Back in her heyday, Becky had been trained to use repurposed naval cannons in her fight against Nazi Germany and the Jaegars they've made. Even from tens of thousands of feet in the sky, she struck her targets with minimal collateral damage, and had earned a reputation as a deadshot. The Geneva Conventions restricted all Harbingers to defensive combat positions only, but she was able to keep her callsign for when she needed to coordinate with her fellow ground-level Harbingers.

This call was far from the more mundane disaster relief she had taken up since her services became an official branch of the US government. A kaiju-sized Jaegar was spotted off the coast of Port St. Lucie and bearing towards the nuclear plant. Lydia and Sylvie were busy coordinating evacuation efforts of both the plant and the nearby settlements, but it would be on Becky and her spotter, a B-52 Stratofortress, to take care of the threat for good.

The griffin Harbinger held her new, experimental rifle close as she flew towards the scene, keeping pace with her companion aircraft. Next to Becky, it was little more than a fully functional model, yet it was packed with the latest tech and munitions for combating this kind of threat even without a Harbinger's aide - a last resort if for any reason the Harbingers were unsuccessful.

"This feels kinda nostalgic," she commented over the radio. "'Cept my spotter was usually in a pocket."

"I would've loved to be your spotter," her spotter replied with a chuckle. "By the way, don't use that gun as a club, okay? A good portion of the military's research fund went into that and it's the only one we have."

"O'course not!" she smiled. "I already know this ain't no average naval cannon like I used in th'war."

"It's a purpose-built rifle for the only Harbinger markswoman in the world, makes the Schwerer Gustav look like a pea shooter. You've been debriefed on how to use it, right?"

"Yep! Just like any other semi-auto I've handled."

"Except the gun and the ammunition are infused with harkenite, so it will scale with your size and actually do some damage to a Jaegar of this size. Just make sure not to jam one of those rounds inside of you."

Becky sighed. "Lord only knows how that would feel..."

The scene was in sight. The reports were accurate, it seemed. This Jaegar, a reptile of sorts, was easily one of the largest she had seen since the second World War. Off in the distance, Lydia was directing the power plant crews out, while Sylvie had moved in to engage the Jaegar, shifting to match its size as she charged towards it. "Eagle Shot to Swamp Fever, I have you in sight at your ten o'clock," Becky announced.

"Good timing, Eagle Shot!" Sylvie hurled a fist straight at the Jaegar's face, but was blocked. "Lemme back it away from de shorelines."

"Roger that. Movin' into position."

Becky and the B-52 spotter banked right and started circling the scene as the Cajun gator wrestled the kaiju-sized Jaegar. "Range: fifty-two thousand yards," the spotter announced. "Speed seven hundred feet per second and steady. Crosswind from the southwest at three miles an hour. Barometer at thirty inches. Humidity at ninety-one percent. Surface temperature eighty-nine degrees..."

Such a shot at such a scale was not a task for the feint-hearted. Not only was Becky airborne, but she also had to account for friendly targets and a very fragile point of interest. There was no room for error, and she had very limited ammunition. She checked the chambered around - about the size of a modern sedan - before she raised her rifle and turned its sights towards the hulking mutant.

On the ground, Sylvie pushed back against the Jaegar and managed to give it a good slap across the face before backing off. "Take de shot!"

Accounting for everything her spotter said, and with as clear of a shot as she could get, Becky took aim above and to the right of the Jaegar, and pulled the trigger.

---

No one is exempt from the threat of Jaegars, monstrous people made to fight and kill, among other things, Harbingers. Though most tend to stay a more manageable size, some end up more like full scale kaiju, and when that happens that's when the big guns are brought out - in this case, very literally. The first iteration of the so-called 'M9090 Jaegarmeister' took four years and billions of dollars to manufacture, mostly due to the sheer size and materials needed, and was designed specifically to drop a kaiju-sized Jaegar from an aerial position. It's a weapon only one Harbinger in the world is qualified to wield.

As much as I would've wanted the Harbingers setting to be a wholesome, noblebright setting through and through, the unfortunate reality is there are legitimate threats that require more than what a single Harbinger can combat, let alone with raw wit, skill, and power. They don't happen very often, but when they do rest assured the response is swift and mighty. Even the most pacifistic of Harbingers will feel compelled to throw down when they feel their region is threatened. And, often, to combat these threats - threats that never before were even conceived until very recently - they have to have special tools.

All of that being said, out of the six (yes, six) of my main Harbinger girls, Becky is the one most willing to fight the fight, and has the chops to back it up. So I commissioned  lockheed_martini to show her doing precisely that as an example of the duality of a Harbinger's duties. One moment, they may be saving a town from a flood, and the next have to take arms against a kaiju to save some critical infrastructure from endangering even more lives. It's a very specific situation that not a lot of other artists are willing to tackle, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to do just that ^,..,^

If you're seeing my Harbingers content for the first time, fret not! I have the first of three parts of an origin series with a second on the way... Soon:tm: :3c

IMPORTANT
Now before y'all "REEEEE" in the comments about proper military lingo / communication protocol, or "hurr durr why don't they get bigger and roflstomp the threat"... I get it, it's probably not accurate or wholly logical. But this is my setting and I handle it however I feel is most appropriate. What I will explain will be explained later on down the line when appropriate. ;)
/IMPORTANT

Art by  lockheed_martini <-- Go watch this guy, he does great macro and military drawings! :D

Rebecca 'Becky' Houston [we have a big problem] and her B-52 Stratofortress companion belong to me! ^,..,^