The Nuclear Bastard

The Nuclear Bastard's History

The Nuclear Bastard was System Disrupt's most successful attempt at weaponizing ghosts. It was piloted by Meg in her rampage across the West Coast of the United States.

General Rzor and his team at System Disrupt had been working diligently at creating a working ghost-powered weapon system for the US Army with none proving useful in the field. Their largest one, which had remained unnamed, was a large bipedal mecha with a core that could harness ghostly energy as a power source. Unfortunately, nothing they did could get it to move and it was mothballed while The Cassette (also known as TFT) became their main instrument for ghost hunting.

After the confrontation between TFT and the Old James House, Rzor recruited Meg and Rip to assist him in his research. Meg was more than happy to assist and became the pilot for the experimental mecha, which she branded the Nuclear Bastard after her deceased band. After three months of trials, Meg was finally able to get the machine to move, although the strain on her psyche proved too much and the mecha exploded around her.

System Disrupt quickly repaired the Bastard, but it was soon high-jacked by an enraged Meg. Unable to get her hands on the contained spirits System Disrupt had on hand, she instead focused her fury on drawing the spirits of the victims of nuclear testing that were trapped in the ground around her. Finally fully powered, Meg used the Nuclear Bastard to slaughter everyone in System Disrupt except for Rip and Trish. The Nuclear Bastard then homed in on Ami and Buzz's position and charged off, reaching Portland in an hour. While there, the pain and anguish of the ghosts absorbed by the reactor spread throughout the city, causing mass panic and destruction.

When the Nuclear Bastard reached Seattle, it was confronted by Trish in a prototype haunted tank. The vehicle distracted Meg long enough for Rip to reach the other Pilots, but the showdown between the haunted robot and haunted house began shortly after the reunion. The House and the Bastard were seemingly evenly matched at the beginning, but after days of battle up and down the West Coast, the house finally collapsed. This would've been the end for Ami if not for the arrival of the Juliette possessed Rip. Now with all of its ghosts together, the House reformed under Old James's command and made short work of the Nuclear Bastard. Instead of simply crushing or otherwise annihilating the mech, Old James had the mecha devoured and dropped into the endless bowels of the fully powered house.

What remained of the Nuclear Bastard would rest within the tunnels of the Old James House, slowly reconfigured into a bomb by the imprisoned Home Sick Pilots. The Bastard would finally be set off after Meg was returned to it, with the resulting explosion annihilating the House and unleashing a massive wave of ghosts across the country. This blast signaled a new era in America: that of ghostly activity becoming common place.