Chapter 3

"I completed my mission, that's all that matters," said Kel sitting next to Dr Bright. He was looking forward, away from the doctor with a straight face almost as if he was sending a message. His arms crossed and head tilted slightly downwards. Across the table sat General Watkins, he seemed sort fed up to be in their vicinity.

"Win the battle today but what of the war tomorrow? You'll die, just like they did!" Yelled the doctor at Kel. Immediately those words left his mouth dread filled him just as fast as regret did. Kel had almost instantly gotten off his seat and towered over him. It didn't help that Kel was standing at six feet, his right arm braced with muscles as he clenched a fist about to clobber the doctor.

"That is enough," said the general calmly. He was a man of few words, for the most part. The guy behind the guy behind the screen in the radio room. He hardly had the know how of the mech's worked but he was still a good leader, one that could strategize, create plans and mobilize his soldiers at war. For that, Kel respected him.

"He's right Kel, good as you are a soldier, it was foolish to pilot the mech without a pilot suit. As we are right now, you're the most experienced pilot world wide, losing you would be detrimental," said the general calm and collected. The doctor smirked at Kel in an attempt to mock him. He was about to say something else when an alarm went off.

That alarm only meant one thing, a kaiju attack!

The three dashed out of the room, the general and the doctor diverting headed for the radio room while Kel dashed towards the armory to ready himself. The general had a view of the kaiju that had attacked, they stared at it through monitor screens in the radio room. As always, it was massive, it's head ressembled that of a hammer head shark. Large gorilla like forelimbs and short back legs like those of a hyena.

"It came from River Zuma, broke most of the bank," said the man behind the monitor. The general bent down to get a closer look at it. Kel was already in the armory getting ready, the new recruits were too, they were the back up in case Kel fell in battle, they'd be the last line. But then, the general made an announcement, through a speaker in the armory he declared that Kate was to handle this Kaiju. Everyone, even Kel was surprised, he hardly showed it however, all he did was squint his left eye a bit. Kate, mostly non-chalant took it to be a pleasant surprise. She had already geared up and after her mates hyping her up for a short moment she left the armory headed towards the hanger. The mech appointed to her was far much more imrpoved than the one Kel had used against the previous kaiju. It had especially denser armor to improve it's durability but also more workability and power output. The design also generally looked more appealing than that of Kel's. It had a silver lining with crevices that flowed light blue.

A moment later she was inside the cockpit, set for battle. They allowed her to take off, she being well versed at it, had am easy time piloting the mech to the carrier. At that point two giant drones descended to the shoulders of her mech and plugged giant lines onto it, they then simultaneously lifted the mech off the ground and flew away with it headed towards the battleground.

The general called Kel, by tapping his forearm he had a hologram representation of a phone above his left wrist. Kel took out his phone and saw that it was the general calling, he then answered and put his phone on his right ear.

"Take the phone off your ear soldier," said the general. Kell retracted the phone and faced it. It was video call.

"Are you sure?" He asked the general.

"No,"

"Then why'd you send her?"

"Because experience is the best teacher, still, I want you prepared, just in case it goes south, get into your mech, you're going after her," said the general.

"Copy that," said Kel. The general ended the call and Kel sat on the exo capsule, it was basically a slot that planted the exo skeleton on your body. After all was done in there he quickly left the armory headed for his mech.

At that point Kate had just reached the battlefield, the drones slowly descended with her mech down to the ground, about a two kilo metres from the kaiju. How ever, this Kaiju didn't give her time to prepare, it attacked on sight. As soon as the drones unhooked from the mech the kaiju was charging towards her, shattering all buildings and structures in its way. It was slightly dark, being in the early morning, the light from Kate's mech pin pointed exactly where she was

She wasn't stressed, at least not enough to shake her spirit. All that while she maintained a calm demeanor, showcasing a state that one would only assume preparation was obvious. When the creature reached her, she did a left reverse swip kick but the kaiju was also prepared as it leaped over her crushing into some buildings up ahead. She stood up but before she could turn to it it leaped onto her again. Immediately, her demeanor changed, all of a sudden she was fretting.

"She's in trouble," said Dr Bright.

"Calm down Kathrine, remember your training, you can get out of this," said the general. She seemed to have either been too stressed about her then current situation to listen to him or did but thought it useless. The kaiju wasted no time and bit into her mech's head, ripping off a chunk of the right side of the cockpit. She had a clear view of the creature at that point, as a short while later, part of its left eye had poked into the right side of her cockpit. She was so close that each blink sounded like wet concrete scrapping on each other. At that point, she froze, it was all too real. She'd never been in a fight let alone this close to a living kaiju. Most of the combat training she had was via a simulator, which for the most part approximated the intensity of the situation.

"Kathrine," called a voice. It seemed close yet...far at the same time.

"Kathrine...KATHRINE!" It was the general calling her. She seemed to have been entranced by terror, lost in the void that was the kaiju's eye.

"Snap out of it!" Yelled the general. Immediately, she grabbed the kaiju's arm with her left hand and using the right leg flipped it over her to her front while throwing it about two hundred metres upfront. The kaiju fell on a building flattening it. Her mech was severely damaged however, and this only bought her a few seconds. She was still shaken and in fact that was not a calculated counter but a fight or flight reflex induced by near paralytic anxiety. She breathed heavily, so much so it was as if her suit, made of metal was bulging with each breathe.

The kaiju wasted no time and got on its feet, it looked at her menacingly, charged with rage it ran towards her. She was still shaken and the only movement she made was a staggered step back out of fear and confusion.

The kaiju was almost on her when suddenly, she was pulled back and turned one hundred and eighty degrees as Kel appear behind her roundhouse kicking the kaiju hard and away. His new, more sophisticated mech was encased in a dense aura. On the back of his mech was a long sword represented by a hologram with a similar shape on his back from inside the cockpit. In fact, anything visible outside the mech structure was represented with holograms, the chip inside his head made it that when he interacted with them he it felt as if they were real, the lines plugged into his exo skeleton forced him to react the same way he would if they were real creating a perfect simulation that coincides with what his mech experienced outside the cockpit.

He turned from her and faced the kaiju, it was still disoriented from the blow, trying to get on its feet. Kel pulled out the blade on his back swaving it three sixty degrees with his right hand once before holding it in place with the tip pointing the ground in a slanted manner.

"I'm locked in," he said as a sort of techno sound was released from his mech with it's crevices releasing bright blue light. "Urgh," Dr Bright groaned out of cringe.

The kaiju came in charging, Kel accepted the challenge and dashed towards it. It lifted it's right arm to strike him but he swang the sword in a rising diagonal manner towards it slicing the arm clean off as they crossed each other. It shrieked in pain waving the bit of its arm that was left as green blood oozed from it and splattered all over the place.

"Alright that's enough," he said before swiping it off its feet and onto the ground. It fell on its face putting a short pause to it's shriek. The eyes that had been shut for a moment opened up but before it could go back to wailing he stabbed it through its head with his sword putting an end to it's life.

"Kaiju eliminated," stated Kel as he turned towards the horror striken Kate. A short moment later the two were back at the base. Some medical specialists dashed towards Kate while one rushed for Kel.

"I'm fine, she's the one who needs you," said Kel to her.

"Let them check your brain activity Kel, the control chip inside your brain might as well be killing you from the inside out, just let them do their job," said the general as he walked towards him, the doctor by his side. He didn't argue and the specialist took out a scanner that she aimed at his head, a wave of light then beamed on to the top of his head and moved along his face down to his neck. After clearing up with him, she left headed for Kate.

"Nice work," said the general after finally reaching him. The doctor diverted and walked towards Kate as she was taken to the infirmary.

"Just doing my job," said Kel to him.

"At least one of us is doing it right," said Watkins. He said this with slight shame, but mostly disappointment in himself. He was one of those people who tried not to show much emotion, or at least he believed he shouldn't, a self bestowed responsibility to always be strong since he was leader. Kel could tell but didn't know what to say to him, him being the emotionally unavailable lad he was, the general chose the worst person to speak those words to.

On realizing how awkward of a situation he had created, he once cleared his throat and said, "Keep up the good work, I'll go speak to Katherine."

Kel nodded his head once and let out a deep breath he held inside. He hated such encounters, he was usually either too oblivious to notice or just overall didn't know how to tackle the issue. Most cases in which he did notice what was going on, he'd pretend not to and excuse himself from the situation.

He walked away headed for the armory, on reaching the hallways that connected the whole base, Dorian and the rest of their crew rushed past him headed for the infirmary. Soon as he saw them, he felt sudden nostalgia. Like they were familiar, like watching an old movie you used to like, one that had lost its thrill but kept it's comfort. They were so concerned about their friend that much as they noticed their hero they didn't have time to flaunt over him.

For a short moment he stared at them, even after they'd turned at a corner and were no longer visible, he stood there staring. He'd been entranced by the emotions he felt. It was warm, a feeling he hadn't felt in years.