“Yeah. He was,” said Newt finally.
“What were you and Dr. Gottlieb talking about?” Shao asked.
“Nothing. Just some nutty idea he has about thruster pods,” said Newt.
“I can’t afford a misstep before Secretary-General Mori makes her recommendation at the council summit. No more contact with Dr. Gottlieb until after the vote,” said Shao.
“But he’s harmless—” said Newt.
Shao snapped at him angrily, in fast Mandarin.
“Uh, could you say that again? About 80 percent slower?” asked Newt.
“I said don’t make me question your loyalty.”
“No, no question. We barely talk anyway.”
“Then it won’t be a problem,” said Shao. “And work on your Mandarin. I don’t like to repeat myself, in any language.”
Shao marched out of the room. Newt followed, his emotions as complicated and mixed up as ever.
Inside the war room at the Moyulan Shatterdome, a massive hologram displayed a drone Jaeger in all its glory. Liwen addressed the ranger Jaeger pilots and J-Techs, including Jules. Newt beamed at his boss while Burke, Jake, Nate, Mako, Gottlieb, and Quan looked on.
“The system I designed processes commands through a quantum data core, 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,” explained Shao.
Dissatisfied murmurs rumbled through the room. The rangers were especially riled. Gottlieb wiped his glasses and squinted at the drone in scientific curiosity.
“You think a bunch of desk jockeys playing with their joysticks can stop a Kaiju attack?” asked Nate.
“Not only can they stop it, they can do so without putting pilots at unnecessary risk, Nate,” said Burke.
Shao nodded. “Contrary to what you may have heard, we’re not here to shut you down.”
“Cooperation between our programs has never been more vital. If there are any questions . . .” said Burke.
The room exploded in a cacophony of questions from the pilots and techs. They were not buying what Shao was selling. Neither was Jake. A frown settled on his face as he exited the room. Mako followed him.
“That was pretty slick. How long before they shut all this down and I can go home?” spat Jake.
“I don’t trust the tech. Not yet, at least,” said Mako. She followed him out onto a catwalk overlooking Jaeger Bay. Gipsy Avenger loomed in the distance.
“Looked dialed in to me,” said Jake.
“Remote systems can be hacked or compromised,” said Mako.
“Well you’re the key vote, right? Your decision, so there you go,” said Jake.
Mako stared into the distance. “I wish I could just go ahead and approve them. If we had drones back in the war, maybe dad would still be alive.”
Her eyes settled on Gipsy. “And Raleigh.”
“What’d that have to do with the war? News said it was cancer,” said Jake, confused.
“Everything about the other side of the Breach is still classified. There’s a kind of radiation, in the Anteverse. We didn’t know how bad it was until it was too late.”
Jake tensed. “Are you all right?”
Mako nodded, but the memory was painful for her. “Raleigh ejected me. I got sick and couldn’t pilot anymore, but I’m okay now. He got the worst of it.”
Jake absorbed that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he said.
“We can’t change the past. But the future is ours to make,” said Mako.
A weight pressed down on her. “A lot of people want to see the drones deployed. Nearly half the council is backing Liwen. They aren’t going to like my decision,” said Mako.
“How about I go with you for some moral support? Never been to Sydney, hear it’s great,” said Jake.
Mako brightened. “I’m glad you offered, because I’ve already requested Gipsy Avenger for honor guard at the council summit.”
“Whoa, hold up. Honor guard?” said Jake. “That’s not what I meant.”
“What about my moral support?” said Mako, playfully.
“Gipsy is Nate’s ride,” said Jake.
Mako grinned. “His copilot works for Liwen now. He needs a new one . . .”
“One that you already know is drift compatible, right,” said Jake. He laughed. “I see what you’re trying to do, putting me back in a live rig.”
Mako smiled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jake thought about it for a minute. Then he smiled back.
“Alright, sis. I got your back.”
Jake thought for a minute more, and his smile grew. “But I want to be there when you tell him. He’s gonna be so pissed, he’ll make that face like—”
Jake made a funny, rigid face—a perfect impression of his friend.
Mako laughed. Then she looked to the side, and her face dropped. Something was weighing on her . . .
The PPDC council building loomed over the city of Sydney. Massive anti-Kaiju cannons lined the coastline. The streets were pristine and clean, with sharp glass and metal buildings rising in the air. Unlike most of the coastal slums, Sydney was heavily protected. No safety measure had been spared when it came to protecting the PPDC headquarters.
The streets swirled with people. PPDC security desperately tried to keep the massive crowd in check as dignitaries from around the world arrived for the summit council hearing.
In the middle of the crowd, red nuns stood solemnly together. They were a part of the Kaiju worshippers, people who believed that the Kaiju were sacred beings. From the depths of their gathering, a man shouted, “Kaiju were sent by God to purge us of our sins! To resist them is to turn from the Almighty—”
A scuffle broke out as an angry man wearing a Jaeger T-shirt tried to grab the sign away from the worshipper. Then, suddenly, a shadow appeared over the sky.
Gipsy Avenger was being flown in via Jumphawks. The crowd of people grew silent as they watched the glistening metal Jaeger glide above them.
Inside the Moyulan Shatterdome, Marshal Quan strode over to a woman named Xiang who was working the holo screen for the Jaeger.
“How are they doing?” he asked.
“Hemispheres are calibrated. Neural handshake is weak but holding,” Xiang answered.
“Gipsy Avenger, this is Marshal Quan,” he said, initiating communication between home base and the Jaeger.
Jake and Nate stood in their drift cradles. Jake fidgeted. His heart hadn’t stopped racing since he got into this thing. Directly across from him, Nate scowled. He was clearly unhappy with the pairing.
“All you have to do is stand there and look pretty. Stay focused and try not to fall over,” said the marshal.
“Roger that, sir,” said Nate.
“Go for drop in three, two, one . . . drop!”
Gipsy Avenger released from the Jumphawks.
KA-THOOM! A shockwave of dust surged across the crowd as she landed. The Jaeger nearly lost her footing.
Jake steadied himself. Nate shot him a frown.
“It’s all coming back. Relax,” Jake said. Then he frowned at the protestors on Gipsy’s display. A worshipper threw a bottle at Gipsy. The PPDC security started making arrests. “Got some fans, huh?”
“Kaiju nuts are always stirring it up,” said Nate. “And hey—we’re in each other’s heads, so I’d appreciate it if you’d stop thinking about Jules. Not gonna happen.”
“How about you stop thinking about beating me up. Not gonna happen either.”
Nate tightened. An incoming chopper pinged on the display. A readout listed the only passenger: Mako Mori, Secretary-General, PPDC Security Council.
Inside the chopper, Mako absentmindedly sketched a strange Kaiju head on her data pad. She spotted Gipsy Avenger in the distance through the window. A smile appeared on her lips, tinged with mysterious relief.
Shao’s limo approached the council building. She climbed out of the car, surrounded by Kang and his men. Suddenly, a loud sound like a tanker ship venting ballast turned her and the crowd around. A huge spray of water erupted in the harbor! Shao looked to find its source, but buildings blocked her view.
Inside Gipsy Avenger, some huge foreign object pinged on the display. “Gipsy to Command, you reading this?” Nate said.
Xiang looked at the holo screen inside the Moyulan Shatterdome and tensed. “It’s a Jaeger sir, but it’s not broadcasting a CSD,” she said to Marshal Quan.
“Gipsy, this is Command,” said Quan over the speaker. “Be advised we have an unregistered Jaeger, no call sign designation.”
The unregistered Jaeger exploded out of the bay and landed like a panther on the street. Inside her helicopter, Mako constricted at the sight of the machine. Nate and Jake also tensed as the sleek and advanced machine moved eerily quickly through the streets of Sydney.
Jake eyed the holo display, scanning the mysterious Jaeger. “What is that? Is that one of ours?”
“Pilots of unregistered Jaeger, power down and exit your conn-pod immediately,” ordered Nate over the loudspeaker. “I repeat: Power down and exit your conn-pod immediately—”
The unregistered Jaeger responded to Nate’s plea by unleashing a barrage of plasma missiles into the air!
Xiang’s plasma screen lit up and tracked the missiles. The room around her exploded with noise as her team tried to figure out what was going on. “Missiles fired! Multiple ordnance inbound,” screamed Marshal Quan. The missiles struck the anti-Kaiju cannons, and a few slammed into Gipsy Avenger and the council building. They were definitely under attack by this rogue Jaeger. Its name was Obsidian Fury.
Warning alarms wailed. “Neural handshake fluctuating,” said Xiang, as she watched Gipsy Avenger’s activity on her screen.
Inside, Jake struggled to maintain control of the Jaeger. This was his first time in actual combat—not a simulator, no second chances. Time slowed. His breath filled his ears. A voice reached out to him from long ago. It was the voice of his father.
“You don’t belong in a Jaeger!” the voice echoed in Jake’s ears, distorted and distant.
“Jake! Stay connected! Jake!” shouted Nate. But then suddenly, WHOOSH! Both of them were sucked into Jake’s memory.
Alarms wailed as another volley of plasma missiles slammed into Gipsy. Nate shook himself out of the drift memory.
“Jake! Pentecost!” screamed Nate.
Jake snapped out of the memory. He was rattled and disoriented. “What . . . what do we do?” he asked.
“Stay focused. Follow my lead, and look out—”
A chunk of the council building crashed down, falling quickly toward the crowd below. Nate shot out his hand and Gipsy Avenger caught the chunk a second before it hit the crowd of people. Kang and his men rushed Shao toward her limo as more plasma missiles soared through the air, slamming into Gipsy Avenger.
Mako tensed. Her data pad picked up an odd power signal from Obsidian. “Jake! That Jaeger’s power is reading the same as—”
A piercing screech suddenly split the air. Obsidian Fury was jamming the comms!
A warning alarm wailed as they got rocked with another blast. The lights flickered. Jake eyed a flashing holo screen. “We’re losing power!” he warned.
“Rerouting systems,” said Nate, as his fingers flew across the holo screen.
Jake saw Obsidian Fury raise a particle cannon—aiming it directly at Mako’s helicopter.
“Nate!” screamed Jake. He needed him to rush.
“Power’s up!” Nate yelled.
Jake hurled a chunk of building at the evil Jaeger. Debris rained down on the city, only barely missing Shao and the rest of the fleeing crowd. The building chunk made contact and Obsidian Fury went flying backwards.
Then Gipsy Avenger slammed into Obsidian Fury with all its weight. Obsidian responded by tearing at Gipsy with vicious metal claws. Gipsy staggered back into a building. It almost trampled a crowd of people as Jake and Nate struggled to steady Gipsy.
Obsidian seized the distraction, grabbed Gipsy by the leg, and slammed her into a row of buildings. It started to rip at Gipsy’s head.
Nate desperately punched commands on a holo pad that sprung up from his drivesuit’s forearm. Gipsy Avenger’s chain sword shot out. It forced Obsidian to let go. Then Gipsy swung, but Obsidian kicked Gipsy into a building. The evil Jaeger flexed both arms, and twin plasma chain saws sprung from them!
Obsidian Fury and Gipsy Avenger clashed in battle. Office workers scrambled out of the way as the chain saws tore through a building.
“Are those chain saws? Does that thing have chain saws?” asked Jake.
Gipsy Avenger slammed into Obsidian Fury again. Arcs of energy rippled into the air as the two machines clashed.
“We need to land!” the pilot of the helicopter shouted at Mako.
“No! We have to help them! Target that Jaeger!” commanded Mako.
The pilot complied with a grimace. “Target locked!”
“Fire!” said Mako.
The pilot jammed the fire button on his stick. Mako’s helicopter unleashed a barrage of missiles. They hit the evil Jaeger’s arm, causing it to miss Gipsy and nearly splitting an office building down the middle with its chain saw. Office workers scrambled out of the way as the plasma chain saw tore through the building.
The chain saw momentarily got stuck! Gipsy Avenger took advantage of the moment and hit Obsidian Fury with a supersonic punch. The rogue Jaeger flew back, but it used its chain saws to gouge into the buildings, creating enough friction to help it slow down. Then it fired another round of deadly plasma missiles into the air!
The missiles peppered the city. One hit a parking garage, and the cars inside smashed down on the people below. Another detonated close to Mako Mori, and the explosion forced her helicopter to begin to drop out of the sky.
“She’s going down! We need to move!” screamed Jake.
“Activating gravity sling!” replied Nate.
Gipsy Avenger’s right arm formed into the gravity sling weapon, which could use gravitational forces to lift objects and then fire them at a target. A wave of distortion flew out of Gipsy’s rotating blue arm. It scooped up falling cars from the parking garage and launched them at Obsidian Fury. The cars hit and Obsidian Fury flew backwards through the air. Gipsy Avenger turned and raced across the city to save Mako’s copter.
Mako watched as Gipsy raced toward her. She desperately tried to send a message from her data pad.
Jake struggled against his drift cradle, pushing Gipsy Avenger to her limits. Nate did the same. As Mako’s helicopter plummeted, Gipsy leaped into the air and reached out to catch it. And missed.
Mako put her hand to the window as the helicopter dropped and then crashed into the ground. The helicopter skidded across the asphalt and smashed cars as it careened down the street. Gipsy crashed to the ground from its missed leap, and the windows of the surrounding buildings exploded from the force.
Jake dropped down from a hatch on Gipsy Avenger’s head and ran full tilt toward Mako. His face was full of horror and fear. He ripped off his helmet as he sprinted to reach the smoking wreckage of the destroyed copter.
Obsidian Fury started to move toward a downed Gipsy Avenger, but then three other PPDC Jaegers flew into Sydney via Jumphawks. So instead, Obsidian Fury turned away and slunk back into the water. Its metal disappeared beneath the waves.
Jake stood in the Hall of Heroes. In front of him, a plaque read: IN HONOR OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR WORLD.
Digital memorial screens lined the wall.
Raleigh Becket. Copilot of Gipsy Danger who, with Mako Mori, saved the world by crossing the Breach and entering the Anteverse.
Yancy Becket. Raleigh’s brother and original copilot of Gipsy Danger. After completing many successful missions in the Kaiju Wars, Yancy gave his life in a battle off the coast of Anc
horage in an attempt to save a fishing vessel.
Chuck Hansen. Copilot of Striker Eureka during the Kaiju Wars. He died in the Battle of the Breach alongside Stacker Pentecost. They sacrificed themselves so that Raleigh and Mako could cross the Breach—a heroic sacrifice still honored and celebrated around the world.
The Wei Tang triplets. The pilots of Crimson Typhoon during the Kaiju Wars. They killed seven Kaiju, before losing their lives in battle.
Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky. The husband and wife pilot Jaeger team that hailed from Russia. They killed six Kaiju before also losing their lives in battle.
Jake stood in front of a memorial—Stacker Pentecost. His father was in full uniform. His stern face looked down at Jake.
Slightly to the right was a brand new memorial for Mako. She was also in full uniform, and her face beamed with pride for the Jaeger pilot program. Spread around Mako’s memorial were fresh flowers and candles, placed there by mourners. Jake stepped up to her memorial.
“I’ll hit ’em back for you, Mako,” he said. Then he taped up a photograph of their family—Stacker with his arms around a young Mako and a young Jake.
Suddenly, a noise pulled his attention to a door labeled DRIFT TRAINING—CADET LEVEL 1. Muffled yelling came from inside. He entered the room.
“Neural connection failed,” said a computer voice.
Amara punched a holo screen, getting madder and madder. Then, she saw Jake. It was the first time she had seen him since the Sydney attack. She tried to find the right words but couldn’t.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” said Jake.
“So I’m not great with feelings, but I’m sorry about your sister. Half sister?” she said uncertainly.
“Her parents died in the Onibaba attack. My dad took her in. She was my sister My family.”
The weight of the loss crushed down on Jake. Amara was still unsure of what to do. She tried to shift his focus.
“Better not let Ranger Lambert see you out of uniform. He’ll take the stick out of his butt and beat you with it.”
Her approach worked. Jake laughed. “Think I’m safe. It’s wedged in there pretty tight.”
Pacific Rim Uprising Page 3