u/SilverWolf_2018

{Earth Remnant Defense Corps Security Council Headquarters - Sydney, Australia}

Like most of the other great cities ringing the coasts of the world's oceans, Sydney had been hit hard during the Kaiju War. But unlike, say, Southern California, Sydney had been largely rebuilt because it was the home of the Earth Remnant Defense Corps Council. Individual Marshals and other high-ranking officers exercised control over what their Shatterdomes did, and how their resources were deployed in their specified coastal territories. Here in Sydney, the entire organization chose its directions and presented a unified front to the world. The Council headquarters loomed, gleaming and new, at the center of the city, visible from anywhere in the harbor. Massive anti-Kaiju cannon emplacements ringed the harbor and the outer coastline, from Middle Head all the way into Potts Point, in the shadow of the rebuilt harbor bridges. A tighter ring of cannons protected the Council Building complex itself. Sydney was a symbolic place now, the nerve center of the ERDC and the Jaeger defense forces—and more broadly, the symbol of international cooperation that had defeated the Kaiju invaders and thrown the Precursors back into the Anteverse. The wall that Mutavore had broken through 3 years earlier had been torn down and used to rebuild Jaegers and Shatterdomes alike, beginning with the duo of Chaos Nemesis and Azure Defiant, the 2 Jaegers that had been destroyed protecting the city before Marauder Zeus finished the beast off and was later taken to Hong Kong with the other remaining Jaegers at the time.

Around the Council Building, the streets were swarmed with crowds of demonstrators and curious onlookers. Every group on Planet Earth, from Jaeger fan clubs to the Kaiju-worshipping cults, had staked out a spot in the plaza surrounding the Council Building. A cluster of Kaiju-worshipping monks, solemn and imposing in their robes, stood praying in the center of a circle formed by other Kaiju zealots. They shouted and waved signs, preaching the cult gospel that the Kaiju had been sent by God to purge humanity of its sins.

Tai caught all this on a feed from inside Gypsy Avenger as a squad of Jumphawks ferried them across the harbor toward the Council Building. Scattered fights were breaking out between knots of demonstrators, and EUDC security had its hands full keeping a lid on the situation.

As Gypsy Avenger came into view, many of the hostile demonstrators stopped tangling with each other and turned their attention to the Jaeger. Fans cheered and chanted slogans. Some of them tried to rip signs out of the hands of the Kaiju worshippers, and security forces tried to keep them apart without escalating the situation. It was a powder keg, waiting for someone to really lose his temper and light the fuse.

The Kaiju cults had gotten a lot bigger since the beginning of the Kaiju War. Their doctrine was that any resistance to the Kaiju was an affront to God, and therefore the Earth United Defence Corps was an abomination. Crazy times bred crazy people, was Tai's opinion on the topic. Anyone who thought the Kaiju were divine had a real strange idea about God. He'd heard all the sermons—you couldn't avoid them in any of the coastal ruins. The cults sent preachers out looking for converts among the poor and displaced, and sometimes it seemed like they were on every street corner in California. You could argue with them, reason with them, it didn't matter. The best thing to do was ignore them.

And in any case, Tai had more important things on his mind right now. He was in a Conn-Pod for the first time in 3 years, paired with Summer, who was probably the best partner he'd ever had. In the internal feed from the LOCCENT back in the Moyulan Shatterdome, Marshall Quan kept checking with techs to make sure him and his wife were maintaining a steady neural handshake.

"All you have to do is stand there and look pretty." Quan said over the comm. "Stay focused and try not to fall over."

"Roger that, sir." Summer said.

"Go for drop in three...two...one...drop!!" Quan's command echoed in their ears, and the Jumphawks released the cables holding Gypsy Avenger. The Jaeger dropped from an altitude of less than two hundred feet, landing with a thunderous boom on the reinforced drop pad near the Council Building. The shockwave of the impact raised a cloud of dust that billowed over the crowd—and helped obscure the fact that Gypsy lost her balance a small bit on landing.

In the Conn-Pod, Summer looked at her Husband with concern in her eyes. Tai simply smiled slightly, regaining his balance. "It's all coming back. I haven't been in a Jaeger for nearly 3 years."

The closer Kaiju worshippers, outraged at the presence of a Jaeger, started throwing bottles and trash at Gypsy's legs. ERDC security waded in and started making arrests as the situation threatened to get out of hand.

"Hm, we have some fans?" Summer mused.

"Kaiju nuts are always stirring it up." Tai responded, never really liking the cultists worshiping the Kaiju, especially with what happened to their Son's Co-Pilot 6 years ago.

Mostly Tai was thinking about handling the Jaeger gear that had changed and updated since his last time in a Conn-Pod. 3 years ago, they had stood on an actual floor, with their drivesuit boots locked into fixtures and physical instrument podiums in front of them.

But now the Conn-Pod and the operating system were largely holographic and virtual. Each Ranger locked boot soles onto a glowing rectangle on the floor. Then, once the Jaeger's operating AI had measured their initial location so it could interpret motions, the floor dropped away, leaving them suspended in a maglev field that also held the mo-cap rigs. Every motion within the field accompanied by a direct thought from the Ranger caused an immediate response, with less lag and more powerful signal transmissions than previous versions of Jaeger operating systems had allowed. It was a more immersive experience, that much was certain. Once a Ranger's legs were locked into the maglev harness instead of the old-fashioned rigs he'd grown used to, it was easy to feel like you were actually moving as the giant machine.

Tai and Summer refocused their attention when a signal pinged on Gypsy Avenger's HUD. An incoming helicopter. The HUD readout identified it as belonging to the EUDC and displayed the name of the single passenger: DUSTIN KREIGER, SECRETARY GENERAL, EUDC SECURITY COUNCIL.

At the grand front entrance of the Council Building, EUDC security held back the crowd to permit the approach of a limousine. It rolled to a stop and Liwen Shao climbed out, followed by Chief Kang and the rest of her security detail. The crowd got even more frenzied as people caught sight of her. She had fervent fans screaming her name and waving for autographs, jostling for position with angry anti-EUDC protesters and Kaiju-cult zealots who rained abuse on her. She ignored all of them, walking with calm purpose toward the entrance. On this day she had only one focus: operationalizing the Drone program. Years of work had prepared her for this day, and nothing was going to stop her now that she had gotten so close to her goal.

Inside Gypsy Avenger's Conn-Pod, Tai and Summer perked up as a massive signal pinged on Gypsy's HUD. "Gypsy to Command," Summer reported, a hint of concern in her voice. "Are you reading this?"

The signal was the size of a small cargo ship, but moving in a way that no ship could. Tai heard one of the LOCCENT techs say something in Mandarin to Quan, who relayed it to them in English. "Gypsy, this is Command. Be advised we have a Rouge Jaeger, no call sign designation."

An unregistered Jaeger? These were extremely rare, but a moment later, they got a visual contact that confirmed their suspicions. The Jaeger rose up out of the harbor, water rolling off it. The crowd watched in amazement, most of them too stunned to flee. The Jaeger then stopped and looked around, observing its surroundings.

Tai and Summer scanned the unidentified Jaeger. It was sleek, nimble, and colored matte black with vivid orange lights. The HUD picked out several spots on the Jaeger's armor that were likely weapon mounts, but they couldn't tell any specifics about its armaments.

Summer toggled Gypsy Avenger's loudspeakers. "Pilots of unregistered Jaeger, power down and exit your Conn-Pod immediately."

The Jaeger didn't respond. It turned and started slowly walking towards Gypsy Avenger.

Summer issued a second order, per EUDC procedure. "I repeat: Power down and exit your Conn-Pod NOW."

The Jaeger's response was a barrage of plasma missiles that burst out from its shoulders.

Marshal Quan's voice cut through the chatter coming from the LOCCENT. "Missiles fired!! Multiple ordnance inbound!!"

The first salvo of missiles annihilated the anti-Kaiju cannons. Tai just had time to think that the Jaeger had been pausing to target each of them, planning how it was going to engage, when a tight following barrage slammed into Gypsy Avenger. Other missiles streaked past and the facade of the EUDC Council Building disappeared in a cluster of explosions.

Multiple impacts rocked Gypsy Avenger. Alarms wailed, some inside the Conn-Pod and some coming through the comms from the LOCCENT.

A house-sized piece of the Council Building, destabilized by missile impacts, toppled off the front toward the crowd below. Trapped by the crush of people trying to get away from the hostile Jaeger, the people in its path could do nothing but scream.

In the Conn-Pod, Summer shot out one hand. Gypsy Avenger caught the chunk just a few feet above the heads of the crowd. Just outside the shadow of Gypsy's arm, Chief Kang and the security detail hustled Shao Liwen back into the limousine. It gunned its engine, nosing through the crowd toward the vacant spaces near the street.

More missiles crashed into Gypsy Avenger. They weren't penetrating the armor yet, but external systems were taking damage, and the kinetic impacts kept Gypsy off balance.

Alerts flashed across the system's monitoring screen. The missiles were doing damage even if they weren't getting through Gypsy's armor, one of which was causing power loss.

Summer worked at a Holoscreen, rerouting power to help get the Jaeger back in full order.

"Rangers!!" The voice of the Secretary General was splintered by static. "That Jaeger's power reading is the same as—!!"

In a flare of white noise, his voice cut out. Tai saw readings on the monitors that told him the Jaeger was jamming comms. Someone had planned this attack for this moment, right when Shao was about to announce the end of piloted Jaegers. Right when she and all the EUDC administrators would be in one place.

Tai wondered who. Kaiju nuts? Some terrorist group that had gotten hold of Jaeger tech? How could that have happened.

He looked in the direction of Kreiger's helicopter, and in his field of view saw the strange Jaeger raising and powering up what looked like a particle cannon... aimed at the helicopter.

"Summer!!" he said, his voice high.

Thanks to the Drift, Summer understood instantly. "Power's up!!" she yelled—and in the next instant, Tai HEAVED the chunk of the Council Building across the plaza at the hostile Jaeger.

Debris showered down over the crowd as the multiple tons worth of concrete and steel smashed into the hostile Jaeger, knocking it off balance and ruining its aim at Kreiger's chopper.

Tai and Summer sprang forward in the rig, and Gypsy Avenger charged toward the Jaeger, barreling into it and hurling a punch at the mech. But the black Jaeger was quicker than they had expected. It caught the punch with one hand, and SLAMMED the other into Avenger's head.

The force was like being hit by a fully loaded freight train. Gypsy reeled back into a building, shattering its front walls and windows. The blue Jaeger planted its feet, narrowly avoiding the crowds of fleeing people in the street below. That moment of inattention to the hostile Jaeger cost them. It caught Gypsy Avenger by one leg and smashed them into another building, driving the mech down to the street in a pile of collapsing rubble.

Then the black Jaeger sprang onto Gypsy and sank claws into the armor around the Conn-Pod, trying to rip the head off.

Inside the Conn-Pod, Tai wrestled against the Jaeger's grip. Summer punched commands into the holo pad projected from the forearm of her drivesuit. Gypsy Avenger's Chainswords shot out from both forearms, forcing the hostile Jaeger to let go. Pivoting as it got to its feet, Gypsy swung, but the other Jaeger was too fast—much faster than any other Jaeger they'd ever seen. It dodged the sword stroke and kicked Gypsy into another building. The street was treacherous footing now, with collapsed facades and destroyed cars littering the pavement.

Answering Gypsy Avenger's chainswords, the other Jaeger flexed its arms and twin orange plasma weapons sprang from its forearm mounts. At first Tai thought they were swords, but then he saw the edges start to spin.

Chainsaws. It had plasma CHAINSAWS.

They barely got their own chainsword up to block the first strikes, in a shower of sparks and discharged plasma. Arcs of energy shattered nearby windows and scorched buildings. The hostile Jaeger cut loose with a wild swing that nearly split an office tower down the middle from roof to atrium.

Gypsy stepped back, looking for another opening to attack, but both Tai and Summer knew they were up against an opponent that was faster than they were. If they went in recklessly, they were going to end up in pieces.

The other Jaeger dropped into a fighting posture and came at them again.

Tai and Summer were pushed to the limit of their abilities countering the foreign Jaeger's attacks. It was faster than any Jaeger they had ever seen, and so quick on its feet that they felt like they were in old Brawler Yukon trying to tackle Saber Athena. Both of them was getting into the rhythm of operating a Jaeger again after nearly 3 years, and they felt their Drift connection getting more and more solid as the fight went on—but it wasn't enough. The hostile Jaeger scored hits on Gypsy's torso and shoulders. If they couldn't find a way to anticipate its technique, sooner or later it would land a fatal blow with the plasma chainsaws.

Pressed back by a fresh assault, Gypsy sidestepped to avoid a crowd of people trapped by a cascade of rubble from a nearby office building. The other Jaeger took advantage, rearing up for a downward stroke before Tai and Summer could get Gypsy's chainsword up.

But as the plasma weapon arced down, a barrage of missiles from nearby Helicopters detonated on the hostile Jaeger's arm and head, deflecting its stroke. Missing Gypsy Avenger by scant feet, the plasma saw chewed through several floors of another building. It jammed against something in the building's interior, and the Rangers saw their chance.

Gypsy Avenger pounced, using the time the ERDC had bought them to power up another of the blue Mark-6's combat abilities. The Jaeger's right arm had a force-multiplying rocket piston assembly designed to accelerate the velocity of a thrown punch. The rockets fired at the moment before impact, turning an ordinary punch into a supersonic impact that in testing had destroyed older model dummy Jaegers with a single blow.

This opponent was tougher than a practice dummy, though. The punch connected with an echoing boom that blew out nearby windows and sent the hostile Jaeger flying down the broad avenue. It slowed itself down by thrusting the plasma saws out to either side, using them to drag itself to a halt as they gouged through several blocks of office towers. Immediately after it had halted its slide, the other Jaeger unleashed a fresh missile salvo. Some of the missiles hit Gypsy Avenger, but most streaked by and exploded across a large expanse of Sydney's downtown. Civilians who thought they were safely away from the battle fled anew as the missiles collapsed buildings and parking structures.

One of the missiles hit high on a skyscraper near the Secretary General's helicopter. The blast wave jolted the chopper, cracking its fuselage windows and sending it into a crazed spiral. Electrical fires sparked to life in the cockpit.

Summer saw Kreiger's helicopter dropping, its tail spinning around as it lost control. "They're going down!! We need to move!!"

Tai was right with her. "ACTIVATING GRAVITY SLING!!!" He roared.

Gypsy Avenger's right hand reconfigured itself into a force-projecting assembly that could manipulate gravity in its limited cone. The Gravity Sling swept up a cascade of falling cars from a collapsing parking garage, and whipped them in a single mass at the hostile Jaeger. The force of the impact punched it over backward into an uncontrolled tumble.

Before it had even hit the ground, Summer and Tai had Gypsy sprinting across the distance between them and the General's spiraling helicopter. Tai tried to get the gravity sling to redeploy and catch the chopper, but it wasn't responding after its initial use. "COME ON!!!" he screamed, straining in the mo-cap rig, pushing Gypsy Avenger to maximum speed.

He and Summer leaned forward as one, and Gypsy Avenger dove forward, covering hundreds of yards in the air, hand outstretched to catch the falling helicopter.

Through the Conn-Pod window, the two saw Dustin Kreiger, frantically tapping something into his data pad. He looked up at their approach as the helicopter scraped off Gypsy Avenger's fingertips. Tai and Summer could only look on in horror as the chopper spun down at an angle and smashed into the pavement below. It tumbled, shedding broken rotors and pieces of its fuselage, crashing off parked cars and finally rolling to a halt in a smoking ruin.

Far behind them, the rogue Jaeger started to approach Gypsy Avenger...then it paused. Coming in from the north, a formation of Jumphawks was bringing four Jaeger reinforcements from the Sydney Shatterdome in the form of Lucky Seven, Striker Eureka, Vulcan Specter Reforged and Vector Apex.

The Jaeger watched them, seeming to assess its odds. Then it turned around, moving fast and low back toward the harbor. By the time the Jumphawks were close enough to drop the reinforcements, it was gone beneath the waters.

{War Room - Moyulan Shatterdome, China}

In the War Room, Liwen Shao stood before a massive hologram of a Drone Jaeger. The prototype was designed along the lines of other Jaegers, because it was more efficient to repurpose the existing structural technologies than completely redesign the Drone Jaeger's body. The primary visual difference from human-piloted Jaegers was in the structure of the Drone's head. There was no need to dedicate space for a Drift cradle or human life-support systems, so the Drone's head was smaller and set lower between the shoulders. Where a human-piloted Jaeger typically had a window so the pilots could visually supplement their input from sensors and instruments, the Drone had a single red light that gave it the appearance of a mechanical Cyclops. The "eye" was in fact a multispectrum visual and motion sensor, located in the Drone's "face" as a concession to human nature. Shao could have put the sensor anywhere, but she knew the Drones would be less likely to frighten ordinary people if they retained some semblance of a human aspect.

Arrayed around Shao was a mixed group of Rangers and J-Tech personnel. They looked on skeptically, some with outright hostility visible on their faces. Mixed in among them were Herc & Chuck, Yancy & Raleigh Beckett, Yang Xiao-Long Belladonna and her wife, Blake Belladonna; Ruby Rose-Belladonna and her Husband, Jay Belladonna; Hayden's Wives, Nora Valkyrie, Elm Ederne and Harriet Bree; The Husband & Wife Duo of Mercury & Emerald Black; Taiyang Xiao-Long and his 2 Wives, Raven Branwen and Summer Rose; Raven's Brother, Qrow Branwen; Hermann Gottlieb, Arthur Watts, Dr Oobleck, and security staffers.

Shao had chosen Dr. Geiszler and Burke to stand with her for the presentation. They would be able to answer the questions that were sure to arise, and Burke had the added clout of being a former Ranger, not to mention Nate's former copilot, who left the EUDC to take a job in the private sector.

She had already introduced the mechanical specifics of the Drones, and was now moving on to the real paradigm-shifting innovation at the heart of the project. "The system I designed processes commands through a quantum data core." she said, as a holographic diagram of the core appeared. "Thus relieving the neural load. This means that a single pilot can operate the Drone via remote link from anywhere in the world. As soon as the Council approves deployment, the days of struggling to find and train Drift-compatible pilots will be a thing of the past."

Shao had anticipated questions at this point, and planned a pause so Burke and Dr. Geiszler could address or deflect them. Her anticipation proved accurate, as dissatisfied murmurs immediately swept through the room at the suggestion that the EUDC would no longer need Drift-compatible Rangers. The Council in Sydney, composed of delegates from all EUDC member states around the world, would make the final decision on Drone deployment, but Shao knew implementation of the plan would be smoother if she could pre-emptively address concerns coming from individual groups of Rangers.

Ranger Nathan Lambert spoke up on behalf of his colleagues, who seemed particularly incensed by the Drone presentation. Again, Shao had expected this, and she had rehearsed answers to a number of different possible questions. "You think a bunch of desk jockeys playing with their joysticks can stop a Kaiju attack?" Lambert asked, scorn clear in his tone.

"Not only can they stop it, they can do so without putting pilots at unnecessary risk, Nate." Burke answered.

"Contrary to what you may have heard," Shao added, "We have no intention of shutting you down." She made an effort to sound diplomatic and collegial, even though neither of those qualities came naturally to her. She didn't necessarily need the Rangers' support to push the Drone program through EUDC approvals, but the less friction accompanied the process, the better.

"Cooperation between our programs has never been more vital." Burke added. "If there are any questions...?"

The room exploded in an uproar of questions from both Rangers and techs. None of them believed for a single moment that Shao had any intention of working with them. The whole point of the Drone program was to get them out of their Drift Rigs and behind desks, and they were NOT going to go quietly. "We don't want your damn Drones!!!" shouted another veteran Pilot, Braedey Martin. "We're pilots, not a bunch of overpaid office workers!!"

Far from the group of people, Yancy and Raleigh Beckett felt exactly the same way, but rather than join the shouting, they turned and walked out of the room. The Brothers needed to calm themselves down before one or both of them said something they regretted.

The duo climbed a steel staircase toward a catwalk that ringed one of the outer levels of the Jaeger bay. The magnificent machines stood at attention, waiting for the next time they would be needed to defend humanity...but if Liwen Shao had her way, that moment would never come.

Behind them, the Brothers heard other footsteps on the catwalk. Tai and Summer came up next to Raleigh. "The drone technology is...I'm not sure about it." Yancy said at last. "But if it could be used correctly, it could help reduce the loss of pilots if god forbid the Anteverse comes back to life and The Breach spat out more Kaiju..."

"I don't trust the Drone tech." Tai admitted. "Not yet, at least."

"Still, it seems a little promising." Raleigh said.

"Remote systems can be hacked or compromised." Summer argued.

'Interesting.' Raleigh thought. She understood. "Well, all we have now is to hope The Secretary General doesn't like the drones and goes against the program."

Tai, looking at the Jaeger Fleet, spoke up. "A lot of people want to see the Drones deployed. I heard nearly half the Council is backing Liwen. They ain't gonna like Kreiger's decision if that's the case."

"How about you and Summer go to the summit in person?" Raleigh asked. "Don't think you two have ever been to Sydney. Heard it's great."

"I'm glad you asked." Summer said with a smile. "Because Kreiger already requested Gypsy Avenger for Honor Guard at the Council Summit."

"Alright." Yancy chuckled. "I guess you two leave for Sydney in the morning."

On that moment, Tai and Summer headed off. If they had to be in Sydney tomorrow, they had a lot of preparation to do, especially preparing to get back into a Jaeger after 3 Years...

{Moyulan Shatterdome, China}

Liwen Shao arrived the next day for the Drone Jaeger demonstration. The Shatterdome, so chaotic the day before, was now quiet, as all nonessential activities had been put on hold for the duration of her visit. She was the biggest of big wheels, and the EUDC was pulling out all the stops to impress her. She entered the Shatterdome dressed in white, every detail groomed and perfect. Shao had started life as a tinker and hacker, but now she led one of the world's most important tech manufacturing companies, and she knew how to play the part. She was escorted by a security detail, including Joseph Burke, whom Josh remembered from Ranger training. He saw Tai and Lambert glaring daggers at Burke, and wondered what it was about—but then he was surprised to see Herc Hansen and Newt Geiszler bringing up the rear of Shao's procession, and he forgot about Lambert's personal problems. Newt Geiszler looked different, too. The rumpled clothing and tousled hair of the Newt Josh remembered from the Kaiju War had been replaced by a perfectly groomed and manicured corporate model, with the kind of behavior that came from a fat private-sector salary. Marshall Quan, the successor to the retired Glynda Goodwitch as EUDC Marshall, waited with the Rangers as Shao and her security detail approached.

Quan introduced himself in Mandarin and extended a hand. "Ms. Shao. Marshall Quan. It's an honor to meet you."

Shao just looked down at it, clearly uncomfortable. Newt rushed up to explain. "Sorry, sorry!! She doesn't do the whole hand thing." He shook Quan's hand instead. "Dr. Newton Geiszler, head of research and devel—whoa, that's a firm grip." Turning to Liwen, he explained in Mandarin what he had said.

She addressed Quan, clearly going through the motions of greetings and asking where the demonstration was going to happen. Quan indicated Tai and Lambert and gestured for them to follow, speaking in Mandarin until he glanced over at Herc. "We'll be in the War Room, Ranger Hansen."

He nodded. "Thank you, Marshall."

Josh couldn't help himself. He smiled at his old friend. Having Herc here made him feel more a part of everything. "Good to see you again."

"You too." The older Australian remarked, taking in his uniform and Ranger jacket. "That's a much better look on you."

Apparently Liwen agreed. As she passed, Josh saw her give him a long, lingering look. Some kind of interest there, he thought...but he wasn't sure what. Quan and Burke followed her.

Herc went off on his own, but was soon greeted by a tight hug from his son, Chuck, before the pair went off to the War Room themselves.

Newton Geiszler trailed behind, making a big show of approaching Josh. "Is this him? What am I talking about, of course it's him!!" He took Josh's hand and pumped it like he was performing for photographers. "Newton Geiszler, pleased to meet you."

Joshua couldn't believe this slick phony was the same Newt Geiszler who had Drifted with a Kaiju brain and helped save the world. If that's what corporate money did to you, he'd stay with the ERDC...or go back to hustling on the black market.

Hermann Gottlieb, Arthur Watts and Dr Oobleck appeared out of nowhere, Hermann calling out to their colleague. "Ah!! Newton!! We were hoping you'd be tagging along. We could use your help on an experiment—"

Newt cut him off, his tone friendly but patronizing. "I'm on the job here, boys. I got time after, I'll see what you need."

"The demonstration is not scheduled for some time yet." Watts said. "And with your interest in Kaiju physiology, I think you will want to see what we am developing."

Newt glanced over at Shao, who wasn't looking at him. He turned to Josh with a shrug. "All right! Give me a few minutes for the show-and-tell, okay? Then you better be ready to see something really cool."

Gottlieb, Watts and Oobleck hustled into their lab with Newt in tow. "This will only take a moment." Watts said. "I don't want to impose, but—"

"Hey, come on." Newt soothed. "We've all been in each other's heads. Without the intel we yanked from that Kaiju brain, Shere Khan never would have been able to close the Breach. That was all four of us, Arthur." They enjoyed that brief moment before Newt glanced at his watch. There were rumors that The Beckett Brothers, along with several other Pilots from the War, would be attending the meeting for the drones.

"But I am running a little tight, so..."

"Yes, umm..." Hermann started searching among the notes cluttering the desktop near his computer terminals. When the four of them had shared a lab, he and Watts had been the neat freaks. Since then, apparently a little of Newt's mostly controlled chaos had rubbed off on them. He came up with a set of papers. "Deployment!!"

"Deployment?" Newt echoed.

"Of Jaegers. Deploying them into combat via Jumphawks takes too much time. The amount of damage a Kaiju can inflict before..."

Oobleck seized another set of papers. These were blackened and curled around the edges. "Ah!! Here! I think I've found a solution."

Newt looked over the notes, starting to chuckle before he'd gotten past the first page. "Rocket thrusters? There's no fuel on the planet with that kind of boost-to-mass ratio."

"From this world, no." Watts said slyly. When Newt looked up, he saw Arthur was holding a vial of neon blue liquid.

"Is that...Kaiju blood?" Newt said. He didn't like seeing it even in a lab setting. The stuff was incredibly dangerous.

"Exactly!!!" Gottlieb cried. "We've discovered it's highly reactive when combined with elements found within the Earth—cerium, lanthanum, gadolinium—"

"Dude, you guys can't be fooling around with this stuff." Newt hissed anxiously. "You're going to blow yourselves up." He took another look at the notes. "Look at these!! You already did, didn't you? You done went and blew yourself up."

"We just need to balance the equation." Watts went on, completely unconcerned. "No one knows more about Kaiju morphology than you. If you could just take a look—"

"Fellas, it doesn't matter. Once my boss's Drones are approved, deployment time'll be a non-issue. Within a year we'll have Drones everywhere."

"So you won't help us?" Gottlieb was quietly hurt. Proud but also wounded. Newt wavered. He and the others had been a great team...but now there were other factors involved.

Newt's watch beeped. He glanced down at it and saw it was time to get to the demonstration of Shao's new Drone Jaegers. "I'm sorry." he said. "Duty calls. Been lovely catching up and seeing you all again, though..."

"Newton?" Something in Gottlieb's tone stopped Newt before he got to the door. He turned and saw Gottlieb looking sad and haunted, while Arthur and Oobleck looked sympathetic. "We-we still have nightmares. About what we saw. When we Drifted with that disgusting Kaiju brain."

"Yeah." Newt said quietly. He understood. "Me too...But sure was a hell of a rush, wasn't it?" He'd been working apart from the trio since right after the closure of the Breach, and pursuing some of his own side projects in the last 3 years. That made it easy to forget how close they had once been. They were bound in a way by that shared experience, even though judging from Gottlieb's mood they had processed it in very different ways.

"No one knows what it felt like. To be in its mind. Except us. You, Arthur, Barty and I. Together."

Newt felt Gottlieb's plea for...what? Support of some kind? What appeal were they making? Newt didn't know how to help them, but he did want to. Gottlieb and Watts were both a pair of hopeless doofuses, and Oobleck was always yapping at the speed of light, but they had saved the world together.

He stood there trying to figure out how to resolve his conflicted feelings, and Liwen's Security Chief Kang popped into the lab, saving Newt from the old tug of loyalty he didn't really want to feel anymore. "Dr. Geiszler." he said in Mandarin. "Time to go."

He hustled down the corridor that led out of the K-Science wing toward the War Room, catching up with Shao and the rest of her entourage. "You and those 3 were close, weren't you? During the war." She spoke Mandarin, and Newt tried to tell her they'd shared a lab, but apparently his attempt didn't pass muster.

"English." she snapped, still in Mandarin. "Your Mandarin makes you sound like an idiot."

"Um, yes." Newt said. He didn't think he sounded like an idiot, but she was the boss and he wasn't going to cross her—at least not right now. "We shared a lab."

"They were your friends??"

Newt hesitated over this. He'd never had many friends, had always preferred the company of instruments and diagrams to people...but his past with Hermann, Arthur and Oobleck... "Yeah," Newt said. "They were."

They were at the edge of the Shatterdome's Jaeger bays, cutting across toward the War Room. Groups of Rangers, cadets, and J-Tech mechanics crisscrossed the floor. Shao seemed to be framing another question about Newt and the others, but before she could ask it, one of the teenage cadets saw them and broke away from her group. "Miss Shao?" She was bright-eyed and breathless, starstruck by seeing the great Shao Liwen in person. "I just wanted to say-everything you've-I made my own Jaeger, a-a small one, with a lot of parts from Shao Industries-"

Shao looked at Newt, shocked. "They let CHILDREN in here?"

"I think she's a cadet."

"I'm going to be a Jaeger pilot, ma'am." the girl said, calming herself down. Her name tag said NAMANI.

Shao switched to English, something she almost never did. "Congratulations." she said, and added a smile. She didn't have a lot of practice smiling, and it didn't look natural at all. But the Cadet smiled back, and politely moved to the side. "Sorry for being in the way."

Shao gave her a small nod in thanks, and led the group on. Newt threw the girl a tiny smile, but she wasn't looking at him. He hustled to keep pace with Shao. "The smile was good, but next time maybe throw in a little chit chat," he suggested. "Or just the chit-"

In Mandarin again, she asked, "What were you and your colleagues talking about?" as though the encounter with the cadet had never happened.

"Nothing. Just some nutty idea they have about thruster pods-"

"I can't afford a misstep before Secretary General Kreiger makes his recommendation at the Council Summit." she said, speaking so fast Newt could barely keep up. "No more contact with Dr. Gottlieb, Dr Watts and Dr Oobleck until after the vote."

An hour ago, Newt would have been glad to avoid contact with his old friends, but seeing them had brought back some fond old memories of the time they'd spent crusading together. Also, Newt didn't like being told what to do, and Shao's imperious attitude toward Arthur, Hermann and Barty made him want to defend them all the more. "But they're harmless-"

She stopped, pivoted to face him, and unleashed a torrent of Mandarin that Newt couldn't parse. "Uh...could you say that again?" he asked. "About eighty percent slower?"

In English, enunciating slowly and carefully, Shao said, "I said don't make me question your loyalty."

"No." Newt said, trying to keep his tone light. Shao knew him as agreeable, glib Dr. Geiszler. He didn't want the hassles that would come if she thought he was going to start challenging her. "No question. We barely ever talk anyway."

"Then it won't be a problem." she said. "And please work on your Mandarin. I don't like to repeat myself, in any language."

{Ranger Quarters - Moyulan Shatterdome, China}

Josh went into his new quarters and found them almost identical to the ones he remembered from his previous time as a Ranger. Everything utilitarian; the bunk over the desk, the small bathroom, the even smaller closet.

On the outside of the closet hung a Ranger uniform. The name badge said GRIFFIN. Josh reached out and felt the material of it, also feeling the weight of a past he wasn't proud of—a legacy he couldn't escape—and now maybe a second chance, a future he wasn't sure he deserved.

But he couldn't escape it. Not the weight of the war he'd spent 4 years of his life in. Who could?

Josh wanted to give Amara a few days to get acclimated to her new surroundings, but Ranger Nathan Lambert was in charge of training and as he had announced in the cadet barracks, he set her first simulation session for early the next day. The simulation bay was arranged around a fully functional Conn-Pod that could be programmed to emulate the capabilities of any existing Jaeger. Today it was the Panamanian Mark-2, Puma Real, and Amara was partnered with Cadet Suresh.

They got a short introduction to the Drift cradle and then the simulation kicked in. Puma Real was dropped from virtual Jumphawks into the middle of the Tokyo megacity sprawl, as the Category-2 Kaiju Onibaba raged through the city.

Josh remembered the story of Onibaba from before he joined the EUDC. The monster had surged ashore from the Sea of Japan in 2016, laying waste to huge sections of Tokyo before the Japanese Mark-1 Jaeger, Coyote Tango, arrived to defend the city. In the battle, more of the city was destroyed, but Coyote Tango ultimately emerged triumphant, making heroes out of its original pilots, Stacker Pentecost and Tamsin Sevier. Yang Xiao-Long and Blake Belladonna had taken over the black Mark-1 by the start of 2017 following its re-launch.

During the battle, Sevier had suffered a seizure, and Pentecost had had to pilot the Jaeger alone for the rest of the fight. The neurophysiological stress of that, together with exposure to Coyote Tango's poorly shielded reactor, Stacker with deteriorating health and forced him to retire from active service. Coyote was later given much heavier radiation shielding during its repairs, before it was later switched with a Fire Dust Core in 2020.

And that wasn't the only personal angle to the Onibaba story. One of the civilians who had witnessed the carnage—and barely escaped with her life—was a very young Mako Mori. After the battle, Stacker adopted her. He later passed in his sleep just after The Battle Of The Breach, leaving Mako and his Biological son, Jake, alone. Both were pilots of the Japanese Mark-5 Jaeger Katana Indigo.

Watching the simulation begin, Josh wondered if Lambert had chosen Onibaba on purpose. It would be a typical kind of psy-ops maneuver for Ranger training. See how tough the cadets are, see what a returning Ranger with years of experience and slight trauma can handle. On top of that, Lambert had scaled up this Onibaba in size, making it much taller than what the real thing had been.

Josh put it out of his mind. If it came up, he'd sort things out with Lambert. There was plenty they had to get straight if they were going to work together.

Puma Real charged to meet Onibaba, firing a series of Anti-Kaiju missiles from its arms. The cadets, still new to Drift simulations, were going with the straightforward approach. The missiles smashed against Onibaba's carapace, but only did minor damage, along with angering the beast. The Kaiju batted Puma's arm aside with its pincers when it attempted to punch the Category-2, and then seized the Jaeger, tearing away pieces of its armor.

A video feed from inside the Conn-Pod showed Amara and Suresh being flung around in their Drift cradle. Sparks flew: part of the simulation. "Warning," a computer voice intoned. "Hemispheres out of alignment. Warning..."

"We need to reconnect!!" Suresh shouted.
Amara struggled to keep Puma Real on its feet. "I'm trying my best!!"

In the simulation feed, Onibaba raised one of its gigantic claws and drove it into Puma Real's head. The Conn-Pod shuddered and the interior lights went out. The simulation ended and for a moment all was silent. In the real world, both cadets would be dead.

The hatch on the front of the Conn-Pod opened with a grinding noise, and the lights came back on. Inside, Suresh looked furious, and Amara embarrassed. The maglev system holding them in place disengaged automatically as the Conn-Pod's floor rose to meet them. Behind him, Josh could hear the other eight cadets muttering to each other.

Nathan Lambert stood at the bank of terminals facing the Conn-Pod, frowning down at Amara. "When I heard you gave Lethal Protector a run for his money, I thought we might have something here." he said. "Now, not so much."

One of the cadets stifled a snicker. Amara tore her helmet off. "Well, excuse me!!" she snapped, clearly trying to cover her humiliation. "I've never done something like this before, unlike them!!"

Lambert wasn't having the backtalk. "Did I ask you to open your mouth, Cadet?"

Josh stepped up into Lambert's field of vision. He wasn't too concerned about protecting Amara's feelings—if she was going to be a Ranger, she would have to develop a thick skin—but he didn't like the way Lambert was handling the situation. A big part of Drifting success was about confidence. You had to make cadets believe in themselves while you were pointing out their mistakes. Lambert was only doing one of those things, and he was also deliberately picking on the cadet who had come in with Josh, which made him think Lambert's real problem wasn't with Amara at all. "You're putting her up against a Kaiju that almost killed veteran pilots." Josh growled. He didn't have to add that one of those veteran pilots was one of 3 People who had actually survived a Solo Drift. "She's not ready for that."

Lambert turned to face him. "Maybe she's not the only one who doesn't belong here."

'Ah.' Josh thought. Just as he'd suspected. "You got a problem with me, I'm right here. But she's just a kid." The Australian man snarled.

"So were we." Lambert retorted. That knocked Josh back a little. He realized maybe he was making things personal too, just as much as Nate was. "That's the point." Lambert went on. "You make stronger connections when you're young. That kind of bond makes better pilots that can Drift with anyone in their squad—"

"Yeah," Josh huffed. "I remember the pitch, thanks."

He wasn't going to get anywhere now. But he'd gotten Lambert off Amara's back, and that was enough for the moment. He went back to his station, where the simulation computers were analyzing the strength of the Drift connection between Suresh and Amara. It could have been better, but it also showed signs of potential.

Lambert glared after him, then got back to the situation at hand. "Ryoichi, Renata, you're up. Show our new recruit how it's done."

'Arsehole.' Josh thought angrily. 'That was a cheap shot at a kid who was squatting in a fucking warehouse thirty-six hours ago'. He looked down at Amara, who was unhooking from the Drift cradle, not meeting anyone else's eyes. If Lambert wasn't careful, he was going to drive her out of the program before they ever found out what her real potential might be.

The rest of the day passed in a series of training exercises and simulations. Josh thought the cadets had potential. They were bright, dedicated, skilled. All they needed was experience—and a trainer who knew when to push which buttons. He wasn't sure that was a skill Nate Lambert possessed. So he was up late thinking about what he should do, and it occurred to him that all this thinking might go better with a beer.

The Shatterdome kitchen was empty at this hour, maybe two thousand square feet of stainless steel and tile floors. Josh found the restricted Rangers-only part of the fridge, and sure enough there were a few beers in there. Probably the number was mandated by the EUDC. There would be a report and a document somewhere in a file articulating the reasons why there should be x number of beers in that fridge, no more and no less.

It wasn't until Nate Lambert walked in that Josh considered the fact that he was in trainers and a pair of dark blue trousers with a black shirt. Maybe that was a little casual for the Shatterdome public spaces, but Josh was still adhering to the dress code of his ruined Malibu mansion. You had to bring yourself wherever you went, and this was Joshua Griffin, sipping a beer and rooting around in the freezer for some good food while he considered whether his job was worth doing.

"At least you're not in pajamas or flip-flops." Lambert commented.

Josh stood up from peering into the freezer and saw who it was. "A few people like it." he said. "Told me it's nice to finally have someone with style around here."

He opened the fridge and tossed one of the beers to Lambert, who nodded his thanks. "Bread, ham, cheese and other stuff's in the bottom left drawer, behind the frozen burgers."

'Of course it is.' Josh thought. He found it and pulled them out. "Cheers." he said, and started to gather all the supplies he would need for a sandwich.

Lambert sipped the beer for a while, and then said what was on his mind. "So one more time around to prove yourself wrong?"

Josh was feeling pretty good at the moment, so he didn't take the bait. "Nah, I just came back to see if your chin implant ever settled in."

He saw a muscle jump in Nate's jaw...and then saw his old friend crack a smile. "Looks good, doesn't it?"

"Very commanding." Josh said with a smile of his own. "The kids must love it."

It felt good to be comfortable around Nate. Josh didn't want the tension. Not with someone who had once been a close friend.

Lambert's smile faded but didn't completely disappear. "They look up to us, man." he said. "We need to set an example. Show 'em how to work together."

Josh said nothing as he finished making his sandwich and got out a can of ginger beer. Then he set the can down on the table and said, "The war ended 3 years ago, Nate."

Lambert shook his head. "You have to understand your enemy's objective to know you've defeated them. We still don't."

Josh raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure it had something to do with sending giant monsters to beat the ever-loving shit out of us."

"The Precursors wouldn't send Kaiju to flatten a few cities if they were trying to wipe us all out." Lambert snorted, rolling his eyes. "That's not a plan, genius."

Like a lot of things Nate said, this sounded right but didn't match Josh's reality. But he wasn't going to argue about it. He was going to try to do what he had to do to get by, and if that meant he had to go along with whatever Nate Lambert said, well, it was better than being in jail or having Sonny shoot him.

"Look, I don't have a problem with you, Nate." he said. "I'm here because you and your squint was a better deal than some big hairy dude in a tiny little cell."

"I'm touched." Nate joked.

Josh wasn't done. "Those cadets have what, a couple of months before they graduate?"

"Six, to be precise." Lambert corrected.

"Six?" This was longer than Josh had guessed, or planned for. "Okay. Six. Tell you what. From now on, whenever you say something soldiery to the kids, I'll nod all like, 'Yeah, what he said,' and before you know it they get to be pilots and I get to go back to my life."

If he'd been trying to get under Lambert's skin, it didn't work. "May happen sooner than you think." Nate sighed.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Big dog and pony show tomorrow. Shao Industries is pushing some kind of new Drone tech. Could make all us pilots obsolete."

Josh considered this. No pilots meant no cadets, which meant no need for trainers, which meant no need for Joshua Griffen to be stuck in a Shatterdome when he could be living it up in California. Was it possible? Amara seemed to think Shao Liwen could do anything. Maybe she could. Either way, the Breach had been sealed for 3 years and the world was starting to wonder why it spent so much money keeping the Jaeger Program alive. Sooner or later, bureaucrats would win out over soldiers, the way they always did.

"Well." He said slowly, "that sounds like a get-out-of-jail-free card."

Nate could tell what was going on. He didn't react to Joshua's attempts to provoke him, and just sauntered toward the door. But as he went, he said, "Front all you want, Griffen, but you know you could've been great if you'd stuck around."

Josh glared coldly at Lambert. "I didn't get kicked out. I quit after my partner died."

"And what are you doing with your life now??" Nate didn't wait for Josh to answer. He knocked back the rest of his beer and tossed the can in a recycling bin on his way out.

Then Josh was alone again in the kitchen, staring at his sandwich. Nate got to him a little sometimes. They had always taken shots at each other, out of a natural rivalry. Sometimes it spilled over into something a little more intense. Sometimes, Josh had to admit, he overreacted. A little. Maybe. Now...

Well, Josh wasn't sure how to feel about it. But one thing hadn't changed since the last time he was inside a Shatterdome...He was real, real sick of people telling him what he could have been if he hadn't quit. They were treating him like he’d dropped out like a failure instead of choosing to quit when his co-pilot died. Why was he being given the cold shoulder by Tai, Lambert and half the Dome for making the logical choice??

{Cadet Barracks - Moyulan Shatterdome, China}

Deep in the bowels of the Shatterdome was a barracks housing new cadets, a group of ten selected from thousands of eager applicants. They were all in their teens, the men with regulation cropped hair and the women carefully observing EUDC regulations about styles that kept the eyes clear. When they were in a group, it was easy to tell what the EUDC looked for in cadets. Wherever they came from—this group of ten represented six home countries—they were all athletic and lean, alert and intelligent. Most importantly, they were driven. Even in their off-hours, most of them were occupied with some kind of training.

Meilin Gao and Viktoriya Kaidenovsky wore practice Drift helmet rigs, trying to sync themselves together so they would work a holographic Jaeger arm and put it through its combat paces. But they were having trouble making it do anything. It twitched and flailed around. "You're out of sync." Meilin said.

Vik swore in Russian. Switching to English, she grumbled, "Helmet's acting up." She took it off and the holo Jaeger arm disappeared. Both of them started tinkering with the helmet. Blonde and muscular, Vik towered over Meilin, who bent close to a circuit panel, frowning under severe black bangs as she sought the reason the Drift connection was getting interrupted. Vik was also the daughter of Sasha and Aleksis Kaidenovsky, Chernobyl's Pilots. Ranger training wasn't just about combat. A Ranger had to know every detail of how their equipment worked, because sometimes battlefield repairs and workarounds made the difference between life and death...and not just for the Rangers, either.

They all knew the story of how Shere Khan had sealed the Breach. With Tacit Ronin's systems failing, sinking deeper into the hellscape of the Precursor dimension on the other side of the Breach, he had to know how to set the manual reactor override and then get back to his escape pod. That knowledge came from obsessive attention to detail.

The ability to pull it off, though, that came from sheer willpower under circumstances none of the cadets could imagine. But they believed in themselves, and they were going to do everything they could to live up to the example of their idols. Khan, Ironwood, Hansen, Beckett, Xiao-Long, Pentecost...they had set the bar, and the cadets wanted to wear the title of Ranger just as they had.

As the Jaeger arm blinked out, two other cadets— Renata Gutierrez and Suresh Khuran —were sparring in the space between the bunks just beyond it. Renata caught Suresh square in the mouth with a punch at practice speed, and Suresh skipped backward, covering his mouth. "Come on!!" he complained. Suresh was the nervous one of the group, with a soulful face that easily softened into a pout. "Not in the face, Renata!!"

"Sorry, my bad." she said, mimicking his expression—and then she popped him in the face again. He came back at her, and they traded blows in a flurry, bumping into a bunk where another group of cadets, Taylor & Hayley Travis, Tahima Shaheen and Ilya Zaslavsky, were playing cards.

"I see your hour of rec time and raise two shower chits." Tahima said. Ilya considered.

On the upper bunk, Ou-Yang Jinhai was doing sit-ups off the edge while Ryoichi Hatayama sat on his legs, reading a comic. "Fold, Ilya." Jinhai said when he was at full extension, with his head upside down near Ilya's. "You need all the showers you can get."

"I have a musk." Ilya replied stubbornly, glaring. "What you smell is a musk."

Amara absorbed these impressions all at once as she entered the room with Josh and Taiyang. Ryoichi was the first cadet to notice them. "Ranger on deck!!" he yelled, stuffing his comic under the pillow.

All 10 of the cadets scrambled into line and snapped to attention. Tai took a moment to watch and inspect them. Then he said, "Cadets. This is Amara Namani. She'll be joining you in sim training, bright and early."

They all looked her up and down, displaying a variety of reactions. Naturally they were all competitive. Ranger slots were few and precious. Another cadet meant one more person who wasn't going to make it when the final promotions were announced. Vik in particular didn't make any effort to hide her disdain.

"And this is Ranger Joshua Griffin." Tai added, nodding at Josh.

That got a much different response. The name of a veteran from the War crackled in the room, and they looked at Josh like he had stepped out of a history book. He tried not to show how much it irritated him. "He'll be helping me and the others instruct you until Nathan Lambert finds a new copilot to replace Ranger Burke." Tai turned to Josh. "Anything you want to add?"

Josh looked at all the eager young faces staring at him, waiting for him to say something profound. But he didn't have anything profound to say. "Don't do what I did," maybe. Or maybe "Do what I did, get out while you have a chance."

But all he said was, "No, Sir."

Tai glared at him. Josh knew why. In a situation like this, you were supposed to be rah-rah, and Josh wasn't doing that. To Tai and most others, that was something close to sacrilege. But that was their problem, not Josh's.

"Cadet Kaidenovsky!!" Tai ordered. "Get Namani squared away and prepped for training."

Vik didn't look happy. "Yes, sir."

"As you were." Tai said with a final nod. He turned to go. Josh followed, looking over the cadets one last time. He didn't want to be here, and he didn't care if it showed on his face. He would do the job because it was keeping him out of jail, but Josh would be damned if he was going to join in with all the cheerleading about Rangers saving the world. The Breach was closed. They were all just marking time.

When the door closed and Amara was alone with her new—colleagues? Was that the right word?—the first of them to speak was Hayley. "I can't believe it!! We're gonna be trained by one of the veterans!!"

"So?" Vik was apparently determined not to be impressed by anything. "Not like he did anything in the final year of the war."

She went back to troubleshooting her practice helmet. Once she had the visor off and the contact points exposed, she started tracing each of them to the bundle where the cranial contacts transmitted brain signals to the Drift cradle. They looked all right on visual inspection, but something was obviously wrong, so she started touching each one with a small circuit tester. Amara walked up to her and stood awkwardly, waiting for Vik to look up. When she didn't, Amara said, "Uh...hey, so where do I..."

Vik still didn't look up. She hadn't found a bad contact, so now she was opening up the housing on the bundle to see if there was a frayed or crossed wire there. "Heard you built your own little Jaeger."

"Yeah." Amara said, brightening. "Uh, Scrapper." She was paying attention to what Vik was doing, and it got her thinking about how she'd figured out how to construct a helmet interface. "I operated her, too. With this solo rig I—"

She was pointing at something in the bundle of wires when Vik stood and interrupted her. "You want to put junk together, be a mechanic. Moyulan is for pilots." Without another word, Vik moved off toward the far end of the barracks.

Amara stood there, not knowing what to do. Wasn't this the person Ranger Xiao-Long had told to help her get settled? She had to train tomorrow! She didn't even know what the training would be, where her cadet gear was, where she was going to sleep...

"Come on, I got you." another cadet said. He picked up her duffel bag and led her toward another part of the barracks.

"Thanks," Amara said. "Um...?"

"Jinhai. Ou-Yang Jinhai."

"Ou-Yang? Like the pilots from the war, Ming-Hau and Suyin? Shaolin Rouge's original pair of Pilots???" Amara was starting to feel like she was the only person in the Moyulan Shatterdome who didn't have a connection to a famous Ranger.

"I just call 'em Mom and Dad." Jinhai said with a grin. "So you and Vik are already buddies, huh?"

"Vik?"

"Short for Viktoriya." another cadet said. He'd been sparring when they walked in. Amara hadn't caught his name. "But you don't want to call her that."

"What's her problem?" Amara asked. She was starting to get her feet under her and see which of the other cadets were going to be cool.

"It took her three shots to pass the entrance test." the other fighter said. "I'm Renata. This is Suresh."

"Don't think she likes how you landed here." Jinhai added, talking about Vik again. "She's also the daughter of the Kaidenovskys."

"Not my fault." Amara protested, though she was mentally counting 2 cadets as descendants of legends from the War. "Recruiters never come around back home."

"Heard you were from the coast." Jinhai said. "Why didn't your folks move inland, like everyone else? They poor or something?"

"They didn't make it." Amara answered quietly. "When Santa Monica got hit by Insurrector."

The other cadets had moved on. It was just her and Jinhai. He saw it hurt her to talk about her parents. "Renata lost hers, too." he said. "In the Tomari attack. Hey, know any Russian?" Amara shook her head.

"I'll teach you some. Calms her down. Let's stow your gear and get you a uniform."

They moved off together, and Amara was already feeling more at home. Maybe this was going to work out after all. She had Scrapper, she had a chance to prove herself...maybe she would even have a friend.

{Moyulan Shatterdome - China}

By sunset, the EUDC transport carrier had crossed the Pacific Ocean, bringing the Moyulan Shatterdome into view. Josh took it in with what might charitably be called mixed feelings. He'd seen Shatterdomes before, and his memories of them were not all positive.

Moyulan had been under reconstruction during the final year of the war. Originally being renovated into an emergency shelter, it was turned back into a Shatterdome after The Battle Of The Breach. It occupied the largest of a group of mountainous islands in Qingchuan Bay, about four hundred kilometers south of Shanghai. The main Shatterdome, containing the enormous Jaeger bay and mechanical operations, was at the center of the complex. To the left as they approached was the main body of the base, a bunker-style complex eight to ten stories tall and hundreds of yards long, reaching from the Shatterdome out to a large parking area for Jumphawks, V-Dragons, and the transport helicopters that made up the bulk of the ERDC's aerial fleet.

The Jumphawks looked much like they had when Josh was around Shatterdomes before: massive helicopters designed to carry Jaegers from Shatterdomes to field deployments more quickly than the Jaegers could get there themselves. The V-Dragons were different, and newer. The V in their designation referred to the rotating engine mounts that gave them vertical takeoff and landing capability, or VTOL for short.

Curving from the fleet parking area across the front of the Shatterdome was a broad tarmac with hydraulic lifts at its waterfront side. Jaegers rode those down into the water for local deployments and training exercises in the relatively shallow waters around the islands. Each elevator platform was a rectangle roughly forty by thirty yards in size, giving a Jaeger plenty of room to stand clear of the deck as the platform descended toward the water level.

Beyond the elevator platforms, on the far side of the installation from the Jumphawk parking, the tarmac narrowed and curved into a long arm, supported over the water by immense steel-reinforced concrete pilings. Here were four external staging gantries, where Jaegers stood while they were linked to Jumphawks for deployment. Elevators ran up the interior of the gantries, which were made of heavy girders. At the side of each gantry stood a control tower, staffed by J-Tech supervisors tasked with making final readiness checks once the Rangers were inside each Jaeger and it was powering up for action.

The exterior tarmac area was bustling with activity. Tech crews ran refueling hoses out to waiting Jumphawk transports, while other crews ran carts of supplies and machinery to various destinations in the complex. Everything was tightly controlled and perfectly synchronized, thanks to the crew's superb training. Josh remembered the scene from his previous life as a Ranger. He'd been amazed then at how such a giant facility could run so smoothly, and he felt some of that amazement again now.

The carrier came in low past a stand of old rocket thrusters in a row at the edge of the tarmac. When it landed, Josh and Amara stepped out, duffel bags slung over their shoulders. They'd already been issued gear back in California.

Amara was nervous, and showed it by talking nonstop. She'd commented on the size of the transport, the size of the Shatterdome, the size of the Ocean, and now that they were on the ground she finally got to what was really on her mind. "Why me? I mean why do they want me for the program?"

Josh didn't know for sure, but he could guess. "Built and piloted your own Jaeger." he said bluntly. "Don't see that every day."
As if he'd conjured it, Scrapper came into view right then, suspended between two Jumphawks. They'd followed the personnel transport across the Pacific, but this was the first time Amara had been able to lay eyes on her creation since Lethal Protector disabled it back in Santa Monica.

The Jumphawks hovered low over the tarmac and released the cables holding Scrapper. The little Jaeger dropped and landed solidly on its feet...then tottered and fell face down with a loud crash. "Hey!!" Amara protested, as crews ran to reattach cables so the Jumphawks could set Scrapper on its feet again. "Be careful with Scrapper!!"

Josh was about to tell her it would be all right, since the Shatterdome techs would be doing a complete refit of Scrapper the minute they got the little Jaeger into a hangar gantry—but he didn't have the chance, because an old familiar voice cut through the din of Jumphawk rotors and shouting techs.

"Will you look at this?"

The voice belonged to Ranger Taiyang Xiao-Long, the strapping, blond veteran Pilot for the Ranger service, Husband to Summer Rose and Raven Branwen...and another old ally of Josh. He was wearing his traditional outfit, with his Silver Gauntlets on his forearms. Tai was managing to walk in a way that made his dog tags jingle even though he carried a heavy gear assembly in both hands. "Didn't believe it when they told me you were inbound." he said, addressing Josh.

"Taiyang." Josh nodded. "This is Cadet Amara Namani."

Tai gave a polite nod to the girl, then looked back at Josh. "It's Ranger Xiao-Long to you."
Josh paused. "You having a laugh?"

"This is a military base." Tai huffed, dead serious. "Remember how those work, Ranger?" Turning to Amara, he lightened up a little. "Welcome to the Shatterdome, kid. This is where you learn how to save the world."

He strode off toward the open bay doors that led into the Shatterdome. Josh followed, Amara right next to him. Josh was still stewing over Tai's jab. Clearly the blonde man and several others were holding a grudge about how Josh had left the Ranger program, but that was their problem. The only way it would be Josh's problem was if they couldn't let it go.

He could feel Amara's eyes on him as they followed Tai through the thirty-story-tall ocean-facing hangar doors that led into the Shatterdome's enormous Jaeger bay. Amara forgot all about Josh and goggled at the sight.

Just inside the door, Valor Omega was docking into her service bay. Josh took a long look at the mech. Valor Omega was a Canadian Mark-5 Jaeger that had been Piloted by Penny Polendina and Ruby Rose during the War. This Jaeger was all about firepower, her whole torso designed around massive arms and shoulders ending in forearm-mounted energy cannons. Orange and yellow against a black layer of ballistic under-armor, she made Josh think of fire. Ruby had married her boyfriend, Jay Belladonna, just a few months after the war.

Looking around the huge bay, he saw the rest of Moyulan's fleet of Jaegers.

There was Tiger Rush, Thailand's only Jaeger, a Mark-5 sporting a white and navy paint job and piloted by the married couple of Ford and Brina Travis. Its main weapon was a Plasma Broadsword, but it was also equipped with missiles in its chest.

Next was the blue American Mark-4, Hydra Corinthian, one of the members of the original fleet. Built in 2018, it was a sleek and powerful machine with glowing blades hanging from the arms. It was Piloted by Kennedy LaRue and Stephanie Lanphier, veterans from the Kaiju War.

Guardian Bravo, by contrast, was a brilliant red and silver, her graphene Arc Whip retracted while it was at rest. She was one of the Mark-6 Jaegers, launched seven years ago in 2020 alongside others like Gypsy Avenger, Titan Redeemer, Murder Witch, November Ajax, and even the late Mustang Omega, the Jaeger that had carried the bomb in Operation Pitfall 3 years prior. Originally destroyed in early 2024 by the Category-4 Kaiju Nocnitsa, Guardian had been repaired and relaunched on January 1, 2025. Other than her color scheme, Guardian Bravo was set apart from the rest of the Shatterdome's fleet by the tall vent stacks that stood up from the backs of its shoulders. Josh hadn't learned much about Guardian Bravo's design, but he thought he remembered the stacks having something to do with creating a static charge, using internal fans to generate extra power to the Arc Whip. In demonstrations, the whip had proven capable of cutting through a meter of steel, while delivering an electrical charge roughly comparable to an average lightning strike.

Beside it was a black and copper red Jaeger with the Mexican flag symbol on one side and green parts on its legs. This was Matador Fury, a Mexican Mark-3 built 10 years ago, and originally Piloted by 2 Mexican Criminals, Andrés Alcazar and Daniel Moreno, who had sadly died in 2022. Now, it was currently Piloted by 2 new Rangers.

The next Jaeger was Hunter Vertigo, an Australian Mark-6 who was primarily white in color with yellow accents on the knees, torso, shins, arms, and ankles. A vortex turbine was visible on its chest, inactive as work was going on to reload the Small Nuclear Warhead launcher mounted in its right arm. Tanks of coolant were attached to a nearby truck and to the Cryo Cannons, reminiscent of the mortars that Coyote Tango used. Josh knew this Jaeger was part of a new operation of sorts, with many of the older surviving Jaegers having been repurposed for the new ERDC directives. She was piloted by Flynt Coal and Neon Katt.

Next to Hunter Vertigo was Atlas Destroyer, an Australian Mark-3, and one of the older surviving Jaegers from a decade ago. It was a unique one, mostly due to the complex design of the color scheme that separated it from the many other Jaegers in the Shatterdome. Josh knew of the Jaeger: after The Battle Of The Breach, Atlas was temporarily used as a Training Jaeger until it was decided to bring it back into service in 2026. It was fitted with two GD6 Chainswords in its arms, along with a variety of missiles to help with ranged attacks. The Mark-3 was Piloted by the Husband & Wife Duo of Emerald and Mercury Black.

Next was Mammoth Apostle, an American Mark-4 like Hydra Corinthian. It resembled Guardian Bravo, only with a blue and silver color scheme. It was piloted by Bolin Hori and Nadir Shiko.

Next was a large blue Jaeger with a Sting Blade on one arm, and a pulse Gauntlet on the other. This was Nuclear Mercenary, San Marino's Mark-3, and one of the few newbuilds constructed after the War. It was Piloted by the Deacon Twins, Emily and Randy.

Next was a red and grey Jaeger that resembled the mighty Striker Eureka. This was Scarlet Hades, a Japanese Mark-7 Jaeger Piloted by the legendary duo of Jay Rose-Belladonna and Hayden Xiao-Long Rose.

Next to them was a Jaeger painted in the colors of the American Flag. It had the body of a Drone Jaeger, but with a different head, and 2 huge Miniguns on the arms. This was the American Mark-2 Yankee Star, Piloted by Yancy and Raleigh Beckett, Gypsy Danger's original Pilots.

Beside it was a large maroon and dark grey Jaeger with a Sting Blade on one hand, and a large cannon on the other, identical to Nuclear Mercenary, but with a different color scheme. This was Condor Fury, a Mark-4 from Chile, and Piloted by Blake Belladonna's Parents, Ghira & Kali Belladonna.

Next was Bracer Phoenix, an experimental Chinese Mark-5 with a three-Ranger Conn-Pod designed so that one of the pilots could drop down into the secondary control room and handle Bracer's devastating railgun. It was mounted on a track encircling Bracer's midsection, with a fire rate of hundreds of rounds per minute. Each shell was the size of a truck. Another of Bracer's innovations was a twin knee joint, segmented to flex both forward and backward. This advance enabled the Jaeger to hold her balance and keep moving even while the railgun was firing, as the extra joint in each leg gave it more recoil absorption, without sacrificing much in the way of strength or stability. It could also swap out its right arm with a giant M-19 Wrecking Ball Morning Star similar to the Russian Mark-6 Titan Redeemer, which was Piloted by Cardin Winchester & Dove Bronzewing during the War. Bracer had the second Mark-5 Jaeger ever built, right behind Striker Eureka. It was Piloted by Nora Valkyrie, Harriet Bree and Elm Ederne, the Wives of Hayden Xiao-Long Rose. He had married them shortly after Ruby had married Jay.

Another Mark-5 was nearby, resembling Scarlet Hades. This was Striker Berserker, Piloted by Hercules & Chuck Hansen, and had nearly identical weapons to Striker Eureka, but was painted in darker colors than Eureka. However, Striker Berserker had a few upgrades from its sister unit. Unlike Striker Eureka's Sting Blades, Striker Berseker was equipped with Inferno Blades that could heat themselves until they glowed bright orange. Striker Berserker could launch supercharged Anti-Kaiju Missiles from its chest that burrowed into kaiju before detonating inside them. Striker Berserker's hands were also equipped with a special weapon called the Blaze Gauntlets, which heated themselves like its Inferno Blades and could be used to grab onto a kaiju's head until its brain had been destroyed from the heat. Unique to its operation system, however, was the ability to initiate a solo piloting protocol, even if the pilot was already fighting on their own as the result of their co-pilot dying in battle. But those were the only differences. During the War, Striker Eureka had achieved 11 kills, one of the highest right behind Saber Athena and Cherno Alpha, both of which were now in the Hong Kong Jaeger Museum along with Challenger Rex, Gypsy Danger, Titan Crusher, Romeo Blue, Coyote Tango, Marauder Zeus, Romeo Destroyer, Titan Redeemer, and Crimson Typhoon, all of which had been retired from service when their pilots had retired, but would be called back into action as a last resort if necessary. Striker Berserker, on the other hand, only had 6 kills, and when Jaune and Pyrrha had requested a transfer to Sydney Shatterdome when it was reopened, they had taken Striker Eureka with them.

Next was Soviet Elite, a purple and gold Mark-5 version of the Russian Mark-1 Cherno Alpha. It had 2 large blades on each arm, and also boasted shoulder pads. Piloted by the Duo of Saphron & Terra-Cotta Arc, it had been one of the remaining Jaegers during the final weeks of the War in late 2024.

Then, Josh's eyes fell on Gypsy Avenger, the Mark-6 successor to Gypsy Danger and piloted by Taiyang Xiao-Long and Summer Rose. Josh could see the family resemblance in the shape of the head and the detailing of the exterior armor, not to mention the blue-accented color scheme. Gypsy was a good ride, strong and quick. She had a forearm-mounted GD6 Plasma Chainsword on both sides, dual IB-22 Plasmacasters like Crimson Typhoon, and her right arm also contained the apparatus for the experimental Gravity Sling Weapon, a one-off which had only ever been made for Gypsy Avenger back in 2020.

After that was a Mark-6 Jaeger with a body shape and design similar to that of the New Zealand Mark-4 Chaos Nemesis, but with an orange-gold colour scheme with white and bronze highlights. This was Golden Paladin, Piloted by Andros and Phoenix Nikos, Pyrrha Nikos' parents. It was by war one of the fastest Jaegers, and one of the few postwar newbuilds, able to keep pace with even the likes of Striker Eureka, Striker Berserker and Saber Athena. It used a highly advanced energy shield on its arm in place of a solid one, capable of blocking projectiles and various claws, teeth, and tails of the Kaiju it fought. Not only that, but it was also well suited to its pilot's fighting styles. The second piece of weaponry aboard the Jaeger was a massive sword coated in lightning dust, which would extend from the Jaegers back and could be held in one or both hands.

A yellow and black Jaeger was next, also bearing resemblance to Cherno Alpha. This was the Japanese Mark-2 Oni Taiji, Piloted by Klein and Willow Schnee.

Finally, there was Murder Witch, a grey and yellow Jaeger with blue neon highlights. It was armed with 2 six-packs of shoulder mounted missiles, boasting 2 short blades in its arms, and possessed a lithe frame. It was Piloted by Clover Ebi and Marrow Amin.

Josh might be back in a Shatterdome, but that didn't mean he had to dredge up everything in his past. Seeing Tai so soon after the uncomfortable reunion with Herc had shaken him. Tai and the others scorned him and Herc pitied him. Josh felt worse about Herc's pity than everyone's scorn. But where Tai had made it clear he didn't want Josh around, Herc was giving him a second chance. Josh knew how generous that was a chance he never would have asked for and wasn't sure he even wanted.

Still, he was here, and the alternative was jail, so he was going to see which way the wind was blowing and then get the hell out as soon as the chance presented itself.

They were about halfway across the Jaeger bay, weaving to avoid J-Tech crews crisscrossing the deck in Scramblers or on foot. Amara fell behind, lost in her astonishment. Josh remembered feeling the same way about Jaegers. Now he was more cynical. Sooner or later, he figured she would be too. All signs in the Shatterdome were in both Mandarin and English, and most of the techs spoke Mandarin, too. The EUDC had been an international effort from its inception, since the Kaiju had known no national boundaries. Now it retained its international character because no nation on Earth could handle the costs alone while they tried to rebuild from the widespread devastation of the Kaiju War.

"Simtraining starts at 0600." Tai said, snapping Amara out of her reverie. "You're late, you miss the day. Fall behind, you're on a transport back to wherever they found you."

Amara finally found her voice. "That's Valor Omega!! And Bracer Phoenix, she's a three-man rig!! And Guardian Bravo!! Tiger Rush!! Hunter Vertigo!! Scarlet Hades!! Golden Paladin!! Gypsy Avenger!!! Hydra Corinthian!! Atlas Destroyer!! Matador Fury!! Mammoth Apostle!!! Nuclear Mercenary!! Soviet Elite!! Murder Witch!!! Condor Fury!! Yankee Star!! Oni Taiji!! And—and Striker Berserker?! I LOVE Striker Berserker!! He's one of the fastest Jaegers in the world!!" Now Josh understood the posters plastering the walls of her squat back in Santa Monica. She adored Jaegers the way other kids worshipped musicians or YouTube stars.

Josh, for his part, was curious why the whole Shatterdome seemed to be on alert. "What's all the hustle for?" he asked Tai.

"Been ordered to put on a show. Shao and her team are coming in tomorrow." The blond man replied.

"Shao?" Amara echoed. "Like, Liwen Shao?" Again Josh remembered her squat, with its mini-shrine to Shao. This was a perfect place for Amara, he thought. There was nowhere else in the world where she would have a better chance to show her stuff.

"What they tell me." Tai shrugged, like it was no big deal.

But to Amara, it was a very big deal. "Oh my God. Liwen Shao!!" She spun to Josh. "You know who that is?! PhD at seventeen, gazillionaire way before she was as old as you are—"

"Yeah." Josh huffed. "I've heard of her, thanks."

"Half the tech in Scrapper came from old Shao parts." Amara gazed up at the Jaegers surrounding them. "Can't believe I'm gonna get to meet her."

"You're not." Tai said, glancing over at her.

"What?" Amara looked stricken. "Why?"
"Sorry kid, but You're a cadet. The other Cadets won't be meeting her either."
"That's not fair."

"Get used to it around here." Josh commented. Ranger training was a lot of things, but fair wasn't one of them.

Amara snorted and turned back to the Jaegers. The former Pilot could see what this meant to her. For a girl who grew up idolizing Rangers and the Jaegers they piloted, being in a Shatterdome was a dream come true. He wished he could still feel that.

"So which one's yours?" she asked Tai.

"Gypsy Avenger." Tai replied proudly.
"You pilot THAT?!" Amara squeaked.

"Indeed he does." said a woman pulling up in a J-Tech Scrambler, a small vehicle designed for hauling heavy loads. She climbed off the Scrambler and introduced herself. "Hello. Summer Rose, Ranger. I'm one of Tai's 2 wives, and his Co-Pilot."

"Amara. Cadet."

"Josh. Ranger once more." He looked her over. Dark hair with red streaks and silver eyes, no-nonsense attitude to go with looks that would turn heads in the street. Josh was a sucker for the combination of competence and beauty. Summer Rose radiated both.

She eyed him right back. "Heard a lot about you, Joshua. You know you still hold the record."
That piqued Amara's interest. "What record?"

"Told you to stop talking to me." Josh replied coldly. It was rude, and he knew it. He saw Tai glare at the tone of his voice, but Josh didn't care. The last thing he wanted to do was rehash all the old stories from the last time he'd been in a Shatterdome.

Summer took it all in and then went on like she hadn't seen anything. "How'd they lure you back? Couldn't have been the pay."

"Long story." Josh grunted. "Ain't interested in telling it."

Tai glared at Josh, then handed his wife the part he'd been holding with a smile. "This what you were looking for, darling?"

"Yeah." She grinned and loaded it onto the Scrambler. "Outstanding."

Tai was grinning back. Josh could see the spark between them. That explained why the blonde man had been so quick to cut him off.
"I'll swing by after I'm done with these two and give you a hand, Love." Tai said.

Near one of the doors that led into the J-Tech wing of the Shatterdome, a series of clattering bangs echoed through the huge space. Josh turned to see 2 scientists and a doctor stumbling away from a bunch of stacked canisters he had just knocked over. They bounced around on the floor near another Scrambler. The driver was shouting at him in Mandarin, while one of the scientists was yelling back. Josh recognized the scientists: Hermann Gottlieb and Arthur Watts, 2 of the 4 people who had unlocked the secret of the Kaiju's creators, known as the Precursors. Also legends in the history of the ERDC. The doctor was Bartholomeow Oobleck, also a legend.

Right now, Oobleck and Hermann stuttering and embarrassed at the mess they'd made, and also struggling to understand what the tech was saying. Arthur, however, was yelling back at the man, sticking up for his colleagues. Gottlieb and Oobleck didn't know much Mandarin, which was a bit of a handicap at the Moyulan Shatterdome. They minimized it by spending most of their time in the lab.

"Yo. Gents. You okay?" Tai called.

"Oh," Gottlieb said, noticing them. "Yes." To the tech he added a quick apology in the same language. He knew at least that much. Arthur also glared at said tech.
Cheerfully, Oobleck held up a handful of what appeared to be partially burned papers. Smoke still curled from them. "Almost had it!" He blew the singed bits off the papers and the three men disappeared, reading the notes as they went.

"...Well, they're weird." Amara commented.

Summer was also watching the men go. "You have no idea, kid." she said. As she turned around, she added, "Welcome to the Moyulan Shatterdome, Cadet. Ranger Griffen."

Moments later, 2 blurs tackled Summer in a tight embrace. The first was a now 25-year old Ruby Rose, who had changed her outfit a little since The Battle Of The Breach 3 years prior. She was now married to Jay Belladonna, and her new outfit sported a black and red cloak with a black and white bodysuit.

The other was a now 24-year old Hayden Xiao-Long Rose, the adopted son of Tai and Summer, and the younger brother of Yang and Ruby. He was now married to his 3 girlfriends: Nora Valkyrie, Harriet Bree and Elm Ederne. His outfit had also changed in the 3 years since the Kaiju War ended. He now had dark blue hair, and a black and white armoured bodysuit with blue neon highlights.

Josh raised an eyebrow at the little reunion. Tai caught him staring at Summer, too. "Eyes front, Ranger." he said. A warning. Then he started walking again, Josh and Amara right behind him.

"What record was she talking about?" Amara asked. Josh ignored her. "Come on," she pressed. "We were in jail together!!"

Josh groaned. He wasn't going to get out of telling the story. "Part of the final exam, back when I was a cadet in late 2017." he said as they went. "You had to hold a Drift in one of the old Mark-1s for over twenty minutes."

"How long did you last?"
"Just over four hours."

He could see that impressed her. It should have. A four-hour Drift was a big deal. "Who was your copilot?" she asked.

Josh stayed quiet. This was the part of the story he didn't want to tell. Apparently Tai wasn't interested in airing it out either. "Keep up, Cadet!!" he called over his shoulder. "Time to meet the rest of the family."

{Earth United Defense Corps Regional Headquarters - California}

Josh held it in as long as he could, through the ride in the back of the EUDC Van to the regional HQ where they were processed into a holding cell. But eventually he couldn't keep it in any longer.

"You shoulda let me pilot." He grunted. “I at least have experience.”

"Like this is my fault?" Amara snapped back. He'd just learned her name, when she gave it to the security officer who booked them. "You compromised my command center."

"Command center—?" 'That term was a little more elevated than Scrapper's makeshift Conn-Pod deserved.' Josh thought. He shook his head and looked away, trying not to laugh. “Ya know what, your top lip, your bottom lip, they need to meet and become friends. Close up, SHUT UP.”

“…I'm not talking to you."

She didn't say anything else after that. Josh sat, trying not to look at her or say anything either, but in the end he couldn't help himself. He had to know. "Why'd you build it?"

"What happened to the not talking?" She glanced over at him long enough to register his displeasure, then looked back at the doors, as if she was planning her risky escape.

"You said you weren't gonna sell it, so what the hell WERE you gonna do?? Rob a bank or some other bullshit?" Josh had heard of that. It was a good way to have your robbery caper end with a missile strike instead of police sirens, but some people liked to go out that way.

Amara had a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered something, and it took her a moment to speak. "I built her because one day they're gonna come back." she said, all her bravado melting away. "The Kaiju. And when they do, I'm not gonna be stuck waiting for someone else to come save my ass. Not like before."

Josh absorbed that. It wasn't what he'd expected. She was different when she let the tough facade slip for a minute.

He didn't have more time to consider that, though, because EUDC officers were at that moment opening the cell. "You," one of them said to Josh. "Let's go."

Holo emitters on different sides of the interrogation room flickered to life and a hologram appeared. 'Ah,' Josh thought. The old remote interrogation. Usually they got started that way, then brought a real cop into the room when they thought you needed to be scared a little.

Not that Josh had spent a lot of time talking to cops over the past few years.

The hologram took a moment to resolve, and then Josh found himself looking at the last person in the world he'd have expected to see at that moment:

Hercules Hansen.

The Australian man looked great in his Air Force/EUDC uniform. After Marshall Stoick Haddock had stepped down as Hong Kong's Commander after the closing of the Breach, Herc had taken charge, and would have risen through the ranks fast, potentially eventually surpassing Stoick and Glynda and several others to become head of the EUDC. But apparently, Herc, along with his son, Chuck, had turned down the position along with Yancy & Raleigh Becket, and several others, preferring to help on frontlines than politics and paperwork. The father-and-son duo were piloting one of Australia’s 2 Mark-5 Jaegers, Striker Berserker, and had been since 2019.

"As I live and breathe..." Josh murmured. The two of them had known each other back in the War. They had served in the Military before joining the Jaeger Program. Josh also hoped Herc might help him get out of this jam. "It's been a long time, Herc. You make some calls, pull some strings, I gotta sign some paperwork?"

Herc didn't answer him right away, and when he did, the air went right out of his initial exuberance. "I was really hoping to not see you like this again, mate."

"Just a stretch of bad luck." Josh said, feeling a bit of guilt. "I'll figure it out."

Herc wasn't buying it. "Stacker Pentecost and James Ironwood used to say we make our own luck."

That was the wrong approach to take with Josh, bringing up their former commanders and friends. Last thing in the world he wanted to talk about. "Yeah, they said a lot of things."

He was being flippant to get a rise out of his old ally, but it didn't work. Maybe Herc was too good for that now. "You were in a rogue Jaeger with stolen EUDC tech."

"It wasn’t mine."

"You have priors. This is serious, Joshua."

Josh's charming act faded a little. Was he in real trouble here even though his old friends had high places in the EUDC? "Which is why I need my old friend to get me the hell out of here." he prompted.

"They're not going to let you just walk out," Herc rumbled. "But there might be another way."

"Great. What do I have to do?"

"Re-enlist." Hercules announced without missing a beat. "And finish what you started."

This wasn't what Josh had expected. He couldn't help it. He laughed at how ridiculous the idea was. "I'm a little old to restart as a cadet, Herc."

"I don't want ya to be a cadet. I want you to help train them."

Train them? Josh hadn't stepped foot in a Jaeger for 5 years. How could he train anyone in anything? "What's behind door number two?" he asked.

Herc ignored the question, like he always did when he'd made up his mind. "A transport is standing by to bring both of you to Moyulan."

Moyulan. The other Chinese Shatterdome apart from Hong Kong. He was serious. But... "Both of us?"

"You and ya new recruit." Herc said with a small grin. "Enjoy your flight, Joshy!!"

"Herc?? HERC?!?!"

The connection broke and the hologram disappeared. "Sonofa—" Josh was all by himself again.

{Santa Monica Scrapyard - California}

By the time Josh got going after the capacitor thief, the signal was all the way across town, headed south. He followed, going all night until dawn found him in the southern part of Santa Monica, which was even more of a ruin than the area around the Jaeger graveyard.

Before the Kaiju War, he'd heard it was a nice place. But now it was a half-destroyed slum, full of people picking through the ruins to survive. The old pedestrian mall was now an open-air market, and farther south, the towering bones of the Category-4 Kaiju Insurrector lay on the beach where it had fallen, after destroying much of the Santa Monica Pier. It had taken 2 Jaegers to bring it down: the American Mark-4 Hydra Corinthian, and the Australian Mark-5 Striker Eureka.

Scavengers and black-market entrepreneurs had stripped the body of everything from its blood to the parasites wriggling in the gaps under its armor plating. All of it was valuable, and most of it was lethal if the scavenger crews didn't take adequate precautions. You could get dissolved by Kaiju blood, infected by Kaiju germs, suffocated when the decaying tissue trapped you inside their corpses. They decayed incredibly fast once exposed to the foreign atmosphere of Earth. And that was if other scavengers didn't jump you before you could get your goods to market. Josh had steered clear of the trade in Kaiju parts, by and large. The sight of their monumental skeletons dotting the coasts filled him with sadness for what the Kaiju had done to the world. Josh missed the world he'd been born into. He wanted it back.

Well, sometimes, anyway. Then there were the mornings when he got up and there was a sea breeze as the light of dawn crept along the tops of the bluffs falling toward the Pacific, and he'd just pulled off a score that was going to set him up for months...then this world didn't seem so bad. If he was smart and a little bit lucky, he'd have one of those days tomorrow, after he got the capacitor back and moved it. Already he was deciding he wouldn't sell it to Sonny. At this point it wouldn't stop the man from trying to kill him again, so Josh figured he might as well get something out of the capacitor.

As dawn broke, he followed the tracker through the decaying ruins of Santa Monica, passing buildings tagged with the symbols of various Kaiju cults. Kaiju worshippers clustered in ruins like this one, to be closer to the bones of their gods. He passed beggars, and people trying to sell worthless junk so they wouldn't be thought of as beggars. Ignoring them all, Josh followed the tracker's signal. The plasma capacitor was somewhere on the other side of the pier.

He had to climb the rubble of buildings destroyed years ago by Insurrector before he got a good look at where the thief had gone. There, on the other side of the pier, the ERDC had built a shipyard for support vessels and barges big enough to transport damaged or incomplete Jaegers. Now the whole thing was decommissioned and abandoned, had been for several years. There were dry docks, hangars, huge old warehouses, all of them filled with squatters and lowlifes...including the thief who had his plasma capacitor.

That capacitor had already caused Josh a lot of trouble. So he and the thief would have to reach an understanding.

Actually, it would be better if he and the thief never met. If Josh was lucky, the thief was tired from the trip, and he could get into the shipyard, find the capacitor, and get back out without them ever knowing he was there.

He started the long scramble down the bones and rubble, aiming for a warehouse at the water edge of the shipyard. The tracker said the capacitor was somewhere inside.

He worked his way along the edge of the warehouse until the tracker said he was as close as he was going to get. Then Josh pried open the closest window, wincing at the creaking sound. He swung through and dropped into a room that maybe used to be an office or a break room. Now it was clear someone was squatting there. A dirty mattress in the corner, surrounded by food wrappers and other personal trash, told him that much. The rest of the floor was covered with bits of machinery and tools.

Josh scanned the walls and knew he was in the right place. Whoever was living here had a serious obsession with Kaiju and Jaegers. The walls were plastered with magazine pages, newspapers, printouts from online stories—all of it a chronicle of the Kaiju War from the very beginning, the opening of the Breach. A blurry photo of one of the old Mark-2 Jaegers, Chile's Diablo Intercept, was taped up next to it. Someone had written "HOW BIG?!!!" in silver Sharpie. The rest of that part of the wall was a gallery of shots of Jaegers and Kaiju, with other notes.

Then the wall's focus shifted to Liwen Shao, a one-time computer prodigy who now ran a multi-billion-dollar company, Shao Industries. She had been a pioneer in several different aspects of Jaeger design, and the most recent headline suggested she still was. SHAO INDUSTRIES: THE FUTURE OF JAEGER TECH?

Josh wouldn't know. He'd been out of touch with that world for a long time.

On the other side of the door was the main floor of the warehouse, acres of concrete with a roof maybe fifty feet high. And in the middle of that expanse stood a homemade Jaeger. Not full-sized, but its head was close to the ceiling. For a moment, Josh just stood, amazed at the sight. Someone in the midst of all this chaos and misery had built a Jaeger out of spare parts. It was ugly, cobbled together from mismatched junk, including some scavenged armor plating Josh recognized as coming from a Mark-2. But others could have started their service life in any machine from a water pump to a blast furnace. The overall effect was strange compared to a full-sized Jaeger.

This one was maybe forty feet tall, with no room inside its head for a Conn-Pod, but the designer had given it two lights there, like eyeballs. Josh remembered an old engineer telling him people always wanted to humanize machines, even if it didn't make design sense, because somewhere deep down inside they thought of machines as their children. He wasn't sure how seriously to take that idea, but he'd been remembering it for a long time so it must have meant something to him. The Conn-Pod—or what passed for one—in this little Jaeger was set into its torso. Armored window frames gave pilots and passengers a view of the world beyond their wannabe Jaeger creation. One of its hands was a three-fingered pincer, and the other arm ended in a...Josh wasn't sure what it was in the gloom. Some kind of saw blade.

Whoever had put this thing together was a seriously gifted tinker...and now, it occurred to Josh, he was in the presence of a truly great score. The plasma capacitor he'd been after was plugged into a hatch in the mini-Jaeger's ankle, but Josh was already thinking bigger. People were always trying to build Jaegers to make some kind of personal statement, but not too many people could actually do it. This thief had pulled it off, and by the look of it there wasn't a big gang involved. They wouldn't have let something this valuable sit around without security. But whoever had built it, well, they must not have understood how the real world worked, because there it was. Who did Josh know with enough assets and ego to pay for a functioning personal Jaeger...?

He felt movement in the room. Behind him. Instinctively, Josh skipped to the side and turned toward the person coming at him. He saw a length of pipe swinging toward his head and caught it. The assailant was wiry but small. Josh wrenched the pipe loose and in the same motion slammed the thief down to the floor. He'd learned a long time ago that when a fight started, you didn't let it end until you were sure the other guy wasn't going to get up again, so he raised the pipe...and then froze in mid-swing.

The figure on the floor was wearing dirty jeans and a hoodie. Impact with the floor had pushed the hoodie back far enough for Josh to see that the thief was a young teenager, and also a girl.

"What—how old are you?" he asked, still holding the pipe.

She sat up and pulled the hood the rest of the way off. Dark hair, a face that in other times would have led the homecoming parade—but those eyes, they were all grown up. Tough and smart and angry.

"Old enough to kick your ass." she shot back, and started to get up. Josh firmly planted the pipe in her shoulder and nudged her back to the floor.

"Let's take a minute." he said. Cocking his head back toward the mini-Jaeger, he asked, "You build that thing yourself?"

"What do you think?" she snapped.

"I think I could sell your little toy for a whole lot of money."

"Scrapper's not a toy." the girl said. "And she's NOT for sale."

'Scrapper', Josh thought. Good name. Evocative of both attitude and origin. You had to admire the resolve, but this was business. "The man holding the pipe says she is, so-"

Sirens sounded from outside the warehouse. The girl looked toward the main hangar doors at the far end of the room. "You led them here!?"

"What?" Josh was offended at being called out by a little runt squatting in the Santa Monica slum.
"Nobody follows me!! It must have been you."

He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the sirens and the girl seized her chance. She kicked the pipe out of his hands and rolled to her feet, scrambling away across the floor toward the mini-Jaeger.

"Hey!!" Josh started to go after her, but he was almost certain that would end up with him arrested in the back of a EUDC van. She kicked the capacitor hatch closed and scrambled up Scrapper's leg to the Conn-Pod in its torso. She powered it up as she got settled in a gyroscopic motion capture rig.

"Yes!! It works!!"

'Wait.' Josh thought. 'Is this the first time she's used this thing?'

The sirens were closer, and there were a lot of them. Josh took another look at Scrapper's Conn-Pod. There was room for two, and if it worked, it worked...

He headed for the mini-Jaeger and hauled himself up just as she had, diving in next to her just as she slammed Scrapper's chest plate shut. "Hey!!" she shouted. "Get out!!"

Josh turned around in the tight compartment. "Where's the other one?"

"The other what?" Busy powering up various subroutines, the girl wasn't looking at him.

"The other rig!! Jaegers need two pilots!!"

"Scrapper's small enough to run on a single neural load." she said proudly.

"Well then move over and let me do it!!!"

"Screw that!!" Then she punched a final command, and Scrapper's power gauges surged to max readings. The small Jaeger charged forward, smashing through the warehouse wall. Sheet metal and broken glass scattered over the pavement in a parking lot full of EUDC security vehicles. Scrapper kicked them aside, sending EUDC personnel scattering.

"WOOHOO!!" she cheered, like she was having the time of her life. "Told you she's not a toy!!"

"You're gonna get us killed. Now come on..." Josh started trying to uncouple her from the gyroscope so he could take her place in the cradle. She couldn't have known this, but he knew his way around a Conn-Pod.

"Stop it."
"I can get us out of here."
"I just got us out. Get off! Hey!"

They stopped struggling as a huge bogey appeared on Scrapper's HUD. It wasn't as fancy as a full-scale Jaeger's heads-up display, but it was a pretty slick piece of work for a teenager working with scraps. She skidded Scrapper to a halt, throwing Josh to the floor.

"Oh my God." she said, as they got a visual. Straight in front of them was a huge Mark-5 Enhanced Jaeger, one of the newest in the fleet. Dark blue with silver highlights, and a body almost identical to the American Mark-6 Gypsy Avenger, along with to its exterior running lights and flashing red and blue lights, it looked every bit the part of the law-enforcement Jaeger—which it was. Josh recognized it. So did she. "That's Lethal Protector!!"

A moment before, Josh had been trying to get her away from the controls, but now there wasn't time. Lethal Protector was the EUDC's designated patrol Jaeger for the whole of the devastated area from Santa Monica down through Long Beach. Occasionally it was called into service to handle social unrest, but the EUDC typically didn't send Lethal Protector out unless there had been an attack on a EUDC installation...or a theft of EUDC property. This meant the EUDC had tracked the theft of the plasma capacitor just as Josh had, and decided it warranted a full response. If they were caught, there would be serious consequences. They'd use them as examples to other would-be thieves, and put them away for a long time. "You're gonna get us arrested!!" Josh hissed, his voice tight. "Keep moving!!"

"PILOTS OF UNREGISTERED JAEGER." The voice boomed from Lethal Protector's external speakers, shaking the two of them in Scrapper's small Conn-Pod. "THIS IS THE EARTH UNITED DEFENCE CORPS. POWER DOWN AND EXIT YOUR CONN-POD."

The girl raised her hands.

"That's it?" Josh was disappointed. "You give up way too easy, kid."
"That's what they think." the girl said, a sly grin on her face.

She clenched her fists and smoke canisters shot out of sockets in Scrapper's arms. Clouds billowed around Lethal Protector's legs, hiding Scrapper—who shot between the larger Jaeger's legs and barreled down the street.

Josh got a grip on one of the cables connecting the Conn-Pod capsule to the counterweights inside Scrapper's torso. They were there to deaden momentum shifts and prevent the pilot from getting knocked around when Scrapper made sudden movements. A primitive solution, but a workable one—as long as you were in the gyro cradle. Josh wasn't, so just had to take his lumps and hang on for dear life.

"Hang on!!" she yelled as Lethal Protector turned and caught up to them with one long stride.

"I AM hanging on!!"

"Hang tighter!!" She was working her command array, and she punched a final command.

The next thing Josh knew, he was upside down. Then right side up again, then rolling over and over and bouncing hard off the inside wall of the Conn-Pod.

Scrapper had apparently curled into a ball and was rolling in tight figure eights around Lethal Protector's feet. The girl stayed upright and level the whole time—Josh had to hand it to her, she'd done the cradle design just right—but he slammed around until he got himself jammed into one of the counterweight alcoves. It wasn't a dignified solution, but it would keep him from getting knocked out or breaking an arm while they escaped Lethal Protector.

IF they escaped Lethal Protector.

The Mark-5E swiped down at Scrapper, but the girl had seen it coming. She ducked her body to one side and Scrapper careened that way, crashing off palm trees and over burned-out cars. She rolled Scrapper fast up a high pile of rubble and it came crashing down through the wall of a partially collapsed building.

For a moment everything was silent except the sound of debris shifting around them. Josh started to get himself back together now that he knew which way was up again.

"See?" the girl said triumphantly. "I just out-piloted Lethal Protector."

Josh shook his head. "You didn't."
"Did." she insisted.

With a huge rumble, Lethal Protector tore away one wall of the building Scrapper was hiding in.

"Didn't." Josh retorted, scowling.

The girl froze. He could see she wasn't sure what to do next. "Okay. What do you got? And I'm not getting out."

'This was a point where it paid to have plans go wrong all the time.' Josh thought. It meant you were always ready to come up with a new one on the fly. He glanced around the Conn-Pod, figuring there must be something in there he could use. To do what, he didn't know—but Josh was an optimist, at least when it came to his ability to get out of tight situations. He'd find something.

There.

He pointed at a pair of ion cells set into the Conn-Pod's wall. "One of these ion cells redundant?"

The girl frowned. "No."

Josh figured Scrapper could run for a little while without it. Ion cells usually weren't mission-critical, since they were normally wired to different yields than the plasma capacitors that powered the mainframe and systems. They handled things like reserve power, backup systems.

In other words, things you didn't really worry about when Lethal Protector was chasing you down.
He primed the subroutine that would eject one of the ion cells. The eject chute was on the outer hull. Cells were typically only ejected when their power reserves were exhausted. There was a reason for that, as Lethal Protector's pilots were about to find out.

"They are now." he said. "Get us close to Protector's Conn-Pod. GO!!!"

She was irritated, but she did it. The girl gunned Scrapper forward and climbed straight up the Mark-5E's arm, which was maybe three times as long as Scrapper was tall. The minute they got level with the Jaeger's head, Josh hit the eject button. "Go!! Go!!" he barked.

Scrapper leaped away from Lethal Protector. Josh was not looking forward to the two-hundred-foot drop, but the girl piloting Scrapper was ahead of him. She aimed for the roof of a building across the street. It looked like it might once have been a bank.

Behind them, the ion cell clanged off Lethal Protector's head and ruptured, releasing a blast of ionized energy that crackled around the Jaeger's head and upper torso like a localized lightning storm. The blue and silver Jaeger staggered as the surge disrupted its systems.

They landed on the roof, with Josh craning to get a glimpse of the drunk-looking swaying of Lethal Protector. He wanted to gloat over the success of his plan a little. But all he caught was a glimpse before Scrapper's weight caved in the roof and they were falling through the shattered interior floors toward the ground level.

When they hit, the pilot was still smooth and cool. But it took Josh a minute to get his breath and focus his eyes after the jarring impact. She was looking at him. He could see the surprise on her face even though she was trying to play things cool and hide it. She wanted to know how he knew that would work. But she wouldn't ask, and Josh wasn't going to tell her.

She saw that in his eyes, or perhaps he was imagining it. In any case, she charged forward and Scrapper plowed through the rubble around the bottom of the building out into the street. A warning flashed on the Conn-Pod HUD: RESERVE POWER AT 12%.

"I TOLD you we needed that!!!" she yelled.
"It worked, didn't it?!" he shouted back.

"How long before Protector can reboot his systems?"

Josh thought it was interesting that she thought he would know. Maybe she'd figured out by now that he knew a little about Jaegers. He also admired her cool, for wanting to be sure how much of a head start she could expect before the Jaeger was back in action. Before he could figure out what to say, Lethal Protector's enormous foot slammed down in front of them, kicking up a huge blast of sand and bits of concrete.

"About that long." Josh mused.

"POWER DOWN AND EXIT YOUR CONN-POD." Lethal Protector's pilot boomed. "THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING."

Josh was surprised when the girl spun Scrapper around and ran off. She had more guts than he'd figured, to do that on twelve percent reserve power with no chance of actually getting away.

Their dash for freedom didn't go on for long. Lethal Protector raised one fist and fired a set of grappling hooks, trailing cables across the empty space. They clamped onto Scrapper's fuselage, and as soon as they had attached, an electric pulse surged through the cables.

Inside Scrapper's Conn-Pod, Josh felt his hair standing up. Circuits were sparking and smoking all over, including the suite of scavenged electronics controlling the gyroscopic cradle. It jammed as the Conn-Pod went dark. The only light was what filtered through Scrapper's visor and down from its head into the torso.

Slowly Scrapper tipped over backward and crashed to the ground, leaving Josh bruised again and the pilot hung up on her back in the cradle. She looked mad. Josh couldn't decide whether that was to cover fear, or whether she was just really feeling more anger than anything else. People fronted all kinds of stuff when they were about to go down for serious crimes.

A series of heavy thumps sounded in the confined space. Lethal Protector was tapping on Scrapper's hull.

Josh looked at the girl and shrugged. They'd made a good run and did themselves proud. But they weren't ever going to get anywhere against a full-sized Jaeger.

He levered the hatch open and climbed out, raising his hands. The girl followed him, looked up at Lethal Protector and screamed, "LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO MY JAEGER, YOU DICK!!!"

==========================

Yes, I got the Lethal Protector name from the VENOM trilogy.

Lethal Protector is basically a blue and silver Gypsy Avenger, only armed with a single Plasma Chainsword and the electric tasers.

Very few new Jaegers were built during the 3 years after the war, due to some still being around, it was decided to rebuild Marks 2-6 and construct a dozen new mechs, while the remaining Mark-1 Jaegers were retired in the Hong Kong Shatterdome.

{2027 - 3 years after Operation Pitfall and the end of The Kaiju War}
(Santa Monica Jaeger Scrapyard - California)

The Earth United Defence Corps scrapyard in Santa Monica, California spread over hundreds of acres that had once been prime beachfront. During the course of the Kaiju War, much of Santa Monica had been destroyed, and fallen Jaegers from up and down the West Coast now lay behind barbed wire. Around the scrapyard, what had once been one of the Los Angeles area's most beautiful cities was now a ruin. Those who could get out were long since gone, and only the desperate remained.

Joshua Griffen, former Co-Pilot of the Mark-4 Jaeger Katana Eagle, wasn't exactly desperate, but he was in a bit of a bind.

He'd gotten on the wrong side of one of the local crime bosses by the name of Sonny, and now he had to buy his way out of the problem by finding Sonny some high-quality salvage that Sonny could move on the local black market. Ordinarily Josh would have steered clear of burgling a ERDC facility—the penalties were pretty stiff—but he knew the area around this Jaeger graveyard well enough to figure he could skip out before any trouble arose.

Even so, it was risky, and Josh wouldn't have been here if Sonny hadn't made it clear that the alternative involved lots of pain and maybe death. Well, definitely death.

He led Sonny and Sonny's goons up to a part of the electrified fence surrounding the yard and pointed to the spot they should cut through. The goons were quick about it—this clearly wasn't the first time they'd cut a fence—and a minute later Josh stepped through a nice big hole right next to a NO TRESPASSING sign that also bore the logo of the ERDC. Seeing it gave Josh a little spike of regret. He'd been a Jaeger pilot once.

But that was the past. He couldn't do anything about it, just like he couldn't do anything about all the other bullshit that came along with being a former Ranger. When your Jaeger was destroyed in battle and your Co-Pilot being brutally killed mid-fight, there was no way to live up to that. Josh had long since quit trying. He'd turned himself into a pretty good...well, some people would call him a thief. He thought of himself as more of a salvage expert.

It was a good life if it didn't get you killed. In this world you had to hustle. The coastal cities, most of them, were still relief zones, filled with people just trying to get by—rubbing up against Kaiju-worshipping cults that went around bemoaning the closure of the Breach like it was the Crucifixion. Then you had your homegrown gangsters doing what gangsters always did—only now they had another sideline in cobbling together homegrown junk Jaegers from salvaged parts. Anyone with money had moved inland, getting away from the chaos and the possibility that another Breach would open up and the Kaiju War would start all over again. But their fear was his opportunity, because they left behind empty mansions like the one Josh squatted in up in Malibu. He also had a lot of experience of Jaegers, which meant he had a better nose for where to find Jaeger tech than the average person. That put him in a pretty good spot. Usually. He had gotten a reputation for delivering the goods, and then—okay, being honest here—he'd let it go to his head and he'd started bending the rules a little. Ignoring well-established informal boundaries between different gang lords. Getting your hands on good bits of Jaeger tech was usually worth the risk, since a good score could set you up for a year...but every once in a while it blew up in your face, which was why Josh was in Santa Monica instead of back in Malibu where he belonged.

Once they were inside the yard, Josh got out a beat-up old plasma tracker. It detected the energy signatures of plasma components even through a Jaeger's heavy shielding. Indispensable equipment for the ambitious salvage expert. As he was turning it on, Sonny started to walk ahead. Josh caught him and pulled him back behind the mangled remains of a turquoise Japanese Mark-2 Jaeger, Tidal Dragon.

When he was younger, before he became a Pilot himself, he'd known them all by sight and talked about them the way kids of a previous generation had known all the details about their favorite Pokémon or baseball players. Just as Josh yanked Sonny back, a searchlight swept over the spot where he'd just been. The EUDC patrolled the yard, but their timing never varied. Josh had done his research.

Sonny glared at him, but he could hardly be mad that Josh had just saved the operation and kept them all out of jail. Josh led them around the first scrapped Jaeger, keeping an eye on the plasma tracker. It emitted a soft ping as they neared another Jaeger. This one wasn't quite as messed up as the first, but it was missing one arm and its head was crushed. Josh recognized it, of course: Horizon Brave, the first Chinese Jaeger ever put into service.

Four Kaiju kills, all in partnership with Jaegers like Gypsy Danger, Hydra Ultra, and Diablo Intercept. Destroyed by Otachi in the Triple Event in Hong Kong, 2024, with the loss of both pilots. Before that, Josh remembered seeing the parade after Horizon Brave had killed the Category-2 Kaiju Reckoner back in the early years after the opening of the Breach. It was huge, lumbering, slow, but seemingly invincible.

Seemingly to a little kid. But Josh was all grown up.

"This one." he said.

Sonny and his men followed Josh through a hatch and into the Jaeger's immense interior. Other than Josh, none of them had ever been inside a Jaeger before, and they eyed the surroundings with awed expressions.

"You sure it's here?" Sonny asked.

Josh found the access door he was looking for. On the other side of it would be Horizon Brave's plasma chamber, where the Jaeger's power core and associated hardware would have been collected and shielded. The door was jammed shut, but the control panel next to it would have an override. Josh got his fingers into the seam at the edge of the panel and wrenched it open.

"Power cores are stripped before Jaegers get decommissioned." he grunted as he felt around inside the panel. "But sometimes they miss the tertiary plasma capacitors. Hell of a score on the black market if this one's still holding a charge."

"You'd better hope so." Sonny huffed.

Something about his tone of voice made Josh look back over his shoulder. Sonny was holding a gun. "Okay." Josh said slowly. "Let's not get all excited."

"Just playing the odds." Sonny said. "You cheated Barada in Juarez, skipped out on Chau and Torchwick in Hong Kong—"

"They had it coming." Josh said. Who wouldn't take the chance to cheat Hannibal Chau or Roman Torchwick? The guys were scumbags.

"And stole from me in my own backyard." Sonny added.

That was a little harder to paper over. Josh had in fact pulled a job in Sonny's territory without telling Sonny about it or cutting him in. From Sonny's perspective, that was a problem. From Josh's perspective, it had been a chance to make a quick score and maybe establish his bona fides as someone who knew where to find the good stuff in the ruins of Southern California. Sonny must have at least partially bought into that, because he was giving Josh a chance to make good by displaying those bona fides. "And now I'm stealing for you." Josh said. "Circle of life. We good?"

"You deliver, and yeah, we're good." Sonny's expression didn't change. Josh tried to gauge whether or not he was telling the truth. It didn't really matter at the moment.

His fingers found the emergency release lever behind the control panel. Josh smirked and pulled the release. A heavy thunk sounded from the door as its bolts disengaged. It opened with a low grinding noise. The Jaeger wasn't powered anymore, but the backup battery systems on the old Mark-1 models held their power for a long time.

Josh stood and noticed that Sonny hadn't put the gun away. Not a good sign. But he put his best face on it, keeping up his grin and gesturing through the open door. "Let's get rich." he muttered.

He went into the chamber first. These old Jaegers had big plasma chambers because ERDC techs hadn't been able to optimize the plasma density before they had to get the Jaegers into service. The space was the size of several rooms in his mansion. Cables and conduits ran along the walls, converging on a central spot where the plasma capacitor was located.

Or should have been.

Josh stopped in the middle of the room, unable to believe the bad luck. The capacitor shunt cables were still sparking, which meant that someone had gotten there within the last few minutes. Any longer and the residual energy would have all bled out already. "No, no, it says it's here." He growled. He glanced down at his tracker, which still said the capacitor was right there in front of him.

He turned toward Sonny. "It should be right here—"

Sonny smashed him across the face with the butt of his gun. Josh went down, landing on hands and knees. Blood dripped off his chin from a cut high on his cheek.

"Somebody please kill this guy for me." Sonny snapped. His goons drew guns and leveled them at Josh.

"Wait, wait!" Josh gave the tracker a smack. The screen flickered and went dark...then came back on. Now it showed the capacitor on the move.

But not too far away.

"Someone else is in here!!" he said, jumping up.

"Someone what?" Sonny seemed to have forgotten about killing him for the moment.

Josh scrambled over cable housings and big emplacements of dead machinery, aiming for an exit door halfway up the far wall. "They have the capacitor!!" he yelled. "Follow me!! The signal's close!!"

"Sonny and the goons came after him. "Josh!!" Sonny shouted. "Josh, you sonofa—"

His voice was cut off as Josh pulled the release lever on the door and it slammed shut. Now all he had to do was keep track of the capacitor signal and get out of the Jaeger before Sonny's goons caught up with him. He ran through the maze of maintenance corridors inside Horizon Brave's torso, ducking into a tunnel lined with heavy power cables. Echoing through the Jaeger's interior, he could hear Sonny shouting. He wasn't sure he'd be able to beat them to one of the exits...but then again, maybe he didn't have to. A plan started to form in his head. Like most of his best plans, it was half-assed and risky.

The cable tunnel split and as Josh shoved some of the cables aside to make the turn, he came face to face with one of Sonny's goons. The goon was pretty fast, getting his gun up...but the Veteran was that much faster, laying the guy out with a single punch before he could pull the trigger.

Before the goon had hit the ground, bullets tore into the cables around him. Sonny had found him. He scrambled into the side tunnel, which angled down steeply enough that it was easier to slide to the bottom. When his feet hit level ground again, he was in a shunt room. A dead end. He ran to the far end of it, turning to face the mouth of the tunnel as Sonny and his other men caught up.

"Nice try." Sonny said with a cruel grin. This time he apparently didn't want anyone else to shoot Josh, because he raised his own gun.

And that's when the former Pilot's plan paid off. He kicked out and his booted foot hit a lever on the floor. It cranked over and a maintenance door sprang open under Sonny and the goons, dropping them into a hold under the floor. They landed hard and Josh kicked the lever again, slamming the door shut.

"Yeah." Josh smirked. "We're good." Sometimes it paid to know odd details about old Jaegers. Then he took off running, following the signal on the tracker.

He came out of Horizon Brave's torso at the shoulder joint, maybe fifty feet off the ground. Below, a figure in a hoodie was sprinting across the open ground toward a motorcycle, a backpack in one hand.

The capacitor was in that backpack. Josh made a jump for a cable hanging down from a crane near Horizon Brave's head. He caught it and started to let himself down, hand over hand—then the mechanism let go and he was hanging on for dear life. It seized up again after he had dropped about twenty feet, and his momentum jerked him loose. He fell the rest of the way to the roof of a shipping container on the ground, landing flat on his back. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but he rolled off the container and started after the thief again. The motorcycle revved up and the hooded figure skidded off in a spray of gravel. Josh started in pursuit, hoping he could maybe get over the fence and out the access road before the motorcycle went around through the open gate...but he heard engines and froze.

ERDC security vehicles tore past, following the motorcycle. 'Dammit.' Josh thought. That's what happens when you fire guns in a Jaeger scrapyard. If the thief was caught, he'd never get the capacitor. If the thief got away, though...

He looked down at the tracker. The signal was strong, and it was still moving.

==============

Yeah, if you guys can’t tell, Joshua Griffin is taking Jake Pentecost’s spot in this rewrite.

The Kaiju War ended in 2024, and around 20 Jaegers were left out of 165.

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