Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Pacific Rim or Overwatch. Pacific Rim is the property of Legendary Pictures while Overwatch is the property of Blizzard Entertainment.
Author's Note: This starts forty years after Uprising and a week after the events of "Shooting Star". A muse I had while working on chapter three of Ghost, and since no one has done it on this site before, I figured why not give it a try. Other notes at the end.
Chapter 1
Ranger's Quarters, Seattle Shatterdome, Seattle, USA
August 10th, 2073.
1700 Hours, Local Time
He can't believe it. He could not fucking believe it.
It's been exactly seventy years since K-Day.
Seventy years since Trespasser made land in San Francisco. It took six days, thirty-five miles, and three tactical warheads to finally take it down in Oakland. Tens of thousands died in the initial attack, more killed by the toxic blue blood phenomenon known as Kaiju Blue. Americans mourned their dead, the world memorialized the attack, and everyone eventually moved on.
They should've known better.
After Hundun attacked Manilla, then Kaiceph in Cabo, the world started to realize that this wasn't gonna stop on its own. It took Scissure leveling half of Sydney for the Jaeger Program to be conceptualized, and the rest was history. The PPDC, the twelve-year Kaiju War, the Drift, the Pons, two-pilot systems, the Mark-I glory days, the Mark-IV slump, the idiotic idea that was the so-called Anti-Kaiju Wall, and the decommissioning of the Jaeger Program. Everyone thought the war ended with the Battle of the Breach when Striker Eureka pilots Stacker Pentecost and Chuck Hansen sacrificed themselves so that Gipsy Danger could collapse the Breach.
For ten years, the world was Kaiju-free. That was until Newton Geiszler, possessed by Precursors through drifting with a Kaiju brain, used Shao Industries' new Jaeger Drones to open up the Breach again, and three of the giant bastards came back in Tokyo. It took two Mark-VI Jaegers: Gipsy Avenger and Guardian Bravo, along with experimental Mark-VII Saber Athena and the old Mark-V Bracer Phoenix to take them down before they can terraform the Earth via Mount Fuji. After that, the PPDC decided that it was time to go on the offensive and attack the Precursors in their own dimension instead of waiting around for them to make a move.
Forty years and an Omnic Crisis later and the only one who could figure out how to open a stabilized Breach from this side was still switching between possessed and insane, locked up in an entirely isolated wing of the ADX, his research destroyed by a security virus of his own creation. Within that same period of time, the PPDC bought back all of the Shatterdomes that were sold at the end of the original war, and, after its creation during the Crisis, Overwatch partnered up with them. For the first thirty years, Overwatch became an elite global defense force. Jaegers in shades of orange and blue were destroying Omnic bases near the coastline and in the frozen tundra of Russia, appearing in news footage and parades. After Overwatch collapse upon itself in a spectacular shitshow of bureaucracy and international scandals, the PPDC once again assumed the responsibility of global defense.
In the meantime, Secretary-General Lambert and Marshal Pentecost took it upon themselves to oversee the training of new pilots for the army of nearly a hundred Mark-VII Jaegers that were built in anticipation of Operation Jackknife, the battle that would see the full force of the PPDC march through to the Anteverse.
He is one of those pilots. His name is Markus Raleigh Becket, named after his two famous grandparents, Raleigh Becket and Mako Mori.
He was currently in his quarters at the Seattle Shatterdome, washing away the sweat of that day's job. One of the Titan-Class Gwishin Omnics that has been terrorizing East Asia, dubbed "The Monstrosity Jr" by local news stations, reemerged again, but this time tried its luck on the other side of the Rim instead, going straight for the West Coast powerhouse in Seattle. Nobody knew why. He didn't really care. His Jaeger had been deployed, a royal blue Mark-VII with dark red detailing.
Gipsy Challenger.
They thought the name would be a lucky talisman, seeing as both major Kaiju conflicts were ultimately ended by a Gipsy.
Gipsy Challenger is quite a powerhouse. X-411 Supermetal Body Work, strongest metallic substance on the planet, from head to toe. Double-core cold fusion hyperevolver turbine reactor, solid titanium with no alloys. Four rear jets, two on each side stacked on top of each other, a rearguard to protect the neck, and a ten-megawatt-per-floodlight lighting system.
The arms are RG-31 accelerator limbs with elbow rockets. An I-23 Plasmacaster and retractable GD11 Chain Sword with an ionized edge on each arm, right arm equipped with an S-11 dark matter pulse launcher for extreme cases of emergency. They had to sacrifice the gravity sling to shave off some weight. The legs are impressive too. T-21 "Flatfoot" sentry treads with O-Zone fission chambers for stability and speed respectively, all controlled by a detachable next-gen Conn-Pod more like the original Gipsy Danger design than the sharper Gipsy Avenger with a twenty-megawatt floodlight on the forehead.
Sixty-five engine blocks per muscle strand with four Hyper-Torque Drives for every limb, Oceanic cooling vents, Volskaya Industries V-71 shock absorbers, thirty kilotons of movement per Gyrostabilizer, and an ionic fluid synapse system. The Conn-Pod interior featured a more mechanical piloting setup with physical harnesses and magnetic boot clamps akin to its Mark-3 predecessor, as was preferred by both pilots, completed with shiny black Resistance-era Drive Suits. Primary systems and displays are state of the art: Shao Industries ZX-98 quantum processor, Biogen BLPK 5.1 liquid circuitry neural pathways, Huawei P-32 optic fiber communication system, Aperture Labs AI software and holographic projectors, … There is also an old analog backup system constantly on standby in case of an EMP strike.
Overall, this Gipsy was designed to be fast and durable, but could still pack one hell of a punch, evident by the way it only took him two punches to completely sever the Gwishin's command module from the rest of its body. He didn't even have to rip it off. Granted, he did use an elbow rocket, and Titan Omega, a matte-black giant tank of a Jaeger that was out on patrol at the time and made first contact, had already softened it up somewhat. Also, it wasn't the Monstrosity, the only Celestial-Class in existence officially called the Omnic Colossus, which makes the Titan-Class look like babies and would require a five-team drop at least, but his point still stands. Gipsy Challenger is a beast in every way, and everyone knows it. Hell, it was the face of the Corps. Granted, he hasn't faced a Kaiju yet, no one has in forty years, but there were still plenty of Titan-Class omnics that he'd killed, from the aforementioned "Monstrosity Jr" on the four-mile line to the warbots in the Russian tundra. He had thirteen notches on the belt so far, counting this latest one.
Stepping out of his private shower, since pilots are granted the privilege of small private bathrooms connected to their quarters, he quickly dried himself off and put on his casual uniform, consisting of a standard issued olive-colored t-shirt and dark green pants, a pair of black combat boots, along with his classic brown bomber jacket, Gipsy's name and logo emblazoned proudly on the back. The jacket was a little inappropriate for a military base, but it was a small tradition amongst Rangers when first assigned their Jaeger, and command mostly turns a blind eye. Slipping his dog tags on, Markus strode with confidence towards Marshal Namani's office, having been called through the individual comm system on his desk, enjoying the lustful glances by some of the younger female, and occasional male, staff along the way. Objectively speaking, he was definitely good-looking, with his smooth round face, his square yet slightly angular jaw and dark brown eyes, his jet-black hair betraying hints of dirty blonde in its shade and styled neatly into a tapered crew cut. The fact that he was 6'1 and fill out his Drive Suit completely didn't hurt either. Hell, one of his nicknames at base was Pretty Boy Becket, but no one except other pilots dared to use it, and no one was gonna forget the fact that he's younger than pretty much everyone on base, being only twenty-two, which made his thirteen kills all the more impressive.
When he swiped open the door to the Marshal's office with his security card, he saw that his copilot was already there, wearing the same clothes, jacket and all, standing to the side in a perfect posture, hands clasped behind her back, the picture of a proper soldier. He stood in the doorframe, declaring himself and saluting the Marshal. "Ranger Becket reporting ma'am", he said, just loud enough to hear throughout the room. Amara Namani, no longer the spunky, snarky, rebellious kid from the streets of Santa Monica who dropped Gipsy Avenger onto a Kaiju but instead a seasoned and hardened, but still humorous and light-hearted, veteran pilot, already had thick streaks of white starting to show in her brown hair despite being only 53. She was dressed in a freshly pressed Marshal's uniform, a platinum ring gleaming on her finger, the physical proof of her marriage to Marshal Viktoriya Malikova in Vladivostok. "At ease, Ranger Becket. Come on in", she said, glancing up from the piles of paperwork on her desk. He dropped the salute and walked inside, listening to the door sliding shut behind him with a soft hiss. His copilot, Lizzie, stood next to him, coming up to his ear at 5'8, a southpaw pilot to complement him being a conventional northpaw.
"First of all, good job with the Gwishin today, both of you. Pretty impressive fight, quick and clean. I like it. Now. let's get straight to the point. You're being transferred. Another branch requested Gipsy Challenger as an addition to their team on a temporary basis. Clear out your quarters, transport leaves at 0600 tomorrow. Understood? Dismissed", Marshal Namani said while pulling out two vanilla folders and handing one to each of them. He took the folder, confused. Personnel transfer requests were common among different Shatterdomes, and even with other agencies, but an entire Jaeger? That was rare. Not unheard of, but Shatterdomes nowadays have dozens of Jaegers in their hangars, so a Jaeger transfer was extremely uncommon. The last Jaeger that was destroyed, as least to his knowledge, was Griffon Medusa in Vladivostok four years ago, so why the hell would they need to be transferred to a different branch? Opening the folder, he immediately understood. Glancing over to Lizzie, it was clear that she understood too. They were to be transported to the Seoul Shatterdome, as per protocol with customs, before being transferred to the newly constructed Busan Shatterdome, connected to the Coastal Base of the Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army in Busan.
PPDC has partnered up with MEKA. And they plan to use Gipsy's appearance in Busan as their announcement.
Bay A-1, Rapid Deployment Hangar, MEKA Coastal Base, Busan, South Korea
August 11th, 2073.
2325 Hours, Local Time
Hana Song didn't know what to feel as she work on building her bright pink mech, one that she nicknamed Tokki. Hell, she wasn't even sure what was going on. Last year, just after a particularly vicious attack from the Gwishin Omnics, mechanics and construction workers have been building a giant hangar out of the backside of the base, which was finished last month. What it was for, she didn't know, and no one she'd asked knew any more than she did, except Captain Myung, who said that it was classified until further notice. The first significant clue only came two weeks ago as they rounded up the entire MEKA squad for extensive testing. The physical was mostly brushed off as a fitness test to make sure that they were all in adequate shape, but it was the second test that really started the rumors. They tested all mech pilots for Drift compatibility and receptiveness to Pons. After that, everyone's got a theory on what's happening. A prevalent theory was that some of them are about to get offers from the PPDC Pilot Academy in Hong Kong. Another that makes more sense was that they are integrating Jaegers into MEKA as an additional line of defense, which would explain the hangar.
She barely got time to think about it that day before the Proximity Alert went off and her entire squad was deployed. It was one of the scarier battles of her career. By the time Echo Brawler arrived on site from Seoul, she was dragging her teammate , real name Yuna Lee and her second-best friend after Dae-Hyun, out of the wreckage, watching her bleed heavily in multiple places yet still able to drag Overlord out of his mech. She ended up leaving them with the medical team and jumped right back into the fight to provide extra firepower, but fear for her teammates' survival and safety gnawed at her heart the entire half hour in the air. When she told Dae-Hyun that they barely won, she meant that they barely survived long enough for backup to arrive. The Gwishin were adapting, getting stronger, just like the Kaijus of the old war. Almost immediately after that conversation, five smaller Stinger-Class Gwishins opened fire on the base. She barely got them all. Medical just removed her casts two days ago, and she wouldn't be cleared for active duty for another week, even though she could now move all her limbs normally. So, she spent her time assembling a new mech to replace the one she blew up while Solar Hyperion and Nova Atlas from Seoul took up periodic perimeter patrol in the Korea Strait, although they wouldn't be too effective against anything smaller than an Alpha-Class.
Earlier today, Captain Myung sent an announcement to the MEKA squad and relevant staff, saying that they would be receiving new personnel and heavy equipment within twenty-four hours, and everyone's either excited or apprehensive about it. Rumors were that the new personnel are Jaeger pilots, further enforced by the fact that the spare rooms in the MEKA squad's wing are being cleaned up and refurbished, which got her teammates in a gushing frenzy from wherever they're enjoying their leave from. They've all looked up to Jaeger pilots during their childhood, and the possibility of not only meeting but working with one was driving them crazy. On the other hand, Hana and Yuna weren't that excited about it. As the more connected members, they've heard about the common personality traits of most PPDC Rangers, especially the American ones. Cocky, vain, fighting for self-glory and bragging rights more than any sense of duty or patriotism. As the senior pilots, she and Yuna had been on a few joint ops with PPDC in the past, when the Gwishin proved too much for a MEKA who had just started employing new and inexperienced live pilots and needed Jaegers as a safeguard. Speaking of, Yuna and the rest are due back at base by tomorrow, and they couldn't come back soon enough. Dae-Hyun makes great company, but the base still feels empty without the rest of her squad, despite dozens of people present on site.
After securing the last titanium barrel back into her right Fusion Cannon and checking that the joystick works exactly how she wants it to, she closed up the bay and head for her quarters. "Please let those rumors be false. I really don't want to have to endure a pair of cocky Rangers strutting around base", she silently prayed, not to any particular deity, she wasn't religious, but the same type of quick prayer that she would say in her head just before every deployment. There was enough stress in her life, she did not need to deal with some foreign jockey's oversized ego. With that thought, she slips into her room, only to walk back out a minute later with a set of pajamas and toiletries bag in her arms, a pink towel slung across her shoulder, making her way to the bathroom at the end of the hall. It was a co-ed bath since they apparently wanted to save space and resources, so she doesn't shower more than once a day unless she needed to. Granted, there are stalls for each showerhead, but she still likes to shower either early on in the morning or late at night, when the room is empty.
She brushed her teeth first, cleaning off all the remnants of Doritos and Nano-Cola stuck on them until they were almost shining. Then she went into one of the stalls, peel off her hoodie and the tight pink battle suit underneath before letting hot jets of water flow through her hair, washing away the sweat and grime from her slender frame, relaxing fully for the first time that day and letting her mind go blank. She scrubbed away at herself, enjoying the hot shower for a full fifteen minutes before shutting off the water and drying herself off, putting on a pair of blue boy shorts with pink trims and a pink t-shirt, her bunny logo printed on both articles of clothing. She turned off the bathroom light and head back to her room, her body begging to touch the softness of her bed. Hana threw the bag onto her desk, flung the towel into a hamper in the corner, and collapse face-first onto the mattress, burying her face into the pillow before rolling onto her back and closing her eyes, letting the day's exhaustion take over.
Ranger's Quarters, Seoul Shatterdome, Seoul, South Korea
August 12th, 2073.
0300 Hours, Local Time
Markus was wide awake, which makes sense considering it's around noon in Seattle. But still, he expected himself to be more tired after half an hour of processing transfer paperwork right on the heels of a five-hour flight across the Pacific in a military cargo plane, which weren't the most comfortable to begin with. He tossed and turned in bed, trying to force himself to sleep and adapt to the new time zone. Lizzie was sleeping soundly in the room to his right, snoring away. Restless and resigning to the fact that he won't be sleeping tonight, Markus changed into his workout gear, black shorts and a green muscle shirt, and head for the gym. Might as well be productive.
A full hour run on the treadmill, followed by bench-pressing two hundred pounds, five sets of ten. Another half-hour on the treadmill at a decently fast jogging pace to relax somewhat, then he wrapped his hands up, walked over to the Kwoon Combat Room next door, and started alternating between quick jabs, crosses, and heavy body shots into a punching bag by the wall, electing to ignore the Wing Chun dummy in the corner for something simpler. Gipsy wasn't scheduled to arrive until 0700 hours, she was still being prepped for transport when he left and would arrive with a J-Tech team. They would then drop her at the Miracle Mile out of Samchok before he and Lizzie walk her down the coastline to Busan. The PPDC wanted a show to announce this partnership and having their poster Jaeger walk by civilian beaches would do just that.
After completing eight different combos on the bag that would've incapacitate another human being, he stepped back and took a breather. He still wasn't sleepy. God, he envied Lizzie sometimes. That woman could sleep through almost anything.
He glanced at the digital clock on the wall. 5:25 am. Welp, it didn't matter if he wasn't sleepy, he only has five minutes before the entire dome starts their day. Time to wake his copilot up. Markus knew she had a bad habit of leaving the door unlocked back in Seattle and was hoping that she would carry that habit over to this new base in case he couldn't wake her up from outside the room. Setting out a change of clothes, white t-shirt, a pair of black jeans, and a blue Ranger's uniform jacket, for later, he headed over to Lizzie's door and tried the physical handle, neglecting the control pad next to it while slowly applying pressure to the door with his shoulder. Sure enough, the handle responded with a click, and the door slowly slid open as he glanced inside.
Still asleep, still snoring with half a leg dangling off the bed. "Liz, wake up", he called, knocking on the door for extra noise. No response. He stepped inside fully and tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "Lizzie, wake up". Still nothing. He shook her shoulders to try and pull her into consciousness, but even that didn't work. She must've been exhausted to completely ignore the biological schedule ingrained into them from the academy. A few more aggressive methods that proved to be ineffective later and he was just about ready to slap her across the face if that meant waking her up.
So that was what he did. A firm slap across her left cheek, making sure to pull back his strength as to not truly hurt her, just enough to make sure that she wakes up. That got her jolting upwards into a sitting position on the bed. "Ow, Markus, what the fuck!?", she yelled at him, hands clutching her reddening face.
"Elizabeth Yancy Becket, you better get your ass out of bed right now before I drag you out myself. It's 5:32 for Christ's sake". He said with a sarcastically reprimanding tone, imitating their father. All he got was a glare as his twin sister continues to nurse her cheek with one hand. "Oh, please. I didn't slap you that hard", he said with a teasing smirk while stepping backward out of her room. "Fuck you", she muttered, flipping him off while rifling through her luggage, no doubt looking for something to wear. He decided to leave her be for the time being, no doubt she would try to get back at him before breakfast. Speaking of, he was starving.
But first, morning sparring, AKA The Tournament.
Kwoon Combat Room, Seoul Shatterdome, Seoul, South Korea
August 12th, 2073.
0652 Hours, Local Time
The Tournament is the nickname that Rangers gave the mandatory sparring session before breakfast, lasting anywhere from forty to ninety minutes with every physically capable Ranger present at base take turns engaging in hand-to-hand combat in a point-based match. This session was meant to help keep Rangers in fighting form while also identify new Drift compatible pairs if any, and eventually pilots turned it into an actual tournament. He was currently prowling around the edge of the mat opposite Wi Dong-Min, Echo Brawler's left hemisphere. Five tap-outs mark a win and the score's four-three in his favor. He just needs an opening. Wait. Not yet. Wait. Now.
He bounced off his right foot and launched himself into striking distance of Dong-Min, firing off a quick right jab. Dong-Min quickly responded with an elbow block and a right cross of his own. Markus sidestepped out of the way, grabbed his wrist, and fired an elbow shot to the exposed temple. The shot landed true and forced the Korean man to stagger back, disoriented. Not wasting a second, he closed the space, wrapped his left arm around the other pilot's upper arm from behind, his right arm around his neck, and squeezed. Dong-Min struggled, landing elbow shots into Markus's exposed side, which hurt like hell, but still, the Asian-American pilot refuses to relinquish his chokehold. After the elbow didn't work, Dong-Min tried to pry his arm off then attempted to throw him off balance, but Markus was 187 pounds of pure muscles, so that was futile. Eventually, after a full minute of struggling, Markus felt two light taps on his arm and released the Echo Brawler pilot. That ended quicker than he expected. They shook hands and he stretched his muscles out, carefully preparing himself for his next fight. Lizzie has always been a tough opponent to beat.
"Gipsy Challenger report to Bay 08, Level A-52. Gipsy Challenger report to Bay 08, Level A-52", came the announcement from the intercom system. Well then, it seems like they'll have to postpone that match for later. He got back to his room, took a quick shower, and put his clothes on, opting to not wear the jacket. They're changing into Drive Suits anyway. He packed up the limited stuff not already inside his bag, made his bed to military precision, and leave for the Drive Suit Room, a piece of toast in his mouth. Lizzie appeared on his left a few seconds later and they automatically match strides. Their personal Drive Suits were donned, spinal clamps were secured, Relay Gel was dispersed, and they attached themselves to their respective harness, going through the regular system checks with over four years of muscle memory.
"LOCCENT, this is Gipsy Challenger. All systems online and ready for the drop", Lizzie spoke through the comms.
"Gipsy, this is Command. Conn-Pod door lock secured. Release for drop"
Both of them felt the familiar tugging in their stomachs as they drop into the rest of Gipsy. Even though this wasn't a battle deployment, they still didn't waste any time, and the drop was as fast as ever. Another jolt told them that they were connected.
"Coupling confirmed. Marshal Gwan on deck, engaging pilot-to-pilot protocol"
Initiating pilot-to-pilot connection protocol sequence, came the deep voice of their operating AI.
They went through the usual protocol and, as usual, everything checked out. During that time, they were already being wheeled out through the hangar doors. It was pretty sunny outside, minimum overcast, perfect weather for a stroll along the coastline. "Gipsy Challenger, ready and aligned, sir", Markus reported.
"Rangers, this is Marshal Gwan Byung-Ho. Prepare for neural handshake"
They kept themselves completely silent throughout the fifteen-second countdown. Markus slowed his breathing and calmed himself, while Lizzie followed the countdown in her head. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…
Neural handshake initiated
Because they were twins, childhood memories weren't all that different, if at all. Things only started to truly split during the teenage years. They went to different social circles, him a scrappy teenager who constantly got into fights and her a chess prodigy, dated around, and generally were pretty different people throughout high school. But there were still shared memories that keep them connected. Fights, teasing, and friendly insults were prevalent, as could be expected from a couple of teenagers sharing the same home. But there were also memories of being a comforting presence when the other is heartbroken, having sincere heart-to-hearts, coming out, and walking side-by-side into Moyulan for the first time. All those memories were dominant in the Drift they share, deepening and strengthening their bond. The twins snapped back into reality, now fully connected not only to each other but also to Gipsy. Textile sensitivity helped them feel the solid ground beneath their giant feet, and they felt the Relay Gel merging their neural pathways into the circuitry of Gipsy's control module.
"Left hemisphere's calibrating", Lizzie called out. "Right hemisphere's calibrating", Markus followed up. Proofed and transmitting, the AI called out. They raised their arms and made an X over their chest, an extra proofing check for good measure. They felt the light brushes of metal cables being hooked to their shoulders, and then they were off, flying at 2000ft off street level across Seoul.
It took them an hour to reach Samchok, then they began the walk to Busan.
A/N: So, what do you guys think? Good? Bad? Pacific Rim was probably one of my favorite movies, if not the favorite of all time. I was rewatching the Overwatch shorts to refresh my memory on lore, just happened to rewatch 'Shooting Star' right after finishing Pacific Rim for the 10th time and felt like 'Shooting Star' was basically Pacific Rim with bunny mechs. Pretty sure there's an article out there titled that. Anyway, I thought these two would go well together.
Also, Uprising is a disappointing butchered mess of a sequel, and the only reason I'm using it is because it gives me some extra worldbuilding material to use while not interfering with the Overwatch lore or my storyline. The Black would be too complicated to match with Overwatch, so I left it out. Haven't finished it anyway.
One last thing and this is IMPORTANT. I am taking an extended break from writing. My report card came back, and I need to prioritize my academia. I hope you guys can understand. I'll be back on all three (holy shit) stories once my grades are better.
As always, press Favorite if you like this fic, follow if you want to see more, also feel free to leave a review down below, they really mean a lot to me.
Until then, this is Krypto, signing out.