November 9th 2014, Sydney, Australia
The call from the Pan Pacific Defense Corps came unexpected for many, but not for Kylie. However, it sounded even more urgent than Roberton had made it sound like last Monday. They had called in everybody: military personnel, civilians, even the media. And now she was here, at Glenbrook Base, inside the largest hangar with what seemed at least 3000 people, all perched together like chickens. She had never seen so many people crowded together in one place, yet she was lucky to have found a seat – on one of the makeshift tables that held coffee and cookies.
Stepping through the guarded gates at Glenbrook, she had to suppress an almost hysterical chuckle when she caught herself actually looking for the Kiowa Bell when she entered the premises of the military base. Following the mass of people that had responded the call had her passing by Hangar 29 and to her surprise, the chopper was still there – only now it was heavily guarded by two men with automatic assault rifles unlike last time she had seen it. Her doing, she thought, but it had helped save a life.
The Pan-Pacific Defense Corps was an organization that had been created by the United Nations only weeks ago, something that they had made very public over advertisements and the TV. The PPDC represented an international alliance of twenty-one countries across the Pacific Rim, which were all in this together with the common goal of containing, combating and eliminating the Kaiju. The need for teamwork was more than obvious and apparently, they also needed the manpower. The Kaiju were a real and ongoing threat and that threat needed to be dealt with accordingly, especially after the latest findings.
She had to suppress an almost hysterical chuckle when she suddenly remembered that she actually was on the lookout for the Kiowa Bell when she entered the premises of the military base. Following the mass of people that had responded the call had her passing by Hangar 29 and to her surprise, the chopper was there – still there? - only now it was heavily guarded by two men with automatic assault rifles unlike last time she had seen it. Her doing, she thought, but it had helped save a life - one life out of three, she thought bitterly.
Kylie caught herself scanning the room for the familiar face of Hansen but seemed out of luck. She couldn't see him anywhere, however, there were too many people she had never seen before in her life and all had their eyes tied to the small makeshift stage, listening to the Minister for Defense Marise Payne and the Chief of the Defense Force Mark Binskin while they talked about how the Australian Defense Force was technologically sophisticated but relatively small in numbers, making it smaller than most Asian military forces despite being the largest military in Oceania. The ADF however was supported by a significant budget by worldwide standards and was now actively investing in something they called the Jaeger Program.
Following that last – until now – Kaiju attack on Sydney, a United Nations conference had been called in Seoul, South Korea, on September 15. Apparently, the grievous attacks of alien monsters were the main reason for the United Nations to set aside their differences and work together. And so, the Pan Pacific Defense Corps was founded. During the conference, the Drs. Jasper Schoenfeld and Caitlin Lightcap presented their idea for tactical retaliation and defense.
Jaegers, gigantic robots loaded with high tech weaponry, neurally linked to humans.
In the short amount of time since the first Kaiju attack, the two scientists in charge had done a lot of work and research and had come up with a system to fight them by creating a neural link between the human pilots and a huge machine. The funny thing was that Dr. Schoenfeld apparently had come up with the idea to build the Jaegers watching his young son play Monsters vs. Robots during the first attack on San Francisco and his wife Dr. Lightcap had already been working on the neural network for quite a while as a top secret military program.
On cue, a broad-shouldered black man took the makeshift stage. He barely needed the microphone, his deep, resonating baritone echoed through the hall with ease. He introduced himself as PPDC Ranger Stacker Pentecost, a former British Royal Airforce pilot. He had just come back from Germany where he was overseeing the further development for Dr. Lightcap's neural bridge controls and Pons interface to finalize and perfect the Jaeger equipment.
There was an air of almost touchable desperation in the air, mostly because apparently, another attack seemed imminent - why else would they call for such a big meeting and present ideas of big-ass robots to defend the coastlines? Roberton had mentioned that every big Pan Pacific country would be holding such a meeting in the near future. All of Australia's Royal Airforce, Army and Navy personnel had been called in and Kylie got the feeling that this came close to some sort of open recruiting session.
Behind Pentecost, a huge screen began to display images of bits and pieces of those huge machines and his trying out the interface to move the machines.
She saw some of her colleagues, wide-eyed and all ears, and some of the higher ranking officers with serious doubt displayed quite openly on their faces. Kylie listened unenthusiastically. There was a lot of tech talk that she didn't care to understand, and talk about some people that she didn't care to know. Her attention was on the man on the stage.
"Alien life in the form of monsters we call Kaiju, are entering our world from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean through a fissure at the deepest point of the Tonga Kermadec Ridge, about 2500 km off of New Zealand. There, apparently, the Earth's core is most unstable so as to have favored that breach but that's about as much as we know. This fissure is acting as a portal between dimensions. We are monitoring it. The Emergency Alert System has been updated and is now working at a 100% for all Pan Pacific cities. We are registering and analyzing every movement from within."
Pentecost paused for a moment and looked around. "The Jaeger Program begins today, people! The first Jaeger prototype, designation Brawler Yukon, is being built as we speak and we are on standby for 5 more. Just this morning, I personally ran the first test drive with the neural Pons system. The Pan Pacific countries have issued funding for the construction of a total of 30 Jaegers until 2019."
He paused for a moment, probably being aware of everybody's eyes growing bigger and bigger with incomprehension. "The Jaegers…" he went on, "are a special type of giant mobile humanoid weapon which will stand up to the Kaiju without having to resort to nuclear weapons. So far, nuclear bombs have proven to be the only effective measure against them, but we all know the consequences. The Jaegers will be the most effective first and last line of defense against the Kaiju in this war they have brought upon us."
Nice, Kylie thought. They were building monsters of their own to fight the monsters that had come to destroy our planet. Well, it kind of sounded like a plan - since nobody else had come up with any other idea so far, apart from bombing the Kaiju and the people of the attacked cities into oblivion.
"As an alternative to nuclear weaponry, which was the last and only resource that proved useful, the Jaegers are designed to generate as much kinetic energy as tactical ordnance. They are built to match the estimated scale of Kaiju, and minimize the damage created by conventional weapons. Given the toxic nature of the Kaiju, Jaegers will be required to rely on hand-to-hand combat and close-quarters weapons such as swords or other blade-type weapons. Heat-based weapons such as plasma casters will minimize the spread of Kaiju Blue, as they can wound and cauterize the creatures at the same time. In order to prevent damage to major cities, the idea is to deploy Jaegers into the neighboring harbors or oceans of cities that hug the coastlines of the Pacific Rim. A Jaeger's priority is to prevent the Kaiju from crossing the Miracle Mile, the last-ditch perimeter within a few miles offshore."
Pentecost's voice boomed through the room. "We are also already well into the process of building military bases called Shatterdomes, spread strategically across the Pan Pacific coastline. The first one to be finished within the next three weeks" – record time, Kylie thought – "is Hong Kong, Other future bases are Lima, Anchorage, Vladivostok, Tokyo, Nagasaki, Sydney, Los Angeles and Panama City." Pentecost continued to explain.
People began to talk among themselves. The idea of having one of those facilities close by seemed to instill a bit of hope in the soldiers.
"When will the Sydney base be operational?" came several shouts from the audience.
Pentecost raised his hands to shush them, but there was a slight smile playing across his face. "Soon, very soon indeed."
Kylie looked at him with a frown. That answer didn't carry any valuable degree of satisfaction, yet the masses seemed content. Pentecost really had stage presence, but she felt that there was something underneath that she couldn't just put her finger on - he must have lost someone dear as well. He however didn't let any upcoming emotions - if there were any, Kylie wasn't too sure - get to him as he now continued.
"There is hope! We will not let them win! But we need you to do your part. The Jaeger program is launched today. In less than a month, the training grounds on Kodiak Island will be opened and I truly hope to see many of you there. This is not some ancient Japanese legend, the threat is all too real. We are all in this together and we all can carry our share of the load to defeat these monsters, whether we are in it for revenge or for duty to our countries."
The crowd broke into a cheer and Kylie felt a bit like being at a Rugby Match. Yet she could understand why everybody was cheering. They saw a possibility of winning over these highly destructive creatures and the PPDC was offering every single one of them the chance to join them and help wherever they could. This was more than simple patriotism, the whole of the Pan-Pacific was joining forces in an effort that might determine the fate of humanity.
Pentecost stepped off the makeshift stage and it seemed as if the meeting was over. Slowly, the crowd dispersed and broke into smaller groups, in which the only topic of talk was the Jaeger program. Kylie remained at her spot on the coffee table while everyone else slowly cleared out of the hangar, reminiscing about everything that had been said.