Author's Notes: Thank you all for the great reviews! Please keep them coming! A canon character makes a quick debut in this chapter - anybody know who?
Canon Note: In the movie, Stacker Pentecost spoke of a Jaeger called "Tango Tasmania," but Travis Beacham subsequently said that name was incorrect, because no two Jaegers had the same name elements (and there was also a Coyote Tango.) So I made up some fanon about that to explain it. It's on my Tumblr if anyone wants to read it and a little history of the OC Rangers I invented: Talon "Tango" Tasmania, The First Dancing Jaeger.
Chapter Fifteen: Behind The Scenes
Jaeger Academy and Assembly Facilities, Kodiak Island, Alaska...
February 2, 2017...
The newly-minted Rangers had to dodge their way from the Academy infirmary through a few hundred recruits, many of whom either hadn't read or just plain forgot the Event Instructions. One of them came around a corner too fast and plowed into Raleigh, knocking them both to the floor. "OOF! Dammit - oh! Sorry, sir," she muttered, untangling herself.
"Easy there, Recruit," Yancy laughed, giving them both a hand up. He blinked at her. "Do I know you?"
She looked Asian, or maybe Native? Obviously she had some military instincts; she snapped to attention. "Ilisapie Flint, sir."
Devi stepped to his side. "Dismissed, Recruit." She gave Yancy a meaningful look, and waited until they were moving again. "You're not supposed to talk to the schoolchildren."
"What, I can't make an exception when they pile drive my brother? She just looked familiar."
Once they were outside, jogging down to the Assembly Building, Devi confirmed, "She is. She's a Sideways." That was the slang for PPDC personnel who decided to take a stab at becoming pilots. "But we're not supposed to notice until first cut is over."
"Yes, ma."
A reunion for the previous Academy classes followed in the big war room of the Assembly Building. Most of them - newbie Rangers included – were still in various stages of training, so they'd all be stuck in front of the conference room screens for the duration, biting their nails with nothing else to do.
Coyote's support team was soon out the door. "Are they ready to deploy?" Raleigh demanded.
"If necessary. They're moving her onto the grounds now. Hawks'll pick her up if they have to," said Tendo, watching the commands from Anchorage's LOCCENT.
He, Indra Hassan, and Cady Spencer were training as LOCCENT techs. Christian Warner was training as a drivesuit tech, and Chloe Warner had decided to join K-Watch.
"Any word from Kaiju Traffic Control yet?" Stephanie asked Chloe.
She shook her head. "They suspended the latest detector installment project two weeks ago, once we were past the three month mark. It's going to re-start after this attack. Last direction they had was northwest, but that was less than a mile from the Breach. They all tend to go in circles at first."
"Looking to pick up a trail," Yancy murmured. "Wonder how the recruits are taking it."
"Last I saw they were still running around like a stampede," Christian told him. "I don't remember us being that freaked out last year."
"Be nice; we'd all made the second cut by the time Reckoner showed up, and had... what, three emergency drills? Four. They've only had one," said Kennedy.
Most of them wound up going over their own drills again for their various departments just so they'd have a way to pass the time. Eventually, some of the training supervisors showed up - and took them through the drills again.
Active duty Rangers would have to wait out the entire alert period in their conn-pods and full suits and armor until they had a confirmation of where the bogey was going. LOCCENT personnel had a rotating schedule of on-call status, and a very limited time to get to their posts once an alert went out. The J-techs and K-scientists had the same, and timed readiness checks on all the equipment under their responsibility.
They sat watching Coyote Tango getting prepared for her conn-pod drop, and then she was scrambled from the Assembly Building out onto the proving grounds among her fleet of jumphawks to await orders. "Hey, where's Antwan?" asked Tendo, looking around.
"He's on duty. He finished the first stage already," Christian replied.
"Seriously?! Great, now I feel inadequate."
Yancy laughed. "Jaeger Traffic Control takes a little more time, my man. Antwan's been doing people traffic control for years." Antwan Ferrier had opted for personnel coordination, and was already in charge of a small on-base team. After herding tourists on and off cruise ships, including during the Cabo attack, keeping control of a few dozen trained rescue/recovery workers held no fear for the Jamaican.
Chloe jumped up a split second before the alarm sounded again. "Bogey detected. Marshall Islands."
"Uh-ohhh, sucker's heading east," murmured Tendo.
"Southeast," said someone, studying the map. The red bogey blip was among the islands southeast of the Breach.
"Not that far south," Chloe replied grimly. "Plenty of time for him to change direction any way he wants. Scissure made it almost to Hawaii before he decided on Australia."
Raleigh, Kennedy, and Stephanie were on the floor against the wall with their knees against their chests. They certainly wouldn't have passed themselves off as Rangers at this moment. The sight gave Yancy a pang, remembering just how young his brother and two of their fellow Rangers were.
He felt a little better once Tendo turned on the camera feeds to the Academy rooms (and nobody asked where Tendo'd gotten the codes). Some of the recruits were freaking already, and they still had hours – probably days – of waiting to go.
Devi Hassan scolded some of the others for scoffing. "If all you're going to do is mock them, turn it off. You're not showing yourself any better."
Yancy and Raleigh exchanged a look, privately agreeing with their more vocal cohorts that the recruits could stand to get a grip, but they held it in. In all fairness, most of the newbies were keeping it together, if tense and restless, but that was true of everybody anywhere near the Pacific coast of the world at the moment. Yancy spotted Raleigh's pile-driver among a group doing Bushido drills with rigid concentration on one side of the gym. Good on her, even if she could stand to watch where she's going in the halls, he thought with amusement.
"I swear it did not used to take this long before we got here," Cady muttered at hour number ten. The kaiju blip didn't seem to have moved much in any direction.
"That's because the public doesn't even get told until the bogey hits the thousand-mile mark," said Chloe. "People panic too easily. Remember the last one in 2014? They tried turning the sirens on in Australia as soon as they picked up movement in the Breach, and people rioted. Then it turned out he was heading for Chile, and they rioted again!"
"I remember that; we were there," Suze Hassan huffed. "It was embarrassing. Yes, everyone was angry and grieving after Scissure, but the hysteria only caused more death and damage."
Indra nodded, but Devi shook her head, more inclined to be charitable. "There were no Jaegers then. That was the fifth attack, and there was no end in sight, no hope. Of course, people were losing all restraint. The world was ending, and no one could help us."
Interestingly, Yancy saw his brother nodding to that. Raleigh'd been very quiet during the emergency planning of the pre-Jaeger days, while Jazmine had cried and fretted constantly. Both were signs of the same fear, Yancy had known. He wondered if he'd deliberately made himself forget just how scared Raleigh had been back then. Raleigh Becket unable to muster a smartass remark was a major warning sign. After Brawler Yukon took out Karloff, he'd started snarking again.
People dozed on and off on tables, floor, and in chairs as day gave way to night and the hours inched by. No mustaches or obscenities were drawn on the sleepers in eyeliner this time. The next alert went off at four a.m. as the kaiju made his appearance in French Polynesia. He didn't hang around long, but wreaked plenty of destruction on the crossing. He made landfall on the northwest side of the island and departed on the southeast side, still apparently on the same heading.
"We've got a codename now," Tendo announced. "Vaulimi."
The Australians frowned to each other. "Is that Maori?"
"Tahitian. Means 'eight legs,' according to the spotters."
"I only counted six legs," said Raleigh.
"Somebody counted eight, that's all I know."
"Chile again, you think?" Yancy asked Chloe, who was running projection programs on her laptop. Most of the currents and the kaiju's general direction seemed to indicate South America.
"Still too early to tell," she sighed. "The spotters have him now, but if he dives again, we'll lose him."
He dove, and they did lose him again. The trainees gnawed on emergency rations, did their drills, and slept restlessly for almost another full day. The red alerts finally went out when he turned up off Galapagos. "Oh, fuck, if he gets into Panama..." someone hissed.
"Lima's already on it," Tendo reported. "Pentecost has Diablo Intercept already at the canal on standby. Hope those guys got some sleep last night. Solar Prophet's staying in Lima, and Talon Tasmania's going to float depending on where he comes in.
February 5, 2017...
Nearly seventy-two hours after detecting movement in the Breach, K-Watch finally issued a prediction: Guayaquil, Ecuador. "Really? Don't think I've ever heard of the place," muttered Christian.
"It's one of the biggest cities, but the oceanographers have been recording major runoff problems, and the currents take it straight into Galapagos," Chloe told them. "All he has to do now is follow the pollution trail."
"Not that any part of this is 'good,' but better that than Panama City," Raleigh murmured. "God, we would be so utterly fucked if they found the canal."
"It will not happen," Yancy growled. Stupid, empty thing to say, but he felt intensely determined on that score. "We'll drop every Jaeger in front of it including Gipsy if we have to."
They all breathed a little easier, and Chloe was rather smug - already getting into departmental loyalty - when the prediction of Guayaquil proved correct, and Vaulimi headed straight for it. "We are earning our budget, my friends!"
"Talon Tasmania, now deploying for intercept, northwest shore of Isla Puna. ETA with contact point, twenty minutes."
"He's coming straight at you, Talon!" said Lima's LOCCENT. "Looks like he's going to weigh in just shy of Reckoner."
"He's smaller? I think I'm insulted," the female pilot complained. "Heavy smog in the air, visibility is low. Switching to instruments."
It was full daylight on Ecuador, but the spotters had to show the images on infrared for anyone to have a clue what was going on. Talon waded into the mouth of the river between the island and the mainland and began blasting the kaiju with her white phosphorus cannons. "Pretty!" said Steffie. "Too bad it's daytime."
There were cheers, hastily stifled, from the feed of the Academy Assembly when two of Vaulimi's legs got blown off, but then the kaiju rallied and charged the Jaeger. "Here we go, watch the legs!"
Yancy swore his teeth rattled in sympathy from the blow as monster and mech crashed onto the beach. "Mierda! Deploying front blades!" huffed Miguel. Talon's signature titanium hook blades were barely visible, but the kaiju reared away from them with a very satisfying screech, spurting its noxious ichor.
Talon pressed the attack and began hacking at two of the limbs that Vaulimi was balancing on, but the problem with having eight appendages was that even after cutting two off, they were still outnumbered. And the kaiju had a long neck with a bird-like beak on its head - a beak with teeth. White phosphorus erupted into the air like a fireworks display gone wrong as Vaulimi tore into one of the Jaeger's main cannons.
"Ah, shit!" Raleigh hissed.
"Right cannon is down! Hydraulic pressure dropping!"
"Talon Tasmania, do you need backup?!"
"This is Lima LOCCENT, Solar Prophet is lifting off."
"I think we have him - stand by - " Talon slapped her weakened right arm across Vaulimi's front, still inflicting plenty of new gashes from its blades, then swung back in as the kaiju recoiled and nailed it in the neck with a pulse from the working cannon. "Trying to - get the head - " The roars abruptly stopped as the narrow neck finally severed, and people whooped all around...
... but the kaiju was still moving. "TANGO, we still have signature! Repeat, still have signature!"
"Hijo de puta, that's a decoy head - "
"OH!" Chloe cried and clapped her hands over her mouth, people shouted and cursed, and Yancy found himself on his feet along with them as the kaiju - a second, larger mouth now visible further down its trunk - brought its six remaining limbs around the Jaeger and hurled itself on top of her.
"Solar Prophet, deploy immediately!"
" - losing - comp - reactor casing - mayday, mayday!"
"Jesus, oh, Jesus," someone was hissing, someone on the comms was screaming, and Yancy's mind was an endless chant of no, no, no!
Jaeger and kaiju were rolling in the river, Kaiju Blue spraying, but also fireballs bursting whenever Talon surfaced... oh, shit, this was bad.
"Me cago en Dios, MOVE! This is Solar Prophet, ETA eight minutes!"
"Talon Tasmania, Talon Tasmania, do you copy?!"
There was nothing from Talon's comm but static. Then the kaiju started moving again, dragging itself down the river towards the shore. The half-submerged Jaeger wasn't moving.
"Guayaquil, you have incoming! Incoming! Take cover now!"
"Oh my god," Tendo was whispering, staring at his LOCCENT screen. "Oh my god. Her reactor's leaking."
"Does LOCCENT think they might still be alive?" murmured Kennedy.
"Doesn't say. I doubt it."
The stinking thing was badly wounded, for what little consolation they could take from that. They could tell from the way it was lurching as it hauled itself ashore, but it still flattened every structure that it crossed, and Kaiju Blue was spilling all over the city. Someone turned another screen to a news channel that was showing video of the stricken Jaeger, gouts of flame still bursting from her hull.
"We've been ordered to move away immediately; radiation levels are rising," said a news announcer grimly. "The authorities are declaring a nuclear emergency."
"Here he comes, Jaeger Solar Prophet of Peru, being carried by helicopters over the north side of Guayaquil!"
"This is Prophet, we're deploying flaretorch as soon as we're in range. Tell all civilians in the area to get underground; we can't wait!"
"Already on it, Solar Prophet!" said LOCCENT. "Command says fire at will, take that thing down by any means necessary!"
"With pleasure! Intercepting!" Talon Tasmania had sliced and sizzled Vaulimi for a relatively easy finish. Down to three limbs, dragging itself around among the buildings, it couldn't do much for defense as Solar Prophet blasted it with his massive blowtorches. Prophet wisely started from a small distance, but came in closer and closer as he knocked the beast onto its back and turned it into barbecue, then hacked off all three remaining limbs for good measure.
"LOCCENT, do we have signature?"
"That's a negative, Solar Prophet, no signature. This is Lima Local Command, declaring kaiju destroyed, 1544 hours."
Nobody in Anchorage or on the speakers cheered this time. "Roger that, LOCCENT, we're moving to Talon Tasmania's position."
"Stand by, Solar Prophet, stand by. We're getting massive radiation readings. We can't put you at risk."
There was a long pause, and then... "Sorry, LOCCENT, I didn't hear you."
"Solar Prophet, this is Marshall Stacker Pentecost, I'm ordering you to stay where you are!" barked a familiar voice.
"Still not receiving you, LOCCENT."
A few weak, dismal chuckles rippled through the room. Yancy supposed he'd do exactly the same thing if he were in that conn-pod, but bitterly admitted that Pentecost was probably right - there wasn't any point. Not with those radiation readings. Even if Maria and Miguel Blanco had survived the fight itself, they'd already many times a lethal dose of radiation. If they're lucky, they're not alive, a small, dark part of him whispered.
Solar Prophet continued ignoring both admonitions and arguments and moved down the river to the wreckage. "I don't think your choppers have better shielding than we do in this conn-pod. Tell them to move back; we're checking Talon."
But it was only a few moments of examining the fallen mech that Solar Prophet straightened and turned away. Yancy could almost imagine that the Jaeger's shoulders slumped. "Visual contact with the conn-pod."
Oh, God.
"Talon One and Talon Two are down. Visual contact. The conn-pod is incinerated, LOCCENT. No rescue needed. Rest their souls."
"Amen," somebody whispered, and out of the corner of his eye, Yancy saw Tendo cross himself. A few of the others had their heads bowed, lips moving.
Yancy and Raleigh had never been much for religion, and Yancy felt as skeptical about a god as he did about his parents, the older he got. Too many people were dying in agony pleading for mercy. If there was a god, he was no more reliable than any human.
We knew this would happen. One day, it had to happen. Rangers were going to die; it was just a matter of time.
Did it have to be the newlyweds?
Would it feel any better if it had been somebody else?
Probably not.
To be continued...
Coming Monday: Even during the Jaeger Program's golden years, there were setbacks. The world mourns the first fallen Rangers and the victims of Guayaquil. But then, the media gets an early scoop on the identity of the American Mark III Jaeger's up-and-coming pilots, and our heroes need back-up of a different sort in Chapter Sixteen: United Front!
PLEASE remember to review!
Translations
Mierda - shit
Hijo de puta - son of a whore
Me cago en Dios - goddamnit
Original Character Guide
Rangers
Devi and Susanti Hassan: Indonesian-Australian sisters, ages 26 and 24, who graduated the Academy along with the Beckets and are expected to be assigned to an Australian Jaeger. (Which one? You can probably work it out from the canon sources, but if not, wait and see!)
Miguel Blanco and Maria Lopez-Blanco: Rangers of the Mark I Jaeger, Talon "Tango" Tasmania. Argentinian Navy pilots, they discovered their drift compatibility by dancing, and started the Ranger tradition of making their Jaeger dance. Fell in love during training and married shortly after Christmas 2016. Tragically, they were the first Rangers to die in battle only a few months after their wedding.
Trainees from Class 2016-B (the class that graduated the Beckets, the Hassans, Stephanie LaRue and Kennedy Lanphier)
Indra Hassan: Devi and Susanti's cousin, age 37, failed second cut for drift compatibility but now training as a LOCCENT technician with Tendo Choi
Cady Spencer: Filipino-American from Oregon, age 25, failed second cut also but training as a LOCCENT tech with Tendo and Indra
Chloe and Christian Warner: African-Americans half-siblings from Georgia, ages 23 and 25, failed second cut but Chloe is training to join K-Watch and Christian is training as a drivesuit technician.
Antwan Ferrier: Jamaican national, age 38, failed second cut but training as strike troop personnel coordinator