First off, before diving into this story I need to break something down to you all. Due to Project Ghost: The Four Horsemen's tone and performance being not as impressive as I have hoped for it to be, it has been considered to be non canon. You see, the problem is that Godzilla wasn't in it as much as he should have, and not only that, but MechaGirain doesn't have a clear and consistent character trait and personality so I've decided to discount that one story out of the continuity. In its place as sequel, I've decided to write a story set more in our grounded reality and dive in a little bit more about the background events and behind the scene deals that led to her creation.

Project Ghost: Phantom

Chapter 1: Good bye...or farewell?

Toledo, Ohio, USA

June 5th, 2018, 10:45 AM

The atmosphere was of foreboding fear and dread, all the attendances were in a state controlled panic, for the men and women in the white collars line business, meetings like this was their worst possible nightmare. These were the board members of Raven Private Military Corporation, all in their uniformed tuxedo business suits, they converge on the conference room and sat down on the table. Each and everyone of them brought a laptop, a notepad and dozens of files and reports concerning the company's future.

Once the board members were fully in place, the meeting was started in earnest. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen, as you've known, in the past few years, we have made confident strides in the field of security and military hardware. Namely Project Ghost, a march to success that would land us on the pages of history as the company that makes technology for Anti Megalosaurus Operations commercially available. However, recent events have overturned that success. And so once again, we've been called upon to save our company from certain demise. Mrs. Devon?" The Director sat down and let his secretary read her report to the board in a stoic, dull manner.

"Yes Mr. Bronson." She began. "Our recent reports indicated that investors are turning away from our company during this quarter and in the near future. One of our investor, Hill Cryogenic Inc. has recently declared a scrub on all projects we've commissioned them including the Combat Application for Cryonic Technology project. Also several other firms specialized in weapons development have also declared withdrawal in response to the recent incident with our asset."

Consequently, her conclusion spelled fear up the spines of the entire boards, soon, they will loose many, if not all of their investors and just about everyone else who made their company operational in the past. Something has to be done to save Raven PMC before they all become assets for sale on the market.

"Mr. Maddison, your superior, Mr. Connor told us that in his classified report that Project Ghost have only one asset on stand by and that one was confiscated by the Japanese. However, as I recall from Dr. Glasgow, a British national, she managed to breed two assets when Project Eva was under her control. What happened to the other one?" Thomas clears his throat after being called up by Director Bronson, he then let proceed to disclose some classified documents.

"Mr. Director, after the cancellation of Project Eva, at the protest of Dr. Glasgow. The second asset of Project Eva, named Giryia by Dr. Glasgow, was euthanized to cut our losses. Once Project Ghost has taken over, both of their skeletal remains were used for the construction of our new MechaGodzilla models."

Maddison then switched on the projector, pulled down the silver screen and the shutters, the young executive let the projector automatically plays a slide show of photos taken from Project Ghost development and the two massive MechaGodzilla models. One in Albino white color with blue lens, and the other was a purple model with green lens. Both were almost identical in appearance. Maddison then proceeds to brief board members on the subject with indifferent focus and resolve.

"The one in white is called Athena and the purple one is called Hera. Mr. Connor was a fan of Greek mythology though he couldn't named his favorite patron god on Mr. Olympus. The Athena model is currently in Japan, under going repair and evaluation. Hera is still in our stock and our last chance to turn this mess around. Senator Gerald Glasgow from Ohio is currently pushing for the Japanese to return Athena to us. In the meantime, we can push Hera to be adopted by the military here at home, namely the Marines. Once Athena has been returned, we can include the model into the Marines new Anti Megalosaurus Command."

The board members were subsequently pleased with Maddison's plan with the selling of their last MechaGodzilla model to the Marine Corps, however, not all of them were into this plan, such as the Director himself, who was being very skeptical from the start about the possible profit from this deal.

"Mr. Maddison, supposed that this model got the same flaws as Athena, how do you suppose we should handle this situation?" His skepticism was etched firmly in his grim expression, he knew all too well that this arms deal can generate unrivaled profit, true, but it can also yield immeasurable blow backs should it fail.

"To mitigate or even outright prevent such an event similar to Athena from occurring again, we've decided to place a human overseer to control this mech. Someone who has the ability to override control and switch it back to manual control mode." Convinced by Maddison provisions, but still keeping himself cautious, Bronson nod his head at Maddison and gave his approval. "Mr. Maddison, I'm giving you the benefit of a doubt and get this deal through with the Marines, make us proud."

Tokyo, Japan, Hachioji Airbase

December 24th, 2018, 19:00

The air was crisp, snow was falling and the city was blanketed in a white sheet of snow as the populace celebrated their Solstice holiday at the end of the year. But not everyone was given a Christmas break from Duty. Down in the underground mecha hangar, ground crew and engineers were running constant maintenance checks and system diagnostics to determine if their MechaGodzilla duo were at their top form.

While this was going on, Kiryu and Girain were in their cyberspace domain, enjoying the down time they have between combat drills and patrols. The two were sitting on the cyber punk virtual floor, playing a game of chess. At first Girain lost two of her pawns and a Rook to kill his bishops and four pawns.

Kiryu sat there with satisfaction manifested in his rumbles while she was growling at the losses and her strategy and tactics going nowhere. "You're a good fighter, I'll give you that. But you could use some lessons about the benefit of patience." He said with a smirk on his metallic muzzle. "I wasn't given the luxury of time to learn patience, let alone its implementation." She chided him. Girain observed the chessboard and progress, waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

She noticed how Kiryu has deployed nearly every chess pieces he had at the beginning of the match to corner her, but her pieces intersected his, making his strategy, brilliant as it may sound, ran into some serious setbacks. Each piece has at least, one escape route to get out of the sticky situation. Then, she made her move by moving her remaining pawn to face his Rook, "Your move." She offered, cautiously, Kiryu confidently moved his Rook to take her pawn, but in doing so, he had exposed his King to her Queen. "Shah Mat!" She said one dreaded word in Persian, it was the one thing all chess players dread the most, 'Checkmate' in English.

Girain moved her Queen up and take his King, striking a surprise death blow that ended the match with a Tactical Victory for her. "Well I'll be...you sacrifice one pawn to kill the King with the Queen. Fitting isn't it?" She was now wearing a grin on her face, smirking at his defeat, but Kiryu himself kept his composure even in defeat. Noting how she was only able to pull off her victory at the last minute by dumb luck. "You did well on the last minute. But only because I was letting my guard down around the King." He noted.

"Yes, no need to over analyze that success. I'll be leaving soon, back to the States, across the Pacific. It's going to be lonely around here for you." Her tone shifted to sober, feeling the lonely atmosphere creeping up on the both of them in the upcoming months. Since the summer, the American Congress was pushing for her return to the US, despite Kiryu's objection and insistence, the Japanese government have no choice but to comply, after all, they simply can not spare the budget to maintain two self aware MechaGodzilla models. One of them have to go.

"Don't worry about me Girain, I'm more concern about you than anything. The Americans don't understand us, they would see us as nothing more than numbers and assets. Lifeless weapons for them to toy with on their military adventures. But eventually, they have to know that we have a life of our own." Kiryu placed his prosthetic hand on her cheek and caress her head, gently stroking her before letting go, leaving Girain to bask in the warmth of his affection towards her. How time has changed for the both of them. At first, she viewed him with cold, impersonal contempt, hating him for his inability to end her life. But now, after months of captivity and hospitality, it felt like she was a prisoner being freed from her eternal prison life and walking out into the world of free men.

4 months later

The day has come finally come, the march of time has once again, impersonally crushed the wishful thinking and desires of the everymen, or a gigantic mechanical monster. Despite the personal protests and plead for rejection, Kiryu can only stand by and watch as MechaGirain was being faired off to America, the only thing the JXSDF can do was lifted him up to the surface and watch as MechaGirain was airlifted out to the US Navy's Pacific Fleet and transported back to America. He stand idly by, silent was the only sound he can make. As the wind of time blew over him, the farewell was a bitter drop for him to swallow.

Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA

April 3rd, 2019, 8:35

The trip to Hawaii took a hefty amount of time to prepare and execute but finally it was done, the Navy and Marines used AC-3 White Herons, borrowed from the JXSDF, to provide the airlift for MechaGirain from her transport barge onto the runway of Ford Island, once the mech was on the ground, the Herons retracted their cables and assume stand off positions. Her presence in America was met with awe inspired crowds of citizens and they flock over to the fences on the edge of the demonstration ground to see with their own two eyes the wonders of modern technology. For the Marines, today was a proud day for them, they have always been one of America's first responders to world crisis and hot zones around the world, and now they just have a brand new toy to play with.

The process of adopting MechaGirain has been excruciating to say the least. Debates flew left and right between the senators to decide which branch gets to have her. First it was going to be the Army, but their doctrine dictated that Army isn't allow to use any vehicles or hardware capable of independent flight using jet engines, so the Army was nixed. Then the Air Force, who made the bulky Super MechaGodzilla, but they too were nixed since MechaGirain can go underwater and on the ground. Then the Navy who gave the reply of their inability to support the unit while it was conducting ground combat operation. Eventually, only the Marine Corps remain, so they adopted MechaGirain. Her optics flashed to life as her muscle systems ran its diagnostic check, her motor function and control were fired up and hydraulics whirled her limbs to life.

011101000101110001

ATHENA OS. BOOT COMM.

LOADING START UP FUNCTIONS

Her HUD ran start up operations for her systems and soon enough, MechaGirain was ready for battle against mock targets set up for her. Of course to her surprise, her mounted weapons have been stripped away, leaving her with only her oral AZC, chest mounted Plasma Grenade Launcher. "Testing, testing, is this on? Hello, can you hear me?" A familiar male voice came over her intercom, the voice was familiar to her, she knew who was talking on the airwave. A quick voice stress analysis turned up the result of one Jason Brody, the IT specialist and computer programmer behind her DNA computer. "Jason? Is that you?" She inquired, sounding almost surprise. The American programmer retorted with his own set of comebacks, "It's only been like what? A week and you've already forgotten me after being tucked on that barge? I am so going to give your memory unit a quick spanking." He chuckled.

"Very funny. So they brought you along? No surprise there, but where are you now?" She asked, panning her head around to locate his position on her Augmented Reality HUD until a blue cone rose up from her right indicating Jason's position, sitting on a chair in front of his computer and complete with a headset. "Scratch it, I see you. Where are my weapons, Jason?" She sounded a little distress, feeling almost frightened by the fact that she was without her usual load out of missiles and rail guns. "Don't worry about it, the Marines just took your stuff into a storage hangar by the new airfield being constructed next to Pearl. Your hangar should be ready by sunset and they'll take there to arm up. They're also saying something about bringing in additional unit."

This news does not bode well for her, an additional unit? Another combat mech similar to her and Kiryu? MechaGirain was baffled and quickly inquire Jason for more information. "An additional unit? What are they talking about, Jason? Are you implying that I am not the only one they have?" Jason wipe the nervous sweat off of his forehead before proceeding to fill in the answers as he was told. "Well according to the Marine Commandant, the Raven PMC's Project Ghost had two models, you and another one. Both similar in looks, functions and capabilities. The second model will be coming here tomorrow morning for evaluation and adoption. So expect the trials to be rigged. Other than that, I can't seem to tell you anything else. But hey, at least you still have me to talk to, right?" He sounded half comedic, half hearted and all none too pleasing for her.

"Well, you and absolutely no one else, which is so much of a strength of socializing on this rock." She chided, sounding snarky and filled with contempt. "Don't take it out on me, I'm not the one who arrange for your arrival here. Anyway, another note in mind, I heard that there is a new unit Overseer being appointed for you and the other model, some Marine pilot who goes by the name Richard Glasgow, remember that name?" She didn't need to be reminded of that name to know who was Jason talking about, her 'Mother', Emilia Glasgow. At the time, neither MechaGirain nor Jason was aware of Emilia's son in the Marines. But the mere mentioning of the name only sent angst and endless waves of hatred crawling up her dorsal spines and into her processors. "Just what I need, another Glasgow." She commented. Clearly, things does not bode well for them.

As the sun set and the day came to a close, MechaGirain was lifted out of Ford Island and placed inside her hangar by Nichols Point, a mobile platform driven by caterpillars moved her into the hangar where the Marines mounted her missile packs and rail guns. Jason was given an accommodation within the civilian contractor area of the new base, where he settle down easier, but for MechaGirain, the cold atmosphere and loneliness inside the towering hangar was something so foreign to her compare the warm hospitality in Japan. But alas, she must get used to this feeling of a war machine in the hands of ruthless cutthroats and murderers.