Imprint&reality

by impampersand

"Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you." The drift touches not just its Rangers but also the Jaegers that they pilot.

2. Brawler Yukon

Brawler Yukon

It's something Caitlin Lightcap hears about because she's a pilot, not just a scientist now. Pilots-Rangers-have their own traditions and language, 'ghost drifting' and 'drift hangovers' and the like.

If she had more time, perhaps Caitlin would have considered the neural imprint of one pilot's mind against the other, the interconnections, the technology that allows each neural handshake to be initiated and maintained as long as necessary.

Maybe that's why every jaeger has its own distinct name, no part recycled.

But, well. As every pilot of a Mark-1 learns: if it is not the kaiju or the neural load that kills you, there's a fair chance that the radiation will. Caitlin and Sergio live to build the Wei triplet's drift interface but not much longer.

Later, the remains of Brawler Yukon are incorporated into Cherno Alpha in the last days of the war. The technicians offer the transplanted parts prayers to uncounted deities in the many tongues of the Pacific.