//------------------------------//
// Rasputin 
// Story: A Midsummer Night's Dream. 
// by Killbles 
//------------------------------//

	A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Chapter 7: Rasputin
 
For Shane and Michael, the three months since their brawl with Rasura had flown past. Most of their time had been taken up with the extensive repair work their Jaeger, particularly their arm, needed. The entire limb had been beaten and crushed by the Kaiju relentlessly and needed to be stripped down and rebuilt. Most of the armour covering the limb had been bent or broken completely beyond saving and many of the delicate muscle strands beneath had either been torn or were missing completely. Worst of all, one of the railguns had been crumpled into little more than a twisted metal beam, severely hampering their offensive ability.
They kept their distance from the majority of the work crews, supervising the repairs cautiously from one the gantries around their Jaeger or from inside the conpod. They’d been visited almost weekly by Pinkie Pie, her boundless enthusiasm and occasional reality warping appearances breaking the monotony of the work quite nicely. She’d spent some time trying to convince them to leave the temporary work site to little avail but after weeks of nagging both Shane, Michael and the guards she continually slipped by she finally succeeded in dragging them out into the city proper.
“There’s an entire alien city out there! You think I want to stay cooped up here with you the whole time?” Shane had said when Michael questioned his enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, their first foray hadn’t gone well as Pinkie had hoped when she accidently led them into one of Manehatten’s more notorious red-light districts. Needless to say, it’d taken her some time to convince either Shane or Michael to leave the worksite for some time after that.
She’d also introduced the two humans to other ponies she knew, one of them a timid mare named Fluttershy who barely spoke above a whisper and hid behind her mane whenever Pinkie dragged her along. She’d also introduced them to another unicorn, named Rarity who’d declared the humans ‘scruffy’ and left it at that.
They’d lived relatively carefree, only the constant threat of another Kaiju attack lingering in their minds. They had run simulations daily to keep themselves in fighting form but it didn’t take long for the computer to run out of new Kaiju for them to fight. They’d allowed Pinkie to watch some of their fights, each of them only increasing her awe of their mental bond and of the abilities of their machine.
Winter had settled in over Manehatten and despite the rampant destruction to the city, spirits were high. Some holiday of theirs, Heath’s Warming, was fast approaching and it was much to Shane and Michael’s surprise when they woke up one morning to find Midsummer Night with a massive string of multi-coloured Christmas lights wrapped around the Jaegers neck and looped over her body. Most worrying of all, was the large star which was perched on the top of the jaegers head like some sort of ridiculous crown.
“You should’ve seen your face, you were like-.” Pinkie giggled, pulling an overly exaggerated rendition of Shane’s face when he’d discovered the lights.
The four other mares in the conpod chuckled, though whether at Pinkie or with her, was hard to tell.
Shane muttered something under his breath about being spied on and poked his meal, a mix of roasted vegetables and something which looked and tasted suspiciously like turkey that the ponies called squinch. Much to their surprise, Pinkie had made them a Hearth’s Warming dinner and invite herself and four of her friends to the party. They’d been a little reluctant to have so many of the equines in the conpod at the same time but after each one had promised to not do anything stupid (Michael had explicitly defined it this time) they’d allowed them in. They’d kept a close eye on each of the ponies initially but after it became apparent they were there for the party more so than the Jaeger, they’d relaxed their guard a little.
“Well I think it’s a nice touch. Compliments the shitty paintwork nicely.” Michael said, helping himself to another generous serve of squinch. “Next time don’t forget the tinsel and the baubles though.”
“Well it has drawn quite a crowd.” One of the new mares, Rainbow Dash, if he remembered correctly, pointed out. She’d already finished her meal and lounged lazily on a small nook next to the Jaeger’s visor. “Guess they’ve never seen a Hearth’s Warming tree quite this big.”
“Ah still don’t most of them have ever seen anything quite this big.” The second new pony piped up. She’d been in awe of the conpod ever since she’d entered and she’d been so caught up in looking around it in awe she’d almost forgotten about the food on her plate. “Something so mighty big, must be real hard to drive around.”
“Oh I’ve seen them do it.” Pinkie chatted excitedly. “Well, just pretend to do it at least, it’s really cool! There’s this drift thingy and then everything goes all blue and wobbly!
 She waved her hooves around erratically.
Applejack touched a hooves to her chin thoughtfully. “Say, what’d it take to drive one of these things anyhow?”
Michael and Shane exchanged a curious look, what was it with all the ponies and wanting to pilot a Jaeger? Perhaps their entrance had left more of an impression that they’d initially thought
“Well first you’d need a drift buddy. Someone you can link up with.” Michael explained. “Well, we do at least. I have no idea about you guys but we can’t pilot these things single-handedly.”
“What’s that? A drift buddy?’ Rainbow Dash asked, floating down from her nook on a set of powerful looking wings. She’d been a little warier of the humans then the other ponies and hadn’t said much to either of the pilots. He’d got the impression she didn’t quite trust them, a feeling he couldn’t hold against her considering the circumstances.
“They’re someone you really trust, someone you can really connect with. The whole process is reliant on that, trust. There are other factors, but that’s one of the big ones.”
“Is it hard? To pilot one, I mean.” Rarity piped up, trying to not look interested.
Michael smiled. “I can’t even begin to describe how hard it is to pilot a Jaeger. It’s like trying to read a library worth of books while in the middle of a massive boxing match. People who have what it takes are rare… but that’s not nearly good enough. They need to be best friends with another one of them.”
Pinkie kicked her hooves idly. “I never asked, how’d you become pilots anyway?”
Michael stood up and jabbed one of the buttons on the console. A shimmery projection of Earth appeared, spinning slowly. He stared at the image for a moment, feeling a momentary pang of homesickness. Burying the thought away, he zoomed in on the Alaskan coastline and circled a large piece of land sitting in the Gulf of Alaska.
“Kodiak Island, home of the Ranger academy. The birthplace of the Jaeger program. Only the best are chosen to pilot a Jaeger.”
Shane scratched the scraggly beard he’d started growing. There was a sharp knife in the survival kit but he wasn’t game enough to try shaving himself with it. “I remember when we joined the Ranger academy we very nearly didn’t make the cut. There’s a lot of competition, as you could imagine. People from all over the world come to learn, to try and pilot a jaeger. Very few succeed.”
“How’d you get through? What was special about you two?” Rainbow Dash asked. “No offence, but you don’t seem all that special to me.”
“We had good drift compatibility and we could fight well. I was the brains and Shane was the brawn.” Michael said evenly.
“And what’s this place?” Pinkie asked, pointing at the map again. A small blip with a P.P.D.C. logo was sitting in the corner, hovering just off Anchorage.
“That’s the Anchorage Shatterdome. That’s where we keep the Jaegers, build new ones and for repairs. Anchorage is the smallest Shatterdomes, it can only house five or six Jaegers at the most.”
“That many?” Applejack asked, amazed at the thought of so many machines.
“It only ever held four.” Shane said with a small shrug. “Gipsy Danger, Chrome Brutus, Brawler Yukon and us.”
“It was home.” Michael said, a hint of sadness in his voice. He shut the display off and sat back down, poking at his food with substantially less interest than he had before.  
“Hey, cheer up.” Shane said, placing a reassuring hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’ll go home soon.”
“And what? Just leave us to die?” Rainbow Dash piped up angrily.
“That’s your problem, not mine.” Shane said casually.
“She’s got a point you know, Shane.” Michael butted in before either of the headstrong belligerents did something stupid like declare a duel to the death.
“I thought you wanted to go home?”
Michael nodded. “I do. As much as I’m starting to like this place it’s nothing like home.” He said quietly. “This probably isn’t the best time to be leaving though.”
“And when would that be then? When we’re rusting at the bottom of the bay?”
“Ideally not.” Michael said with a thin smile. “We’ll know when the time comes. Have a look around, these guys seem like they’d be able to sort themselves out. Eventually. “He chewed down on a roasted potato cheerfully. “In the meantime we can have the full holiday experience.” He watched Shane carefully. “Come on, it’s an adventure, you love adventures.”
Shane laughed, almost more or a bark. “Never thought I’d have one with an alien horse.”
“Good.” Michael said, slightly pleased. He quashed the dwelling thoughts of home that lingered in his mind and put a smile back on his face. “Hey, this is supposed to be a party isn’t it? What’s a party without some music?” He thought for a moment. “Sweetie, some Pink Floyd please.”
“Oh don’t torture us with that 70’s crap.” Shane groaned, placing his hands over his ears.
“Rubbish, it’s fantastic.” Michael said with a dismissive wave. He turned back to the ponies, an eager look on his face. “You guys are going to love this…”
 

***

 
The bridge of Lucky Seven was quiet. Not surprising considering it was almost four in the morning and like most of the Royal Equestrian Air force, the airship had returned to its home port for Hearth’s Warming. Spitfire sat at her chair, filling in the routine paperwork she was eternally cursed with. She’d yawned softly, most of the crew was either somewhere on base or had taken leave to be with their families, leaving the airship staffed with a small skeleton crew. She’d pulled a quadruple watch to fill in for missing crew, a sacrifice that worked out reasonably well for her considering how much paperwork she’d neglected to do over the last few months. Still, it was a relief when the chronometer chimed four times and a half-dozen or so fresh crew showed up to take over. She tucked her work under her wing with a relieved sigh and trotted slowly off to her cabin which was a deck below and just aft of the bridge. The usually bustling corridors were eerily quiet and Spitfire found herself looking over her shoulder several times, sure somepony was watching her. Reaching her cabin, she roughly slid the metal door open and flicked the light on.
Her quarters were large by airship standards, she had to entire compartment to herself. A small single bed was jammed up against the wall and in the corner sat an antique oak desk, a gift from the team when she’d received captaincy of Lucky Seven. Letting out a quiet sigh she loosened her tie and flopped into her chair. She’d sleep later, there was still a small pile of paperwork that needed her attention. After a moment’s consideration, she cracked open one of the desk’s drawers and pulled out the sixty year old bottle of scotch which she’d decided also required her attention. The fiery-maned mare rooted through her desk for the glass she usually used from but found no trace of the small, but ornate tumbler she habitually drank from. She growled quietly and made her way back out into the corridor, marching a few doors down to where Soarin’s quarters were and shoved the door open. Unsurprisingly, her XO was nowhere to be found, he was already somewhere in Martingale with some family of his. She paused her search briefly, wondering what it would be like to have a proper Hearth’s Warming dinner with family. Would it be fun? Loud? She shook the thought off and continued searching, she didn’t have a family, not one she wanted to associate with at least. A few choice curses later and she was back in her cabin, her usual glass firmly back in her possession. Why Soarin had it in his cabin she couldn’t remember but it didn’t overly bother her, the two of them were fairly close so it wasn’t unheard of for her to find some random things of hers lying around in his quarters or vice versa.
“Just as long he keeps his damn hooves off my scotch I don’t care.” She muttered to herself, pouring a small measure of the almost smoky smelling drink into her cup. Spitfire collapsed into her chair again and gazed intensely at the ceiling. The thought she’d had in Soarin’s cabin came drifting back onto the forefront of her mind and she suddenly felt very lonely. Surely there had to be more to life than running a squadron, yelling at subordinates and drinking vintage scotch. Her eyes drifted down to a large photo which adorned the wall next to her desk. It was a rare photo of the entire team at relative ease, taken at some wedding if she remembered correctly. There was Soarin, a goofy grin etched onto his face as he no doubt told somepony of some stupid yet amazing plan he’d come up with at some point in his career. Behind him was Surprise wearing a confident smirk as she always seemed to. Fleetfoot was off the side, staring dreamily into the distance like she was off in another world. Beside her was a serious looking Fire Streak. Spitfire scoffed in amusement, he always took himself far too seriously, even by her standards. Wave Chill was at the back, he’d been the Rookie back then and no doubt the eager look he was sporting was because of that. She smiled thinly as she spotted herself perched at the front, a surprisingly carefree and relaxed look on her face. This was her family she thought, unsure if that was a good thing. They were an entirely dysfunctional, crazy and conflicting team which had somehow stayed together under her firm gaze. She allowed herself to feel a moment of pride before quashing the feeling like a bug under her hoof.
She looked away from the photo, silently wondering if the team had become her entire life, the only thing she’d ever be remembered for. Spitfire dwelled with her thoughts for several minutes, unsure of exactly what she was looking for in the vast reaches of her mind. Was she lonely or was she comfortable with her lifestyle that kept her emotionally detached from the world? She searched for the answers but like a ball at a hoofball match, they remained elusive.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a trio of quick knocks.
“Enter.” She barked, spinning around on her chair to face the door.
The door slid open, revealing a nervous looking crewman. He saluted quickly and handed Spitfire a short message. She took it and quickly scanned its contents.
 
 
>Royal Equestrian Defence Force PRIORITY RED DISPATCH
>From: Trottingham Monitoring Station
>To: ALL REN, REAF assets in BOLTON, MANEHATTEN, FILLYDELPHIA and surrounds
>Subject: IMMEDIATE RECALL
 
/start message/
Unknown object detected at 2200 in Canterbury Passage. Further detection at 0250 by REN Azimuth has identified BOLTON as probable destination. ETA 1030 at last known speed. Contact with Azimuth was lost shortly after 0305. Subsequently, the object has been deemed hostile.
 
ALL CRAFT are to halt current activities/operations immediately and proceed to RALLY POINT BRAVO-THREE at best speed.
/end message/
 
 
Spitfire reread the document quickly, noticing the use of the words ‘Unknown object’. She flicked over the second page which contained a copy of the watch stations recording. 2300 tons... A cold chill shot up her spine as she imagined the sight of another of the monsters breaking through the waves with an infernal screech. She screwed the message up and re-buttoned her collar with a disgusted growl.
“Alright, recall any of the crew you can, we’re casting off in half an hour.” She hesitated a moment. “We’ll head down to the docks first.”
“Ma’am?”
“Well, if we’re looking at another monster attack, would you rather have the big stompy robot with us or just a few rockets and cannons strapped to a flying metal tube?” Spitfire growled.
“Understood.”
“Good, now snap to it. Clock is ticking airman.”
 

***


 

A faint buzzing, like a swarm of bees woke Michael. He shook his head and squinted through the Jaeger’s tinted windshield, wondering what the annoying drone could be. He groaned, guessing it was around five or six in the morning, far too early to be awake. He laid his head back down on his makeshift bed and tried to get back to sleep. He’d barely closed his eyes when a siren howled throughout the conpod.
“Proximity alert: Upper Right Quadrant. Three hundred feet.” The cold voice of the A.I. said, making Michael almost leap upright. He dashed to the front of conpod and peered out into the slightly foggy sky, surprised to make out a large, somewhat familiar airship buzzing angrily above them.
‘Shane, Shane! Get up! There’s a military airship out there!” Michael yelled, stumbling around clumsily for the black, almost skin tight undersuit they wore to interface with the Jaeger. He could only guess why the airship was there but he somehow knew it meant trouble.
“Incoming message, visual spectrum.” The A.I. announced.
“Visible spectrum? What the hell do mean by that?” Michael snapped, staggering back to the front of the conpod. Sure enough, a white blinker was flashing from the upper superstructure, aimed straight at the Jaeger’s head. It took Michael a moment to figure out what it was.
“Holy shit, that’s Morse code!” He whispered. Although somewhat archaic, most Rangers were trained to understand Morse code as well as basic sign language in the case that their Jaeger’s communication equipment was damaged. He watched the light closely, mentally deciphering the message.
 
AAA AAA AAA MIDSUMMER NIGHT CAN YOU READ THIS CAN YOU READ THIS PLEASE RESPOND FLASH THREE TIMES IF YOU CAN READ THIS FLASH THREE TIMES IF YOU CAN READ THIS AAA AAA AAA MIDSUMMER NIGHT CAN YOU READ THIS
 
            The message kept repeating and it took several moments for Michael to get to entire signal. Michael spun around. “Shane, headlights, flash ‘em three times!”
“Whu-?” Shane replied groggily.
“Just do it!” Michael said, watching the airship closely. The fog around Midsummer Night lit up suddenly as the massive head mounted searchlight blinked on and off. The message from the airship stopped abruptly, being quickly replaced by a new one.
 
MIDSUMMER NIGHT MIDSUMMER NIGHT ASSISTANCE REQUIRED 2300 TON UNKNOWN THREAT CONVERGING ON BOLTON 2300 TON UNKNOWN THREAT CONVERGING ON BOLTON ONE HEAVY CRUISER MISSING ONE HEAVY CRUISER MISSING PLEASE PROCEED TO RALLY POINT BRAVO-THREE AT 42 N 70 W PLEASE PROCEED TO RALLY POINT BRAVO-THREE AT 42 N 70 W IF YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE PLEASE FLASH THREE TIMES
 
The message repeated three times before Michael understood the whole thing.
“Shit, we’ve got another Kaiju.” He breathed, scrambling for his drivesuit again.
“What, already? It’s only been about three months.” Shane said in disbelief. He already had his undersuit on and was busily clipping the white outer layer of his drivesuit into place.
“No doubt about it. 2300 tons.” Michael said, grabbing a map of Equestria and quickly locating Bolton.  He grimaced, it was a good 150 miles away if he was reading the scale correctly.
“We’ve got a fair walk ahead of us.” He muttered. That was bad, they’d be facing a borderline CAT II/III Kaiju fatigued. At least this time they’d have backup…. for whatever that was worth.
“The way you say that makes it sound like I don’t have a say in the matter.”
Michael looked his brother over. “You’re suited up.” He noted.
Shane smiled. “Well I never said I didn’t want to fight.”
“Well after your little outburst last night, I was starting to wonder…” Michael muttered, stowing the map away and banging his chestplate into place.
“Hey, you know me. Always raring for a fight.”
“Well you better get ready for a hell of a fight.” Michael grunted, clipping himself into the Jaeger’s drive system. He flashed the headlight three more times, confirming for the airship that they had received its message. “We’ve got a long walk ahead of us so let’s get this show on the road.”
 
 
 
The walk was long but enjoyable. They’d selected a route which took them slightly overland, cutting a good hour off their trip. They’d initially followed the coast, skirting around the impassable suburbs and districts of Manehatten before turning northeast and making a beeline towards Bolton. The airship dogged their heels the entire way, Michael was sure it could fly much faster than they were walking, about 60 miles an hour, but it instead seemed intent on escorting them to their final destination. The change of scenery made for a nice view, the sprawling urban centre they had become accustomed to had turned into lush rolling hills covered with dense forests. A range of snow-capped mountains were visible in the distance and although they couldn’t see anything, their motion sensors were filling up with contacts as the local wildlife scrambled to get out of their way. They’d been stomping through the forest for little over two hours when a large orange shape broke through the canopy, screeched and took flight on a large set of scaly wings. It let loose a blinding jet of flame into the sky as a warning to the approaching machine.
“That’s a dragon!” Shane exclaimed as the irate beast circled the jaeger cautiously for several minutes. It eventually decided that fighting the towering giant was a bad choice and flapped off towards a trio of mountains some 50 miles distant. The airship made to pursue the dragon but after a moment it readjusted its course to continue following the Jaeger.
“There looks there is a railway up ahead in that valley, might want to go around.” Michael warned as Midsummer Night broke free of the forest and found itself near the edge of a rocky decline. A river rumbled through the valley below them, running perpendicular to a shining band of steel that ran curved and snaked towards the north.
“There’s movement.” Shane pointed out, noticing a faint gleam of sunlight bouncing off metal about a mile away. He magnified the display and a quartet of heavy looking diesel locomotives jumped into view. The engines were arrayed around a set of massive, but empty, flatbed cars. The engines were moving away from them, heading north at considerable speed.
“That’s some heavy gear.” Michael noted, logging the shape, size and identification numbers of the engines into the Jaeger’s database for future reference. He’d spotted trains as a hobby for some time and it was a hard habit to break out of. “I wonder what their cargo will be.”
“Who cares?” Shane muttered. Even without the verbal cue, Michael could feel his brother’s indifference through the neural link.
“You’re right, not important.” He said as the Jaeger crested a high ridge. Before them, the land sloped downward steeply to a large flat coastal plain. The heavy forest which they’d been steadily advancing through thinned slightly, no doubt thanks to what looked like several heavy logging operations in the area. Beyond the low hills, the blue glitter of the ocean caught their eyes.
“Nearly there.” Michael huffed, cautiously advancing down the hill. They’d been marching for nearly two and a half hours and judging from the distance projected on the screen, they had a good half hour to go before reaching the rally point. What they could do with some Jumphawks right now...
“They need some heavy lift choppers if they expect us to stay around.” Shane said in tacit agreement.
Michael nodded. “How much do you reckon those airships could carry?”
“Not nearly enough. They’d need a hundred of them just to lift us.”
“Maybe, probably should check if their air force has anything for heavy lifting.” He shrugged at Shane’s questioning look. “Beats walking at least.”
The airship swung down in front of them and a blinker mounted on its stern started blinking furiously.
“They want us to cut around, apparently there’s an industrial district just over the next rise.” Michael said, projecting a new track over the heads up display for the Jaeger to follow. He groaned quietly.
“Oh boy, more walking.”
 

***

 
Despite the detour, they reached the harbour in good time and after several more messages from the airship which had followed them from Manehatten, Midsummer Night fell into a rough defensive perimeter that had been established. Their radio was chattering away on several frequencies as the half dozen airships and a score of surface craft arranged themselves to cover the wide front they had to protect. Apparently they hadn’t been initially factored into the defence, something that surprised Michael slightly considered they’ already killed two Kaiju since they’d arrived.
“Guess they want their moment of glory.” Shane guessed, watching what he assumed to be a light frigate dart out to a picket position. “Show their people they can actually do something and they’re not just waving around glorified metal sticks.”
“Fat chance.” Michael snorted, slightly amused at the prospect. He surveyed the wide bay ahead of them, noting the position of each of the Equestrian warships. “They should be putting their heavy cruisers and battleships closer to the shore, putting them out in the deep will just mean the Kaiju will either go under them and either chomp the ship in half if it’s a good swimmer, or be at the shoreline before they can respond.” It wasn’t uncommon for a naval force to assist a Jaeger in a fight and a whole swathe of tactics and doctrines had been laid down since the first fights had occurred. Still, the supporting forces rarely, if ever, scored kills.
“Do we have a name for this thing yet?”
“Assigning name from PPDC database… Kaiju Rasputin, 2300 tons. Category II.” The A.I. droned.
“Sounds friendly.” Shane said with a grimace. “Nothing else a little nicer in there is there?”
“Designation Buttercups and Rainbow Sprinkles has already been used.”
“Ha!” Shane chuckled, wondering which part of the Jaeger he should kick to make the A.I. less of a wisecracker.
“Warning: Transient Kaiju signature detected. Inbound on heading two-three-two.”
The Jaeger’s head turned slightly, closely monitoring the vector the A.I. had identified.
“Alright, what’s the game plan?” Shane asked.
“We sit back and watch. See if our pony friends can tackle this thing by themselves.” Michael answered, directing more power to the Jaeger’s active scanners. There was definitely something there… about two miles out and closing fast.
“Here we go!” Shane exclaimed as Rasputin broke the surface a hundred feet from one of the cruisers. By Kaiju standards, Rasputin was fairly short but even so, it was if a stubby skyscraper had risen simply risen the water. A pair of short arms, each tipped with a razor sharp talon jutted out of its heavily armoured carapace, ready to tear apart anything foolish enough to get in its way. The Kaiju plodded forward on four heavy legs, the front two were nearly as thick as Midsummer Night’s chest. The ship, much to its credit, overcame its shock and fired a barrage of shells into the Kaiju’s heavily armoured upper body, achieving nothing of any significance besides perhaps annoying the Kaiju. Rasputin screeched loudly and bisected the boat with a casual swipe of one of its talons. A few panicked radio calls came over the radio before the ship was dashed against the Kaiju’s armoured legs and vanished beneath the waves.
“Well that went well.” Michael remarked, slightly disturbed by how easily the Kaiju had cut through the ship. He made a mental note to not let the beast hit them. A dozen of the other ships in the bay rotated around, finally realising how horribly out of position they were. They’d deployed like they were fighting another fleet, not a single gargantuan creature. A couple of the airships buzzed Rasputin, waves of rockets clanging harmlessly off its armour. A few of the heavy warheads found soft spots in its flesh and small wounds started to pepper its arms, leaking a small trickle of blood into the bay.
“Nope, not working.” Shane said, readying himself for combat. A brief moment of hope flared up in him as one of the large Battleship’s out on the bay fired a pair of heavy shells at the creature. The shots flew true and exploded in massive balls of fire against the creature’s flank but when the smoke cleared nothing more a slight glancing wound had been achieved. The Kaiju’s pace quickened slightly and the ponderous battleship fell out of range.
The Kaiju ignored the two blasts and advanced steadily, smashing another ship to ruin as it advanced further in the bay. It closed to within a mile of Midsummer Night, still completely oblivious to the Jaeger.
“Hey, fatty!” Shane called, blasting the Jaeger’s mighty foghorns to attract its attention. The Kaiju’s small glowing eyes glazed over Midsummer Night and settled on the city behind the towering Jaeger. It shrieked again and set off slowly, its four heavy legs making the ground shudder with each massive footfall. A few of the remaining navy ships approached the beast and peppered it with cannon and rocket fire but the mighty Kaiju paid the ant-like vessels no heed. Midsummer Night’s horns bellowed again, issuing a challenge to the Kaiju. If the Kaiju even heard the titanic rumble though, it made no sign of it. The Jaeger took a single step forward and splayed its arms in an attempt to attract the beast’s attention.
“Hey, acknowledge us! Pay attention you slimy bastard.” Shane yelled, blasting the Jaegers horns yet again.
“I don’t think it has even noticed us,” Michael said nervously. Kaiju had always gone after the Jaegers first. He examined the slowly advancing Kaiju, noting the massive armour plates which covered its back, chest and head. The Kaiju’s eyes seemed dead in their sockets not even a scrap of intelligence of cunning visible. “It looks about as smart as a brick. Let’s hope he’s as easy to smash as one.”
Midsummer Night’s horns blared again as the remaining Railgun swung out of its housing and powered up. The stocky barrel swung smoothly on its mount, tracking the small gap in the creature’s armour where its arm met its body. The Kaiju screeched again as it advanced into the harbour, shattering one of the boats trailing it in its wake. Hundreds of small figures darted away in panic from the waterfront as it approached the city, those too naïve or stubborn to seek shelter finally realising their mistake. It was about eight hundred feet from the shore line when the Railgun on Midsummer Night’s shoulder barked a solid tungsten slug at it. Unlike the other Kaiju they’d faced, Rasputin didn’t try to dodge the slug, it didn’t even acknowledge the discharge. With a crack of flesh and bone tearing, the slug smashed into the creature’s arm just below the shoulder. Chunks of cooked flesh were blown outwards by the force of the shot and the arm fell into the water with a wet slap. Its momentum undiminished, the slug kept going… only to bounce off the creature’s tough carapace harmlessly.
Much to their surprise, the Kaiju didn’t even scream. It didn’t even seem to realise it was missing an arm. It just glanced at the ragged stump of its arm with some confusion before plodding on relentlessly.
“Oh that can’t be good.” Shane said prophetically, breaking the Jaeger into a quick stride trying to circle around the ponderous Kaiju so they could target its wounded flank. Rasputin finally seemed to notice the 280 foot mechanical giant striding through the bay and roared with feral glee. Its small head retracted slightly into its armoured shell and it barrelled towards Midsummer Night on all fours with a surprising burst of speed. The Jaeger was too quick for the ponderous giant though, ducking under Rasputin’s clumsy attempt to crush them beneath its pillar-like foreleg and swinging themselves up onto its armoured back. The segmented plates provided several hand holds and within moments the Jaeger was riding the Kaiju like it was some sort of obscene horse. Rasputin screeched in surprise and spun around in confusion at its prey flipped out of sight. It paid no heed to either the pair of crushing blows the Jaeger delivered down on its back or the sudden increase in weight its legs had to carry.
“How stupid is this thing?” Shane asked as the Kaiju promptly forgot about the Jaeger and continued its implacable advance towards the city. Midsummer Night was thrown backwards as the beast’s massive forelegs found purchase on the edge of the twenty metre high harbour wall and hauled its bulk out of the water, sending the Jaeger unceremoniously into the deep harbour water. The Kaiju clambered over a bridge, crushing a section of it to rubble with a clumsy sweep of its remaining arm and advanced into the city, peering down at the ponies that fled before it with a sort of childish curiosity. It plodded down a wide street stupidly, smashing windows with its titanic footfalls and gouging large rents into buildings with its remaining talon. It ripped through a large high-rise effortlessly, its massive bulk smashing the concrete and steel construction apart like it was made of tissue paper.
“Come on, we’ve got to end this. Now.” Michael panted as they brought the Jaeger to its feet and drunkenly clambered out of the water. Dozens of seals popped open and a cascade of water poured from the Jaeger’s legs, washing away the fist-sized drops of Kaiju blood which had started to eat away at the cobblestones and concrete.
Without pause, Midsummer Night broke into a slow run, ripped a section of the fallen bridge off with its hand and swiped it at the Kaiju’s back legs. The blow connected with a loud crack, turning the bridge span into a shower of rubble and making Rasputin stagger awkwardly. It fell over sideways with a yelp of surprise, smashing into another high-rise with a deafening crack of glass and metal shattering. Its small head peeked out of its carapace dumbly, beady eyes straining to see what had tripped it.
“Over here dumbass.” Shane taunted, blasting Midsummer Night’s horns once more to grab its attention. The Kaiju cocked its head in confusion and wheeled around, finally noticing the Jaeger again. Without hesitation, Rasputin roared in fury and charged at the Jaeger again, its tiny jaw snapping furiously as it brought its remaining arm down to eviscerate them. This time Midsummer Night didn’t duck under its clumsy strike, instead the mighty machine parried away the descending talon with its armoured forearm and stepped within the creature’s reach. With a savage yell, Michael wrapped his hand around the creatures head, gouging out one of its bright cyan eyes with his thumb, sending a spray of blood and another viscous fluid across the street. Before the ponderous creature could react, Shane delivered a devastating uppercut to its jaw which would’ve snapped the neck on any lesser creature. Seizing the initiative, Michael removed his hand from the creature’s face and tugged at a damaged armour plate on its back, ripping the section clean off in a massive spray of toxic blue blood. In the space of a few seconds Midsummer Night had delivered a series of devastating blows that would’ve had most Kaiju of its size on the ropes.
Rasputin didn’t even whimper.
Roaring in fury, the implacable Kaiju raised its massive bulk onto its two stubby back legs and shoved Midsummer Night away with the mountains of flesh and armour that made up its front limbs. The Jaeger was thrown backwards by the blow, slamming into a building before crashing back-first onto the wide city street. The Jaeger rose shakily on one knee before Rasputin slammed it back into the ground with a glancing blow from its talon. With surprising speed, the Kaiju brought its feet down onto the Jaeger’s torso, pinning them remorselessly beneath its bulk. Its head emerged from its recessed cavity and snapped uselessly at the air, its tiny neck was too short for its knife-like teeth to reach the beleaguered Jaeger. The remains of its destroyed eye dripped onto them, the toxic compounds in its bodily fluids slowly eating away at the Jaeger’s armour. Michael and Shane struggled to free themselves from the Kaiju’s crushing hold, glad that in its bloodlust it had seemingly forgotten about its remaining arm. It raised a foot and slammed it back down on their chest, setting off several alarms and causing a shower of sparks to erupt around the conpod.
“It’s no good, the bastard’s too strong.” Shane wheezed, failing miserably to stop the second pillar like leg from slamming down against their torso. The feedback from the blow was enormous, every time Rasputin brought its foot down Shane felt like his ribcage was about to explode.
‘Warning: Hull integrity compromised.” The A.I. chimed, blissfully unaware of the mortal peril they were in.
“There’s gotta be something we can do!” Michael roared angrily finding purchase on the segmented armour plates that covered the front of Rasputin’s leg and struggling to hold it back. The servos in the arm whined in protest as they struggled to hold back the full weight of the beast. Rasputin roared with glee, finally realising it had its opponent exactly where it wanted it. It forced its leg down, crushing Midsummer Night’s arm to scrap.
The end was nigh, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
 
Spitfire watched in horror as the Jaeger slowly toppled to the street, the Kaiju pressed down on top of it like an overzealous attack dog. Lucky Seven had hovered above the combat zone warily. After seeing the airship’s ineffectiveness in their last encounter, Spitfire was more cautious about committing to the battle while the alien war machine and the gargantuan monster were active. Now that the mechanical giant had fallen, she considered her next move carefully. There had to be something she could do! She quickly scrutinised the Kaiju, hoping she could find a weakness. A large rent had been carved into the monster’s back from where Midsummer Night had ripped a massive armour plate off. Maybe she could fire a barrage of rockets into it? No, after seeing the Kaiju shrug off its arm injury like it was a mere cut she doubted it would pay much attention to the comparatively piddily rockets Lucky Seven carried. No, she needed something larger than that. She pounded a hoof against the console in frustration. Where was Soarin when she needed him? No doubt he would’ve come up with some crazy but brilliant idea by now.
‘Handles just like you, you fat oaf… you’re probably about as heavy as she is…’ She thought dumbly, remembering the comparison she’d made between Lucky Seven’s handling and Soarin’s flying abilities. Her eyes widened as a truly preposterous idea formed in her head. She’d found her bigger weapon.
“Full power to engines, arm all fore rocket batteries and reroute the firing control to my station.” She squinted and pointed at the large gash in the creature’s back. “Set course zero-one-three, declination negative uh…” She quickly worked out the calculations in her head as Lucky Seven’s engines quickly roared to full power and the airship’s speed climbed rapidly. “Declination negative zero-zero-two-five. Reroute navigation to my console as well.”
“Uh, ma’am, that’s a collision course with the creature.” Her navigator said uneasily.
“I know that.” She said fiercely. She grabbed the ship’s intercom. “All hands, abandon ship. I don’t care what you’re doing just get the hell off this bucket now!”
The bridge crew looked at her with alarm, the full scope of her plan suddenly apparent.
“That’s an order, get out of here now!” She barked. “If any of you stick around you’ll be facing a court martial!” She added, unnecessarily. If they stuck around, they’d be dead as well. She smiled grimly as they scampered off the bridge, several of them tossing concerned looks back at her as they left. The distance between the Kaiju and Lucky Seven shrunk until she could made out the faint bio-luminescent lines that criss crossed the creature’s back. Underneath the beast she could made out the battered yet still struggling form of Midsummer Night. The collision alarm blared as the distance closed to five hundred metres. She silenced it only for it snap back on insistently. She pushed the engines well past their operational limits and the roar of the turbines quickly drowned out the warning klaxon.
Three hundred metres; Spitfire made a slight course correction, realigning Lucky Seven’s bow with the gaping hole in the Kaiju’s back. She felt a strange calm come over her, either this would work or it wouldn’t. She would either go out in a blaze of glory or in a futile act of defiance.
One hundred metres; she jabbed the fire button and instinctively threw herself clear of the captain’s chair. She had a moment to hear the whoosh of two score rockets firing simultaneously and the creature’s roar of rage before everything went black.
 
Michael yelped in surprise as a massive grey shape flashed across their field of vision. He barely had time to read the words ‘Lucky Seven’ printed on the bow before the airship slammed into the side of the Kaiju. The Jaeger’s visor dimmed automatically as a gigantic ball of fire enveloped them and the internal temperature spiked sharply. The massive pressure on their chest was suddenly lifted as Rasputin was violently thrown sideways by the impact. An infernal screech split the air as the Kaiju finally howled in pain. The sound was so intense both Shane and Michael gritted their teeth in discomfort and placed their hands over their helmets in a vain attempt to block the noise. After several long seconds the scream trailed off into a pathetic mewling sound. Stunned by what had happened, Midsummer Night lay limp in the Jaeger-sized crater the Kaiju had smashed them into.
“Did they just kamikaze the Kaiju?” Shane stammered in disbelief.
“I think so.” Michael said quietly, wondering how many ponies had been on board the airship when it had slammed into the Rasputin. He fidgeted silently for a moment, shocked by the sheer desperation of the action. “Come on, on your feet. Let’s see what’s left of our friend.”
As one, they shakily brought Midsummer Night to its feet. Every joint seemed to be leaking smoke or oil and many of their moving parts just simply didn’t work at all. Several plates of armour sloughed off the Jaeger, twisted and bent beyond the point of salvaging. They staggered upright and looked around for the Kaiju. They were alive… barely.
“Holy…” Shane breathed, the words dying in his mouth.
A four hundred metre trail of destruction terminating in the barely intact corpse of Rasputin greeted them. Fires blazed furiously along the corridor and among the shattered remains of the buildings and streets that made up the impact zone Shane and Michael could make out fragments of the airship which had accompanied them from Manehatten. What looked like it had been a fair part of its superstructure was embedded deep into the Kaiju’s flank.  Rasputin's corpse lay sprawled across the street, its chest completely blown open by the impact. Small trickles of blood flowed down the Kaiju from where metre long splinters of the ship’s hull had jammed themselves into its thick hide.  Amazingly, most of its back armour was still intact, testament to the natural hardiness of the Kaiju.
“Hold on, it just moved.” Michael warned, trying to raise the Jaeger’s shattered arm and being rewarded with a massive surge of pain up his entire arm.
“No way. No way in hell it could get up after that.” Shane breathed.
“See look!” Michael said again, pointing at the creature’s head which was violently writhing and shaking. Its jaws snapped open and shut slowly and a pathetic crying sound seemed to escape its mouth. Midsummer Night staggered towards it cautiously, ready to slam it back into the ground if it so much as made a move toward them. The Kaiju stared desperately at them with its last remaining eye, almost as if it was beckoning them to put it out of its misery.
“Is it, crying?” Shane asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea.” Michael muttered, shaking his head from side to side slowly. Rasputin stared at them pleadingly, the miserable cry of pain still escaping its mouth as it twitched feebly. They watched in horror as the Kaiju twitched a few more times before the last light of life finally left its eye.
The two brothers stared at the corpse in disbelief. It seemed like several minutes before Shane finally found his voice.
“Holy shit.”