Vile Bile
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Chapter 16 – Vile Bile
The howling of the night air rushing past Castle Bravo’s conpod was thankfully blocked by the thick steel walls of the pilot’s cocoon. They were both silently thankful for this, the steady thump of the rotary’s blades and the occasional quiet beep as Castle Bravo’s sensors picked up an ionised particle in the air was enough already to set them on edge. The pervading darkness was doing little to help, the wind had died down but a massive blanket of dark clouds blotted out the moon and stars. There thankfully wasn’t any rain yet but if the occasional faint flash of lightning in the distance was any indication, it probably wasn’t far off. After their suitably impressive entrance at the shatterdome it hadn’t been hard to persuade the griffons to take them, they were a proud race but even they weren’t completely stupid.
The Jaeger’s radio occasionally picked up an odd stream from the griffon pilots, banter that drifted back and forth meaninglessly to the two pilots. Even if either of them could’ve understood their language of their transporters, neither would’ve probably paid it much heed. Compared to the fairly relaxed attitude that they’d approached their simulated combat drills some hours earlier, both of Castle Bravo’s pilots were on edge. Misty had run the same systems diagnosis twelve times now and Lightning Streak was staring somewhat vacantly at a small flashing icon on the conpod’s display.
“System scan complete, all systems nominal.” The computer hummed coldly in the back of Misty’s helmet. She shuddered slightly at the sound, it was like having ice run down her neck, an unpleasant chill at the base of her spine every time the Jaeger’s computer spoke. What it was exactly that she found unnerving eluded her but the almost glacial temperature it possessed did little to comfort her.
“Misty, give it a break would you?” Lightning Streak complained. “I get it, you’re jumpy.”
“I’m not jumpy.” Misty complained.
Lightning Streak took his eyes off the Jaeger’s scanners for a moment and shot her a sarcastic look. “Sure you aren’t. It’s not like I can feel it you fluttering around like a hummingbird in my head.”
“And you’re not?” Misty sneered back defensively. She didn’t like to admit she was nervous. She hadn’t seen real combat before and the prospect of her first real fight against a skyscraper sized monster seemed a little less appealing now that she was actually on the way to do it.
“Shitting bricks.” Lightning Streak answered with a nervous laugh. “How bad could it be though? We drop in, bash its face a few times and go home, easy stuff right?” He smiled thinly, it was a little pointless as Misty could feel his forced ease through their neural bond, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Yeah, sure.” Misty answered sceptically before retreating to the relative silence of her mind. She was tempted to start another systems check but squelched the order when Lightning Streak conjured up a memory of the overly perfectionist behaviour she tended to exhibit when she was younger
“They weren’t ordered right.” She growled defensively.
“Sure, because everypony orders their dolls, I mean, collectable figures, by date of manufacture.” He shot back wryly.
Before Misty could shoot a reply back the Jaeger’s sensors lit up like a fireworks display. The delicate instruments suddenly looked like a rave party, flashing a cold but insistent blue as the sensors suddenly overloaded with a sudden wealth of data.
“That’s our Kaiju.” Misty summarised as the computer analysed the data and identified the unique mixture of ionised particles and fumes that a Kaiju’s body gave off. The pre-combat jitters were gone, replaced by a cold, machine-like efficiency. This is what they’d trained for and now with something tangible to go off, Misty found herself slightly less worried.
She signalled a change in direction to the rotary crews and the massive transports shifted onto a new heading, following the proverbial trail of breadcrumbs the Kaiju had left.
“I can’t see anything down there.” Lightning Streak piped up, looking down at the ground. A massive fog bank had rolled in, blanketing the ground in a thick layer of vapour. Small hills broke through the fog here and there like an archipelago and the occasional faint glow of a light forced its way through the dense cover. The rotaries dropped lower, the Jaeger’s toes now dangling a little under a hundred metres off the ground. The rotaries turned again with a bowel-clenching shift of gravity, bringing a distant mountain range into view, a rocky wall which jutted up into the sky like a massive impenetrable barrier. The rotaries pitched over a low hill and plunged into a wide, shallow valley.
“How far from the coast is this thing?” Misty asked worriedly. The signal strength was steadily growing as they headed inland, a worrying prospect as they were supposed to be stopping the Kaiju before they dragged their slimy hides up the beach, not after. By her reckoning they were already five or ten kilometres from the coast, much further than any Kaiju had gotten before.
The computer shrilled an alarm, it had a solid return.
“Kaiju signature detected. Category II profile. Designation - Bile.”
“Well there’s your answer.” Lightning Streak muttered, flipping his helmet’s visor down in unison with Misty. A wealth of new data scrawled across their display as the drivesuit synched with the Jaeger’s systems. Misty looked around and felt the servos and pistons in the Jaeger’s neck shift the machine’s head around.
Maybe it was the downwash from the rotaries or maybe a light breeze had picked it up and brushed it away, but the fog bank nestled at the bottom of the valley briefly shifted apart, allowing the two pilots and crews of the rotaries a quick glimpse of a massive tentacle and a slimy, unnaturally pale arm waving around like stalk of wheat in a strong breeze. The fog closed in again as quickly as it had parted and the idle banter which the rotary crews had been enjoying suddenly cut to stunned silence.
“Still think this was a good idea?” Lightning Streak asked quietly as a massive shape started forming in the fog bank like a ghost.
“Too late to back out now. Drop us next to those two silos.” Misty ordered, her gut clenching as the rotaries spun around to deliver them to the designated area. It was almost as if their pilots wanted to get away from the looming shadow as quickly as possible.
“Good luck pony, maybe you come back in one piece, eh?” One of the pilots joked.
Misty resisted the urge to tell him to shut his guinea-trap, there was at least a trace of sincerity in the griffon’s voice. Perhaps the momentary sighting of the Kaiju had sobered him up somewhat. She brushed the thought aside and punched the override for the Jaeger’s harness, disengaging the Jaeger from the transport with a loud whip-crack of steel. She jammed her eyes shut and tried to ignore the fact that her guts felt like they were now somewhere in the crest of the Jaeger’s head. A proximity alarm chimed softly in the back of her helmet, giving her a second to tense up for the inevitable bone jarring impact that was to follow.
Like a drunk navigating the front steps of his drinking hole, Castle Bravo landed awkwardly, slamming into the ground with a squelch of mud and a whine of delicate servos. It was a sloppy landing but the pilots brushed it off, they had only done one air drop in the simulator and that time they had managed to land flat on their face and unlike that time, they couldn’t just reattach themselves to the rotaries and try again. This was for real. They quickly regained their footing in the treacherous ground and powered towards where they’d seen the Kaiju, the nimble Jaeger bounding over a few splintered trees and a small hillock effortlessly as it advanced towards the shifting shadow.
“It’s already been this way.” Lightning Streak observed, pulling his hoof free of the sucking mud with a squelch and a spray of black toxic sludge.
“Must’ve hit a dead end at the end of the valley.” Misty guessed, she couldn't think of any reason why the Kaiju would double back.
Like an airship appearing out of a cloud bank, Bile slowly materialised. It was like watching a crash in slow motion, each moment making a gnawing sense of dread and horror grow in the pilot’s chests. It was the colour of rotting flesh and death, the only blotches of colour a score of bloated pustules of glowing blue that pocked its skin like sores and six eyes that glowed brightly along the side of the Kaiju’s head. A long tongue, glowing like a neon band, lolled out its limp jaw like a puppet with its strings cut, probing and twitching as the Kaiju slowly advanced over the rough landscape. A pair of lanky arms sprouted from the Kaiju’s bloated body, each one tipped with four large tentacles that spasmed around like they had a mind of their own. Its stumpy legs were coils of flesh and skin, blubbery appendages that somehow kept the beat’s considerable weight up. A quartet of large tentacles sprouted from the Kaiju’s back, each one tipped with a row of massive suction pads. The walking horror was dripping as well, a light blue sheen that dripped and oozed its way down the Kaiju and turned everything it touched to a black sludge. The Kaiju’s tongue whipped around, licking over the Kaiju’s rolls of blubbery flesh and along its freakishly long arms, coating its skin with a fresh layer of the dripping mucus. It was an abomination, a walking sack of blood and muscle that defied the very laws of nature. A horror that would cause even the most stalwart of creatures to start gibbering with terror.
And it was marching out of the fog bank, gurgling noisily like a disorderly hoofball fan.
With deliberate slowness, Bile’s head tracked around to face the approaching Jaeger, its tentacles writhing energetically and a low, ominous gurgle coming from its shapeless head. It seemed hilariously awkward, lumbering forth like an unsteady drunk, ready to pitch over at the first sign of trouble. Its skin was slimy and slick, shining like glass under the bright glow of the Jaeger’s searchlights. Misty resisted the urge to gag, it was by far the most disgusting thing she’d ever seen.
“That is just….” Lightning Streak shuddered, his face paling visibly as the Kaiju hauled itself upright and hobbled towards them.
“A face not even a mother could love.” Misty agreed, vaulting the Jaeger over a farmhouse like it was a pebble. They were close enough now to make out a small, unseeing pupil in the centre of the creature’s otherwise flat eyes. Misty got a good look behind the creature, a long putrescent slime trail was snaking behind it, the ground withered and blackened under a faint sheen of what looked like the Kaiju’s mucus. Her observation of the Kaiju was interrupted when it made a vile retching sound and vomited forth a tide of a sickly blue liquid towards the Jaeger. Castle Bravo ducked aside and the trail flew over their shoulder, burning into a copse of trees a hundred metres to their left and leaving nothing more than lumpy black sludge.
“You have so got to die.” Misty snarled, blasting the Jaeger’s foghorn and diving towards the Kaiju.
Bile rose to meet their charge, taking another loping step forward and swinging an arm clumsily at Castle Bravo, its tentacles whipping around in a wide arc. The Jaeger easily dodged the ungainly blow, ducking under the Kaiju’s arm and slipping past Bile’s guard to slam its shoulder into the Kaiju. It was a mighty blow that would have floored any smaller opponent but Bile was massive, and despite its ungainly appearance, was actually rather well balanced.
Bile seemed a little confused as its blubbery flesh rippled and shook. A large discoloured patch of skin started forming where the Jaeger had slammed into the Kaiju but otherwise it seemed unfazed by the blow.
“Oh, this is so going to suck.” Misty said with feeling before the Kaiju’s tentacle whipped back around and clipped Castle Bravo across the back like a disobedient child. Already extended, the Jaeger stumbled forward, tumbling into the Kaiju’s other arm and instantly getting entangled in the Kaiju’s tentacles. The two pilots tried to break free but much to their dismay, Bile had already tightly wrapped its tentacles around the Jaeger’s upper arms. It made a hair-raising gurgle and hurled the Jaeger sideways, still maintaining its iron-like grip on the beleaguered war machine. Like Quillback some months earlier, Castle Bravo was completely at the mercy of its larger opponent, struggling to no avail as the Kaiju shook them violently like a toy.
The Kaiju drew them in closer, its obscene tentacles writhing and wrapping around the Jaeger’s chest like ropes. Misty tried swatting one away but two more quickly took its place, wrapping around the Jaeger’s upper arm and starting to squeeze. Small streaks of what she realised was the creature’s blood started welling up from under Bile’s skin and trickled over the Jaeger’s surfaces, the fresh white paint instantly peeling away in black lumps as the Kaiju’s blood trickled over it.
An alarm started ringing in the back of her helmet as the Kaiju’s tentacles tightened around the Jaeger. Misty groaned uncomfortably, her fur felt like it was being seared away and her blood vessels felt like they popping and bursting beneath her skin. She could feel the Jaeger’s hardened skin slowly melt away as Bile’s noxious secretions wormed its way into the machine’s vitals. Castle Bravo whined and snarled, its powerful arms struggling against Bile’s writhing tentacles. She felt its hold slither over the right forearm and got an idea.
“Overcharge the stingblade’s firing mechanism.” She wheezed as the Jaeger’s chest started crumpling like a tin can. She was worried the series of loud bangs beneath them had drowned out her voice but Lightning Streak was already on it, overriding several safeties and activating the motor at the base of the arm which swung their stingblade into position. While he was doing this, she reached forward for the Jaeger’s cannon controls. Mounted in the Jaeger’s shoulder stabilisers and the chest, Castle Bravo possessed six of the massive 406mm cannons, not dissimilar to the ones found on a battleship. While the Jaeger only carried a handful of shells in reserve, when it ripple fired all six guns at once the results were usually quite spectacular. Now with Bile obligingly holding them right in front of it, there was hardly any chance they’d miss. She forced the doors open, primed the guns and mashed down the firing stud as Lighting Streak fired the stingblade’s engine.
With a roar of servos and cannons, the razor-sharp blade locked into place under the Jaeger’s arm, neatly severing several of the Kaiju’s smaller tentacles and crushing the bulk of its tree-trunk like arm between the massive stingblade and the Jaeger’s wrist as it slammed into place with a sharp crack of metal. The entire Jaeger shook from the impact and Bile instinctively drew back, straight into the path of the six shells. Like Princess Celestia at a pastry shop, the heavy shells tore through the Kaiju. Their armour piercing tips were designed to smash through several inches of solid steel, never mind the Kaiju’s soft, blubbery flesh. Two ripped through Bile’s upper right tentacle, severing it with a spray of blood and a wet squelch. The remaining four crashed into the Kaiju’s chest and along the crest of its head, leaving ugly pock marks and wounds that oozed more of the Kaiju’s glowing blood. It backed off, snarling and gurgling like a broken bubbler, swatting clumsily with its remaining limbs as it reeled around in confusion.
Misty finally got a good look at the damage they had inflicted, one of the Kaiju’s massive tentacles was crushed into paste and all of the smaller appendages sprouting from its back had been sliced clean through or crushed to little more than limp pulp, spraying even more of the Kaiju’s curious luminous blood everywhere. She snarled in approval and activated Castle Bravo’s other stingblade with a press of a button, bringing the Jaeger’s other blade to the ready much more gently. They weren’t playing nice anymore.
Through her connection with her brother she could feel the Jaeger’s right forearm had cracked in several places from the bone-jarring impact but brushed the feeling away to the back of her mind, he was putting up with it so she saw no reason in complaining about it.
Besides, they had bigger things to worry about. Bile was starting to rally, getting its crushed and wildly flailing limb back under control and refocusing its many beady eyes on the limping Jaeger. It took a plodding step towards them, its left arm dragging along the ground and nearly tripping it up as dead parts of it limb got caught in debris. It let out a snarl of frustration, the first tangible noise the Kaiju had made since engaging them, reached around with its good arm and ripped its other damaged arm off at the elbow.
“Shit, it just pulled its own arm off!” Lighting Streak stammered as the Kaiju tossed its now useless limb aside, more of its glowing lifeblood pouring out of the fresh wound it had inflicted on itself.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” Misty snarked, wishing he’d focus on maintaining their stance rather than gawping at the relentless Kaiju. Castle Bravo took an unsteady step forward, its engines and tortured gears complaining as Misty forced it upright. The fragile Jaeger probably only had a few more minutes left in it before something vital gave. “Now stand up and let’s finish this bastard off before we fall over.”
He made a pained expression but helped her force the Jaeger back up to its full, unimpressive height. They took another step forward, crushing a tree which had miraculously survived Bile’s toxic mucus to splinters and swung low with their good stingblade, aiming at taking off Bile’s last arm at the shoulder. The Kaiju tried stepping back from the strike but it was too slow to get entirely out of the way. The sharpened blade cutting through its blubbery skin like butter. Another torrent of blood spilled down the beast’s gut as the blade tore up through its chest, finishing just short of its shoulder. The Kaiju let out another gurgle and swung its remaining arm around like a club, smashing the crippled Castle Bravo sideways like an umbrella in a gust of wind. The Jaeger managed to remain on its feet though and rolled with the blow, allowing it to counter by shifting its weight slightly to rip Bile’s remaining arm out of its socket with a sickening pop. While the move would’ve simply dislocated most creature’s arms, Bile seemed to simply fall apart at the seams and a veritable tidal wave of Kaiju Blue swamped the battlefield, joining the already considerable stream which was still pouring down Bile’s chest and neck.
“Damn, where is this all coming from?” Lightning Streak yelped, using Bile’s considerable mass as a refuge from the rising tide. The small Jaeger scrambled up its opponent’s back, forcing its way onto the Kaiju’s broken shoulders and struggling to maintain its grip as the now armless Kaiju flailed wildly to shake them loose. More of the creature’s toxic blood splattered over the Jaeger, eating away voraciously at the machine’s already damaged armour. Misty felt the right leg’s motors give out before the auxiliary snapped into life. They were on borrowed time now.
“Screw this!” She snarled, plunging the Jaeger’s good stingblade into the crest of the Kaiju’s skull, aiming for one of the shell craters their previous barrage had made. There was brief moment of resistance before the creature’s head split in two, what passed for the beast’s brain matter spilling out in a surge of bright blue toxic goop. Misty groaned in disgust and with every last ounce of strength she could muster, pulled the blade free and kicked off the Kaiju’s back. Castle Bravo was airborne for a moment, the once graceful and sleek Jaeger sailing over the rapidly expanding lake of toxic sludge which still poured out from the dying Kaiju before slamming into the ground with an impact that was felt for kilometres around. Castle Bravo bounced once, clearing a small grain silo that had somehow escaped destruction, before tearing a deep channel into the soft earth, the already tortured drive system locking up and leaving the Jaeger sprawled in the mud like an exhausted boxer. The Jaeger lay still for a moment, steam rising from its vents and its armour sizzling away cheerfully as massive splotches of the Kaiju’s blood slowly melted it away.
Misty tried moving one of the Jaeger’s legs but only got a faint groan and a pitiful squeak in response. A dozen lights and alerts were flashing across her helmet and there seemed to be more systems broken than there were working ones. She gritted her teeth and spun the Jaeger’s head around, satisfied to see Bile’s corpse slowly bubbling away in a pool of its own slime. Without a constant stream of protective mucus to cover its body, the Kaiju was starting to melt away, sinking into the glowing pond of Kaiju blood that coated the ground around it. She realised with a hint of horror and disgust that its obscene heart was still pumping away, its nervous system too simple to realise that it was, in fact, already dead.
She looked over at her brother, not bothering to ask if he was alright. She could feel his heart hammering in her chest and his mind, now racing at a million miles a minute, was still competing with her own thoughts. She let out a shaky breath and cut the connection, with the Jaeger immobilised for the moment there was no point in making the already overtaxed computer keep their neural link running.
“Well that was fun.” She remarked casually, suddenly wishing she had a cigar. She’d never smoked one of the foul things in her life, but for some reason now seemed like a remarkably good time to have one. She took a moment to revel in their victory before brushing the strange thought away and turning to her attention to the Jaeger, mentally sorting through the hundreds of faults the diagnostic system was finding. Most of it seemed superficial, only a few critical systems were down completely. Still, they needed to get washed down before the Kaiju’s toxic blood turned them into slag.
“Uh, Misty?” Lighting Streak said warily.
“Not now.” Misty said, noticing that the reactor core was showing a minor containment breach. She immediately reached for the SCRAM button, the toxic Kaiju blood would eventually eat its way through the hardened vessel that housed their reactor and possibly cause an even bigger catastrophe if it was still running when something vital gave. Misty, for one, had no urge to go out in a flaming ball of nuclear fire. The conpod’s light flickered and spluttered out, being swiftly replaced by a few smaller ones as the Jaeger switched over to battery power.
“Misty?” Her brother called again. She heard a faint click of metal but dismissed it, still engrossed in making sure their reactor was secure. She activated the system’s fire suppression system, vaguely remembering in some lesson that the carbon dioxide would slow the acidic reaction of the Kaiju’s blood.
“Misty, move!” Lightning Streak yelled, suddenly ripping her free of her harness. She didn’t even have time to draw breath before she’d slammed against the side of the conpod in a tangle of legs, wings and drivesuit. She was about to berate him when a patch of the roof above her station suddenly caved in, the metal completely eaten through by the Kaiju’s acidic blood.
“Damn it sis, pay attention next time.” Lighting Streak coughed, edging away from the small drops of Kaiju blood which splattered around them and started sizzling through the floor. “You alright?”
Misty resisted the urge to bite his head off. After all, he did just save her from the distinctly unpleasant experience of being melted alive. Her wing though, had been crushed under the two pegasi and if her reckoning was right, the delicate limb felt like it had been fractured in several places. “I was better.” She growled, holding back a cry of agony as she straightened her wing out. A noxious smell was starting to fill the conpod as the metal floor started dissolving in places, bubbling away cheerfully as the two pegasi watched.
“We need to get out of here.” Misty managed, limping towards the conpod’s main door. She forced it open with another groan of pain, dismayed to find only a small crawlspace between their Jaeger’s hull and the ground.
“You’ve got to be shitting me.” She grumbled, squeezing down into the gap and squirming through the small gap until she was free. She took a grateful breath of air, quickly deciding that the smell of the distant Kaiju rotting away, mixing with the burnt hull, was much less pleasant than the smell that now filled the conpod. The sun still hadn’t risen and a soft but chilly breeze was cutting into her exposed face like a razor. Through the fog she couldn’t make out anything more than a few hundred metres away from the now dormant Jaeger.
“Now what?” Lightning Streak asked, materialising at her shoulder. He looked around and shucked his helmet off, spitting out a few chunks of dirt.
“Find some high ground and get away from this wreck. Hopefully somewhere out of the wind where we can shelter till the sun comes up.” Misty wheezed, now wondering if her brother had inadvertently broken a rib in their rough tumble. “Then we wait.”
***
Luckily for the two pilots they didn’t have to wait long. Within an hour of Bile’s demise, a nearby REAF Airship, Sabre Three arrived, prowling slowly through the rapidly lifting fog like a shark and took them on board. By the time that the first of the rotaries was back on the scene, Misty and Lighting Streak had been scrubbed down, fed and had their injuries attended to by the ship’s orderly. The rotaries wasted no time in seeing to the fallen Jaeger, and within half an hour the small flotilla was powering back towards the shatterdome as fast as it could, Castle Bravo hanging limply from their cradles like a drunk pit fighter. No sooner than the Jaeger had been deposited through the shatterdome’s yawning roof, teams of ponies clad in hazmat suits scrambled over the Jaeger, spraying it down with a basic solution and pumping its systems full of carbon dioxide. Within the hour the Jaeger was deemed relatively safe and another swarm of repair crews swarmed over the Jaeger like an army of ants, removing panels of burnt and twisted armour to reach the Jaeger’s more sensitive components.
Like their Jaeger, the two pilots were fussed over as well. Both were scrubbed clean again and underwent mild anti-radiation therapy, the combination of the Kaiju’s blood and the Jaeger’s wreckage giving them a slightly higher dose than what was considered safe. Misty’s wing and rib were properly set in a cast, pegasus physiology being what it was, she would probably only suffer for a few days before being back to her normal, spirited self. Although Lightning Streak hadn’t been injured nearly as bad, the exposure to the Kaiju’s blood was starting to turn patches of his mane and coat a crazy shade of blue. As soon as they’d been cleared by the shatterdome’s medical teams they were ushered to the Marshal's office for debriefing. They spent the next few minutes taking turns in explaining the events leading up to the encounter and then the encounter itself with the monstrous Kaiju.
“That was too close.” Michael summed up succinctly as soon as the two pilots were seated opposite him. He placed a single page report down on the desk with a relieved look. Misty leaned over slightly, reading the words ‘Castle Bravo - Preliminary report’ scrawled across the top.
“It was a brave, but stupid move.” Shane agreed.
“And what would you have done?” Misty asked with a faint sneer.
“Probably the same thing.” Shane admitted. “You were lucky though.”
“Quite. Give it another hour or two and Castle Bravo would’ve been more useful as scrap.” Michael affirmed. He looked at the two pilots apprehensively. “You two are alright?”
“Could be better.” Lightning Streak answered.
“The docs cleared us.” Misty rebutted noncommittally. Although her head was throbbing gently and her muscles felt like she’d been through twelve of Spitfire’s infamous training sessions without a break, she thought it best to not mention it, lest they force her back to the infirmary.
Michael looked at her with a slightly bemused look. “What’s your problem Misty? Thought old guts and glory would’ve been thrilled after your first outing.”
“It was … different.” Misty admitted uncomfortably.
“Not at all like you were expecting?”
Misty shuffled slightly, unwilling to share her feelings with the human. “Was the convention worth it?” She asked, skirting around the question like a politician sitting before an inquiry.
Michael looked slightly annoyed at the change in topic, but accepted it. “Well, if you discount the fact that that we were caught flat footed with a Kaiju in the backyard, yes. Totally. We had quite a few parties approach us with designs that look quite promising. In terms of expanding our resource base, we did remarkably well.”
“Of course it was.” Misty grumbled, wincing slightly as she folded her hooves across her chest.
“Oh get over yourself princess, everything turned out alright.” Michael admonished the pegasus gently.
“If it could, I’m fairly sure Mother Nature would punch you in the gut for saying that.” Shane remarked from off to the side.
“Probably.” Michael agreed, his tone becoming a little more serious. While nothing concrete had come in yet, several square kilometres of prime farming land had immediately been reduced to sludge by Bile. While this was a small amount by itself, the possibility of ground infiltration was a very real danger, and if the water table got severely contaminated, it could well spell disaster for crop growth in the region. “I’ve never seen or heard of a Kaiju that toxic before, it was like a walking bio-hazard.”
Misty shuddered involuntarily, in her mind Bile was little more than a weapon. It seemed impossible to her that something like that could’ve just occurred naturally or evolved. What would’ve prompted nature to make a creature like that? Misty quickly decided that wherever the Kaiju came from, was not a place she wanted to go.
She pushed the thought down, it wasn’t something she knew enough about to comment on. Shane and Michael had been fighting the Kaiju for six odd years now, they knew more about the creatures than she did and they’d never mentioned anything that seemed to back up her thought.
“Neither.” Shane said with a slow nod. He looked at Misty and Lightning Streak. “And you say this thing just fell apart after a little action?”
“Like a wet paper tissue.” Misty affirmed.
Shane blanched. “That’s one hell of a defence mechanism.”
Misty and her brother nodded in tandem.
Shane made an impassive sound. “Well I’m sure that K-science lot will love pouring over it… if there’s anything left.”
Misty forced down the unpleasant mental image of Bile blackening and melting away in its own pool of blood. “Can we go now, sir?”
“Yeah, we’re done here.” Michael said, waving the two pegasi towards the door. “Get some rest and don’t push yourselves. You’ve done well today.”
“Thank you sir,” Misty said, backing out of the office with Lightning Streak in tow before they changed their minds.
Lightning Streak couldn’t help but notice her slightly odd demeanour. He would’ve expected her to be crowing about her achievement to anypony she could find, not be pensive and brooding like a troubled philosopher. “What’s up?” He asked after he was sure they out of earshot of anypony else.
Misty scowled at him. “Everything is different than what I expected.”
Lightning Streak snorted with amusement. “And what did you expect exactly? Glory? Fans? Awesome sunglasses?”
Misty glared at him silently, unable to come up with a good answer.
***
Free from the Marshal's office, the two pegasi trotted down to the Jaeger bay. They didn’t have to voice the desire to see their Jaeger, it just felt instinctive. The morning had well and truly progressed and dozens of technicians crowded the hallways, either setting off to start their shifts or returning from whatever early morning work they’d done. Misty walked with a slight limp, her wing didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would but her ribs flared painfully every time her hoof struck the weathered concrete floor.
‘Some discomfort…yeah, and Celestia has an amazing beard.’ She thought sourly, ignoring a few oily looking earth ponies who stared at her as she passed. After her long station on Rogue Three she was hardly used to hero worship, it was something she’d have to reluctantly reacquaint herself with. They rode the elevator down to the bottom of the Jaeger Bay’s floor and entered the expansive hall, the guards patrolling one of the many entrances letting them pass without any trouble.
As usual the Jaeger bay was echoing with noise and activity. Frontier Justice sat dormant by the door down on all fours, a few ponies checking the Jaeger’s upper hardpoints diligently. Wild Mustang was conspicuously unattended, the massive grey behemoth standing silently in its wing like a vigilant sentinel. The usually dark, brooding form of Midsummer Night was strangely absent.
The focus of attention seemed to be squarely fixed on Castle Bravo though.
The small Jaeger was propped up on a crawler, held securely in position with a crane and several massive bright yellow clamps. Hundreds of scaffolds snaked out from the walls and surrounded the Jaeger like an iron cage. An echoing boom rolled around the bay as another crane pulled one of the Jaeger’s mangled chest plates free from its body. A flutter of wings sounded to her left as Lightning Streak took flight, shooting up like a rocket and hovering up around the top rafters and scaffolds surrounding the Jaeger.
“Check out the view from up here.” He called out.
Misty squirmed uncomfortably. The rafters were up near the Jaeger’s head and looked remarkably flimsy from where she was. With her wing out of action the stairs seemed like an exhausting prospect, further reducing her desire to go up near the Jaeger.
“No, I think I can see just fine from down here thanks.” She said squeamishly.
Lightning Streak chuckled loudly. “The only pegasus who’s afraid of heights….” He teased, before leaving her in relative peace. Even from her spot on the floor she had a good view of the damage Bile had inflicted. Despite the best work of the shatterdome’s repair crews, the bottom half of the Jaeger was still covered in scorched and twisted plates of scarred white metal. The top looked hardly any better, the Jaeger’s entire chest had been pulled open, naked metal and machinery showing between the massive struts that made up the Jaeger’s frame. What looked like several kilometres of cabling hung from struts and looped around the Jaeger’s hull like jungle vines. It almost felt a little perverted to be looking at the Jaeger with its chest open, as it the removal of its armour and its tough skin made it naked.
She shook the thought off, that was ridiculous. She’d seen the internals of Rogue Two’s engines several times and it’d hardly had an effect on her. Maybe it was simply because Castle Bravo was looked more pony-like or maybe it was something else. She couldn’t put a hoof on it but she felt a deeper connection with the machine, after all, wasn’t Castle Bravo some sort of a gestalt entity made up of her and her brother sharing the body of a giant machine?
Was it now a part of her as much as he was a part of it?
Misty Fly locked that thought down before she got carried away. She hardly knew enough to make an informed judgement and guessing wasn’t exactly her strong suite. She bit her lip as Lightning Streak fluttered down from the gantry and landed next to her, he was still gawking at the Jaeger slightly, an immensely profound look on his face.
“She’s something special.” He affirmed, voicing the mutual thought that they seemed to be sharing.
“Yeah, something like that.” Misty said, quickly wiping the look off her face when she realised he was staring at her.
“Come on, you were thinking it.”
Misty quickly changed the topic. “I learned something about our Jaeger, something all those hours in the simulator never showed. It’s a precise scalpel, a delicate blade. I’m flailing around with it like it’s a broadsword.”`
He nodded briskly. “Noted. Something to try out in the sims, eh?”
She shook her head slightly. “It’s not the same. It’s like a completely different machine. It’s angrier, meaner… colder.”
“Baby’s annoyed at being woken up early.” Lightning Streak chuckled. He stopped when he realised Misty seemed to be taking his idea seriously. “Come on, that’s ridiculous. It’s a machine. It doesn’t feel, it doesn’t think.”
“She’s special. You said so yourself.” Misty shot back defensively.
“There’s a difference, that’s not exactly what I had in mind.”
Misty craned her head back slightly and stared up at the Jaeger’s conpod. “I’m not so sure of that.” She said, a shiver running down her spine.
She couldn’t be sure but it seemed like Castle Bravo glared back.
***
The next few days passed slowly. Misty was forced on light duties due to her injuries and she was strictly forbidden by the shatterdome’s doctors from going anywhere near the simulator or combat rooms. This left her with an overabundance of free time, time she was supposed to use to recuperate and recover.
Fat chance.
Fuelled by a desire to not sit on her rump all day, Misty worked her way into the Jaeger bay and tried to make herself useful. This wasn’t quite as easy as it sounded, as most of the crews working on the Jaegers were either too preoccupied to notice her or too burdened with tasks without having a clueless pony around as well to keep an eye on. She’d almost given up hope when she ran into a unicorn struggling with a large service hatch on the side of Castle Bravo’s head. Despite the height and the narrow scaffold that she would have to traverse to reach the unicorn, Misty forced her way out around the side of the conpod, not looking down lest she freeze up.
“You need a hand with that?” She called up to the unicorn.
The unicorn’s head tilted down as she was surprised somepony was talking to her. She regarded Misty silently for a moment.
“That’d be nice. You look like a strong pony, open this hatch for me. The latch is jammed shut tighter than a Diamond Dog’s butt crack.”
Misty may have considered herself above many things but she didn’t mind getting her hooves dirty from time to time. She clambered up the side of the Jaeger’s head, mindful of the seventy metre drop to her left and set to the panel with the usual gusto she did everything. Armed with a hammer, cutting torch and judicious swearing, she tore the beaten panel on the side of Castle Bravo’s head open. Grinning slightly, she set aside her tools so she could get a better look at the mess of electronics housed inside. She didn’t know a thing about the components themselves but it didn’t take a genius to know that most of them were fried.
“Thanks for that.” The unicorn said cheerfully, brushing a lock of her electric yellow mane out her eye. “Name’s Kilovolt, or Volt if you like.”
“Charmed.” Misty Fly said levelly. The unicorn was giving her a look that bordered on slightly unhinged and Misty started to wonder if she was really in the safest spot.
“You’re one of them Rangers aren’t you?” Volt asked. It seemed more like a statement than a question but Misty played along.
“Yep.” She answered simply.
“Neat.” The mare chirped excitedly, her eyes snapping violently to the open hatch like a magpie to something shiny. She made a disappointed sound and leaned in through the hatch, another sad sound drifting out as she looked around.
“What a load of junk.” Volt said, ripping out a circuit board with a hole the size of a bit burnt through it and tossing it aside like a candy wrapper. The mare reached in further and ripped out a tangle of blackened, half melted cables.
“What is this stuff?” Misty asked, in a rare show of politeness ignoring the mare’s close proximity.
“Spotlight controls, a few sensors maybe. Pretty basic stuff.” Kilovolt said assuredly, leaning back into the hole and dragging out the last few scraps of melted cable lodged in the bottom of the compartment with a flicker of magic.
Misty drew back slightly, the technician smelt worse than griffon. She decided that pointing this out was probably unwise, she wanted to learn something after all, not just piss the seemingly eternally cheery pony off. “Uh, huh. Is there anything I can do?”
“See those silver globes at the front there? I want you to twist it to the left, pull’ em out and pass them up to me. There should be five of them.”
Misty obliged, squirming down through the hatch and pulling each of the shattered lights out with a grunt. “Now what?”
“Replace them with these new ones. Don’t worry about the circuitry, I’ll do that in a sec. Don’t want you to electrocute yourself now, do we?” She chuckled.
Misty threw her a suspicious look and twisted each of the new bulbs into place, each one locking in with a satisfying click. She had just locked the last one in place when she felt a sharp, burning jolt in her flank.
“Son of a bitch!” Misty yelped, her voice rising an octave as she leapt into the air instinctively. The pegasus spun around indecently, glaring at the now cackling electrician who was holding what looked like a small electric test kit.
“Sorry, couldn’t help myself.” Volt managed through her laughter.
Misty glared at her furiously before her eyes darted to her flank to check that it hadn’t been burnt by the current. She couldn’t see anything but she feel the burn right in the middle of her cutie mark like a nasty bee sting.
“Oh lighten up.” Volt giggled, handing the test kit to Misty like nothing had happened. “Now test those lights, I’ll sort out this thing.” She said, dropping her head into the hatch, oblivious to Misty’s ire.
Misty looked at the machine she’d been given venomously, “How?” She asked, slightly annoyed that the unicorn hadn’t explained anything.
“You know how to make a circuit?” Volt asked, her voice muffled by the metal.
“Yeah.”
“Well do that genius. If they work, there should be a number on the screen.”
Misty scowled, peeling her gaze away from the mare’s bobbing tail. The electrician’s rump was bouncing around like a thing possessed as she worked, sticking out in Misty’s peripheral vision like a gaudy banner.
“Enjoying the view?”
Misty’s wings shot out with a jolt of surprise, well, one of them did. The other sort of flailed limply against its cast in painful fashion. Misty looked around with confusion, the voice hadn’t come from Kilovolt.
“Down here.”
Misty Fly’s eyes spun around to the catwalk a few metres below her, the southern drawl now clicking into Misty’s mind.
“Applejack.” Misty said, her voice somewhere between a sneer and a yelp.
“Didn’t know you were into that sort of thing.” Applejack chuckled, leaning on the railing running around the edge of the catwalk.
The pegasus bristled silently and focused on folding her wings back in. She looked away embarrassedly, making a crude circuit to test the first light as if ignoring Applejack would make her go away.
“Pretty high up here.” Applejack said nonchalantly, looking over the edge of the scaffold at the almost seventy metre drop to the solid floor.
“Could be worse.” Misty muttered just loud enough for Applejack to hear her. She still wasn’t paying attention to the farmer, instead swapping the next bulb into the circuit.
“Can’t say I ever liked heights.” Applejack continued.
Misty glanced up the small dial. “Me neither.” She admitted, suddenly very conscience of the fact that she was awfully close to the edge of the Jaeger’s head.
The former farmer adopted an amused expression. “A pegasus who doesn’t like heights? Must be like finding an Earth pony who don’t like dirt.”
Misty made a noncommittal grunt back, she wasn’t sure if Applejack was just trying to heckle her. A slightly awkward silence rose up, broken only by the occasional curse from Kilovolt as she worked on the Jaeger’s internals.
“Ya know, Ah think this the first time we’ve ever really… just talked.” Applejack said idly.
“How horrifying.” Misty remarked dryly, gracing the earth pony with another glance.
Applejack leaned a little closer, trying to get a better look at what Misty was doing. “Need a hoof with that, Misty?” She asked.
“No.” Misty shot back. She looked up again, feeling perhaps a little guilty. “No, thank you.” She said in a slightly more pleasant tone.
Applejack took a step back, the faintest trace of a smile on her face. “Well uh, Ah’ll let you get back to it then.” She said, nodding at Misty and trotting off, her hooves clanging softly against the metal walkway.
Misty looked back down at the dial, it was showing a few small numbers. She made a small grunt of approval and set the light aside.
At least today, one bridge had been crossed.
***
The burning rays of sunlight crept through the train’s windows waking Rainbow Dash from her slumber. She kept her eyes shut, wishing the steady rocking of the carriage and the clatter of wheels would let her drift back to her dreams. The sound of her compartment door sliding open and slamming shut made her open an eye curiously, a bad decision it turned out as the harsh rays of sun immediately seized the chance to jab themselves in her eyes like forks. Blinking rapidly to clear the burning afterimage, Rainbow looked around the small compartment wearily. Pinkie, still snoring quietly was two bunks above her, her tongue lolling out obscenely as her chest rose and fell. The inviting smell of a fresh croissant drew her look across the compartment to the other occupant of the small room, Maud.
“Good morning.” Rainbow said, stifling a yawn. She blinked quickly, feeling a slight moment of vertigo as the train carriage clattered over a coupling and rocked from side to side. She had always preferred flying to trains but the trip to Manehatten’s outskirts would take much longer by wing and when she arrived she wanted to be in prime condition for the start of the pilot training course at the Jaeger academy.
Maud blinked and nodded in affirmative, a slow and deliberate motion which showed about as much emotion as a rock. She had arrived in Ponyville a few nights before, Pinkie having successfully dragged her away from her apparently subpar geological expedition with little difficulty. She was pretty much the same as Rainbow Dash had remembered, although she was perhaps slightly more built and a few centimetres taller than the pegasus recalled. Her personality seemed no different; Maud was just as unapproachable and unreadable as she’d always been, the same flat look smeared across her face like it was drawn in with permanent marker. What Pinkie found so incredible about her sister alluded Rainbow Dash, then again how Pinkie’s mind worked in general seemed to also escape her grasp most of the time.
Rainbow stretched a crick out of her wing with a grunt. “Let me guess, you slept like a rock?”
Despite Maud’s deliberate lack of emotion, she seemed to look at Rainbow like she was a young foal. “No, I slept like a pony. Rocks don’t sleep.” She said flatly.
“Wow, tell me something I don’t know.” Rainbow said snarkily before remembering who she was talking to. She grimaced as Maud immediately started firing off trivia about rocks with the liveliness of an energetic snail.
“Ok, ok, very interesting. Wasn’t after your life story.” Rainbow said, cutting Maud off before she could drill in the subtle differences between different types of clay. She stole a look across at Pinkie’s sister, nothing that the large plate she had laid before her had a mixture of pastries, toast and what looked unnervingly like some rocks from the plant pots that sat in the dining car.
“Are you going to eat those?” She asked, pointing at the small rocks suspiciously.
“Yes.” Maud answered simply.
“Hmm. Go figure.” Rainbow said as Maud took a bite from the rock with a sickening crunch.
“Would you like one?” Maud asked thoughtfully, thankfully offering her one of the non-sedimentary items on her plate.
“Um, I’m not hungry.” Rainbow lied, ignoring the way her stomach growled at the offer. Maud nodded and returned to her meal, dashing what little appetite Rainbow may have had left with another crack of splintering rock. She looked around, wondering if Maud would notice her sneak out. Rainbow didn’t have exactly a problem with Maud, she was just, well, weird. Even by her standards. Being around Pinkie’s sister was like being at a tea party and all the guests were rocks, sentient rocks that delivered every line in a completely flat, emotionless way and took everything at face value. It was like someone had taken Pinkie, replaced her hyperactivity with the gait of a sloth and hammered out her love of parties with a rock before replacing said love with said rock.
“Do you have a sister?” Maud asked suddenly. Rainbow Dash was quite taken aback, she hadn’t expected Maud to start talking to her.
She flashed a look at the dull earth pony, uncertain that she was in fact talking to her. “Uh, what?”
“You seem quite confused as to why I’m here.” Maud explained, her face still completely blank of expression. “The look you gave me on the train yesterday and just now makes it clear you don’t understand.”
Rainbow Dash blinked with surprise. It seemed incredibly perceptive of Maud to be able to pick up on that. She let it tick over in her mind a few moments.
“So, do you have a sister?” Maud asked again.
“Well, uh, no, I don’t have any sisters.” Rainbow answered. “I don’t have any family actually, well, besides my dad.” Rainbow Dash admitted.
“And your mother?”
Rainbow smiled. “Oh we have a great mother-daughter relationship. We’ve been playing hide and seek for the last twenty-two years. Mum where are you? Ha ha…” She trailed off at Maud’s unflinching expression.
Maud nodded again, she seemed to do that a lot. “I understand.” She said, her voice flatter than a saltpan. She looked up at Pinkie who was still snoring quietly in the bunk above Rainbow with what could’ve been the slightest trace of concern on her face. “I think she’s going to get more than she bargained for.”
“Who, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my sister is much more of an idealist than most ponies.” Maud said flatly.
“Really? Never noticed that before.” Rainbow said, again forgetting who was talking to.
Maud stared at her silently for a moment, the rock she was turning over before her eyes laying still in her hooves. “I think you need to pay more attention.”
Rainbow Dash resisted the urge to slap herself across the face with her hoof.
Maud continued on like the small interlude hadn’t happened. “She mightn’t agree with it, but I think Pinkie needs somepony around to keep her a little more grounded. She can get carried away and get hurt. Somepony has to look out for her.”
“You realise what you’re getting in for though, right?” Rainbow questioned. “It’s hardly a safe environment.’”
“I can fight.” Maud said flatly.
“You can fight?” Rainbow asked, slightly incredulous. She knew Maud was strong, even by Earth pony standards, but she somehow doubted she knew how to use that strength properly.
Maud looked her dully. “You really do need to pay more attention.”
“Well, uh, how about you show it off then?” Rainbow asked, floating down to the floor and stretching a few kinks out of her legs.
Maud looked at her like she was trying to sell a vacuum cleaner at her front door. “If you insist.” She said levelly, sliding off her bunk with perhaps a hint of enthusiasm. “I haven’t fought another pony for a while.”
That should’ve been Rainbow Dash’s first hint. The fact that there was even a tiny glint of excitement of Maud’s eye should’ve tipped her off to what was about to come.
Rainbow grinned broadly. “Well I’ll go easy on you then, Heh, I don’t wanna hurt- ow!” Rainbow squealed, her confidence turning to shock as Maud struck out, pinning her to ground and placed in her in a vicious chokehold before she could react. She squirmed, trying to dislodge the earth pony sitting victoriously on top of her but Maud was too strong and Rainbow felt that if she moved her head more than a few inches, Maud would snap her neck with a leisurely twist.
“Tap out, tap out.” Rainbow wheezed, unable to even move a hoof to signal her defeat.
Maud returned to her plate of food with a level grunt of approval, leaving Rainbow sprawled out on the floor like a crumpled blanket to get her breath back. “Whoops.” She said after a few painful seconds.
Rainbow Dash slowly sat up, her head spinning like a top. “Where did you learn that?” She demanded.
Maud looked down at her with a bored expression. “Fight Club.”
“You go to a fight club?” Rainbow asked incredulously. It seemed hard to believe that Maud, of all ponies, would be interested in fighting, let alone be good at it.
“I do, pay attention.” Maud said, fixing a dull look on Rainbow Dash before returning to her meal.
***
After arriving at Brandymane station, the three ponies transferred from the gleaming steam train they’d caught from Ponyville onto a loud, oily diesel engine drawing a large load of heavy field guns and consumables which would take them to their final destination. The trip was mercifully short, the few passenger cars were crowded with a mixture of military personnel, civilian contractors and what Rainbow presumed were new recruits for the Jaeger academy. Needless to say the somewhat cramped conditions were happily abandoned when the train ground to a halt at the end of the line. Out on the platform, the divide between the army base and the Jaeger academy was more apparent, the gleaming stone structures, several of new, that made up the Jaeger academy were a stark contrast to the dirty, utilitarian buildings that crowded the army base haphazardly.
Formed just before Quillback’s emergence, the Jaeger Academy was based in the old Equestrian Army OCS, a large institute just outside Pleasant Field army base itself. Taking up a little over three square kilometres of land, the installation was a mixture of lecture theatres, classrooms, advanced simulator rooms, workshops, practice rooms, labs and training fields. The transformation had gone fairly smoothly, but even now, several areas of the facility were being finished and several buildings still had scaffolds around them.
The name was a bit of a misnomer, the academy didn’t just train crew to pilot Jaegers but also the dozens of support staff needed to keep the mighty machines running at peak efficiency. LOCCENT operators, J-Tech staff, repair crews. All these and more trained at the institution, providing the necessary base for the handful of Jaegers to work off. It was managed mostly without involvement from either of the human pilots, they had decided that it was important that the training and induction process shouldn’t be reliant on them lest they suffer a terrible misfortune.
Today though, the academy was home to some several thousand students, the backbone that the new shatterdome in Trottingham would be based off. The eyes of the higher ups though, including most of the current pilots, were firmly fixed on the Mk.II pilot program, a course which had already attracted thousands of applications from all across Equestria. The entry pool had been expanded from just pairs to individual entries, allowing the academy to increase their potential recruiting pool. While this might have seemed a little odd at first glance, as a Jaeger generally required two crew for safe operation, many of the Pan Pacific Defence Corps’ best Jaeger pilots, such as the widely regarded crew of the Chilean Jaeger, Diablo Intercept, had come from completely different backgrounds and had shared no experiences before their induction into the Jaeger academy on Kodiak Island. With an increase in available crews to assist in training and more funding, the Corps’ Leadership believed it was the right time to expand their ranks in anticipation of the completion of the Mk II program.
As Rainbow Dash followed Pinkie, Maud and a veritable tide of recruits into the massive facility, it struck her just how immense the entire program had become. They trudged over a massive stone courtyard, a few small groups of uniformed ponies directing cadets to where they had to go. The three ponies were waved past a pair of massive flagpoles, one flying the symbol of the Jaeger corps, the other the national flag of Equestria, and into a cavernous hall already brimming with ponies.
The massive hall echoed with a thousand voices, ponies of every shape and size milling around, either gawking at the massive banners draped from the ceiling or talking excitedly to their neighbours. Rainbow Dash paid them no head staying close to Maud and Pinkie as they waited with various degrees of patience for the orientation lecture to start.
“Gee, a lot of these ponies look pretty serious about this.” Pinkie pointed out to Maud excitedly, her voice almost lost in the cacophony of sound that bounced around the room.
Maud said something back but it was lost to Rainbow Dash amidst the noise.
The pegasus looked around, finding herself slightly anxious. She guessed there was about five thousand ponies packed into the massive hall like peaches in a tin, a slightly unsettling number considering each and every one of them was a potential barrier between her and the top spot and Pinkie was right, many of them looked rather determined. The din in the hall subsided as a creature, so alien it could’ve only been one of the humans stepped out across the stage and took position behind the small podium in the centre. He waited a few moments for the noise to die down completely before opening his arms to the auditorium.
“Welcome, cadets, to the Jaeger Academy. It is my pleasure to welcome the first you as the first official class for this institution.”
There was a few whistles and cheers.
He waited for silence. “Over the next few months you’ll be subject to a rigorous course of both mental and physical tests from which the results will provide our first cut. Those of you lucky enough to be selected will continue training at the Manehatten Shatterdome where we will then select our final groups.”
“I doubt we’ll make it past the first cut, looks like a tough crowd.” Rainbow heard a pony with a fiery blue mane say behind her.
‘Yeah, not with that attitude you won’t’ Rainbow thought, a trace of her confidence returning.
“At the conclusion of this orientation, you will be split into your companies and from there assigned your training schedules.” He paused for a moment. “Remember, today is the day you choose to face the monsters at your door. If it feels like we are trying to break you, it’s because we are. The Kaiju won’t hold back, so neither will we. You will be ground to dust, pushed to your limits time and time again so that those who endure will be ready… ready to face the demons beyond.”
Technical Information
Given Name: Bile
Breach Date: KDAY +563
Category: II
Status: Deceased
Specifications
Height: (est.) 281ft (86m)
Weight (est.) 2332 tons
Speed: 3
Strength: 7
Armour: 2
Battle Information
Attack Behaviour: Direct assault, Secretion/projection of highly toxic bodily fluids and toxins
Toxicity: Extreme
Powers: Large, multi-ended and dexterous tentacles capable of lifting and pulling Jaegers, Well developed cardio-vascular system
Weaknesses: Everywhere
Target Information
Cities Targeted or destroyed: Unknown. Severe environmental damage to Central coast region.
Jaegers Engaged: Castle Bravo
***
Enjoy your Nightmare Fuel and have fun with that Mark II hanging around in the comments.
*SPECULATING INTENSIFIES*
As always, amazing art by Zeiram0034.
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Maud, you just broke the first rule of Fight Club.
And that Kaiju? That thing looks horrifying.
My reaction to that Kaiju.
lol good chapter
Equestria is getting more exotic Kaiju sent to it, but my guess on the reasoning is that while the Aliens started targeting earth with an eye toward colonization, their gaze on Equestria is rather based on them sensing enough magic to identify the world as having the potential of being able generate dimensional breaches of their own at some point, and trying to obliterate that potential because their entire strategic infrastructure is built around being able to attack freely with dimensional isolation keeping them immune to counterattack.
i think it would be "“Sure you aren’t. It’s not like I can feel you fluttering around like a hummingbird in my head.”"
beast's?
as dead parts of the limb...
The Kaiju tried stepping back from the strike but it was too slow to get entirely out of the way, the sharpened blade cutting through its blubbery skin like butter.
Bile must be Hedorah's little brother
Somehow Bile was scarier in my head than he is in the picture (not that the picture isn't cool in and of itself).
Needs moar fat rolls,
good god, that thing is disgusting
… Never thought I'd see the day when Kaiju began to forget about decent defense… This thing was all offense. Looks like the aliens are playing clever now… They probably knew (somehow) that Frontier Justice was out of commission, so they sent a Kaiju that would've best eliminated Castle Bravo. Now we have only two Jaegars that can work… TIME TO SPAM CAT III'S!
yeesh, bile reminds me of that shit film about the melting man. interesting concept though. creating the BOW equivilant of an fire and forget dirty bomb weapon. not a very good idea to use it on it's own though i would say, since it's combat skills were fairly shit tier. as a distraction perhaps, send one towards a big farm or a water supply or such, then send in a propper kaiju against a population centre while the jaegers were trying to contain bile. or vice versa, send a combat kaiju to distract the jaegers, then send a BOW kaiju towards the afor mentioned high value target. but too wastefull to use them on their own i reckon, since theyre likely to get shredded before they can do enough damage to justify resource cost. especialy if the jaeger sent against them is range focused, like midsummer's night.
Would love to see the jaegers have a bout with Godzilla.
(Go, go, Godzilla!)
4510593 or they're just using equestria as a handy dandy place to test their kaiju designs before they send them to the propper battlefield, ie earth. i mean i base this on A, as you said, the exoticness of the kaiju sent, compared to the more bread and butter smash/slash ones that were sent to earth, and B, don't you get the impresion with some of them, like that baby acting one and now bile, that they're like a first generation/prototype of something that hasnt got all the bugs worked out yet? so yeah, i think they found a planet they dont want to colonize, but fucking jackpot, is using a jaeger program very similar to earths, so they can test kaiju designs in a live fire scenario, as it were, to see how effective they would be against earth.
Jeeze... if all the Kaiju were like Bile there's no way any planet could survive. Talk about gross and overkill. I hope this battle breaks Misty's haughty attitude for good so she becomes a better team player.
4511345 hmmmm, Godzilla is a kaiju
4511919 No...he's THE kaiju. King of the monsters!
4512028 fair enough
Can't really say why, maybe cause I am just strange, but Bile looks kinda funny (in a comical way I mean), probably his facial expression. And for whatever strange reason I have to say he isn't that ugly in the picture, I thought he'd be a lot worse.
The Jaegers are alive. They're ALIVE!
Muahahahahahahahaha!!
Ok so maybe they aren't but it would be pretty cool if they were.
4511010
Bile's original design was based off him, so yes, Bile is totally related.
4511073
Nope, nothing wrong with that at all.
*Swoons*
4511079
Our minds are great at making things based on what we're told. A creature is a lot scarier until the point you see it, mainly because your mind tends to make the worst thing imaginable.
Nothing, is scarier.
4511359 4511333
I like the way you think, throwing a double event out right now though would be story breaking... doesn't mean it won't happen though.
4511345
I want it to happen as well.
4514352 Heck, it's your story and given the recent (and very well-done makeover) remake of Godzilla, I think he would fit right in, but as a bit of a wildcard.
A force of nature, to be sure.
Loving the story, by the way. You've captured the jaegers nicely in what they do and I can easily picture your kaiju in a movie. With Bruce Willis and Angelina Jolie, of course.
Moar, please.
Is Bile a cousin of Squishy's?
4511345 tough thing is that Godzilla is about a category 5 kaiju
Bile was based off a tentacle monster from a hentai, wasn't he? All that...mucus and tentacles...*winks*
4515063 Yes...he is, isn't he? It would probably take three jaegers to bring him down. King of da monsters! He also would look completely different from the other kaiju, not having the luminescent eyes and whatnot.
so, Lightning Streak will end up with mako's hair, and for some reason i feel Misty will wake up from a nightmare involving Bile, look around really shaken up, realize it was just a bad dream, put one hoof on her chest to try and calm her racing heart and the other to rub her temples... and then find out her mane is no longer on her head, but on her pillow...
i feel really bad for thinking like that, but i can't help it, its like Marshall Pentecost's life story, he survives riding a mk I, but her co-pilot dies of radiaton poisoning...
4511359
Those two scenarios aren't mutually exclusive though. after all it takes a few years for a rift to get wide enough for 'stage 2', so that's plenty of time to use them as a test-bed for prototype freaks before they try to wipe them out.
4515688
An alien creature you know basically nothing about shoves ts hand at you. You know nothing about its customs or traditions and therefore, don't really understand why its waving its hand at you.
Personally I think that's reasonable enough.
4517397
A little different on one point, Mako actually dyed her hair. Lightning Streak's coat just has a few funny patches of blue which will eventually die and regrow normally.
4518634
That's terrible, would you mind pointing out to me what exactly I'm doing so badly, Preferably so I can not make the same mistake in the future.
Hmm, I dont know why but the battle with Bile didnt felt as intensive as the others. Also, for some reason I had a hard time imagining Bile until I saw the picture,
Other then that Id like to see where our new recruits are going. Pnike and Maud are obviously the best pairing. First, they are siblings. Second, I doubt anypony would be able to keep their sanity after their first drift with Pinkie and Maud is probably so unreadable that drift with anypony else wouldnt even work. You know what they say about opposites and magnets.
Rainbow is a different story, her skills and ablities are so damn high up that the acadamy will have a hard time finding someone to pair her with. Since Soarin' is out of question (and as such the ship aswell
) my dibs are on Firefly doing a Raleigh, someway or annother becoming a Jäger pilot and getting paired with RD. That is if all the hints where to troll the audiance like you did with Big Mac and Diamond Back. 
4520234
Perhaps its because Bile literally fell apart when Castle Bravo got a little cranky.
Imagining Bile would be hard with all the extra limbs and what not, the image not not be completely clear unless we have something to compare it to and I think the closest thing Bile possibly resembles is an octopus... somehow..
Hue
That's food for thought.
Double hue
Hu- Actually, that's interesting. What made you think Firefly, of all ponies would jump in? Genuinely curious as I've made no mention of Firefly at all and she's a G1 pony... so possibly not part of this universe.
Got to say, that one is a little out there.
4518556
you didn't say no to my theory about misty ending up like Tamsin Sevier...
4520303
mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw2608_medium.jpg
What I actually ment was Spitfire, damn it. I really have no idea why I mentioned Firefly...
4520411
I didn't say she would though, did I?
4520502
That makes a lot more sense. Though, no, Spitfire won;t be taking up the reins just yet.
Please though, continue guessing, I think only a handful of people have actually gotten it right yet, which surprises me a little honestly.
4520515
there's more in what one doesn't say than in what is said.
that said... the area in which Bile kicked the bucket (that bucket being filled to the brim with kaiju blue) is going to be turned into something akin to oblivion bay, or it will turn out that in fact Bile took a dump there, fertilizing the fields and making them even better?
4523043
It'll be pretty much unlivable. Imagine a nuclear test site turned up to 11
4524124
a nuclear testing site on earth would be unlivable, but this is equestria... will there be secondary efects? like, the warped earth magicks making a second everfree grow there? attemps to heal or purge the area with the elements of harmony?
because the ponies (except twilight and her instant-window-making-device®) seem to be forgetting one of their most powerful weapons... friendshi- oh wait, magic!
(of course, i understand that instant-healing the place would take gravity out of what happened, but i did say attempts, because, i mean, who wouldn't try, regardless of whether they would succeed?)
out of curiosity, what would happen if they treated the area like they treated Misty and Streak? you know, dump a sh*tload of that basic solution to lessen the acid effect, and... carbon absorbs radiation, right? because, again, i don't think they wouldn't try something, anything...
4525596
There's a difference between weeding radiation out of a small body, like say a pony, than it is a landmass. when it comes to spills of that magnitude its better off to try and contain it, prevent any more spread and lock it down because trying to treat several square kilometres of land is just too damn hard (Expensive, time consuming inefficient)
Even then, the methods are completely different from treating an living being to treating the environment and simply put, going near Bile's corpse is pretty much a death sentence for a while unless you've got some heavy radioactive shielding.
4520515 Well, my accuracy with predictions is pretty low usually.
So, Ill probably hold back and observe for now.
I mean, one crazy idea that I had sometime ago. How about Big Mac and Lightning Streak getting knocked out/killed and suddenly AJ and Misty had to be paired.
4525860
*Head explodes*
4526019 I should really stop giving you ideas.
4526180
Dude, I sit on this big massive document helpfully entitled 'KAIJU, JAEGERS AND IDEAS' (In all caps, just in case I forget what it is) which basically dictates how this story rolls. I have how everyone
dieslives planned out in meticulous detail, all fifty odd Kaiju summarised up in a few lines, along with battle information, and the stat cards/information for all fifteen Jaegers, Mark I through to V. I also have a few lines I can shove in for when I finally finish this epic so that if I so wish. I can continue it. I also have paragraphs of pointless extra dribble of stuff ranging everywhere from explaining how weapons work to how certain systems function and to how conventional forces fit in with Jaeger combat doctrine. This hefty tome is a story's worth of words in its own right, a collection of my best and worst ideas all in one place so I can easily (Haha...) find them.Despite all this I'm always hungry for more ideas. Some of the stuff my artist has given me is better than the crap I come up with, a fresh mind always helps.
Seriously though, you get a stupid/good idea, tell.me. I might just try to work it in if I like it enough.
4526180
keep giving him ideas! crazy ideas are his fuel! he runs on crazy ideas! and references!
edit: and rule of cool! tons of rule of cool!
here's a mix, idea and reference:
either Applejack or Big Mac dying (but not both) and then applebloom has/is forced (not like she is told "you have to pilot, because yes", but forced by herself, in the sense that she cant let all what their sibling worked for go to waste, she cant let innocent ponies suffer what she suffered [losing a sibling/family]...) to be a pilot with the surviving one, kinda like Chuck Hansen, and just for laughs, have her have nightmares in which she is/see her sibling while they die. there's a "dark" tag, lest not let it go to waste.
4526237 Wow, now thats dedication if I have ever read it.
And now you that you said it:
Sent a PM your way.
4526237 Oh my god that's insanely cool. As a request, would you be able to put in up for download or something after your story is over. I would love to look at it!
*immature giggle*
Fix that maybe?
Again badass chapter, and this Kaiju is full of wtf... LIKE SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL?!
4552628
i.imgur.com/EZsNgly.gif
Dark Wizard: "I summon Cthulhu!"
*Bile appears*