"Sir, do you gamble?"
The wiry man blinked rapidly, looking around at the other journalists in the room, wondering if we had just heard the same question.
"Come again Mr. Pentecost," he finally said.
Staker without batting an eyelid, focus solely on the wiry man replied casually. "I asked, do you gamble?"
"Y..Yes I do, I mean I did. Oh dammit, I have but what does this have to do with anything?"
"Everything sir. I'd suggest you call up your bookies and bet everything on the Jaegers kicking the Kaijus extraterrestrial ass."
"O" mouthed the wiry man, slumping back into his seat.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I would not be standing in front of you today, feeding you some BS about our chances against these monsters. I simply do not have the time nor patience to invest in something that I do not believe in."
His gaze, unwavering and steely scanned the room, as he delivered what came off as a speech, perhaps rehearsed or maybe he was just damn good at giving such candid talks. Either way, we were hooked.
"I know there are many who doubt this project and maybe rightfully so. But I ask, what other alternatives do we have at this point? Whilst we wait and deliberate how to defeat these creatures, they don't seem to have that problem. Any minute now, one of them could come hurtling through that hole in the Pacific; we need to be prepared for that. We have lost far too many lives to remain complacent. It's time to take the fight to them."
Utter silence enveloped the room. It's not that I haven't heard rousing speeches before, it's just, this man who was probably the same age as me, delivered this soul stirring set of words, that completely won me over and made me believe that we were going to win. Mankind had a shot because of people like Staker Pentecost. These were the true heroes and to be in his presence was a privilege many will never have.
"If there are no more questions, I'd like to take you guys to the production floor. Time is of the essence and I would like to get that out of the way as soon as possible."
We were ushered out of the room moments later. Lead down the corridor to a pretty large elevator and proceeded downwards. Sounds of men at work filtered through the infrastructure. Metals clanging, echoes reverberating all over the place and constant shouts and yells. This was no small undertaking. As we made our way further into the bowels of the Earth, I could not help but wonder how much had been churned into this place.
The doors of the elevator opened and we stepped out to the production floor, which immediately felt like we had been transported to another dimension.
The first thing that hits you is the scale and magnitude of said undertaking. I don't think I have enough adjectives to describe just how 'grande' this project is. Make no mistake about it, this factory or whatever you want to call it is so large, it probably has its own zip code.
When I say it takes a lot of manpower and resources to create a Jaeger (which ironically stands for Hunter in German) I might not be doing it enough justice.
There are thousands involved. From robotics engineers to scientists tinkering with the neural interface. The weapons specialists, the would be pilots, the welders and numerous crafts men involved in one aspect or the other all find a way to exist peacefully in the same location. All in the hopes of producing our first legit shot of combating the Kaiju.
There is no man, or machine for that matter that isn't working or being worked on. Everywhere you look, something is going on. We were told we could take pictures but I didn't know where to start. That was when in the far left corner of my eye, I saw a massive structure looming into the rafters.
This thing was commanding most of the attention of the workers. It looked like a massive toy robot given the Godzilla treatment. Its head alone was probably as big as my current apartment building. The only reason I was able to see the head in the first place was because it was being assembled on a deck right next to the massive body. I had to strain my neck to see the top which had to be on the top most floor of the facility.
I brimmed with excitement as I took pictures of the Jaeger and the people building it. I could feel my heart racing , adrenaline levels rising. As a kid, we imagined things like this, but to see it come to life was an incredible feat. More importantly, I had seen a Kaiju, and knew how terrifying those things were. The Jaeger from what I saw could definitely take it on. If they could get these robotic giants to move, we had a legit shot at staving off the Apocalypse.
The Jaegers would save us all.