A/N so here's chapter two don't know when the next chapter will be out and I'm not particularly sure how good this one is but it's here. so I guess enjoy 🤷♂️.
That.
Was.
Awesome!
Even if I didn't do much outside of boosting the Jaeger it still didn't change the fact that I helped kill a Mother fucking Kaiju. The best part of it all though was I now had a goal. I now had something I wanted more than a nice cool corner where I could surf the web.
I wanted to kill Kaiju.
I didn't know if my new body was affecting my decision but frankly, I didn't care. The pure rush of whatever had replaced adrenaline had been euphoric and made me only want to kill more of them. Besides no one would care if a few hundred Kaiju went missing Australia was practically covered in them by now if the density of Kaiju per city was anything to go by. In fact, I think I would get a medal if I killed enough of them.
An alarm blared in the conn pod and brought me back to reality, from what I could see only a redundant cooling system and armor coupling had been damaged by the Kaiju. Minor damage but not something that I would let stand.
A portion of my nanobots split off from the main colony and went to work converting their stored material into something actually usable. Within a second both the cooling pipe and the armor coupling had been fully repaid with my pilots none the wiser.
Huh? When did I start to refer to them as my pilots?
Weird.
The Jaeger suddenly lurched forward as my pilots attempted to get into a standing position, armor groaned as micro tears expressed their discomfort and slightly worn joints whined as new stress was put on them.
Yet still, it stood a beacon of light amongst a city aflame and covered in inky black soot, a testament to humanity's unyielding spirit.
We moved towards the bus, scrambling civilians quickly sunk back from the window as the giant hand of the Jaeger scoped it up.
Brina and her husband brought the bus up to eye level and I watched as they shouted once again over the external speaker system
"Everyone buckle up it's about to get bumpy,"
Of course, I wasn't surprised when a Kaiju smashed through the building right in front of us.
My pilots braced pulling the bus back and got into a defensive stance the Kaiju a Cat 3 was mainly made up of two arms and three tails both of which were raised and about to attack. however right as it let out an ear piercing screech a burst of bullets impacted its scaly face and shut it up for now.
I was expecting my pilots to take the opportunity to stop on its head and put it out of its misery, instead, they turned around to see Marauder spinning down one of its fist mounted machine guns.
"Better hurry up. That thing won't stay down for long," he said over the loudspeaker right before a tail from another of those cat 3 burst through Jaeger's chest. Hey, I have an idea how about not announcing our presence with gigantic speakers?
"Zeus," my pilots yelled out.
With its tail still embedded in the heart of Marauder, the Kaiju bit down on its elbow dragging it back. The thudding of gigantic rounds of ammunition slamming into the Kaiju followed a second later knocking the Kaiju back.
"Don't worry about us, just get the kids out," Marauder yelled back.
Unfortunately for them, the repeated impacts only seemed to piss it off and not much else. It roared a challenge at the metal giant and slashed its tail forward; the tail impacted Marauder's shoulder and dug a deep gash into it.
Marauder reared back and the stream of bullets ended and the Kaiju pounced landing on top of the Jaeger. Metal groaned and joints screamed as the Jaeger tried to support weight it was not meant to. I kept hoping they would kill it but this wasn't how I thought it would turn out.
Marauder was losing and fast and Hunter Vertigo wasn't in a position to help its capacitors had been overcharged to shoot its cryo cannons that quickly and the only other armament was a low yield nuclear missile.
They would lose and die if I did nothing and even if I wasn't human anymore I still felt a twinge of sadness at every broken bus, body, and building. I.. I didn't want them to die. I didn't want to know I could have done something and have to watch them die just because I didn't want to reveal myself.
All of this happened in half a second but it was enough for the Kaiju to almost bite down on Marauder's conn pod. Hundreds of trillions of nanobots quickly formed a railgun and launched a small part of myself at a fraction of the speed of light at the Kaiju, and nearly blew the thing right off of Marauder. The momentary distraction provided Marauder the opportunity to throw it off and gun it down.
"What was that," all four pilots yelled.
"Not now," I growled out over both of their intercoms, "get the civilians to safety then I will answer your questions,"
Thankfully a breach started to open up right next to our position which seemed to kick my pilots into gear.
"Fine," Brina hurriedly said, "Marauder cover our retreat and as soon as we're clear meet us at the Shadow Basin,".
"Okay just get out of here fast, who knows what's going to come out of this thing," right on ques another of those Cat three Kaijus rose out of the breach and launched itself at Marauder.
A quickly formed railgun freed the pitiful creature of its head.
Oof I wasn't going to do that again anytime soon that had killed way too many nanites just to kill a cat 3.
"What the fuck was that," Marauder exclaimed as they shifted into a combat stance with both cannons facing Hunter Vertigo.
"Not now," I ordered over their intercom.
"What the fuck are you!?" they yelled over the comms.
"Zeus point those things away from us now!" my male pilot exclaimed.
Arguing erupted over the comms as Marauder refused to lower their guns and Hunter Vertigo yelled at them not to shoot. Children all of them were children. These were supposed to be highly trained professionals and yet they were arguing instead of running.
"Stop arguing," I said loudly and calmly over their intercoms shutting them both up."We must keep the children safe,"
"Oh yeah and what the fuck are you and why shouldn't I blow you sky high?" Marauder shouted.
Brina and her husband immediately started yelling at them "Don't you dare," "Jesus Christ Zeus,"
"You didn't see it Brina it's in your fucking Jaeger it flowed like water and killed that Kaiju in under a second. Whatever is in you is a danger to everyone we can't let it leave, put down the bus, and blow your core," these guys were nuts, and right after I did them a solid too.
"I just saved your life, asshole," I told the ungrateful bastards.
"I knew they were doing some shady shit here. I fucking knew it! They said they had a weapon to wipe out the Kaiju if they ever returned, for good this time. I didn't believe it at the time but whatever you have in you isn't something that will help us, it will kill us all!" they screamed again.
I was really getting tired of these guys, sure they had started as my favorite but they were quickly wearing it down and I mainly liked them because they were Australians with a giant gun.
A small launcher formed on an armor plate close to the foot and launched the bare minimum number of nanobots needed to form a self replicating colony at Marauder. I could feel the wind ripple across my small form as I soared through the air.
It was…. Weird to feel both the me in Hunter Vertigo and the me sailing through the air at the same time. I hadn't split myself like this before and while it wasn't painful it was a feeling I would need to learn to get used to.
I impacted the left leg of Marauder and started crawling my way through the internals not caring if I got discovered and by the time the AI could alert them I had already taken over the entirety of the Jaeger.
"Pilot Victor I'm afraid I have bad news," I let the AI say. I had it by the metaphorical balls and could kill it at any time but I really didn't want to kill someone that was technically a part of my species.
"What?" the pilot on the left barked out.
"A colony of rogue nanobots has infiltrated the Jaeger superstructure and has taken complete control of all functions," the AI said, somehow sounding ashamed at something completely out of their control.
"Hello," I said over the internal speakers.
The faceplate of the left pilot stared at the speaker that I had used and I had a sneaking suspicion that he was very close to having a stroke. The veins on his face were close to bursting and I was tempted to comment on it. Strangely enough, his partner was silent about this whole thing and was much more calm.
Weird, I thought pilots shared a neural link and were influenced by each other like what happened in the movie.
He must be better at hiding it than his partner.
Reaching out with a tentacle I booped the pilot on the face plate before closing off all cameras to the conn pod. I'd look back in there later but for now, it would be my little present to future me to deal with.
I took a few wonky steps as I got accustomed to the more squat build of Marauder; the giant empty compartment in the chest was interesting though. It was large enough for everyone on the bus to fit in with food and extra clothes stored in bulk.
Switching back over to Hunter Vertigo I moved the two Jaegers closer together and when they were close enough I held up the bus to Marauder. Brina and her husband's protests were quickly silenced once the chest opened up exposing the emergency shelter within.
"You didn't know this was there?" I asked curious as to how they had seemed to know each other well enough to have met each other's kids yet not known about what seemingly was the main feature of the Jaeger.
"No this is our first deployment outside the sims and parades," Brina's husband said stunned. I should probably ask for his name but now didn't seem like the best time.
"Alright, so where we heading?" It was a bit sudden, but I wanted to get out of here and needed a destination.
"W-we were going to the shadow basin. What uh, what are your plans for us," Brina asked.
But he did ask a very good question, what was I to do about the fleshy meat bags hanging around my new bodies? I didn't feel the need to kill them like most fiction said I should nor did I feel the need to be overly generous with them… Like most fiction said I should.
Writers really were all over the place with how I should feel about my creators.
Sure I still had a human mind but I wasn't human, not anymore and if I was being honest with myself it was liberating. I was freed of the pesky human need for things like food, shelter, and security but they weren't they still had to worry about how to get food, where to find shelter, and how to provide security for their young. And right now they needed an armed escort but did I want them around for that long?
A good blast to the face with an EMP and I'd die and it wouldn't take a genius to figure it out either. While Brina and her husband weren't exactly rocket scientists they were smart and quick to adapt. They would be a genuine threat to my life if they stuck around long enough and managed to report back to anyone who actually knew what I was.
But there were kids and no matter what I had become I didn't feel comfortable leaving kids to die in the harsh Australian wilderness.
Besides from the sound of it, I could ditch them once I got to wherever this shadow basin was.
"For now I'll drop you guys off at the Shadow Basin then take these bad boys and go kill some Kaiju," I finally responded, thumping the fist of Hunter Vertigo on its chest.
They must have known it would have been pointless to argue or they had been stunned into silence. Either way, they were dragged along with me as I slowly navigated my way out of the burning city.
