Pacific Rim: Interlude
Even when the darkness is gathering, there might be a moment of human contact.
[Author's note: This story takes place six months after the story Distant Battles and ten months after the story Unity Dragon.]
Eun Park looked out from the hotel window across the flickering lights of Hong Kong. At one end, perched on the edge of Victoria Harbour, was the massive bulk of the Shatterdome. Not far from it was the Bone Slums, a warren of buildings embedded in the skeleton of a Kaiju. She could not help but smile at the concept. It was the sort of thing that made her wonder if humans actually deserved to survive.
A man came up behind her. He pulled down the collar of the hotel robe Eun was wearing, and kissed her on the neck.
She gave a little laugh as he put his arms around her. "Mister Choi, don't you think we've broken enough rules and protocols for one evening?" she said.
"Ha!" said Tendo. "Haven't you heard? It's a whole new world. Everything is falling apart and is being nailed back together differently. Anyone can do anything, with anyone. So the Commander of the Australasian Consolidated Defence Force can get together with a lowly Shatterdome computer geek if she wants to."
Eun laughed again. "You're hardly a lowly computer geek," she said. "I think you're the brains of the place. And I'm still not used to that title, even though it's been hanging around my neck for a while now. At least it means that I can come to Hong Kong to see you. Oh, and also to attend that conference thing."
Now it was Tendo who laughed. "That conference thing was a meeting of the twelve most important people in the fight against the Kaijus," he said. "I doubt that Marshall Pentecost would like to think that you saw it as an excuse for a trip. How did it go, anyway? Sitting at a monitor in the Shatterdome, I don't get to see the big picture."
Eun was quiet for a while. Then she said: "It's bad. Worse than most people know. There is a lot of media coverage when a Jaeger beats a Kaiju but much of that is just to keep public confidence up. The real situation is that we're losing. You know what the main subject of debate was at the conference yesterday? How much longer we might be able to hang on."
Tendo gasped in surprise. He knew that Eun Park was not a woman given to hyperbole.
Eun sighed. She took Tendo into the other room of her suite, where a large map of the Pacific Rim area was spread over a table. It showed the location of Kaiju attacks and fights between Kaijus and Jaegers. It also indicated the approximate locations of known Kaijus, based on the tracking grid and satellite surveillance.
Tendo stared at the map. "There's a lot more of them than I thought there was," he said eventually.
Eun nodded. "It's not just the number," she said. "Each one is bigger and tougher than the last, and they seem to be able to learn from each other, as if they have a hive mind of some sort. And these Category Threes that we've started to see are a whole new world of hurt. Most of our Jaegers are out-classed. The only thing we can do is try and bring several Jaegers together to fight one Kaiju, but when we do that it means we have a hole in the defence net somewhere else. There are a few Jaegers that have exceptional pilots, like Cherno Alpha, but the bottom line is that we're losing Jaegers faster than we can replace them."
"Really?" said Tendo. "I didn't know that."
"In the past eight months," said Eun, "the Americans have lost Coyote Tango and South Central. Gypsy Danger was so badly damaged they are still thinking about whether it is worth repairing. The Russians lost Archangel and Battle of Stalingrad. The Chinese lost Imperial Guard, Great Wall and Jade Princess. The Jaeger built by the Japanese in Canada, Divine Wind, went down, and the Australians lost Terror Australis."
"But now you are regional Commander, you have control over the Jaegers built in Thailand, don't you?"
"Theoretically. Lotus Blade is currently being upgraded into a Mark Three, since it required massive repairs after Stingray. Until that time, all we have for the whole south-east Asia area is a patched-up Unity Dragon, whatever we might be able to borrow from the Chinese, and maybe Lucky Punch or Golden Mile, depending on threats elsewhere. It's not like the Americans or the Russians can help, they have their own problems. We simply don't have enough pieces to move around the board.
"I am planning to ask the British to lend us Iron Duke but I don't know if they will agree. It would mean leaving themselves without a Jaeger, and they've already been attacked by a Kaiju once. The EU Jaeger is never going to get out of the paper stage, I think."
"But we have some Mark Fours coming online soon, don't we? America's Double Six and Russia's Catherine the Great. And isn't Australia working on a Mark Five?"
"Yes, and that's important. And we're improving our tactics and surveillance all the time. It's just … not enough. I worry that the best we can do is hold the line, no more than that. And the Kaiju keep coming."
Tendo Choi scratched his sideburn. He had not realised that the outlook for humanity was so dire.
"The conference considered an alternative proposal to the Jaeger program," said Eun. "A wall that would protect virtually all of the Pacific coastline. Keep the Kaiju away from populated areas, give them the whole ocean. Most people at the conference thought that its chances of success are very low but that it was on the table at all tells you how desperate we are."
Tendo stared at her. "How do you deal with this knowledge?" he said. "How do you keep going, every day?"
Eun shrugged. "I have a cat," she said. "And I have an assistant. And I have you. Occasionally, anyway. I hope so, at least."
Tendo smiled. "I hope so too," he said.
"You know, you might be right about the Kaiju having pushed the re-set button on the social order," said Eun. "Maybe we should think of that as an unexpected upside."
She kissed him. "So why don't you take me back to bed?" she said.
He smiled. Then he lifted her into his arms.
"Whatever you say, Commander," he said.
END