Forged in Fire, Chapter 16: Yancy

Gulf of Alaska

7 miles offshore from Anchorage

May 19, 2025

1200

Mako and Raleigh stood watching the cables slowly climb from the water, drawing Gipsy Danger's severed left arm from its watery home of the last five years. They looked down into the water, and were greeted by the red and white stripe of the shoulder pauldron becoming visible. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the arm appeared in the frigid seas.

Mako looked to Raleigh, who was clearly lost in thought. I know what he's thinking about… I've seen it before. Mako's mind went back to their first Drift. The hull! It went through the hull! Raleigh, listen to me! You need – AAAAAHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOO! She silently put her right hand atop Raleigh's left.

Slowly, the arm breached the surface, drawing gasps from the members of the crew who had never been around a Jaeger's wreckage before. Everything about a Jaeger was huge… except for the pilots in the Conn Pod. Even the project leader whistled in respect as he walked up to the Rangers. "I knew Jaegers were big, but that puts it into perspective." He looked at Raleigh and Mako. "You guys drove the thing that came off of?"

Raleigh was still lost in his memories, but Mako turned to face the man. "Yes. And Raleigh lost his brother in the attack. He's one of only two pilots to have survived the loss of a copilot and still finished the fight." She looked at the arm. "AFTER having that cut off by a Kaiju."

"I… I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's okay. Not many people outside the PPDC know. All most people care about is whether or not the Jaeger stopped the Kaiju."

"We saw the skeleton not far from here. Looks like parts of it were melted. That thing did it?"

"No, the other arm, actually. The one now in pieces at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, if any of it survived the nuke."

Raleigh snapped out of his funk. "Yeah, this one was almost ready to fire when Knifehead severed it. Never fired a shot that night." He looked out over the water. "Do you happen to have any scans of the area?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Mako gasped. Yancy.

"My brother was still tied into about five tons of metal when he was taken from me. If we can find his remains…"

"I'll get them pulled up."

One last thing: My phone has no coverage here. Can I use one of yours? I need to make a call…"

-.-.-

Hong Kong Shatterdome

Marshall Hansen's quarters

May 20, 2025

0615 (May 19, 2025 1215 Alaska time)

Beedlebeedle.

Beedlebeedle.

Herc slowly rolled over and picked up the phone. "'lo?"

"Sorry to have woken you, Herc, but I have a favor to ask."

"No worries, Raleigh. I needed to get up anyhow. What's up?"

"The recovery team here thinks that they might be able to locate Yancy's remains."

Herc paused. It had been five years since Yancy had been lost. "Raleigh, there's not going to be much left of him…"

"I know, sir. But he deserves more than to be left here."

"I'll dispatch an honor guard and a casket."

"Thank you, sir."

"No worries, mate."

Click.

Herc looked over at Max. "C'mere, you big baby. Let's get some breakfast."

Max perked up at the mention of food.

Herc shook his head. I swear he has a second stomach tucked between those ears. Reminds me a lot of Chuck in that regard.

-.-.-

1400 Alaska Daylight Time

Raleigh and Mako pored over the sonar scans, looking for the telltale shape of the right side of the Conn Pod. It had been nearly two hours, and they had not had much luck. Mako decided to go for a walk on the deck of the command ship. Raleigh stayed, fixated on finding his brother and bringing him home for the last time.

Mako looked back at Raleigh as she stepped through the hatch. He looks so sad, but I need a breath of fresh air. She headed over to the gangplank that lead to the barge they had placed the arm on.

"You look a little lost in thought, ma'am."

Mako slowly turned to see who it was. It was the ROV tech. "Yes. Raleigh is looking for his brother's remains."

"I heard. I cried so much when I heard he had died. I was a big fan of them, and of Gipsy."

Mako started to walk across to the arm. "If you would like, I can show you some of the intricate details of the arm, and the I19 Plasmacaster that makes up a large portion of it."

"I'd love to. I'm Emily, by the way. Emily Baxter."

"Call me Mako, please."

"No problem. So, Mako, what's this do?"

"That's one of the focal arrays. See, plasma…"

-.-.-

Raleigh hung his head in disappointment. I failed you again, Yancy. You've been gone five years, and I still can't manage to bring you back home. He looked outside. The skies were clear, the winds were calm, and the seas were flat. So different from that night. He saw Mako giving the ROV tech a guided tour of the arm. Maybe she has the right idea. I need to get away from this for a bit. Raleigh went outside to meet Mako and her new friend.

As he approached, he could here Mako in full-on tech mode. I love it when she does that, even when it goes over my head. She's so cute like that. He moved up closer to see what they were looking at. Ah, the markings on the knuckles.

Mako felt Raleigh's approach more than she heard it. The maelstrom of emotions emanating from him diminished slightly as he approached, replaced by the feelings Mako had come to interpret as his adoration for her. "Hello, Raleigh."

Emily jumped, surprised both by Mako's uncanny ability to tell that Raleigh was behind them, and also due to her proximity to her childhood crush. "Uhhh… Hi."

Raleigh laughed. "I'm Raleigh. What's your name?"

"I'm Emily."

"Lemme guess, you were a big Gipsy fan."

"Yeah… Mako, thanks for the tour, I just remembers I have some stuff I want to do."

"No, you are staying, Emily." Mako grabbed the fleeing tech's wrist. "Come on, don't be shy!"

"I'm not shy! I've got work to do!"

"It's not important enough that it kept you from coming with me."

At that, Emily gave up struggling.

Raleigh laughed harder. "Who are you, and what have you done with Mako?"

Mako punched him in the shoulder.

"Okay, that's the Mako I know." He turned to Emily. "Okay, I have a question for you, Emily. How long did you cry after I left the Ranger Corps?"

"Buhhh…." Emily's mind had been melted by Raleigh's question. "Huh?"

"Come on, I can tell when a girl had a crush on me back in my glory days. So, how long did you cry when I left the Corps?"

"Uhm…" Emily grabbed her ponytail and started playing with it. "A few days, I guess."

"Don't be embarrassed, Emily. That's pretty common. Believe me, I heard it all."

"Whaaa?"

"Emily, we were like rock stars. Hero worship was something that got to even our heads from time to time." Raleigh crouched down, laying a hand on Gipsy's arm. "But that night five years ago… When this happened, when Yancy died…" He looked at Emily. "It all changed. It wasn't a game anymore. I was still connected to him when he died. When Knifehead tore his side of the Conn Pod apart and dragged him into the hurricane we were fighting in." Raleigh, listen to me! You need – AAAAAAHHHH! "He's still here somewhere. His remains, anyways."

"I'm so sorry. I knew he died, but I didn't know how."

"They kept it pretty quiet. Morale and all, you know."

Emily slowly stood up. "I… I…"

Mako looked at her. "Lots of people lost loved ones to the Kaiju. I lost my adoptive father to two at once."

Emily looked at Mako. "Two? Hong Kong?"

"No, the assault on the Breach. He was copiloting Striker Eureka." Mako drifted into her memories briefly before snapping back to reality.

"I'm so sorry for both of your losses. I… I'll leave you alone for now."

Mako stood. "No, I'll go with you for a bit, but then I'm going to go back to searching the sonar scans."

"Can I help?"

Mako looked at Raleigh, lost in his memories. "Sure, Emily. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will spot something we missed."

-.-.-

Raleigh knelt by the arm, remembering the times with Yancy. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Mako and Emily, waiting for them to disappear into the superstructure of the command ship. Finally, they vanished from sight. Okay, Raleigh. Let's do this.

Raleigh moved to a particular spot on the wrecked arm, right by the emitter for the plasma cannon. He was looking for one particular piece of stainless steel… Aha. There it is. Raleigh borrowed a set of pliers and gently teased the 15 centimeter rod of metal out of its resting place. Perfect for my secret project. He quickly returned the pliers to their place and slipped the metal rod into his jacket. Now to hide this until I get back to the Shatterdome…

-.-.-

1430

Raleigh came back to the holotable and began to search the display. As usual, nothing stood out. Next.

Mako flipped to the next sector… and Raleigh froze. Mako followed his sightline. It was the missing piece of the Conn Pod. She walked over to Raleigh and hugged him, then looked into his eyes.

He was crying. "It's him, Mako. He's finally going home."

Mako smiled, not saying a word. There was nothing to say.

-.-.-

May 20, 2025

1200

The divers were carefully removing Yancy's remains from the tangled mess of the Con Pod wreckage. As expected, there wasn't much left.

Raleigh didn't care. Yancy's casket would no longer be empty. He would be going home a hero, instead of being forgotten and left at sea.

Mako had stayed with Raleigh the entire time since the discovery. He had done the same for her during their trip to Tokyo. At last he has some closure.

A radio nearby crackled to life. "We're done with retrieving Yancy. Do you want to retrieve the Conn Pod wreckage too?"

Raleigh thought about it for a while. "Not all of it, no. Bring up a few chunks of the hull, though." He looked at Mako. "I might have a use for them."

Mako squeezed Raleigh's hand. "Anatanokokoroni ken nodo no yōna mono ga arimasu ka?" What kind of sword do you have in mind?

Raleigh smiled at her. "De wanai ken... Shikashi, watashi wa watashi ga nanika o kangaerudarou to kakushin shite imasu." Not a sword... But I'm sure I'll think of something.

"We've got a couple of hefty pieces. Probably about 20 pounds. That sound good?"

"Yeah, that's plenty. Thanks, guys."

"No problem."

The divers would be needing another half hour for decompression, but the casket and steel could be sent straight to the surface. As such, Raleigh waited for the casket to arrive via crane. He watched it rise from the depths, and walked over to it once it arrived on the barge. Raleigh knelt down next to the casket. Mako followed suit.

Raleigh put his hand on the casket. He waited a moment, gathering his thoughts. Finally, he spoke, barely above a whisper.

"Yancy… We won. It took a lot longer than we'd thought, and it was harder than we'd hoped. We lost a lot of good people. All the Jaegers are gone. But we won." He hung his head. "We won."

Mako laid her right hand on Raleigh's back. "Yancy, I know I never met you. But from what your brother says, I would have really liked you." She paused, fighting back tears for a man she'd never met, or ever would. "I…" She hung her head, unable to find the words to express her emotions.

Raleigh spoke again. "I'm sorry it took me so long to come find you. But I did, and you're going home at last. I hope you can forgive me, both for taking so long to come back for you, and for not being able to bring Gipsy back home at the end of the war. She's gone, old man. I used her self-destruct to close the Breach. But without her, I'd have never met Mako. And without your death, I probably wouldn't have been Drift compatible with her. So if you're up there somewhere, watching me…"

A single tear splashed across the casket.

"Thank you."