Chapter 28: Hopeless
The night had been quiet.
For ten years, the world had enjoyed peace.
Ten years without Kaiju attacks.
Ten years without the sound of evacuation alarms.
Ten years without watching cities burn.
And yet, that night, Shane Buron found himself standing in the middle of a nightmare.
Dark clouds covered the sky.
The ocean was red.
Not from the sunset.
But from blood.
Burning Jaegers lay scattered across the battlefield like broken monuments. Some were missing limbs. Others were split in half.
The sight alone made Shane's stomach twist.
Then he saw something even worse.
The PPDC Headquarters.
Destroyed.
The once-proud fortress that had stood against the Kaiju was nothing more than a graveyard of steel and concrete.
Smoke rose into the sky.
Emergency sirens echoed in the distance.
Bodies covered the ground.
Engineers.
Scientists.
Pilots.
People he knew.
People he had fought beside.
Dead.
Then, among the ruins—
He heard crying.
A child.
A little girl sat alone beside a collapsed wall.
Her face was covered in tears.
She kept calling for her parents.
"Mom..."
"Dad..."
The sound pierced Shane's heart.
He tried to move toward her.
But no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't reach her.
The distance never changed.
The girl continued crying.
The world continued burning.
And then—
Everything went black.
Shane's eyes snapped open.
"HAAAH!"
He sat upright immediately.
His entire body was drenched in sweat.
His breathing was ragged.
His heart hammered against his chest.
For several seconds, he simply sat there.
Trying to calm down.
Trying to understand what he had just seen.
"What the hell was that?"
His voice was barely a whisper.
He rubbed his face.
It felt real.
Too real.
Not like an ordinary dream.
Not like a random nightmare.
The emotions.
The fear.
The helplessness.
Everything felt vivid.
Almost as if he had witnessed an actual event.
Shane frowned.
"Am I just being paranoid?"
The coming counterattack against the Precursors had occupied most of his thoughts lately.
Maybe the stress was finally getting to him.
Maybe his brain was simply creating worst-case scenarios.
He was about to lie back down.
Then—
WEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The emergency alarm erupted throughout the facility.
The sound froze him instantly.
His eyes widened.
No.
No way.
For ten years.
Ten whole years.
That alarm had remained silent.
And now—
It was screaming.
Shane jumped out of bed.
His body moved on instinct.
Military training.
Pilot training.
Years of experience.
Within seconds he was already changing into his pilot uniform.
The alarm continued blaring.
Personnel rushed through the corridors.
Technicians.
Soldiers.
Scientists.
Everyone was moving.
Everyone was running.
And then his phone rang.
Shane glanced at the caller ID.
His heart skipped a beat.
Becket Residence.
Without hesitation he answered.
"Hello?!"
The moment the call connected, he saw a familiar face.
The twins' nanny.
But something was wrong.
Very wrong.
She was trembling.
Her face was pale.
Behind her—
Ruins.
Shane froze.
The image looked horrifying.
Destroyed buildings.
Collapsed structures.
Smoke.
Fire.
Screams.
His blood turned cold.
"Nora?"
"What happened?"
The woman struggled to speak.
"S-Sir Shane..."
Shane immediately began walking through the corridor toward the hangar.
His pace quickened.
"What happened?"
"Where's Raleigh?"
"Where's Mako?"
The nanny's eyes became red.
She looked like she had been crying.
Shane felt a terrible feeling growing in his chest.
"Nora."
"Answer me."
The woman swallowed.
Shaking.
Trying desperately to stay composed.
Shane noticed movement behind her.
Two children.
A boy.
And a girl.
Mamuro and Shane Becket.
The twins.
Both looked terrified.
Both were covered in dust.
The younger Shane Becket was crying.
Mamuro was trying his best to comfort his sister despite being scared himself.
Shane felt relief.
At least the children were alive.
"Where are they?"
"The children?"
Nora nodded.
"They're with me."
For a brief moment Shane relaxed.
Then he asked the question he was afraid of.
"What about Raleigh and Mako?"
Silence.
The corridor suddenly felt colder.
Nora's lips trembled.
The twins lowered their heads.
Shane stopped walking.
For the first time in years—
Fear entered his heart.
"Nora."
"What happened?"
The woman finally broke.
Tears rolled down her face.
And the words she spoke made Shane's blood run cold.
"Sir Raleigh and Ma'am Mako..."
"They never came back."
For several seconds.
Shane said nothing.
His mind refused to process what he had just heard.
Impossible.
Raleigh Becket?
Mako Mori?
Two of humanity's greatest heroes?
Gone?
No.
Something wasn't right.
There had to be a mistake.
"When?"
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that only appeared before a storm.
Nora wiped her tears.
"An attack happened."
"Three hours ago."
"Something appeared above Sydney."
Shane's eyes widened.
Sydney.
Australia.
His thoughts immediately went toward one possibility.
A breach.
But that couldn't be possible.
The breach had been destroyed.
Unless—
His nightmare.
The research.
Newt.
The signal.
Everything suddenly connected.
"What attacked them?"
Nora shook her head.
"We don't know."
"The military says it wasn't a Kaiju."
"They said..."
She hesitated.
Shane felt his chest tighten.
"What?"
The woman looked directly at him.
Her voice barely audible.
"They said it was worse."
The line suddenly filled with static.
The screen flickered.
Then disconnected.
Shane stared at the dark screen.
Silently.
Motionless.
Then another alarm echoed through the base.
Not the standard emergency alarm.
A priority alert.
The highest level.
Every screen inside the corridor activated simultaneously.
A red warning message appeared.
GLOBAL THREAT DETECTED
MULTIPLE DIMENSIONAL SIGNATURES CONFIRMED
ALL JAEGER PILOTS REPORT IMMEDIATELY
Shane's pupils contracted.
Then a second message appeared.
One that made every person in the hallway stop.
One that made veteran soldiers pale.
One that made experienced pilots feel fear.
CATEGORY UNKNOWN
THREAT LEVEL: EXTINCTION
Shane slowly clenched his fists.
His nightmare.
The destroyed headquarters.
The crying child.
The ruins.
It wasn't paranoia.
It wasn't stress.
It wasn't imagination.
Something was coming.
Something worse than the Kaiju.
Much worse.
And deep down—
For the first time in ten years—
Shane felt something he hadn't felt since the war.
Fear.
As he looked toward the hangar where Rajah waited, only one thought echoed in his mind.
The real war was about to begin.
– Hopeless