Exploring the World

At that moment, the communications channel inside Crimson Typhoon had completely changed.

As the old man on the other end explained the situation, the Wei Brothers exchanged puzzled glances. For an instant, their shared senses fluctuated.

"Don't worry. We'll do it. After all, we're Chinese too."

"Thank you, comrades!"

With the communications cut off, the public channel finally returned to normal.

Stark Pentecost immediately demanded sternly, "Report the situation at once. What exactly happened just now? And why did your shared senses fluctuate so violently?"

"Nothing much. We were just affected by the electromagnetic interference from the nuclear explosion. After communications were cut off, we panicked for a moment, so our shared senses fluctuated, sir."

That perfunctory answer allowed the Wei Brothers to reach an unspoken understanding in an instant. But it also made Stark Pentecost and the others in the Command Room of Shattered Dome Base see through them.

Stark Pentecost did not dwell on the loopholes in their explanation. He merely took a deep breath and said, "Prepare for action nearby first. Once Cherno Alpha and Eureka Striker arrive, we'll eliminate the Kaiju together."

"Understood!"

The Transport Aircraft's cable locks released, and Crimson Typhoon's thousand-ton body crashed to the ground.

Dust billowed everywhere, blocking everyone's view. Even the specially reinforced road, which could bear the weight of tanks, was smashed into two enormous footprints. The damp brown soil beneath the craters was flung outward, spraying in all directions like fountains.

"All unauthorized personnel, evacuate immediately. This area will now be taken over by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps—Jaeger Crimson Typhoon. Pilots: the Wei Brothers. Identification numbers..."

The Self-Defense Forces and America's soldiers, who had been faintly facing off below, exchanged bewildered looks.

But in the next second, the leaders of their respective units received a message from above.

"We're sorry. Our military has ordered us to hold this position, and we are not permitted to retreat. We ask for your understanding."

The Wei Brothers froze. In all their years of service, this was the first time the local military had rejected their request after a Jaeger had been deployed.

"We have confirmed that two Category 4 Kaiju are heading this way. Your presence here serves little purpose. To avoid unnecessary casualties, evacuate immediately."

As soon as those words were spoken, the soldiers below erupted in an uproar. The officers, however, remained calm and forcibly suppressed the commotion.

"Sorry, but military orders are absolute!"

The Wei Brothers found themselves in a difficult position. Though the three of them were triplets, they were still young. Moreover, they had spent most of their lives studying to become pilots and training endlessly at the base, so they had little experience handling situations like this.

"Sir! We've notified the local forces, but they refused our request that they evacuate."

Stark Pentecost naturally knew what those people were thinking. Those politicians, who became as excited as rabid dogs at the sight of profit, were displaying their true nature to the fullest.

"Crimson Typhoon."

"Present, sir!"

"Pass the notice along. After that, proceed according to plan."

"Yes, sir!"

Crimson Typhoon ignored the others and strode forward on its broad feet. Under the soldiers' frightened and astonished gazes, it stepped over their position and landed nearby. The earthshaking stomp made even the soldiers inside the tanks and armored vehicles tremble.

They had no doubt that if even the slightest error occurred in the neural link, that steel foot descending from above could crush them, tanks and all, into metal pancakes.

The commanders' expressions turned ugly, because they knew exactly what this meant. Stepping over their heads was an utter humiliation. At the same time, the heavy stomp after landing was a threat telling them to behave.

"Fuck!"

"Baka yarō!"

By then, all the Blood Angels had already broken out of the encirclement, but they all looked up at the towering crimson Jaeger.

Quan Tiehua's mind was a complete mess. He had no idea what to say.

"The Pacific Rim world!"

"What?"

His unconscious murmur was heard clearly by all his brothers through the communications channel.

"This is another world. We probably entered it through turbulence in the Warp. I once dreamed of this world while asleep. I never expected it to become reality."

To be honest, Astartes were truly formidable. They could lie without blushing, skipping a beat, or even changing their breathing.

"Brother, this is a prophetic ability granted to you by the Emperor."

"May the Emperor protect us." Quan Tiehua replied somewhat perfunctorily, then continued explaining, "This world has been infiltrated by a kind of xenos. They..."

Other than altering some of the opening and crucial information, Quan Tiehua explained all the basic information to his brothers exactly as it was.

"Damn them. They can never be killed off completely."

"Look on the bright side, brother. This world could be called the perfect combination of a Garden World and an industrial world, especially those... uh... Titan Mechs of theirs?" As he spoke, Quan Tiehua pointed at Crimson Typhoon in the distance, unsure how to explain the Jaeger.

"Perhaps we can acquire the technology useful to us from this world and absorb whatever else benefits us."

"A good suggestion."

"So I hope that, when you encounter problems from now on, you won't jump to conclusions. Some of the circumstances here may differ greatly from those in the Imperium."

"Then we should reclaim this precious world for the Emperor."

"..."

"And then what? Send over a greedy governor to turn this world into a complete mess? Ah, my brothers, setting aside whether we can reclaim this world, after we leave, we may not even be able to find it again. So whether we reclaim it or not won't make much difference." Quan Tiehua shook his head with a laugh at those words.

"The most important thing for us now is to leave this place." As he spoke, Quan Tiehua pointed toward the sky. "The humans of this world are less technologically advanced than the Imperium, but their methods and concepts for applying certain technologies are indeed more advanced than those of the Adeptus Mechanicus. For example, there are countless surveillance devices in orbit above our heads right now, observing and monitoring us around the clock. Everything we do is being seen clearly. Some specialized military satellites can even see the movements of a person's mouth while they speak and use that to determine what the person is saying."

The Blood Angels exchanged glances. To be honest, in the Imperium, apart from those bothersome assassins and the Adeptus Mechanicus, which was hiding who knew how many treasures, there probably weren't many organizations capable of possessing surveillance equipment like this.

Their own Chapter, for example, did possess satellites, but they were only used during temporary military operations and had to be recovered afterward.

Moreover, they were merely good enough to lock onto groups and extreme individual targets. They were nothing like the satellites of this world, which could lock onto targets with precision down to the meter or even sub-meter level.

The response speed was especially astonishing. In the Imperium, it took several hours to respond. Here, however, the response took minutes or even seconds.

The Adeptus Mechanicus couldn't hold a candle to this!