Human beings will latch onto hope at all costs. Tell them there's a 90% chance that the world ends tomorrow and you will find some holding on to the 10% chance it won't like it's the gospel. Even when the odds keep stacking up until they prove just as unmovable as a mountain, hope they say springs eternal. All it takes for the human mind to gain the resolve needed to overcome such obstacles, is a tiny sliver of hope. Which if given time will grow into a force that can eradicate anything in its path.
The Jaegers were the hope we so desperately wanted. We had watched one single Kaiju destroy cities with little effort. We had encountered our would be conqueror and for most of us, the end was nigh. When the Jaegers were revealed to the public, what followed was a ground swell of enthusiasm. Newscasts that had predominantly been full of doom and gloom started parroting the arrivals of the Jaegers as our saviors. They took us behind the scenes (thanks to people like me) to the workings of these metal behemoths and lionized the pilots responsible for manning these robots.
Our fascination for any and all things Jaeger related knew no bounds. Enterprising businesses started churning out Jaeger related products. All this before the very first Jaeger engaged a Kaiju. We were banking on them so much for success that we left little to no room for failure.
The first Jaeger prototype was named Brawler Yukon. It was a revolutionary machine in that it paved the way for other Jaegers after it. It wasn't without problems, the main one being how one Ranger (the name used to describe the pilots) could maneuver it for an extended period of time. Because whoever was in the cockpit had to synchronize mentally with the machine, there was concern the brain might not be able to take on such load for an extended period of time.
Captain Adam Casey of the USAF, was the original ranger of the Yukon, and would go down in history as the very first human to move a complete Jaeger. I have his picture standing next to the Yukon triumphantly, framed somewhere in my office. That was a proud moment for us all. Casey was a beacon of hope for many; alas it would be so short lived. In the first demo of the Yukon, he suffered considerable mental strain which lead to a seizure and eventually his death. His brain simply could not handle all that was needed to properly control the machine. Brawler Yukon would crash to the ground with the images broadcasted all over the world. Casey' was a tragic death as many saw him as a bright star in the war against the Kaiju.
A lot of doubts arose as to whether the Jaegers could ever be properly manned. Another candidate by the name of Lt. Sergio D'Onofrio would try to prove the naysayers wrong by volunteering for another demonstration. Meanwhile on the sidelines, Dr. Caitlin Lightcap had begun theorizing that one mind might not be able to take sole control of the Yukon. When Sergio bravely gets the machine to walk but also suffers a seizure, Caitlin quickly swings into action, by donning the pons set Rangers use to mind meld with their machines, initiating the first known drift and creating what would be the best way to handle Jaegers.
Yukon was never meant to be used in fights. It was simply the prototype for which other models would be based off. Unfortunately those plans changed when a Kaiju named Karloff showed up, heading towards Vancouver. With the main Jaeger models still being assembled, Yukon was the only viable option. Sergio and Lightcap were deployed to tackle the alien. The date was April 23, 2015. I will never forget that day. It will forever be seared into my memory and I bet, in the memories of billions of people. It was the very first time mankind aided by their mechanical creations killed a Kaiju without using the nuclear option. It was our first major win.