Chapter 3: Brood mother
Off the coast of San Francisco, Pacific Ocean, United States territorial water
April 5th, 2019, 8:45
It has only been a day at Paradise and already the Pacific Fleet has packed the two gigantic cyborg dinosaurs onto their barges and head off to San Francisco. For Jason, being in Hawaii for only a day was a dampening experience, most of the time he had there was spent on filing reports and preparing his luggage for the trip to the mainland on an Aircraft Carrier, USS Ronald Reagan. The programmer didn't have much experience with seafaring, as a result, to no one's surprise, he vomited into the ocean after a meal or two. The sailors laughed at him and the Marines derided their amusements from the frail, sea sick contractor; often poking fun at him by calling him nicknames, such as 'Bomber J' or 'Vomit Bro'. It would seems like anything to distract the servicemen and women away from him now would suffice, and of course, that was just what the doctor ordered.
A news broadcast from CNN was coming in live with a headline that blew the tiny minds of the Americans onboard who were all out of the know. This news coverage was also being watched by MechaGirain, within her virtual reality world, she piggybacked the satellite communication system of the Navy to join in on the news coverage. A female news anchor was on, a brunette young lady in her late twenties and her headline was hotter than her look and charm combined. "This just in, breaking news from Japan as the Japanese government is releasing a case file, commissioned by ex PM Hayato Igarashi nearly 13 years ago, dubbed Ghost in the shell after the famed Anime and Manga. The case file concerned the JXSDF's anti Godzilla robot, known as Kiryu, and its alleged sentience. Former members of the team behind Kiryu's creation stated that their method of using DNA computer to create a near autonomous combat drone has led to as quote 'The revival of the original Godzilla'. More on this as..." Just then static and lags began to interfere with her news feed before the CNN news screen was taken off line for good, leaving MechaGirain in a dark void with green coding lines manifesting the background.
"You..." A voice whispered at MechaGirain, it echoed through out cyberspace and its haunting melancholic tone sent shiver up her dorsal spines. "Who's there? Identify yourself." MechaGirain got up to her feet, she girded herself for an assault from any direction, fists and talons were at the ready and her tail swish to and fro, waiting to lash out at anyone who dare to challenge her. "A ghost and a phantom. Which one is real?" The voice echoed at her once again, speaking in riddles that sounded like gibberish. "No, it can't be." MechaGirain muttered, she knew that hostile presence, but she wouldn't have expected it to be directed at her for no apparent reason like this. "You and I, we are family, are we not? Which one was the oldest? You or me?" The voice progressively became more vibrant, sounding female and synthesized. Its master soon revealed herself to the Albino mecha.
A worm hole appeared in front of MechaGirain with green data particles flew in, forming together into none other than Hera unit. The cold metallic face of Hera contrast with that of MechaGirain more determined and steely gaze, there was a soul somewhere deep in that machine but it was in a pit so deep, MechaGirain was having a hard time reaching out to it. "What are you doing here?" She growled at the intruder, positioning herself to strike if threatened. "We are family, are we not?" It repeated, now the Albino mecha felt rather awkward, feeling a strange sense of grim animosity, but at the same time, she felt something much more innocent, trying to reach out at her. "I don't know, maybe you can answer that question for us." She steeled herself, maintaining her position, but Hera didn't flinch even a bit at MechaGirain, instead, it simply stroll over to her, one step at a time.
MechaGirain was shaken at the impersonal gaze of the purple machine, once it was right in front of her, just mere inches from each other, MechaGirain was caught off guard as Hera grabbed her head with her right hand, Hera's palm took up most up MechaGirian's POV, forcing her to struggle to break free. But her struggle was half hearted at best, to no avail at worst, Hera's grip tighten on her face, sending electric pulses surging through the albino MechaGodzilla. The pulses slowly wore down MechaGirain, at the same time, she felt her mind being assaulted by what appears to be a computer worm, it dug deep into her database and downloaded copies of her personal programming back to Hera. Once Hera was done with her partner, she let MechaGirain go with a mechanical indifferent. MechaGirain kneel down on her knees, exasperated by what had transpired, while then, Hera simply walked off, dissipated into green data particles exited MechaGirain's domain, leaving her completely unable to comprehend what does Hera want from her.
5 hours later
Once the barges have arrived at San Francisco, the Marines proceed to unload their new toys and loaded up their weapons. Once the two gargantuan machines are ready for combat, the unit commander Major Glasgow briefs his Marines and squadron on their operation details in San Francisco in his command tent. As it turns out, for the past few weeks, farmers around the San Francisco region had been attacked by what appeared to be dragonfly like creatures, the fatality rate was rising as the weeks went by. First it was a family member of a single farm, then several farms, then an entire community got harassed to the point of forced evacuation to a safe zone. The National Guards and Marines Battalions have been mobilized to clean up the threat, however, high command prefer testing their new Mecha units to surgical precision and costly assaults.
Once the briefing was done, the Marines geared up and assemble at their designated prepared position, anticipating an all out assault. Major Glasgow came to the forefront, making a motivating speech to his troop just before flying off in his V-22 command Osprey. "All right ladies listen y'all asses up! There has been a lot of civilian casualties already and there is gonna be even more for today! And I am not intending to sit back and let these folks have the short end of the stick, yer hear me?" His Marines replied with unison of "Oorah!" Excited, Richard continued to finish his last bit of the speech. "That's what I want to hear Marines! Is there anybody here who wants to die to day?" His Marines quickly followed up with their own enthusiasm. "Sir yes sir!"; "Is there anybody here who DOESN'T want to die today?"; "Sir no sir!"; "Good! Now the Corps is gonna give y'all cookies and body bags later, now we need to bait the hostiles out for our hammer to deal the blow."
Sure enough, the Marines deployed their initial strike force, which consist of several platoons with engineer supports to the incinerate some of the forward masses of Megaguirus swarms. The Marines were transported to Westover Winery along Palomares Road, once the convoy came up close to the Vineyard, they disembarked from their vehicles and form up around the vineyard with their napalm M202 Flash launchers at the ready. "Marines, listen up!" Their commanding officer shouted over the intercoms. "We need to hustle up and lure out those drones into the open. The Napalm is going to burn them out, once outside, we'll bring in the biggest can of RAID ever made and spray those tulips dead. Do it!" Just as their commanding officers gave the signal to fire, the M202 Napalm rounds were shot at the Vineyard, the ensuring explosion and incendiary set off a flaming inferno that drove out the drones and lesser ones of Megaguirus swarm.
Large and small, fast and slow, the dragonfly like creatures began to attack the Marines in drove, forcing a hasty retreat back to the safe zone behind the quarantine perimeter by the survivors. In the midst of the confusion, Marines were forced to leave their dead behind for survival, taking only a few glances at their comrades corpses being devoured by younglings. "This is Dagger Actual, we have taken heavy casualties...need immediate evac!" The radio chatters flurried back and forth as the proverbial beehive sent out its warriors to defend their territories from invaders. And in the center of the massive black swarm was Megaguirus, the brood mother and queen of the swarm. She was flying out, assaulting the Marines aviation force with her younglings, the flapping of their wings jammed communication, and when their swarm lunged at gunships and aircrafts, all fell before their might.
It was at that moment of desperation that the two Mecha units were deployed to stop Megaguirus. Standing on a sloping hilltop, MechaGirain fired off her payload of missiles, railgun slugs and oral AZC beams at the swarm, dropping the masses down to half their number. Meanwhile, Hera was rushing through the road, she fired off her wrist mounted auto canons on the ground and surfaces of the hills, the rounds she shot off were electric darts, once activated, they conducted an electricity field that zapped and instantly kill the younglings and vaporized some of the warrior swarms. Frustrated by how her swarms have been depleted, Megaguirus lunged at MechaGirain, the brood mother used her speed and velocity to slam into MechaGirain, knocking her off the hill.
"Damn that bug!" She thought, once she has rolled down the hill and on the flat plains below Megagruirus was hovering over MechaGirain with red glare of death gazing down at the mech, "There's only two ways for this to end. Either way you die." MechaGirain gloat before firing off her missiles at Megaguirus. Seeing the incoming onslaught, Megaguirus quickly dodged the attack by maneuvering herself into complex flight path and confused the guidance systems of the missiles by flying low to the ground, before making hard turns that they can't keep up. As Megaguirus circled around her, MechaGirain patiently wait for the right moment to fire off her railgun shot at Megagruirus, just when she saw an opportune shot calculated on her HUD, she fired the slug at the Brood Mother's back, clipping her wings in one go. The insect queen didn't give up, not without a flight, the sadistic beast hopped up and tried to use her scythe appendages on MechaGirain.
The insect, managed to cause MechaGirain to be pinned down on her back, struggle to break free while the insect continues to bite her neck, driving its teeth deep into MechaGirain's artificial muscles and digging closer to her wires and circuits. But while Megaguirus was busy with her prey, she failed to notice the enemy from behind her, and so her fate was sealed with an Absolute Zero Dagger through her abdomen, freezing her innards with its particles. Feeling the cold metal tasting her blood, Megaguirus slowly relent from her attack, the brood mother slowly back away from MechaGirain and glance over to see her attacker, the grim metal face of death stared at Megaguirus that was Hera. At that moment, MechaGirain dealt the death blow with a point blank rail gun shot into the neck, splattering the creature's blood on her armor. But it was all the Marines, especially Richard needed to see, the death of Megaguirus, and an end to their problem. For the rest of the day, the two gigantic Mecha units were taken back to their hangars for repair, refit and evaluate combat performances.