"Aren't they beautiful Nat? Those drones are just so sleek..." Ranger Alexander Kaidanovsky looked up from the balcony outside the LA Shatterdome, watching the smooth white drones flying towards them, hanging below a handful of transports.

His partner, and sister, Natasha, glared at him, "They'll put us out of a job, you know." Her icy blue eyes, so much like their father's, gleamed with the moonlight reflecting off the ocean far below. Slowly, one of her hands released the railing and she started to turn to head back inside, "Xander, it's late, and Marshal Pratt wants us well rested for the press conference tomo..."

The sound of an explosion ripped both Ranger's attention back to the incoming drones, mouths agape as the lead drone grew spikes and flesh, and tore itself loose from the transport cradle, "Xander...What's our deployment record?"

"Fifteen minutes...I don't think we have that..." His boots hammered the metal deck of the catwalk as he charged down it, "KAIJU! KAIJU! KAIJU ON SHORE!" His voice, his inheritance from their bearlike father, split the air in the hangar, booming like a loudspeaker, drowning out even the sounds of wrenches and welders working below. Thirty seconds later he arrived at the ready-room behind Cherno Immortal, jacket already slipping from his shoulders. The ready-crew was less than three seconds behind him, still in sleepclothes, or in one unfortunate man's case, a towel tied on with a belt, hair still dripping shampoo on the floor.

Natasha slid into the room, undersleeve already exposed, jacket and shirt plummeting to the ground far below, "Karl, what's the numbers?" Her voice, sharpened by adrenaline, cut through the now wailing alarms as her boots slammed to a stop right beside her brother.

The speakers in the wall echoed, "Seven hostiles. Category One, possibly Two depending on the secondary scans. Humanoid, as if you didn't already know. Time to engage 20 seconds and counting." Karl Flagg was the Operator on deck tonight, and for the first time in several months, the Kaidanovsky siblings were grateful for the former professional gamer's ability to remain calm under fire. Ten seconds later with the armor clicking into place, his voice started a slow countdown. Two more crews slid into the room, eyes blurred with sleep, undersuits skewed and loose.

The doors at the front of the room opened, revealing the back of the open bridges, on the left Ars Machana, in the middle Cherno Immortal, and to the right sat Universal Respite. A separate ready-room handled the other two Jaegers in the hangar, doors opening simultaneously, visible through the large panel windows of the faceplates. Natasha was the first to clear the door, stomping down in the harness assembly, her brother merely a half-step behind her, and gaining distance. The two were almost synchronized fully before they even finished locking into the assembly, and let out a dual "READY" as the shatterdome rang out with the first impact.

"Prepare for neural handshake...Or shake before I even get to it, what do I care." Karl's voice actually had a little hint of worry in it as the doors sounded out again. Very rarely did the handshake occur still in the hangar, and for good reason. "Shake holding. Neural bridge at 100%. You are clear to kick their asses, Cherno."

As a pair, the siblings spoke, voices blending through the loudspeakers on the massive Jaeger's collar-plate, "Thank you Shatterdome. Please open the door and let that fucker in."

Beside them, Ars Machina shook, four arms clicking into position, "Looks like those little drone bitches want to play ball," a sword snapped out of each lower arm, edges gleaming with magnetically contained plasma, "Let's see if they know the rules."

Opposite, Universal Respite's shoulder launchers cycled up as it cracked it's knuckles, massive metal plates ringing almost as loud as the doors, "I think they'll get two strikes." The chuckle was almost unnervingly loud, coming right after another hit to the door that was now creaking open slowly, "Our fist. The floor."

A white hand glazed with Kaiju flesh slipped through the gap in the door and immediately was chopped off by Ars Machina, followed by an aggressive foot-to-face maneuver that planted the slightly shorter Jaeger's knee between the massive steel and concrete slabs for a moment.

More hands slid through, prying at the door, and a plasma cannon pushed through. Nearly taking off Ars Machina's conn-pod, the plasma ball burst against Cherno Immortal's chest plate instead, "Well then, kid gloves off?" The conn-pod nodded between the cooling tower shoulders, agreeing with itself as the forearms opened and a series of thick metal plates clamped around the delicate finger structures. Inside, Natasha smirked, the look mirrored on Alexander's face, "Make a hole, Machina!" Four steps to the door, a fifth on the rail, crushing it, not that the doors would be able to close anyway with the bends from six Jaeger-Kaiju pulling on them. It was enough of a gap for the broad-shouldered Russian Jaeger to slide through, fist leading into the conn-pod of one, splattering it in a shower of blue gore and battered metal. A swift pirouette that could have never been mistaken for professional brought the other fist into a broad side-impact that tore the arm off another.

Ars Machina followed, driving its blades up through the Kaiju's chest as it clutched the head and glared angrily, or as angrily as a cyclopean glass-pane could do. Universal Respite stomped through next, shouldering the doors aside as the plasma conduits along its back lit up and it took three strikes without flinching. Magnetic dispersion field generators roared angrily as they absorbed the impact and purged it as jets of superheated air, aimed conveniently at the attacking Kaiju abominations. "That's one." Universal Respite's elbow snapped back, the thick plating providing an earsplittingly loud crunch as it ripped open the face of one monster.

With three of the seven out of the fight, Alexander laughed in his Conn-pod, "Alright, so what idiot designed these things? They can't fight Kaiju...Hell, they'd be lucky to slow them down more than that stupid wall thing..." Natasha snorted next to him, her mirth turning suddenly to a wince as a plasma blade chopped a chunk out of her forearm, "Oh, so that's how you want to play then?" The grin spreading across both pilots faces would have been unnerving, had anyone been looking, and the dark cackle that rang out as they grabbed the offending Kaiju and pressed their conn-pod close to it's face. One fist slid back, elbow opening to reveal a rocket thruster that powered up, fighting the immense hydraulic muscles for a moment before assisting them in driving the rectangle of fist-armor into the drone's conn-pod hard enough to dent the door behind it.

As their fist drew back for a new target, three more crashes rang out all at ones, the splatter of Kaiju guts on metal filling the air, and confusion filling the radio, "Hey, uh...Can you guys confirm, no hostiles? Not even kicking a little?"

Ars Machina seemed a bit sulky as it kicked one of the goo-filled drones, "That would be a big Negative on hostiles...They just kind of...well, their heads exploded and they fell over...Damnit...I wanted to win the kill-trophy this month..."

"Josh...You'll never get that trophy...None of us were supposed to get them in the first place, ever. We weren't supposed to even get in real fights." Natasha looked at the damaged armor on their right arm, Kaiju Blue already eating away at it, "Gonna need to wash this off soon. Come on, lets get these bodies off the deck so they can get to hosing it off."

Machina kicked the body again before its blades retracted with wet schlick sounds and it grabbed two corpses by an arm and leg each, walking towards the beach with all the attitude of a petulant teenager, which was kind of what the pilots were. Universal just slung one over its shoulder and hustled after Machina, eternally cheerful pilots just happy to be in their Jaeger. Cherno grabbed one with each hand and started dragging them, ignoring the squeal of metal on metal over to the edge before throwing each one onto the sand in a rough pile.

The cleaner trucks were already out on the deck before Cherno returned, hosing down where the first two bodies had been dragged from. Machina was already dragging the last two away, and Universal was taking a knee to get cleaned. Cherno knelt as well, facing the broad-shouldered American Jaeger. "Universal, analysis?"

The lead pilot of Universal Respite spoke softly into the radio, "Clusterfuck, but in a good way. They had us in a killbox from the beginning, but we're in Mark Sixes. They didn't stand a chance. They just gave us a good shot selection. Your performance was exemplary, Rangers. Two and a half kills. Would've been three but Armless spun into Ars Machina's blade and decapitated itself. Then they fell over, both of the remainder." He made a sound halfway between a snort and a chuckle, "Hey, Karl, any news on the why front?"

Karl's voice was calm again, "Uh yes. All shatterdomes reporting the same. Attacked by Kaiju-Jaeger drones, which then collapsed for no apparent reason. Hong Kong reports that it was because Doctor Gottlieb had a backdoor shutdown for them. Also...They were trying to open portals...Um...Three Shatterdomes couldn't hold. Three Kaiju got through."

Two Conn-pods impacted with a soft clang, "Location, Karl? Can we make it? Do we need to?"

"Negative on both counts, Universal. ETA to target...They're going towards Mount Fuji. The only way you could possibly make it is if the three of you fuel on the way...and eat...and don't sleep...and leave now. You've got Five days to go fifty-five hundred miles. Maintain cruising speed or better."

It took less than three seconds for Natasha and Alexander to make up their shared mind and turn to start walking. Ars Machina followed less than 60 seconds later. Universal Respite turned towards the bent and mangled doors, "I'll hold the fort here. The Kaiju broke the cranes, they'll need us to put the doors back in."

"Alright, keep Karl company for us. And Karl, could you possibly ship out my pillow to Hong Kong's Shatterdome. After we kill these bastards, I'm gonna need a big-ass nap." Natasha leaned into the harness and focused on trudging along. Being merged together for such a long journey wasn't exactly healthy, but both Ars Machina and Cherno Immortal could easily maintain highway speeds, well above cruising speed for hours on end. They would have time to rest and eat. "Hey Machina, you guys want to try a Marine Piggyback?"

Machina stumbled slightly in the dark water, but recovered quickly, "You're joking. We can't do that...We weigh too much..."

"Not underwater you don't. Rest up, 12 hour rotations. Climb on." The carry would have a dual benefit. Beyond letting them unsync and sleep, and eat comfortably, and even use the restroom, or the ocean at least, it would give them the ability to have the fresh team surface for supplies. "Shatterdome, we're doing a Marine Piggyback. Prepare supplies in 24 hour bundles, and PLEASE get a small boat to do the drops. Or a couple of them. It's a long walk."

"Confirmed Cherno...Have a nice trip. Twelve hour alternating drops?"

"Correct. Thank you Karl."

"You're welcome. And your pillow is already in the mail."