Mission 01: Teamwork

[Shameless]

The day had started well enough.  Stacker Pentecost, the man charged with defense of North America's pacific shores stood in Central control, looking at a holographic globe, which currently displayed the last 20 Kaiju attacks, and the Jaegers that had responded.   Tapping any of the points would bring up footage of the battle, as well as readouts from the Jaegers on their status.   In each engagement, the Kaiju had been defeated, all of the battles saw the loss of a Jaeger, or the heavy damage to the entire team.   It was turning into a battle of attrition, something he wasn't certain Humanity could win, with so many nations not fully investing in the war anymore.
 

Still, this Shatterdome in Seattle had six Jaegers, more than most of the others, and several newly developed Jaegers which could in theory change the nature of the War.  He almost found himself wishing for a Kaiju he could sent them against, almost.  
 

He thought about the teams, and sighed.   Team Einherjar was comprised of Coraline Kent and Maia St.Croix.   Cora was rebellious, but focused.  Given her background, Stacker knew that she wasn't high on Command's lists, only her incredible drift compatibility got her into the program, which she graduated from.   Her partner was the daughter of PPDC legends.  where Cora was somewhat on the short side, Maia St. Croix was tall and lithe, with the body of a dancer.  Her Father  had died in the first mission that saw all three Jaegers destroyed, against the Kaiju Serpentes.  Her mother was a department head in the weapons technology research division of the PPDC.    Maia was  mostly a model pilot, and possessed incredible drift compatibility.   It was almost Ironic that the two of them were partners, One Lived for the PPDC, and the other only wished to be left alone.  Their unity of mind when it came to fighting the Kaiju was unlike any Stacker had heard of save for one other team.
 

The second team was certainly unique.  "The Twins" as they were called were something new.  Emory and Eryn Foxx, they were what had come to be termed "bonded twins"  they were the first to come of age and be capable of piloting a Jaeger.   They had an impressive Pedigree, their parents had been skilled, and their loss weighed on Stacker.  There were not many first generation Rangers left.  Their Jaeger, Echo Gemini, was the only Jaeger ever to have four arms, and weapons on each arm.   The tests they had performed showed that thanks to their  unique nature, they could actually control all four arms at once, and Stacker knew this would definitely be an advantage if it proved viable in battle.   Still, because they and their Jaeger were unique, he had a hard time sending them out on solo missions, the risk was great, so they would only ever be sent out as part of a team.
 

The final team was something of an oddity.  Abraham Cohen and Daniel Arad piloted Maccabee Ma'or, the only Isreali-designed, American-built Jaeger.   Israel still sent research data and analysis from their own networks and sources, even though they had never fought a Kaiju.   Stacker felt there was a certain rightness to their contributions, Daniel Arad was a skilled soldier and a learned scholar, and had subjected himself to the same Ranger training program that any other Jaeger pilot would have to pass, and he did with some of the best scores ever.  The same could be said for Abraham as well,  his Father had nominated him as a pilot and he too passed the training program.   The two men meshed well together, the unity of shared heritage, and a desire to protect humanity from the Kaiju making their link strong.
 

This Team of the three Jaegers featured alot of tried and true technologies, as well as some brand new ones, and he knew Command very much wanted to see the fruit of their efforts.     "They almost seem to want a Kaiju to appear." he whispered softly, even as he looked at the big screen which showed the Pacific, and the locations of the remaining shatterdomes and which teams were present.   Far too few compared to years past.
 

In the mess hall shared by Teams Einherjar, Gemini, and Maccabee, Breakfast was the order of the day.   It didn't surprise many to find all six pilots at a table in near the middle, and while others sat close, none were so close as to be infringing on their space.  Maia looked up over to Abraham.  "So how much does the hammer actually weigh?"  the main weapon of Maccabee Ma'or was a massive hammer, and given that "Big Macc" as the techs called it was a heavy Jaeger, about twenty feet taller than the others, and hundreds of tons heavier.  

It was like this every morning, usually with Maia quizzing her fellow teammates about their Jaegers and she and Cora answering their questions about Einherjar.  The twins were the youngest of them but they were quieter.  Maia was easily the most outgoing of them.  Gemini was an oddity of a Jaeger, and in the simulations the three teams worked fairly well together, with a good mix of durability, firepower and incredible close range combat ability.  Each pair worked well together, though it was an ongoin g process to get the three pairs  to work as well with each other.

[Exile_Jeane]

"Heavy enough to be a pain the ass," answered Maccabee's pilot between bites, prompting a chuckle from Coraline as she was slicing up another bite worth of food.

 

"Heavy is good. Sir Isaac Newton is still the meanest bastard in the universe no matter what it's like where the Kaiju come from," she added in time to a series of tink-tink-tink as she speared said bite of food on her fork, "What? I was paying attention during that lecture in the Academy."

 

The brawny red-head took the chance to pop her bite of food in her mouth. She'd, as was her want, had woken up at early to get her morning workout in, push her body and will in the relative privacy of the early hours of the day without gawkers from the other enlisted and junior officers with enough time to clean up afterwards. Abraham sometimes served as her spotter and she returned the favor, the closest in strength among their little cadre of Ranger Pilots stationed at the Shatterdome. He wasn't her Partner, and God willing nothing would happen to Maia to see if he could be, but he was Good People, and if push came to shove, Coraline was glad to see the aforementioned big hammer come down to finish off any Kaiju left standing after Einherjar Sigma's shooting took a chunk out of them.

 

Mmmhm. Let others complain about the quality of the food, but at least there was plenty of it. That hadn't always been a guarantee growing up in Kent household in Oregon Exclusion Zone, and it was an open secret that she'd secreted away a few food bars in the corners of her quarters, old habits dying hard. Swallowing with a pleased grunt, she asked the group, "Anyone get a chance to look at the POD yet? I'm not tracking anything."

[Nina]

The twins, even sitting with the other four seemed apart.  Neither reacted to the conversation or even gave a hint that they were aware of it. they simple continued eating their breakfast as they always did. In Unison.

 

The rest of the mess hall either pointedly ignored them or stared unabashedly as they ate. Their movements were so precise and uniform each took a bite of food...always the same item, or lifted their glass of juice and sipped, at exactly the same time, exactly the same movement. No delay, no hesitation. And no apparent communication between he two. They didn't even look at on another or anyone else.

On 5/6/2023 at 8:08 PM, Exile_Jeane said:

"Anyone get a chance to look at the POD yet? I'm not tracking anything."

 

Two necks turned, two chins rose, and two pairs of identical dark brown eyes focused on Coraline Kent. "Training." The voices came in stereo., "Simulations."  

"Like," the twin on the left said. "Always." The one on the right finished the sentence with no pause or hesitation, then they both raised their glass of juice and sipped. In unison.

[Shameless]

Maia looked at the twins, and sighed.   "I've seen it enough I should be used to it when the two of you do things like that, but that's still kinda creepy."

She smiled.  "Still, you're great Rangers, so I'll always fight along side ya."  This was far from the first time she'd witnessed this, and she had originally been somewhat put off by it, but as she said, in sims and training the twins were great Rangers, and she felt confident that their three Jaeger team could take on anything that came through the Breach.  

David chuckled.  "Come now, Maia, you've seen it enough,  it shouldn't faze anyone at this point.  As to the question you asked, the Hammer weighs just under 800 tons.  You could probably lift it with your gravity sling, but you'd have no fine control with it, or ability to fight with it like Maccabee does.  It's reinforced structure was made to handle the stresses of using such a large weapon regularly."  

Maia nodded. "Sounds about right really."

David nodded. "I did hear that Central had a new program for the simulators they want us to test,  It's supposed to be able to allow for more varied opponents, and better cooperation between Jaegers.  It should be interesting."

[Exile_Jeane]

"Ah, more simulator time," Coraline scoffed with a forkful of sausage, "Makes more sense than sync testing with live ammo, but you don't get a good hunting dog by pointing at an empty spot and saying 'chase.'

 

The brawny redhead chuckled and took a big bite of her trophy, reflecting on better times when she was young training the family dog to do just that under the observation of her older brothers. They were dead now, and the memory tinged with blue sadness, but there was no taking away the warm joy of those days, a fire under her ass to motivate her to help kill stone dead as many Kaiju as possible as quickly as possible so that she could go back to those days. Oh, there were perks to being here, comfort and status and security beyond anything in the Oregon Exclusion Zone, but when the job was done, she was going home.

 

God willing before Ruth got sucked into this. If she knew her little sister at all, she was champing at the bit to prove herself the way Coraline had, make it into the cockpit of a Jaeger. And the continous flow of losses even among veteran pilots? The thought of becoming one of those names on the ticker of the fallen held a far distant second place in the dreads than seeing Ruth's name there and being a survivor herself. 

[Shameless]

Whatever further commentary would have been made was lost as the Alert siren rang out.   
 

Maia and David were both about to take another bite, but stopped dropping their forks onto their plates as the Siren blared.  They, followed momentarily the other pilots were already rising, breakfast forgotten when the General's voice came over the speaker.   "This is General Pentecost, All Jaeger teams prepare for immediate Sortie, repeat ALL Jaeger teams Prepare for immediate Sortie.  This is not a drill!"
 

David frowned.   "All teams, this is big.   launching Six Jaegers at once is going to stretch our resources."
 

Each team parted, heading to their respective conpod locker, and gantry assembly, where their Jaegers awaited.
 

As they suited up, Pentecost gave them the rundown.   
 

"We just received visual confirmation of two Kaiju on approach to this area.  They're fifty miles out, and closing fast.  They do not show up on any form of active or passive sensors.   Our sensors at the breach never even recorded their emergeance, which should be impossible.   They are both at the high end of Category III from what has been reported.   I'm having the Navy send out spotter aircraft to observe them.  The plan is to get you out to them before they breach the miracle mile, and have each Squad of Jaegers engage one of the Kaiju."
 

He let them digest that.  "This is the first time we've seen two Kaiju at once, and they're moving together.  The threat level is high, given that they can somehow evade our sensor equipment.  We cannot allow them to take the city or this shatterdome."
 

"From the citings, we have named the two of them Anemone and Mantis.    Anemone seems to possess a mass of large powerful tentacles, and four legs for movement.  Mantis resembles a bipedal praying mantis, though it has a long tail like an alligator, and four arms.  Two are tipped with fairly standard looking sets of clawed grasping hands, while the two upper arms have large blade like protrusions, each if the report is accurate, over fifty feet in length."
 

"Teams Einherjar, Gemini, and Maccabee, you'll be fighting Mantis.   Teams Coyote, Saber, and Meteor, you'll take on Anemone.   Does everyone understand?"

 

Spoiler

in your posts you may each describe your suit up and prep for drop as Stacker is talking.  After giving your assent, you may have the Conpod drop, link up and describe your Drift as you activate your Jaeger.  Let's try to get these all done by friday or so so we can keep moving.   

 

[Nina]

The twins followed behind the other teams to the changing room. There they quickly and silently dressed and then checked each others suits and connection. They listened without pausing to General Pentecost as he briefed the teams and when he finished the twins looked at each other.

 

Whatever thoughts they had they only shared with each other.

 

The brief ended and the teams each went to their own boarding section.

 

The twins entered Gemini's con-pod and glanced at each other. Emory decided to be top today and so took the high position. The con pod of Gemini was laid out differently than most of the other Jeagers. Whereas the others almost exclusively used a side by side configuration since the pilots where each controlling one side while the other controlled the other.

 

Gemini was different.

 

The interior configuration had one control set situated forward of the other and lower, it was jokingly referred to as the Bottom. The other set was behind the Bottom and was raised higher, this position was of course the Top. The Bottom controlled the lower set of arms, both left and right, while the Top controlled the upper set. Because of their bonded connection both girls could control both left and right but one had to work the bottom exclusively and the other the top. Also, unlike most Rangers, the twins were capable of working either position.

 

Emory stepped up onto the raised platform of the Top and into the support harness while Eryn did the same in the lower position. As soon as they were each locked into position and the lights were green Eryn initiated the drop.

 

The con-pod plummeted down the shaft to the waiting Jeager below, As the pod neared the Jeager the pod brakes slowed the descent and with a jolt the pod connected to the Yeager.  Emory fired up the big machine

 

Echo Gemini thrummed to life.  

 

The twins, always connected always drifting, didn't have to go through the usual procedures that were so dangerous to their fellow Rangers. Once connect to Gemini thye were already in full control

 

As one the two girls moved in eerie unison and outside in full view the huge machine with four arms moved rapidly synchronization,  the Bottom pairs left fist slammed into the right palm and the Tops right fist slammed into the left palm.

 

Echo Gemini was good to go!