The taxi pulled up to the gates of the Vladivostok Shatterdome, its yellow sides slicked with rain and its wipers working at full speed to clear the windshield. It paused there, as if the driver were briefly considering trying to pull through, then simply turned broadside to the gate to drop off its passengers. The vehicle earned a brief glower from the security guard, but once he recognized the cab's occupants his glare faded, and he ducked out of the gate terminal to open the door for them.
Aleksis didn't move for a long moment. He continued to stare straight ahead, his eyes aimed at the back of the cab driver's head but his gaze far away. He only vaguely heard the guard asking if he was all right – all sounds seemed to be blending with the constant drone of the rain, smeared into incoherence.
Finally he regained his senses, and he shook his head slightly before paying the cab driver and climbing out. He turned to help Sasha out, only to find that she, too, was still lost in her own thoughts. Not until he took her hand and squeezed it gently did she seem to come back to herself, and she gave him the puzzled look of one who had just woken up before seeming to recognize where she was. Then she gave him a faint, sad smile before climbing out after him.
"Welcome back, sir, ma'am," the guard greeted as the cab pulled away, kicking up a spray of road-grime and water in its wake. "How'd the appointment go?"
It was a casual question, one made in complete ignorance and without malice… but it made Aleksis want to lash out and punch the man anyhow. He restrained himself, however, and merely shook his head before leading Sasha through the gates. She followed without resistance.
Technicians and crewmen seemed to sense something was wrong, and they quieted down and moved quickly out of the way as the Kaidonovskys made their way through the Shatterdome. No one spoke, not to ask what was wrong or how the doctor's visit had gone or anything else. Even their commander only nodded respectfully as they passed him by, suspecting what had happened and perfectly willing to grant them privacy for a moment.
Neither Ranger spoke… but at this point words weren't needed. They'd done their share of talking and crying back at the hospital, first denying the truth of what the physician had told them, then struggling to understand how it could have happened. There would be further time for discussion, they knew, and neither of them were finished venting their grief yet. But for now there was nothing to be said.
Finally they reached the Jaeger bay… and Cherno Alpha's hangar. The metallic titan stood as stoically as ever, his usual retinue of techs and repairmen gone for the moment. To the untrained eye he looked lifeless and cold, a massive construct rendered inert by the absence of its pilots…
…and yet the Kaidonovskys felt as if Cherno looked back at them expectantly, almost eagerly. He had missed them, they had gone an entire day without visiting him, were they okay, he'd had a tune-up since they had seen him last, did he look any different? Over two thousand tons of monster-slaying steel stood before them, and yet somehow his presence in their minds was like that of an eager puppy greeting its owner after a long work day.
Despite everything – his devotion to Cherno, his love for Sasha and their Jaeger, his firm belief that Cherno had some sort of personality and soul inside that titanium shell – Aleksis felt a brief burst of anger. For all they had done for the Jaeger, he had repaid them in the cruelest manner possible…
Sasha's grip tightened on his hand, breaking him out of that train of thought. "It… isn't his fault," she murmured. "Don't blame Cherno. He didn't do this."
Aleksis felt his anger snuff out at that. No… he couldn't hate Cherno. The Jaeger couldn't help how he was designed. Couldn't help that crisis and necessity had made his designers short-sighted, their focus on strength and armor rather than pilot safety. He had no control over the fact that the very source of his life was radioactive, not any more than Sasha and Aleksis could control the color of their blood.
And the last thing on the designers' minds had been shielding the operators from the deadly effects of their Jaeger's reactor. Only when pilots of other Mark I Jaegers had begun falling ill, suffering from radiation sickness or even cancer, had the Kaidonovskys' commander finally ordered them to undergo a complete physical and a battery of tests, and scheduled Cherno for an upgrade that would protect his pilots from excess radiation.
Too little, too late. Sasha and Aleksis had been spared from cancer… but their dream of starting a family together was shattered. Thanks to their exposure to Cherno's reactor, they would never have children of their own.
Sasha's composure crumbled at last, and she turned and buried her face in Aleksis' chest. He held her tightly as she sobbed, feeling his own resolve crack and tears slide down his cheeks. This war had cost so many people everything – homes, loved ones, even their lives – but it had exacted a particularly cruel price from them. How they had longed for children of their own, a family beyond themselves and Cherno… a spark of innocence and renewal amid the destruction and cynicism that reigned in the era of the Kaiju War. Perhaps this wasn't the best world or the best circumstances to bring a child into, but they had hoped for a chance to expand their family, to establish a life outside the war.
Confusion… sadness… a burst of assurance that they were still loved, that someone still cared. They could feel the presence they had come to see as Cherno's trying to reach out to them, doing his best to comfort them. There was still that sense of puzzled sorrow, as if he couldn't quite understand why they were so upset, but he was fully willing to grieve with them anyhow.
Aleksis led Sasha deeper into the hangar, and the two of them sat down beside Cherno's foot, leaning back against the metal as if taking comfort from the Jaeger's touch. There they held each other, venting their grief, talking and crying long into the night. And despite their pain, they could feel Cherno's presence the whole while, a welcome light in the darkness.
The moment the two walked into the Jaeger bay Hercules recognized them as Mustang Omega's new Rangers – not by their faces or their gear, but by their stride and expressions. Those cocky swaggers, those confident smiles, that gleam in their eyes that yearned for adventure and recognition… those were all too familiar to him. He'd seen that same walk and look on many a young rookie, new Rangers who were absolutely certain they were the best in their field and that the moment they climbed into a Conn Pod they'd be invincible and unstoppable.
Herc snorted, shaking his head. Raleigh and Yancey had looked just the same when he'd first met them, and sadly it had taken a brutal tragedy to knock Raleigh's pride down and make him realize that even Rangers, for all their prowess, were mortals too. And Chuck had walked with that same swagger… but he forced himself away from that train of thought. Thinking about the younger Hansen was still too painful.
A buzz of conversation rippled through the bay as Mustang Omega's pilots made their way toward the Mark VI's hangar. A man and a woman, looking to be in their late twenties by Herc's estimate, they had the same heart-shaped face, amber-brown eyes, and high arched eyebrows. They were roughly the same height as well, and while their hair was styled differently – his spiked up with frosted-blond tips, hers in a multitude of tiny braids and interwoven with beads – it shared the same chocolate-brown hue. They both wore black leather jackets and well-worn jeans, though hers were of a more flare-legged cut than his, and his jacket was open to display an aged Daft Punk concert shirt while hers was buttoned securely up as if against a chill.
Herc made his assessment quickly, with nearly brutal efficiency. Siblings, possibly twins, and if their ages were anything to go by they had either still been in training or just graduated when the Ranger program had shut down. Probably the top of their class, too… and judging by the cocky grins, they knew it all too well.
Raleigh, standing to Herc's right, gave a snort of amusement. "Tell me I wasn't that…" He searched for the word.
"Arrogant?" Herc supplied. "Yeah, you were. Y' got better, though."
Raleigh chuckled. "You sure don't pull punches. Maybe they'll be better when we get to know them, though."
"Wouldn't count on it," Herc replied.
A shout of surprised pleasure from behind them cut off any further conversation. "Lance! Lexie! Oh my god, it's you!"
Raleigh hastily stepped to the side as Bailey, the young technician that had been toiling away at Mustang's code for weeks, rushed toward the two Rangers. The man smiled, some of the smugness dropping from his expression, and he embraced the tech with a laugh.
"How's our little sister?" he asked.
"I'm doing great. But holy crap, guys, you didn't say a thing about you being the new Rangers!"
"You never asked," the woman noted, stepping forward to hug her as well. "Pretty cool, though, huh? Betcha never dreamed you'd get to help design our Jaeger."
"Oh, uh, not really," Bailey confessed. "Though really, most of the credit goes to Dr. Gottlieb, I just help work out the bugs…"
Lance seemed to lose interest in the turn of conversation, and he stepped past Bailey to stare up at the towering form of Mustang. A covetous gleam lit up his eyes as he looked the Jaeger over, his gaze roaming over the glossy black armor, the slim but powerful limbs, the crest of a stylized horse rearing on a backdrop of flames marking its chest. That was another look Herc was familiar with – the look on a new Ranger's face upon seeing his new Jaeger, like an excited child getting the gift of his dreams at Christmas.
A fully understandable feeling, he figured… but they hadn't brought the new Rangers here to gawk. He coughed noisily, drawing their attention.
"Hercules Hansen," he said by way of greeting. "Your superior officer."
Lexie frowned. "I thought Mr. Choi was in charge of the Shatterdome."
"He runs the base," Herc clarified, "an' I run the Rangers. You listen to Choi, but you take orders from me." He jerked a thumb toward his chest. "So you're the new recruits."
"Guilty as charged," Lance replied, holding his hand out. "Lance Rossi. This is my sister, Lexie. You already know our other sister Bailey, looks like."
Herc took the hand and shook it briefly. "What's your sim score?"
The smugness returned to Rossi's expression. "Forty-six missions, forty-six kills."
Raleigh whistled. "Not bad."
Lance turned and looked Raleigh up and down, raising an eyebrow. "Um, no offense, but… who are you?"
"I'm Raleigh Beckett," he replied. "Mako Mori and I are… well, were the pilots of Gipsy Danger."
"Oh, right, the Alaskan Jaeger that took out the Breach." Lance nodded. "Awesome. Gipsy's name's all over the news, but I didn't remember the pilots' names."
Years ago, Herc knew a comment like that would have bruised Raleigh's ego. But now he just shrugged and chuckled. "No worries. People tend to remember Jaeger names better than the Rangers' names anyhow. They're more iconic."
Lance nodded, then returned his attention to Mustang. "Frickin' gorgeous."
Raleigh nodded, though Herc heard him mutter "Not as beautiful as Gipsy was."
"When do we actually get inside?" asked Lexie. "We didn't come all this way for nothin', after all. I want to get in and see how it handles."
Raleigh and Herc shared a puzzled look, not sure how to answer that. Had the Rossis been told the truth about Mustang yet? And more importantly, how would they react when they learned they would be handling the Jaeger remotely instead of going directly into battle with it?
Thankfully Hermann made his way toward the hangar at that moment, grumbling irritably. "Bloody blasted menace… chewing holes in my pant leg… Newton is going to pay…"
"Dr. Gottlieb, the new Rangers are here," Bailey told him, cutting into his monologue. "This is my brother, Lance, and my sister, Lexie. They're the ones assigned to Mustang Omega."
Hermann looked up and stared a moment at the twins, blinking slowly as if just realizing they were there. Lance stared back, eyebrow raised, while Lexie kept her gaze on Mustang, a puzzled frown on her face as something seemed to occur to her.
"I wasn't aware that we had Rangers selected yet," Hermann said at last. "But so long as they're here they can help us make the final adjustments."
Lance made a face. "I'm a Ranger, not a mechanic. I don't do grease-monkey or nerd-squad work, I just get in the thing and make it move."
Raleigh's eyes flashed at the remark, and Herc felt himself bristle at Lance's casual statement. Another one of these, then – Rangers who saw their Jaegers as mere weapons or vehicles, perfectly content to let others take care of their mechas' maintenance and only care about them when the time came to actually climb into the cockpit and start kicking ass. He had little patience for rookies like this, and all too often they got themselves killed before learning to have the proper respect for their Jaeger partners.
"That's quite all right, Mr. Rossi," Hermann replied, a sardonic smile on his lips. "We just need you and Ms. Rossi to move and operate Mustang while we fine-tune its joints and servos. No one will expect you to demean yourself by picking up a wrench or touching a keyboard or, God forbid, getting lubricants on your jacket."
Lance completely missed the mocking tone of Hermann's voice. "Oh, good. We can handle that kinda stuff."
"Where's the Conn Pod?" asked Lexie, turning to face Hermann. "Or have you guys not put that in yet?"
Herc frowned. "You haven't even been told about Mustang's tech specs?"
"That might have been in the folder we were given," Lance noted. "I didn't read it, though… Lexie, did we bring it?"
"I thought you had it in your bag," she replied. "You better not have thrown it away."
Herc groaned. Were these really their top recruits? He shuddered to think what the rest of the Rangers-in-training had been like if this was the best they could give them for Mustang. Hopefully at least Crimson's new pilots would have a good share of brain cells between them.
Hermann seemed to be fighting the urge to roll his eyes as he explained. "If you had read Mustang Omega's file, you would know that it is the first – and thus far only – Mark VI Jaeger, and the first to display an external control system. The Conn Pod will not be attached to the Jaeger, but kept here at the Shatterdome. You will still engage in the neural handshake to operate Mustang, but you will control it remotely."
"So it's like one of those RC cars," said Lance. "Or a virtual reality game. Or kinda both, I guess."
"Got it on the first try," Raleigh muttered.
"The technology's much more advanced, but basically," Bailey replied. "It's designed to keep the Rangers safe should anything happen to the Jaeger. The Kaiju learned that the cockpit was the weakest part of the Jaeger, so hopefully this'll circumvent that weakness."
"So we'll still be kicking ass and taking names, just from a distance," Lexie noted, nodding and looking impressed. "Sounds cool to me."
Cool… that made him bristle all over again. Sure, some rookie fresh out of training would assume any newfangled feature on a Jaeger would be "cool," and that all that mattered was being able to pilot the thing and go punch something. They had no clue, no idea, what sort of responsibility was being laid on their shoulders, how being Rangers was about more than just playing around inside a giant robot. They hadn't even an inkling of how deep the bond between Ranger and Jaeger was, or what the consequences could be if they failed to stop a Kaiju…
He shook his head. Never mind that. The Breach was closed, and Mustang was merely a safeguard on the remote chance that another threat ventured onto their world's shores. There was a good chance that Lance and Lexie would never be required to go fight, or to even operate their Jaeger outside of a few test runs. For their sakes, he hoped that was the case.
And he had to remind himself that the Rossis were still young, still new to the program. Perhaps, given time, they would lose some of their bravado and naiveté, and actually make decent Rangers. Perhaps, given time, they would even learn to appreciate Mustang as part of their team, and form the same sort of bond with him as other pilots had with their Jaegers – maybe not a bond as deep as the Kaidonovskys had formed with Cherno, but then, Team Cherno Alpha had been together for so long that few bonds could top it in depth.
He wouldn't hold his breath, though. More likely these two would do something stupid and get Mustang wrecked somehow. And while that experience might humble them slightly, it would still be a mighty expensive lesson.
"I can show you guys to your rooms if you'd like," Raleigh volunteered.
"Thanks, but we can manage," Lexie assured him. "See ya, Beckett, Herc. Nice dog." And she turned and walked away, Lance close behind.
Max gave a deep whining growl and pressed against Herc's leg, as if he found the sudden attention from Lexie more frightening than friendly. Herc absently reached down and scratched the bulldog's head, watching the two pilots stroll off. Already he didn't like those two – their cavalier attitude toward their Jaeger and their obvious contempt for menial or cerebral work rubbed him the wrong way. As a Ranger who had never been afraid to pitch in when Striker had needed routine work done, he found their disdain for such work irritating to say the least.
He glanced over at Raleigh, who was looking after the two new recruits with a wary expression. At least he wasn't alone in his thinking.
It might have been the sound of approaching voices that woke Sasha up, or it might have been the flash of pain in her back from sleeping in an awkward position. At any rate, she opened her eyes and blinked the haze from them, frowning. So many nights spent in a hospital bed had made her unused to the atmosphere of a Shatterdome, and the sounds of heavy machinery and the smell of iron and oil were more disorienting than welcome at first.
Then her memory settled down, recognizing this place as a home of sorts. Shatterdomes had always been home for the two of them, whether it was the Vladivostok base in Siberia or the Hong Kong base that had housed Pentecost's resistance. Quarters were rarely comfortable and the Jaeger bases were never the most scenic of homes, but so long as she had Aleksis and Cherno she had never really minded.
Aleksis was still asleep, one arm draped around her. She carefully moved his arm and got to her feet, wincing at the lingering pain in her leg. Once she was sure her healing leg would take her weight without her needing her cane, she turned to regard Cherno's wreck.
As silly as it seemed, part of her had hoped that Cherno would go back to normal overnight, that the sight of him mangled and ruined had just been part of a horrific nightmare. But the Jaeger remained slumped against the wall, one arm still lying in his lap, chassis still half-melted and ragged. She swallowed, willing herself not to start crying again, and made her way toward his foot, resting one hand against the thick ankle joint.
Odd… the metal felt warm to the touch. She had expected to feel a chill at the contact, but the alloy beneath her fingers felt as if it had been sitting in the sun for a short time. But Cherno hadn't been outside, and his internal engines and mechanisms hadn't been operating in some time, so it couldn't be residual heat from that. Perhaps it was simply her imagination…
"Oh, hey."
She dropped her hand and turned, her train of thought abruptly derailed.
"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to scare you," the young man apologized, raising his hands. "Just looking. That's allowed, right?"
She narrowed her eyes slightly. This wasn't a Shatterdome employee – he wasn't wearing a nametag or uniform, and somehow she doubted that Tendo could afford to bring in a new scientist. Civilians weren't allowed inside the Shatterdome unless they were family to the Rangers, and as far as she knew Raleigh, Hercules, and Mako had no living family members, or at least none that could make the journey to Hong Kong.
That left only one other option. "You must be one of the new Rangers."
"Guilty, ma'am," he replied, grinning excitedly. "My sister and I just got the call last night to show up and get ready for piloting Mustang Omega. We're pretty freakin' excited." He held his hand out. "Lance Rossi."
She hesitated, then reached out and took his hand as well. "Sasha Kaidonovsky."
His jaw dropped. "No way… THE Sasha Kaidonovsky?" His gaze fell on Aleksis, who was groggily sitting up at the moment. "You guys are the Kaidonovskys?"
Last time we checked, Sasha thought dryly, frowning a bit at the boy's fanboy-ing. She only nodded in response, though.
"This is awesome!" he gushed, shaking her hand a little too enthusiastically. "I've heard about you guys, you're awesome! And Cherno Alpha – wow, I've heard the stories. The Husky Russkie, they called it back in boot camp. Not a Kaiju spawned that could stand up against it…"
Sasha winced and pulled her hand away. "Why are you here?"
"We just wanted to take a look at some of the other Jaegers," a young woman replied, walking into the hangar. "I'm Lexie. Lance's sister and co-pilot. Sorry about him, he's getting his geek on a little too much."
"Can I help it that I love the Jaegers?" asked Lance. "Piloting one's been, like, my dream for years. Now I finally got a chance – oh whoa." His gaze had finally landed on Cherno, and he recoiled slightly. "What the hell happened to it? Looks like it blew up or something."
Sasha didn't want to talk about it, especially not to someone she had barely met. So she kept silent, letting Lance and Lexie figure out what had happened for themselves.
"Those are tooth marks," Lexie realized, grimacing as she looked up at the Jaeger. "Some Kaiju took it down, looks like."
"Two," Aleksis said at last, reaching out to pull his walker close. "It took two. Cherno fought to the bitter end."
Lexie pursed her lips as she studied the Jaeger. "Hmph. Rather heavily built. Looks like what it gains in armor it loses in speed. Probably what led to it being taken down so easily. That was the problem with a lot of the Mark I Jaegers, I think – they were too clunky, not agile enough. Probably the reason why there aren't any left."
Sasha felt muscles in her neck and shoulders tense in irritation. Cherno had most certainly NOT gone down easily… and what did this child know of Jaegers anyhow? Cherno had been built to take abuse, and simply because some people thought all Jaegers should be made sleek and beautiful didn't mean Cherno was substandard. On the contrary, he was more beautiful because of his strength, not some flimsy mecha that would go down at the first solid blow from an opponent.
"It's still a cool machine," Lance pointed out. "You know, for being so old. And there's a lot of history to it. Shame it's out of commission."
"I agree it's cool," Lexie told him, "but it's like comparing a B-52 to a stealth fighter. The B-52 was great for its time, but technology changes and makes the old machines obsolete. And if I had to choose between the older machine and the stealth fighter to go to war… well, I'm going with the stealth fighter. Or in our case, the Mark VI."
Irritation flared into anger and outrage. How dare they insult Cherno like this? How dare they imply he was obsolete and substandard? What did they know of Jaegers anyhow, these children who had yet to even set foot in a Conn Pod or face a Kaiju in battle? How could they presume to know what made a superior Jaeger?
Aleksis' eyes flashed, and he hauled himself to his feet. Before Sasha or Lance could intervene he had made his way over to Lexie, his jaw set in a grim scowl. The rookie pilot was almost a foot and a half shorter than the veteran, but to her credit she didn't back down but only stared up at the man warily.
"Child," he said slowly, "you do not talk like that about our Cherno. Not now. Not ever. Only when you have faced the monsters of the Breach for yourselves, and put your lives and your Jaeger on the line to destroy them, can you assume to know anything about what makes a good Jaeger. And know this – no matter how new and fancy Mustang Omega may be, Cherno Alpha will always be twice the Jaeger he is."
Lexie scowled and stepped back a few paces. "He? You talk like it's alive." She shook her head and grabbed her brother's arm. "Let's get out of here. These guys are crazy."
"Aw, c'mon, I wanted to ask them if they'd share some war stories…" Lance grumbled, but didn't resist as Lexie dragged him out of the hangar.
Aleksis scowled after the two rookies, watching them until they vanished from view. "Children. Both of them. They know nothing."
Sasha sighed deeply. "We all had to start as children, knowing nothing of the Jaegers and how they would affect us. But I do not like the girl." She reached out and rested a hand on Aleksis' arm. "Forget them, though. The Kaiju are gone. They will not be in service to the PPDC for long."
Aleksis didn't look convinced, but he seemed to let the matter go for the moment. He turned back to Cherno, and hobbled the few steps forward to stand beside the Jaeger's leg.
"Don't listen to them, Cherno," he advised. "They know nothing of your service or your great deeds. You are still the best."
Long ago Sasha might have questioned why Aleksis insisted on talking to their Jaeger as if he could hear them. But now she only gave a sad smile and went to stand beside him. Contrary to what anyone else claimed, even the Jaeger designers and programmers themselves, she fully believed that there was some part of Cherno that was alive and responsive, able to hear and feel and empathize. He had always existed not just as a mechanical titan, but as a presence in their minds, a companion in the Drift whenever they fought… and toward the end even outside the Drift, some part of him staying with them wherever they went.
They had never spoken of it to anyone else – both knew that any mention that Cherno was alive and aware would only end with the two of them being ejected from the program and referred to a psychiatrist for schizophrenic tendencies. No one outside the Rangers was willing to admit that the Jaegers were far more than just mobile weapons, but partners and even beings with some degree of sentience, however slight. No other pilots had spoken of a telepathic bond with their machines, however… and the Kaidonovskys, for all they wanted to share their findings with others, didn't dare for fear of being written off as crazy.
That didn't stop them from still treating Cherno as if he could hear and sense them, however… nor did it keep them from mourning his destruction.
Aleksis reached out to touch the Jaeger's foot, giving it a comforting pat… and frowned. "He is warm."
"He is," Sasha acknowledged. "I'm not sure why… perhaps someone reactivated his power source."
"Why?" Aleksis replied, still frowning in confusion. "What would be the point? They wouldn't reactivate a dead Jaeger. It would be a waste of resources." He spat those last words out, as if they were too bitter to keep in his mouth.
"He… he may not be dead," Sasha suggested hesitantly. "Remember… someone called out to us through the Drift. We were about to give up and die, but someone pulled us back. I think it might have been Cherno."
Aleksis shook his head. "It couldn't have been… look at him! He could not have survived what Otachi and Leatherback did to him!"
"How do we know? These aren't animals or people, Aleksis, but Jaegers. Perhaps they work differently from us… and perhaps even with so much damage to his body, Cherno's still alive." A wild hope burned in her chest, growing warmer and brighter the more she spoke. "He could still be with us… we may not have lost him after all."
Aleksis stared longingly up at Cherno, keeping a hand against his foot. "I want to believe that… but what does it matter? In a few hours Cherno goes to Sydney, and we lose him forever."
"We could stay close to him," Sasha insisted. "We could buy or rent a house in Australia…"
"With what?" Aleksis demanded dully. "We haven't the money for anything like that. Hell, once we leave the Shatterdome we'll be lucky to have a place to sleep. Tendo doesn't even have the funding to pay all the Shatterdome workers, let alone give us a severance package or pay our medical bills."
"Aleksis, please… don't lose hope," she pleaded. "There has to be a way we can remain with him." A sudden thought crossed her mind. "At the very least… we can say goodbye. Properly."
He raised an eyebrow at her choice of words. "Properly?"
"Properly," she repeated. "Through the Drift. Engage in one last neural handshake with Cherno, before they take him away."
His eyes widened slightly at that. Then he nodded, and for the first time that day a slight smile crossed his face. "That's crazy… but it just might be crazy enough to work."
Sasha nodded, and she turned and walked out of the hangar, doing her best to suppress her limp. Best to find someone who could help them with this before she or Aleksis started thinking twice about this decision.
Bailey Rossi was just walking out of Mustang Omega's hangar, so absorbed in her tablet that she nearly ran into Sasha on her way out. The young tech gasped and dropped the tablet, flailing slightly at the near collision.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "Oh geez, I'm so oblivious…"
"Don't be," Sasha assured her. "You're just the person I wanted to talk to."
"Oh, really?" Bailey bent down and picked up her tablet. "How can I help you? My brother and sister haven't been obnoxious with you, have they?"
So she shared more than just a last name with the new recruits… interesting. "Aleksis and I want in Cherno Alpha's cockpit one last time. We want to say goodbye."
"Oh… um, I don't have the proper clearance to open a Conn Pod. I can check with someone who can do that for you, though."
Sasha shook her head. "We don't just want inside… we want to Drift with him."
Bailey's eyes widened. "Y-you want to… but Cherno's systems are badly damaged, ma'am. Drifting's dangerous enough in a fully operational Jaeger, who knows what drifting with one that's this badly out of whack can do! It could hurt you guys…"
"We are willing to take the risk," Sasha assured her. "Please… just for a few minutes. To say our goodbyes."
Bailey bit her lip as she considered, obviously weighing Sasha's request against the potential consequences – harm to the pilots, damage to the Jaeger, and of course the possibility that she could lose her own job. Then she gave a hesitant nod.
"All right… I may know someone who can sneak me a passcode. But I still don't like this."
Sasha patted her arm. "It means much to us, however. And if there is trouble, we will take the blame."
"If you're still alive to blame," Bailey noted darkly, and hurried off.
Sasha took in a deep breath and turned back to Cherno's hangar. Her and Aleksis' gear should still be in a locker in their hangar, if the maintenance crews had kept things the way they were. It was time to get suited up… for the last time.