Chapter 2:
Sigrdrifa
"LOCCENT, this is Svenja-Actual, I have visual on the kaiju. Deploying camera pods, over."
Overhead the Jumphawk circled, rotary wings thrumming, electronic eyes zooming in and out, sensor suites pinging left and right. Inside, Warrant Officer Kristoff Bjorgman kept wary vigil over his sensors, alternating between radar, sonar, infrared, ultraviolet, visual, and everything in between. It was not Kristoff's first choice of profession, playing bus-driver and spectator. Like most who entered the Jaeger Academy's halls, he wanted to pilot one of the big ones, to be one of the Einherjar, standing with sword and shield against the twilight, but he had been unable to handle the neural load. Still, he contented himself with his current job. After all, behind every warrior was a good squire, and if it helped the war effort, that was enough for him. Sure, it might not have been the most glamorous job - no one was lining up to make action figures of him and his Svenja, for one - but it did have its perks.
Namely, a front-row seat to every single bedtime story his parents used to tell him as a kid made real.
From the east it crept, snorting, bellowing as it wound its way through the whale-road. The skalds of old sang of great Jormungandr, the sea-thread, land-rope, poisoner of waves, but they may well be describing the monster that swam through Posyet Bay, over two thousand tons of bestial rage, a mountain of flesh and sinew and muscle, a juggernaut of aggression that left Aegir's daughters howling in its wake . Its serpentine body oozed venomous liquid grace, broken only by the arbitrarily squat neck and broad shoulders that made up its upper section, affixed to which were a pair of stout arms that ended in massive claws, grippers, gougers, sole-thorns. Beneath them sat a smaller pair, thin and light, rippers, slashers, wound-scythes. A dozen fins ran along each side of its midsection, like oars protruding from a sea-steed's gunwales, sweeping the waves behind it as it continued its hunt, aided by a long, flagellate tail that ended in a set of cruel spikes. Miniature sky-jewels dotted its body, luminescent against the salmon-dwelling's black roof, a reminder to all observing that beauty and danger oft resided beneath the same hall.
"All units, this is LOCCENT, kaiju has surfaced nine klicks southwest off the coast of Zarubino, forwarding coordinates. Search and destroy, engage at will. Over."
To the east she strode, proud, defiant, wading down the whale-road to spill battle-sweat, to make murder, to feast the ravens upon the flesh of this monster with temerity to crawl from Niflheim's depths before the first threads of Fimbulwinter's blankets had yet touched the land. The sky-candle had dimmed, but the ship of night sailed the sea of stars, illuminating with lunar light the gargantuan Valkyrie in the waves, clad in war-shirt of icy blue trimmed by snowy white. She continued along the ship-field, grim determination in each step, an avenging angel, a shieldmaiden of ferrotitanium, bearing proudly on both shoulders dual sigils, emblazoned in red; one a carrion-skua displayed with wings elevated and crowned by a single star, the other a snowman flexing its twig arms set against a stylized snowflake. Down the warpath she walked, bearing life-beater and forestbane in sinister, carrying wound-teeth and winter's breath in dexter, armed and armored to cancel the Ragnarok.
"Roger LOCCENT, this is Frozen Heart, reporting contact with kaiju. Homing beacon set to active transmission, you should be receiving my coordinates now. Forwarding as backup measure. Moving to engage. Over."
It rose from the whale-road, water dripping from its glinting scales, murder in its six glowing eyes, blowing spray from its nostrils like a surfacing ship-thrower, though it could have easily devoured any Earth cetacean and still be left discontent. The upper half of its equine head bore massive antlers, skull bashers, helm-breakers, but its lower half was more crocodilian, combining to form a jaw that opened wide and deep and triangular, rimmed with dagger teeth, like an abyssal void that swallowed any sense of beauty its bioluminescence may have inspired. It locked on to its target and roared a challenge, a single undulating call of hate that shook the very air around it as its lowered its head, pointed its antlers, and lunged, trampling a path toward the iron huntress that was to be its foe.
"ALT FOR NORGE!"
She sprinted down the whale-road, swift as a coursing river, steel wings boldly unfurled as a tilting hussar of old. A raging fire burnt in her heart, a piece of heaven-cinder crafted in the forges of man, granting strength to her limbs as she blared her own challenge and struck. Machined fist met organic helm with sounds of thunder, once when depleted uranium knuckles crashed against scaled kaiju skull, then again when the pistons to the kinetic strike module activated, slamming all the force of a great typhoon into the fell creature's face with and driving it back beneath Aegir's plains.
"LOCCENT, this is Svenja-actual, apologies for the static, got hit with some chop," Kristoff radioed back, pulling his Jumphawk into better position as his copilot adjusted the camera pods. "Live feed should be coming through again any second now, over." As soon as the gale forces from the opening strike stopped trying to toss his aircraft aside, Kristoff leaned over in his seat, pulled a carrot out of his knapsack, and bit into it. He was not particularly concerned. After all, in the stories, brave Sigurd always triumphed over rapacious Fafnir and made it home to win the maiden.
Frozen Heart had chosen her slain, and whether by her steel or the steel of her brothers, its wyrd would come to pass.
Southpaw, Elsa thought, and as Anna's mind amplified the command, she felt Frozen Heart shifting stances, just in time to catch the recovering kaiju in the jaw with a retreating right jab. She stepped in with another one, then turned her body and swung a left straight into the creature, knocking it back but not down as the pistons in Frozen Heart's left elbow continued to slowly reset.
There were many things Elsa liked about the CQW-3 "Megadeus" kinetic strike module. True, it was a little less powerful than Model 1 "Roll of Nickels" Tesla fists or CQS-12 elbow rockets, but it produced much less waste heat, and not only did the thick armored plates that protected the forearm make a decent shield as well as a wonderful club, but the extra protruding section that protected the power piston also gave her one wicked elbow. She was not, however, fond of the long recharge time. Which was why she was currently at the helm, keeping the kaiju at bay with cautious strikes, while Anna focused on getting the Jaeger's oversized left fist ready for the next power blow. Bilgesnipe snarled and slashed at her with a claw, but Elsa saw it coming and slipped beneath the strike, adding a twist that smashed a left elbow into Bilgesnipe's jaw and a cross-step that placed it back into orthodox stance, right in the monster's blind spot. With another snarl, Bilgesnipe turned around and lunged, claws outstretched to rip and tear the Jaeger's metal guts.
Then an indicator light blinked green, a mental nudge floated through the Drift, and Elsa let go, passing primary control to Anna as if she was politely handing over a gravy boat at a formal banquet. "Passing the command ball," it had been called back at Jaeger Academy, an exercise meant to facilitate Drift-compatibility in teams whose personalities complimented rather than supplemented each other. Three years after the Academy, the transitions were now almost seamless, and they could easily and seamlessly switch back and forth at will. A fully recharged piston hook crashed right into Bilgesnipe's face, knocking it down again, and Elsa could have sworn she saw several of its teeth fly out, glistening in the moonlight. She felt Anna tug on her mind and let it pull her back into command. As the kaiju shook its head to clear it, Elsa punched out with her right arm and felt Frozen Heart respond in kind. The Jaeger's fingers retracted, folding into armatures inside its forearm. Armor plating shifted back and the barrel of a Type-15c Bingshan-model cryo-cannon spun out of its wrist, powering up with a low hum and crackling glows.
"Time to put this guy on ice."
Oh, my God, Anna, you did not just say that, Elsa pinged through Headspace as her thoughts crystallized into an icy blast. Next to her, Anna was preparing as well, bringing the kinetic strike module's pistons back into charged position. Horizon Brave's pilots, the ones who'd pioneered the maneuver, had called it the "sub-zero suckerpunch", and had been more than happy when they saw the girls use it during a joint drop.
And then searing pain exploded up Elsa's arm as Bilgesnipe revealed itself to be not as dazed as it appeared, ducking down before throwing its head up angrily like a bronco trying to dislodge a stubborn horsefly, and impaled Frozen Heart's cryo-cannon upon the prongs of its antlers.
Anna hissed in empathic pain, some from her link to the Jaeger, more from her link to her sister. She always hated that feature of the Drivesuit, even though she understood the reasoning that pilots who felt the damage to their machine were more likely to take defensive action than pilots who only saw the damage through a set of monitors. It's okay, Elsa, just chill out, she thought, which got her an exasperated grunt in Headspace as Elsa fought through the agony of impaled arm and terrible pun.
The kaiju's attack came from below, and it sent Frozen Heart's icy payload arcing harmlessly overhead to splash into the sea a hundred meters out. Fortunately, while Frozen Heart's arm was locked into place, so was Bilgesnipe's head, and Anna quickly took the shot, slamming a quick left into the kaiju's face. Unfortunately, that particular move also pushed the creature's antler deeper into their Jaeger's arm, eliciting another jab of empathic pain through their Drivesuit and a another anguished cry from Elsa, who felt the worst of it as she continued struggling to free her limb. Oops! Sorry! Anna thought, before wincing as one of Bilgesnipe's claws smashed into Frozen Heart's exposed right side. But Saab's engineers had done their job, and the sloped plating held as impact foam and alloyed springs compressed with the blow. Anna grit her teeth as she blocked another claw swipe. She couldn't hit it without hurting Elsa more. There was only one option.
"Need a light?"
Frozen Heart's left arm whirred into motion again, only instead of the kinetic strike module, the Perdition incendiary gauntlet mounted in its wrist roared to life, sending a brilliant fiery stream right into Bilgesnipe's chest. The kaiju stopped what it was doing to beat at its upper body, which was now covered in flame as incendiary gel splashed all over it, seeping into the cracks between its scales and searing into flesh. It bucked up and down, and with a toss of its massive head, sent Frozen Heart flying overhead before diving back underwater. Anna tried to relax and let Frozen Heart's inertial stabilizers run its calculations using her own sense of balance, but it was the recovery of her sister, always the picture of sophisticated grace, that had completed the motion. And so it was, the union of Anna's unbridled instinct tempered by Elsa's anchored reserve, that a 1600-metric-ton war machine tucked itself into a diveroll and fluidly rose back up on its feet. Fortunately, the earlier antler impalement had not damaged any of the internal armatures, and Elsa quickly converted the cryo-cannon back into iron hand as both sisters raised Frozen Heart's fists in a fighting stance.
Not that it mattered to Anna, who was more incensed at almost being dumped on her behind than anything.
"It is not nice to throw people!" She yelled as Bilgesnipe's outline appeared on her sensors again. The creature was missing several patches of external scales, and in some areas sporting blister boils in their place, but it still came at them in a leaping tackle, screeching with rage. And though Anna had always been a more instinctual fighter compared to Elsa, who preferred a more analytical approach, in this case her instincts led her to block the kaiju's overhand blow, grab on to its wrist, step under its chest, hook the Jaeger's other arm under its shoulder, and badunkadunk the hip in a textbook seoi-nage.
Good technique. Anna felt her sister's approval through headspace like a congratulatory text after a secondary school swim meet. We need to hit the kwoon after this. She could have sworn there was a winking smiley face attached to the end of that thought.
However, the beast was simply too long to be tossed in such a manner, and she was only able to lift it awkwardly over her shoulder. So she did the next best thing, shrugging and dumping it over to the side. Bilgesnipe landed on its back with a thud and a tidal wave. It snapped its jaws angrily, positioning its limbs to clamber back to an upright position, but Anna was not going to have any of that. The sea floor was the anvil, and Frozen Heart's elbow was the hammer as Anna spun around, kicked out the Jaeger's legs, overrode the inertial stabilizers, and dropped 1600 metric tons of Jaeger into the kaiju's ribcage.
Too bad we don't have a Tesla fist, Anna thought as she climbed out of the elbow drop. That could have literally been the most electrifying move in Jaeger combat history.
The last thing we need is more outlets for your puns, Anna.
Oh, come on, grow a sense of hu - wait a minute, 'outlets' within the context of us getting an electrical weapon? OH MY GOD ELSA DID YOU JUST MAKE A FUNNY-
I'm really glad no one can hear us in Headspace.
Applause reverberated through the LOCCENT command center, although Marshal Kerensky found it difficult to cheer with the Shatterdome crew. With a practiced eye, she looked upon the camera feeds and noted that Elsa's body language was coming through as she methodically jockeyed for position, attempting to secure a kimura lock on the kaiju. It was a good move, as disabling one of the arms would allow for exploitation of future openings, but something still bothered her about this particular sortie. She wanted to tell herself it was probably nothing - after all, kaiju were but animals, giant and dangerous animals, perhaps, but still just animals - but PPDC Marshals were also not allowed to tell themselves it was probably nothing, which left her standing here, stewing in unease.
"Excuse me, my lady?"
"Just 'Marshal' will do," she replied, continuing to monitor the situation as it developed. The kimura wasn't quite successful, Bilgesnipe having shrimped away and knocked Frozen Heart aside with its free claw, but it had still earned a blue gash across its chest from the CQW-28 Thundercloud combat saw in the Jaeger's right elbow for its trouble, followed by a football kick to the head before another blast of flame from Anna sent it scurrying underwater again.
"Ah, yes, of course," Hans replied. "I was just wondering, is this what Their Highnesses usually encounter when they march out in a Jaeger?"
"Define 'usually'," Kerensky answered, raising an eyebrow as she turned to look directly at Hans for the first time since the sortie had started. The Danish prince opened his mouth to speak, but seemed to have swallowed whatever it was that he was going to say as soon as her gaze fell upon him. Inwardly, Kerensky shrugged. She tended to have that effect on people. "If you have concern, voice them. I do not bite, unless bitten first."
"Well," Hans said, pausing to choose his words as if he was gingerly navigating a field of eggshells, "what I mean is - and please, understand that I have full respect for you and your people and what you do for us - the public is generally under the impression that the kaiju come, and then a Jaeger hunts it down and kills it, just like that, and then it's the same again a month or so later. But this one seems...abnormally tough?"
"Yes," Kerensky replied as she glanced back to the deployment map that showed the relative locations of her Jaegers. "Understand, though, this not good match-up. Kaiju has over four hundred metric tons on Frozen Heart. They doing quite well, all things considered." As she said this, however, it did occur to her how curious it was that Bilgesnipe seemed to have swam silently past every other Jaeger in its path, only to suddenly surface right next to the one Jaeger in the whole Shatterdome that it substantially outweighed. Still, they did not have to kill the beast. Eden Assassin would be there in three minutes, as would Cherno Alpha. Ironically, Nova Hyperion, her fastest Jaeger, ran into some issues with its towing cables, and would be there in five.
"I see," Hans replied. "Well, I'm sure they're in good hands." He added, looking up at the camera feed. The kaiju had been bloodied, but it still fought on like an enraged wild boar with several spears sticking of it. It charged again, making up for cracked sternum with sheer bestial rage. Frozen Heart, for its part, met it head on, switching body language from cautious outfighter to frenzied kickboxer, catching it in a clinch and throwing Thai knees into its ribcage whenever the opportunity arose. "Such fighting spirit. Then again, considering their commanding officer, I'm not entirely surprised." The Danish prince smiled wryly as he looked back at the Marshal. "You must tell me how it felt to fly missions against the kaiju before we had Jaegers to even the odds."
"Everyone I meet comments on that," Kerensky replied, returning the smile. "Duty to Motherland, nothing more."
"Still, as a fellow aviator, I must admire your courage," Hans said. "I used to pilot an F-35 myself in the Flyvevåbnet. Top of the line, brand new, one of forty-eight purchased as part of the Joint Strike Fighter program before this whole mess with the kaiju started. I still can't imagine flying interdiction against a kaiju in Uncle Sam's latest and greatest, much less than an aging Su-35 and actually coming back to tell the tale." He paused for a few seconds to watch the fight, then continued. "Marshal, if I may, there is one other matter that concerns me..."
"Yes?"
"Well, I'm looking through this system specs booklet that your technicians have helpfully provided me. I noticed that the original operating system has been replaced by a...Xanatos Industries Coldstone 9.5?"
"Yes, upgraded last year. Better than default Windows-Symbian hybrid," Kerensky replied, before turning back to her displays. "Frozen Heart, advisement, you now approach edge of ocean ridge. Ensign, forward topographic chart with recommended vectors."
"I see. Well, Xanatos Industries is a world leader in...just about everything, come to think of it, so I suppose that's fair enough. I am, however, somewhat more concerned about the right arm, as well as the communications suite and the storm cannons. They seemed to have been replaced by Chinese parts?"
"With respect, Representative, I am Marshal, not chief engineer. If you find loadout problematic-"
"Oh, not at all," Hans replied. "It's just that, as you know, the late King Haakon is only survived by his two daughters, neither of whom have wed." Kerensky raised an eyebrow at this. Having grown up in a country formed of regicide, the ways of royals were still strange to her even as two of them ended up under her command, and she was not really sure why he considered it relevant at all. "What I mean, Marshal, is simply - is it safe?" Hans asked, slowly, once he too had come to realize this. "I am aware that the Chinese have deployed three Jaegers in combat, and none can doubt their record, but if we are to go by their record on quality control as a whole...well, Scandinavia is still somewhat relevant in the technology sector, too, and given the global economy, we have plenty of men and women willing and able to work. If there are additional requirements, I have contacts within Saab and Nokia and several other homegrown firms that I can speak with. I'm sure we can come up with something."
"Your people designed Frozen Heart for rapid response. We could not add on much for armor, so we had to upgrade weaponry and other things," Kerensky replied before turning back to her screens. "Huawei Wind-Ear comm suite has superior range and radiation shielding over Nokia Kantele. Norinco Type-15w cryo-cannon proven design, compact model of what Horizon Brave has. Crimson Typhoon uses Thundercloud saws to great effect. As for storm cannon, kaiju have habit of closing to melee before pilots can acquire firing solution. Elsa herself requested replacement with something to assist in close quarters battle, so we changed it out for T-9 Angel Wings. No need for worry, Representative. Kitaiski make quality when they set their mind to it."
"I see. I hope I have not caused any offense, Marshal; I was merely concerned about Their Highnesses' safety." He paused, attention drawn to the camera feeds, which showed the kaiju rushing in with another flurry of claw swipes, and Frozen Heart covering up in a defensive posture, armor housing on its left arm raised like a shield. Soon an opening appeared, and it bashed the kaiju with backhanded blows, one, twice, the third time knocking it down. The cryo-cannon on its right arm locked into place again, preparing to fire. "And I see they are in very good hands indeed."
"None taken, Representative. And thank you. I do try."
The cryo-shot caught Bilgesnipe dead on in the chest, and the creature roared in pain as it instinctively brought its massive arms up to protect itself from the searing cold. It turned to the side and threw itself into the water as frozen fractals spiraled all up and down its exposed arm, diving underwater again for safety. The violent motion sent waves crashing up, and as they died down the sea surface became dotted with what appeared to be miniature glowing glaciers, as shards of kaiju tissue lay adrift, encased in layers of ice that prevented Kaiju Blue from bleeding into and toxifying the sea.
Yeah! We got him!
Don't get cocky, Anna. That thing's down but not out.
There was a fwoosh as Anna instinctively reacted to the splash coming from behind them by launching another incendiary stream. That, too, hit home, but Bilgesnipe's momentum hurled it into Frozen Heart, arms outstretched to grapple, even as more layers of hide and muscle and suet melted off from the flames and its frozen left arm shattered from the force of the impact, splashing into the sea like a calving glacier.
Anna took the command ball and ran with it. The good news was that after a couple of backwards stumbles, she had a stable clinch and was now pummeling for underhooks while Elsa looked for an opening. The bad news was that now the flaming incendiary gel was now all over Frozen Heart. However, titanium steel was more durable than kaiju hide, and combined with their Jaeger's already large coolant reserves, the flames were not much of a worry. As Anna continued to grapple with the creature, throwing, twisting, throwing the occasional Thai knee into its mangled midsection or rabbit punch into the gaping wound where its left limb used to be, suddenly she felt a mental nudge from Elsa.
Bajiquan.
Thousands of images popped up in the shared Headspace in an instant, filtering through Anna's mind like a flipbook as she felt Elsa go through them. Shoulder check. Forearm smash. Horse-stance punch. They played like a sped up cartoon, most of them in black and white and faded like an old Mickey Mouse short, but a select few in glorious technicolor.
Good old Elsa, being all calm and analytical even as she was helping wrestling down a giant monster.
Then Anna cried out in pain again as Bilgesnipe's secondary claws tore into Frozen Heart's midsection. It was not enough to deter her from carrying out the combination, though. She stepped forward, and Frozen Heart followed, ramming its hip against Bilgesnipe's body, creating enough space to follow up with a powerful elbow check. An enhanced elbow check, as the circular saw mounted in Frozen Heart's right elbow roared to life once more. A streak of blue drew itself along Bilgesnipe's chest and left shoulder, and there was a splash as one of the kaiju's offending claws fell into the sea. The beast roared, reared back, and that was when Anna and Elsa, connected as one, stepped forward, turned their hips, and smashed Frozen Heart's kinetic strike module into Bilgesnipe's chest, bowling it over as bone crunched, tissue scrunched, and flash-frozen scales and surface tissue splintered off. Part of its side seemed to have collapsed inward a bit, too, and Anna liked to think that was at least a couple of ribs cracking. As the creature stumbled back, Anna stepped forward and gripped it by one of its antlers, pulling it close as Elsa charged up the cryo-cannon once more.
Yes, third time would be the charm, Anna thought as she tried to come up with a suitable pre-mortem one-liner. Her mind synced with Elsa's as they prepared to finish the beast off. Right when the cryo-cannon's indicator beeped green, she settled on "Have an ice day".
And then there was the sensation of a superheated corkscrew being rammed up her spine as the thagomizer on the kaiju's tail pierced Frozen Heart's back.
There was another feeling, like being right inside a giant church bell when someone decided to ring it, as Bilgesnipe broke her hold with its remaining arm and jammed an antler into the Conn-Pod.
Sparks danced across Anna's Drivesuit, sending jolts of pain crashing all over her body as the circuit-laden undersuit burned with tactile feedback. Debris fell everywhere, broken consoles, ripped plating, and Anna felt something crunch into her side with the sound of a gardening trowel. Before she could register the pain, though, a piece of falling Conn-Pod instrumentation impacted against her helmet, and everything went black.
She had kept her nerve through it all, squeezing off a cryo-shot through the pain, but it went wide, only grazing an antler and forcing the kaiju to dive underwater again. Still, Elsa was glad for the breathing room. It gave her time to start system diagnostics, to see just how much damage her Jaeger had taken, as well as check the arrival times of her teammates and make sure that everything was okay.
"Yoo-hoo, Frozen Heart, this is LOCCENT. Check status, over."
"This is Elsa,' she replied. "Damaged but not out, it barely missed the reactor. I'm okay, and Anna-"
Elsa turned to check on her sister, and her breath stopped.
"Anna?" she whispered.
Her sister's arms lay limply at her side.
"Anna?" More urgently, more frantically now. The left side of her Drivesuit had collapsed inwards, and Elsa could see blood oozing down Anna's brow through the Drift-helmet.
"Frozen Heart, we didn't quite catch that. You were saying?"
Elsa did not hear a thing. All she could feel was a tightness in her lungs, and blood pumping up to her head, and the blistering sun upon her back. Her ears rung with the din of kaiju roars and toppled buildings and panicked crowds, punctuated by the occasional boom of military ordnance firing ineffectually, and the combination of rising dust and sea spray choked her and stung her eyes as she dug through the rubble and cradled Anna in her arms.
"No, no, no, you're okay Anna," she whispered, arms quivering as her eyes fell upon the gash that a piece of falling debris had opened up on her sister's forehead. "You're okay, I got you…"
"No response, Marshal," Oaken said, scratching his head as he continued to raise the Scandinavian Jaeger. Across the Shatterdome, a wave of silence washed over the assembled crew, as if their congratulatory words and expectations had been frozen in place. For a kaiju to do so much damage to a Jaeger was simply unprecedented.
"Keep trying," Kerensky growled. "Run remote lifesign scan. Raise other Jaegers and tell them to hurry."
"Marshal, what's that dot over there? It seems to be growing bigger."
Kerensky looked up to the display that Hans was now pointing at, and her eyes narrowed. "Kaiju signature," she spat, and then cursed under her breath. "Ensign, give me tactical!" Kerensky shouted into the comm, her commanding voice cutting through the morass of silence in the Shatterdome like an ice saw breaking through a frozen lake. Hans was saying something behind her, but she ignored him, attention instead being drawn to the display that Oaken was now bringing up.
"Marshal?"
She continued to ignore Hans, checking updated topographic vectors and ETAs, and breathed a small sigh of relief.
"Marshal, how soon until backup arrives?"
"Forty-five seconds. They must only hold out for forty-five seconds," she said, closing her eyes grimly. Eden Assassin, from the look of things, with Cherno Alpha a close second. She opened the comm channel again. "Frozen Heart, hang on as long as possible. Your comrades come for you. All other units, double time, now!"
"Ah, yoo-hoo, Marshal?"
"Yes?" Kerensky whirled on Oaken, eyes staring at the LOCCENT mission controller.
"There is a problem," Oaken replied, not missing a beat. He had been working under her for years. That was more than enough time to get used to things.
"What problem?"
Oaken brought up another display before her, one that showed 3D renditions of two brains, electric flashes of neural activity running across the surfaces. Kerensky narrowed her eyes. The image was similar to what happened during Command Ball exercises, the right hemisphere slowing down, the left hemisphere speeding, but there was something different about this one that made her fervently wish Oaken was not about to say what she thought he was about to say.
"Marshal...Elsa's chasing the RABIT."
Marshal Anastasia Andreievna Kerensky closed her eyes and slowly exhaled as she rubbed at the bridge of her nose.
"Bozhemoi."
"Frozen Heart, if you can hear me, disengage and get out of there, now! Your comrades will catch it and kill it!"
Elsa's ears still rang.
She had ripped off a chunk of her dress and held it against Anna's head - that's what you were supposed to do, right, to staunch bleeding? A thousand thoughts burst into her head at once - should we hide and hope it ignores us? Should we try to run for the airport? Maybe flag down some other refugees and hope they take us? What if Anna had broken bones? Or internal bleeding or something? What it was like in the movies where you couldn't move someone because it might make their injuries worse?
It wasn't supposed to happen like this.
Just a random aberration, that's all the thing that hit San Francisco over a year ago was, some kind of mutant from global warming or oil spills or nuclear testing during the Cold War or something. It was the same with the one that attack Manila half a year later. The scientists had agreed that there was no way the oceans could sustain a population of creatures that size, and the sheer differentiation in phenotype confirmed that they could not possibly be the same species. Bill Nye had even stepped out of retirement and gone on TV to say so. Even if there were more of the creatures, lightning never struck the same place twice. Just a diplomatic trip to San Francisco, to pay their respects to the dead from K-Day, to show that Norway stood with America in solidarity. And then a family trip to Disneyland in LA, followed by a few days in beautiful, sunny, Cabo San Lucas.
Her parents had assured her it was safe, and then It had risen from the sea to make mockery of their assurances.
"Mamma! Pappa!" Elsa found herself shouting frantically as the screams of missiles streaking overhead followed by the thundering detonations of their payloads nearly burst her ears again, even though she was old enough to know that despite Kay's assurances, Mamma and Pappa probably weren't coming back. Neither were Gerda or Kay, for that matter, laid low not by the kaiju's rampage, but by the panicked driving of other refugees that had resulted in a 50-car pile-up all along the Boulevard Forjadores and forced her and Anna to make their escape on foot. Unfortunately, while the kaiju might not have seen two little girls, the falling debris caused by its rampage was not so discriminating. As Elsa attempted to lead her sister to the airport, all she had heard was Anna's alarmed cry, and then she felt something push her aside as drywall and glass and concrete rained down upon where she formerly stood and where Anna now lay.
"Talk to me, Anna, say something," Elsa whispered, sniffed back the tears as she stroked Anna's hair, dust and floating bits of insulation swirling around them like mountain snowfall. "You're okay. I got you. Say something, anything, please…" From somewhere to the side, the kaiju roared, followed by sound of crumpling steel and shattered glass and exploding fuel tanks. The tears threatened to flow again, both due to the ever-present dust stinging at her eyes and the knowledge that somewhere in Mexico there were parents who would never see their children again, because those children had sacrificed themselves to diver the monster's attention away from the fleeing civilians - from her. No, you monster, I won't cry. Not for you, Elsa thought to herself, holding Anna tight as the ground shook all around them. Never for you. But so many had given themselves for her already. Mamma, Pappa, Gerda, Kai, those unnamed pilots, and now possibly her little sister.
I was the eldest. I was supposed to protect you.
What a failure I've been.
Warrant Officer Kristoff Bjorgman was confused. Looking down, he didn't know why Frozen Heart wasn't moving, and from the looks of things neither did Bilgesnipe as it burst from the sea for another go. The kaiju roared and feinted forward, coiling back in anticipation of a counterstrike that never came. It cocked its head in befuddlement, then circled around, looking to the left, and to the right, sniffing occasionally at Frozen Heart's shoulders like a raven inspecting a freshly downed warrior before returning its attention to the damaged Conn-Pod. It stared at the Jaeger intently, as if fascinated by the tiny humans it found inside, as if it were making a connection between the iron giants that had beaten so many of its predecessors to death with their bare hands and the tiny, frail apes that they had come expecting.
Kristoff had a front-row seat, though now he was wishing he didn't.
Some had tried to pay him money. Others with precious metals, or even food rations. Once there was a young man who tried with all three to be snuck aboard, presumably so he could take shaky cell-phone vids for everlasting YouTube fame. There were many who would strangle a baby for the chance to be so close to a Jaeger. Or a kaiju. Or a Jaeger while it was fighting a kaiju. Not that Kristoff would have taken them, even if they did strangle a baby. Especially if they strangled a baby, because that would mean they were crazy, and no crazy person was boarding his Svenja.
Yes, no crazy people allowed, which did not explain why he was telling his copilot to keep the Jumphawk steady while he tried something he felt like he was sure to regret, if he lived long enough for it.
Reindeer had plenty of natural predators. Mankind had decimated most of them, but ever since the environmentalists started gaining ground, the old challenges that his people had faced for centuries returned. Tigers, bears, and especially wolves, both the ones that walked on four legs and the ones that walked on two, but his grandfather's M/28-30 Mosin-Nagant had served his family well over the years. It was an old weapon, a familiar weapon, a weapon that had stopped both Nazi and Soviet in defense of the homeland, and it had prepared Kristoff for the Barrett M107CQ that he now held in his hands. Normally Jumphawk pilots were not armed, but ever since the trade in kaiju parts began, it had become a necessity. Calmly, just like he was watching over the family herd in the forests of Lapland, he knelt down, popped in a magazine, worked the action, looked down the scope, drew a breath, and, with a slow controlled exhale, pulled the trigger. The first shot barely tickled Bilgesnipe as it bounced against the kaiju's brow, and Kristoff muttered a curse as he ignored the ping of spent shell casing and aimed again. The second hit a little lower, but still did no damage.
The third, however, sent a .50 BMG full-metal jacket ripping and tearing right into one of its eyes. Though the anti-materiel round could easily penetrate an engine block, kaiju bone proved too strong for it, and it instead ricocheted all over the orbital cavity, kinetic energy and hydrostatic shock scrambling and pulping ocular tissue like an egg beater in a mixing bowl. There was a burst of Kaiju Blue along the side of Bilgesnipe's face, as if someone had squeezed a paintball against it until it popped, and it roared in rage, pausing its inspection of the disabled Jaeger to scan for the offending insect that had dared attack it.
Kristoff felt his heart freeze as he felt Bilgesnipe's remaining five eyes lock in on him. He immediately dropped the magazine, emptied the chamber, locked the action, open, then quickly stuffed the rifle back in its storage cabinet before slamming the door and sprinting for the pilot seat, while shouting frenzied commands to his copilot as the kaiju began lunging towards them.
"Go up go up go up go up go up go up go up GO UP!"
"Snap out of it, Elsa. Only a memory. Wake up."
Elsa could not hear Kerensky's orders through the comm.
"Only a memory, soldatka! Wake up!"
She could, however, feel a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"How many times do I have to tell you that you don't have to protect me any more?"
"Anna?" Elsa turned her head in disbelief, then looked back down, confused at the two Annas that now faced her, one a frail young girl who had saved her from falling debris, the other a proud young woman standing tall in her light teal armor. "I don't understand, how can you be here? Wait, no, it doesn't matter, you have to get away, it's not safe here-"
"Continue the memory, sis."
Elsa looked back to the young Anna in her arms. Yes, it was all coming back to her now. Anna was always petite of build, and a particularly tough slab of concrete flooring had rested against an outer wall, creating a sloped roof that shielded most of her body, although her limbs elbows and knees were covered in scrapes from when she had pushed Elsa to safety, her ankle had twisted from stumbling as she did so, and a piece of fallen scaffolding had opened up that gash on her head. But soon a pedicab driver - Ignacio, his name was - had found them and taken them to a tour bus before pedaling off to find other survivors. That tour bus, formerly an affiliate of Carnival Cruise Lines, had been repurposed into an evacuation vehicle which eventually dropped them at the airport. And from that airport it had been a bumpy flight to San Francisco, where the Norwegian Consulate had finally arranged medical treatment followed by a lonely flight back to Oslo.
"I remember now," Elsa said, understanding. "But wait, I felt you go dark in the Drift. Are...are you alive?"
"I think so?" Adult Anna looked down at her hands and scrunched up her face in thought. "I mean, if you want to be technical I think I'm actually one of those subconscious whatchamacallits, because I remember blacking out too. But don't worry, I'm not quite dead yet." She paused, standing with one hand at her waist and another on her chin, looking up at the sky pensively. "I think."
"Well, even if you're not completely real, you're a pretty convincing copy," Elsa replied, a light smile coming on her face for the first time in what felt like forever. "Right. So what do I do now?"
"Now?" Anna replied, smiling back. "Good question. I mean, we've established that this is all in the past, so what do you do now?" She giggled. "Sorry, that was kind of cryptic, but I just couldn't resist. Besides, I'm in your head, and this stuff happens at like a billion thoughts a second anyway, so it's not like we lost any time." She reached out to Elsa with an outstretched hand. "And I think you've hit upon the right answer all by yourself."
"Yes. Yes, I have," Elsa said resolutely, looking down at the young Anna in her arms one last time before taking adult Anna's hand and letting her sister pull her to her feet. "Thank you, Anna." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and, just as she had done dozens of times prior, let it go. "The past is in the past," Elsa murmured, feeling the change wash across her in Headspace, a refreshing sensation of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining as the designer flats she wore morphed into solid combat boots. Her H&M stockings, torn and ragged from constant running, first mended themselves, then glowed brightly blue as lines of circuitry weaved themselves around her legs before encasing themselves in polycarbonate plating. The transformation continued like an advancing glacier field, rising from bottom up like break of dawn, consuming the skirt and long-sleeved blouse that she wore, enveloping her body in armor the color of sea ice. Yes, that was it, just let it all go. A pauldron, emblazoned with the PPDC insignia, materialized on one shoulder and then the other, followed motes of spiraling light that hardened into upper guards, vambraces, and gauntlets. At her feet sat a helmet, its visor reflecting not the scared little girl she used to be, but a warrior woman who now knelt down and, with deft and practiced motions, fixed her loose hair into a martial braid that held it securely in place.
"I think I'm just going to have you do my hair next time. Seriously, I get the feeling it would be be faster for me to literally walk over to your room and have you do it than to stumble through it half-asleep only to have you fix it for me anyway."
"You'll get the hang of it in time, Anna," Elsa replied, a small measure of levity threading back into her voice as she stood up proudly and donned the helm once more. The torn streets of Cabo were gone now, replaced by snowy cliffs of Dovrefjell, and instead of the thick clouds of dust and smoke, there was only cold and clear alpine air as the mountain glowed white with the light of day. There was danger among the beauty here too, and the tumultuous energies of the Breach raged ominously below the cliff face where she stood, but she was now ready. "Come on," Elsa said, turning back to her sister. "Let's go face this thing together."
But Anna only shook her head sadly.
"I can't," she replied. "Subconscious whatchamacallit, remember? I'm just a memory, even if I seem to be a particularly strong one given life by the parts of the Drift Theory textbook I've already forgotten." She looked down at her hands again, and there was a fizzling effect, like a television that had suddenly experienced a loss of signal. "Yeah, this mentalist stuff is kinda weird."
"Anna, you're fading," Elsa said, stunned by what she saw.
"Yes, well, some people are worth fading for." Anna looked back at her, the smile still on her face. "You have to stop him, Elsa. For everyone. For Mamma and Pappa. For...for me, if it comes to that, if a subconscious manifestation - hey, that's the word - is all I am."
"Wait, don't go-"
"You can always find me in the Drift, sis."
"Anna-"
With a radiant starburst, the image of her sister disappeared, and Elsa swallowed her words, for no one was there to hear them. She turned back to the cliff face and wondered why she never saw it before, a massive bridge of crystal that arched across the Breach and led to Frozen Heart's Conn-Pod. The first step was heavy, but the sense of power that flowed through her was familiar, and after that, each step was easier and easier, until she was almost flying across the chasm. Soon she was back in the command seat, entry doors slamming as she felt the familiar heft of Frozen Heart's control grips in her hands again.
I am one with the wind and sky.
Reality hit her like a sledgehammer, and almost immediately after waking up Elsa felt a tight constriction around her temples that made it hard to think. Due to something involving squares and cubes that not even she fully understood, doubling the pilots quadrupled the neural handling capacity, which meant that now she was struggling to handle four times her ordinary neural load.
The very first thing she did was check the lifesign monitors.
"Frozen Heart, respond!"
"This is Elsa," she replied through gritted teeth, never so glad to hear Marshal Kerensky's voice. "I'm back online, and Anna's unconscious but still alive. Orders?"
"Disengage immediately. Cherno Alpha and Eden Assassin will arrive in twenty-five seconds."
"Understood," Elsa replied, fighting to keep the quivering out of her voice as she banked to the side and beginning the arduous walk back home. She glanced at the combat clock and wondered how it was that the kaiju hadn't attacked her in all of the twenty seconds that she was out.
Then a kaiju roar and a brilliant explosion from a hundred meters out in the air answered that question.
"No," Elsa whispered as she saw the green blip disappear from her display panels. How many more good men and women must sacrifice themselves for her? She quickly zoomed in on Frozen Heart's camera mounts and was relieved to see two tiny parachutes floating in the sky. Unfortunately, so did Bilgesnipe, and under the circumstances, Elsa did the only thing she could. Frozen Heart's foghorn cut long and clear across Posyet Bay, and Bilgesnipe responded as she hoped, immediately turning its attention back to the Scandinavian Jaeger and lunging with more speed than a creature that size should logically possess. Still, she planted her feet, and thanked her stars that Anna had, in her last moments of lucidity, charged up the kinetic strike module. Frozen Heart's left fist popped Bilgesnipe right in the snout, imparting such force that its nose literally caved in. Both of its frozen antlers shattered from the shockwaves of the blow, and it fell back into the sea. But it was a controlled fall, and as Elsa tried to disengage and open up more distance, the kaiju's tail came swinging, stabbing into Frozen Heart's side and sending it stumbling back.
Elsa grunted in pain, for her ribs felt like they were on fire, her inner ears throbbed with the pressure of trying to maintain her balance, and the pungent scent of copper filled her nose. She barely had time to stabilize herself before Bilgesnipe was lunging at her again, single arm winding up for a follow-up smashing blow. She raised Frozen Heart's arms to block, but the strike still rocked the Jaeger, and her cry of pain was cut short by a sudden jarring of teeth and an explosion of metallic taste that filled her mouth. Elsa grit her teeth and lashed out, swinging Frozen Heart's oversized left arm at Bilgesnipe like a club, but the kaiju easily ducked under the clumsy blow and, with a single fluid motion, enveloped Frozen Heart with its serpentine body and squeezed.
This can't go on, Elsa thought. Her right arm was trapped in the monster's coils, locking down the armatures that could have transformed her right fist into the cryo-cannon, and though the Thundercloud saw buzzed, it could not bite deep enough to dislodge the creature. She had to get back on the offensive somehow. But the strain of solo-piloting only increased as time went on, and she felt as if her head was placed inside a vise. She was seeing stars already, and her temples pulsated with pain as she tried to engage her weapons, only to feel a sudden popping underneath her right eye, and then everything in her field of vision seemed to taken on a reddish hue. Bilgesnipe snapped at her head, and it took nearly all of her concentration to simply reach up with her free left arm and grab it by the neck, keeping it at bay for now. The flamer could work, but she wasn't sure if she had the mental faculties to launch it any more.
I'm going to die here, Elsa thought as she tried to fight through the pain. Bilgesnipe was putting the squeeze on harder now, while its remaining arm alternated between trying to break her grip on its neck and clubbing at the back of Frozen Heart's head. This is it. I - we're - really going to die, so close to being saved. The painful constrictions in her head were now matched by similar sensations through her body, and she twisted around to look upon her sister for one last time. Anna, I'm sorry, I couldn't do it. An agonized cry escaped her lips, echoing through the Conn-Pod as well as through the comm feed back to the Shatterdome. I tried, I really did, Heaven knows- The memories flooded in her head again. Elsa did not know whether it was by pure chance or some guiding force in the sisters' collective subconscious, but two stray memories stuck out in particular, like a lighthouse in the sea of time.
One, of an American boy back at Jaeger Academy, telling her after a particularly close Kwoon session that real combat was fluid, that sometimes you took risks and lived with the consequences.
The other, of a more innocent time before the monsters came.
One memory of who she was, and one of who she is now. Elsa could barely breathe by this point, both from the psychic strain and from the kaiju's death grip, but she could still spit out a final sentence of defiance.
"Hi, I'm Olaf," she hissed, holding on to every last detail, the rotund body, the lopsided head, the coal eyes and the twig arms and the carrot nose. A desperate thought came to her, and if this was it, then her final memory in the Drift could at least be a happy one with her sister. Frozen Heart moved with her thoughts, reaching out with its one free arm to pull Bilgesnipe's head in close. "And I like warm hugs."
The Arc-9 nuclear vortex turbine in Frozen Heart's chest vented its fury and, within the blink of an eye, burned a hole the size of a tennis court clean through Bilgesnipe's upper body.
The kaiju opened its mouth, but nothing came out as its body slackened and it fell harmlessly into the sea.
Elsa did not see any of this as she, too, fell into unconsciousness.
A/N: Like what you see? Put up a fanfic rec on TvTropes! Or any other forums you frequent. Chapter 3 is in progress and will be up in...a bit. And if this is hitting you in the feels, just remember: it all has to end at least somewhat well for them, because as we all know, Gipsy Danger was the first Jaeger casualty in the Kaiju War in 2020.
