb.
“Gottlieb,” said Nate.
“Stand by,” he responded.
“Gottlieb, shut ’em down now or we’re all gonna die!” said Jake. A shadow fell over him. He whipped his eyes up to see a Kaiju drone leveling its weapons to obliterate the group.
SCREECH! The Kaiju drone staggered as it got hit by Shao’s feedback loop. Inside the drone, the Kaiju brain violently vibrated. Then it exploded!
The Kaiju drone keeled over, and so did its counterparts across the bay. Every one of them collapsed, their particle beams flaring out. On the holo screen, breaches winked out, one after another.
“Yes!” shouted Gottlieb. “Jake! Shao disabled the drones! The breaches are closed—”
All of a sudden, three blinking circles appeared on the holo screen along with the words: KAIJU DETECTED.
“Oh no,” said Gottlieb.
Jake rose. Jaeger Bay was smoldering around him. “Oh no, what? Gottlieb?”
“Three Kaiju have gotten through. South Korea, Russian coast, East China Sea. Two Cat IVs and a Cat V.”
Everyone registered the severity of this.
“Copy that,” said Jake. “Get back to the ’dome. We’re gonna need all the help
