Chapter 2: Trials of Deja vu
Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA
April 4th, 2019, 9:02
It was a morning to remember for the Marines and the Navy, the shooting range and combat trials were set and the units were in place to kick things off. MechaGirain was taken out of her hangar by the caterpillar platform and out in broad daylight for all to see. The sun shined down on her albino white color, its ray reflected her splendid appearance across the island like a diamond. Her blue optics flared up and MechaGirain took a few seconds to pan around and observe her surrounding. Her blue tinted world view recorded a world of tropical paradise, a rock on the middle of the largest continuous ocean in the world with some the highest tourist density ever record. The wind was blowing against her back, a sign of good fortune for ancient warriors, she ran a quick check on her weapons and control systems and thankfully for her, all of her weapons were mounted and loaded with training ammos.
"Girain come in. Come in, do you read me?" She immediately opened her communication channel and reply to Jason. "Hearing you loud and clear Jason. How is it looking?" She asked while keeping a watchful eye around her immediate surrounding. "The combat tests are about to kick start, you might want to head over to Ford Island. I'm uploading the waypoints to your AR now, just don't crush anything along the way." At the last bit, Jason sounded rather concerned, she let out a virtual sigh before confirming her AR waypoints. "Don't worry, I'll leave the Arizona intact, for now." Jason felt the chilling cold grip of fear on his neck as MechaGirain began to venture by herself out of the Nichols Point area. He twirled his pen in his hand and clenched his teeth as she entered the water of Pearl Harbor.
The sailors and Marines all watch in awe as MechaGirain waded across the water unfazed; normally they would have to remotely guide a robot to cross a certain type of terrain, sans UAV, this time, they get to see a fully automated machine capable of making decision by itself and move across terrains on legs. Something that put America's drone fleet to shame. The ground shook and rumble as MechaGirain made headway ashore, Marines and Naval servicemen and women steer themselves clear of the runway as she position herself on the edge of the runway. Her arms were eased up as she relax herself in position, waiting for the trial to begin while crowds of curious Americans surround the demonstration ground with their cameras and smart phone switched on to take as many photos as possible.
"Ladies and gentlemen, today we welcome the Corps brand new weapon platform to help us meet and answer the threats of an ever changing security environment. Athena, the Anti-Megalosaurus Mecha designed by Raven PMC as part of America's ongoing efforts to protect our interests and keep our citizens safe." The Marine Commandant began his speech as the crowd respond with a thunderous applause. Excitement fill the air as the atmosphere turned jubilant for the spectators, but it was greeted with a cold indifferent from MechaGirain, who looked on with contempt for the humans underneath. "But this is not the only mecha unit the Corps gonna have, in fact, thanks to the hard work and efforts made by the workers at Raven PMC, we were able to procure two units instead of one, and it's arriving now."
Almost on cue, the thunderous sound of rotor blades filled the air as heavily modified VTOL transports airlifted in a MechaGodzilla unit similar in every way to MechaGirain. The crowd gasped and oohed at its sight; a MechaGodzilla model with purple armor, green eyes, its rows of dorsal spines have green tipped spine plates along with some patterns on its chassis (Basically think the Kiryu figure with EVA-01 color scheme). Once the MechaGodzilla was settled down next to MechaGirain, she finally got a chance to inspect her so called "Partner" up close, this one doesn't seem to have any of her missile packs, save for an oral Maser Canon, wrist mounted auto canons, highly sharp talons and nothing else to speak of. "Doesn't seem like a combat heavy unit. But this thing is clearly designed to fight anything and everything, up close and personal." She thought.
"Presenting to you, Hera, the second unit for the United States Marine Corps new Anti Megalosaurus Command. In conjunction with Athena, these two autonomous units are designed to take on and win any Large Terrestrial, Extraterrestrial Organism or LTEO and win. Athena is our heavy firepower unit, designed and armed with a large stockpile of weapons to defilade or suppress their targets while Hera swoop in and land the finishing blow." The Commandant continued, proudly boasting of their capabilities, feeding the spectators with even more electrifying exuberant. But for MechaGirain, she can feel eerie sense of unease building up just by standing next to Hera unit, there was a feeling of deja vu as if she was reliving some of her most dreaded memories, this time with the entire world freely witnessing.
First a set of waypoints was set up for the two Mecha units to direct them out into the open waters of the Pacific Ocean, where a rows of decommissioned ships were anchored for them to destroy. MechaGirain swam up to stand off range and fired her missiles at the tactical command ships, destroying her targets in an instant. But while she was engaging from long range, Hera swam in close and rip apart the ships with oral Masers Canon, electrified Talons and even worse, a wrist launched whip that can catch and electrified any targets saved for MechaGirain as she was designed to be the partner of Hera. The crowds roared in excitement as the decommissioned ships were sunk with ease in a grand spectacle display of firepower that will drive the Romans drool on their knees.
As Hera hack and slash its way through the fleet of surface targets, Jason detected anomalies with the mech's display of aggression, it moved with the speed and ferocity of an animal and strike with the commanding precision of a machine and conviction of a human. Before MechaGirain's own electronic eyes, she saw Hera's grand target, a decommissioned Destroyer, was frozen at the bottom of the ship by what appeared to be an Absolute Zero Dagger piercing through the metal hull and froze the ship into a block of ice. Upon freezing its target, Hera then jab her fist into the focal point of ice block and smash the ship into billions of fragments with two large mass sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
Once the two mecha units were on the ground again, Marines and Naval Personnel had recorded their outstanding combat performance further cementing their adoption into the USMC. "Hera is armed with electric claws, meant to stun an opponent with swipes and grips before finishing them off with death blow. It's also equipped with a wrist launched electro whip, capable of catching a distant opponent and reel them in. And last but not least, the latest advancements in directed energy weapon, the Cryogenic Blades." Hera instantly drew its blade from the wrist mounted auto canons, the blade tips radiate cryogenic energy similar to the AZC of MechaGirain and Kiryu, a magnificent feat to behold.
"With these blades Hera can quickly and effectively stun and cripple an enemy, leaving vulnerable in one place to be finished off by either Athena or Hera." The jubilant crowd clapped their hands, applauding the advancements of their military, but that wasn't the end of the field demonstration, a heavily modified and enlarged V-22 Osprey landed near the Commandant, its ramp was opened to disembark the passengers, a Marine Major with flight uniforms and his lieutenants came off from the aircraft to see the excitement up close and introduce himself to the Americans. Be mused and ecstatic to see the face of their hero, they silently wait for the Caucasian to introduce himself.
"Thank you all for coming here today to witness this magnificent display brute force and raw firepower under the strategic and tactical guidance of our military. I'm Major Richard Glasgow, I served in the Marines aviation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan, and today, I am here commanding our nation first ever robotic defense force." That name, Glasgow, it brought to mind the memories of neglect and marginalized existence Girain had to endure under Emilia Glasgow, now seeing her son being her Overseer serve to elevate her to new height of fury. "So this is the one who will control me. He better watch himself before I decided to stomp him like a cockroach." MechaGirain thought, to her, Richard was just another biological product of Emilia's love life, it would be of no surprise for MechaGirain to assume he is every bit as deplorable as his mother was.
The way he smugly display his winning smile to Americans and proudly advertise his medals and accomplishments to the public to justify the 'Love the winner' mentality of Americans. Not to mention his blond hair was an obvious nod to how foolish this man could be when being pushed by the right force and under the right circumstances. As the introduction of Richard Glasgow came to a close, the Marines Commandant came back to the podium and wrap up the ceremony. "Thank you Maj. Glasgow, with the military trials showing the potentials of Athena and Hera, the USMC has unanimously declared the adoption of the two mecha units and the official commission of our Anti Megalosaurus Command Headquartered in San Francisco, California. We pledge to protect the American way of life for all generations to come."
As the ceremony came to a close, the two mechas let out a deafening roar, showing their triumphant achievements to the public and military as well as government officials. As MechaGirain let out an eerie, almost Godzilla like roar, Hera let out a mechanical, metallic, alien roar. To the public, who were dazzled by the sound, they didn't pay much attention to the glaringly obvious details of something can and will go wrong with one of the two. The roaring sounds alone can be interpreted as a warning sign that one of the two was a self aware machine, capable of making decisions on her own.
Once the day came to a close and MechaGirain was back to her hangar along side Hera, the Marines and Naval Personnel retrieve the combat record to analyze the tactics, strategies and implementation for the two mecha units. Jason was back in his room, enjoying his down time and reviewing the reports he would submit to the military higher ups. But as he was working on his laptop, someone was knocking on the door of his dorm. "Come in!" He said. The open swung open and it was Richard at the door step, visiting Jason for some reasons, the programmer was of course, caught off guard and was curious at the sudden drop in. "Oh hey sir, I didn't know you were coming. So what's up?" He said casually, ignoring the military formality, but Richard didn't mind that, in fact, Jason didn't see any formality burning in the Major's eyes at all.
"You're Jason Brody, aren't you? I heard from my CO and your company representatives that you worked with my mother sometimes ago." Jason stuttered once he heard the mentioning of Emilia by Richard, he sweat and struggle to keep a straight face as his memories of those life threatening moments on Monster Island resurfaces. "Y...Ye...Yeah, I worked with Emilia, couple of years back, ten years to be exact." Richard's head faced downward, he rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger, frustrated and disturbed by news of her death. "You see, I'm told by the now defunct GDF/GDI whatever their name was that my mother was killed on Monster Island due to a malfunctioning Mecha. One of which I am controlling at this moment. I'm also told that you're familiar the most with how they work, so I figure asking you a few questions would be prudent." Jason sighed once he learned of the Major's intentions, not malicious but still unnerving nevertheless.
"Well let's just say, there was a little bit of problem programming the mecha unit, I worked with Athena, they didn't tell there was a second one. I told them it would take forever to get the programming for the DNA computer right. But they would have none of it. All they want was it can be done and must be done, so I was pressed to get it finished at the risk of having everyone's lives threaten." Jason condensed version of what happened help simplified some of the problems but not by a longshot. He conveniently glossed over the fact that he knew the DNA computer was a double edged sword to begin with.
"And due to malfunction, it ran wild and my mother was caught in the cross fire? Bullshit." Richard booed Jason's explanation, showing his suspicions to the civilian contractor. Disdained and fearful for his life, Jason tried to reason and bend the truth to his favor, even if it was just to throw Richard off his scent. "Well, the point is, the DNA computer was not my strongest suite, sure I might know how to program it. But there are a lot of kinks we don't know about. I told them they should just hired someone else with better qualification than me, but they said they were cutting expenses and I was cheap enough for the job."
He shrugged, keeping himself looking innocent in Richard's eyes. The Major himself couldn't find any other way to pry information from the contractor so he pulled the plug on the interrogation session. "Look, I know you're hiding something. I don't know what, but I am going to get to the bottom of it and find out for myself. If you're hiding the truth, then watch your asses." Richard left Jason's dorm, furious at the lack of knowledgeable revelations, but that won't stop him. Not by a longshot, he'll find out what happened to Emilia even if it's the last thing he would do. But for now, they will have to prepare themselves for the move to San Francisco.