April 7th 2025

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean

Destination: Hong Kong Shatterdome

0249 AM

'Here.' Jack thought, as he stared out at the volatile waters beneath him.

"This is where it began." He whispered quietly. He gently laid back in the cabin as his transport chopper flew over the deepest part of the ocean. There wasn't anyone else aboard, so Jack had the space to himself. Feeling inclined to make use of it he stretched out to catch some sleep on the uncomfortable canvas bench seating, just knowing that his back was going to hate him for it.

Idly he reached to his hairline, feeling the all too familiar scar along his head. He was thankful that it was there for two reasons; it made him look cooler, and it kept his memory blocked. His past was a closed book to him, and he preferred things that way.

For him, life began when he got this scar.

He remembered being told how he got it, the only question in his mind was 'why.'

Jack was just looking after his sister, not that he minded much. She was a good kid. Hardly obnoxious at all for a six year old.

He had time to kill before leaving for work, which always was a dull ache lasting for eight hours. There was only so much he could do job-wise. Being a mechanic sucked, but he was a high school dropout with a GED. Not that that really meant anything though. He knew he could piece together anything he wanted, he was imaginative. He left school more from disinterest than stupidity, though how wise a decision it had been was up for debate.

Something his fellow 'zombie' co-workers lacked. Most of them jus shamble into work dead to the world until they dosed up on caffeine and did a crappy job fixing up cars, maybe a little custom work, but nothing worth doing. Nothing that would last.

For now, it was him, his mother, and precious little sister. Dad was long gone, not that that was anything special, anymore. But they were happy. Home was Burgess, a little place in costal Oregon. Used to be a shipping town for the logging and fishing industries, it had been hit hard, but was currently building itself up again. Better than some places that had to be scrubbed after the Kaiju pounded them to the foundations.

He ran with her through golden fields of tall costal grasses, near their small home town. Beaches were abandoned since the Kaiju. Rich people moved inland, for safety. With them went the money that kept a lot of seashores up and running. Swimming went out of style faster than you could ever imagine. So the beach was pretty much empty beside Jack and the little girl. So there was no warning siren to get them off the beaches.

All he knew was the roar of the ocean vomiting up something titanic.

Then darkness.

When Jack woke up again, he was surrounded by a small band of various unidentified Doctors before he felt a needle in his arm and his eyes flutter shut again.

The second time he rose, he nearly fainted, when he saw his reflection. His skull bandaged his once vibrantly brown eyes a pale blue, and his skin incredibly pale. Thinking it some macabre dream he went back to bed without a second thought.

Over the next few days, Jack showed signs of suffering a type of amnesia that Doctors found odd. He could remember faces, but their names slipped his tongue, and when he was asked to remember the attack or anything earlier, it was just black. His name was pretty much made up to fill in the blanks in his file for the Jaeger program.

He smiled quietly as he recalled their surprise at Jack's seemingly adept ability with the Jaegers. How he'd been shipped off once a Marshal, a CP, or a mix of the two found his methods just too insufferable.

'Or maybe they just found my winning personality too, irreverent?' He thought with a quiet smile to himself.

He chanced a glance out his window, and found his face pressing against the glass like a three year old. Right beside them was a massive Jaeger. It was harnessed to a team of helicopters soaring above it, and just by taking a brief glance at it anyone with eyes could tell this was easily the most agile Jaeger ever put into commission. Not the fastest that was the property of the one and only Mark V, Striker Eureka. But he could outmaneuver that over engineered crate any day.

No, this machine was experimental, a unique proof-of concept created at the end of the Mark IV's production run. It was uniquely suited to his strengths as a pilot, and had followed him from station to station. No other ranger had piloted his machine, at least not without him.

Jack leaned back a little, licking his dry lips as he smiled. Blue Winter. His massive Jaeger had finally caught up with them. That could only mean one thing; Nearing destination.

Jack packed up the wrappers from his MRE's and personal snacks on his temporary bunk. Tried to make himself presentable as a gentle rain began to streak across the windows. Breathed in then out to cool down and slow his pulse. Hopefully he and this Marshal-

He glanced at the paper with his name on it.

Marshal Pentecost. Great name, for a Marshal. Would get over their differences easily. It wasn't like he could be sent anywhere else now.

'All the other Marshals are dead.' He thought bitterly as he felt the gentle bump of the wheels hitting the tarmac.