Ionia, 1830 hrs.

Wreckage

The soldier grunted as she pulled herself out of the collapsed mass of wrangled metal, dimly aware of the trail of blood that ran down her face. Her suit was torn, exposing multiple wounds. It was obvious that everything had gone down badly. Her partner – gone. She had felt it. Felt the pain of the toxic, felt the pain of the burn. Heard his screams. It resounded insistently in her brain. And then silence. Nothing but silence and the smog that burned. Everything was fragmented, and everything had hurt. Free from the wreckage, she pulled herself and the blade she held dear to a slab of stone, and laid against it. Her head felt light and her vision was blurry. The soldier's body slumped. There was only silence.

Ionia, 1530 hrs.

Fury Company en route

"That went a lot better than expected, eh?" Payden spoke before laughing. There wasn't really a need to speak, but it was a lot more reassuring for the two. Neither of them really did like having their memories or their thoughts shared. It was something mutual. No prying whatsoever, just a central thought, and that is the mission. The soldier had been paired to Payden due to their ability to co-ordinate death on the field. Every single enemy Jaeger they had taken down was done in a fast and ruthless manner. They were the star of the Noxian military, and were sorted to join Fury Company. The very best of the best.

Noxus had decided to wage war on Ionia in a bid for expansion. At that time, the Institute of War hardly had the most power, and the Noxian High Command couldn't give a rat's ass about what law they were bypassing during that attack.

"Look, down there," the soldier spoke, not bothering to comment on their prior battle. "A little girl in the middle of nowhere."

"So? What do you want to do? Stomp on her?"

"I nev—"

[Incoming Transmission]

'We're getting flanked, I repeat, we're getting flanked. Ionian Jaegers have appeared from the left and right and are taking down the wings of the formation. They're getting overpowered. Fury One and Fury Eight is down. Fury Seven is losing its fight.'

"Riven, I don't think we can win this time."

"Reinforcements, they might reach here in time."

Payden only grunted in agreement as disconnected from the neural link and ran to the back of the control area, with Riven close behind. He pulled out a flare gun and threw one to the female, who had caught it, and took the other for himself. The pair climbed up the hatch of their Jaeger, and suddenly the two of them felt ridiculously tiny amongst the carnage. Riven quickly fired off the flare, with Payden's in the other direction just in case. And now, all they could do was to wait. The flare had attracted the attention of one of the Ionian Jaegers, and was slowly moving towards them. Riven spotted it and quickly pulled Payden down to the cockpit.

"Quickly, we're going to be attacked."

Once again, there was silence in the area as the two quickly got back into their positions and resumed the linking. It was the only way to effectively control the Jaeger without overloading the brain, a method they figured our after losing many of the Generation I pilots.

They narrowly avoided a charged punch to the torso, and managed to retaliate with a right hook, throwing the Ionian mech off its balance. The two battle machines were in battle positions, almost as if glaring each other down. The Ionian mech struck, the Noxian held onto the metallic fist mid punch and pushed the Ionian Jaeger down onto the ground. Just when it was about to stomp on the Ionian Jaeger's head, a clawed hand descended on the Noxian Jaeger's head, effectively causing a gaping hole to appear in the head of the Jaeger.

"Holy shit, that was close!" Payden breathed.

The Noxian Jaeger, Fury Actual, was about to respond to the new assailant but was stopped by the overhead vehicles, Zaun's crest painted on the underside of them.

'The reinforcements actually arrived in time?'

Riven paled once she recognised that the vehicles were planning a bombardment of the area.

The next thing she knew, the jaegers around her seemed to be melting. A chemical bombardment by Zaun! She turned her head to scream at Payden to get the hell out from where he was, but it was too late.

He was screaming, and his skin—it was horrid. Riven shut her eyes as she willed the image to get out of her head, but the pain, the fear in her head, it would not stop. She heard a scream ringing in her ears, and she couldn't tell if it was Payden's, or if it was hers.

Ionia, 2100 hrs.

After Battle

"Commander Lito! We've found a survivor!" A grunt ran up to a taller person, one who was clad in a suit painted crimson.

"Take me to her." Her response was fast, and hopeful. The Ionians had lost too much in this assault, a lot more than they had originally expected. They hoped to take out Fury Company, the main force of the enemy, but they definitely did not expect the bombardment.

"But the survivor isn't Ionian."

Commander Lito's face hardened.

"Do I need to repeat my order?"

"N-no, Commander."

He quickly took off, not wanting to face the Commander, especially during a time like this. The taller female followed behind, her strides unwavering as she walked through the barren ground, all signs of life being burned off by the chemical bombings.

The pair stopped before a slab of stone, the tablet that marked the entrance to the Couer Valley. A figure laid against it, head held low, hand weakly clutching the sword by the body.

Commander Lito crouched down and took off the helmet donned by the fallen soldier, revealing white hair with specks of red on it. She placed a finger under Riven's chin, and lifted her head up, allowing the moonlight to illuminate her face.

A harsh breath left her mouth.

"Riven, the Noxian Field Commander. Head of Fury Company." She thought that she could have killed her right there and then, but stopped that train of thought. "Take her in. Tell me when she's awake. I would like to personally speak to her."

The grunt saluted. "Of course, Commander."

A/N:

Well, I felt this urge to write some Pacific Rim AU, and thus this was born. Of course, I shall be taking some sections of the lore and disregarding others, because it's pretty darn hard to fit it in in such a scenario, but we'll see what we can do with this.

Ideas and reviews would be very much appreciated!