Updated - 28~08~2019

Kaonian Elite

Cybertron, Pan Pacific, 4th Althian 3217, Iacon

Almost two months had passed since the last attack. The Hangar War Clock marked 134 : 16 : 45 : 07. That meant we still had four months and some weeks. The Polyhex Shatterdome had given us three more extra Jaegers just three weeks ago, two new Mark II and Coyote Tango, a Mark I. The last one required a huge amount of repairs, it was all scraped. There were also new pilots around, but Romeo Blue continued without them.

We now possessed seven Jaegers, but could have been eight, if it hadn't been for Diablo Intercept demise. Shockwave and I were now in charge of almost all of them. Since Cherno Alpha didn't need more updates, we decided to leave it just for the maintenance group. Tacit Ronin had had its test session few days ago, the results were promising, so it soon joined the Kaonian titan. Romeo Blue had also been repaired, repainted and buffered, it was now more beautiful than ever, but remained in the hangar without moving, like a giant statue. Coyote Tango, Polyhexian robot, was the one undergoing the biggest part of reconstruction as we reprogrammed the central computer. It was taking all our attention now.

The Mark II, on the contrary, they needn't have to undergo so many test nor improvements, so we just verified the machinery was working well and the connections where right. At least two of them, Eden Assassin, a Kaonian Jaeger, and Puma Real, a Paxian titan, had already had their respective pilots assigned, so we needn't look for them. The newest Mark II, Solar Prophet, only had the Conn-Pod left, but after few intense weeks, it finally found its pilots.

I always had the feeling the Mark II lacked something that their predecessors had. Since the first Jaegers were so radioactive, due to the fuelling energon we used, the engineers who designed the next models tried another type of source. It was a more refined energon, but without the radioactive components. In theory it would be the best source, but in practice, the lacking components made the power lasting shorter, f.e., a Mark I would last for two to five hours, but the newest ones, only lasted for maximum three hours. So, what to do, endanger pilots by placing them on a nuclear energon reactor? Or creating a lot of short lasting robots, and taking the risk of power down during battle?

For the moment, the Pan Pacific didn't release more Mark II, so there was a stop in the production. Now our work would be to improve the efficiency of the any Mark existent Jaegers, and that's what we did. Our attention was focussed on Solar and on Coyote, but then, 4th Althian 3217, Romeo joined them.

I remembered that day, Alpha called me to the command station. When I entered in, I found a pair of identical mech, except for their paint jobs, chatting with him. I approached them. "This is Knockout, the mech who has updated your Jaeger." Alpha presented me. "Knockout, this are Dreadwing..." He signalled a blue and yellow mech, "... And Skyquake..." A green and grey mech, "... The new pilots of Romeo Blue."

"It's a honour for us to control the first Jaeger ever." Dreadwing stated.

"You're twins!" I exclaimed surprised. "That's clever, really clever. Two souls two minds, one spark one machine. This connection will be more complete than any other. It's perfect! This makes them perfect for it." I shook their servos. "Well, right now we were with Coyote Tango, but we can take a break, verify the neural connection and we can do a simulation."

"It would be wise to have Romeo Blue ready at anytime." Alpha stated. "By the way, could you lead them to their respective room once you're done?" He asked me.

"Sure, you're talking about the 214 room..." I assured before making a mistake. "... The one which has Romeo Blue's logo on the door, right?" Alpha just nodded in confirmation. "Ok then. If you're so kind, follow me."

I guided them to the simulation room, mean while I informed about the last happenings around there and a bit of myself too, just to get to know with the new comers. "So well, I'm Knockout, but everyone around here calls me The Kiddo, because of my age, you know." They looked at each other, and then they looked down to me again. Not talkative ones. I decided that the best thing would be to tell the planning. "Right now we will see if you're compatible without a connection, and then you will get into each other's mind."

"Good." The youngest one answered.

"Well, mid time, which one of you is more talkative? Or describes things better?" They looked at me still expressionless, quite confused I think. "It's to determine who will be the pilot and who the copilot. In theory, the mech who describes any action, object or even a feeling, is the one who directs better the orders in a Jaeger, aka, the controller of the right hemisphere." I explained. "On the other hand, the mech whose imagination is able to reconstruct the action described and respects the authority of the right hemisphere is the copilot. In general, age also helps to determine how the positions will be stabilised. That's up to you."

"I've been in the Elite guard of Kaon, in high ranks to be exact." The blue one spoke firmly. "I know how to command."

"I'm here to follow orders." The youngest one stated. "It's a honour to be command under my brother, whose cause I share."

I nodded in acceptance, those mech were the living image of the Decepticon thinking way. Even though that, I had the feeling these two guys weren't so rude as other high ranked Kaonians I used to know. We're entering now the training room. "Ok then. Dreadwing, since you will be the pilot, you will take the place number one. Skyquake, you'll take place number two."

I helped them into the simulation chamber, similar to a Conn-Pod. Then I adjusted them to it, in their respective places. Once they were ready, I explained the rules. "Now, you will act like if you were in a real Jaeger, but without a connection. Since you're twins, it will be easier for you two to coordinate yourselves. The idea is to defeat a Terrorcon and save the city in a time of two hours maximum." I had a look at the two of them. They did had a good frame, capable of standing a long fight. "I warn you. It's not easy, and the difficulty will increase during battle time, simulating the lost of pieces, real movement of the Conn-Pod, and of course, your own fatigue. Any question?" Non of them said nothing. "Remember, coordination and cooperation."

I jumped out of the platform. I programmed the machine, and I prepared the situation. "Now here is your situation. You're in Pan Pacific, and you have received the alarm of a Terrorcon emerging from the breach. It's a Cat. II, code name is Raythe and it's heading Kaon. Neural handshake already stabilised. Your prove starts now."

"Here Romeo Blue, ready to leave, we ask for permission." Dreadwing responded. Most of the beginners forgot about talking to the command station. But they didn't. Good point.

"Romeo Blue, green light." I replied.

Both mechs started moving the machinery while they ran towards the monster showed in the screen in front of them. Their coordination was good, and since they shared a spark, they needn't to talk to each other at all to control de Jaeger. Soon they reached their objective, and no later the battle started. I had decided to use the last real battle in order to keep them updated, I just changed the city, but the battle was the same.

They seemed they had studied their new robot's function since they knew what functional weapons they had. That was good. It was impressive to see them move like one entity. Only twins and sparkmates could use their bond to coordinate so well, but it was difficult to find someone ready to pilot a Jaeger, and even more when that meant to put the cybertronian you most loved into danger.

It took them and hour and three quarters to take the Terrorcon down, not a bad time. Exhaustion was barely present on them, I really started to think that they were machines more than mechs. I helped them down and I wrote few comments on the data pad I was using. "Ok, now I will test your neural handshake." I led them to a pair of berths and I asked them to lay down. I connected few cables to a helmet I gave each other. "Now, relax, and don't think about anything. Your memories will come into the other's mind, just let them flow. It's just another way of communication." I switched on the machine, and soon both mech were experimenting for the very first time entering into their brother's CPU. "Ok, the connection is strong and stable. I want you to move your left arm." Both of them did it simultaneously, that was good. "Now I will show you different images and I want the other one to describe it at loud."

I showed them the pictures, and they answered perfectly fine, they were compatible. Just to make sure everything was correct, I asked then one last task, which consisted to describe feelings or emotional states. It would supposed a challenge for them, after all, Kaonians never allowed themselves to really show any emotion except for vanity, anger and rage.

"One las question." I vented deeply and then I approached to Skyquake. "How does Dreadwing feel? What is it to be into his helm?"

They looked at me confused, trying to determinate the purpose of the issue, but after few minutes the youngest one answered. "My brother... Feels... Calm, secure." He pronounced softly. "It's like a serenity we have share for long, but never felt so close." He added by placing a servo on his chest, directly over his Spark chamber. I looked at Dreadwing, whose vocaliser never made a sound and yet his action had spoken for himself, as he mimicked his brother's gesture. I turned once again towards the youngest one and I locked gaze with him, trying to read deeper.

It took me a minute to react at that. I've never seen Decepticons saying they felt good nor they needed someone close to sense it. I was... Amazed. For some years, I was meant to be rose that way, without feelings at all, and I've gotta say they almost achieved it, but something on me made me fight against it, and now I'm glad I did. If not, I would have ended up enclosing who I really am in the very core of my own being, without letting no one to reach me, always cold and aware of any of my reactions. I finally came back from my thoughts.

"End of the test." I disconnected them. "Now I'll show your room."

"When are we gonna see our Jaeger?" Dreadwing asked.

"Wanna see it now?" I offered. "That way I can introduce you people around here and show you the base. Follow me."

We walked around, giving them details about their Iaconian titan and its new updates. We came across Soundwave in his way to Loccent and we greeted him. "That's Soundwave, our CCO. He controls all Terrorcon activity and keeps communication stable." I introduced almost everyone I knew in there. Soon we arrived to the hangar one, were Romeo Blue was. We were at the titan's pedes.

I was about to say something when a voice behind me greeted. "Hey kiddo, showing new visitors around?"

"Skywarp! What's up my mech?" I greeted back. "I'm showing Romeo Blue to their new pilots." I signalled the twins. "By the way, these are Dreadwing and Skyquake." I turned to look at them. "He's Skywarp Steam. He pilots Cherno Alpha along his brother Soundstricker." I clarified. "I would love to hang around, but not all of us have free time. We will talk later, if you don't mind."

"I see you're busy. I won't disturb you now." The Steam brother wave a good bye. "See you later, Kiddo."

"Shall we have a look at the Conn-Pod?" I suggested. They simply nodded.

We climbed up the catwalk, until we were levelled with the robot's head. I think I was more enthusiastic than them, it was the third time I was inside there, but anyway, I was looking forward to it. I explained them few things as they examined the machinery meticulously, and after long time I finally led them to their quarters.

"This is your room. If you take that corridor you will head the hangars and the preparation room, if you take the opposite one, you will head the canteen and the training room. If you need anything, you'll find people around glad to help you." I paused looking at the clock in my arm. "K, Shockwave will let you know when are we going to test Romeo. See you later, and of course, welcome to Pan Pacific."

I returned to my own room, where I started analysing the data collected that day. All in all, the results said that their compatibility was about the 94%, higher than any other actual pilot we had. I had a feeling deep inside my chest, into the very core of my spark. I envied them, they were so close... And they did have each other.

Anyway, there was another feeling all over my frame: Tiredness. I would have sworn that morning I made more exercise than all the pilots together in a training session. A nap wouldn't make any harm, right?

—

Some knocking on my door woke me up. I opened it and I found Ratchet standing outside. "Are you ok? Did somethings happen to you?" He asked me worried, examining me. "You weren't at lunchtime, where were you?"

"Oh! I was in my room. I felt so tired that I closed my optics for a moment." I explained still trying to start up all my systems. "So I did lose lunchtime, didn't I?"

He nodded. "I brought a cube." He offered it to me. I drank it almost immediately, after all, I was hungry and I needed to refuel. "Have you been recharging well?"

"Yes... It's just that I have been all the morning going up and down the base. You know, showing the twins Pan Pacific."

"Well, if you haven't spent enough time with them, you're testing Romeo in ten minutes." He laughed. "Want me to tell Shockwave you're resting or are you coming?" He snuggled me lightly, making sure I was right. In response I rested my helm on his shoulder guard, processing his offer without really thinking about it. He shook me lightly "Hey, Knockout...?

I finally onlined and I managed to understand what was going on. "Miss Romeo Blue test!? No way I'm losing it!" I replayed enthusiastically, raising my helm and grabbing my mentor by the arms, firmly. "It's the opportunity of my life! I have always dream about been inside that Jaeger and... Piloting it. But since that seems to be impossible now, not gonna miss the ride."

"Then Knockout, go for it." Ratchet pushed me carefully, encouraging me. I took my data pad and I ran down the hall. I heard Ratchet shouting at me from behind. "When you're back I want details about it!"

"K! I'll tell you blow by blow!" I shouted back with my thumb up, turning round the corner.