Los Angeles, a school in the city center.
"Attention all faculty and students! This is an emergency broadcast! According to alerts from the PPDC, multiple Kaiju are advancing toward this city and will reach this school district in approximately 50 minutes!"
"All personnel on campus, follow the Kaiju attack drill procedures and evacuate in an orderly manner with command personnel!"
The school broadcast carried the announcer's voice, barely maintaining calm, warning everyone that Kaiju were coming and they must evacuate.
In this world repeatedly ravaged by Kaiju, every school conducted additional Kaiju disaster drills like fire drills.
"Kaiju are coming?"
"How can this be?"
"I saw news that the Breach was closed, and unmanned Jaegers are protecting us. Why is this happening?"
In the classroom, students who'd been in class looked up. Hearing news of the Kaiju attack, fear immediately rose in their hearts.
"Students, quickly form lines!" The teacher at the podium was calmer than them, rapidly directing students to prepare for evacuation.
"Jack... do you think those Jaegers will come protect us?" While lining up, a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl turned to ask the black boy beside her.
"I... I don't know." Jack Pentecost heard the question and shook his head blankly.
"How can you not know? Your dad's a big shot who commands Jaegers." Another boy nearby said. He knew Jack was the son of the famous Marshal Stacker. "He'll definitely send Jaegers to protect his own son."
They only understood the surface of this world, not knowing how tense the battle situation was now.
"I said I don't know." Jack's expression gradually cooled. After saying this, he ignored everyone else and followed the line evacuating outside.
He was indeed Marshal Stacker's son, but he hadn't contacted his father in some time.
Honestly, knowing his father was commanding at the front lines and his sister had become a Jaeger pilot, he also wanted to rush to the front and fight Kaiju.
But he was too young—only thirteen this year. And now the Jaeger Academy had been shut down. He could only stay here and attend school like other students.
Children's understanding of the world was always one-sided. He believed he had talent for piloting Jaegers—he just hadn't encountered the right opportunity.
If he could pilot a Jaeger, he'd definitely defeat Kaiju easily.
Then he could prove he was a powerful warrior, not just Stacker Pentecost's son.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Numerous military fighter jets screamed through the night sky, their machine guns and missiles firing at the distant formation of unmanned Jaegers and Kaiju.
However, missiles capable of killing any carbon-based life form ultimately couldn't do much against silicon-based creatures.
"Kaiju have approached the city edge. Our missiles aren't effective."
"Requesting next instructions."
Reports continuously came through military communications.
To block these Kaiju, they'd already made considerable effort. But like when they'd dealt with Kaiju in the past, these efforts ultimately couldn't make much of a splash.
To kill Kaiju required thermal weapons at least at nuclear level—experience they'd gained from their first encounter with Kaiju.
But Los Angeles citizens hadn't finished evacuating yet. Rashly using nukes would be completely killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of their own.
"ROAR!"
"ROAR!"
Eight Kaiju of varying forms took heavy steps, their vicious gazes fixed on the city ahead, releasing roar after roar. Behind them followed thirty Kaiju-transformed unmanned Jaegers.
This scale of Kaiju had never occurred on Earth before.
In the past, one Kaiju could paralyze an entire city. Now they faced far more Kaiju than ever before.
"Help me!"
"Please take me too!"
"And me!"
Jack Pentecost sat in the school bus, speeding through streets toward the evacuation route. During the drive, numerous impoverished people ran from slums to the roadside, shouting at the bus.
They wore ragged clothes, had disheveled hair, and even their shoes were broken—half a blackened foot exposed.
"No..." Jack Pentecost looked at them, instinctively clenching his fists, then turned his head away to stop looking.
Under his father's influence, he also had a kind heart. He wanted to help these people—wanted to help even more people.
But right now he was just a student too.
He looked around the school bus at classmates instinctively curling up, tears in their eyes. His feelings were complex.
Listening to the cries, he looked back through the window toward where the Kaiju were coming from.
"ROAR!"
The terrifying roar could be heard clearly even from far away. The nearly hundred-meter beasts already exceeded most buildings in height. They weren't one, but a group.
Those landmark skyscrapers were knocked down by the Kaiju's advancing movements. Debris flew. The buildings humanity took pride in couldn't stop these Kaiju at all.
Missiles fell on the Kaiju, on surrounding buildings, igniting raging fires that turned the city's edge into a scorching inferno, illuminating the night sky.
"That's... a Kaiju..." Jack Pentecost watched the Kaiju step into the city, his heart rising with them.
Though his psychological fortitude was stronger than other students, seeing Kaiju trample their homeland with his own eyes, he still felt deep fear.
Seeing it firsthand brought feelings far more profound than images on television.
Earlier he'd been thinking that if he piloted a Jaeger, he could definitely beat Kaiju down. But now... he knew he couldn't do it. No pilot could fight this many Kaiju.
They were like messengers from hell, come to completely ignite their world.
"Will we die?"
"No... I don't want to die..."
"I'm so scared..."
Classmates around him voiced their fear. An atmosphere of despair continuously spread through the school bus.
"Can you get your dad to save us...?" Jack's deskmate, a girl with tears in her eyes, asked him. She was truly terrified.
"I..." Jack Pentecost's expression was complex. He took a deep breath but couldn't say anything.
He couldn't make promises. He didn't know what his father was doing right now.
But—
"Wait..."
"What's that?"
Jack Pentecost, who'd been staring behind them, suddenly noticed something. In that night sky illuminated by firelight, a massive figure seemed to appear.