Kajiu is the Japanese word for giant beast.
Leonard had just turned eighteen when the first Kaiju landed in San Francisco. They showed up out of nowhere like something you only saw in cartoons and anime. Leonard had always been one of those kids to look up and wonder about the stars. Like the rest of the world, he wanted to know what was out there and if humanity was all alone in the universe. Crazy part was that they all should've been looking in the water. When the aliens showed up, they actually came from deep in the Pacific Ocean, a crack of some sort between a pair of tectonic plates. It was a portal between dimensions, they say. 'The breach' is what the kids call it.
The good ole U.S. government threw everything they could at the damn thing and by the time they took it out, it was six days later, thirty-five miles of destruction and three cities were rubble. Tens of thousands of lives were lost. Humanity mourned, memorialized, moved on. Then a year later, a second attack hit Manila. Then the third hit Cabo San Lucas and the fourth crushed part of Hawaii. That's when we realized that the damn things weren't gonna stop, they were just getting started. Humanity needed a new weapon.
Jaeger is the German word for hunter.
Everybody rallied together, pooled resources, tossed aside old grudges of the past for the sake of the greater good. Since it was a fight with monsters, we needed monsters of our own. That's how we ended up with the Jaeger program. Massive robots, piloted by people, built to defend our world from the giant creatures that were leaving death and destruction in their wake. Like everything else, the beginning of the Jaeger program had its issues. The neural interface needed to control the giant robots was too much for one brain to handle. That's where the Drift came in.
The Drift was Jaeger tech based on DARPA jet fighter neural systems. Two pilots, minds melding through memories, instinct and emotions with a body of a giant machine, allowing the three to fight as one. Every movement of the Jaeger came from the pilots, one controlling the 'right hemisphere', the other the 'left hemisphere'. The deeper the bond, the better you fight. The strongest bonds usually came from families. It was common for a team to be made up of siblings, best friends, a couple, or a parent with their child.
That's how humanity started winning, the Jaegers stopped invasions everywhere. But the Jaegers were only as good as the hundred or so brave souls who vowed to fight for humanity. The Jaeger pilots turned into rock stars, the danger had turned into propaganda, Kaijus into toys. We got really good at winning. But like all good things, it fell apart.
The Kaiju got smarter and a sudden spike in their attacks led to the destruction of over twenty six Jaegers. The United Nations began working on a colossal coastal wall to cut the Pacific off from the rest of the world. The Jaeger Program was gradually phased out with seven of eight Shatterdomes shut down and the surviving Rangers retired from active combat duty. The funds once used to support the Jaeger program were funneled to the Anti-Kaiju Wall. The United Nations was confident that the Wall would be more effective than the production of more Jaegers. People were pissed, especially when a Category four Kaiju named Mutavore walked right through a section of the wall like it was tissue paper.
The origins of how Leonard ended up as a Jaeger pilot change depending on who tells the story. Some people think he did it because of a girl, his now ex-wife. Others think it was a bet he made with some of his med school buddies. The truth; it was his father. Former Air Force Colonel David McCoy was an original Ranger, as the Jaeger pilots were called.
The ink wasn't even dry on the colonel's retirement paperwork from the Air Force when PPDC started recruiting. At first, his father wanted to help in medical; a military doctor who knew how soldiers thought. That was before they figured out that the Drift system. Leonard learned that the older McCoy volunteered to test it, hoping to prevent the loss of the younger pilots to brain damage. Because of his combat training and knowledge of biology, he was asked to stay on as a pilot.
When the older David's partner was pulled from active duty with a brain tumor, he asked his son to join him. Jocelyn, Leonard's new wife, wasn't happy that he joined PPDC in the first place but she put her foot down about him being a Ranger and made him pick between her and his father. He picked his father. Leonard wasn't really the 'sir. Yes, sir' type but he could fight and when he was with his dad, they were a force.
He thought they were unstoppable, he should've known better.
One mission, that's all it took for Leonard to lose the most important person in his life. He doesn't talk about it. Not that there was anyone to talk to anymore. The nightmares were his closest friends, reminding him over and over that he failed. Taunting him with memories of his father's last moments and keeping him in that moment five years ago when everything in his world changed.
"Looks like you're putting that M.D. to good use. I guess your old man can be proud, knowing that much," a voice said behind him. Leonard was working at the emergency clinic near the Wall. It didn't pay much but someone had to do it and no one really asked him questions.
He sighed, "He can't be anything, he's dead and you know it."
The older man nodded, "I do. You're not the only one who has nightmares about what happened that day, those just aren't the only ones keeping me up at night. How you been, McCoy?"
"I have good days and bad days, just like everyone else, Pike. What do you want?" Leonard asked his former commanding officer. Marshal Christopher Pike is a living legend. One of three people to ever solo pilot a Jaeger; Leonard was the second and some kid was the third. Pike was in Coyote Tango, the great Japanese designed Jaeger that saved Kyoto from the Kaiju Onibaba. Pike's partner passed out during the mission and Pike saved the city without her help.
Pike was a pilot for a little over three years and ran over a dozen missions before he forced into an early retirement from active duty. Not one to walk away in the middle of a war, Pike took up an assignment teaching at the Jaeger Academy for years before he was promoted to PPDC Command as Marshal.
"Never one to beat around the bush, I always liked that about you. I need you to come back, Leonard. I got my hands on a Mark-Three; we patched her together with the last of the funding. I need you in that Conn-Pod," Pike told him.
Leonard laughed, "You can't be serious."
The marshal sighed, "Look, I'm not gonna lie to you, McCoy. This… Wall that the governments are putting up, it's not gonna help, we saw that today. The end is coming; we might have a chance to do something about it."
"And you just want me to what? Abandon my job and fight giant monsters again? I did that once, my wife left me and then my father died. Thanks, but no thanks," Leonard told the other man.
Pike sighed, "If David was here, what would he say? You want to help people, that's why you're a doctor. I'm giving you a chance to help everybody. This is the end of the world, Leonard. Give me a few days. That's all I ask."
Sometimes, he really hates Pike. Mostly because he knew the man was sickeningly honest and if Pike was asking for his help, that meant he needed it. Leonard looked around the rundown clinic before he looked at the man in front of him, "A few days."
Located on the southern end of Tsing Yi Island overlooking Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Shatterdome was the first and the largest of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps' Shatterdomes, and it was the only one still in operation. The other seven were sold off to private buyers or given to governments in exchange for one thing or another. Now, not only was it the only Shatterdome left, it was the base of operations for all of PPDC and housed the last of the Jaegers.
Leonard had never been to this Shatterdome. He's launched out of Los Angeles and Lima but never Hong Kong. Leonard looked around as the helicopter landed and he was given the all clear to get out. "Home sweet home," Pike said wistfully.
Leonard chuckled, "I'm guessing you launched from here?"
"Back in the day. Come on. I get you the ten cent tour and show you to your Jaeger," Pike said with a smile
Leonard followed the older man into the superstructure and into an elevator. "Wait for us!" a kid with a thick Russian accent called out.
Behind the Russian was a man, about Leonard's age with a Scottish accent, "Hold the bloody door, please!" The pair slid into the elevator with a bunch of glass containers.
The kid smiled, "Thank you! Thank you!"
Leonard looked at the containers and noticed that they were Kaiju parts. "Dinnae be messin' with that, lad. Kaiju specimens are extremely rare; ye can look but dinnae touch." Leonard nodded and took a step back.
Pike smiled, "Doctor McCoy, this is our research team. Doctors Chekov and Scott."
The man with the Scottish accent smirked, "Montgomery Scott but ye can call me Scotty, my mother is the only one who calls me doctor. Pasha, these are actual people, lad. Why dinnae ye say hello?"
"You cannot call me that. My mother called me that. I…" the kid started but Scotty cut him off.
"I'm sorry, Chekov."
The Russian smiled, "Good. I am Doctor Pavel Chekov, either is okay. Pasha is not okay. It's only for special people."
Leonard nodded, "Got it." He knew that name, if only in passing. Doctor Sasha Chekov was the man behind the Jaegers and his son was a twenty-year-old prodigy. "Hey, you're not…?" Leonard started.
"Yes, Sasha is my father. No, I do not like talking about it," Chekov told him.
Leonard chuckled, "I don't blame ya, kid." Sasha Chekov was involved in its earliest stages of the Jaeger Program after the United Nations approved Jasper Schoenfeld's concept for the Jaeger. Sasha supported program for as long as it appeared to be a viable option for the defense of the Pacific Rim. However, when the Kaiju started winning, he switched sides and backed the United Nations plan to construct the Anti-Kaiju Wall with the Wall of Life Program. It obviously put the two Chekov men at odds with each other, since Pavel was still part of the Jaeger Program.
They stood in silence for a minute after that when Leonard noticed the tattoos Scotty had all over his arms. "What is that, Yamarashi?" Leonard asked, pointing the Kaiju on the other man's arm.
"Yea, laddie. Ye got a good eye," Scotty said with a smile.
Leonard shrugged, "My father and I took him down. I'll never forget what he looks like."
"Ye know he was one of the biggest Category threes ever? He was two thousand five hundred tons of bloody awesome," Scotty told him. Leonard raised an eyebrow. Scotty sighed, "Or bloody awful, ye know, whatever ye wanna call it."
Pavel shook his head, "Please… forgive my friend. He is Kaiju groupie, he loves them."
"Watch it, lad. I dinnae love them, okay? I study them. And unlike most people, I wanna see one live and up close one day," Scotty said.
Leonard shook his head, "Been there, done that. Trust me, you really don't." The elevator stopped and the pair of scientists were out first. Leonard looked at Pike, "That's your K-Science team?"
Pike nodded, "Things have changed, McCoy. We're not an army anymore, we're the resistance. Welcome to the Shatterdome."
The large metal door opened and Leonard smiled. That feeling of standing at the feet of giants always got him. He looked around the large room as the robots were being checked over or repaired from their last battles.
"The clock?" Leonard asked about the numbers ticking over his head. Pike sighed, "War clock. We re-set it after every Kaiju attack, it keeps everyone focused. The frequency of attacks is accelerating." No wonder Pike came looking for him, that didn't sound good.
"How long until the next re-set?" Leonard asked.
"A month and a half, if we're lucky. Our experts believe there will be a Kaiju attack even before that. This complex used to launch thirty Jaegers in five days; now we only have five Jaegers left," Pike told him.
"I didn't know it was this bad," the doctor said on a sigh.
Pike nodded, "It is."
They walked through the large hanger and Pike pointed to the first Jaeger, "Golden Horizon, Japan. One of the greatest. Full titanium core alloys, fifty diesel engine per muscle strand. A deadly precise fighter. He's piloted by the Sulu siblings. Hikaru is the boy, he's three years older than the twins, his sisters Aiko and Yuki. Extensive knowledge of Jaeger systems, weapons and deployment strategies, those three. They successfully defended Japan six times, Russia twice and the Hong Kong port three times. They use the Thundercloud formation."
Leonard looked over at the three Japanese siblings in front of the black, gray and yellow robot; the girls were playing keep away with their brother in the middle. "Oh, yeah. Triple arm technique," Leonard recalled from his memory.
Pike nodded, "Very effective. That tank, the last of the T-nineties, Desert Fury." Leonard looked up at the next Jaeger, a red and burnt orange behemoth. Pike sighed, "First generation Mark-One, the heaviest, oldest Jaeger in the circus. Make no mistake it's a brutal war machine. Those two, Spock and Nyota Grayson…"
"I've heard of 'em. They're the second generation in that Jaeger. They're the team that protected the hub surrounding the Panama Canal," Leonard said as he watched the couple sitting on their Jaeger's foot.
"Their watch has kept out the Kaiju for six years. Six years," Pike said with a hint of hero worship. The pilots couldn't look more opposite if they tried. The woman was short, with beautiful caramel skin, long dark hair and a bright smile. The man was tall, pale and he couldn't look more indifferent if he wanted to.
Leonard looked at the red, white and blue Jaeger in the bay next to Fury. Pike smiled, "That's Thunder Strike, USA, Mark-Four. Gary Mitchell and Lee Kelso. Best friends since they were babies. Their parents were best friends too and they grew up together. They joined PPDC as soon as Lee turned eighteen. Gary can be a bit of a hothead but Lee keeps him in check and, together, they fight like a hurricane." Leonard watched the two men interact, if he didn't know any better, he'd think they were related.
"Alex! Carol! Welcome to Hong Kong!" Pike called. Leonard turned around and spotted the older man and a young blonde heading their way. "Leonard, this is…"
Leonard smiled, "Alexander Marcus. Been a long time, sir."
The man reached over and shook his hand, "Six years, Ranger. That team drop in Manila. I'm sorry about your father. David was the best of us."
"Thank you, sir. Your daughter?" Leonard asked.
"Yea, that's her," Alex said with pride. Leonard waved at her and she rolled her eyes before turning her attention to the pug at her feet.
Pike looked at him, "Alex and Carol will be running Blue Genesis, the fastest in the world. First and last of the Mark Five Jaegers. Australia decommissioned it a day before the Mutavore attack in Sydney."
"Yeah, they were lucky we were still around," Alex said, a smirk on his face.
Pike nodded, "No kidding. Now she's running point for us."
Leonard was confused, "Wait, running point on what? You haven't told me what I'm doing here yet and I haven't decided to stay."
"We're coming up with a plan to hit the breach, McCoy. We're gonna put a two thousand four hundred pound thermonuclear warhead onto Genesis' back, detonating equivalent of one point two million tons of TNT. You and the other Jaegers will be running defense," the marshal told him.
"How the hell do you get something like that? I thought this was the resistance," Leonard asked.
Pike smiled, "I got friends in Russia. They can get us anything."
"Sir, we've hit the breach before, it doesn't work, nothing goes through. What's changed?" Leonard asked.
Pike smiled, "I told you, we're working on the plan. I need you ready, that's all." Leonard didn't bother to reiterate that he might not stay as Pike made a motion to the Thunder Strike's pilots.
"Sir?" they asked in unison.
Pike chuckled, "This is Leonard McCoy. Show him to his Jaeger and help him get settled." They nodded as Pike walked away with Alex.
The two men looked at him, "Follow us." Leonard chuckled at the way the pair seemed to do everything at the same time.
"We were like this before the Drift. I'm Lee, he's Gary," the slightly younger man said.
"It'll take some getting used to. How long you guys been here?" Leonard asked, letting his curiosity show.
Gary chuckled, "Four months. They sold our Shatterdome and scrapped it for parts. Hong Kong's not so bad. The girls are nice… unless that's not your thing."
"You sound like my ex-wife," Leonard muttered as Gary pointed to the last Jaeger in the bay. Navy blue with silver panels and sleek cobalt blue lettering on her chest; 'Enterprise Rising.' Gary spoke as Leonard took a step towards the gleaming machine.
"She's one of a kind, Mark-Three refit. She has some special core thing from NASA; you'd have to ask J-Tech about it. Solid iron hull, no alloys. Forty acres of blades muscle span. And a new fluid synam system. Beautiful, huh?" the pilot asked him.
Leonard nodded, "She's gorgeous."
"Take a walk with me, McCoy," Pike said to him the morning after he got to the Shatterdome. The southerner nodded and followed the man through the compound.
"How's the planning?" Leonard asked.
Pike sighed, "It's coming along. We're still ironing out the details. I wanna show you something before you decide if you're leaving or not." They walked into the gym and spotted the Sulu siblings fighting a girl.
"That doesn't seem fair," Leonard muttered.
The marshal chuckled, "It's not, but not for the reason you think. That is arguably the best Jaeger pilot in the world."
Leonard raised an eyebrow, "You're kidding. She's like twelve." Okay, maybe twenty is a more accurate guess for the girl with the toned body of an Olympic sprinter, cerulean blue eyes and long blonde ponytail.
A voice behind them chuckled, "Don't let her hear you say that. Especially since you're only thirty to her twenty-four."
"This is Sam Kirk, LOCCENT mission ops controller," Pike introduced the blonde, blue-eyed guy who walked over to them with a slight limp.
Sam reached over and shook Leonard's hand, "Nice to finally meet you, Doctor McCoy." Leonard nodded as he took in the man who seemed to have some kind of leg injury and a scar running along the side of his face. Sam smirked, "My right leg's robotic. Tentalus tried to pull me outta my Jaeger. Unfortunately for him, my sister is an insanely protective bitch. She ripped his throat out, unloaded the canon into his chest and soloed us back to the Shatterdome. Riverside Ronin was reduced to junk metal and I lost my leg, but we're still alive, so I say it was a win." Sam was looking at the girl on the mats and it finally hit Leonard, the way they both moved and the eyes.
"Her? She's the third solo? I thought it was a guy." Leonard asked glancing over at the girl who was holding her own against the three Sulu's.
Pike nodded, "Most people do. I told you, the best in the world. She's also a J-Tech officer; the engineer in charge of Enterprise."
Leonard looked at Pike, "Why do I have the feeling that you brought me here to be her partner?"
"Because you're smart and I did. I need to get my best pilot back in a Jaeger, that's her. I need to get a Mark-Three pilot in that Conn-Pod, that's you. If you're compatible, and I think you are judging by your brain scans and psych profiles, we might actually win this thing. She doesn't know anything about you other than your name and the fact that I vetted you myself. Wanna meet her?"
Leonard sighed, "Yea, okay."
Sam chuckled, "Hope you've been working out." When Leonard raised an eyebrow, Sam smiled, "My sister has this philosophy that you don't really know someone until you fight 'em. So, get in there." Leonard sighed and kicked off his boots before he walked over to the girl, whose first name he still didn't know, and her friends.
"Mind if I join ya?" he asked them. The Sulu siblings shrugged in unison and looked at the blonde.
Girl-Kirk locked her bright, beautiful blue eyes on him and smirked, "You sure you wanna fight a twelve year old girl." He felt his face turn red, she'd heard him.
Leonard shrugged, "Depends, is she gonna kill me?"
"I could, but that would mean Chris wasted his time." She told him with a playful smile.
The Sulu siblings stepped off the mats as Leonard and the girl sized each other up. There was something about her, maybe it was the way she moved or how she appeared non-threatening, but he was sure she could kick his ass without much effort if she wanted to. He watched her eyes as she looked for weaknesses and Leonard decided that he wasn't gonna wait for her to make the first move. He swung the first punch. She ducked and swung back, he blocked.
The whole thing turned into a mess of swings and kicks that never connected and flips that ended with them both on the mats a few times. It wasn't that neither of them was trying, they just seemed to be reading each other. It turned into dance of sorts. One moved and the other responded. Leonard hadn't felt anything like it since the last time he sparred with his father. He could tell that there was something similar running through her head, especially when she glanced at her brother. Leonard doesn't know how long they were goin' at it when Pike told them to stop.
"Holy shit," the oldest Sulu muttered. Everyone in the room, and there were a few more people in here since they started, looked at Leonard and Girl-Kirk. They stood face to face on the mat, close but not touching, both out of breath.
Pike walked over, "Verdict, Jim?" Ahh, that was her name. Oddly enough, it fit her.
"You feel it, the connection?" she asked.
Leonard nodded, "Down to my bones."
Jim gave Leonard another once over before she smiled, "This is gonna be fun."
AN: I wish I owned them but I don't. Boohoo. I made a Polyvore collection if anyone is interested.
Add the period and remove the spaces. polyvore com/ cgi/collection ? id=4487 195