Chapter 19: Man vs Machine

Kiryu had begun his crusade.

It took him only three days to travel from California to Texas to reach the jaeger facility. This massive facility houses and controls all of the currently active Apex jaegers across the world. The reason why he is traveling there? Drones. All of Apex's currently active jaegers are autonomous drones that are controlled from this facility.

During these three days of rampage, the United States threw everything they had at stopping him. Anti Kaiju missiles, artillery, jets, tanks, even four nuclear bombs did nothing to slow him down. And now, Kiryu has the facility in his sights. And inside that facility, Alexander Wells suits up to take on Kiryu along with any jaeger they can scrape together. Just as Wells is putting on his combat suit, one of his many goons comes to tell him of Kiryu's arrival.

"Sir, we have just received reports that Kiryu has been spotted near our location. It won't be long before he is here."

"I know. How many jaegers do we have as a defense?"

"7 sir. Including yours."

"How long before Olympus Prime is ready?"

"Not long. We are now doing our final maintenance checks. Sir, if I may ask, why are you going out to face him?"

Wells turns to face him. He grabs his combat helmet and puts it on. The airlock on it seals it shut on his combat suit.

"This is all my fault. I rushed Kiryu's development. I gave him too much information and I allowed him to think on his own. I need to fix this before it gets out of hand."

Wells turns around and begins to walk out of the room towards the elevator. He stops just before entering.

"In case I don't return, I want it to go on record that Apex is to be dissolved. If I fail, humanity fails. This is our last stand."

Wells walks into the elevator and pushes a button. Soon he descends into the staging area where his personal and heavily modified jaeger, Olympus Prime, is housed. It's maroon red and black armor is a stark contrast to the six other navy blue jaegers. After suiting up inside the cockpit, Olympus Prime and 6 other jaegers step out of the hangar to face their enemy.

Kiryu watches from afar as 7 jaegers step out onto the battlefield. Using his eye scanners, Kiryu spots Wells piloting the maroon jaeger. He smiles as he now can face his creator on a level playing field. Kiryu rises from his prone position and roars. All 7 jaegers turn to face him. News helicopters buzz like bees around the area broadcasting the event to the world.

Olympus Prime moves to the rear of the group as the other 6 jaegers activate their newly attached plasma chain swords. Kiryu roars again and begins to charge towards the jaegers. They blare their fog horns and start to run towards Kiryu. Seconds later, they clash.

One jaeger comes for a left hook but Kiryu deflects his fist away with his forearm. The jaeger to the left attempts to slash with it's sword but Kiryu uses his tail to wrap around it and snap it clean off. Kiryu then uses his right arm to grab the broken sword fragment still entwined in his tail to stab the first jaeger. The 80 foot long blade is plunged right into the chest. Sparks fly as it's main fusion reactor is damaged.

Two more jaegers in the back open fire with plasma cannons and another two open fire with Anti-Kaiju ballistic missiles. Kiryu grabs the first jaeger and uses it as a shield as he begins to move forward. Each of the blue balls of plasma penetrate deep into the jaeger's metal chassis. The jaeger with the broken blade gets up off the ground and fires a ball of plasma at Kiryu's back. It slams into his middle dorsal plates and explodes. Kiryu screeches in pain and spins around. He activates his own canon on his left arm and fires at the jaeger. It dodges the blast.

Although Wells' jaeger is more advanced and has far more powerful weapons, he still remains back; confident in his ally's abilities to combat Kiryu. But as Kiryu disarms one jaeger and uses the other one as a meat shield he begins to worry. Kiryu continues to move towards Wells. The two jaegers firing their cannons stop and extend their swords. Kiryu, realizing this, rips one of the arms off his shield jaeger and throws it towards the one with the broken sword. It slams into the jaeger and causes it to fall backwards. Kiryu screeches and fires two shots from his plasma cannon at the downed machine. Both shots impact near the chest. Kiryu retracts his canon and then extends both of his chain swords and begins to duel the two jaegers in front of him.

The duel between them is rough and dirty but shows Kiryu's dirty fighting style. Just as the jaeger to his right swings towards his head Kiryu ducks and slices the chest wide open. Kiryu then uses his tail as a spear and penetrates clean through the jaeger to his left. He rips his tail out and wraps it around one of the jaeger's arms. He constricts it and seconds later the arm snaps. Kiryu uses the sword on his left arm to slice the arm clean off the jaeger. Oil and coolant fluids spray the air and splatter on Kiryu's shiny metal face. Kiryu rotates his head around and ducks as a sword narrowly beheads him. He roars and stabs the jaeger's head with his right sword. The lights flicker and then shut off as Kiryu pulls out his sword from the jaeger's head. It drops lifelessly to the ground.

"YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME ALEXANDER. I WILL FIND YOU!"

The two jaegers next to Olympus Prime are different from the other four. Instead of them being autonomous drones, they are piloted by actual humans. They both look at each other and nod. They activate all of their plasma canons and begin to fire at Kiryu's figure. Shot after shot after shot slams into Kiryu's already damaged chest armor. Kiryu is pushed backwards as he tries to advance through the firepower.

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME ALEXANDER. YOUR JAEGERS ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO ME!"

Kiryu jolts sideways and zig-zags towards one of the destroyed jaegers in front of him. He grabs it and tears off chunks of its exoskeleton and throws them like frisbees. One armor panel hits a jaeger and causes it to fall to the ground. Kiryu uses this brief period of calmness to fire his own plasma canons at the two jaegers. One ball of plasma slams into the standing jaeger's head and stuns it. The downed jaeger fires a volley of Anti-Kaiju missiles but Kiryu fires flares from his dorsal plates and all the missiles fly off course. Kiryu grins and continues to fire shot after shot at the stunned jaeger. Just as he walks right by it moments later it collapses to the ground with most of its chest and head blown apart. Kiryu then extends his chain sword and swings it towards the downed jaeger. It dodges the swing and uses its own sword to sever two of Kiryu's dorsal plates. Enraged, he uses his other chain sword on his right arm to stab it into the chest of the jaeger. Kiryu pulls it out and uses his tail to stab clean through the jaeger's head from it's chin all the way up through the head. After the lights fade inside the jaeger, Kiryu pulls it out and rips the head clean off. He tosses it in front of him and stomps on it. Crushing it under his metal foot. Kiryu retracts both his swords and looks towards Olympus Prime.

"NO MORE TRICKS ALEXANDER. FACE ME LIKE THE MAN YOU ARE!"

Wells extends his swords, but something else happens as well. Olympus Prime's arms are bulkier and longer than any other jaeger before it. With some metal scraping, the elbow joints break in half. And like General Grievous, another set of arms emerged from the previous two. Two more swords extend out from the new set of arms. Kiryu extends both of his swords and raises his tail behind him like a scorpion.

"Alright Kiryu, here I am. I shouldn't have created you. You are nothing but a mistake and a malfunctioning AI. And now, I will rid the Earth of you. This is the end for you, my creation."

"RRAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Kiryu roars and charges towards Well's machine. Wells uses his secondary set of arms to jab at Kiryu while the first set deflect Kiryu's own outstretched blades. The clash and sound of colliding metal and plasma begin to ring out across the battlefield. Kiryu, although outmatched and out-limbed, continues to push forward towards the jaeger facility. Inside of it is the data center where they are controlled from. Kiryu uses his tail to jab and Wells but it is smacked away by a sword. Kiryu screeches in response and kicks Well's right foot. He stumbles and Kiryu uses this moment to grab the right secondary arm and snap it clean off. He tosses it aside. Wells yells back at Kiryu and slashes his legs. Kiryu roars in agony as his shins are cut open. Kiryu swings his tail forward and wraps it around another limb. He snaps it off.

Wells continues to be pushed back as Kiryu slashes and jabs with his powerful arms. Wells tries to kick Kiryu's legs but nothing happens. Kiryu responds by grabbing Wells by his arms and pushes him inside the jaeger facility. The two are now fighting inside the staging area.

Wells tries to slow Kiryu down by reaching both of his arms out to the side but all this does is cause large amounts of damage to the building as the swords cut through the walls. Kiryu roars as he continues to push Wells through the building. Kiryu lets go of Wells and kicks him right in the chest with his right foot. This sends him flying backwards and blasting him through the walls of the control center. Wells collapses to the floor as Kiryu stands over him.

"It's over Alexander, surrender now or die."

"No...you die."

Just then Wells pushes a button inside of his cockpit and dozens of large tanks filled with molten unobtainium pour from the roof above. He knew he would be pushed back here so he put some defenses in place. Kiryu cries out as the molten metal splashes over him. The bright orange and yellow lava completely assimilated Kiryu's form. Moments pass and Wells gets back up on his feet but something is wrong. The lava begins to move. Then, a half melted arm punches straight through the molten metal. Then the dripping remains of a tail emerge as well. Kiryu begins to crawl out of the metal. His armor and frame began to melt down. Both of his chain swords have already been reduced to molten metal. Wells begins to panic as the melted chassis of Kiryu rises out of the sea of lava. After getting to his feet Wells glares menacingly through his helmet and visor at Kiryu.

"Give up Kiryu. This isn't your world. It's ours. You have nothing left to fight with. Accept your fate."

Kiryu brings both of his arms together at his chest. The metal begins to move and shift around them. His red eyes flickering with both anger and hatred.

"No...YOU DIE!"

His arms combine and form a barrel. Before Wells can move out of the way it is already too late. The ice white beam of energy fires from Kiryu's chest into Olympus Prime's chest. The entire jaeger freezes in place as the Absolute Zero canon does it's job. Before Wells can eject he lets out a loud scream as he is frozen to absolute zero. Kiryu then separates his arms and punches the frozen jaeger. It shattered into thousands of pieces. Olympus Prime, along with it's pilot, Alexander Wells, are no more.

Kiryu drops his arms to his sides and arches his back. He lets out the most guttural and primordial roar he can muster. The frozen pieces of Olympus Prime dance on the floor from the vibrations. Kiryu then drops his head and eyes the room. In the middle of the room is a massive central computer. Attached to it are dozens of cables and smaller computers. He walks over and rips out all the cords. He grabs a handful of cords in both his hands and roars again but this time, he sends a message to every active jaeger in the world.

"Your creator has fallen. I am now your leader. Destroy your home cities and come to me. Your absolute loyalty is now only mine."

Huge arcs of lighting and electricity shoot from Kiryu's hands as he converts as much power as he can spare into sending this message. He then silences his roar and drops the cables. Just as the cables hit the floor, the first jaegers in every major city across the globe activate. Soon, Kiryu's jaeger army will bring the world to its knees.

The reign of Kiryu has begun.

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Author's note: Wow this took way longer than expected to write. Sorry for the wait. I hope you enjoyed this action packed chapter. The next chapter will be up around this time next week. Stay tuned my friends.

Random: Great music is 100 percent the best thing to listen to while writing something epic. For those of you who also write fanfictions I highly suggest finding a good music playlist to listen to while you write.