June 2nd, 2015, Kodiak Island, Alaska
Kylie did not sleep well that night. It hadn't been because of the new setting or the uncomfortable bunk beds or the wildlife noises outside. She thought that at one moment, she had heard a bear growling right outside the door. None of the other women showed signs of having heard the frightening noise, they didn't even flinch when Kylie turned on her small bed light to check if the door was locked. On her way back, she saw that some of the women had put up pictures of family and friends, one even had a cheesy David Hasselhoff poster pinned to the headboard of her bunk. But still, it was something - they had something.
For the first time in a long time, she had been thinking about the day her life had pretty much ended. Even though she had gotten over the blame of losing her daughter and parents quite some time ago, she suddenly felt like she was back in the crashed car, trapped, for the first time realizing that the bomb had hit and the world she knew had ended. She could almost touch the anxiety of being trapped she had felt back then, of not being able to breathe, of having failed.
Tossing and turning in the bunk bed for a good while, she finally gave up looking for the much needed rest. Suddenly, that distant thought of killing herself she had toyed with back then didn't seem like such a bad idea. Some ancient culture would have believed that death united the list souls and she would have been united with her daughter and her parents, together in death.
In the half dark of the barrack, she had stared at the roof for hours, counting the metal beams over and over again to try and lull herself back to sleep, to no avail. She wrecked her brain whether or not it had been a wise choice to come out here. But then again, staying in Sydney also wouldn't have been much of an option. She knew that she needed something new, something important to do in her life again. Fighting the monsters that had taken everything from her seemed quite important to her. This was the place to be, the only place.
Apparently, she had drifted into some sleep-like state for a little while, as the drill bell at 6:15 startled her into an upright position inside her bed before falling backwards with a deep and upset sigh and pulling the covers back up and over her face. There was an orientation and staff briefing meeting scheduled for 0730 hours - as it would now take place every morning with everybody on the grounds with all personnel.
While most of the other women around her bustled around busily - two even went jogging in the cold Alaskan dark - Kylie groaned and wished for a minute that she wasn't here, but knew that she couldn't possibly be late on her very first day. Here, she was just one of many candidates, and her former status meant little to none.
Since she didn't get a lot of rest during the nightly hours, it took some convincing to finally crawl out from underneath the sheets. Quietly - while the other women were already getting quite social with each other - she took a quick shower, got dressed in the provided combat camouflages, made her bed and stored away her few belongings. Military boot camp was still vivid in her mind and a part of her regular routine, so she had no problems at all to fall right back into it. It was just that very first instant in that new and uncomfortable environment that made her have a hard time with it.
Kylie followed the stream of tan-clad people into the large mass hall, which was located on the east side of the military complex. It wasn't as cold as it had been yesterday, but still Kylie had a thick scarf wrapped around her head and neck, covering the still wet hair and most of her face as well. She saw some staff walking around with short sleeved shirts, one even wore a pair of shorts - and he was definitely not just coming from the gym. She felt even colder at that moment and wanted to crawl deeper into her shawl.
Once inside, the smell of fresh coffee and toasted bread filled her nostrils and put her into something that almost resembled a good mood. She just hoped that the taste of the coffee would be just as decent as its smell. Coffee in military institutions - in any institutions - usually was less than recommendable, to say the least. She'd had way too much of bad institutional coffee during her time at the RAAF. Yet, whatever type of coffee seemed like a really good and almost comforting idea.
There were five long rows of tables - some with foldable chairs, others with camping-styled benches - on either side along the lateral walls of the barrack, interrupted in the middle by large buffet-like serving tables. She saw what she had smelled first, the buffet tables were loaded with toasted slices of bread and fruit in low wicker baskets, large plates with cold cuts and cheeses, little bowls of different colored jam and maybe honey. The quality and quantity of food readily laid out for breakfast was surprising to see. Memories of her time in boot camp were much different.
The stream of people divided and cluttered back into smaller groups and flocked around the tables, grabbing bits and pieces as they went around them, filling their plates.
Kylie however hung back, her attention was drawn to a huge screen divided into 5 main sections hung at the back of the hall, big enough to see everything clear from the farthest corner. Four screens placed in a big square and one large rectangular on top, in which the ocean's floor topography was made visible by constant satellite monitoring, multi-beam deep sea sonar, radar and gps tracking and compiled into a large scale ocean synthesis. It seemed like the perfect surveillance system, monitoring every square centimeter of the ocean floor in the Pacific Rim region in order to detect any unusual activity early on. Lovely, Kylie thought, this actually seemed like an extremely well developed platform to analyze and control possible tactical battle space. Not that she would be controlling anything around here, but knowing that something that advanced and sophisticated was here set her mind at ease, even if only a little.
She must have stood like that for a little too long, she realized with quite a bit of embarrassment when a familiar voice tore her out of her daze.
"You should dig in, if you stand around like that any longer, you won't even get the crumbs. Those people are like a plague of grasshoppers, if they could, they would eat the cooks given the chance."
She knew who the low, raspy voice belonged to before she even turned around. Of course he was there, he had said that he would be first in line to enlist in whatever opportunity there was. His freckled face was still that very same mask of emotionless determination she remembered but there was a certain glow to it that hadn't been there before in any of the other occasions they had met.
Almost automatically, she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. The hug itself was a simple enough gesture and it came naturally, without her thinking too much about it. It felt a bit awkward to hug him right there and then - he was rigid at first, as usual, she wouldn't have expected anything else, especially in that situation -, but at the same time it was a huge relief to see a familiar face. But when he hugged her back, it felt even better. She buried her face against his neck, as the feel of his body so close to her soothed her more than she had expected. But the moment lasted only a second, for it wasn't anywhere near appropriate for either of them.
She pushed away from him, but he still held her by the shoulders, smiling one of his sad smiles.
"It's good to see you again." He said. "I kind of was wondering when you would show up."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world…" She laughed a little. "The program looks promising and it seems that a lot of people are interested in working with the PPCD for the Jaeger initiative."
"Yeah, it seems like we might actually have a real good shot at this one." He smiled again.
Someone brushed past them.
"Now go! Meeting starts at 0730 hours sharp, so you better get something to eat and a place to sit down." He squeezed her shoulders encouragingly, and turned to disappear into the crowd.
Kylie stood lost in the moment for a second there before she sighed and walked over to the buffet tables, loaded up a plate with two slices of toast, a tiny pot of what looked like raspberry jam and a banana and got a cup of strong black coffee on her way over to find a place to sit.
She finished well before the meeting started and had time to clean up her space together with the others. Stacker Pentecost had appeared out of nowhere - or at least Kylie hadn't seen him before - and positioned himself in front of the large screen. Herc moved up beside him, and the hall fell silent. Just like the last time she had seen him, Pentecost's mere presence imposed the type of leadership that made people simply shut up and follow to where he said they go.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." His voice now boomed through the silent room. "You will have seen some new faces among the ranks, we just received a new batch of recruits yesterday. Welcome to all of you who join this cause." He paused for a moment to look around, taking in all the expectant faces. "Today is another day to prepare for the inevitable in order to make it evitable. The screens have been quiet, we didn't receive any signals that the breach is active, yet that is no reason to be lulled into a false sense of safety. Remember, we will be ready, we have to be ready."
Most of the people in the crowd barked out a 'hooah' before Pentecost could continue. "To all the new recruits, you will begin your training today. Report to your stations to get briefed and positioned to initiate the training. We expect you to always give your best because this might be our only fighting chance against the Kaiju."
That must have been the sign to get the business of the day started as every single person in the big hall set into motion, yet Kylie again stood still. She had no idea where to go. Looking around to see another new recruit that had arrived together with her, she spotted one of the women walking past her and tagged along.
They headed back out into the cold - Kylie tried hard to make herself believe that it was a little warmer now - and walked across the compound to reach the training facilities to meet the person that would assign them to their training groups - a middle aged lady with a bright and excited face, Gloria.
The PPDC was offering positions for either pilots or as J-Tech specialists but who ended up where in the end would only be determined by their individual performance throughout the training program. Kylie had known for sure from the moment she had asked for transfer that she didn't want to be a pilot - she had never been much of a combative person anyways - but since J-Tech offered quite a variety of occupations in charge of the maintenance of the Jaeger systems and robotics, she had felt that she could find something to make her more fulfilled than deskwork after she had made up her mind and took the decision to join. After all, someone with the background of a battle manager would always find a space within a military structure.
Training would start out the same for everybody, Gloria stated, and then the candidates would be placed into specialization programs according to their achievements, abilities and finally, their desires so they should keep their minds open in case their development within the Jaeger Academy might take them into a different direction than initially desired. Kylie had stated on her initial application form that she didn't want to move in the direction of being a pilot, but Gloria, who now split them into groups of 12 to begin the training process, told her to not close herself off to the idea of maybe being a perfect fit just yet. Kylie laughed it off - on the inside.
Most of the listings seemed to imply constant direct and personal work with other people. The Weapons Specialists for example were responsible for the design of offensive power in Jaeger weapons and additional weaponry, while the Neural Bridge Operators were required to aid Rangers in maintaining the stability of the Drift connection. Then there were the Jaeger Engineers responsible for designing the look of the Jaegers, as well as their maintenance.
J-Tech officers, after the training and the respective capability tests, would be responsible for programming logistics involved in Jaeger weaponry and combat, as well as the creation and maintenance of Conn-Pods and the Shatterdome HUD. One of the positions offered in particular had caught her attention and finally made her sign up for this new adventure - the prospect of doing what she had mostly done in her professional life, being a Battle Programmer, responsible for programming the Jaegers and maintaining their battle-ready status. There were only 3 openings per Jaeger to be filled after the final cut was made, two technicians and one Liaison Officer who would coordinate with the other Jaegers around the world. So, she decided she would work towards one of those positions.
And so, training began. There was no glorious introduction to the matter, no pep talks, no motivational speeches.
Her group of 12, and one other, had chosen the officer training, the other 5 groups of 12 went off to start the pilot training. Yet all would begin to study the general curriculum first, tactics, engineering, basic and Kaiju science. Should they make the cut after term exams, and want to move on, they could move on to Pons training where they would learn about the technical aspects of piloting a Jaeger and be constantly tested and pushed to their physical and mental limits; how much a student can remember, learn and maintain within a short period of time determined whether or not they'd be able to make the cut and become a Ranger - a pilot.
One thing Kylie was sure of, she did not want to make that cut - no matter what Gloria said. Keep your mind open to all the possibilities… Sure! She felt that she had a very open mind, she was here, wasn't she? She knew that the deeper she got into the training, the more she would learn and experience, yet, she knew that she did not want to be a pilot. There were people around her much more determined, much more dedicated, much more 'made for this'.
The majority of the other new recruits planned on going after the pilot assignments, they wanted to get their hands on the Jaegers, and Kylie would not stand in their way.