June 1st 2015, Kodiak Island, Alaska
Roberton had called it the perfect opportunity but all Kylie could appreciate right now was the biting cold and how much she already hated it. If that was what late spring looked like here in Alaska, she didn't even want to know about how winter felt like. The weather report had mentioned highs of up to 18 degrees but the ice-cold wind made it feel like 18 degrees below zero. Kylie had only ever known the always temperate and year-round sunny weather of New South Wales, so this here was quite a severe change for her.
The worst thing about it was that she had brought this upon herself entirely. After the PPDC meeting on the 9th of November, she got assigned to desk work at HQ to basically redistribute personnel and machinery to the recovered and rebuilt RAAF defense facilities. For obvious reasons, it didn't fulfill her - not in any way, not even close. Roberton understood. He told her that she was not the first to ask for a transfer into the PPDC, with the difference that most of the others wanting to be directly involved in the with the Jaeger production. Most of the highest ranking officers, especially fighter pilots and combat specialists, were beginning the full training program at the Jaeger in Alaska.
The flight had been packed with military personnel from countries that bordered the Pacific coastline, some from the cities that already suffered an attack, others who wanted to anticipate. But the purpose of each of them was the same: to unite forces in the war the Kaiju brought with them. Almost a month after the first candidates, who were mostly looking to fill the Jaeger pilot positions, had settled into the training process, Kylie was now part of the third batch of military personnel to deploy here after the Jaeger Academy officially opened their doors.
The plane - a small Ravn Air DeHavilland Dash 8 turbo-prop aircraft - had arrived into Kodiak at 07:00 am as the first flight of the Monday morning after a little more than an hour. It would have taken only a little less time if she had been on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737, an airplane much more comfortable. But she hadn't chosen the flight, and honestly, who would have cared for a one-hour flight. Weather conditions hadn't been optimal, hard winds had been a major concern all night and the passengers had gotten their fair share of turbulence. The smaller planes were allowed to operate at lesser minimum weather clearances than the larger jets and made it in and out of the Kodiak State Airport with greater frequency.
Kodiak Island was a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait, with Kodiak City being one of seven communities and the main city of the island. Since the two scientists that came up with the design of the Jaegers were American and the initial funding for a basic version of the pons system had come from Carnegie Mellon University, the choosing of the place had been obvious.
Also, the United States Navy operated a small training base near the city called Naval Special Warfare Cold Weather Detachment Kodiak which usually trained United States Navy SEALs in cold weather survival and advanced tactics. Now, the fully established complex together with the strategically placed outposts of the United States Coast Guard served another purpose, to train the prospects of the Jaeger Academy. It was the newest creation of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps to train pilots and technicians in the war against the Kaiju.
It was also the birthplace of the very first Jaeger. Brawler Yukon had been designed and built here, and the PPDC had been relentlessly issuing news and updates about the progress of that very first Jaeger with live feeds and news blocks on every channel - every day. Apart from its quite impressive height and weight, it didn't look like it could do much, though. Standing on two stubby legs, the Jaeger didn't have a very humanoid structure with its large, hunched body and an equally large neck leading up to a relatively small head. The huge dome-shaped armor plating around its shoulders and long thin arms with massive cauterizing blades attached to them at least gave it a powerful and scary look. Those blades and the mortar-like missiles that would fire off of its back did their fair share to convince people that the machine could actually stand a chance against the Kaiju.
The end of the building process on the 30th of January 2015 was celebrated all over the world, and as usual for the USA, with all possible pomp and pride, as the designation on the Jaeger clearly stated that it was American, and it was a monumental celebration indeed - fit for the release of the colossal machine.
it was only later that night when its first demo was performed by USAF Captain Adam Casey, a seasoned soldier with vast expertise in technological weaponry. Captain Casey managed a moderately stable connection in the first place, but after only a couple of minutes lost control over the machine, suffering a seizure during the procedure, sending the huge steel robot crashing to the ground.
Suddenly all official transmission had ceased. It was only two days later that the broadcasting was taken up again. The unfortunate death of Captain Casey was officially confirmed. Casualties were never the desired outcome, but with the current situation of alien attacks on their doorsteps, it was all considered necessary in the name of scientific advances. A second demonstration was scheduled immediately to be carried out on February 18th by Lieutenant Sergio D'Onofrio. At the same time, a memo was released that the machine was only a prototype to test out the final details for the production of the other Jaegers and not designed for direct combat.
D'Onofrio managed to make the Jaeger walk for the cameras - recorded this time for safety purposes and not in live transmission -, but also suffered a seizure, most likely triggered by the intense neural load on his brain. Strategies were changed and in the next attempt just a few moments later, Dr. Lightcap connected to the Jaeger together with D'Onofrio and this time, the drift was strong. The demonstration, however short it was, was deemed a complete success and the higher-ups of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps move to authorize more funding for the Jaeger Program and thus, speeding up the process of building of more Jaegers and Shatterdomes.
The first Shatterdome to be inaugurated later during the year was Hong Kong and there were 5 Jaegers close to finishing, two from Japan, one from China, a second from the USA and one from Russia. Scheduling had them in for the final inspection throughout the month of December 2015.
During the early morning hours of April 23rd 2015, another Kaiju, code-named Karloff, emerged from the fissure and attacked Vancouver. It got picked up by the Pacific tracking network quite quickly, but with the other Jaegers still in construction and far from being battle-ready, the Mark-1 prototype Brawler Yukon manned with D'Onofrio and Lightcap, was sent to stop the monster and defend the city. And it sure did. When the dust cleared, the message was clear to the world - the Jaegers were more than suitable to defend the world, proving an even bigger success for the PPDC as it demonstrated the viability of the Jaeger Program.
With it also came the green light to the opening of the Jaeger Academy on Kodiak Island, which served both as a recruitment and training center, working to prepare future Ranger pilots and candidates for service within the PPDC for the physical and mental demands it required. The main figure promoting the recruitment of military personnel was none other than Stacker Pentecost, who - at least for Kylie - was the visible face of faith and trust in the program, and he seemed to be the inspiration for many of the people that had travelled here with her. At least, he was for her.
To Kylie, Kodiak felt like possibly the coldest place on Earth and all she could think about was the fact that it was Summer on most of the other states of the USA. Even in back in Sydney, the winter was much less harsh than here, in fact, temperatures generally climbed over the 20°C mark, and easily so. The moment she had stepped off the plane, the temperature was only a low 3°C as it was quite early and her nose started running and she felt like tiny sharp popsicles began to form. Having such a cold morning was quite unusual for the time of year, a local told her and Kylie couldn't shake the thought that maybe it was a bad omen? Her eyes burned and watered up, and she couldn't feel her ears, cheeks nor fingertips anymore. She wondered if that would ever go away over the course of the next 24 weeks. At least it was daylight. She didn't know why she had expected it to be always dark. It must have been one of the many misconceptions she had, as she considered Alaska to generally be cold and dark.
The first thing they all saw when they arrived at the training grounds was Brawler Yukon in all its pride and glory as it was being constantly maintained to make sure that it was combat-ready, should another Kaiju appear on the screens. She looked at the people she was sharing the shuttle bus with - mainly men - excitedly gasp at the gigantic robot and had to suppress a laugh. Something along the lines of male egos and size had fluttered through her brain, as she saw their eyes glisten. She smiled slightly at the fact that they were mostly likely imagining themselves piloting that huge metal fighting machine.
Once inside, they were split into three groups, according to their field-of-work choice. Then, personal interviews followed. Everybody received their curriculums and were shown their quarters.
Kylie was placed together with the three female officers who had arrived with her into one of the barracks, the smallest of the 10, but it still felt wide like a football field. There weren't many female officers, all in all they were 27 up to now, compared to the 387 men that had arrived only during this first month alone. This was nothing new for her, even in her field of work, she had always been a minority. Still, it was much better this way as she could at least get some privacy around here, since Kylie assumed that the men's barracks to be almost overcrowded.
Even though the barrack was huge, the women grouped together in the front part and each chose a bunk. This would be their home for the next couple of months. Except that it didn't feel like home, at least not for Kylie. But after all, it was still better than sitting behind a desk back in Sydney, having to return each night to an empty apartment.