Chapter 4: The Cult

A stream of mercenaries carried away the seven cadets on their shoulders through the hallway as the other surviving terrorists continued to attack with heavy fire at them. One of the terrorists watched as his comrades fled the hallway before priming a pipe bomb, but not before a security trooper fired a round and shot him straight in the head before the bomb went off, igniting the hallway, consuming the terrorist in a raging shockwave of destructive flame.

Jake, Nate and Jules raced to the barracks, slid open the door to the cadet quarters, only to find the quarters empty.

"They took the cadets," Jake realised with a gasp of shock and fear.

"This is bad," Nate stated, scanning around the quarters as his heart sank.

"Ranger!" A loud voice called out from behind, belonging to a PPDC officer, clutching a walkie-talkie in his gloved hand. "The cadets are taken outside."

Chaotic gunfire echoed around the dome as the PPDC and the terrorists continued exchanging gunfire.

Both Jake and Nate gasped and ducked down for cover next to a flipped SUV as they felt the bullets flying overhead. PPDC security troopers attempt to take cover behind crates and vehicles against the mysterious terrorists blazing lead in all directions.

Countless civilians and workers crawled and limped on their drifting ways in hope of cover and survival. A few gunmen with smuggled RPGs brought down havoc upon the PPDC facility, as rockets blasted away at a few facilities and complexes.

A squad of PPDC security troopers rushed to take cover beside a lorry as Jule followed, dragging a wounded maintenance worker behind the wheel. With one free hand, she covered her face and wiped off the profuse sweat as bullets showered all over against the side of the downed lorry. Without hesitation, Jules quickly took off her own jacket to hold down the bleeding man's wounded side.

The terrorists' commander let fire on a on-going SUV with blazing bullets from his 50 cal machine gun. The infiltrators' gunner sprayed out 50mms of lead back at all direction.

Nate fired away a burst of 88mms from his assault rifle and Jake flinched and dashed away from the incoming bullets, drawing near. Jake growled as he squeeze the handgun tight as he wasn't able to pull out a shot on the gunner

"Guys, I'm being pinned!" Jake shouted for contact, firing his gun above cover with aim or hesitation. "Seriously, who the hell are these guys?"

"Hell if I know, but whoever they are, they sure know how to hit a place like this," Nate shrugged mimsily. "But goddamn, they took my cadets! My own cadets!"

"One way or another, someone's going to pay for this," Jake added. "Starting with Newt over my dead body..."

Then out in the open at the large dome gates, the terrorists lost more and more ground as more PPDC security poured in at all direction. One by one, the terrorists finally cut down fighting or attempted to retreat. One surviving terrorist chucked a smoke grenade onto the floor spraying grey smoke everywhere allowing the remaining rogue associates to flee into the smoke as the PPDC forces moved forward blazing a barrage of lead, managing to take down a few.

Nate stood back up to feet and fired several quick bursts of lead at the ragged gunmen hiding behind cover. He watched on in the head and another one in the shoulders. Jake peeked from the corner and spotted saw a small wave of surviving terrorists heading their way for the opening. One of them was carrying a seemingly unconscious girl on the shoulders, whom he immediately recognised.

"Amara!" Jake yelled as he recklessly charged towards the opening, jumped over crates and rolled into cover as an frag went off. The machine gunner on the SUV turned the 50 cal on the scrambling Jake. Then another stray bullet shot through into his shoulder. With a yelp, Jake grasped his wound with a shaking grip as his legs gave way and he slipped down before crawling for cover behind a forklift.

Before the trigger-happy gunner could eve aim again however, a split second passed and a bullet went to the back of the rogue PPDC gunner and he flopped down, dead. Nate lowered his still-smoking rifle and hurried to catch quickly, gritting his teeth with stress, out of the gate despite his own wounds.

Then Jake caught sight of the last gunman entering a loaded transport craft with Amara inside as the ramp closed. Much to his horror and anger, the transport already began to rise from the ground. "No!" he screamed as he rushed towards the transport VTOL firing what ammo was left within his handgun and what strength he had from his pained shoulder, but to no avail. "Amara!" He cried with disperse as the VTOL took away from the burning airfield into the dark smoke-infested skies, leaving behind the shatter dome base in ruin.

With raging sweat and swelling tears in his eyes, Jake threw away his handgun, fell forth onto his knees, and slammed down his fists. Nate and Jules caught up beside him as they stared at the fading transport with eyes widened with shock.

Jake's breaths grew slow and hard as Nate placed a hand on Jake's shoulders to calm him a little. The comrade groaned as he placed his hand over his still-bleeding shoulder.

Jules squeezed her own fists and Nate brushed away his fringed hair with his free hand. The trio swore that Newt would pay for this along with those responsible for the attack.

"We will get them back," Jules said as she put pressure on his wounds. "We will stop them and we will get back our cadets."

The real PPDC security troopers managed to take back the installation, secure the entire shatter dome, and clear away their dead.

Meanwhile on the hijacked transport. Amara groaned as she brought her head back to consciousness as she laid on the metal floor next to her were a pile of cadets on top of each other. She found her mouth covered with a black tape and her hands were tied up. She remembered, Herman was drugged and dragged by those rogue PPDC officers with the Kaiju markings. She slowly looked up to see a masked gunman, keeping a handgun on her with precise aim, should she protest. She shivered, her eyes widened and her breaths shortened at the sight of the man and his gun.

"Don't make any funny moves," The terrorist threatened with a wrinkled sneer. "Or I oughta blow your frigging little head off."

In the transport, the surviving terrorist gunmen and mercenaries stood and sat waiting, swinging ever so slightly from the flight. Herman was on the seat with his eyes softly shut, slowly inhaling the impure air. Amara scanned about the confined space with wide, fearful yet curious eyes. Her heart ached with pain and sweat drenched her skin and ragged clothing as she saw some of her captors muttering to each other, too quiet for her to make out whatever they did say between themselves. Wherever they're going, she concluded it would be somewhere or someplace where the PPDC mayn't be able to find them, not even the brave, determined and intelligent war heroes that are Jake and Nate.

The VTOL transport drifted freely across the ocean, out of the storm and through into somewhat clear skies toward their destination while the PPDC at Moyulan cursed in outrage as the surviving terrorists celebrated their victory at the same time mourned their fallen brothers.


Present Day

"And that's how we got here at the first place," Newt concluded, still restrained in his seat.

Herman remained quiet, gazing Newt as horror, disgust and confusion ran through his mind, he couldn't believe Newt would be this treasonous to share PPDC secrets to this terrorist group who believe in the Kaiju; worse than his own, his temper remained in check looking at the twisted scientist, who twitched an off-putting grin and let out a stammered chuckle.

"Now we're back into square one, Mr. Herman." Newt finished his mental laughter. "Then comes Plan B..."

"Plan B? What do you mean Plan B? There's no Plan B Newt! We took down the mega Kaiju. You think kidnapping me would make no difference because we're-"

"Oh please spare me the hysterical rubbish about him because he hates you so much just for backing down in the first place. You made him felt so bloody despicable," Newt berated. "He would just tell you to shut up!" He suddenly snapped loudly twisting his torso around to face the cadets.

"Listen to me!" Herman pleaded "I know you for a long time but working with these degenerated terrorists isn't exactly a good idea. I mean, have you even lost your mind? How could you even do this?"

"Oh shut it Herman," Newt retorted. "They aren't terrorists, they're my fan club, they adore me."

"Fan clubs don't invited vile terrorists such as these, Newt," Herman scoffed. "Nor do they kidnap children and hold them against my will... I mean their will."

Amara, Melin and Renate shivered with fear as sweat completely covered their bare skin and nearly drenched their clothes. Vik glanced with cold and empty fury; Suresh, Jinhai and the rest of the boys stared on with eyes wide with fear and uncertainly at their captors.

"Well, Well, Well, you little testy little rangers think they save the world but they're the ones who ruined my mega Kaiju," Newt snapped, pointing at and walking towards the intimidated cadets. Melin and Renate sniffed as terror took a small toll on the girls. Suresh looked down to the ground, ignoring the situation with apathy.

"Letting these ungrateful little prick do your dirty work for them." Newt mocked at Herman as he stood in front of line of the eight frightened cadets. His wicked and cold eyes scanned around as the tearful Amara slowly glanced up to face Herman as she was still on her knees.

"NEWT!" Herman cried out but Newt refused to listen.

"What a minute?" Newt asked with a tone of humour raising his eyebrow. "Have we met before?" Amara looked away and stared down to the ground.

"Oh yes, I remember you cadet," Newt finally recognized the individual. "Namani... Was that your last name? oh yeah or I say cadet Amara Namani?" Amara slowly rose her head as she looked at Newt, standing there with a grin on his face.

"Newt just listen for a second," Herman snapped out, shaking from his restraints. "You don't have to hurt them! You want me, you need me, and now you have me, why do you want them?"

"Really, Herman?" Newt asked back with a sheer hint of sarcasm as he softly patted Amara on the head for a few strokes and let out a hearty little chuckle. Herman's face dropped as it happened, his question left without an answer. Newt grabbed and lifted Amara by the neck; causing her to gasp in reaction. The cadets struggled to no avail as they stared on, helpless.

"You really think they're strong enough!? None of them are strong enough against the storm! We going keep coming and coming and coming." Newt scoffed and chortled as Amara's desperate breaths for air grew short while the horror-struck cadets continued to struggle against their captors holding them on their shoulders as they beg and plead, muffled though their gagged mouths. A lashing Vik lunged forward for her friend but two of the terrorists held her back

"Stop it Newt! Stop it right now!" Herman demanded as the terrorists in the area snickered sadistically as their leaders watched with empty faces and studied Newt with interest.

"These kids are nothing! They're just a bunch of spoil uppity preppy little brats!" Newt screamed right close to Amara's face, twisted with terror with tears pouring from her face. He then learnt after the battle of Tokyo; she and Jake used Grispy Avenger to crash into the Mega ,earning the young cadet as a hero.

"This is your fault-" he yelled but cut off as Amara kicked him in the stomach in a fit of defiance. Both dropped on the floor: Newt coughed, clutching his stomach in pain as the two guards grabbed Amara who continued to kick back before slipping up and falling down in line with the rest of the cadets. One of the terrorist delivered a sucker-punch right onto her stomach with a rifle. Jinhni and Vik looked away and cringed from the sight.

"You know, I got to admit, that actually hurt," Newt growled as another terrorist helped bring him back up to the feet. Amara whimpered in her own pain as she laid on fetal position with her hands behind her back. More tears poured from her bloodshot eyes.

"Enough! All of you! Focus!" The Priestess suddenly appeared and commanded, levelling her staff at Newt. "They're here as part of our agenda. We've work to do."

"I don't bloody care anymore about whatever you done to Newt but I swore on my life I wouldn't negotiate with degenerated terrorists like you," Herman scorned at the dark figure. "The things that they do to people, innocent people, are wrong and inexcusable!"

"That's where you're wrong, Dr Gottlieb, we don't even need an excuse, but we have is a purpose," The Priestess sneered, striking fear dead-straight into the Doctor's heart with her cold, sharp piercing stare. "We're delivering humanity to the gods; and you will help us, one way or another..."

Silence filled the atmosphere once more as the two opposites barely broke any contact. Herman's eyes remained wide, his breath grew shorter and his clothes dampened with sweat. "No, I won't after you put Newt in a difficult position, and I won't let you." Herman objected with flat anger as the gravity of the situation deteriorated. "He will never get out." In his mind and heart, he could knew that somehow he could save the soul of his oldest friend from the Precursor's hive mind but not like this with terrorists involved.

Still silent, the Priestess' otherwise stiff lips soon curled with incense and she turned to a fellow insurgent, who still clutched his knife tight with caged anger. "You may cut their heads off one by one," She ordered with a flat tone; no rage, no regret, no remorse, just cold emptiness. "You can start with this one; the one who dare define the gods"

Immediately, she pointed at the restrained Amara, who lit up with shock and horror in her eyes drained of tears, upon the revelation of what may be her fate after all that had been done so.

The captives; Vik, Tahima, Illya, Renate, Melin, Jinhni, Suresh and Ryoichi recoiled with horrified protest. Lashing desperately as the terrorist produced a large blade and waved it infront of a whitened face of Amara and grinned with twisted pleasure. Amara's screams and pleads for mercy ended up muffled by his dirty roughed-up gloved hand.

Herman watched on, just as helpless as the rest, his restrained body shivered frantically; fists tightened to contain the fear within. Quickly, the dark man latched complete hold of Amara by her hair, lifted her up until she was hanging barely off the ground and slowly inched the tip of his blade ever closer and closer against Amara's bare drenched neck. While doing so, a twisted and perverted grin slowly formed in his face, licking his teeth with sickened delight. However, before he could make the final cut...

"STOP IT! JUST STOP IT! JUST PLEASE STOP NOW!" Herman pleaded as hard and loud as possible just the knife barely contacted Amara's neck. "Alright, you win you bloody bitch! I'll do exactly what... I'll do whatever the hell you want me to do! Just don't cut anyone's heads off. I'll do what you want as long as you don't take anymore lives." His voice started to give out from the loud pleading he forced himself to make.

The Priestess raised her hand to stop the execution. "I did not come here to execute the children," She replied, still staring with her cold blue eyes. "I want you here to witness the new future for humanity."

"To do what exactly?" Herman questioned as his mind continued to buzz with so many unanswered questions.

"To bring the world to knee under the gods," The psychopathic woman answered vaguely. "Cleanse the sins of the old world and worship the true gods of the universe. But if you don't comply with us, I'll personally cut each and every single one of them myself. Besides, you talk too much

A faint gulp could be heard as Herman swallowed his fear, taking in her warning with the fate of the captive cadets placed upon his shoulders. He only wished the PPDC would find them as soon as possible and stop this chaos from spiralling further. Newt, on the other hand, was dying for a simple and straight-forward explanation and reason for his connections and being vital to some nutcase terrorist cause.

"Dr Herman Gottlieb from the K science division," The Priestess identified with a loud and dramatic tone, as if performing on a stage before an audience that may well be her followers and hostages. "Playing a vital role in ending the war; One of the finest heroes of the PPDC."

"Yeah..." Herman muttered; a tone comprised of snarkiness and curiosity. "And do I know you? Whoever you are."

"Why would you want to know?" She retorted. "Besides, this introduction's gone long enough already." She quickly turnt to her closet comrade. "Get them to the trucks."
"Dr. Gottlieb, you and I are going to have a very long chat on the way," The Priestess turnt back again to her captive. Herman noticed her eyes glow a quick yet noticeable brighter tint of blue as the rest of the henchmen did what they were told and ordered.

The cadets were grabbed on their necks by the kaiju worshippers on their feet and forced to crawl on their hanging feet across the corridor with gunmen with assault rifles at the ready.

Amara glanced at Herman, Newt standing beside the Priestess and her detail before roughly pushed forward.

"Oh Jake, I hope you can find us and get us off this mess," Amara whispered, even so quiet so her voice wouldn't end up catching the ears of her captors, just as she too got pushed along.

"Oh for heaven's sake, what kind of madness are you getting yourself into?" Herman demanded. "Worshiping monsters that want to wipe out all life on Earth, as well as killing, kidnapping and torturing innocent people."

"We are saving the human race from itself and you are going to be the part of the greater good," The Priestess answered, slowly pacing around Herman. "Do you really want to know who we are?"

"Well I do know that you're nothing more than a bunch of delusional pri-" With a hard slap of the Priestess' cold-blooded hand, his words were cut short.

"We are Heaven's Wraith, holy servants of the Kaiju and their gods," She revealed. "We're destined to bring salvation to mankind and vengeance to all sinners. We're destined to bring the future for all life."

"Plus I'm with them too and they're so eager to end the world as we know it," Newt continued. "But don't even think of looking at me, I'm not the king here."

"Well Newt, now will you explain to us kindly how you got caught up in this woman and her degenerated army of war-mongers? How in the bloody hell did they get the all firepower?" Herman demanded with every breath exhaled with aggression. "You should know better than the man I once drifted with."

"We've heard enough, Dr. Herman." The Priestess interrupted before the man could even get a brief answer. "You talk too much, I hope for your sake you'll regret the lives of those cadets. You think your futile PPDC will find you but now they abandon you. You on the other hand have other uses for us."

"Besides, we ain't what you'd call 'terrorists'," One of the zealots added, with what sounded like a rather southern-cockney accent. "As she said, we're juste servants of the holy Kaiju, and they're our saviours."

"You'll help us open the breach for the gods to return and enter," The woman threatened, causing the hairs on Herman's skin to raise like goosebumps as he heard the word breach.

"I can't help you because I don't even know how it properly works."

One of the comrades pulled out a holo-pad from his robes and activated it; the brightness was almost enough to blind the scientist's already irritated eyes.


Moyulan Shatterdome

Two Days Later

Jake sat in the cadet's quarters, on the bed that belonged to Amara, alone and pondering; wondering how could all of this happen so fast. He knew all of those cadets, his very responsibility, were somewhere lost in the hands of such vile people, terrified and frightened or worse. He had no idea.

He turned to her bunk to see her personal items on his bunk shelve; a drawing of Scrapper, a new report of Amara and the rest of the cadets and a torn up photograph of her family. He had only come out of the infirmary from a shoulder wound.

The aftermath of the attack on the Moyulan shatter dome left 17 terrorists out of 30 killed, 220 wounded and 75 personal and security dead. Even eight cadets and two scientists (the prisoner included) were snatched. PPDC had no clues to their has been two days since Amara was taken and Jake was hurting and worrying. The rest of the PPDC was trying to find them but it wasn't enough to find them.

These people did quote an amount of serious damage to the base and their facilities; whoever they were, they were going to endure the taste of justice from the PPDC.

But for now, they were the only base attack as only three major shatter domes were attacked so far and the PPDC suffered millions of dollars in infrastructure damage and hundreds left wounded or even killed. News reports around the Pacific rim confirmed it was a coordinated attack by unknown terrorists. Panic spread like a disease across every major city: from China to Australian, Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, and even the United States. Worse, however, within days, more and more young people were radicalized by and recruited into the strange and anonymous Kaiju cults.

The ranger held a folded picture of himself at a rather younger age cradling an even younger girl within, both wore frozen smiles that glowed with a nostalgic innocence. A time before and during their eventual enlistment into the new Jaeger program; before they proved their sense of courage and faith by facing and defeating the monstrous abomination at Mount Fuji. Those cadets were like family to each other and to him; and he vowed to get them all back, including her.

Then, the silence than broke as the doors slid open, revealing the face of empathy: Jules. Her forehead greased with sweat and her lips tight with a grim look. Next to her, a stern man of vague features.

"Jake, come with us to the war room," The man ordered calmly yet with a seemingly disturbed look to his eyes. "You'll want to see this." Jake got up, took a brief stretch and went on his way along the two.

"You okay?" Jules asked quietly along their walk.

"Sorry, just thinking about Amara and the rest of the cadets. It has been eating me for hours," Jake signed; eyes drifting about. "So what've you got so far?"

Nate and the rest of the PPDC staff stood about, waiting in the war room and watching from a holo-screen display from the Gyroscopic Graphic Displayer as Jake and Jules entered the room. Grim expressions were seen and clear on all their faces.

They all stared with eyes wide with a dying certainty as a video revealed three Kaiju zealots in red robes behind the banner of a red flag with a symbol of a kaiju skull and a cross in the middle standing behind four hostages in some room. The zealots had their face covered with Japanese style masks.

Jake froze still as he recognized Amara in her cadet uniform on her knees, her terrified face streaking with tears but next to her was Vik, Jinhai , Renata and Illya with their hands all tied up. The rest of the staff in the PPDC war room remained dead silent as the video continued on for what seemed like an hour at least.

"We, brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, serve the holy gods of Heaven," The subtitles translated what the foreign zealot in front preached, albeit distort by static and amateur quality. "The world is riddled with sinners and corruption."

"The voice seems to be disguised, we can't do an audio feed or even trace it," A staff member reported from her console."What we do know so far is that it's been taken about two hours ago. It's already on the internet."

"Ah crap," Jake panicked placing both his hands on his head as he saw her in a state of blood went cold seeing this with his gut sinking with disgust feeling sick like this.

"Those are my cadets, those kids are still out there" Nate muttered, putting his fist against his mouth as Jules stared without even daring to look away as she covered her lips with her fingers.

"Our causes is much greater than ever," The Zealot continued. "Our prayers to the gods have been answered! We shall rain hell on the heretics that dare defie our gods and bring them to true justice and salvation! The Pan Pacific Defence Corp will be burnt down! We must take to the streets! Cry for the gods to come to deliver our future to us all! Call for them to cleanse our world free of sin for those who pray! A prefect utopia!"

"Bollocks!" Jules protested, her throat choked and nearly given out.

"Please stop this, it's just too sick to even listen to," Jake stated the obvious to the hypnotised Nate.

With or without ease,the zealot pointed at the kneeling cadets. "These heretics have defined the god's creation to salvation! They will be punished for their isolate. They will have their heads cut off."

Unhesitatingly, two other zealots grabbed Amara by her ruffled hair with full force and aggressively dragged her closer to the camera.

"These sinners will answer for their defiance!" With a hand gripping her chin as Amara closed as more tears streaked down her scarred cheeks. "For every fallen saviour from the Anteverse! We will burn all the shatterdomes across the Pacific and those who bear the symbol of the PPDC will be beheaded! We will not back down without a fight! This is a message to the PPDC, let the kaiju cleanse the world or else; you shall witness the beheadings of these heretics, your own puppets! However, we demand 14 billions dollars for their safe return. You have 24 hours for the money, or your cadets will be shipped home in pieces."

And with that, the video came to an abrupt halt.

"Fourteen billion dollars?" Jules read the subtitles with dumbstruck horror. "How the hell are we just gonna give away something of that amount? For that matter, what would they want such money for anyway?."

"Doesn't matter anyway, there's no way we're going to negotiate with any amount of money for innocent lives," Jake put his foot down. "But we're going to take the fight to them."


Meanwhile, somewhere in Hong Kong, a limousine with a convoy of lorries headed onward through a desolate road and the bleak night atmosphere into the glistening city. Within one of the lorries, contained hostages held against their will by terrorists; Cadets of the PPDC, including Amara.

Tied up and restrained, she glanced at the rest of her friends kept down by the sides of the truck struggling against their taped arms in the dark. Amara closed her eyes and quietly prayed for Jake and the rest of the PPDC to find them.

In the limo, a nervous Herman was next to Newt still smiling as he was engaging in some important work on a tablet screen. Herman glanced at the Priestess in front of her watching a digital model of a machinery like a quatrain cylinder displayed above her panel outline with data and pixels to calculate the opening of the breach.

Herman sighed and gazed at his new crane given to him, wondering how he would be able to get back the students, especially her. He had to warn Jake, if not the entire PPDC, of what may be coming or waiting for them.

Credits to H.R.C Stanley for editing