So in my last author's note, I mentioned how I was sad that Chapter 3 hadn't gotten any reviews, published it then realized that a review had just come in. ClawStrike590, thank you for reviewing and I'm sorry I have bad timing when publishing. Thank you to everyone else who reviewed, followed, favorite etc!

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Raleigh made it to the gym to spar with Mako the next morning despite every desire to stay in bed and not move. The pair spent almost two hours in the empty gym, lost in the rhythm of the movements and the steady tapping of the staffs against each other. Afterwards, Mako left to discuss the newest satellite data with Hansen and Hermann. Newton was supposedly in isolation away from the shatterdome until the new Jaeger was completed.

Once he had showered, Raleigh spent several hours reviewing the blueprints Tendo had emailed him the day before. The Jaeger designations and specifics ran together, the more scientific aspects were almost gibberish to the pilot who had a very limited understanding of nuclear reactors, metal alloys, and weight distribution requirements. He focused on the stats regarding speed, strength, stability and on the weapon designs for each Jaeger. He had more combat experience than anyone left in the program other than Herc and used that vital knowledge to analyze what tools would be most valuable in the event of a future Kaiju assault.

When his legs fell asleep for the third time, Raleigh knew he needed a break. Leaving behind the documents, he left to wander the halls. He had decided to memorize the labyrinth before the Green Beast simulation was up and running. He could rely on Mako for almost anything but being his tour guide was not one of the options.

Eventually, he made his way to the main Jaeger bay. It was haunting to see the empty spots that once held Cherno, Crimson, and Striker but his eyes were immediately drawn to Gipsy Danger's former home. He was amazed by how fast the rough form of Green Beast had gone up. Massive scaffolding surrounded the headless humanoid while heavy cables held smaller parts that waited for installation. The form was rough, anyone who saw it would know it wasn't an original Jaeger but it could function. On closer examination, Raleigh realized a few of the cables were rigging that held harnessed workers that were working several hundred feet in the air with plasma torches and massive saws. Lost in his appraisal of the new Jaeger, he didn't notice Herc Hansen until Max bumped his head into the younger pilot's leg, demanding attention. Crouching to pet the dog, Raleigh glanced up at the Marshall who was watching the workers suspended along the chest cavity.

"It's something isn't it?" Herc spoke after a moment. Raleigh readily agreed, having never seen this side of a Jaeger before. He and Yancy had met Gipsy Danger for the first time when she had arrived straight out of the box at the Anchorage Shatterdome. The sheer size of the Beast combined with the scaffolding and the army of support crew that was working on every aspect of it was hard to absorb.

"Angel's pissed at me." Herc added after a few minutes of watching the construction. "I pushed too hard on the twins. I'm guessing you've been read into the situation?" He glanced over at the Ranger who nodded; deciding that the vodka fueled conversation with Tendo was better left unelaborated on. "She's started calling me Marshall. Hasn't ever done that before." Herc let out a breath and gestured to one of the riggers. "She'll put herself up there in a heartbeat but I mention moving the twins into a Jaeger conn-pod and she threatens to quit and ship the twins to France."

Raleigh stayed silent, knowing that the older man needed to voice his thoughts aloud to one of the only people who understood while in the relative anonymity of the bustling construction bay. Here, Herc could think, just for a moment he was still a Ranger rather than the Marshall that controlled it all. There were so few people who understood the costs of the Jaeger program on its pilots and officers. Raleigh realized he was one of a handful of people who could relate to the Marshall at this point. But even as he acknowledged their similarities, he knew he was nothing compared to the man next to him. Hercules Hansen had been a legend long before Raleigh and Yancy had even thought of piloting a Jaeger much less entered the Academy. The Marshall had successfully piloted every generation of Jaegers against Kaiju and was still standing here today no matter what had been thrown at him. He had lost his wife, Pentecost, every co-pilot he had Drifted with until he had been forced to allow his own son into the conn-pod with him just to ensure the safety of their home. And then he had lost his son too. Herc was a legend because no one in the world could come close to doing everything he had to protect the people who needed it.

After what he hoped was enough time, Raleigh offered his opinion. "I could try talking to her if you want. I get her fear and the selfish aspect of it. I originally left for similar reasons. Plus she might not feel as betrayed hearing it from me rather than from you or Choi." Hansen glanced at him again and after a moment nodded. With that, every miniscule sign of sadness, exhaustion, and indecision vanished from the Marshall and he appeared every bit the fearless leader of the Corps. "I originally came over to let you know that there is a video conference in two hours with Pan Pacific government officials regarding the intel Mako has been so busy with. Your attendance isn't mandatory but encouraged."

Several thumps and the creak of metal came from the Jaeger construction just beyond the pair followed by yelling voices. "We best move." The Marshall tugged on Max's leash and Raleigh followed as the workers around the base and in the scaffolding scattered away from the Green Beast. A bellow of "Clear!" echoed through the bay before being followed by a falling chuck of corroded metal and shredded wires the size of a tank. Cables shrieked as they were unwound in a burst of speed and sparks. The discarded piece was steered through a path clear of scaffolding by a system of guide cables and counter weights that struggled to stopped the mass from free falling to the floor. It landed with a thud that shook the nearest scaffolding and sent Max into a barking frenzy.

As workers began detaching the guide cables and counterweights from the discarded metal, Nikki and the handful of other workers who had been cutting the piece out, began repelling down the side of the Jaeger. The group landed a hundred yards away from the two men. Ground workers swarmed them, detaching harnesses and collecting plasma torches and chainsaws. Nikki watched the teams as she detached her own plasma torch from her back and freed herself from the Green Beast before loosening her hair from its tight bun and running a greasy hand through it before retying it into a ponytail. Raleigh realized now why her hair seemed to change colors. Yancy had done the same thing when he went through his car building stage years ago. He would forget about the metal grease and oil on his hands and run it through his hair.

Now noticing the pair of pilots, Nikki said something to the now departing team and began walking over. Reaching them, she nodded at the men then bent to pet Max. "How's my boy!" Max answered with a bark, panting as Raleigh saw the technician genuinely smile for the first time.

"Angel…" Hansen's voice sent it away though and Nikki stood. "We're ahead of schedule Marshall." Her face was blank as she spoke. "We've cleared out the last of the damaged circuitry and are looking at a week and a half runtime rather than the original two if we continue at this pace. We've found a slight corrosion issue which is why we had to contain it and remove that chunk." She gestured at the rubble that was being loaded onto a flatbed with a hand before she continued. "The team for the simulator has almost got everything in place for…" A second creak echoed through the bay, whipping Nikki's head around and making the pilots jerk their heads up

A third shriek, longer and higher pitch followed. "CLEAR!" Nikki's horrified shout bounced through the scaffolding, sending men diving for cover. A smaller chuck of metal, the size of a small car, detached from the same general region as the first and began to fall. It smashed through the first two layers of scaffolding without slowing and sent connected scaffolding in either direction swaying to impact with the Jaeger body. As it punched through the remaining floors of scaffolding before it hit the ground, metal and wood debris was sent through the air and the entire scaffolding structure around the Green Beast seemed to quiver dangerously. Nikki was running towards the Jaeger before the incident fully registered to the workers on the ground.

In the confusion that followed, Raleigh could hear Nikki shouting for answers, and demanding to know if anyone had been hit. Screams could be heard from the damaged scaffolding; almost a sixth of it had been destroyed or damaged. Support crews streamed away from the chaos as their supervisors struggled to control the crowd. It was almost half an hour, during with Herc and Raleigh both waded through the crushed scaffolding to help ensure no one had been trapped, before it could be confirmed that no one had been directly hit by the falling metal. There were numerous injuries though; one worker had lost his foot when a cable trailing the falling debris had wrapped around it and almost pulled him from the seventh floor of the scaffolding. It had been a quick thinking coworker who had taken his foot off but saved him from the fatal fall. Almost a dozen others had been hit by flying debris and required immediate treatment. The entire bay was cleared of all workers within an hour and a half after the incident except a single team of five who began systematically reviewing the rest of the scaffolding and the Jaeger for any other weakened areas.

In the first calm moment since the freefall, Nikki rejoined the Rangers. "What happened?" Marshall Hansen asked after a moment during which they all regarded the suddenly dangerous form of the Jaeger.

"I don't fucking know." Anger and exhaustion fought for dominance in Nikki's single sentence. "I checked the damn supports myself before we separated the original segment and repelled down. I know every single one was secure." She wiped a hand along her face, smearing grease and what might be blood along her cheek. The movement slid her sleeve down and the blue tattoo that wrapped around her arm drew Raleigh's gaze. It somehow seemed far darker. "I'm going up in a few minutes to review the situation. The scaffolding is secure but I don't trust anyone up there in the harnesses right now. I'll have a report sent to you by tomorrow but this means we're back on the original two week timetable."

Marshall Hansen nodded. "Be careful." Nikki returned the gesture and walked away, beckoning to the sole support team member who wasn't in the lower portion of the scaffolding who assisted her into a harness.

Herc turned his attention to Raleigh. "We need to go. The conference is about to start and they need to finish securing the bay." The younger pilot shrugged and followed.

….. …. … …..

An hour later, Raleigh found himself standing next to Tendo behind Mako and Marshall Hansen who were addressing an assembled group of disgruntled officials, each on their own screen. Raleigh and Marshall were still dusty and sweaty from the incident in the bay and had forced to listen to each official take their turn in rambling before Mako had actually been able to begin her briefing.

"From the regions each signature has appeared in, we now believe that the rifts created by these creatures require water and cannot be opened on land, a small mercy under the circumstances. It also seems that the depth ocean in each case matters. Each source has been at least 5500 meters below the surface. We do not know that this means, but considering it is true in each of the eleven cases, it cannot be coincidence. Our scientific team have hypothesized that the water acts as an insulator and contains the rift energy in a central location rather than allowing it to dissipate." Mako read off the tablet held in the crook of her arm.

"Eleven?" Raleigh whispered to Choi who nodded. "Two this morning and one an hour ago." Hansen's quick backwards glance stopped any further commentary.

"Given the regions the rifts have opened in and the increasing number, we believe that, for lack of a better explanation, the Kaiju creators are now scouting out our world." Mako told the bureaucrats. Each one express their opinions at once till the Hong Kong delegate gained prominence and the others fell silent.

"What does this mean for the Jaeger program and the threat factor Marshall Hansen?"

"It means we are moving forward at all possible speed but despite the motivation, we will not have a functioning Jaeger for at least two weeks. I would recommend that all military bases in the regions near one of the rift points be placed on alert with nuclear ordinances at their disposal. "Herc spoke evenly but was interrupted by a second outcry. Clearing his throat caused the screens to fall silent. "I am aware that the bombing defense is not one we want to return to, but the next rift that opens could have a Kaiju come through. We currently have no way of knowing. As we all are aware, other than Jaegers, nothing short of nuclear weapons has come close to stopping a Kaiju assault."

With mass complaints, the men in suits reluctantly agreed to the plan but pushed for the Green Beast to be completed sooner and signed off. After each screen had gone blank, Raleigh walked forward and wrapped an arm around Mako's shoulders. She relaxed into him slightly and unlocked her knees. Tendo moved to shut down the conference system, muttering under his breath as he did so.

"What was that Officer Choi?" Herc asked as he rubbed his temples, eyes closed.

"I said that I didn't think we had to worry about funding anymore." Tendo said after a moment, earning a sharp laugh from the Marshall and a grin from Mako.

…. …. …. …

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