Two years earlier, the first kaiju came ashore in San Francisco, Nation M.
The kaiju was codenamed "Axehead," named for the blade-like protrusion on its head.
Axehead stood ninety-two meters tall and weighed over 2,700 tons.
It was classified as an "Invader" after launching the first attack on Earth through a "wormhole."
It first appeared near the Golden Gate Bridge and promptly destroyed it.
Three cities in the San Francisco metropolitan area were destroyed, officially drawing back the curtain on the kaiju invasion of Earth.
Nation M deployed aircraft, tanks, and artillery, bombarding an area thirty kilometers across for six whole days before barely managing to kill the kaiju.
Tens of thousands of lives were lost in the attack.
Only later did we learn that compared to the kaiju that attacked afterward, Axehead had been nothing more than a minor threat.
At first, we thought the kaiju attack was merely an isolated incident and would not happen again.
However, only six months later, the kaiju returned and attacked Manila.
The kaiju's acidic blood caused a peculiar form of poisoning known as Kaiju Blue.
The geology and surrounding marine ecosystem were completely devastated.
The former capital of Nation F had become a land of death.
Then came the third attack, the fourth, and countless more.
Gradually, we understood that the attacks would not stop.
This was only the beginning.
We needed a new kind of weapon, one capable of standing against kaiju over a hundred meters tall.
To that end, every nation in the world joined forces and mobilized all resources to defeat their common enemy.
They set aside old grievances and faced the threat together.
And so, to fight the kaiju, we built monsters of our own!
The Jaeger Program was born.
At first, the program failed again and again.
A single pilot simply could not bear the Jaeger's consciousness-sensory system.
So they began using two pilots, linked through Neural Synaptic Connection, to share the burden.
One controlled the left hemisphere, while the other controlled the right.
That was how we gained the ability to fight the kaiju.
Even to launch a counterattack.
But gradually, we realized we had been wrong again, because there was more than one wormhole.
The idea of gathering the strength of every nation to build a single unified Jaeger combat center fell apart.
The nations had no choice but to build separate Jaeger Combat Departments.
There was no helping it. Kaiju would not always appear in the same place, nor would they willingly stick their heads beneath a Jaeger's executioner blade.
Thus, the nations of the Pan-Pacific region had no choice but to establish Jaeger defense command centers one after another.
Together, they were managed and coordinated by the Pan-Pacific region's joint military defense command, abbreviated as PPDC.
Led by several major powers, PPDC encompassed every nation and region.
Its headquarters were established in San Francisco, The U.S., despite the city having suffered a kaiju attack.
It was established there to remember the original resolve to resist the kaiju.
To remember the pain the kaiju had brought, coordinate the nations in setting aside old grievances, and form a united front.
Even so, although every nation and region had its own defensive line, we were still at a disadvantage.
Because we had too few Jaegers.
Their immense cost was one reason, and the requirements for Jaeger consciousness sensing and pilot Neural Synaptic Connection compatibility were too demanding.
The synaptic connection rate between the two pilots also determined a Jaeger's actual combat strength.
The higher the synaptic connection rate, the better the compatibility with the Jaeger and the greater the power it could unleash.
If the synaptic connection rate was too low, the Jaeger could not even start properly.
Therefore, Jaeger pilots were selected under extremely strict standards.
After the Jaeger Program was approved, The U.S., relying on its abundant funding and advanced industrial supply chain, became the first to build two Jaegers.
They were the "Wanderer" and the "Explorer."
The birth of the Jaegers gave us time to catch our breath.
We gained the strength to confront kaiju head-on, no longer having to pay the price of losing one or even several cities at a time.
Sometimes, insignificant humanity simply could not stand against God.
When a storm raged, all you could do was take shelter.
But once you became a Jaeger, you could grow powerful enough to ignore the storm.
Taking advantage of this precious respite, the nations also began building Jaegers to defend their own Pan-Pacific Defense Lines.
And so, Nation Z welcomed a Jaeger of its own.
Thus, the legend began.