Operations
Four years after the destruction of the Breach, the danger is far from over.
[Author's Note: This story takes place concurrently with the story Pacific Rim: Iceland, and two years after the stories Your Secret is Safe with Me and Make Me an Offer.]
One wall of the Operations Room of the Hong Kong Shatterdome was taken up entirely by an illuminated map of the Pacific. At the moment, it provided the only light for the room, a dim and ghostly translucence. On the map, there were three red dots moving, apparently at random around the huge expanse of ocean. The information of their movements was constantly fed into a bank of computers – and someone else was watching, as well.
Most of the Task Force employees had gone home for the night, but as the Officer-in-Charge Tendo Choi continued to work in his office, which overlooked the Operations Room. The computer on his desk beeped; the most recent automated report on the Kaijus' movements was ready. He looked at it; it said, basically, that there was no immediate threat from the Kaiju, and none was likely.
He glanced at the map. Three left, he thought. When the Breach was closed, four years ago, there had been seven. They were Kaijus which had already come through the Breach and attacked cities, and had then moved back to sea, in some cases to heal their wounds. The pattern had long been known; even when the Breach still existed, Kaijus often swam around for extended periods before an attack, or between attacks. The assumption was that they were waiting for orders. The Kaiju known as Luthor, before it had been destroyed by Eun Park – once the lover of Tendo – had apparently acted as a co-ordinator, aside from whatever orders they received directly through the Breach. Post-Breach, the 'stranded' Kaijus seemed to just wander randomly around the Pacific. Seemed.
They sometimes came ashore, and would sit on an island or a patch of beach for anything from a few hours to several days. Several of them had, with no apparent pattern, attacked the remaining coastal cities, as well as any ships that came within their range. The Pacific was still a dangerous place.
The first two, both Category Twos, had been taken down with K-Stunner weapons and fuel-air missiles – difficult but necessary, with no Jaegers operating. In the battle against Angler, one pilot, Dee Delacroix, had got so close that she had been able to fire a missile right down its throat. Remarkable, Tendo thought.
The second two had been destroyed by the brand-new Jaegers, Liberty Phoenix and Nova Artemis, acting together. The Mark VIs utilised many of the parts of the now-obsolete Jaegers Iron Duke and Unity Dragon, as well as incorporating cloned Kaiju material.
None of the Kaijus had gone down without a ferocious fight.
The final three had been 'tagged'. This was an idea put forward by a Ranger by the name of Elle Castro, in the Recon Unit. It had involved a team of three Rangers who had approached – very carefully – a Kaiju when it was 'at rest' on land. They had literally climbed it, using mountaineering tools, and attached a signal beacon to its armour. Castro had done that twice. Tendo had thought about the venture many times, and every time he had been impressed by it. He had never met the woman but he thought she must be quite a piece of work.
So now they could track the last three. Predicting what they might do was, of course, another matter.
In the near-darkness of the Operations Room, Tendo saw the flare of a cigarette lighter. Smoking was technically prohibited in the OR but no-one was inclined to complain about this individual. As head of the Task Force, Tendo was technically the man's superior. Which counted for absolutely nothing.
Tendo left his office and walked across the OR. He took a seat beside the smoking man. A thin plume of blue rose into the air.
"Which one are you looking at?" said Tendo, in Chinese.
Jin Wei pointed. "That one," he said. "Namazu. It is going to come out of the water soon. Two days. Onto that island, Cheju Do."
Tendo did not ask him how he knew. Even if Wei chose to answer, Tendo doubted he would be able to understand it. But Wei had never been wrong. That was all that mattered.
Tendo nodded. The two of them remained silent for a while. Eventually, Wei gave Tendo a cigarette, and they sat together, smoking.
"What do they think about, do you think?" said Tendo.
Wei considered. Then he said: "The silence. They lived their whole lives with the presence of others. Now they do not have it."
You can understand that, thought Tendo. You might be the only person on the planet who really can. You might not be able to explain it, but you can understand it.
He remembered the night when Otachi and Leatherback had destroyed Crimson Typhoon, only a few miles from here. He remembered how the Jaeger's Conn-Pod had been torn away and thrown across Victoria Harbour. He remembered how Jin had been plucked from the water by a rescue helicopter, and how he had looked when he realised that his two brothers were dead. He had had the expression of a man who was, for the first time, utterly alone.
"I will start getting Jaegers and warbirds moving towards Cheju Do," he said. "Do you want to come?"
"No," said Wei. "I have no desire to see any more Kaijus die. I do not hate them. They … are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less."
Tendo nodded. Then he returned to his office, leaving a silent man staring at an ocean.
END