April 8th 2035
Shatterdome, Hong Kong
Jaeger Simulator 9
0845 AM
Kowalski was absolutely furious. He walked over to the nearest wall and began slamming his head against it as he recounted every last battle simulation he had created for Jack this morning being knocked aside like they were standing still.
Jack's goading wasn't helping much either. Nor was the fact that he was doing it without a copilot.
Skipper walked in with two thermoses of cod stew, and wasn't too surprised to see Kowalski trying to give himself a concussion. After just two slams against the wall, Kowalski lost balance and turned dizzily to face Skipper. He immediately straightened up as best he could. He may be a certified genius, but that had no bearing on whether or not he was an idiot.
Skipper just sighed patting him on the back as he led him away to the infirmary.
Tooth was walking to the last simulator bay to upgrade it with the new data from Cherno's latest overhaul, when she heard the groaning coming from there. She peeked around the corner and was rewarded with a battered looking Kowalski and a tired Skipper.
All it took was one look from Skipper to convey what had happened. She waved to him over her shoulder to let him know she had the situation under control.
Their new Pilot was in the Jaeger Simulator, and he was good. Very good. He was also the creep undressing her with his eyes from yesterday. The powder blue jumpsuit was a dead giveaway.
Tooth pursed her lips together and thought. She gradually grew a devious smile, and decided to teach this wannabe hotshot a lesson. Before he hit on her where her father saw him and he got broken thumbs. That hadn't been fun last time Poor Chucky, He didn't quite deserve that.
She strolled into the control center, and flipped on a microphone. "I'll be taking over for Kowalski." Was all she said as she clipped it off, sat down, and began calling up the parameters of her own battle simulation. All it took was a few keystrokes to pre-stage a scenario as he made bleu sushi out of a generic Kraken that Private had programmed Months ago. They must really be at the bottom of the barrel then.
A stormy sea drop and a sinuous category 4 Kaiju as of yet unnamed that looked quite a bit like a snake covered in overlapping, rear-facing jutting knives. Perfect.
This needed a more personal touch than letting the Simulator AI run the beastie. Much as she hated to say it, the perv was pretty good. She slipped on a pair of gauntlets and a virtual reality helmet, and began the simulation. Too bad for him she had the fastest power glove in Hong Kong.
...
Jack tried to raise whoever was now in charge of the simulation, but as he felt himself being lifted in another drop he decided to sit back and get ready for the fight.
Solo Training was... weird. It was really only used by most everybody before they strap into the real deal, to weed out the ones that can't drift well enough to work a Jaeger, and to have the techs to gather data that they use to place trainees with their test partners. After a few days most everyone graduates to the tandem machines or washes out. One man training is a bit pointless if you don't pilot alone. But that meant that it was perfect for Jack, who didn't have a CP yet, as without new trainees nobody ever used it. And the drift was always easier alone.
...
Marshal Pentecost was performing an impromptu inspection of the Jaeger Simulators, when he noticed something off. What he couldn't put his finger on. He turned to Mako and was about to tactfully ask her if she saw what the problem was, not letting on that he as of yet had no real idea, until he realized what exactly was off.
Kowalski was Jack's simulator advisor and overseer, and he was in the medical wing for a checkup. Which meant someone else administering a battle simulation to Jack in bay 9? Mako looked worriedly at her father-figure until he suddenly turned on a dime and began taking long strides to Jaeger Simulation Bay 9. She had to practically run to keep up with him.
...
Jack walked through the choppy seas. He couldn't find his balance and he had trouble staying on his feet. It was one of the downsides to piloting one of the lighter Jaegers; you get thrown around a bit.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a tail of some type break the water, with a frill like a Dimerodon running all the way back. Jack had to laugh a little. Whoever this chick was she sure moved a Kaiju with elegance. She was playing with him a bit, but that was fine. It just gave him more time to figure out her game.
Jack couldn't resist the urge to talk some trash, so he clicked on his com. "Hey Cleopatra! The way you're having this thing move, it looks like you've had a little experience with this sort of thing. You been friendly with many snakes princess?"
'Oh, you little oversexed-'
"ERRH" As her internal monologue veered wildly away from actual language toward the need to induce pain, Tooth growled inarticulately.
Tooth knew she shouldn't have let the stupid jab get under her skin as much as it did, but somehow it wormed its way in and practically threw a match on gasoline. She swung out her right fist eager to make contact with this arrogant pilot's Jaeger. The Serpent surged from the ocean like a shot and hurtled toward Blue Winter with its bone-armored skull.
Jack saw the strike coming, sidestepped it easily to the right, and activated the weapon integrated into Winter's left arm. 'Now we're talking.' Jack smiled as water from the ocean and the rain and the air condensed and froze in the raised armor shutters of the arm, until a massive spike of ice jutted out of the armor's opening. The shard scored its armor toward the tail end of its elongated body, and the cooling system activated on the right arm. He charged at the creature as it came around and roared at him, right arm cocked back with its new weapon ready to ram down this monster's throat.
Mako watched as the Jaeger pilot and mechanic went practically toe to toe. Iceland was good. This was to be expected, as no one had ever doubted his skill in battle, only in life. However, the mechanic was good. Very good. Surprisingly good. Her control over the Kaiju avatar was fluid, and natural. She seemed to have a talent for this sort of machine operation. Despite the lack of options that her chosen weapon had, she was making use of the surrounding turbulence and its small body profile to withdraw and attack from odd angels to gain every advantage. She would slam down in an arcing jump, only to let the enemy stagger, before circling around and tightening the noose, attempting to bind the Jaeger between the bone shards threshing together.
When it seemed one had the upper hand the other was quicker and ready with an impromptu strike to the side, pinning though somewhere a bit ahead of the serpent's middle, and pinning it to the seabed with its right arm. She thrashed like a worm on a hook, and the ice holding it was starting to fracture, even as its flesh began to cool and dry. Winter Cocked its left arm high while the right pinned the beast, and readied its loosened arm's weapon. Cycling up an internal electromagnetic superconductive catapult, Jack loosed an eighty foot javelin of ice, staking the Kaiju higher up its body. Another spear precipitated from the air, and he adjusted his aim to nail another section down closer to its head.
But it was not to be, the beast shatter the binding pylons and twisted bleeding into the water, injured but not dead, to begin the battle anew.
...
Both were fast opponents, almost impossible for a Jaeger or a Kaiju at their massive scale. Jaegers were made of advanced alloys and metamaterial structural materials like diamond foam gilded with titanium. Kaiju were built from the cellular level up to lift and withstand their immense weight outside of the water, cell and tissue structured and rigid, but flexible in certain directions. But they were so both so big, and under so much stress, that their reactions times slow considerably, just to overcome their own mass. They reacted easily, instinctively to the other's actions, despite the lag of opposing that much gravity and momentum.
The way they found openings in the other defenses was incredible. Both She looked to the Marshal who was smiling mutely. She knew almost immediately what he was thinking; they were Drift compatible. Skipper, who had just returned from dropping off Kowalski, was staring open mouthed at the 3-D render suspended above the display pedestal that Tooth was working on.
The best teams were already half inside each other's heads before they ever get into the Conn-pod. matching pilots was more of an art than a science, truth be told. You can match people up by the numbers all day, but usually it was the teams thrown together by choice and chance and blood that would make the machine move.
...
Jack staggered back slightly as he blasted his opponent back into the raging torrents. His Jaeger's armor was melted away slightly on his right arm, there were gouge marks along the outside covering of the pit that was letting a torrent of rain into the innards and his Jaeger's lower abdomen torn half open from this thing's shredding. Gods alone only knew what that'd do if/when it froze from the coolant.
His opponent was still fast in the water and the great frill along its spine furiously ungulate whipping the water into a froth.
He decided it was time to end this right now. He ran forward dislocated its jaw with a left cross made into a heavy club with a sheath of ice. He hooked its neck with his right, felt its serpentine tail coil Winter's arm, and open in an elongated tri-claw like appendage at the tip to strike at its body. He stretched out his intercepting left as far as he could to keep its tail just out of reach, and vented coolant into the right arm to frost the coils to its Blue Winter's hull. He pulled back his left, and pushed his left palm into its gaping jaws.
Tooth was surprised at this move, but either way she was going to win. Just a little corrosive spittle would destroy the arm, and then a little more pressure would bring her tail close enough to crush his head and yank it off. Just as she was about to enact her attack, she found herself slowing down. She looked at the coils frosted to the machine and saw the glacial pack creep over her beautiful monster, making its flesh crack and shatter. Jack smiled. His Jaeger wasn't called Blue Winter for nothing. Its Specialty was a second generation mass refrigeration system based on the one used in Horizon Brave and from the looks of things it was working beautifully.
At least in the simulation.
Tooth reeled back as her body began to freeze over, soon finding herself roaring in outrage, being robbed of the agency to do anything else. She stood there frozen in shock as the pilot walked forward pulled back with his Jaeger's ice encrusted arm and smashed her into Icee Blue ice cubes.
Incensed, she panted as the simulation ended, and the message 'Would you like to try again?' Flashed over her screen. And condescendingly from over the Loudspeaker. Stupid AI.
She growled as she yanked off her controls, and turned to face Marshal Pentecost and Miss Mori. Tooth ducked her head deeply and tried to make herself small as the Marshal turned on the microphone to the Jaeger cockpit. This was so not going to end well.
...
Jack was grinning like a madman; he had never had such fun in a battle simulation. He had to request this person for next time. He heard his microphone click.
"Not bad your 'Majesty,' we should play more often." He teased.
"Get out of the Simulator and be at my office at 1800. Now Ranger!" Marshal Pentecost replied. Jack felt his face grow beet red, as he clicked on the radio again.
"Copy that Marshal, sir." He replied quietly as he exited through the opposite hatch. Jack did not want to face the Marshal right now, especially after that little jab. Jack groaned as he made his way to the office. 'And the day was going so good…' He thought glumly, as he sat inside waiting for the Marshal.
...
Tooth didn't know whether to yell or laugh. This pilot had just shot off another jab at her, which was where the urge to yell came in. The urge to laugh was when the pilot realized he was addressing the Marshal of the Shatterdome. Then he directed his attention to her, this led to the urge to hide behind anything. Unfortunately there really wasn't anything to hide behind. He looked her up and down, but not the same way the pilot boy did.
"Tech Specialist..." He began
Tooth was about to answer, most likely her common name by reflex which would be a mistake, when Mako Jumped in.
"Teerthankarovna, Tulika Teerthankarovna." Mako said with an apologetic smile, as she tossed Tooth under the bus. "Her parents were Teerhankar and Anjana Hegde, from Kali Armature."
"Yes, the Kaidonovsky's girl. You have a lot to live up to." He said something unreadable in his eyes. "Your parents will be proud."
Tooth wasn't sure which ones he meant, but really it didn't matter. The message and the odd, heavy warmth it gave her, the pride and weight of responsibility, were the same either way.
Tooth was given a friendly pat on the shoulder by Mako, who shot her a sympathetic and somewhat jealous look before followed the Marshal out to select Gypsie's copilot.
As soon as the room was void of all people, Tooth slumped so deeply into her chair her ass was hanging in the air.