Newt jerked, the Precursors seizing control again. “Nice try. You don’t even know what this is. How all the pieces fit together. Want me to show you? Want to see what else I was whipping up in Siberia? Yes? No? How ’bout yes.”
Newt pushed a button on his data pad screen with flourish. “This is gonna be so cool. I mean, not for you guys. For you it’s gonna suck. Sorry. But not really.”
Newt disconnected. Lance Corporal McKinney tensed as her tactical screen flashed. “We got movement! Multiple hostiles! Three kilometers, southeast!” she said.
McKinney swiped the intel to the main holo screen. Little red dots clustered near the raging battle sprang to life.
“Command to strike team. Are you reading this?” said Gottlieb into the comms.
Gipsy Avenger’s display lit up as it zeroed in on the rippers.
“Where’d they come from?” asked Jake.
Shao looked at the holo display and tensed. “That’s one of my automated factories,” she said.
SCREECH! The rippers—biomechanical, tentacled nightmares the size of SUVs—surged down the street, sending cars flying.
Gipsy’s holo screens flashed, indicating rippers surging toward their position.
“It was Newt! Triangulating his signal—” said Nate.
Jake spoke into the comms: “All Jaegers, disengage from Kaiju and brace for contact!
Gipsy, Bracer, Guardian, and Saber disengaged from the battered Kaiju and turned to face the tidal wave of rippers hurtling toward them.
Newt tracked the ripper swarm on his data pad from the rooftop. Just as they were about to slam into the Jaegers, he swiped his data pad, abruptly changing the rippers’ course.
Instead of attacking Gipsy, Bracer, Guardian, and Saber, the rippers swarmed the Kaiju! The Kaiju roared in agony as they fell down. The rippers tore into their flesh.
Ilya shared a confused look with Suresh.
Gottlieb and Jules tensed as the Kaiju and ripper indicators on their holo screen began to coalesce. The rippers weren’t defeating the Kaiju—they were stitching the three Kaijus’ flesh together to make one massive Kaiju monster!
The mega-Kaiju rose. Two Category IVs and a Category V joined together into one multitailed, metal-enhanced monster nightmare. Its head literally scraped the clouds and blocked the sun!
Jake and Nate felt shock course through them as they stared at the abomination that now loomed over them.
Newt grinned. “This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper. But with a bang. A very, very big bang,” he said to himself.
The mega-Kaiju roared! Windows across the city shattered. The monster lumbered toward the Jaegers, toppling buildings with its ripper-encrusted tail as it moved.
“All Jaegers, advance and fire everything you’ve got!” said Jake.
Gipsy Avenger rushed forward. She fired everything she had at the mega-Kaiju! The cadet-piloted Jaegers flanking her did the same. Missiles, particle beams, and plasma blasts all slammed into the gigantic beast!
But the ripper plating absorbed and deflected all the hits. The mega-Kaiju roared and smashed a giant fist into the ground. The shock wave threw the Jaegers into the air!
The Jaegers crashed to the ground—but Guardian Bravo miraculously landed on its feet. Ilya and Suresh surged forward to attack the mega-Kaiju.
Jake and Nate struggled to get up. “Guardian, stand down!” screamed Jake into the comms.
“We got this!” said Ilya.
“Go for the eyes!” said Suresh.
“Which ones?” said Ilya.
“All of them!”
The mega-Kaiju slammed the ground again but Guardian leapt up, kicking off a building as he swung his arc whip.
The mega-Kaiju caught the whip. It swung Guardian around and then smashed the Jaeger through a set of buildings.
Suresh and Ilya desperately hung on to the arc whip.
Newt watched as the mega-Kaiju hurled Guardian across the city. Guardian crashed into a final skyscraper that collapsed on top of the critically damaged Jaeger.
Newt laughed at how easily his creation took out Jake and his team. The mega-Kaiju headed for Mount Fuji!
Jake and Nate wrestled to stabilize Gipsy. Their Jaeger had taken a serious blow and their conn-pod showed it.
“Guardian Bravo, sitrep! You guys okay?” asked Nate.
Nothing but static came over the receiver.
“Ilya. Suresh. Report!” Jake said with urgency.
Ilya lay bloodied and dazed, tangled in the wreckage of the conn-pod. He weakly clicked his comm on. “Guardian’s down. I’m pinned in the conn-pod. Suresh—”
His voice broke as he glanced over to his copilot. “Suresh didn’t make it, sir.”
The news hit Jake and Nate hard. It was terrible enough when a battle-tested pilot fell, but Suresh was only a cadet—young and not trained for this kind of battle. They felt the pain of losing him deeply.
“Copy, Guardian,” said Jake.
“We’ll send help soon as we can,” said Nate.
“Bracer Phoenix, report,” said Jake.
Amara and Jinhai tried to process the loss of one of their own. “We’re a little banged up, but still in the fight,” said Amara.
“Us, too,” said Renata. She and Ryoichi struggled to keep it together after hearing the news about Suresh. “S-Saber I mean. Saber Athena, sir,” she said.
Jake permitted himself a moment of relief, taking whatever miracles he could get. He punched coordinates.
“Bracer, Saber, prepare to intercept at the following coordinates,” he said.
Amara’s eyes gleamed. It was time for payback.
Gipsy Avenger took off across the city. Bracer Phoenix and Saber Athena followed suit. Guardian Bravo lay weakly in the rubble. She began to stir, struggling to rise.
“Sir. I’m gonna try to pilot Guardian myself,” said Ilya over the comms.
“Negative. Stand down, Cadet,” ordered Nate.
Ilya strained in his drift cradle. “I can help, sir—”
“Ilya, stand down. That’s an order!” said Jake.
Ilya ripped off his helmet, frustrated and angry.
“We know how bad you want back in the fight, but even a seasoned vet can’t pilot a Jaeger without help—” said Jake. Then he tensed. An idea struck him.
“Gipsy to Command. Do you have a tactical scan of the hostile?” asked Jake.
McKinney hurriedly pulled up data on her tactical display and pushed it to the main holo screen. “Assessing data from their sensors . . .” she said.
A partial scan of the mega-Kaiju appeared on the holo screen.
“We have it, Gipsy, but it’s still compiling,” said
