No one had any way of knowing that a routine mission – if a dual-Jaeger defense against a Kaiju assault could be called "routine" in any way, shape, or form – would end in tragedy, and the first devastating blow against the Russian Jaeger program.
Cherno Alpha and Eden Assassin stood knee-deep in the churning water, watching the Category-3 Kaiju dubbed Katschei slink back and forth before them. The monster's double-set of glinting yellow eyes never left the two mecha as it paced, restless as a caged panther, doubtless looking for some kind of opening to charge through. Unlike the dinosaur-like build of other Kaiju, Katschei was built low and lean, walking on all fours and with heavily muscled hindquarters designed for leaping and running. A spined ridge ran from the crest of its brow to the dip of its spine, and the lashing tail behind it terminated in a scissor-like claw.
Cherno remained still, legs braced apart and arms spread in a wrestler's stance as it waited for the inevitable charge. Eden was far more restless, dancing from foot to foot like a boxer, making mock punches at the air as if daring the beast to attack.
"Save your energy, Eden," Sasha advised over the radio. "It will attack soon enough."
Sergei's voice crackled over the feed. "What's it waiting for, an engraved invitation? The waiting is the hardest part."
"Maybe having two Jaegers here is unnerving it," Boris replied. "Maybe it'll turn around and go back to the Breach if we scare it enough."
"Don't bet on it," Aleksis advised.
Eden finally stilled, though it kept its fists raised for the inevitable fight. A bronze-colored Mark II Jaeger that commonly inhabited the hanger across from Cherno Alpha's, it was sleeker and more lightly armored than Cherno, built more for speed and agility than brute strength. Whereas Cherno was designed as a powerhouse, made for taking and dishing out abuse, Eden's strength lay in being able to strike a blow and then evade a retaliating attack. Its gauntlets housed retractable hooked blades, like a cat's claws, for ripping apart any Kaiju unfortunate enough to get too close, and powerful flame cannons jutted from each shoulder.
Aleksis snorted lightly. The Shatterdome might consider Eden an improvement over Cherno, but he knew better. Flashy weapons and quick moves were no match for power and dogged determination in his mind.
"Our mind," Sasha corrected, flashing him a grin.
He smiled back. "Let's show Sergei and Boris how it's done, yes?"
"We can hear you, you know," Sergei complained.
Katschei evidently decided it had enough of waiting, and it gathered itself for a leap. Cherno held his ground, fists raised, but Eden danced to the side as the Kaiju surged forward, ramming into the Mark I with brutal speed. Cherno dug his feet into the sea floor and held firm, slamming both fists into Katschei's shoulders and shoving it back. Katschei screamed and arched its back, spines flaring like raised hackles.
Eden dashed in at that moment, blades out and at the ready. Katschei screamed again as the steel "claws" sliced gashes twenty feet long in its side, glowing blue ichor sizzling where it dripped into the water. It lashed out, tail pincer snapping at the Mark II, but Eden leaped aside, evading with ease.
Cherno drove a fist into Katschei's shoulder, and Sasha and Aleksis grinned in triumph at the crack of bone breaking. But the Kaiju cut their celebration short, lashing out and grabbing Cherno's arm in its jaws. The Jaeger yanked his arm back, trying to jerk it from their attacker's grip, but Katschei hung on.
"Hold on, Cherno!" shouted Boris. "We're coming!"
"We've got this!" Aleksis shouted back, bringing Cherno's other fist around to clobber Katschei upside the head. The Kaiju blinked, stunned by the blow, but didn't let go. Instead it arched its spinal ridge again, powerful muscles along the shoulders and back contracting…
Flashes of pain spiked through the drift, and an alarm sounded inside Cherno's Conn Pod. A computerized voice, oddly calm given the circumstances, spoke up, accompanied by a livid warning glowing scarlet on the readout.
"HULL BREACHED. REACTOR DAMAGE DETECTED. LEFT SHOULDER SERVOS DAMAGED. LEFT THIGH SERVOS DAMAGED."
Sasha swore long and creatively. "Those spikes are projectiles! It shot at Cherno!"
Aleksis spotted the gaps in Katschei's spinal ridge, and anger roiled in his gut. "You'll pay for that, you bastard. Eden, give us a hand here!"
Silence. Cherno shifted, giving his Rangers a better view of the other Jaeger. Eden Assassin stood fifty feet away, frozen in a crouching pose as if about to spring. Why wasn't it moving? Damn it all, had Boris and Sergei choked? This wasn't their first engagement, they should know what to expect by now, and yet here they were freezing like rookies…
Then Aleksis saw the spines buried in Eden's Conn Pod and chest, and with a sickening clench of his innards he realized it wasn't fear that kept Eden from moving. The Mark II would not be coming to help them; they were on their own.
A blast of emotion filled the drift, almost overwhelming the Kaidonovskys. Shock, horror, grief, rage… it swamped the neural handshake and made the entire Jaeger tremble with the force of it. A metallic roar rose from Cherno's reactor – a side effect of the damage? Or something else, something far more primal?
Without thinking Sasha and Aleksis moved in tandem, driving Cherno's fist repeatedly into Katschei's skull and chest. Over and over the blows rained down, shattering bone, pulping internal organs, sending rivers of acidic blue blood into the ocean and making the waters practically boil with it. The Kaiju made a token effort to fight back, claws scraping at Cherno's chassis, but at the fifth blow it shuddered once and went limp.
The Kaidonovskys delivered several more blows, both to ensure the beast stayed dead and simply out of sheer rage. Then they let the corpse sink below the waves, wading toward Eden as fast as Cherno's damaged leg would allow. By this time Eden had collapsed to its knees, and was listing to one side as if about to fall over.
"Boris, Sergei!" Sasha shouted. "If you can hear us, respond!"
No answer. The Mark II tilted off-balance and began to slump into the water, but Cherno's arms shot out, catching it before it could fall. Its Conn Pod was dark save the flurries of sparks that burst out at random intervals, and they could make out no movement or activity… no sign that Eden's Rangers were even alive.
Aleksis wanted to be sick. They hadn't been close to Boris and Sergei – the two Rangers, brothers from St. Petersburg, had been notoriously private, keeping to themselves and not eager to make friends – but to lose comrades like this, in such a sudden and random manner, was a shock. There had always been that feeling that, so long as they were partnered with Cherno, they were invincible, protected from all harm… but seeing a random blow take down a fellow Jaeger like this shattered that sense of invulnerability.
Something rumbled ominously in Eden's chassis, and the Jaeger's chest began to glow with a hellish red tint.
"Get away from there!" The radio call from the Shatterdome was urgent, almost hysterical. "Those spines ruptured Eden's coolant tanks! It's going to blow!"
"Drop Eden!" Sasha shouted, and she strained at the controls. "Cherno, drop him! We have to get away!"
A low groan issued from Cherno's servos, and Aleksis swore it felt as if the Jaeger was resisting their efforts to direct him. But at last, he dropped Eden and backpedaled, stumbling toward the shore. And not a moment too soon – a resounding BOOM drove Cherno to his knees as Eden detonated behind them.
Grief filled the drift, so heavy Aleksis could hardly breathe. Memories crowded into his mind – conversations shared, stories of Kaiju encounters exchanged, abilities and battle scars compared. Images of Eden Assassin flashed before their eyes… but not Eden Assassin as just another mecha, but as a being, one with a cocky, daredevil attitude and a wicked sense of humor, who had teased Cherno endlessly for being older and slower but had nonetheless accepted him as…
"Oh Cherno," Sasha murmured. "Why did you never tell us he was your friend?"
Cherno groaned in response.
"Oh Cherno… I am so sorry."
The Jaeger remained on his knees, a low keen issuing from his damaged engines as he grieved the only way he knew how. Above, helicopters began to circle like vultures, waiting to collect what remained of Eden Assassin and carry the grieving Cherno back to the Shatterdome, heedless of the Jaeger's despair.
As terrible as that day was, it marked a turning point in the Kaidonovskys' understanding of Cherno and his kin. They had never stopped to consider that Cherno may not unique among Jaegers… but if Eden had also possessed some degree of sentience, what if there were others?
Mako was like her foster father in one respect – when she was given a cause, she dedicated every ounce of her energy to it. She had set herself to rebuilding and upgrading Gipsy Danger with bulldog determination, not only organizing and planning virtually the entire project but picking up a wrench or a soldering iron to join in the heavy labor herself. And despite Pentecost's efforts to discourage her, she dove into her Ranger training with the same determination, spending hours in the simulator and poring over every scrap of information she could scrounge. She did allow herself moments to relax, knowing that she would do no one any good by burning herself out, but she wouldn't allow herself to accept anything less than her absolute best.
Restoring Cherno Alpha would be no different, she decided. And though she had no idea where this project would take her, she was determined to give it her all. The Mark I deserved no less than her best.
Mako hopped off the transport before it had even come to a complete stop and jogged the rest of the way toward the Jaeger, ignoring Raleigh and Hermann as they shouted for her to wait up for them. Cherno was still on his knees, rocking back and forth and uttering an eerie keen that echoed through the Jaeger bay. The sight was unnerving, but she didn't slow down. Somehow, she knew that despite his distress, Cherno wouldn't hurt her. He had spent virtually all his existence defending humanity; he wasn't about to start lashing out at them now.
She reached up and touched her earpiece, adjusting it to the Conn Pod's frequency. Sasha's voice came through clear and strong… and Mako almost smiled. She was singing softly, the words in Russian but the meaning still perfectly understandable.
"Aleksis? Can you hear me?"
"I am here." Aleksis' voice, strong and deep, was curiously soft with exhaustion. "Good gods… now I know how a parent feels when they stay up all night with a sick child."
As far as comparisons went, that one wasn't entirely off the mark, Mako supposed. "Are you two all right?"
"We are tired, but all right. Cherno is still scared, but not as much as before."
Mako nodded. "How much longer do you think you can hold the neural handshake with him?"
Aleksis was silent a moment. Immediately Mako felt a pang of worry at that. Normally the Russian Rangers were entirely confident in their ability to hold a drift as long as was necessary. If he had doubts about their abilities…
"I do not know," he said at last. "We are allowing Cherno to see through our eyes… and that seems to be causing extra strain in the drift. And our strength is not as it once was. We can hold on perhaps an hour more… beyond that, I do not know."
That wasn't much time. But it would have to be enough. "Will Cherno allow us to work on him? We think we can install something that will allow him to see and hear on his own."
Aleksis spoke again, but in his native language. Mako guessed he was asking Cherno's permission, and waited patiently for him to receive an answer.
"He says he will… so long as we stay with him."
She nodded. "Let us know if the situation changes at all. Hold on, Sasha and Aleksis. We'll work as fast as we can."
"Work carefully," Sasha insisted. "More than anything else, we do not want Cherno hurt any more than he already is."
Mako cut the connection and turned to Raleigh and the two scientists. "We have an hour. Do the mechanics have everything?"
"I thought the plan was to get the Kaidonovskys out of there first," Newt.
"We do not have a choice," Mako replied. "Sasha and Aleksis are the only things keeping Cherno calm. We will have to install the new systems without disengaging the neural handshake."
"That's madness!" Hermann insisted. "It's not safe to work on a Jaeger when it's still linked to its pilots. You could cause all kinds of neural damage!"
"Would you rather break up the handshake and have Cherno go on the rampage again?" asked Raleigh. "Mako's got a point. Sasha and Aleksis are in the best possible position to keep him under control at the moment. We just have to be careful."
Hermann snorted. "I don't like any of this. It's too risky. But seeing as we've got no choice…" He waved the mechanics over. "Cherno Alpha's computer core was designed for controlling the HUD displays in his Conn Pod and handling the neural input from his pilots. We have no way of knowing if that's where his conscious mind now resides, but we'll have to assume it can handle visual and audio input as well. Seeing as he already has visual and audio systems in place, it's a matter of going inside and rerouting them directly to his core, instead of feeding them to the HUD and pons headsets. It isn't a perfect solution… but it will have to do."
Mako nodded. Making do was what the Shatterdome had been doing for months now – they could make do for a little longer. "What about his voice?"
"He seems capable of communicating via his system readouts. We simply have to feed that information output through some sort of voice synthesizer, similar to the one we have in the LOCCENT. Unfortunately, we currently don't have one on hand."
"One is on the way," Mako replied. "From the Seattle Shatterdome. Their LOCCENT has been dismantled, and they are sending us all usable parts. It will be here in a few days."
Newt blinked. "Really? That was fast."
"Right now I think sight and sound are more important," Raleigh pointed out. "Sight especially." He looked up at the rocking Jaeger. "Any way we can get them to get him to hold still? There's no way we can fix him like that."
Mako touched the earpiece again. "Can you hold him still? We're about to begin working on him."
Aleksis spoke softly, and Cherno stilled, though the occasional tremor still moved through his titanic chassis. That would have to be good enough, Mako decided, and signaled for the mechanics to begin.
The work crews moved in quickly, some cordoning off the area, others gathering up tools and supplies. Two cranes moved in, emitting high-pitched beeping sounds to warn the unwary out of their way. One stretched its boom high to allow workers to inspect the ragged hole in Cherno's reactor tower, while another dipped down to the floor. Mako stepped into the bucket, followed by the team of technicians carrying the cables that would, with any luck, give Cherno his sight.
"Be careful," Raleigh warned.
"I've done this before," she reminded him, giving him a smile. "This is not the first Jaeger I've restored."
"Oh… right." He smiled back, a bit bashfully. "Still be careful. I don't want to lose another partner."
The bucket shuddered, then lifted into the air until it was level with the Conn Pod. The hatch was still sealed, and from the level of frustrated activity Mako could see in the LOCCENT, it was evident that it was going to take more than a computer command to get it open.
"Aleksis…" she began.
"He doesn't want to open it," Aleksis said with a bit of an aggrieved tone. "He says he doesn't trust anyone but us inside here."
Understandable, but still annoying. "Can you tell him that we just want to help him… but that he has to trust us and let us inside before we can do anything to help?"
A pause. "He wants you to promise you won't hurt him."
She reached out, having to stretch a bit over the edge of the crane bucket, and rested her hand against the nearest bit of Cherno Alpha she could reach. The metal felt warm under hand, and a slight tremor moved through the great chassis, like a horse trying to shake off a fly.
"I promise, Cherno, that I will not hurt you. I am Mako Mori, pilot to Gipsy Danger… and I am a friend. I am going to help you, but you have to trust me."
Aleksis relayed her words in Russian. Cherno shivered again, then there was a hiss as his cockpit snapped open. A tech pushed it open further to give the team access, and Mako climbed inside.
The difference between Cherno and Gipsy's Conn Pods struck her almost immediately as she dropped down to the floor of the cockpit. Where Gipsy's readouts and consoles had glowed a cool, soothing blue, Cherno's Pod was aglow with warm, vibrant amber. His systems were as up-to-date as Gipsy's had been due to frequent upgrades, but there remained remnants of the antiquated Mark I technology here and there – visible bolts and rivets jutting from the walls, old stains and dents in spots where exposed metal still showed, Cyrillic warning signs giving the whole chamber an odd Cold War vibe. The viewscreen was shaped differently, squarer and wider from top to bottom than Gipsy's.
But it was the atmosphere of the Pod itself that stood out in her mind. She had never spoken of it with anyone, even Raleigh, but in her drifts with Gipsy she could feel a sort of… presence, for lack of a better word. A personality behind the machine, one that remained cool and level in the heat of battle, that put the utmost trust in her pilots and responded to their movements instantly.
Even outside the neural handshake she could FEEL Cherno's presence… and the difference couldn't have been more striking. It felt distinctly male, for one thing, and seemed to radiate fear and pain. And she couldn't shake the feeling that even blind as he was, he was watching her… and wouldn't hesitate to act if he felt she was endangering him or his pilots.
She took a deep breath and rested a reassuring hand on the wall of the Conn Pod, then turned toward Aleksis and Sasha. They looked utterly spent, practically hanging in their harnesses and shaking with the effort of holding the drift, but from the steely glint in their eyes she knew they weren't about to admit their exhaustion. Sasha still sang, albeit softly, and Aleksis spoke quietly in his native tongue as he consoled the Jaeger.
She nodded, trusting that they had matters in hand, and motioned for the technicians to enter. They had a lot of work to do, and little time in which to do it.
From the LOCCENT, Tendo and Hercules watched the repair crews work, swarming over Cherno like ants, studying the extent of his damages and cataloguing what it would take to get him functioning again. Three cranes now hovered around the Jaeger, one allowing access to the reactor tower, one access to the Conn Pod, and the third access to the empty shoulder socket. On the floor of the Jaeger bay Hermann, Raleigh, and Newt were gathered around a holo-blueprint of Cherno, doubtless discussing what it was going to take to get him back into proper shape. Cherno itself – himself, Tendo corrected – held still as possible, though he trembled slightly from time to time, as if something the repair crews had done pained or tickled him.
Herc looked grim as he watched the proceedings, arms folded across his chest. Tendo moved his gaze from the Jaeger to the senior Ranger, wondering what was on his mind. Since the Battle at the Breach Herc had become more sullen and withdrawn than ever, and the times he did speak with others he generally sounded irritable and unhappy. That was only understandable, Tendo thought, given that he was still in mourning over Chuck's death… and Striker's destruction.
Idly he wondered if Striker, too, would have started showing signs of life had it survived the battle. Though given that Striker had been almost brand new at the time of its destruction, perhaps it wouldn't have happened immediately. Cherno had been in service for years, and Tendo guessed that whatever had brought him to life hadn't been a sudden event but a slow process that had only now produced visible results. If anything, Gipsy would have been the next Jaeger to become sentient… but its wreckage was doubtless trapped in the Anteverse, never to be recovered.
Though there were two other Jaegers they could keep an eye on – Crimson Typhoon and Mustang Omega. He rather doubted either of them would exhibit signs of life anytime soon, however. Mustang was brand new and hadn't even had a drift with its Rangers yet, while Crimson's Rangers still lay in comas in a hospital on the other side of Hong Kong. For now, Cherno would remain an anomaly, an example of what the other Jaegers could have been given time.
"Where's she getting' the resources for this project anyhow?" demanded Herc at last. "Gonna take more than spit an' polish to get this rustbucket up and runnin' again."
"She's been cagey on the details," Tendo confessed. "Though I know for a fact that a lot of spare parts are coming from Oblivion Bay."
Herc snorted again, but this time there was a bit of an admiring glint in his eye. "Good girl. Usin' her head. Always thought it was a waste to just let the old Jaegers pile up an' rust. Why waste 'em when we can make good use of 'em?"
Tendo nodded. "Though given what's happening with Cherno… it almost feels like grave robbing."
This time Herc actually smiled, though it was more smirk than actual smile. "Don't think of it that way, Choi. Think of it more as… organ donation."
Tendo couldn't help a bit of a grin of his own. "As for the rest of her resources… Hannibal IS still alive. I'm going to guess she's finding ways to cut a deal with him somehow."
"Hannibal ain't gonna be in a position to help us much longer. With the Breach closed, his supply of Kaiju bits is gonna dry up soon."
Tendo nodded but didn't reply. In a way, though, the Shatterdome was in the same boat as Hannibal. Both of them depended on the Kaiju War to survive… and if there truly were no more Kaiju attacks, they would both become obsolete within the next year unless they found some way to adapt.
"So when's Mustang's test gonna start?" asked Herc. "The Rossis are gettin' restless."
"As soon as Cherno's able to see for himself," Tendo replied. "I can understand them being annoyed at the delay, but it would do them some good to learn how to deal with unforeseen complications. It's not as if we planned for a Jaeger coming to life to put their test drift off."
Herc nodded. "I'll tell 'em to hold their damned horses, then. What about Crimson? Gotten any closer to findin' pilots for him?"
He sighed softly. "No. Crimson is unique – and that's posing a significant problem. We can't simply modify it to accommodate two Rangers instead of three, and it's proving almost impossible to find three pilots who can drift without significant problems. It's hard enough finding a compatible pair… finding a compatible threesome is almost impossible." He reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose. "If the Weis showed any signs of recovering, it'd be a different story… we could simply wait until they were ready to suit up again. But their condition hasn't changed in weeks."
Herc didn't reply. Tendo glanced over to find him chewing on the inside of his cheek, lost in thought.
"I know that look," Tendo noted. "What are you thinking?"
Herc didn't reply right away. His gaze had moved from Cherno to the inert form of Crimson Typhoon. The red Jaeger had stood resolutely in its hangar for weeks, waiting for a return to action… a return that couldn't come until it had new Rangers. In some ways, Tendo thought suddenly, it was worse off than Cherno. It was obvious that the Mark I enjoyed a strong bond with his Rangers, and even now had them close by for support. Crimson was alone… and for a crazy moment Tendo wondered if it felt that loss, or missed its pilots at all.
As he watched the Jaeger, he could have sworn he saw its left arm shift slightly. A trick of the light, perhaps? He watched a moment longer, but when the move didn't repeat itself he looked away, deciding he had imagined it.
"We oughta bring the Wei Tangs here," Herc announced suddenly.
Tendo frowned. "The Shatterdome's medical center isn't designed for long-term stays."
"Not to play nursemaid to 'em," Herc replied. "To help 'em come back."
Tendo frowned. "I don't follow."
Herc rolled his eyes. "Are you really that thick, Choi? Look at what's right in front of you. If a drift with its Rangers could help Cherno… maybe the reverse is true. Maybe a drift with Crimson Typhoon can help bring the Weis back, so to speak. Rouse 'em out of their comas."
He stared at the senior Ranger incredulously. "That," he said once he'd found his voice, "has got to be the most insane plan I've heard in awhile."
"Says the guy who went along wholeheartedly with Pentecost's 'drop a nuke in the Breach' plan."
"Getting two fully conscious and willing participants to engage in a neural handshake is hard enough," Tendo went on, ignoring the jab. "Initiating a drift between three comatose people, Rangers or not, and a Jaeger is just begging for something to go wrong. And there's a fundamental difference between Cherno and Crimson – Cherno's alive. No other Jaeger has even shown hints of becoming sentient."
Herc paused, and seemed to be debating whether to continue speaking. "That ain't entirely true."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that before he was… destroyed… Striker seemed to be doin' the same thing."
Tendo stared. "That's impossible. He never showed signs of sentience."
"Not to you, maybe. But Chuck an' I saw the signs. Whenever we drifted, it felt like there was another presence in the drift with us. A third entity. At first we joked that his mum was watchin' over us from elsewhere, makin' sure we didn't kill ourselves… but it didn't feel like her. It felt like its own presence… it felt like Striker. Couldn't have been anyone else."
"And you never thought to mention this before? The greatest discovery in the history of the Jaeger program and you just sat on it?"
"What would the PPDC have done had we said anythin'? Probably yanked us from the program and slapped us in the nuthouse is what! Hell, I'll bet you anythin' the Kaidonovskys have known for YEARS their Jaeger's sentient and just kept it to themselves. Same with the Weis or the Becketts… hell, even Pentecost probably knew on some level. Any Rangers who brought it up got labeled as whack jobs, though, so we kept it quiet. An open secret among the Rangers, as it were."
"An open secret that's no longer a secret," Tendo reminded him. "Now that Cherno's become fully self-aware, we need the Rangers to be more open with us than ever. Because if that's the case, Cherno's not going to be the only one of his kind for long." He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. "I'll call the hospital and see if the Weis are in any kind of condition to be moved. We'll see if Crimson responds to them being closer. I want some kind of permission from their families before we do anything especially foolhardy like drifting, though."
Herc nodded, satisfied with that for now. "Kinda wish I'd said somethin' before the strike on the Breach. Maybe, with that bein' common knowledge… Pentecost wouldn't have been so quick to sacrifice Striker an' Gipsy."
Tendo didn't know what to say in response. Thankfully, he was saved by an announcement from Raleigh.
"Mako says they've got everything wired up," he radioed. "The LOCCENT can activate the visual feeds now."
"Copy that," Tendo replied. "Bailey, visual's a go."
"What if this doesn't work?" she asked, hand on the button that would restore Cherno's visual feed.
"We regroup an' try again," Herc replied. "Push the button already."
She nodded and pressed it. Abruptly the readout, which had gone blank, erupted with Cyrillic symbols. Outside the LOCCENT, Cherno jerked and let out a high whine, causing an uproar from the repair crews.
"Something definitely happened there," Raleigh said, rather unhelpfully.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Tendo. "Anyone hurt?"
"No, just spooked," Raleigh reported. "Mako, Sasha, Aleksis, what's going on in there?"
"He sees!" Sasha exclaimed. "He says he can see!"
Mako must have spread the word to the rest of the crew, because the hangar erupted with cheers. Newt flung his arms around Hermann in a hug, much to the other scientist's consternation, and Raleigh pumped his fists in the air with a whoop. Even Lance, standing off to the side and watching curiously, looked elated. Lexie still scowled, but then, it seemed little about this situation pleased her at all.
Tendo sagged with relief. "Let's get you two out of there. Bailey, shut down the neural handshake. Mako, help them out of the Conn Pod. Everyone else… good job. We've got a lot of work yet to do, but good job." He pulled a handkerchief out of his shirt pocket and wiped his brow. "Let's get the LOCCENT ready for Mustang's drift. With any luck, we'll have as good of luck with it as we did with Cherno."
"Somehow I doubt that," Herc muttered. But for the first time since the attack on the Breach, he wore a genuine smile.