Author's Note: The background info/gossip about Mexico's pilot candidates is a tidbit that was revealed by Travis Beacham's blog. The names of the Mexican Rangers weren't revealed, so I made them up. See my Tumblr, 3Fluffies, under the tag "generation k" for some of my headcanons and the stories and characters I've invented for this fic series. Thank you all once again for so many wonderful reviews, and please keep them coming!
Chapter Eighteen: The Pack Survives
PPDC Jaeger Academy and Assembly Facility, Kodiak Island, Alaska…
June 2017…
They did skive off both drills and the workouts after, and cancelled their afternoon sim, and managed to squeeze in six hours of sleep. The workout they'd taken care of, and then some, but the fightmasters were going give them a congenial, mild-mannered beatdown in the Rangers' evening practice session.
In lieu of the sim, they pored over the new Tactics material for the group assault plans. "Can we do a double sim now?" Raleigh mused.
"Not yet, I don't think… the simulator pod only takes one team at a time…" Yancy yawned and pondered it. "But sometimes instructors are logged on from other locations. To create the virtual environment with two Jaegers, you'd just need another pod logged on... Hell, we could do it remotely from any other Dome."
"That's one of many works in progress."
They looked up from their table, then jumped up: it was Marshall Pentecost. "Sir."
He looked them up and down. Yancy wondered what he'd heard. Well, with luck, he could see that the Beckets' latest shouting match had gone from quarters to Kwoon to the same bar with no bodily or property injury.
"At ease, Rangers." That was a good sign, but Yancy could feel his face getting hot and saw Raleigh flushing in the corner of his eye. "I'm giving an address this afternoon to the candidates for this class. Current Rangers and all Ranger Ready teams are also asked to attend."
Yancy nodded. "Certainly, sir."
"It's on the topic of conflict resolution."
Ouuuch. Now he knew his face was flaming, and he couldn't bear to even glance Raleigh's way. "We've... resolved the, uh, matter - " Yancy started to mumble, but to his surprise and relief, Pentecost took pity on them.
"So I hear, but this is a subject of concern to the entire Jaeger Program - and a presentation has been in the works for several weeks."
Well, that was something. Raleigh'd told him the origin story of Bruce Gage's scar. Maybe the Beckets weren't the only pair who ignited the Corps gossip chain when they fought.
As everyone gathered in the assembly hall, Yancy and Raleigh stood a little closer together than strictly necessary, laughing and joking to get the message across: It's all good, problem solved, nothing to see here, move on.
They got to scope out Class 2017-A in a group setting. Less than a week from the end of Term 3, the general consensus was that barring a massive blowup, the six pairs still remaining in contention would all make Ranger Ready.
"That's quite a bump from three teams at a time," Yancy murmured to Captain D'onofrio.
"Tell me about it. Caitlin's bouncing off the walls," D'onofrio replied. Yancy grinned. Among other things, if the new class could get her mind off grief for Talon Tasmania and the Blancos, that was a plus. Her husband went on, "It doesn't hurt that some of the governments have been running their own 'academy prep' recruiting course, trying to get their own nationals to be ready for the first cut and some even pre-tested for the second."
"Wow," Raleigh eyed the candidates. "Kinda surprises me there aren't more in line, then."
"Sim training is still a struggle, and even basic drift compatibility doesn't always translate into getting through the stresses of combat. Remember what I told you about Mexico? They got eleven men through the first cut, but only Daniel and Andrés over there made the second. And despite not having prep before enlisting, they're top of the class so far," D'onofrio added.
"Nice!" Raleigh hissed, grinning broadly.
Steffie poked Yancy from his other side. "And have you heard the really interesting bit about the Mexicans?" He shook his head, and she whispered, "They were in prison down there! The government let 'em out to try for the Academy. If they don't make Ranger, they have to go back."
Yancy blinked, and it was all he could do not to immediately turn and stare at the pair in question. "Seriously?" His mind raced at all the implications of that.
D'onofrio made a small, quelling motion with his hand. "Don't worry about it. There was a lot of vetting even before this Academy class, and the higher-ups know the details. Whatever it was, there was no violent crime involved. In fact, the C.O.s seem quite sympathetic to the Mexican candidates. They're still trying to negotiate officer status for the ones who failed so they don't have to go back. Marshall Pentecost wants to get them amnesty, Mexican government be damned."
Raleigh's eyebrows shot up. "Wow. That sounds like some kind of political dissension thing. Scary."
"And pathetic, if Mexico can't get its head out of its ass even after Cabo got obliterated," Yancy muttered. "Have you talked to them much?"
"I've only really seen them in Caitlin's pons lab, but she's comfortable with them. They're serious, but not quite the way the Chinese and Russians can be - I don't think either of them are military. But very level-headed in the sim."
"Kennedy and I've seen them in the Kwoon a few times," said Steph. "I think they've got that Latino machismo thing going on a little, you know, looking at us like 'what're you little cheerleader girls doing here,' but they're polite."
"What do we know about the other teams? I know we've got China, Russia, and South America," Raleigh mused, counting on his fingers. "Who else?"
"Don't call us biased, but I have to admit Caitlin and I are rooting pretty hard for the Canadians. Ilisapie over there was one of our support pilots. She's here with her cousin, Zeke."
"Hey, that's the one who ran you over in February!" Yancy laughed to Raleigh.
The pair in question caught the way the Beckets were grinning at them; the guy elbowed the woman, whose dark complexion then went distinctly reddish. Raleigh winked at her as the cheerleaders giggled. "Didn't we have a pair who were actually from Guayaquil?" whispered Suze Hassan from behind them.
"Rey and Isabel Khouri - far left. Yeah, Marshall Gagnon offered them a deferment to return if they needed to withdraw, but they decided to stay. Caitlin says their family's accounted for, thank God, but they had a rough time."
"I can imagine," Raleigh murmured, giving Yancy a pained look.
No kidding. And we thought life threw us a few curve balls last year!
"One of our Mark IIIs is funded jointly by Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Columbia," D'onofrio told them. "Up until February, they were squabbling as bad as the Mexicans over pilot criteria. Now they consider it auspicious, so as long as Rey and Isabel keep up their current trend - and they're doing excellent in the sims and Brawler - they'll be a shoo-in to defend their home turf."
China had sent almost eighty recruits to this class, and ended up with one team still in the running: one of their first generation of female fighter pilots and a member of her support crew. The Russians had a pair of female cousins from Siberia, and there was also an American woman from Panama and a Costa Rican man who'd been complete strangers before enlisting.
They turned their attention from scoping out the newbies once Pentecost started talking. "All of you attending and listening to this presentation are part of a unique group of human beings. Rangers, Ranger Ready, and Ranger candidates. You are drift compatible, possessing a bond to another person unparalleled in nature. That bond has placed all of you on the front lines of our defense against the deadliest enemy this world has ever seen."
His admonitions about the bond and its importance were a lot of what Yancy and Raleigh had heard from him in December. But he did add to it, and in the end, it gave them a few more things to think about.
"This is not to say that you can never disagree or be unhappy with each other. We recognize that you're all still human, and all humans have conflict. But how you deal with conflict must take into account the role your bond plays in your duties. You're not free to approach anger and frustration in the same way that ordinary people are, because you are not ordinary people."
"The first two attacks were six months apart. The last two were four months apart. They are oscillating, but there is a pattern of acceleration." Yancy felt Raleigh shiver at that, and saw some of the others doing it. "Three months have now passed since the last one, and the PPDC and all its territories are now on high alert. The next one could be tomorrow. Life does not stop, and can't stop, but none of you have the time for 'cooling off' with each other as ordinary humans do."
To Yancy's relief, what he and Raleigh had done yesterday fit into the instructions that were now coming down from the superiors: Fight it out in the Kwoon. Talk it out. Don't go to bed angry (well, that wasn't quite how they put it, but it was definitely what they meant.) Get it resolved by any and all means necessary.
Every pair in Yancy's line of sight was exchanging the same look that he knew he was exchanging with Raleigh, and he'd bet good money they were all thinking the same thoughts.
They're right. Of course, they're right. This is bigger than just you and me. Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, or even just friends. It's not about Yancy and Raleigh, it's about Gipsy Danger, being ready to deploy at a moment's notice. If we aren't in control of ourselves, we can't control her.
Self-discipline, Pentecost emphasized, in all things. It was a job requirement for every member of every military, but none more so than Rangers. The drift was a powerful force, and no one who experienced it went unchanged.
Was that really a bad thing? Yancy wondered, seeing Steffie and Kennedy smile at each other, and the intense looks that some of the other pairs exchanged. Not just the romantic pairs either.
By any standard, Yancy and Raleigh had been close even before enlisting. But since drifting... it was like self-consciousness eroded away, and he could admit how much he needed his brother, at a soul-deep level, and not be embarrassed or awkward. Better still, he could know Raleigh needed him. That was... definitely not a certainty that ordinary people had. And definitely not something to throw away or put in danger even if there weren't lives riding on it.
It had been horrible during their third term last winter, picking up that deep, lingering anxiety inside Raleigh that Yancy too would abandon him, just as Dad had done. Yancy had been so desperate to alleviate it, and found that no reassurance spoken or thought could do it... but he could show Raleigh that he had his own to match it. He'd feared that he'd let Raleigh down the way he'd let Jazmine down, that Raleigh would give up on him as she had, as Mom and Dad had. They never talked about it aloud, but those fears finally balanced each other out, and they could move on.
He would never give up Raleigh. Raleigh would never give up him. No matter what happened, they were in this together and always would be.
June 9, 2017…
On Graduation Day for six new teams of Rangers, the Breach opened again and spat out the biggest kaiju yet, codenamed Hammerjaw.
Team Gipsy had a full "muster drill" for pre-deployment, but once K-Watch confirmed that the kaiju was making a beeline for Japan, the western Jaegers got a stand-down order.
Once the bogey was aiming into Osaka Bay, the Chinese sent their Mark II, Silver Lion, to team up with Tacit Ronin in Osaka, with Horizon Brave waiting with Japan's Mark II, Tidal Dragon, over in Kobe.
"Have they been training together?" Raleigh asked.
"Yep," said Tendo, digging through the reports from the other LOCCENTS with Cady and Indra, as usual. "China and Japan have really been spearheading this Jaeger Strike Group movement. They have a special jurisdiction treaty signed that as soon as K-Watch pinpoints the location, Japan will send its teams to China and vice versa. They're trying to pair off the newer teams with the older ones, let the experienced guys take point, minimize danger."
"Looks like it's working for them," said Yancy, sounding very satisfied as Ronin and Lion tag-teamed to drive Hammerjaw back out of the city proper and onto the mostly-deserted grounds of the port. It was mostly Ronin in the lead, but Lion got a few shots in when the kaiju tried to evade the Mark I.
Hammerjaw managed to knock Ronin off his feet with a low sweep of his massive head into the top-heavy Jaeger's hips, making all the watchers gasp and curse. But Silver Lion was on it in a flash and pile drove the kaiju into the Yodo River, buying Ronin time to right himself. Lion had Hammerjaw up on its haunches, reminding Raleigh a lot of fighting big cats on documentaries. They were still wrangling when Ronin came back up with his blades out and skewered the kaiju through the head.
"Again, Ronin, again!" yelled Lion's pilots, shoving a massive fist into the kaiju's open mouth, mindless of all the teeth. "Behind the eyes!"
That's it, yes! Raleigh's blood raced as Ronin tore into Hammerjaw's upper skull with one blade, then the other until the kaiju fell, pulling Silver Lion down with it.
"Lion, are you all right?!" Kaori Jessop shouted.
"We're fine," one of Lion's pilots grunted. "Right - arm - stuck."
"Kaiju signature is down, Tacit Ronin!" Tokyo LOCCENT announced. "No signature."
Nobody quite reverted to the complete abandon of the pre-Guayaquil victory celebrations, but they did applaud and laugh as Ronin and Lion wrangled with the carcass to extract its teeth from Lion's wrist. Much Cantonese profanity followed, and Lion would probably have to get its whole arm replaced by the time they were done. But, in the end, both Jaegers stood and raised their fists to a growing throng of rejoicing civilians on the waterfront.
"Now that's what I call teamwork," said Tendo, as everyone cheered and hugged.
Marshall Gagnon and the other commanders didn't want to waste any time, and he called the Beckets and Hassans into his office that very night. "Command wants both of your teams ready for deployment by the time of your formal launch. You two are flying down to Los Angeles tomorrow to start sim training with Yankee Star - plan on commuting for a few weeks, since Gipsy Danger will still launch from here. Vulcan Specter's engineers report he's ready for test maneuvers, so you ladies are leaving for Brisbane with your support staff in two days."
Raleigh's initial elation was suddenly dampened as Susanti shot them a dismayed look. "Is this goodbye, then?"
"Hardly," said the Marshall. "Depending on the frequency and location of attacks and the status of the mechs, you'll all get the chance to work together again. Possibly even ride together as Silver Lion and Tacit Ronin just did."
Yancy grinned at the Hassans. "I think we could have each other's backs."
"Definitely," Devi agreed.
Gagnon cast a knowing look over them. "You and your crews have leave until the Beckets' departure tomorrow, so if you want to celebrate and raise a parting glass, tonight is the night to do it."
It was a little easier on Raleigh and Yancy than it was on Suze and Devi and their team. Team Gipsy would be shuttling back and forth to Anchorage at least until launch, and even after that, LA wasn't nearly as far away as Brisbane.
Some of the team staff were even more emotional than the Rangers themselves; Tendo, Cady, and Indra got a little choked up when they realized Indra would be crossing the Pacific with his cousins. Some of the other former 2016-B crowd got the evening off from their various departments and came to join the party and wish the Hassans and Beckets well.
"It's not goodbye," Raleigh insisted. "Not for any of us."
"He's right," Indra agreed. "We'll be meeting our PR liaison when we arrive, and Mrs. Olivares says there are plans for tours - western Rangers visiting the East and vice versa. Vulcan Specter launches in October, but Australia and New Zealand will need more coverage until Talon Tasmania can be replaced. We may call on old friends."
"We got you covered," Yancy promised.
"And vice versa." Devi raised her glass. "Until we meet again, to Class 2016-B."
It was a late night... and Raleigh didn't even spend it in his own bed. He scored a lot of owed favors from his brother by spending the night chastely in Devi and Suze's room - so Devi could spend the night not chastely in Raleigh and Yancy's.
Raleigh and Susanti played chess long into the night and did a lot of nudging and winking. They even contemplated just having a "why the hell not, you're here, and you're cute" one night stand, but decided against it (Raleigh wasn't Suze's gender preference anyway) and just went to sleep.
They went arm-in-arm to the mess hall in the morning and snickered about what the gossip chain would make of it, but who cared? However, they did insist that Tendo give Cady his money back when they saw him collecting on his winnings from the hookup pool. Good times.
"So much for no intra-class dating," Raleigh couldn't resist observing once he and Yancy were on their plane the next day.
Yancy thumped him. "Who said anything about Dev and me dating?" Raleigh laughed so hard he snorted, and his brother concluded smugly, "That was just a very fond farewell."
"You better be nice to me, old man. Her drift partner's promised to give me her opinion of your performance!"
"And that's what Dev and me have in common; we're both stuck with brats for partners," Yancy mock-fumed. Raleigh just chortled.
To be continued...
Coming Monday: The Western Jaeger crews begin team training, and Team Gipsy Danger is introduced to Team Yankee Star in Los Angeles. The results are... embarrassing. Commanding officers throughout the Pacific Rim get new gray hairs, and our heroes (all of them, not just the Beckets) are forced to grow up or go extinct in Chapter Nineteen: The Best and the Brightest!
PLEASE don't forget to review!
Original Character Guide
Devi and Susanti Hassan: Indonesian-Australian sisters, ages 26 and 24, who graduated the Academy along with the Beckets. Newly assigned to Vulcan Specter, Australia's Mark III.
Indra Hassan: Devi and Susanti's cousin, age 37, from Jakarta, Indonesia. LOCCENT trainee joining Vulcan Specter's crew.
Cady Spencer: Filipino-American from Oregon, age 25, training as a LOCCENT tech with Tendo and Indra, joining Gipsy Danger's crew.