June 2026
New Port, Oregon
Chapter 1
Ash stared out at the sea from the porch of her small condo. It'd been over a year since she retired and the portal under the Pacific closed. With a sigh, she pulled up her sleeve to look at the large tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It was a constant reminder of what she went through. After a year she could barely look at the symbol without crying. The symbol stood for what got her best friend killed, what almost got her killed, and yet no one knew about it. What happened to her and several others was completely classified. Not a single person besides her and the president himself knew what happened, at least not anyone that was alive. She covered the tattoo and went back inside to hear her cell phone ringing.
"Hello?"
"Ash Rosenberg, you have a new assignment. You will fly to headquarters in San Francisco in one hour." The voice Ash recognized as Herc Hansen's paused before speaking again in a whisper, "I've been informed of what's happened to you and I want to apologize for making you do this."
"Wait—" she started, but was cut off when Herc hung up. A bit stupefied, she went to her closet, took out her suitcase, and packed everything she could manage. When she pulled a leather jacket with three claw marks and "Tiger Black" printed across she froze.
"Come on Dalia, we've got a kaiju to kill!"
Dalia picked herself off the bunk with a big smile, "It's about time. I was beginning to wonder if the kaiju gave up." Ash rolled her eyes at her best friend and co-pilot of Tiger Black, a jaeger made for them to protect a top secret facility off coast of the Pacific in Washington. They put on their pilot uniform and went to their jaeger like they had done many times before. Each time always ended the same. The kaiju that wondered into their sector was killed and they came back with minor damage. This time was different.
When they reached the kaiju the fight broke out immediately. The kaiju, codenamed Saber Tooth, was larger than anticipated and knocked jaeger down when it ran into it. Dalia and Ash took the opportunity to blast the kaiju in the stomach with the plasma cannon. Saber stabbed the jaeger it's midsection with a large claw before one of its legs was cut off by a sword that extended out of the left arm, Dalia's arm, of Tiger. The kaiju backed up to get shot three more times. It charged at them again and ripped off Tiger's right leg. Ash shot it in the head before their jaeger fell back. Saber Tooth fell on top of the damaged jaeger, presumably dead. After struggling to get out from the kaiju Dalia spoke.
"Pulse check?"
It was something the two of them did after they heard about Gipsy Danger. Before Ash could respond the kaiju sprung up and ripped a hole in the left side of Tiger Black's head. Panicked, Ash shot it again, but to no effect. Dalia had a hunk of metal going through her stomach before she was torn out of the jaeger. Letting out a scream for her friend, Ash pulled the control off her right arm and put it on her left. With the sword she cut the kaiju's head in half.
Ash shuddered at the memory and left the jacket in her closet. She didn't know, but she couldn't get rid of the jacket. When she was ready, she went to the airport and boarded her plane. As soon as the plane took off she drifted into a restless sleep.
At headquarters, Ash was ushered in and taken to Herc's office. Eager to know why she had been summoned here after so long she approached the man who hadn't seemed to notice her yet.
"Sir," she said with a slight bow of her head.
The Australian man looked over at her and walked towards her. He smiled and extended a hand, "Sorry I didn't notice you. I was a bit wrapped up."
Ash smiled politely and shook his hand. "If you don't mind me getting straight to the point, I'd like to know why I'm here."
Immediately his smile fell. "Right, well you might want to take a seat," He paused as they both sat down before continuing. "There have been some spikes on our radar lately. They aren't significant, in fact they're barely even there, but we can't be too sure anymore. We've been rebuilding Gipsy Danger and Tiger Black, and they're almost completed."
"I don't understand. Why did you rebuild Tiger? I don't have a co-pilot, and I thought Mako Mori wasn't able to pilot anymore after she developed that neurosis or whatever it was."
Herc gave her a contemplative look. "You've been keeping track of Mako and Raleigh?"
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "Well, I haven't been dealing with everything well and it kept me busy. Why are the jaegers being rebuilt? We shouldn't need them anymore. The portal is closed. They can't get here. Even if there are some bleeps I don't see why you should be cautious."
He sighed, "Most of this wasn't my decision. If it would've been up to me everything would've been terminated, but the president had other plans. What I'm about to tell you is top secret. I know you know how that works." Ash nodded curtly. "Now, against my advice the president ordered Dr. Newton Geiszler to find out what made the kaiju work and figure out how to make better weapons. Newton figured out how their cloning process worked and being daft as he is, tried it on some of the kaiju. We've been getting some spikes from them and somehow there have been spikes going off in the Pacific. They aren't like before. They're very small but we're taking a lot of caution. If something happens we want to stop it before it starts. So, we've called in the only capable pilots left and some recruits."
Ash sat there for a minute and let all the information sink in. When everything sunk in and everything clicked she was furious. She thought all this was over and yet here it was starting all over again. This time, at the fault of the humans. "Aren't you a pilot?"
"I am," he said a sad frown. "I'm not permitted to pilot since I've taken over Stacker's position."
Ash opened her mouth to start an argument, but closed her mouth thinking better of it. "So when do I get to meet Tiger and these recruits?"
"It won't be for another month or so. We want you to stay in the city until then. We've made arrangements for you at Fairmont." He stopped speaking and when he did so Ash got up to leave. He spoke again just as she was about to leave. "One more thing, if should happen to run into Raleigh anywhere don't let him know who you are or that you're a jaeger pilot. He can't know about you until it's absolutely necessary."
"Yes sir." Ash went got a taxi to the huge hotel they had booked her at, all the time wondering why she was supposed to be a secret. She didn't mind at all, she was merely curious. She wouldn't have explained who she was if she ran into him anyway. Being a jaeger pilot wasn't something she advertised. After checking in to the hotel and settling into her suite she went out to explore the town.
A couple hours later Ash was settled into an outdoor table of a café when she noticed a familiar face. Smiling she stood up and waved at the girl, "Mary!"
The tiny red head dashed to Ash with a huge grin. "Cuz! It's been too long! What are you doing here? Last I heard you were in Washington."
Ash hugged her younger cousin. "I'm living in Oregon right now. I'm here for a job. How's school?"
Mary frowned, "It still seems so strange to go back to school after everything that happened. I'm doing good though. One of my professors told me I was his best student. Oh! That reminds me," She grabbed Ash's wrist and pulled her down the street to the front of the Agronaut Hotel. "This is where Raleigh Becket is staying! I saw him go in like twenty minutes ago!"
"That's cool," Ash replied while nodding.
"Well don't go crazy!" She said sarcastically. "He closed the rift!" When she saw that didn't stir her expression she tried again poking Ash's side, "He's really hot!"
Ash laughed at her cousin who was waggling her eyebrows at her in suggestive way. "He is. I can't argue with that."
Nodding with satisfaction her cousin replied, "You should wait from him to leave and 'accidently' run into him."
"Isn't that a bit stalkerish?"
"Maybe, but you guys would be perfect! You're both damaged and hot and bad ass. I ship it. Hmm… what's a good name?" Mary thought out loud. "Ashleigh! Wait no, that's a name. Rash! No that's just bad. I know! Beckenberg!"
"You ship it? What does that mean?"
"What? Oh! It's tumblr speak for I want you two to be a couple."
"What is—never mind. I'm not going to do that. It's ridiculous. Besides, I'm too busy for that." If Ash wasn't careful her cousin was going to make her stay here until he did come out. She may be tiny, but she was a force to be reckoned with. "I have to back to my—"
Ash was cut off by her cousin's squeal. Mary pointed at rather muscular looking man wearing sunglasses and Metts cap. "It's Raleigh! Now's your chance!" Before Ash could respond she was shoved into the man. She would've toppled over if he hadn't grabbed her hips.
"Sorry," she muttered refusing to look up. "My friend is a bit busy."
He nodded before releasing her, "No problem."
With a groan Ash walked back to her cousin. "You can't do that! I have to go."
"Ash wait!" Mary called after her. "Rosenberg!" She tried again with no result. Raleigh stopped and turned when he heard Ash's name. He saw that name on a document on Herc's desk.
