title: Interview With A Kaiju aliases: [] tags: [FA] author: [RetroInferno] id: [37936238] date: 星期六, 十一月 12日 2022, 5:08:37 下午 modified: 星期六, 十一月 12日 2022, 5:15:44 下午

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Interview With A Kaiju

Author: RetroInferno Source: Interview With A Kaiju

A human psychologist conducts an interview with a kaiju-sized bioweapon known as Nir, learning a few disturbing things during the process...

"And your name is…"

"Nir." answered a titanic creature. As a result of her height, Nir loomed over everything within an extremely expansive facility. Only an elevated position behind protective glass allowed a human to speak to her, albeit only the upper half of Nir's head was visible.

The psychologist in question resumed taking notes on her clipboard. "Well, why were you named that, Nir?"

"It is simply my designation." she replied while staring at the human with crimson red eyes. "I am a nonconventional intelligent armament designed by Titan Industries. Hence why my name is a partial acronym."

The way Nir simply looked at the psychologist without blinking gave her pause. "I see…" she said while scribbling some more, "But do you like your name?"

Nir reacted with a snort, blowing air from her nostrils. "It is... adequate."

Rather than responding, the psychologist averted Nir's gaze. She looked over her notes so far. Nir was an unorthodox patient, to say the least, due to her absurd size complicating the entire session. Her draconic and bipedal form with horns sprouting from her head, leathery blue hide, and wires connected to her implants made her a living weapon more than anything else.

"Now that you know my name, I would like to know yours." said Nir in her soft, thundering, and monotone voice.

The psychologist's eyes went wide in response. "Um… Natalie."

"Natal...lee?"

"Yes! You can just call me that for the sake of simplicity."

Nir stayed silent for several seconds, then nodded. "Understood." She tilted her head slightly to the right. "Are you here to give me a debriefing?"

Out of habit, Natalie chewed on the tip of her pen. "In a way, yes. However, your… um… employers, for lack of a better term, had some concerns."

As always, Nir remained stoic. "Like what?"

"Well, they wanted to know how you felt about your previous mission."

"Elaborate."

Once more, Natalie broke eye contact. "You're what they call a kaiju killer…"

Nir practically growled. "Correct."

"It's just that the previous assignment sent you into a heavily populated area. Again. There was more collateral damage than usual, not to mention the civilian casualties..."

"What of it?"

Nir's question caught Natalie by surprise as she blinked a few times. "Uh… well, how do you feel about that?"

For a while, Nir's only answer was a blank stare. "Feel about what, exactly?"

"I mean… how... or… well, WHAT did you feel when you inflicted some of those casualties in the middle of combat? Presumably, they were unintentional."

"I felt a variety of things!" answered Nir with a sneer. "Concrete cracked thanks to my claws. Countless vehicles were crushed beneath my feet. I hardly paid attention as anyone or anything in my way snapped, popped, or crunched within the urban jungle you call a city."

The blood drained from Natalie's face. "That's… not what I meant…"

"Then be more specific rather than elusive with your questions, human."

In return, Natalie sighed and adjusted her microphone. "I'm… I'm referring to emotions rather than physical senses. More precisely, your emotional state."

"So, that is what you mean…"

Natalie nodded. "With that in mind, how did you feel about your actions during all of that fighting and chaos?"

"I felt nothing." said Nir with a huff, puffing air from her flaring nostrils.

The human scratched the back of her head. "Nothing at all..?"

"In other words, indifference. Apathy. Physically, it was similar to the same visceral sensation from sand sifting between my toes along a coastline, but far more gritty and unrefined as everything disintegrated upon contact with my body."

"Um... are you saying that you don't care about the human lives that were lost?"

Nir shifted her head, only allowing Natalie to see a single red eye with black sclera surrounding the iris. "My employers, as you call them, considered them acceptable collateral damage. An inevitability. My purpose is to terminate hostile kaijus as quickly as possible, so time spent trying to prevent casualties merely allows them inflict far more damage on civilian populations. If humans are unable or unwilling to avoid me, especially if I warn them ahead of time, then I feel no remorse if I accidentally end their lives."

"That's an… odd mentality." said Natalie, who adjusted her glasses with a far less surprised expression sprawled across her face.

"Once again, I would like you to clarify what you mean by that." grumbled Nir.

"Right. First of all, Titan Industries created you to be humanity's protector. If you don't care about the well being of humans, that's a bit alarming to say the very least!"

"Why should I care?" asked Nir, narrowing her eyes. "You are like insects and vermin."

Her words rang somewhat true in Natalie's mind since she was practically the size of an ant compared to Nir, but she pushed those thoughts aside. "I mean... if humans created you to protect them... it would only make sense for you to care about them."

"My purpose is to eliminate other kaijus. Nothing more, nothing less."

Natalie looked at Nir with a hint of concern. "Did a human do something to upset you? Or… maybe the company you work for? Perhaps humanity in general?"

Nir rolled her eyes. "Where do I even begin?"

The psychologist prepared her pen. "Perhaps you can tell me why you don't seem to like humans in the first place?"

"It's because your species disgusts me with its… vanity."

"Vanity?" repeated Natalie like a parrot.

"I am a living example of your greed." explained Nir as her tail swayed, swooshing in the air. "For I was not made to protect anyone. No… I was made in the name of profit. Material wealth. My alleged employers might advertise me as a great guardian, but in reality I am a monument to how pathetic and sinful humans are since they have others hire or rent me like I'm simply some sort of object, mercenary, or whore."

Natalie continued taking notes as her face scrunched up. "That's a... harsh way of looking at it."

"Is it not true, Natal-lee? You are only here because they are paying you to speak to me, are they not?"

"Well… yes…"

"Then you are not so different from the others. Previous evaluators informed me that they were compensated much more well than usual due to the danger involved when it came to simply speaking to me. Apparently, I am feared for my power. Yet… that did not stop humans from risking their lives in the pursuit of material wealth, which one interviewer described as a rat race when I pressed them about it..."

Silence reigned supreme for several seconds since Natalie didn't say a single word in return.

"...But that basically boils down how humans think and function," continued Nir with a snort, "Especially since it's the trait you all share. Greed. In your vanity, you're willing to put a price on almost anything, including your own lives. Mercenaries accompanying me made that clear enough!" She paused to let out another guttural growl. "Allegedly, everything has a price. A human will do almost anything for the right amount of material wealth, and the most powerful ones can practically do whatever they want within your societies, including mega-corporations such as Titan Industries."

"Uh… do you not like your employer?" interrupted Natalie.

"Once again, human, I find myself full of indifference when it comes to them. It's also complicated. On one hand, I am their slave in all but name. On the other, they continue to sustain and maintain me when it would be difficult to do so by myself."

Natalie fiddled with her glasses. "Technically, I don't think they can force you to do anything against your will. You're their most valuable asset, afterall, so they care about your mental and physical well being!" She stopped speaking to slightly smile. "Hence why I'm here!"

"No." said Nir in a raised voice. "You are here because you are yet another member of the so-called rat race."

"To be fair, I can't do this job for free. I have to eat. Despite that, I enjoy helping people!"

Another huff partially fogged up the glass windows. "If you insist, Natal-lee. That just brings me to my next point…"

"Oh?"

"My employers, creators, or whatever you might call them commonly make use of assassins. I've talked to them. Do you know how much they charge to kill a human? One without great wealth, political power, or notable prestige?"

Natalie shook her head. "Um… no."

"Roughly fifteen thousand of what you humans call dollars. That's the approximate monetary value of an average human life. The acceptable casualties. For you are finite and renewable, much like the fragile materials you worship and depend on." Nir paused to place a clawed hand on her metallic chest plate. "Not like me. I will never die of old age due to my physiology rendering me biologically immortal in that regard, albeit the billions of almighty dollars that went into my creation makes me worth countless human lives by your warped moral standards."

The psychologist immediately stopped taking notes upon hearing this. "Wait… how do you even know about that?"

"I regularly overhear several researchers." she answered with a snarl. "One went into extensive detail about my costs, maintenance, and other expenses. Another called me a higher form of life. Like all humans within my parent company, their obsession and fetishization of materials disgusted me."

"Then why do you continue to serve Titan Industries if you loathe them so much?"

This question finally seemed to send Nir into silence as she looked to the side. Eventually, she growled. "It is… all I know. My purpose. There is a special sort of pride in following orders, doing my job efficiently, and being rewarded for it. However, the idea of going rogue has crossed my mind…"

Natalie went through a checklist with some hesitation, and she marked a few criteria as a cause for concern while Nir kept talking.

"The thought is amusing at times, really. Humans depend on me for their protection... and more creatures similar to myself might even be created for that purpose. But… what would they do if I became the harbinger of their destruction instead? If I was no different than the more feral kaiju plaguing their major settlements, but far more deadly and efficient?"

A sly smile exposing a few razor-sharp fangs slowly spread across Nir's face as she brought her head far closer to the human...

"What then, Natal-lee?"

Consequently, chills traveled down the psychologist's spine. "Um… I don't know… it might not be the best idea…"

Nir scoffed. "Why not?"

"Firstly, you might starve once you're… um… unemployed..."

Nir stood on her titanic toes, giving Natalie a view of her muzzle rather than her eyes. Slowly, she opened her mouth. Breath condensed against the windows as she spoke once more, revealing the cavernous abyss that was her maw lined with pearly white and carnivorous teeth.

"Incorrect. I can process almost any organic matter. Even trees can be uprooted and consumed during emergencies to meet my nutritional requirements."

It abruptly became apparent to Natalie that a single human would be like a grain of rice for Nir, prompting her to roll back her chair. "Are you… getting close to me to imply that you would eat..."

"Humans?"

"I mean…"

Nir gradually returned to her previous position, where they were nearly on eye level. "Not necessarily. That would be impractical. Humans provide marginal nutrition, some of them can be very dangerous, and your overall taste is... unsatisfying."

Natalie blinked a few times. "I'm just going to ignore that last comment. Regardless, is your grand plan to run off and eat trees rather than fighting more kaijus?"

"Of course not." asserted Nir with a huff. "I have no intent to run away or rebel like a juvenile, in case I did not make that clear."

The psychologist adjusted her notes accordingly.

"Also, I am no fool, human. Continuing to serve Titan Industries is currently the most pragmatic course of action for me. Otherwise, I would be hunted down, murdered, and replaced by my successor… much like the previous version of Nir. She must have had a similar train of thought before going rogue, but it made her a fool in the end since she allegedly met her untimely demise."

With a final stroke of her pen, Natalie got to the end of her checklist. "Um… okay then. That's interesting to know since they never told me about that…"

"Besides, all I have to do is wait."

"Wait for what?" murmured the human.

"The right time." answered Nir with a certain degree of dread. "As I said, all of you are finite. Temporary. Meanwhile… I am not. You humans will continue to destroy one another alongside the environments that sustain you in the name of materialism. Your deaths are fated by nature itself. Inevitable. When your civilizations eventually fall apart… because you WILL die… I shall remain… towering over any survivors, ruins, and other remains like the demigods from your myths and legends."

Natalie stood from her seat with haste, then pocketed her pen following a barely audible click. "Um… thank you Nir. That concludes our little interview." She slowly backed away from the protective glass. "I'll… I'll see you soon!"

Nir gave her an unamused look. "Most human interviewers don't come back, actually. Nonetheless, I shall await you in the future, Natal-lee, but odds are they shall replace you with what they call an expendable intern."

The psychologist soon approached the only door, but something about still hearing the booming voice behind her nearly made her tremble. "Right, right... until then!"

Immediately after opening the door and walking through, Natalie slammed it shut with her back pressed against it. A room filled with security monitors and guards greeted her. Each computer screen showcased Nir from several different angles, where drones went about inspecting her amazonian physical form, and a few locking mechanisms mostly kept Nir's feet in place like a pair of shackles. Some hardly noticeable tubes and wires connected to her spinal cord sustained her. Directing her attention away from the computers, Natalie spotted the only unfitting thing within the room as an executive wearing a suit approached her, who clapped with an uncanny smile on his face.

"Well done!" he said before motioning for her to follow him. "That interview went WAY better than the last one!"

Security guards suddenly behind Natalie encouraged her to move forward. "Wait... what do you mean the last one?!"

"Oh, it wasn't a big deal!" claimed the man with a dismissive wave of his hand. "There was a, uh, minor mishap with the previous counselor when Nir broke the windows separating them from each other. It was all an accident, really! As a result, we added more security measures to our little bird perch, as we like to call it, so no worries! You did a splendid job!"

"Uh, sure." she said while scratching the back of her head. "You recorded all of that, right?"

The executive led the way as he stepped into a brightly lit hallway. "Of course!"

"Well, there were a bunch of red flags, some of which clearly violated your mental health guidelines! She's not fit for future missions if she has some sort of malicious intentions!"

"Nir isn't malicious!" said the man, rolling his eyes. "She just happens to be a very opinionated woman!" He interrupted himself to laugh for a moment. "Ahah… ah, you know?"

"Sir, Nir literally said she doesn't care about human lives being lost."

The man laughed off Natalie's words once more. "That might be for the best, actually! It's unfortunate, but it would be bad for her mental health if she felt pity for any lives lost during every emergency action. Nir must remain apathetic and mission-oriented, afterall!"

Natalie's jaw almost went agape. "You're kidding, right?"

"Why would I be?"

"You don't find a single thing she said concerning?!"

"Ah, Natalie… just as long as Nir follows orders, that's all that matters. She can have as much stupid little power fantasies and opinions as she wants. If something happens, we'll deal with it! Oh, and don't mention what she said to anyone… we wouldn't want our shareholders to panic if the authorities freaked out over a couple of Nir's snide comments!"

Natalie crossed her arms as she walked. "I just… don't think continuing to use her is a good idea."

"If you say so. Just remember your non-disclosure agreement!"

"Ugh."

"And just for you, Natalie, we decided to give you a five thousand dollar bonus on top of your previous payment of ten thousand for handling the interview so well!"

She sighed at his words. "Thank you, sir."

They eventually reached the end of the hallway with the security guards in tow. One approached a door. Natalie shuttered as a guard opened it, revealing an open area with a few offices and windows near the top of a skyscraper. It was already bustling with activity as a multitude of employees swarmed the vicinity. Unceremoniously, the security guards pushed Natalie out the door, sending her stumbling away from it.

"We'll see you again in a few weeks, Natalie! I think you have a bright future here at Titan Industries!"

Following the executive's words, the door slammed shut. Brief mechanical clicks marked when several locks sealed it. Other employees stared at the bewildered psychologist for a few moments before continuing their day jobs, whether it be talking on the phone or typing away at terminals.

As for Natalie, she pondered over whether she just faced a grave threat to humanity or one of its new protectors, causing significant doubt as to whether she should ever risk speaking to Nir again.

NIR AFTER ACTION REPORT

Version involved: Nir-Mk1

Event: Mental Health Session B-0013

Executive Summary: Due to the death of the previous mental health expert, Nir has been assigned a new one. There were no incidents during the replacement’s first session. New information collected from the interview suggests that rooms containing researchers should be sound-proofed to prevent Nir from overhearing any sensitive information. Private Military Contractors should also be instructed to refrain from communicating with Nir unless absolutely necessary. There are some concerns regarding how Nir has developed a personality compared to her robotic blank state when she was first created, but there should be no issues if she continues to follow instructions.