No Shatterdome or Jaeger was unimportant during the Kaiju War… but the Panama City Shatterdome was one of the more crucial bases, no matter how one felt about its resident Jaeger team. For Panama wasn't just a small Central American country - it was a small Central American country that was also bisected by a famous shipping canal. Having the Kaiju plague the Pacific coastline was bad enough, but if a Kaiju were to reach the canal and pass through, gaining access to the Atlantic Ocean as well… well, it didn't bear thinking about.
The PPDC's original plan had been to simply destroy the canal and eliminate that chink in their armor entirely. But Panama had strenuously objected - despite the Kaiju invasion, cargo shipping was still a huge industry, and sealing the canal would be disastrous not only to said industry but Panama itself. Filling in the waterway might be a wise short-term decision, the government and populace claimed, but their nation wanted to ensure they had something to help them survive after the war.
So the Panama Canal remained open, and Panama City gained its own Shatterdome, complete with Hydra Corinthian as its resident Jaeger. And the all-too-vital task of protecting that waterway linking two oceans fell to the Mark IV and his Rangers.
Had Tendo Choi been present to see those Rangers at this very moment, he would have questioned the wisdom of entrusting the protection of the Panama Canal to this team. Not that he didn't already question it regularly.
"PENTAKILL!" Fiona whooped, leaping out of her chair and doing a victory dance. "YEAH! All your base are belong to us, suckers!"
"Fiona, that joke was ancient before I was even forged," Hydra pointed out, not looking up from his rapid-fire clicking and tapping as he focused on a League of Legends match.
"Shut ya trap, it's never too late to recycle old memes," Fiona retorted, finishing up her dance with a last dab before settling back down in her chair. "Match over?"
"Not ye- whoop, looks like it's over." Hydra raised his hands off the heavy-duty keyboard he used for his gaming. "Good game. Still think I do better with Fiddlesticks than Riven, though."
"Not your fault someone beat ya to it in character selection," Jako noted, looking up from his own Starcraft game. "Gonna go again?"
"I gotta stretch my legs," Hydra replied, suiting actions to words as he stood up.
"You're a robot, what's in your legs to stretch?" Fiona asked, giving him a good-natured poke in the side. "I'll go walk with ya, how's that sound? Jako, wanna come with us?"
Jako shook his head. "Inna minute, luv. Speakin' of 'all your base,' I gotta finish mine 'fore the Zerg rush starts - oh, dammit!" That last came out as the base alarms claxoned, the sound echoing through the Shatterdome like a war cry.
"There's yer Zerg rush," Fiona replied. "Save your game an' meet us at the Conn Pod! Hydra, you ready?"
"I was built ready, luv!" Hydra replied, and he bolted out of the little gaming nook his Rangers had set up in his hangar. A lift stood ready to carry him and his Rangers up to the Conn Pod of his battle chassis, and he stepped aboard it and rocked eagerly back and forth on his heels while it rose.
Across the bay he could see Mustang Omega's team gearing up as well - the two scientists hastily throwing on their drive suits and Mustang so raring to go that he was all but carrying Hermann into the Conn Pod. Despite the surge of energy he felt at the prospect of another fight, he couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He liked Mustang - the Mark VI was adorable, eager and happy and doting on his Rangers like a human fussing over an infirm parent. And he was a wicked fighter if the footage he'd seen was any indication… though he was quite interested in seeing him in an actual fight instead of a recording of one.
Too bad about his crippling lack of self-confidence… though he supposed that was to be expected out of anyone whose first Rangers had seen him as an object, and he'd been the subject of mockery by everyone else in the PPDC for much of his first year of life. Hydra did his best to encourage him, but he knew it would take a long time to undo the damage the Rossis had inflicted on him. Still, he liked to think of Mustang as a friend, and friends didn't let friends wallow in self-loathing, right?
"How's it hangin' in there, Team Hydra?" The lazy drawl of Charlie Connare, the Panama City LOCCENT's head tech, crackled over his internal radio.
"Ya know, same as always," Hydra replied as he settled into his seat and began plugging himself into the cockpit. "Just another day at the beach, collectin' shells an' kickin' Kaiju ass."
"Better than the other way 'round, huh?" Charlie asked. "Everyone plugged in? Ready to start this walk on the beach?"
"You know it, mate!" Jako shouted, offering a thumbs-up to the LOCCENT with his third arm. "Let's Leeroy Jenkins this sonovabitch!"
"Speakin' of ancient memes," Fiona laughed. "Let's kick ass an' chew bubblegum!"
"One order of ass and bubblegum comin' up," Charlie replied. "Initiating transfer of power in three… two… one."
Most Kaiju had small, almost comically tiny eyes, often buried deep in their skulls beneath protective bony ridges. The Precursors had learned early on that eyes were a weak spot in their manufactured behemoths, and so sought to shrink that chink in their armor as much as they could. Mending one crack in the monsters' armor, however, only opened another one - creating Kaiju who could barely see and were more prone to stumbling around drunkenly than making a focused attack. Sometimes this error was corrected by simply giving the Kaiju more eyes, but not always.
Wendigo, a Category 2 first sighted during Armada's assault on the Hong Kong Shatterdome two years ago, was an anomaly among Kaiju. It possessed huge, saucer-like amber eyes, set above a wide mouth that seemed to horizontally split its head nearly in two, like a frog or a deranged puppet. The sight might have been comical on another creature… but with Wendigo's sharp talons, powerfully muscled limbs, and ribs that jutted out so prominently through its gray hide it almost looked like its ribcage sat outside its flesh, its weird head just added to its horror.
Small wonder Panama City was in such hysterics seeing the creature stalk towards its shores… and even Slattern and her companions, hardly beautiful creatures themselves, gave it a wide berth as it made its way towards the city.
That thing is hideous, Onibaba grumbled as Wendigo shambled past. Makes Raiju look like a stunner, doesn't it?
You aren't a beauty yourself, Old One, Knifehead pointed out.
Because your nose is drawing all the females, isn't it? Onibaba rumbled.
That isn't one of us, Slattern noted, narrowing her eyes as she watched the Kaiju slink along the ocean floor, making a beeline for the coast. Not one of the Awakened ones. Perhaps the Masters have broken its will.
Or it simply didn't Awaken like us, Otachi suggested. Not all of us broke free and followed you. Perhaps the Awakening only affects certain creatures.
Perhaps… but that's not important. Slattern waited until she judged Wendigo had put enough distance between them and itself, then motioned the others ahead with a wave of her paw. Follow me. Otachi, are you certain your cub is here?
I smell it, she confirmed. It's here. Or was… no, it is. It's still alive. It has to be!
Slattern judged it best not to tell Otachi that it was entirely possible her cub had been slaughtered for parts… or that it may still be alive, but subject to experiments just as cruel as anything the Masters could have devised. No sense crushing the poor mother's hopes. Let them find out just what had happened to the cub before they assumed the worst.
The humans will send their constructs out to fight the big-eyed one, she told the others. While they're distracted, we'll storm the nest. We should be able to crack it open, find the cub, and leave before the constructs come after us.
Leave? Otachi repeated, hissing in anger. They took my cub! We'll just let them get away with that unpunished?
Yes, we will, Slattern growled. If we destroy their nest, it gives them ample cause to pursue and destroy us. We will cause no more damage than is necessary to retrieve the cub. Perhaps, if they see we mean them no harm, they won't hunt us down.
That's a very big "perhaps," Onibaba noted.
Slattern knew that was an understatement - the Jaegers had been created to hunt and destroy their kind, and would no more allow them to roam the oceans unmolested than they would allow the Makers to conquer their planet. But she had to give her followers some hope for the future. The only alternative was to throw themselves onto humanity's shores and offer themselves up to the Kaiju butchers. And despite everything, Slattern still had too much pride for that.
Let's go, she ordered. Get the cub and go home. With any luck, this should go smoothly.
Famous last words, Knifehead growled, but lumbered after the larger Kaiju anyhow as she prowled closer to Panama City.
And here we thought Hydra was weird for lugging a baby Kaiju home, Mammoth Apostle thought as she gripped the bony ridges on Raiju's shoulders for dear life. Wonder what the others would think if they saw us right now.
"Don't worry too much about it, love," Circe told her. "Though I'll be honest, I never thought we'd be in this position either."
Raiju let out a squalling growl, and a thought pulsed through Jaeger and Ranger's minds - a puzzled burst that could best be described as a silent "where?" Mammoth patted the beast's shoulder and sent her best encouraging thoughts, assuring him that he was headed in the right direction and he just needed to keep going. Raiju gave a doubtful trill but kept swimming, his sinuous body rippling through the water like a river of flesh and bone as Mammoth sat astride his back and did her best to hold on.
Riding a Kaiju down the North American coastline hadn't been something she'd ever expected to do. But after Raiju had warned them that the other Kaiju were looking for their missing cub - and wouldn't rest until they had it back in their clutches - she'd judged it best to get to Panama as soon as physically possible. The Ao Kuang might have gotten them there faster, but it would take far too long for the ship to reach them from its current docking place in Japan. This way was… well, "unorthodox" was putting it mildly, even in an organization as unorthodox as the PPDC. But it was the best she could do at short notice.
Any news from headquarters, Mother? she asked.
"Tendo's in fits, but I think we expected that," Circe replied. "He's sending other Jaegers to Panama as we speak, but who knows if they'll get there in time?"
That helped Mammoth feel a bit better about their decision to use a Kaiju as an impromptu mount… but not much. Did you tell him about… Raiju being able to talk? In a fashion?
"No," Circe replied. "Not yet. Tendo has enough to worry about at the moment. And honestly, I'm not sure he'd believe us. Not until we had proof."
I think we're sitting on the proof, Mammoth told her. But let's get to Panama first, huh? Stop a fight before it gets ugly.
Raiju gave a snort, almost as if to say I know you're talking about me. Mammoth gave the beast a comforting pat on the neck with her cannon-arm, then drew it back with a cringe. How could she so easily forget that she was riding a Kaiju, mankind's mortal enemy, one of the fearsome beasts she and her fellow Jaegers had been built to fight?
"Sweetheart, we'll worry about that after the crisis has been averted," Circe told her. "Let's just get to Panama before the rest of the Kaiju get there first."
Mammoth nodded, and she nudged Raiju with her heels. The Kaiju took the hint and put on a burst of speed, rocketing down the California coastline and heading for Panama.
It had been a long time since Mustang Omega had faced down a Kaiju on the battlefield. The last time he had tangled with one of these monsters of the deep, he had still been trapped in an immobile chassis and at the mercy of the Rossi twins. And that battle had ended with them dying, and him disgraced…
He shuddered and tried to force his thoughts away from that horrible day. He hadn't loved his first Rangers, but they had still created his conscious mind, however reluctantly. And the thought of losing his current Rangers in such a horrific manner still haunted him.
"You're gonna be okay, Mustang," Newt urged from within his Conn Pod. "You got this! You're a badass!"
Yeah… badass, he repeated with a slight nod, though hesitance clouded his voice.
"We're here with you, dear-heart," Hermann assured him. "We haven't lost a battle together yet."
That statement might have inspired more confidence had this not been only the second battle he'd fought alongside them. And that battle had been against another Jaeger, albeit an organic one, piloted by sentient minds. Today they would square off against an unpredictable creature, a foe with the mind of a beast, and that terrified him more than the prospect of another Jaeger.
Hydra shifted from one foot to the other on Mustang's left. The Mark IV's engines growled impatiently, his joints creaking and groaning as he shifted… and his mind was abuzz with noise as well. If Mustang focused he could pick up a stream of rattled phrases that sounded like so much Star Trek technobabble to him.
...compensate for the speed penalty with more points into ranged attack, though if the RNG's feelin' merciful maybe we'll get a laggy one. Maybe if we get Mustang to pull aggro on it first thing we can manage a one-hit KO right off the bat. First thing first, look for bugs - organic or not, everythin' has glitches you can exploit…
Mustang only understood about one word in five of all that, but he still admired the confidence in Hydra's mental voice. In a lot of ways he and the Panamanian Jaeger were a lot alike, more so than one might guess at first glance. Both of them had Rangers who had refused to accept their sentience and distanced themselves from their Jaegers, both had adopted a second set of Rangers who had been considered completely unorthodox but meshed perfectly with them, and both were regarded as "odd ones out" among the rest of the Jaegers.
But while Mustang felt an almost crippling anxiety over being an outsider, Hydra seemed to almost wear his outcast status as a badge of honor. Any insults or derogatory remarks, be they from other Jaegers or Shatterdome personnel, seemed to roll off him like water from a freshly greased piston. And insults towards his Rangers didn't send him into hysterics but earned a scathing insult or two right back. He had the confidence and bravado that Mustang himself seemed to lack, and he couldn't help but feel a little envious.
"Hey buddy."
Mustang squeaked at the unfamiliar voice in his Conn Pod… then realized it was Charlie and relaxed a little. "Yes?"
"You done daydreamin' there? 'Cause we got incoming. Category 2, headin' your way. Might wanna hold the miracle mile there."
"We got this, Charlie," Hydra assured him, knocking his knuckles together. "Mustang, pull aggro for us, a'right?"
"What does that even mean?"
"It's a gamer term," Jako explained over the comms. "Means you get its attention an' keep it distracted while we kill it. Think you can handle that?"
Mustang nodded. "Can do. I'll aggro."
"I think our Jaeger is just as capable of dealing a killing blow-" Hermann insisted.
The ocean a few hundred yards out erupted before Hermann could finish his thought. A hideous beast emerged from the water, opening a gigantic maw that revealed row after row of hooked teeth that extended clear down its throat. Bulging yellow eyes blinked idiotically in the bright sunlight, the eyelids seeming to move independent of one another, and its cadaverous torso with ribs jutting painfully through its gray hide looked completely at odds with its muscular clawed limbs.
"Jesus!" Newt gasped. "That's Wendigo! From that big attack on Hong Kong, the one where we first spotted Armada! He's beautiful!"
"You think THAT is beautiful?!" Hermann demanded. "That's a stretch even for you, Newton."
"Hey, shut up, maybe he likes anime eyes," Fiona shot back. "Hey Newtykins, I know you're a crazy kaiju dude and all, but we gotta kill it, okay?"
"I know, I know," Newt replied, though Mustang could see through his cockpit's internal cameras that the xenobiologist was tearing up at the prospect of another Kaiju to study up close. "Maybe this one'll be friendly, though. Like Raiju apparently was-"
Wendigo let out a scream like tearing metal and charged, proving Newt wrong. Mustang squealed but stepped forward, letting his titanium arm blades slide out as he prepared to "aggro" the monster.
"You got this, buddy, you got this, you got this," Newt chanted, flexing his arms in the control braces. "Go for the eyes, they're always a straight path to the brain!"
Mustang nodded, though part of him wondered at that. Wendigo's eyes were so huge that the Precursors might as well have painted a target over them. It seemed too easy, and he scrambled to remember how this creature had been defeated last time…
Then Wendigo was upon him, and there was no more time to think. He twisted to the side, the cavernous mouth slamming shut inches from his side, and slashed at its eye - a slicing movement, not a stab, a blinding maneuver rather than a killing one.
The effect was instant - and horrific. The eye burst, sending a spray of bright yellowish-green ichor geysering out at Mustang. Had Hydra dealt the blow he would have been showered in the noxious slime, and even Mustang's quick reflexes didn't prevent a scattering of drops from striking his armor. Within seconds the fluid began to smoke, sending needles of pain and damage alerts screaming through his systems.
Ouch! He raised his other hand to brush the droplets off.
"Don't do that, you'll smear it and make it worse!" Hermann shouted. "Just hold on-"
Wendigo lunged again, its tooth-encrusted mouth and throat looming large in Mustang's vision as it tried to swallow his entire Conn Pod. He felt the scrape of fangs against the reinforced glass, felt the creature's weight as he beat at it with his fists…
Then his Conn Pod vibrated unpleasantly as the beast screamed in pain and released him. Wendigo twisted around to snarl at Hydra, who had just fired an anti-Kaiju missile into the small of its back.
"Come at me, bro!" the white Jaeger growled, beating his chest like a cartoon gorilla. "Come at me! I'm gonna kick your ass so hard your mama'll feel it clear in the Anteverse!"
Wendigo screamed and charged the bulky mecha, dripping ichor into the water like a burning rain. Its head looked oddly lopsided now, one bulbous eye intact and the other collapsed in on itself like a deflated balloon. The loss of one eye didn't seem to hamper it at all - it was as if the creature didn't rely on sight…
Any further speculation was cut off by the blaze of pain from his burned armor. The fluid had eaten through his paint by now and was working on the metal beneath. And as if that weren't enough, the blade he'd used to slice its eye had warped and melted, ruining it.
It still burns, he whimpered.
"Try to rinse it off," Hermann advised. "Keep calm, dear-heart, the damage isn't too bad."
I thought my paint was acid-resistant, he protested, even as he bent down to splash water on his burns.
"It must be a corrosive alkaline," Newt realized. "Like lye or bleach! The extreme opposite of an acid!"
"Hold the chemistry lesson for after we're done here," Hermann advised.
"But this is so COOL!" Newt insisted. "It's gotta have some other sensory organs to compensate, though - or maybe those are actually poison sacs disguised as false eyes, and its real eyes are much smaller and elsewhere on its body-"
"Less science, more survivval!" Hermann ordered. "Fiona, Jako, avoid the eye if you can! It's a trap!"
"No shit, Admiral Ackbar," Fiona replied as Hydra drove a fist into Wendigo's chin, snapping its jaws shut. "You guys okay?"
"For the moment," Hermann replied. "We'll rejoin you as soon as we're sure the corrosives won't damage Mustang further."
"Do what you gotta do!" Fiona replied. "We got this under cont-"
Wendigo's other eye burst at that moment, despite the fact that Hydra hadn't even touched it. The Mark IV recoiled with a howled curse as neon yellow-green slime spattered his armor, scorching on contact.
"Hydra!" Mustang got to his feet and bolted forward… only for a powerful kick from Wendigo's hind legs to bowl him over. Panic flooded his systems as water closed over his Conn Pod, as a clawed foot slammed down on his chest to pin him, as alarms blared in his CPU…
"Get up, get up, get up!" Newt howled. "We gotta help Hydra! Throw him off and get up!"
I'm trying! Mustang retorted, slashing at the beast's ankle with his other arm blade. Bluish ichor clouded the water, but Wendigo didn't even seem to notice the wound.
"Goddamn punk-ass sonofabitch!" Fiona screamed. "Leggo my Jaeger!"
"This stuff burns!" Hydra growled. "The hell IS this bugger?! This never happened in th' sims!"
"Join the Jaeger corps, they said," Jako added, the tension in his voice at odds with the deadpan snark of his words. "Save the world, they said. They can't eat ya if yer in the mecha, they said…"
Mustang jammed his arm blade into the meat of Wendigo's calf, sawing at the muscles and tendons. If nothing else, perhaps he could cripple the Kaiju enough for Hydra to finish it off… or at least slow it down until backup arrived…
Wendigo let out a ululating howl that reverberated through the water, and the weight on Mustang's chest vanished. Relief swamped him as he pushed himself upright, emerging from the ocean and climbing to his feet. Had Hydra rallied and taken the monster down? Had Gipsy or Mammoth managed to make it in time?
His relief gave way to utter shock as he took in the writhing mass of flesh before him. No Jaeger had come to his rescue - it was another Kaiju. Bigger and far bulkier than Wendigo, with pulsing yellow markings scrawling across its hide like veins and a long jutting muzzle tapering to a sharp point, it raked at Wendigo, opening huge wounds in its hide with massive hooked talons. The smaller Kaiju shrieked and fought back, landing a bite that scored dozens of tiny wounds down the bigger beast's shoulder, but it was clearly outmatched.
"Oh dear gods, a double event," Hermann groaned. "Not now…"
"That's Knifehead!" Newt shrieked, squealing like a fanboy who'd just spotted his favorite character in a remake of a beloved show. "That's Knifehead, Category 3, defeated off the coast of Anchorage by Gipsy Danger!"
"Not NOW, Newton!"
The Kaiju-on-Kaiju battle ended quickly. Wendigo had already expended its best weapon against the Jaegers, and it was no match for Knifehead's superior strength. The larger monster gripped its foe's neck in its jaws, shoved it under the waves, and finished it off with a jab of its snout into its chest. Wendigo thrashed and flailed, staining the waters an electric blue, then went still.
Knifehead raised its head and shook like a dog, bright blue blood flying in droplets off the tip of its snout. Then it turned to regard Mustang and Hydra.
Hydra raised his arms, and his anti-Kaiju missiles armed with an ominous hum. Mustang, likewise, opened his chest panels, prepared to fire a salvo of his own. The missiles were usually saved as a last resort, as they were difficult and expensive to manufacture, but at the moment both Jaegers were damaged and shaken, and their Rangers exhausted. They wanted this fight over and done with already.
On three, 'Stang, Hydra told him. One… two…
The ocean boiled behind Knifehead, and more shapes began to rise from the water. Mustang shivered and stepped back as three more Kaiju emerged from the waves and took up position behind their comrade. Newt went into hysterics, rattling off statistics as if these were sports figures rather than monsters, and from his rambling Mustang was able to pick out names - Slattern, Otachi, and Onibaba, names that would live in infamy among the Jaegers.
Oh bugger, Hydra muttered. Dunno if I got enough missiles to take 'em all out.
Mustang whimpered and took a step closer to Hydra. Uncle Newt… Uncle Hermann… what do we do?
"The only thing we can do," Hermann replied softly. "Fight to the end. Protect Panama City as best we can until help arrives."
That wasn't what Mustang wanted to hear… but he steeled himself anyhow and raised his arms, one blade gleaming and the other a twisted, pitted mess. He didn't want to die today… but he would, if that's what it took.
Slattern strode forward, the other Kaiju stepping back to make way for it. Mustang armed his missiles, prepared to open fire… but something shoved its way into his thoughts before he could launch his payload.
Cub.
His firing systems locked up in surprise. Uncle Newt, was that you?
"You felt that too?" asked Newt. "I thought I was the only one… no, it wasn't me."
Slattern snorted. Cub. Where. Cub. It wasn't words that played out in his processor - it was more images and feelings, as if the speaker were trying to get around a language barrier. But the message was still clear - an image of the Kaiju cub, as well as a demand to know where said cub was located.
"It can't be," Hermann breathed. "It honestly can't be…"
"Can't be what?" asked Jako. "Y'all hearin' what we're hearin' here?"
"If you're hearing a Kaiju ask us where the baby is, then we're hearing it!" Newt replied, breathless with wonder. "This is incredible… this is incredible! They speak! They SPEAK!"
Mustang just stared, completely forgetting about his missiles. The Kaiju could speak… or at least THIS one could speak. Everything they thought they'd known about these monsters was disintegrating before his visual receptors.
"Welp," Fiona muttered. "Was nice while it lasted. Someone tell Doug to go let the baby out of its tank. And have Charlie call Hong Kong. Tendo probably needs to hear about this."