To fight monsters, we created monsters of our own.

Chris watched as the massive, matte black Jaeger body was assembled with a feeling of growing satisfaction. The first kiwi Jaeger was nearing completion.

Two pilots, their brains taking the strain of controlling the Jaeger together and connected through what we called the drift.

Chris stood in the conn pod of the Jaeger, his copilot Emily to his right. This would be their first drift, the first time a drift was performed based on emotions and sensations rather than memories. The tech spoke over the comm:

"Initiating neural handshake in t-minus five.."

A Jaeger was only as good as its pilots, so Jaeger pilots became overnight celebrities. The Kaiju were reduced to action figures.

"Four..."

"You ready for this, Emily?" Chris asked. She nodded - she knew exactly what was going to happen, just as Chris did.

"Three..."

The most dominant sensation she had felt in her life...

"Two..."

... was pain.

"One..."

Chris and Emily stared forward, preparing themselves as the neural handshake engaged. The world around them faded to a monochrome state before darkening to black.

Color flashed into existence in their minds' eyes in the form of a brilliant gold. Joy, flowing from Chris. The color faded as Emily skimmed over it. She had no experience with it. She sent the next feeling through, a brilliant blue. Sadness, misery. Chris skimmed over that too, before suggesting a burnt orange color - fury.

The exchange of sensations continued for almost a minute before Emily chose the right one. Blood red filled their visions as the feeling of pain filled them. They were stock still for a moment, and then they and the Jaeger all jerked in unison.

"Wow," the tech whispered to the officer behind him, "that neural handshake is off the charts." The pilots and the Jaeger simultaneously slammed their fists into their other hands.

"What should we call it?" Chris asked. Emily immediately replied "Sanguine Shadow." Chris nodded. He liked the name for some reason.

"Okay, Sanguine Shadow, you are clear for your first test run. We'll take this slow, just try walking out of the hangar for now." The pilots and the Jaeger nodded in unison, before realizing they were no longer separate beings. And, just like that, they were Sanguine Shadow.

The secondary Breach occurred on the Pacific Rim, just as the primary Breach did. The difference between the two was that the secondary Breach, or Breach Bravo, was located in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which ran like a spine down the length of the South Island of New Zealand. The first Kaiju from Breach Bravo came on February the twelfth, 2024 - the same year the Wall of Life program was implemented. Three Jaegers from the NZDC were deployed, but Sanguine Shadow was the only Jaeger to return. From that day on, all New Zealand Jaegers were manufactured with the same drift mechanism: the experimental Charlie Foxtrot Sensation-Based Drift System, or CFSBDS. This system allowed for unprecedented drift compatibility scores, and more effective Jaegers. I continued my work on my own Jaeger, Sanguine Shadow, constantly adding and upgrading until it was the most effective Jaeger in the NZDC, despite the fact that it was an NZ Mark I Jaeger and the current models were NZ Mark V.

April 7, 2024

Mt. Cook (Summit)

Sanguine Shadow faced the large, class IV Kaiju, their body lowered on bent knees and their fists ready to attack. The Kaiju roared at them, revealing the inside of its bioluminescent, blue mouth. The heavily armored head, Chris reasoned, would be a terrible target with its mouth closed, as it was covered in thick bone which would be next to impenetrable. He tagged it with a red X on the HUD in their helmets. He tagged the tail with a red circle with a dot in the centre - their sign for "dangerous weapon, remove if possible" - along with its feet and every one of its horns and teeth. The HUD would give him and Emily realtime information on the tags' locations, speeds and directions.

Chris had, over time, become the "thinker" of the team. He marked the weapons and weaknesses of the Kaiju while analyzing its attacks and predicting its next move. His job was to stay one step ahead of the Kaiju while Emily focussed on shooting, slashing, stabbing and pummeling the monstrous beings from beyond our universe into submission. After that, Chris took over to "check for a pulse," as he put it.

The Kaiju, codenamed Brutus, roared again and charged at Shadow. Emily quickly bent them over backwards, deploying the skis as she fired a specially placed set of rockets. As they shot under the massive beast, she deployed a large sword from Shadow's wrist, holding it up to cut the Kaiju open from collarbone to groin. the eviscerated Kaiju collapsed, crushing its own trailing intestines beneath its massive feet.
"Allow me to check for a pulse," Chris suggested, walking the Kaiju-blue covered Jaeger over to the grey, monstrous beast. Just in case the creature was still alive, he jumped them onto its back from behind, sliced off the tail, and grabbed the massive, diamond-shaped head. He wrenched it back and cut it off in two blows from the sword, hurling it aside and stepping off of the fallen, Kaiju-blue covered monstrosity. Sanguine Shadow walked slowly away from the decapitated corpse, ignoring the multitude of helicopters swarming in to harvest the creature, and began walking in the direction of NZDC HQ just outside Christchurch.
"No pulse," Emily stated, a feral grin in place. Chris grinned back.
"No pulse," he agreed.

January 3, 2025

Hong Kong Shatterdome

New Zealand had vehemently opposed the Wall of Life program from the moment it was proposed. Many assumed it was due to their first Jaeger's completion - if the wall had been implemented, they would have had to scrap Sanguine Shadow far too early - but New Zealand's position was actually due to... well, its position.

Since the Pacific Rim had been deemed a "Breach danger zone," and the Rim actually cut through New Zealand, the wall was planned to completely bypass the island nation, leaving its six million inhabitants either displaced and homeless or trapped in with the Kaiju. The UN unanimously voted to ignore New Zealand's desperate plea, which led to the country closing its borders, stopping any and all information from leaving the islands and effectively ignoring the rest of the world.

Then they closed Breach Bravo.

Sanguine Shadow, NZDC's last remaining Jaeger, managed to plant a nuclear device inside the mouth of a class IV Kaiju - aptly named "Bigmouth" - while it was still alive and send it plummeting back into the Throat. Chris, when later asked why he had placed it inside the creature in the first news broadcast out of New Zealand since 2020, responded by stating:
"Well, the plan was to just drop it in, but then Ems decided she'd quite like to see a Kaiju blow up... And, I gotta admit, seeing glowing blue body parts go everywhere before the Breach collapsed was very pretty."

New Zealand had never sent a Jaeger out of the country before, so it came as a colossal surprise to Marshal Stacker Pentecost when he heard a voice with an obvious kiwi accent announce over the comms:
"This is Jaeger pilots Chris Falco and Emily Short reporting in, do you read us, Shatterdome?"

The entire control room was silent as the message was repeated. Marshal Pentecost shared the silence but a single moment before he began to bark out orders.
"I want a welcoming party ready outside before those New Zealanders get here! Jones," he pointed at the radio operator, "get on that radio and let them know we receive them loud and clear! Get them to land out front! Beckett, Mori, follow me." Pentecost immediately turned and marched down the yellowed metal hallways at a brisk pace, Raleigh and Mako hurrying to follow. When they arrived outside they were greeted by the sight of a Jaeger unlike any they had ever seen before.

The Jaeger's external plating was painted a black which seemed to absorb all light as if it were a black hole, while the detailing on the Jaeger was colored in the exact same shade of red as human blood. The head resembled the helmets of ancient Spartan warriors, with a red windscreen in the shape of the eye slits. The shoulders were covered in large spikes so as to deter Kaiju from attacking them, as was every other joint on the Jaeger. the Jaeger's knuckles, however, had flat cylindrical protrusions while the forearms were far too bulky compared with the rest of the body. The circular turbine on its chest glowed a bright blue, and was the only source of light on the whole Jaeger.

The helicopters transporting the Jaeger dropped it into the ocean before wheeling about and heading back toward New Zealand. Pentecost managed to glimpse the design of the nearest helicopter as it turned, and was surprised to see, instead of rotors, a set of four nuclear thermal rockets mounted on the top support structure of the craft. The Jaeger, meanwhile, walked right up to the assembled Jaeger pilots and their Marshal before it turned its back on them, its turbine dimming as it powered down. A section of the Jaeger's back opened just below the collar to reveal two pilots in suits colored with the same color scheme as their Jaeger. They somersaulted in unison from the 26-story-tall giant robot and engaged what appeared to be wings from the bulges on the backs of their suits. The wings flapped so fast they appeared to be a blur, slowing the pilots as they reached the ground and allowing them to alight safely. Pulling his helmet off, the first pilot retracted the mechanical wings back into the bulge and offered his hand to Pentecost.
"Marshal Stacker Pentecost, I presume?" he began. Pentecost shook the hand, not trusting himself to speak. "My name is Christopher Falco. This is my copilot, Emily Short." He indicated the other figure, who was roughly the height of a twelve-to-fourteen-year-old, but appeared to be proportioned as an adult. Emily chose simply to nod, not deigning to remove her helmet. This slightly unsettled the marshal, but Falco chose this moment to elaborate on his copilot's actions.
"She doesn't talk much to people she doesn't know... or trust," he concluded, a tinge of sadness in his voice. Pentecost nodded.
"Will you require one room or two?" he asked. Glancing at Short, Falco replied:
"One room. With two beds."

Unknown time

Unknown location

Emily ran through the empty streets, searching for her father. Her mother had died long ago, and her sister had never known her, but her father was still in the city... or he should be. But the whole city was empty. A single glance up was all that was needed to see why. The immense dome that protected the city was cracked, and beyond the crack was a beast larger than any being from the myths and legends of any city. The beast struck the dome again, enlarging the crack and letting the water of the ocean outside leak in...

"Emily," Chris called, trying to wake his friend from her nightmare, "Emily, wake up!"

She screamed and ran from the incoming wall of water, finding the one evac shuttle that had been left behind. She saw other shuttles being struck by another monster, causing bright explosions to pepper the water like fireworks. She dived into the shuttle, sealing it behind her just as the water reached it and hurled it out. She frantically grabbed the controls, swinging the little submarine left and right, up and down, desperately trying to avoid the two monsters. A claw hurtled straight toward the shuttle...

Emily's eyes flew open and she sat bolt upright, screaming until her lungs were emptied.
"Emily! calm down!" Chris exclaimed, leaping up from where he had landed on the floor and catching her as she collapsed. The door burst open to reveal the Russian Jaeger pilots, the Kaidanovsky's, who stared at the New Zealander who was cradling his copilot in his arms and speaking to her quietly in a language which was unfamiliar to them. Sasha Kaidanovsky looked at her husband, and an unseen agreement was reached. In unison, the two Russians slowly backed out of the room and closed the door silently.

Emily's eyes fluttered open.
"Chris?" she asked, her voice questioning. He smiled down at her before replying in Gnommish.
"Yes, it's me. DOn't worry, You're safe. It was just a dream." Emily's face became concerned as she replied in the same language.
"Are you sure? It felt so real..."
"Where were you?" he asked, his own face darkening in concern.
"I was in Atlantis. The first and last Kaiju attack on the People." Chris's face fell.
"And the same day my parents died," he finished. She nodded. They both knew without speaking that that day was also the day she lost contact with her people. They sat there for a minute more, neither speaking nor moving, simply taking comfort from the other's presence. Eventually, Chris stood up and walked back to his own bed.
"Get some sleep, Ems. We've got a big day tomorrow."
"Chris?" she asked hesitantly. Chris turned to look at her. He knew that face, knew that voice. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" she asked. He sighed - he could never resist those puppy-dog eyes.
"Okay, fine," he surrendered. Emily grinned happily and hurried over to Chris's bed. She slipped under the covers and promptly fell asleep with her head buried into his shoulder. Chris looked down at the elf sleeping peacefully next to him, slipping his arm over her to comfort her further before falling asleep himself.